PEAR laboratory investigations of anomalous mental phenomena

Record summary

Robert G. Jahn established the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research laboratory in 1979 to study whether intention could influence random-event generators and whether people could obtain information at a distance. The program became one of the most prominent university-associated psi laboratories of the late twentieth century. It matters for comparing engineering-style instrumentation with psychological experiments. Critics questioned optional stopping, experimenter effects, non-independence and publication practices, while proponents emphasized long-running databases and replication across operators. The laboratory’s formal publications and later critiques are essential for verification.