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Report: Field Study of an Enhancement Effect on Lettuce Seeds: Working In Adverse Conditions by S. M. Roney-Dougal, Ph.D. & J. Solfvin, Ph.D.
During the years 2000-2002, research on organic farms looked at the effect of a healer on lettuce seeds. The basic hypotheses were that the healer would enhance the seeds to produce greater yield and greater health. The first year found a significant result for the second hypothesis, as measured by looking at the fungal damage. The second year 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. Organic farmers are working under conditions of immense stress, working very long hours, especially during the summer season. For various reasons, in 2001 trials 6 and 7 were not planted out until long after they had become pot-bound. The delay in planting 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 the end trial 6 were harvested after they had been frosted just so that some data could be collected, but with no benefit to the farm. In 2002 the research took 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, which yields t(11) = -2.24 and two-tailed p = 0.046. The net weight was also significant, with rank = 1.92, t(11) = -2.55 and two-tailed p = 0.027. 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, which had average rank of 1.83, and t(11) = -2.77, for two-tailed p = 0.018. The two trials in 2002 yielded nine experimental vs. control 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 (t(8) = 1.97, p = .042, one-tailed). The six control experiments (NH v. controls) yield average effect size r = -0.02 (sd = .26), which is not significantly different from zero (t(5) = -0.20, p = 0.43, one-tailed). 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.
KEYWORDS: Parapsychology, psychic healer, large scale field trial
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