Update! Rice Experiment

Check 'em out! It's been, what, three weeks? The Love rice has started to deflate a little, but there is still a major difference between them.

 

This still weirds me out a little. In a good way.

Happy rice.

Sad rice.

Mildly artsy rice shot, by which I mean, "Depth and wood grain, ooh shiny!"
Seriously, though. This is cool stuff.

Truth or (is) Dare

My favorite PostSecret this week:

Such a good idea. And so, so, so intimidating. It's tempting to say all that significant stuff anonymously -- I think that was one of those fads that went around Myspace back when people used Myspace -- but that also defeats the purpose, which is connection, not merely catharsis.

There's also the issue of forcing this on people. The idea of taking connections to a deeper level sounds great in theory, but in practice, you may end up seriously stepping on some toes. (It's sort of like how not everybody likes hugs. Heck, I don't like hugs from the wrong people, and I'm a hugger. You don't want to force this kind of thing where it'll be unwelcome.)

So am I going to do this? Maybe. Not today. But if and when I do, I'll keep you posted. Till then... it's something to think about.

Supermoon/Equinox Weirdness

Last week was the full moon and spring equinox. My body noticed.

Also, I look insane in the placeholder image for this video. I'm a fan.

Rice Intention Experiment

Attempting to use my webcam... Update on the rice experiment and what's coming up next!

Rice Intention Experiment - #11

Format: Week-long experiment with option of extending.
Goal: Do Masaru Emoto's rice intention experiment. See if it works.
Goal met? THIS IS SO COOL. (That's a yes.)

So here's what happened:
I was nosing around on various unschooling blogs and happened upon The Sparkling Martins. One of the posts was on the rice intention experiment. I was fascinated and decided that, while the blog was spiffy and all, I really wanted to try this one for myself. Soooooo... I did.

The idea with the rice experiment is that you can change the state of cooked rice by sending it emotions. If you send it love, it'll stay nice; if you send it hate, it'll get moldly and gross.

• Step 1: I cooked some rice and, meanwhile, found identical containers to put it in. I got two glass jars that had recently held pasta sauce, washed them out thoroughly (like, three times thoroughly) and let them dry completely. 
• Step 2: Once the jars were dry, I wrote words on them. One jar was the Hate Jar, and I wrote the suggested words on The Sparkling Martins blog ("I hate you, you fool") on it, in addition to a bunch of my own. All negative words, like "bad," "stupid," "you suck," "derision," etc. On the inside of the Bad Jar lid I wrote "HATE." On the Love Jar, I wrote "Thank you. I love you" as well as positive words like "gratitude," "kindness," "precious," and so forth. On the inside of that jar's lid I wrote "LOVE." 
• Step 3: I put equal amounts of rice in the jars. I'd read about how sometimes the rice lower in the cooker has trapped in more heat and moisture, which can mess with your results, so I made a point of getting the rice from the same levels and alternating spoonfuls. One into Love Jar, one into Hate Jar, one into Love Jar, one into Hate Jar, and so forth. I screwed the lids on really tight (trapping plenty of steam and moisture in there). 
• Step 4: The theory is that every day you treat each jar to its emotion for 30 seconds by picking it up, feeling as much hate/love as you can, and channeling that emotion toward the jar. I do not have that sort of self-discipline. In truth, I felt a lot of hate to the Hate Jar and a lot of love to the Love Jar on the first day, then put it in a high dark cupboard and forgot about it for a few days. On about day 3, I remembered and did it again, trying to make the emotions as intense as possible. I didn't see a whole lot of results at that point. Forgot about the jars again. Then, around day 7, I remembered the jars and went to go check on them. 

I was expecting to not have any results (or, rather, for both jars to have gone moldy, as that's what moist rice is prone to do over the course of a week), particularly as I'd done a very halfway job of this experiment. Instead...

Well, check it out:



Can you see that?! The Love Jar's rice is still in good shape. It's white, it's fluffy, it's beautiful. You can see water gathering at the bottom of the jar but it's clean water. The jar looks like I put rice in there an hour ago.

The rice in the Hate Jar, on the other hand, has deflated to about half its original size. The rice on the top has turned yellow and putrid, the rice on the bottom has gotten mushy, and on the whole it looks gross.

Here are some closer-ups.

Good rice:

Bad rice:



And that's after a week with inconsistent emotioning (that's a brand-new word, in case you were wondering). I think you can draw your own conclusions about this one. But seriously... How cool is that?!

Try this:
Do what I did, or google "rice intention experiment" for tips, articles, the efforts of people trying to debunk or prove the experiment, and all sorts of other goodies.

Coming Soon...
Dunno yet... But I'll keep you posted on the next week of the rice experiment for sure! Suggestions are, as always, welcome.

Best Blog Articles I've Read Recently

I love blogs. I've been on a real blog kick the last couple of days, and here are some of the best.

