In 1979, Robert Jahn, Dean of Princeton University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, established the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) Laboratory to explore the potential vulnerability of sensitive engineering systems to the effects of human intention. Over the next 28 years, he and his colleague, laboratory manager Brenda Dunne, together with their interdisciplinary staff, accumulated an immense database that demonstrated that such effects were real, albeit anomalous. But it soon became evident that these effects were indications of how consciousness played a role in the establishment of physical reality.

In 1990 they brought together a group of colleagues from various countries and academic disciplines in an informal consortium to explore the nature of consciousness.  This group was the seed that grew into the International Consciousness Research Laboratories (ICRL).  As the PEAR laboratory prepared to close its university operations, ICRL’s membership was expanded to include other professional colleagues, along with a number of former PEAR interns, and the organization was officially incorporated as a
501(c)(3) Not-For-Profit entity.

ICRL initially focused on scientific research into anomalous consciousness-related phenomena, but through the addition of ICRL Press it quickly expanded the scope of its focus and audience.  Today, the organization serves as a vehicle for efforts and collaborations that further our understanding of the nature of consciousness and explore how that understanding can contribute to the betterment of society, whether through science, education, the arts, health, or any other field of discourse.