McFarland 1

Effect of Thought

on Matter
A Research Paper
Shelly McFarland

Mary Barth

LIBT212

30 November 2009

Effect of Thought on Matter

In a world filled with opposing and contradictory views on so many subjects,

there are two areas in which the sides are beginning to amalgamate, they

are science and metaphysics. Each subject is vast on its own and neither will

be fully explained in this paper. The mere attempt to accurately define the

two subjects creates plenty of debate. The focus here is to bring together

and explore the work of sources from the fields of science and who, via

science, are attempting to show a direct correlation between thought and

matter. Included in this focus are sources considered less scientific or even

unscientific who have expressed thoughts and ideas that are being

reevaluated and reinforced within the different branches of science, and

which seem support the link between thought and belief on physical matter.

I will begin with a quote from Hindu Prince Gautama Siddhartha, also

known as Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, who lived from 563-483 B.C.,
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“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is

everything. What we think we become.” This quote demonstrates a knowing,

or a belief by Buddha that we can assess the state of our lives and make

changes, or not, via adjustments to our thoughts.

In 1900, in his book titled As A Man Thinketh, James Allen wrote “The

body is the servant of the mind. It obeys the operations of the mind, whether

they be deliberately chosen or automatically expressed” (39). This is not a

scientific book and yet it’s written in an authoritative or knowing way.

In the early 1960’s, a writer named Jane Roberts began writing a series

of books that are collectively known as the Seth Material, (which also

happens to be the title of one of the books). Seth is a spirit, or entity, who

dictated these books via a method known as channeling (New Awareness

Network, Inc.). A theme and a popular phrase from the Seth Material is that

we “create our own reality”. Seth explains in many ways throughout the

books that we literally create matter, which includes our bodies, and all that

we see and experience in the physical world with our known senses. Here is

just one quote from Seth’s assertions: “You are not a forsaken offshoot of

physical matter, nor is your consciousness meant to vanish like a puff of

smoke. Instead, you form the physical body that you know at a deeply

unconscious level with great discrimination, miraculous clarity, and intimate

unconscious knowledge of each minute cell that composes it. This is not

meant symbolically” (Seth 8-9).

 By what has been presented thus far in this paper, we can see that

there is a sense in the non-scientific world that thoughts have a measurable

impact our bodies and our ways of being.

Now let’s explore the scientific evidence of the effect of thought on

matter. In the book, Bridging Science and Spirit, Norman Friedman takes on

the task of knitting common elements of David Bohm’s physics with material

given by Seth specifically regarding the creation of reality (229).

Dean Radin, Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and

Roger Nelson, director of the Global Consciousness Project (GCP), an

international, multi-laboratory collaboration founded in 1997 to study

collective consciousness, have done an analysis of mind-matter interaction

experiments from 1959 to 2000 in which they conclude in part that,

"...experiments conducted by 91 researchers over a span of 41 years

indicates the presence of a small magnitude, but statistically highly

significant and repeatable mind- matter interaction effect” (Radin, Nelson).

One of Radin’s experiments conducted in 1991 exhibited that mental

intention could manipulate the way dice will fall (Radin, Ferrari).

A more recent and well-known example, because of its inclusion in the

movie What the Bleep Do We Know, of scientific experiments indicating that

thoughts changed the formation of water crystals are the studies conducted

by Dr. Masaru Emoto of Japan (Emoto).

Dr. Bruce Lipton, a molecular biologist, has made new and incredible

discoveries that indicate, via experiments conducted at the cellular level,

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that when we change our perceptions we can become masters of our bodies

by guiding and governing our own genes (Lipton).

This paper is merely a snippet of the available information to be culled

and collected in the service of bridging science and metaphysics. However, it

does lead one to conclude that there is definitely evidence to support that

claim that thought does indeed effect matter.

 Works Cited

Allen, James. As A Man Thinketh. Chicago: M.A. Donohue & Company, 1900.

Print.

Emoto, Masaru. Healing With Water. The Journal of Alternative and

Complementary

Medicine 10.1 (Feb. 2004): n. pag. Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., Web. 5 Dec.

2009.

Friedman, Norman. Bridging Science and Spirit: Common Elements in David

Bohm's Physics, The

Perennial Philosophy and Seth. Eugene: The Woodbridge Group, 1990.

Print.

Lipton, Bruce. The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness,

Matter, & Miracles.

Santa Rosa: Mountain of Love/Elite Books, 2005. Print.

New Awareness Network, Inc., “Who Is Seth?” SethLearningCenter.com. N.p.

2005.

Web. 3 Dec. 2009.

Radin, Dean, and Diane Ferrari. “Effects of Consciousness on the Fall of Dice:

A Meta-Analysis”.

Journal of Scientific Exploration 5.1 (1991): n. pag. Web. 3 Dec. 2009.

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Radin, Dean, and Roger Nelson. Meta-analysis of mind-matter interaction

experiments: 1959

to 2000. Boundary Institute, 4 Dec. 2000. Web. 3 Dec. 2009.

Seth, and Jane Roberts. Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul.

Englewood Cliffs:

Prentice-Hall Inc., 1972. Print.