Abstract
A possible psychokinetic effect on plants from the “laying on” of hands of a self-claimed “psychic healer” was studied in 3 procedures. The “healer” treated a sealed petrie dish containing germinating root growth-retarded corn seeds. In Procedure 1 randomly drawn corn seeds were pre-soaked for 12 hr. in a 2% NaCl solution. Seeds were then randomly assigned to 3 prepared petrie dishes: healing, control, and a control for the temperature of the healer's hands. Root growth was measured after 96 hr. Procedure 2 tested for a possible transitory healing effect following the same procedures as Procedure 1 but measuring the roots after 48 hr. In Procedure 3 the pre-soaking period of the corn seeds was reduced to 8 hr. to test the possibility that the 12-hr. pre-soaking period was too severe to allow a “healing effect” to be manifest. Kruskal-Wallis (non-parametric) one-way analyses of variance yielded nonsignificant effects in all 3 experiments. Additional studies are needed to avoid a Type II error, i.e., to rule out possibility of a psychokinetic effect on plants by the “laying on” of hands.
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