Adults in Cradles from Advanced Riskology
This addresses that worrying trend of adults living with Mom and Dad until they're 30. I've noticed this a lot among my friends, and I do not understand it. I do, however, understand the fear of becoming a real adult with all the responsibilities and risks that entails, and this article covers that subject too, with directness and warmth.

"Shut Up And Call": How I Saved #175 on My Verizon Cell Phone Bill from Man vs. Debt
Great article on the power of just asking. Has lots of tips on negotiation/getting discounts/getting what you're after when you're on a customer service line. Ever-so-slightly manipulative... but if the situation ends up win/win, well, groovy.

Welcome to the Real World from The Art of Nonconformity
On why everything everyone says about "the real world" is crap. I love this blog.

Write Epic Shit from ThinkTraffic
This is one I'm still working on. I think perhaps my thoughts are insufficiently epic...? Whatever. The point is, this is an awesome article. Feel free to replace "Write" with whatever verb suits you best.

Why Your Ideal Career is Hiding From You from Everyday Bright
Confession: I think maybe I just liked this one because I haven't had a dose of solid self-help crack in a while and this felt good. Buuuut in addition to that, it had some great insights into finding a career/life path. Definitely worth a read if that's where you're at in life (or if it's where you want to be).

The Inescapable Truth of About Every Book, Guide, or Blog Post You'll Ever Read (Including This One) from Blog of Impossible Things
The main point of this article: "They don't do the work for you." Worth remembering. With that, back to real life. See ya'll later!

Great Balls of Fire - #10

Format: A couple evenings of playing around and a general plugged-in-ness for a few days.
Goal: Play around. See what happens.
Goal met? But of course.
Terms you should know:
Energy work: Using the mind and body to manipulate psychic energy. (A bit of googling should give you a better idea of this.)

So here's what happened:

This... this is spiffy.

This past week I went out of town for a wedding. The friend I was staying with and I ended up doing some energy work (same friend who worked with me in this experiment) and in addition to doing things like manifesting green lights, creating thoughtforms who made it snow, and following good vibes to dress shops, we played around with sending and receiving energy in our hands. Freaked me out a few times, to the point of my jumping back and shaking my hand around while shrieking "Oh, weird, weird, this is creepy!" Fun times.

Basically, this was the deal: We grounded and then filled our hands with balls of energy. We then melded them together (alternately, one of us would fill our hands and the other person would just try to sense that energy) and then took turns sending and receiving first colors and images. It didn't take long until I would fill my hands with yellow and then shift to dark purple, and she would say, "Yellow. No, wait, it changed. It's darker. Like... purple." We had a success rate far higher than could be explained by coincidence. Didn't figure out the numbers but we were at 90% accuracy, easy -- at least when I was the sender and she was the receiver.

Turns out I'm good at sending energy and she's good at receiving it, but not the other way around. When we switched to images it was better -- she would send an image of a piano and I would say, "Smooth. Really glossy, kind of dark" -- but still nothing like when I'd been sending and she receiving.

I found it interesting that she would be prone to receiving, as her energy is very strong and overwhelming if you're not used to it (what I would consider more aggressive/sending), and I would be good at sending, since my energy is usually calmer and more contained (passive/receiving). But it also makes sense, as she's much more open to taking in energy from outside sources and I spend most of my time trying to guard against taking in other people's unwanted energy. (Perhaps this stems from our mothers? Her mom's a calm listener, so my friend has had to learn to receive subtle signals, and my mom is sort of "BBWWAAAA!!!!!" most of the time, so I've had to learn to shut that out so as not to get flooded.)

What I learned:
This stuff is cool. I already knew that, but it's also much more powerful and obvious than I'd expected. And maybe it's all just a placebo and we're really tuning into impossibly small nonverbal cues... Whatever. I don't actually care. It works, is the bottom line, and it's fascinating.

I also learned that I have very different experiences with energy work, meditation, manifesting, etc., when I'm alone than when I'm with someone. It's not that either is better or worse, but there were some things (manifesting green lights and snow) that were easier with her help, and others (meditating, being centered) that were harder with someone else around. I'll be paying more attention to that in the future, because I suspect it's important in ways that I'm just touching on right now.

Try this:
Find someone who wants to play around with this kind of stuff with you. You've got to be able to trust them and be open with them -- just admitting that you believe in "energy" and all that New Age mumbo jumbo is enough to weird some people out, and trying to work with a die-hard skeptic is probably going to mess with your results. Get someone who's into this stuff, or at least very open towards it. Then go crazy. See what you can feel. Talk through it and follow intuition. The more you play with and practice this stuff the clearer your results get, so have fun. I strongly recommend grounding first, though -- failure to ground before you start working with this stuff can leave you grumpy (me), dizzy (my friend), light-headed, stressed, etc., so make sure you're coming from a centered place.

Coming Soon...
Spirit guides, perchance? Or tuning into elements? Or being direct with people, especially of the stranger variety? Been playing with all of these lately, so you tell me.

Images by Sea Frost, jam343, and Pink Sherbet Photography.