Williams: NMOS14 Field RNG Exploration 1

Field RNG Exploration: National Moment of Silence 2014 (NMOS14)

Bryan Williams
Psychical Research Foundation


(Image: Chris Stanford, KMOV St. Louis)

A synchronized moment of silence was held nationwide at 4:20 P.M. Pacific Time (7:20 P.M.
Eastern; 5:20 P.M. Mountain my time zone) on August 14, 2014 to honor the victims of police
brutality, apparently in response to the fatal shooting of a young teen in Ferguson, Missouri.
Word of the event was spread largely through social media networking, and the Facebook page
for the event (https://www.facebook.com/NMOS2014) offers one indication of the considerable
effort that was made to organize and coordinate the event in major cities across the U.S. (see also
#NMOS14). Some 90 cities were expected to take part, and those which were registered for the
event can be seen in the Google map shown in Figure 1 below.
It seemed to me that this widespread effort to synchronously come together at one moment
in a mass vigil to share a common goal might possibly be conducive to a mass group
consciousness effect, so I decided to do a field RNG exploration of the event. (NOTE: Because
of the small effect sizes usually associated with mind-matter interaction and field RNG studies,
its usually not proper to assign a lot of meaning to the individual results for a given event. For
that reason, the results presented here are mainly meant to be just for show).
The Facebook page for the event indicated that the rallies and vigils would begin in most
cities at 4:00 P.M. Pacific (7:00 P.M. Eastern; 5:00 P.M. Mountain), with the synchronized
moment of silence beginning at 20 minutes past the hour. I therefore decided to define the time
period from 4:00 5:00 P.M. Pacific (5:00 6:00 Mountain) as the main period of exploration.
Williams: NMOS14 Field RNG Exploration 2
During that period, random data were continually sampled at 200 bits/second from an Orion RNG
running on my home computer. My initial prediction was that the resulting data would show a
positive deviation from nominal randomness during this specific period of exploration.


Figure 1. Google map showing the various cities across the U.S. which had registered to take part in the National
Moment of Silence 2014 on the evening of August 14, 2014. (Source: Google Maps)

The actual outcome for the main period of exploration can be seen in Figure 2 below. As
is apparent from the graph, the outcome is notably opposite to my initial prediction, with the data
showing a steady negative deviation not long after the synchronized moment of silence began. If
Id predicted this outcome in advance, it wouldve been statistically significant, with odds of
about 37 to 1 against chance (Chi-Square =3438.10, 3600 df, p =.973 [roughly equivalent to p =
.027], associated z =-1.924).
A longer contextual period of exploration of three hours is shown in Figure 3 below. I
later learned that the rally event held here in Albuquerque, NM was not held synchronously with
the event in most other cities, as it began a few hours after the designated time for the event (7:00
P.M. Mountain). According to coverage provided by KRQE News 13 (Staley, 2014), about 100
people had gathered for the rally in downtown Albuquerque. The time of the start of the rally is
indicated in the graph shown in Figure 3.
From a visually aesthetic perspective, its interesting to note that throughout the National
Moment of Silence event and the few hours after, the data seem to show a rather steady negative
trend that is reminiscent of the negative trends observed in several mass group meditation and
prayer-related events examined by the Global Consciousness Project (http://www.global-
mind.org). Perhaps aesthetically, we might take it as a symbolic reflection of the solemn and
peaceful show of support exhibited by many across U.S. for those who have been the victims of
shootings.

Williams: NMOS14 Field RNG Exploration 3
National Moment of Silence 2014 (NMOS14) - August 14, 2014
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RNG Data
Expectation
p =.05
p =.95
5:20 PM:
Synchronized Moment
of Silence Begins
Exploration Period: 5:00 - 6:00 P.M. Mountain Time (-1 Pacific, +2 Eastern)
1-second data resolution

Figure 2. Graphical representation of the RNG data collected during the National Moment of Silence 2014 event held
on the evening of August 14, 2014. The curved red arcs indicate the threshold of statistical significance as time
passes.

Context: National Moment of Silence 2014 - August 14, 2014
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RNG Data
Expectation
p =.05
p =.95
5:40 PM:
Moment of Silence begin
7:00 PM:
ABQ Rally Begins
5:00 - 8:00 P.M. Mountain Time (-1 Pacific, +2 Eastern)
1-second data resolution

Figure 3. Three-hour context graph of the RNG data collected during the National Moment of Silence 2014.
Williams: NMOS14 Field RNG Exploration 4
Reference

Staley, D. (2014, August 14). ABQ gathering shows support for Ferguson. KRQE News 13 report
available over the Internet at: http://krqe.com/2014/08/14/abq-gathering-shows-support-for-ferguson/