Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Proposal

Importance of project

Every day, nurses have the opportunity to communicate in many different ways with their clients. Nurses can ignore their clients, use words that send positive messages, or words that send negative messages. Popular literature provides countless anecdotal accounts that words are a form of energy, and energy affects matter. The purpose of this study is to determine what effects spoken and written words have on the fermentation and decomposition processes of cooked white rice. The specific aim of this randomized controlled intervention pilot study is to reproduce the anecdotal findings of Masaru Emoto, specifically that positive words directed toward rice enhance the preservation of the rice and negative words directed toward the rice advance decomposition. This study will be a small first step toward further studies about how nurses' words affect healing in their patients.

Specific Aims or Research Questions/Hypothesis

The purpose of this study is to determine what effects spoken and written words have on the fermentation and decomposition processes of cooked white rice. The specific aim of the study is to reproduce the anecdotal findings of Masaru Emoto (2005, 2007), specifically that positive words directed toward rice enhance the preservation of the rice and negative words directed toward the rice advance decomposition.


Background and Significance

Masaru Emoto (2005, 2007) has written many books and articles claiming that words produce energy and that energy changes matter (generally referring to water). He postulates that, since all matter is fundamentally resonating energy, by changing the vibration of the energy we change the matter (Emoto, 2005; Emoto, 2007). Therefore, the words we speak can directly affect and change our physical environment. Emoto sites an experiment done by several of his readers to test this claim (Emoto, 2005; Emoto, 2007). In this experiment, the readers filled 3 jars with cooked rice. One was labeled “Thank You”, one was labeled “You Fool”, and one was unlabeled. Every day for 30 days the readers said, “Thank You,” or “You Fool” to the corresponding jar and completely ignored the unlabeled jar. At the end of 30 days, they claimed that the “Thank You” jar was fermented, light brown and had a pleasant malt odor to it. The “You Fool” jar was black, rotted and had a putrid smell. The jar that was ignored rotted faster and was more putrid-smelling than the “You Fool” jar (Emoto, 2005; Emoto, 2007). Although this experiment supporting Emoto's claims was cited in several books (Emoto, 2005), and articles (Emoto, 2007), the evidence is purely anecdotal and there have not been any controlled studies or scholarly publications supporting his work.

Every day, nurses have the opportunity to communicate in many different ways with their clients. Nurses can ignore their clients, use words that send positive messages, or words that send negative messages. Generally, nurses and clients alike know intuitively that people who are addressed with positive words are in a superior healing environment than those who are ignored or addressed with negative words. Popular literature provides countless anecdotal accounts that words are a form of energy, and energy affects matter (McTaggert, 2202; Byrne, 2006; Losier, 2003). It is not clear how it works, but it is clear that more research needs to be done to establish how nurses' words affect the health and wellbeing of their patients.

I have done a thorough literature search on CINAHL, Medline, Psych Info and Alternative Health Watch and could not find research articles supporting the claim that words can alter substances. This study will be a first step towards filling the gap in the academic literature regarding the ability of words to affect client healing, and providing for evidence-based practice regarding how nurses' words affect their patients.

Methodology and Procedures

Design
This is a randomized, controlled intervention study with an experimental design. The researchers will measure the change in the characteristics of cooked rice after it is exposed to positive or negative words. Internal validity will be maintained by comprehensive training of the research assistants and extraneous variables will be controlled by careful adherence to a protocol.

Study Procedure

This study will consist of 2 interventions (negative words and positive words) and a control. Each intervention group will consist of 20 units. In this blinded, randomized, controlled study, identical glass jars with screw-on lids will be washed and sterilized with boiling water and filled using sterile procedure with ½ cup cooked white rice, and then sealed. Then the jars will be randomly assigned into 3 equal groups labeled with the letters A-C, by a research assistant (RA). The jars will be labeled in the following manner:
A. Labeled** with the words “Thank You”
B. Labeled** with the words “You Fool”
C. Unlabeled
**(All words are printed in Times New Roman 40 point font on white paper, and taped to the outside of the jar, with the words facing in.)
Next, each jar will be covered with a paper bag to prevent the RA from monitoring progress in the jars. All the “A” bottles will be placed in a box, “B” bottles in another and “C” in another. The boxes will be labeled on the outside with a corresponding A, B or C. A different RA (RA2) will be given a set of written instructions and trained in the following treatment protocol. All RA's will be blinded and will not know what is in the bags. The RA's will simply be following a written protocol and will not know the purpose of the experiment. RA's will be debriefed after the experiment concludes.

Protocol

The three boxes will be stored in a locked room in the BYU nursing department. Every day the RA2 will take each box out of the room separately into another room and will say “thank you” or “you fool” to the corresponding A and B boxes for one minute, twice a day, and then return the box to the room. The C box will be taken out of the room for one minute, twice a day, but will not be treated with words. The RA2 will be trained to focus on the box and say the words with feeling in order to transfer the energy of the words to the box of jars. This will be done every day for 30 days. At the end of 30 days, a different RA (RA3) will examine the bottles; comparing and contrasting for color, and noting other observations. RA3 will record detailed written and photographic information about each bottle. The data will then be analyzed and written in a final report.

Sources

Bryne, E. (2006). The secret. Atria: New York.

Emoto, M. Hadolife USA. Retrieved from the world wide web October 19, 2007. https://www.hado.net

Emoto, M. Masuro Emoto's website. Retrieved from the world wide web October 19,
2007.http://www.masaru-emoto.net/english/entop.html

Emoto, M. (2005). The Hidden Messages in Water. Atria: New York

Losier, M.J. (2003). The law of attraction: The science of attracting more of what you want and less of what you don't. Hachette Book Group: New York.

Mc Taggert, L. (2003). The field: The quest for the secret force of the universe. HarperCollins: New York.

Various Experiments

Here are some links to different rice experiments I found on the web. Check them out and see if you had similar results.

http://www.themanifest-station.com/intention/


http://www.nbc10.com/news/5476558/detail.html

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/rice-experiment-masaru-emoto/3224763321?icid=acvsv4

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/rice-experiment-masaru-emoto-results/1923016235?icid=acvsv4

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/rice-hado-experiment-masaru-emoto/456991452?icid=acvsv3

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/rice-experiment-masaru-emoto-results/1923016235?icid=acvsv4


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEUhAQI-Uc4&eurl=http://video.aol.com/video-detail/rice-experiment-masaru-emoto-results/1923016235?icid=acvsv4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHJmfWOKH1A&NR=1


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8paPhEknQo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikYqc0B6Vn4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssTKsmsJiz4&feature=related


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VZWAL-_BCw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8x5zyrGy3U&feature=related

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/rice-experiment-june-28-day-55/161484321

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/masaru-emoto-rice-experiment/3791559429