Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) was a laboratory at Princeton University dedicated to studying the possible influence of human consciousness on physical devices and processes, active from 1979 until its closure in 2007.
Founding
PEAR was founded in 1979 by Robert G. Jahn, then Dean of Princeton's School of Engineering and Applied Science and a recognised authority on jet propulsion, who established the lab in the basement of the university's engineering building with the stated aim of pursuing "rigorous scientific study of the interaction of human consciousness with sensitive physical devices, systems, and processes common to contemporary engineering practice." Rather than relying primarily on university or government funding, the lab was largely self-financed. Developmental psychologist Brenda Dunne, trained at the University of Chicago, managed the laboratory for its entire history, working alongside a small full-time staff and numerous student interns and visiting researchers.
Research
PEAR's best-known work centred on electronic random event generators (REGs), devices producing random binary output analogous to a coin flip. Participants were asked to try to mentally influence the generator's output toward a specified direction — described informally as instructing them to "think high" or "think low" — while researchers compared results against chance across many thousands of trials. Across its full data set, PEAR reported an extremely small but statistically apparent deviation from chance, on the order of two or three results out of every ten thousand. The lab also conducted research into claimed remote perception (a term PEAR used in place of "remote viewing").
Reception
PEAR's findings were largely rejected by the mainstream scientific community throughout its operation. Dunne noted that the lab had difficulty getting its data reviewed even by respected journals willing to consider the subject. Critics argued that the reported effects, even if statistically present in the raw data, were too small to be meaningfully distinguished from methodological artefacts, and noted that PEAR did not consistently address specific concerns raised by outside critics over the years. Some Princeton faculty were reportedly openly dismissive of the lab's work, while others privately expressed support for the research being conducted, despite its controversial subject matter.
Closure
PEAR announced its closure in February 2007, after almost 28 years of operation, citing that it had accomplished what it had originally set out to do and had little left to gain from continued operation at Princeton specifically. Jahn and Dunne went on to found the International Consciousness Research Laboratories (ICRL) to continue related work outside a university setting. Dunne later relocated PEAR's remaining equipment to an estate in the United Kingdom to continue related research, and died in 2022.