Experiment! What Can Thoughts Do to Us??

PURPOSE/ Research

This is an experiment based off of Dr. Masaru Emoto's belief that the power of thought can alter our bodies for good or bad. Since our bodies are 70% water, he concludes thoughts can have an impact on our molecular structure. If this is found to be true, it could revolutionize the way we treat our bodies and give a scientific reason for people to have a more positive outlook on life. I think that alone is a good enough reason to test this theory! Dr. Masaru is first noted for his experiment with water molecules in a popular science documentary : What The Bleep Do We Know??. His central premise states that human beings can affect the shape and molecular structure of water just through conscious thought.

-What the Bleep Do we Know water molecules As you can see in this link, Mr. Emoto is said to have given a prayer to water and then froze the water. He then chose a water molecule after completing this process that clearly shows to have crystallized beautifully due to the positive words he gave it. The same was preformed on water where he was hateful to. The results were opposite. I have attached some images that show Dr. Masaru's results in a nutshell.

On a personal level, when I first saw the documentary I was absolutely fascinated. It does make sense, because I know happier people tend to live longer. But putting all that aside, I simply concluded it as probably a little exaggerated or far fetched; It is after all just a documentary meant for T.V. Then, my interest peaked when I recently heard about Dr. Masaru's second experiment on rice..

In his second experiment, Dr. Masaru uses 3 jars filled with rice and water. One jar he tells "thank you" to daily. The second he calls "stupid", and the third he completely ignores. His results were truly extraordinary. The rice in the jar he called "stupid" became black, the ignored one became rotted, and finally the jar he said "thank you" to began to ferment and give off a pleasant smell. I truly became hooked!! This is precisely what I am testing in my own experiment.... Is Mr. Emoto's argument valid and scientifically accurate? Does conscious thought alter the molecular structure?? I must try it for myself!

First of all, I don't have a microscope to test his first experiment with the water molecules. Testing his second experiment is much easier by simply using rice and water, a controlled room, and 3 jars, I can do that!! Heck, anyone can do this. But this time around, I'm doing the work for ya =)

HYPOTHESIS

Alrighty, now comes the first part of a good experiment. The predicting. The "what do we think will happen??" part. As anyone would surely like to see their Hypothesis correct and come true, a good scientist knows that they must accept the outcome... no-matter what. The experiment must be in a controlled environment and met with scientific accuracy and rigorous standards in order to get valid results.

I am not the first to attempt this experiment. After Dr. Masaru published his work it has been attempted by others, and their outcome has been matched with Dr. Masaru. Due to this information, my Hypothesis will be that I will get the same results as Dr. Masaru Emoto. I do not think the results will be as extreme as he portrays in the images, but I do think the rice will have differences. In other words, I don't think all rice will be rotting. There will be differences in them due to what I tell them positively or negatively. I will be very firm and "emotional" with what I tell the jars on a daily basis and post results accurately and not obstructed in any way or form.

If I do find that his experiment is complete bull, then so be it, that's science! I will be excited either way. A part of me wants this to be true. I'd love a scientific reason to be positive with life. But also, a logical voice inside of me is saying this may be debunked. Well, that's what this experiment is all about. Dr. Masaru's experiment took 30 days to get his results. I will document and do the same in the same amount of time. I feel like a Mythbuster! Here we go!!

EXPERIMENT


In order to get accurate results. ALL MATERIALS MUST BE STERILIZED. All jars need to be in the same part of the room with the same light. And I must recreate exactly what Dr. Emoto did in his own experiment. According to his work published on youtube, he simply used rice and water. With no specification on water temperature. Others testing his work online used cooked rice. SO, I must therefore use both methods. This is not an experiment to find what jar will mold faster. it's an experiment on Thoughts altering water molecules. We want to see if thoughts can alter molecules in the rice and not anything else; meaning stray bacteria or other contaminants. I will get to the bottom of this because I would love to know and see first hand if thoughts can alter my body!

• Step 1) buy clean un-used Mason jars and sterilize them WELL with boiling water. Let air dry on a paper towel.
• Step 2) Wash your hands. Cook some rice and fill the jars immediately. Sterilize even the spoons you grab the rice with. close them tightly.

For my first experiment. I used 3 Mason jars and labeled them as followed: Fool, Thank You, and no label. According to Mr. Emoto, the "fool" rice will turn black, the ignored rice will be rotten, and the "thank you rice" will be fermenting. These jars are all on one shelf in a room getting equal light. Every day for 30 days, I will tell the jars emotionally what each label says. These varying Mason jars are also known in science as the Independent Variables; or the different variables used to test my Hypothesis.

