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Lessons from a 2nd Grade Science Experiment

A few years ago, when it was time to consider ideas for the annual science project at my daughter’s elementary school, we found ourselves once again looking for something that would be just a little bit different. I don’t know why but there is only so much inspiration one can find in determining which roll of kitchen paper has the greatest absorbency capacity or what happens to a white flower if you place the cut stem in a vase of colored water. At a timely moment I happened to recall some pictures of cooked rice I had seen in the water crystal book by Masaro Emoto – the basic story was that cooked rice will age differently depending on the thoughts one projects toward it. OK – this was novel - something that really sparked our curiosity, so my then 7 year old, Bella, and I decided to see what would really happen if we did this experiment on our own.

To create the atmosphere of a true scientific experiment, we took 3 jars and sterilized them to make sure they were equally clean environments. We took a cup of freshly cooked rice and apportioned it equally between the 3 jars then immediately sealed them. The first jar was promptly placed on top of the refrigerator and forgotten about, the second was sadly labeled ‘you fool’, and the final jar was labeled with the words ‘thank you’. For the next week and a half we proceeded to ignore the first jar (other than to document our daily observations); we yelled nasty insults at the contents of the second jar and cooed loving sentiments each day toward the lucky rice in the third jar.

Admittedly the yelling of mean slurs was the most difficult thing of all. It was hard to be sincere and we felt that the rice would somehow ‘know’ if we were just pretending to hate it. Fortunately, a few days into the experiment, a friend came to visit who had regularly displayed a tendency toward anger management problems. He was able to throw insults with convincing aplomb, so we thankfully delegated this job in order to dispense with any guilty feeling for being so nasty ourselves!! Within a few days we were assured of his authenticity when a bottle of beer spontaneously exploded right after he had let loose an angry tirade toward the unfortunate rice – strange happenings were definitely afoot!

For the first few days, really not much transpired at all. The ignored rice was the first to get a little dot of black mold and then each of the others followed soon after. However we continued in our curious quest. All of a sudden, on day four, the ignored rice took a distinctive turn and a grey spider web like mold started to grow all over it and up the sides of the jar – over the next few days it made rapid progress – we documented with pictures and watched the other two with excited anticipation.

After a few more days rice in each of the other two jars started to develop distinctive characteristics. The rice that had been the recipient of the insults became dotted with black and covered with a rather pointed and spiked looking whitish/grey mold, while the loved and cared for rice started to turn pink!! I kid you not – this trend was documented with pictures and remained throughout the science fair display at the school.

Happily my daughter did get a 3^rd prize nod from the science fair judges – while they noted that it was not exactly scientific it was one of the more original entries. Personally I think it was pure quantum physics – but that’s another story! When the science fair was over and the jars returned to our home, I was given the opportunity to experience another specific difference between the 3 jars of rice. When cleaning out the contents of the jars, I removed the covers and each time was greeted with a unique and distinctive aroma. From the ignored rice there was a particular smell that reminded me of mildew – like opening a suitcase of damp clothes that had been forgotten in an attic long ago. The ‘angry rice’ emanated a rather more offensive odor, similar to vomit – I didn’t linger there!! Finally, when I removed the lid of the rice that had received love, there was a distinctive sweet fruity smell – quite pleasant in fact.

It doesn’t take much of a scientific brain, or imagination for that matter, to draw the conclusion that good thoughts produce preferable results. If our thoughts can affect cooked rice in this way it would be fair to assume that we similarly affect the food we eat with the thoughts we think when we are preparing i. Imagine how we might affect others by what we think of them or indeed, how we affect ourselves with the thoughts we think day in and day out over the period of our lifetime.

We called this experiment – The Changing Rice – It Pays to be Nice!!