Does a Watched Pot Never Boil?

Does your friend turn up just as you have given up waiting and are ready to leave?

And does that bus always come just as you light up a cigarette (we are not condoning smoking!)?

Quantum physics says YES! Our minds influence the action of inanimate objects around us. The book ‘The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls’ explains…

“Another recent quantum physics experiment suggests that it may indeed be possible for the human mind to communicate directly with inanimate objects, at least at the level of sub-atomic levels.

It involved the scientists watching some 5,000 beryllium atoms confined in a magnetic field and then exposed to radio waves of energy. To help us understand this experiment Dr. Fred Alan Wolf uses the analogy of watching a pot of water as you bring it to boil. The more often scientists observed this process, the longer it took for the beryllium atoms to ‘boil’. This effect could not be explained by ‘looking’ – which was done by means of a laser beam – as this actually added energy to the system, thus heating the atoms up rather than cooling them down. According to Dr Wolf, the results were caused by ‘the observer effect’. The observer effect says that ‘the more a quantum mechanical system is observed in a particular state, the more likely it is that it will remain in that state”.

According to Dr Wolf, what really matters is the intent of the observer. For the object or system to remain in its initial state, the observer must have the intent of seeing it in its initial state. If, on the other hand, the observer intends to see the pot boiling, it will boil.

Whilst Dr Wolf does point out that it is important to realize that ‘intent’ is distinct from ‘intention’ or mere expectation, in that the appropriate action must also be involved, the important thing here was that it had now been experimentally proven that the working of the human mind can have a direct effect on the behaviour of the sub-atomic particles, or ‘quantum systems’. And so some sort of interaction or communication is possible between inanimate objects and the human mind. Our thoughts are capable of influencing the things around us.

It seems that the atoms themselves are, in some way, ‘aware’ that they are being observed and change their condition or behaviour accordingly. This phenomenon suggests that even sub-atomic particles have some kind of ‘consciousness’ or sense of ‘awareness’ of what is going on around.

Bronwen and Frans Stiene

Bronwen and Frans Stiene are the co-founders of the International House of Reiki and co-authors of The Reiki Sourcebook, The Japanese Art of Reiki, Your Reiki Treatment, The A-Z of Reiki Pocketbook and the Reiki Techniques Card Deck. Bronwen and Frans teach in the USA, Europe and Australia. Visit the Courses page to find a course near you.