Is intention an all-embracing energy that affects anything in its path?

This question has been explored by German physicist Fritz-Albert Popp and his team in Neuss , Germany , by studying the tiny current of light — biophoton emissions — emitted by every living thing.

In one intriguing study, Popp’s colleague, Dutch psychologist Eduard Van Wijk, placed a jar of algae near a healer and his patient, then measured the photon emissions of the algae during healing sessions and periods of rest.

After analyzing the data, he discovered remarkable alterations in the photon count of the algae. The quality of emissions significantly changed during the healing sessions, as though the algae were being bombarded with light. There also seemed to be changes in the rhythm of the emissions, as though the algae had become attuned to a stronger source of light.

The Germination Intention Experiments

But now our own Intention Experiments [1] support the idea that intention may affect anything in its path.

Thus far, we have run six Germination Intention Experiments — one via the Internet, with participants from countries all over the world, and five others in front of audiences of various sizes during my speaking schedule last year. These included audiences in: Sydney , Australia (600), Rheinbeck , New York (100), Hilton Head, North Carolina (500), Palm Springs , California (130) and Austin , Texas (120). We also ran this experiment over the internet, with participants from all over the world.

As you may remember, in these experiments, we asked the audience to choose one of four sets of seeds (30 seeds per set) and then sent an intention for the seeds to grow “at least 3 cm by the fourth day of growing”.

Recently, psychologist Dr. Gary Schwartz analyzed all six of our Germination Intention Experiments and combined them into results that will be presented and published at the Society for Scientific Exploration’s meeting on June 25-28.

Dr. Schwartz’s data shows that intention had a robust effect. The seeds sent intention grew an average of 8 millimetres higher than the controls.

But we have other, fascinating results, suggesting that intention may have a ‘scatter’ effect, affecting everything on the days it is sent, even if the highest effect is reserved for the actual target.

Once we were finished, Dr. Schwartz’s lab technician Mark Boccozzi (who was kept blind to the set selected), planted the 120 seeds under standardized conditions. At the end of five days, the seeds were harvested and their lengths measured in millimeters.

As a second control condition, with each Intention Experiment, Mark ran a separate Control Experiment. On these occasions, he selected and prepared another 120 seeds into four sets, assigned one set to be the ‘intention’ set (even though no distant intention was to be sent), and, as with the other experiments, planted the seeds, and harvested and measured them after five days. So this experiment was to act as a second-tier control — a control of the control.

Complex analyses

Dr. Schwartz then conducted a variety of complex analyses of the growth of all six Intention Experiments and the six Control Experiments.

He compared overall growth of targeted seeds with that of all the not-targeted seeds, the seed growth of all seeds in the Intention Experiments versus those in all the Control Experiments, and all seeds sent intention (those in the Intention Experiments plus those assigned ‘intention seeds’ in the Control Experiments) versus all seeds that were not targeted in all 12 experiments.

A number of fascinating results emerged. On average, the seeds sent intention grew 56 mm, compared with 48 mm for the non-targeted seeds. This means that seeds sent intention, on average, were 8 mm (about a third of an inch) higher than the controls. In contrast, the seeds run in the control Intention Experiments only varied by 2 mm.

But the biggest effect resulted when comparing the results of all the plant growth in our Intention Experiments against all the plant growth in the Control Experiments.

Dr. Schwartz found a highly significant effect — with a 0.00001 per cent possibility that we arrived at this result by simple chance.

This suggests that on the days we sent intention, all the plants grew higher than the plants in the Control Experiments, although the plants targeted for intention grew highest of all.

Interestingly, there was no different between target seeds and non-targeted seeds in the Control Experiments. Those seeds labeled ‘intention seeds’ grew about the same size — in fact, 2 mm shorter — than the non-targeted seeds, a non-significant difference.

A luminous reach

These fascinating results bring us one step closer to understanding the complex power of intention. It may well be that intention not only improves the target but also improves everything else within its reach.

In his own experiments, Fritz Popp has found that when an ointment is applied to the body, it changes the light emissions not only from where he’d applied the ointment but also from distant parts of the body.

This suggests that a great deal of non-local signaling is going on, not only within a single organism, but in the case of our seeds, between seeds.

Our experiments once again suggest that living things register information from the entire environment, and not simply between two communicating entities.

It also may be that once constructed, a thought radiates out, affecting everything in its path.

Lynne McTaggart is holding a series of special Living with Intention workshops in California , Portland and Boston to teach people how to master intention and to use intention to heal their lives and the world. For more information or to book your place, click here [2].

Lynne McTaggart is the author of five books, including the bestselling The Field [3] and The Intention Experiment [4]. To participate in her next Intention experiment in March, please log in to the Intention Experiment website (www.theintentionexperiment.com), register in advance and follow the instructions. In 2008, Lynne is running Living with Intention seminars in Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland and Boston/Cape Cod. Click here [5] for more information or to book your place.