DISCUSSION

The database gathered during the funeral ceremonies for Princess Diana shows a significant composite anomalous deviation associated with the events. This confirmed a prediction based on the obvious potential of this sad and unexpected occasion to produce emotional engagement and resonance. The results are consonant with those obtained in previous FieldREG studies and support tentative interpretations suggesting that groups of people, especially when they are attuned and engaged by a common theme, may produce something like a "consciousness field" that induces a small but statistically identifiable bias in a nominally random sequence.

The results during the funeral of Mother Teresa do not show a consistent indication of anomalous effects. We speculate that this clear difference from the result for Diana's funeral derives from the nature of the global attention, which was, for easily understood reasons, different in the two cases. Certainly we should not conclude that the results are a reflection of the character or individuality of the two people upon whom the attention was focused. Instead, the anomalous outcome represents a statistical measure of an as yet unexplained capability of group consciousness, under certain conditions, to interact with random physical systems. It apparently reflects a shared consciousness state across the world, and especially the remarkable worldwide sharing on the emotional level.

With the caveat that interpretations must remain speculative, we may note some of the factors that bear upon the results and the differences in the two cases. The shock and dismay over Diana's death galvanized an overwhelming reaction that was the preeminent media topic for several days. The funeral ceremonies occupied virtually all the major television channels and hence the attentions of an unprecedented number of people. This focus, and the entrainment of ideas and emotions it entailed, might be expected to produce a widespread resonance of affect. In contrast, Mother Teresa's death was expected, and she had lived a full and exemplary life, allowing her memory to be honored without the profound grief and dismay that was engendered by Princess Diana's death. Although there is evidence from related work that distance may not be an important factor determining anomalous effects of this nature, it should be noted that all of the REG's in these studies were in Europe and the United States, and none in India or Asia. There was considerably less live television coverage of Mother Teresa's funeral, and although she was certainly loved and respected around the world, there was relatively little objective expression of deep emotion by people attending the ceremonies either locally or via the media coverage. Thus, there are a number of clear differences in the two situations that may explain the significantly different experimental results, and also link them with findings in psychological and sociological studies of personal loss.