I have also tested some side experiments. I made one extra jar that says "thank you" with just what Mr. Emoto's youtube video suggest; using just rice and poured water on top of the rice. aka, NOT cooked rice. I just wanted to see if perhaps this may make any difference. I do know that it's Youtube and it may just have been a short video portraying some things he did and not accurate to his test....

SIDE EXPERIMENT
I ALSO, because I'm a science NERD.... wanted to test if Labels alone could change the molecular structure of the rice. So, I made 2 extra Mason Jars with the labels "Fool" and "Thank You". These rice will be on a different shelf and I will NOT say anything to these Mason Jars. I want to test to see if there may be any difference with what LABELS alone can do. aka, can positive and negative writing influence the molecular structure?? (my hypothesis on this test is No, it will not make a change. heeeeeeck no lol) but I wanted to try it out!! I marked these jars with a dot so I do not in the future get them mixed up with any of the others. These "other" jars can also be known as the Independent Variables, but for a different experiment in testing if labels alone can change the molecular structure.

WHEW. tired of science yet?? I find it exciting ;) haha

Let the 30 day experiment begin! I started this experiment on March 2nd at 5pm. The end will be on April 1st. And no this ain't no April fools joke ;)

ANALYSE DATA AND DRAW A CONCLUSION


It's day 15. Half way there, and I must say I am unimpressed with results.... All the jars are 98% white and look uninfected. The FIRST jar however to show signs of rotting was in fact the " Fool" jar. But it is hardly on the path to looking like it will turn black. All the jar has is just a small light brown patch. I will UP my ferocity on the jars and hope that maybe it was simply because I wasn't screaming loud enough at them.. According to youtube attempts on the experiment the rice was showing distinct signs at day four.. It is now day 15 and I'm seeing hardly any results?? I'm not too sure the hypothesis will be proven, i'm having my doubts, but it's just half way. Let the remaining days unfold!


Okay Science go-ers the 30 days are up and results are IN. It with much regret in saying the my rice experiment on testing how thoughts can alter the molecular structure has been (at least in my experiment) completely and utterly debunked.

Data

-"Thank You" rice : 2 very small brown patches. One isn't even brown but an off color.

-"Fool" rice: One small very light brown patch.

-Rice left alone: One small light brown patch.

-"Thank You" rice with just water: No rotting but water is yellow. No pleasant smell came from the jar either.

Data for experiment 2

-"Thank You" rice experimented with just a Label: 2 small brown patches

-"Fool" rice experimented with just a label: almost no change but a slight discoloration in the center.

Due to the results I have captured changes were almost non-existent and no one more extreme than any other. In other words, there was no rice mason jar with worse results than any other tested, no matter what I told it or didn't. The differences are just too minuscule to have any validity.At day 17, the "thank you" rice started showing the same results as the "fool" jar, and the "fool" jar didn't even seem to be getting any more worse. As any good scientist would call this, the results would simply be the rice were indeed slowly rotting at the same rate and nothing I told them daily did any damage or repair to them. I would therefore call Mr. Emoto's experiment based on my own scientific inquiry as False.

COMMUNICATE RESULTS

After 30 days of daily communication with the rice in the mason jar both positively and negatively, I have discovered no clear results linking to Mr. Emoto's theory that thoughts can alter the molecular structure. All 3 jars produced the same result: they are all non-rotting with only one or two brown patches. Not enough to put up any science validity in the matter of thoughts altering its structure for good or bad. I have no choice but to conclude that my Hypothesis was incorrect: thoughts do NOT alter the molecular structure.

~thoughts~

To me, I still feel that being negative every day will have some kind of impact on someone, but damaging the molecular structure part seems to have been disproved. Being positive daily will give you more energy and to smile more. Having an optimistic outlook on life has been known produce the same benefits of meditation. Just overall living well, I believe, will cause you to live longer. So look at the glass half full, it may just make you live a longer healthier life.

If you are disappointed by this experiment this is just ONE example done. This is just my own experiment, just ONE case of debunking Mr. Emoto's belief that thoughts can alter the molecular structure. What truly needs to be done is to test this experiment on a grand scale. With a hundred jars made for each emotion and a hundred volunteers to allow 30 seconds a day to giving negative or positive vibes to rice in a jar. When all those results are brought in and ONLY if the negative jars produce far worse results than the positive jars, then this may just be on a solid path to being true. However, my results say No, sorry everyone! Science sometimes isn't so nice.

;) Science is still my shinning star though. It is because of science I can understand the world and what is really true. Science, you rock! Thanks for giving me the truth! Have a great day everyone! =)

Sources:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sbzCaEsHfw
http://essential-oils.feelingtoinfinity.com/weblog/archives/000053.html http://www.buzzfeed.com/karmajello/dr-masaru-emotos-rice-emotions-experiment-74ch Emoto, M. (2005). The Hidden Messages in Water. Atria: New York.