FIELD STUDY OF AN ENHANCEMENT EFFECT ON LETTUCE SEEDS: Working In Adverse Conditions

During the years 2000-2002, research on organic farms looked at the effect of a healer on lenuce seeds. The basic hypotheses were that the healer would enhance the seeds to produce greater yield and greater health. The first yearl found a significant result for the second hypmhesis, as measured by looking at the fungal damage. The second yea? found significant results on all the measures, greater yield, less fungal damage and less slug damage. However, doing field trials has many problems compared with doing laboratory research, weather being one of the major variables that cannot be controlled. For various reasons, in 2001 trials 6 and 7 were not planted om umil long after they had become pot-bound. The delay in plaming out was so great for trial 6 that the plants never grew properly, and trial 7 was harvested first as those plants grew to a point where they became big enough for sale. In 2002 the research rook place on another farm and was a disaster. For various reasons up to half of the lettuce plants died in the seedling trays, and the people working on the farm became "spooked." They considered that the reason for the loss of plants was due to the research trials upsetting the delicate balance of energy needed to keep the farm running smoothly. Therefore the research was terminated after only two trials were harvested. However, in both 2001 and 2002 significant results were still found. Trials 6 & 7 in 2001 both showed first place "hits" for gross weight of lettuces in the "enhanced" (HX) condition, which, when combined with trials 1 -5, give an average rank for gross weight of 1.92. The net weight was also significanc. When each harvest is ranked, by group, on the number of lettuces produced, the HX group has mean rank of 1.79, with t(11) = -2.75, and two-tailed p 0.019. The total yield was also significant for the HX group. The two trials in 2002 yielded nine experimental vs. comrol pairings. The nine "experiments" comparing net weight HX to another condition yield an average effect size (r) of 0.21 (sd = 0.31), which is statistically significantly greater than chance expectation. The six control experimems (NH v. controls) yield average effect size r = -0.02 (sd = .26), which is not significantly different from zero. These results suggest that a psychic healer can have a practical value for the commercial farmer. This is good news for organic farming where the lack of fungicide, pesticide and artificial fertilizer can result in a lower yield

Registered reports: an early example and analysis

© 2019 Wiseman et al.The recent ‘replication crisis’ in psychology has focused attention on ways of increasing methodological rigor within the behavioral sciences. Part of this work has involved promoting ‘Registered Reports’, wherein journals peer review papers prior to data collection and publication. Although this approach is usually seen as a relatively recent development, we note that a prototype of this publishing model was initiated in the mid-1970s by parapsychologist Martin Johnson in the European Journal of Parapsychology (EJP). A retrospective and observational comparison of Registered and non-Registered Reports published in the EJP during a seventeen-year period provides circumstantial evidence to suggest that the approach helped to reduce questionable research practices. This paper aims both to bring Johnson’s pioneering work to a wider audience, and to investigate the positive role that Registered Reports may play in helping to promote higher methodological and statistical standards.Peer reviewe

Therapeutic touch for healing acute wounds

Background Therapeutic Touch (TT) is an alternative therapy that has gained popularity over the past two decades for helping wounds to heal. Practitioners enter ameditative state and pass their hands above the patient’s body to find and correct any imbalances in the patient’s ’life energy’ or chi. Scientific instruments have been unable to detect this energy. The effect of TT on wound healing has been expounded in anecdotal publications. Objectives To identify and review all relevant data to determine the effects of TT on healing acute wounds. Search methods For this fourth update, we searched The Cochrane Wounds Group Specialised Register (searched 27 January 2012); The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library 2012, Issue 1); Ovid MEDLINE (2010 to January Week 2 2012); Ovid MEDLINE (In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations, January 26, 2012); Ovid EMBASE (2010 to 2012 Week 03); and EBSCO CINAHL (2010 to January 6 2012). Selection criteria All randomised or quasi-randomised controlled trials, which compared the effect of TT with a placebo, another treatment, or no treatment control were considered. Studies which used TT as a stand-alone treatment, or as an adjunct to other therapies, were eligible. Data collection and analysis One author (DO’M) determined the eligibility for inclusion of all trials in the review. Both authors conducted data extraction and evaluation of trial validity independently. Each trial was assessed using predetermined criteria. Main results No new trials were identified for this update. Four trials in people with experimental wounds were included. The effect of TT on wound healing in these studies was variable. Two trials (n = 44 & 24) demonstrated a significant increase in healing associated with TT, while one trial found significantly worse healing after TT and the other found no significant difference. All trials are at high risk of bias. Authors’ conclusions There is no robust evidence that TT promotes healing of acute wounds

In vitro test of external Qigong

BACKGROUND: Practitioners of the alternative medical practice 'external Qigong' generally claim the ability to emit or direct "healing energy" to treat patients. We investigated the ability of experienced Qigong practitioners to enhance the healthy growth of cultured human cells in a series of studies, each following a rigorously designed protocol with randomization, blinding and controls for variability. METHODS: Qigong practitioners directed healing intentionality toward normal brain cell cultures in a basic science laboratory. Qigong treatments were delivered for 20 minutes from a minimum distance of 10 centimeters. Cell proliferation was measured by a standard colony-forming efficiency (CFE) assay and a CFE ratio (CFE for treated samples/CFE for sham samples) was the dependent measure for each experiment. RESULTS: During a pilot study (8 experiments), a trend of increased cell proliferation in Qigong-treated samples (CFE Qigong/sham ratios > 1.0) was observed (P = 0.162). In a formal study (28 experiments), a similar trend was observed, with Qigong-treated samples showing on average more colony formation than sham samples (P = 0.036). In a replication study (60 experiments), no significant difference between Qigong-treated samples and sham samples was observed (P = 0.465). CONCLUSION: We observed an apparent increase in the proliferation of cultured cells following external Qigong treatment by practitioners under strictly controlled conditions, but we did not observe this effect in a replication study. These results suggest the need for more controlled and thorough investigation of external Qigong before scientific validation is claimed