An Experiment with Intention

This was an amazing experience that is worth sharing in relation to our animal companions. You might have noticed listed under my "Recommended Reading", "The Intention Experiment" by Lynne McTaggert. Even if you don't "do" Quantum Physics, this book is well worth the read. She doesn't try and convince you of anything, she simply lays out the scientific evidence backing it up.

I enjoyed this book over the Christmas holidays just last season. I tend to savor my books, or more accurately, I read slow. But this one I inhaled. Fascinating read! ...... To the point, Kat! So, in one chapter of this book, Lynne talks about an experiment involving plants. Yes, Plants. In this experiment thoughts were sent to the plant, mental images of what the person would "do" to the plant. The plants reacted. For example, the mental intention of causing harm was sent to the plant and a chemical reaction was physically measured in the plant.

Freaky, right? I thought so, too. But it kinda makes sense too, right? My son was so intrigued it inspired him to do his science fair project on this very subject. Why simply choose to believe this far out concept when we could do the experiments for ourselves and SEE what happens! This was going to be interesting!

We purchased 3 baby Spider Plants of equal size from our local plant nursery. We also purchased radish seeds (that's all you get in December), growing medium and earthen pots for the seeds. The experiment lasted for 6 weeks. We ended up with 4 groups:

Group 1: "Happy Group" consisting of 1 spider plant and 2 pots of 5 radish seeds each.
Group 2: "Sad Group" consisting of 1 spider plant & 2 pots of 5 radish seeds each.
Group 3: "Control Group" consisting of 1 spider plant & 2 pots of 5 radish seeds each.
Group 4: "Happy & Sad" consisting of 1 pot of 5 radish seeds.

Group 4 was an extra earthen pot and extra seeds that we tossed into the experiment just for fun. All groups received basic care (water & sunlight) in equal amounts at the same time.

The Control group only received water and light and did not receive any mental intentions.
The Happy Group received mental intentions of a positive nature: vigorous growth, broad dark leaves, etc.
The Sad Group received negative mental intentions such as withering, pinching off leaves, etc.
The Happy/Sad Group received both positive and negative mental intentions.

The mental intentions sent were by all members of the family as they looked upon or even simply thought about and pictured in their minds the particular plants receiving the intentions. Intentions were also put into water that was given to the particular plants, except for the control plants.

All plants in the experiment began rather identical in shape, growth and appearance. By the end of the 6 weeks there was notable change:

Here are the spider plants after the experiment. On the far left is the "Happy Plant", middle is the "Neutral Plant" and on the right is the "Sad Plant". The growth differences are plainly evident. The happy plant showed the most growth, and to our surprise, the Sad plant grew more than the Neutral plant. This suggested that any intention is better than none.

The "Happy" radishes had full formed, round leaves and in spite of one that was damaged and near death, it recovered.

This image of the "sad plants" doesn't do it justice. I sent intentions of pinching off the leaves of the radishes, and to our surprise these radish plants had tightly CURLED LEAVES where the ones in the other groups did not. The radishes plants were also noticeably smaller than the others in the experiment.

Our greatest surprise was that the radish plants receiving both good and negative intentions grew much more vigorously than both the "sad" and the "neutral" radishes and about the same as the "happy" radishes.

My son took first place in his category at the school science fair with this project and went on to the county fair. Great job for a first time science experiment!

So, plants apparently do receive our thoughts in some form and react accordingly. Amazing, isn't it? We read it, we tried it and we proved it to be true.

What about our companion animals, then? I experimented with that, too, because I had the very same thought! Here's what I did with the dogs:

We don't have a physical fence around our property. So, we (the humans) created one in our minds. It was/is important to feel that it is real and physically there. We all agreed upon the layout of this mental fence and anytime the dogs went beyond the "fence" our mental intentions were of "fear" and "danger" and to "please come back where it's safe". Hehe..... IT WORKED! I was shocked that within a weeks' time, Nestle & Jazz were not leaving our property! This is huge considering there is a numerous amount of feral cats roaming the surrounding woods.

Two weeks after creating this "mental fence" I decided to put it to the test one day when I caught Nestle beyond the boundary, I chose to think, "You naughty dog! I'm going to kill you for this!" ..... He immediately ran away! Two hours later (that's a LONG time for Nestle!) I sent Jazz out to bring him back. Which she did.

Neither dog has left our yard since the placement of this "fence" last January (except for Nestle's one-time bolting).

Linda Tellington-Jones encourages the use of our mental intentions with our animals as a form of communication. After the plant experiment, it makes sense and you know what? It really does work! A clear picture in our minds is what the animals perceive and respond to. The clearer the picture, the clearer the message. Negative intentions such as "Don't bark!".... the dog hears and see's "bark!" and so barking is less likely to stop. Positive intentions such as, "Nice, quiet dog", the dog hears and see's, "quiet" and is more likely to hush and be quiet.

Be careful what you think. Your dog is listening.

Now that's a lot to chew on. Enjoy the meal!

My Mother with a "BB", a young PitBull rescue