The Rice Experiment (Video)

Thank you very much, Eric, for posting this video.

I hope everyone will not only watch, but think deep about this.

It will be great if some of us can repeat this experiment and report here.

The key is to realize that it is not words that matter, but the true, heartfelt intention, as the wise lady in the video emphasized. This is why the experiment may not work for some, who mechanically do the experiment by just repeating kind/good words and bad/hateful words. One needs to speak with the true mindset, whether good or bad.

That is true in doing metta bhavana too. It is not the words, but the intention that really matters.

This should be undergone with sentient beings instead of rice grains (say,ants) and at a distance (no close physical contact at all, by transmission of the intention/s alone)

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I must emphasize that this experiment does not imply that rice is conscious.

There have been other experiments on plants that showed some interesting effects; see, “The Secret Life of Plants: a Fascinating Account of the Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Relations Between Plants and Man”, by by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird (1989).
-Those experiments have led some people to conclude that plants ate conscious.
– There have been many experiments on water as well; see, “The Hidden Messages in Water” by Masaru Emoto (2005).

But, it is not that rice, plants, or water has consciousness. But our thoughts can affect them. In a way, it is really about setting background conditions.
– In a practical example, when we don’t keep our houses clean, it becomes an environment for insects and bugs to thrive. Not only that, but unseen beings with “bad character” are attracted too. The they can affect the minds of those who live in the house. Such effects are not obvious, but can be seen in extreme cases.

When other people tried to repeat those experiments, they did not get similar results. But that is because, they did not have the right mindset as I pointed out above.

Our world is very complex. Power of human mind is unbelievable. But again, I don’t want people to start exploring these phenomena. It is just that this is another piece of evidence of the power of the human mind.

I said that because sometimes it happens that we hear a word or two, like our name, and ask whoever is besides us ‘Did you speak to me?’ and he/she replies ‘No’

Gurdjieff carried out experiments of this nature – transmitting ‘thought-words’ to colleagues who ‘heard’ him.

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I’m more impressed with the lady presenter at 11:42 of the video when she said “you can’t have a solution when you don’t even know there is a problem”.

Is consecration of holy water based on this principle? Infusing good intention and metta into the water as a form of consecration for lay people to bring home and consume.

Johnny: Yes. But these have benefits when done right. Just reciting verses is not that effective.