In our efforts to bring more “flow” into our lives, we’ve looked at how intention, focus and meditation can improve experiences and outcomes. In some cases, we’ve passed along the wisdom of psychologists and social scientists. This time, we’ll look at fascinating research conducted by a recently deceased physicist and former Stanford professor, Dr. William A. Tiller, whose work was described in Lynne McTaggart’s book “The Intention Experiment.”
Dr. Tiller had a distinguished career before he arrived at Stanford, including participation on Wernher von Braun’s team in developing the nose cones and landers used by the Apollo spacecraft. While at Stanford, he served for almost 30 years as a professor in the department of materials science and engineering, with much of his work focused on the science of crystallization. By the end of his career, Dr. Tiller had written three textbooks and over 250 scientific papers.
The Black Box
As an offshoot of his crystallization work, Dr. Tiller and his team conducted intriguing experiments starting in 1997. At that time, he had helped a California company develop a product designed to eliminate electromagnetic pollution. The black box was about the size of a remote control and included a quartz crystal, three 1- to 10-megahertz oscillators and a ROM memory component. By any standard, the instrument was simplistic, especially compared to the cellphones we carry today.
Dr. Tiller’s years of research led him to theorize about the existence of subtle energy, which was outside the mainstream scientific community. As part of his interest in that arena, he tested his black box to see whether it could record intentions imprinted on it by a small group of meditators and whether those recorded intentions would have a measurable effect on physical matter.
The First Experiment
Dr. Tiller started with a familiar lab experiment creature, the common fruit fly, for his first foray into this area of experimentation. He modified his black box a bit and then asked three other seasoned meditators to try to imprint the device with the specific intention of raising the ratio of ATP to ADP so that larval development time would decrease significantly relative to the control group. The four researchers then held that intention while in a deep, 15-minute meditative state, followed by five minutes of intending to “seal the intention” in the device.
Using a double-blind experiment structure, Dr. Tiller shipped the intention-imprinted device and an identical device (not imprinted) to a laboratory in another state. There, colleagues conducted experiments over several months involving over 10,000 larvae. When all the results were in, the researchers found that the ATP to ADP ratio had increased in the larvae exposed to the imprinted device, and those larvae developed 15% faster than the control group. Interestingly, the larvae exposed to the imprinted device were healthier as adults, as were their offspring.
Moving the Needle
Dr. Tiller and his team then tested the impact of intention-imprinted black boxes on other physical media. In one set of experiments, they set the intention of increasing or decreasing the pH of water by a full pH unit. They succeeded, but something odd and unexpected occurred as the team ran experiments over the next few months. After three months, the results started to improve, with the effects becoming stronger and occurring more rapidly.
To try to isolate the factors that might cause or contribute to the strange phenomenon, Dr. Tiller’s team took continuous pH and air temperature measurements and checked the water’s ability to conduct electricity.
The results were surprisingly uniform. For example, every 45 minutes, the temperature and pH went through a cycle, swinging by about 7 degrees Fahrenheit and one-quarter of a pH unit. As the air temperature rose, the pH fell, and vice versa. Similarly, the water’s conductivity oscillated in the same rhythm.
Eventually, every lab space exposed to intention-imprinted devices displayed the same effect. The entire space was somehow being modified to produce organized, repeating oscillations. Dr. Tiller had never seen those kinds of oscillations in his years of experiments at Stanford. In addition, the lab spaces exposed to the intention-imprinted devices exhibited a lingering effect, with the same rhythmic cycles slowly diminishing over time after the removal of all the elements used in the experiments.
The Implications for Us
According to some reports, actor Bruce Lee once said: “Don’t speak negatively about yourself, even as a joke. Your body doesn’t know the difference. Words are energy and cast spells; that’s why it’s called spelling. Change the way you speak about yourself and you change your life. What you’re not changing, you’re also choosing.”
We’ll never know whether he actually said it, but it gets our attention either way. Certainly, many souls on this planet have said similar things for a long time.
How we think and feel seems to have far more significance than most of us ever realized or gave credit to. If intentions imprinted onto a simple device via thought and feeling can have measurable and lasting effects — not only on test subjects but also on the testing environment — then perhaps there’s something worth paying attention to here.
So, with all that, what is your intention today? How do you see yourself, and what are you saying about yourself internally or externally?
Along those lines, we’re reminded of the One Word Challenge we wrote about in our first column. (Read it at bit.ly/one-word-TVB.) The challenge is to choose a single word and be intentional about it throughout the entire year.
If the idea of choosing one word to be your theme for the year is new to you, here’s a simple three-step process:
- Reflect on what’s most important to you.
- Be open to and listen for a single word that sticks with you.
- Once you discover your word, find ways to honor it in your work and life, including actively sharing it with other people.
As a final suggestion, here’s an ancient but simple intention that might ring familiar to readers who have practiced yoga: “Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu.” (“May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and freedom for all.”)
Thank you for your efforts to enhance the lives of all the creatures great and small that you serve. This is simply a more beautiful world because of your service. And may they and you be happy and free!
WHAT IS FLOW?
It’s the state in which we are fully present and meeting the challenges of the moment with a calm, clear focus and full access to all our resources.