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IN BRIEF
- The Facts:Three Buddhist monks focused their intention on commercially bottled water with the goal of improving the growth of seeds. Results showed that they were able to have a significant impact.
- Reflect On:If human intention can alter physical material matter, imagine what effect collective human intention could have on the entire human experience.
A study published in the Journal EXPLORE, The Journal of Science and Healing conducted by scientists at National Kaohsiung Normal University, National Taiwan University, and the Institute of Noetic Sciences referenced a previous experiment which suggested that “consumption of intentionally treated tea influenced subjective mood under double-blind, controlled conditions.” They decided to investigate further, under double-blind, controlled conditions. The new study used Arabidopsis thaliana seeds (a commonly used wild type of seed that belongs to the Brassica family, which includes cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower), and measured differences in hypocotyl length, anthocyanin, and chlorophyll between seeds hydrated with intentionally treated vs. untreated water.
The hypocotyl is the stem of a germinating seed, anthocyanin refers to specific cell biology properties of a plant, and chlorophyll deals with the biology of the green pigment found within plants. The study was designed as follows:
Three Buddhist monks focused their intention on commercially bottled water with the goal of improving the growth of seeds; bottled water from the same source served as an untreated control. Seeds with the following three variations of cryptochrome (CRY) were used: the wild type Arabidopsis (Columbia-4), a gain-of-function mutation (His-CRY2), and a loss-of function mutation (cry1/2), where “gain” and “loss” refer to enhanced and reduced sensitivity to blue light, respectively. Seeds were hydrated with treated or untreated water under blinded conditions, and then placed in random positions in an incubator. The germination process was repeated three times in each experiment, each time using new seeds, and then the entire experiment was repeated four times.
The results of the Taiwan study showed a significant decrease in hypocotyl length, a significant increase in anthocyanin (treated mean 17.0 ± 0.31 mg, untreated mean, and a “modest” increase in chlorophyll. To see the actual numbers, and more details about the study, you can refer directly to the study.
According to the authors:
These outcomes conformed to the monks’ intentions because a decrease in hypocotyl length and increase in anthocyanin and chlorophyll are associated with enhanced photomorphogenic growth. These experiments suggest that the His-CRY2 mutation of Arabidopsis may be an especially robust “detector” of intention.
This suggests that the monks were able to change the structure of water.
There were a couple of concerns and biases but they didn’t hold much weight according to the authors. One of them that the chemical composition of the water was not tested prior to the experiment, so that could have somehow influenced the results instead of the monks. Again, you can refer to the study for more information like that.
Experiments over the past four decades have investigated whether human intention alone can affect the properties of water. This question has been of interest to alternative medicine research because the human body is made up of approximately 70% water. Interest in this topic has been rekindled by multiple researchers suggesting that intentionally influenced water can be detected by examining ice crystals formed from samples of that water. Scientists have hypothesized and shown that water influenced by intention can indeed influence the physical formation of the ice crystals that water produces. Consistent results commonly point to the idea that positive intentions tend to produce symmetric, well-formed, aesthetically pleasing crystals, and negative intentions tend to produce asymmetric, poorly formed, and unattractive crystals.
Dean Radin, the Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (one of the authors in the study above) along with Masaru Emoto, Takashige Kizu, and Nancy Lund, designed an experiment that tested this hypothesis.
As the study’s description reads:
Over three days, 1,900 people in Austria and Germany focused their intentions towards water samples located inside an electromagnetically shielded room in California. Water samples located near the target water, but unknown to the people providing intentions, acted as ‘‘proximal’’ controls. Other samples located outside the shielded room acted as distant controls. Ice drops formed from samples of water in the different treatment conditions were photographed by a technician, each image was assessed for aesthetic beauty by over 2,500 independent judges, and the resulting data were analyzed, all by individuals blind with respect to the underlying treatment conditions. Results suggested that crystal images in the intentionally treated condition were rated as aesthetically more beautiful than proximal control crystals (p < 0.03, one-tailed). This outcome replicates the results of an earlier pilot test.
You can access the full study here.
Obviously, it’s important to remember that this type of research does cause a lot of controversies.
“There seems to be a deep concern that the whole field will be tarnished by studying a phenomenon that is tainted by its association with superstition, spiritualism and magic. Protecting against this possibility sometimes seems more important than encouraging scientific exploration or protecting academic freedom. But this may be changing.”
– Cassandra Vieten, PhD and President/CEO at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (source)
More Examples of Mind/Matter Influence
Stories of mind influencing matter have been written about for thousands of years. Nearly all ancient literature from all parts of the world have stories of such phenomena, whether it’s ancient Vedic tests or the yoga sutras, all the way to Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, and Milarepa or the Oracle at Delphi, stories of ‘superhuman’ ability have always been alive and well. The Buddha, for example, was believed to possess all manner of supernormal powers and ability. Were these just myths? Or are any of these stories actually true? Why would literature that dates back thousands of years exist describing these abilities in great detail, in multiple parts of the world, if it wasn’t true?
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