Effects of intentionally treated water and seeds on the growth of Arabidopsis thaliana Yung-Jong Shiah a, *, Hsu-Liang Hsieh b , Huai-Ju Chen b , Dean I. Radin c a Graduate Institute of Counseling Psychology and Rehabilitation Counseling, National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan b Institute of Plant Biology, College of Life Science, National Taiwan University, Taiwan c Institute of Noetic Sciences, USA ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Objective: . A previously reported experiment indicated that Arabidopsis thaliana seeds with cryptochrome mutation His-CRY2 showed more robust photomorphogenic growth when hydrated with intentionally treated water as compared to untreated water. The present study attempted to replicate that outcome, add- ing a condition where the seeds were also intentionally treated. Arabidopsis seeds were used because they contain a photosensitive flavoprotein called cryptochrome (CRY). CRY has been proposed as a possible “transducer” of intention in living systems because it is thought to have quantum biological properties, and as such, it might potentially be sensitive to quantum observer effects. Design: Three Buddhist monks directed their attention toward commercially bottled water and Arabidopsis seeds while holding the intention to improve the growth of the plant. As a control condition, no attention was directed at water or seeds from the same sources. Under double-blinded conditions, treated and untreated seeds were placed in an incubator, hydrated with treated or untreated water, and exposed to either continuous blue light or blue plus far-red light. The seed germination process was repeated three times, each time using new seeds. A 2 £ 2 £ 2 ANOVA, with water, seeds, and light as factors, was used to analyze the results. Results: . Treated water was associated with enhanced photomorphogenic growth, as reflected by a shorter hypocotyl length (p = 0.04) and greater amounts of chlorophyll (p = 0.0005) and anthocyanin (p =2 £ 10 6 ). Treated seeds resulted in greater amounts of chlorophyll (p = 0.04), but also a longer hypocotyl (p = 0.0004) and less anthocyanin (p = 0.01). Plants exposed to blue plus far-red light were constantly more robust than plants grown under blue light, regardless of the type of water or seed (p < 10 10 ). Conclusion: . Intentionally treated water improved the growth of the His-CRY2 variant of Arabidopsis, con- firming results of an earlier experiment. Enhanced growth associated with exposure to blue plus far-red light also confirmed to known effects. A more complex relationship was observed with treated seeds. Further research is required to understand the latter outcome, as it may provide clues about the underlying mecha- nisms of intentional influences. © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Cryptochrome Intention Mind-matter interaction Introduction Food and beverage have been associated with religious and spiri- tual practices across cultures and throughout history. 1,2 Could the popularity of such practices, which often include prayer or other forms of deeply focused intention, be adequately understood solely in psychological or sociological terms, or are there other factors involved? To study this question, a series of randomized, double- blind, placebo-controlled experiments were conducted to explore whether intentionally “blessed” food and beverage would result in measurable subjective and objective effects. In a small-scale study involving 62 participants, dark chocolate pastilles were intentionally blessed by Buddhist monks and a Mongo- lian shaman. The goal was to see if the “treated” chocolate would result in improved mood under double-blind conditions, as measured by a standardized mood-reporting questionnaire. 3 Samples of the chocolate from the same source that were not blessed were used as a control. The results indicated that participants who ate the blessed chocolate showed improved mood (p = 0.04), and a planned subset of participants who habitually consumed the least amount of chocolate on average showed a stronger improvement in mood (p = 0.0001), possibly because they were not already habituated to eating choco- late. * Corresponding author at: Graduate Institute of Counseling Psychology and Reha- bilitation Counseling, National Kaohsiung Normal University No. 116, Heping 1 Road, Kaohsiung 802, Taiwan. E-mail address: shiah@nknu.edu.tw (Y.-J. Shiah). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2020.04.006 1550-8307/© 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. ARTICLE IN PRESS Explore 000 (2020) 1 5 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Explore journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jsch