REG stands for “Random Event Generator.” It is a device used in the scientific study of consciousness-related phenomena, particularly because research has shown that the mind can directly affect its output, and because it makes statistical calculations very straightforward. The REG-1 is easily interfaced with computers, allowing diverse software applications and data collection options.
Read all REG-1-related articles on hyperRitual.
The REG-1 descends from technology developed by PEAR (now ICRL) for studying the effects of consciousness on machines. Since PEAR was closed in 2007, the REG-1 is developed and sold by Psyleron, Inc. There are three editions: Lite, Standard, and Professional. The SDK comes packaged with the last, but you can purchase it separately for use with the other two.
The software suite includes games, a version of same data collector used at PEAR, and a collector that you can have running while you do things other than intentionally try to influence the REG-1.
The PEAR book, Margins of Reality: The Role of Consciousness in the Physical World, is still available at some bookstores, and their documentary, The PEAR Proposition, is sold by Psyleron. A related book, Filters and Reflections: Perspectives on Reality, by the same authors, is also still available.
Using REG-1 to Test Carroll’s Equations of Magic
This paradigm represents, probably for the first time, a self-consistent metaphysic which elevates magic from a rather hit and miss art, explained by vague ad-hoc hypotheses to a potentially objective and quantifiable discipline with its own formulae for probability engineering. // Peter Carroll, Liber Kaos: The Psychonomicon
In Liber Kaos, Peter Carroll proposed the first three “equations of magic” that show what is required for magical efficacy as probability manipulation:
- M = GL(1 − A)(1 − R)
- Pm = P + (1 − P) × M1/P
- Pm = P − P × M1/(1 − P)
The first equation says that (G)nosis and magical (L)ink improve the (M)agic factor, while [conscious] (A)wareness and [subconscious] (R)esistance work against it. The second and third equations describe how the (M)agic factor influences natural (P)robability, either adding to P to manifest a desired outcome (second equation), or subtracting from P to prevent an undesired outcome (third equation).
The REG-1 may provide a means to test these equations, since if the natural (P)robability of the device being in state 0 or 1 is consistently 0.5, then we can vary the (M)agical variables and observe what changes correspond in P. But is the REG-1 (and tightly controlled experimentation of magic, in general) too trivial to demonstrate magic (which I suspect is a fundamentally non-trivial phenomenon).