She told me that both jars contained rice and that she had labeled one with positive and good thoughts and the other with negative thoughts. The first week she put the rice in, she would open the jars and talk to them. To the jar with the positive label she would say things like: "You are beautiful" "I love you" "You make me happy" "You are so smart".
To the jar with the negative label she would say things like: "Why are you so stupid?" "You never do anything right." "I hate you." "You are so ugly." She also said if she were having a bad day she would give the negative labeled jar dirty looks.
She sealed up the jars. This picture was taken of the jars three years later. Katie wrote, "The 'positive rice' is still white and fluffy and otherwise unchanged from the years before (other than being jostled around by moving. The 'negative rice', on the other hand, continues to deteriorate and discolor." Nasty, right?
I was amazed when I saw the jars and told my husband about it. He was...skeptical. And so we conducted our own experiment. I however did not have any jars on hand so I used brand new Rubbermaid containers. Here is a picture after two weeks:
Now unlike Katie, both of my containers eventually grew mold and they started smelling so after a couple months, I threw them away. I don't know if I didn't do the experiment right, or if the difference was in using the Rubbermaid containers instead of glass jars or if I was because I kept in my laundry room where it is quite humid, but Katie has documented pictures over the last three years of her rice.
HOWEVER, it was clear to me that the one I labeled hate and spoke unkindly to had significantly more mold and rot and developed it much faster than the one I labeled Love and spoke kindly too.
The thought I had yesterday after my last post was, "What if the unkind words we say to ourselves are literally causing our bodies to break down." When I berate myself for making mistakes or not measuring up...am I hurting my body?
From our experiment I have tried to be much more careful about what I say to myself and to others. We can be a positive influence or a negative one. The choice is ours.
If this is interesting to you, I would invite you to participate in the rice experiment. (Do a google search to see more.) If you do try it, I would be very interested in your results, so let me know!
