The Power of Words (and rice)

[Tipush]

Hi there!

Yesterday evening a I had this interesting conversation with a few neighbors of mine of a new method which they refered to as "Positive Speaking" or "The Power of Words".
The Conversation started because a local celebrity said on the radio he started practicing this "new mystical method". His teacher, asked him to start off with an experiment, which goes as follows:
1. take two jars that are simillar.
2. cook some rice.
3. put the rice into the two jars.
4. take to stickers and mark them one with the label: "crap", "bad" or something of the sort. on the other sticker write down: "Good", "sweety" or something of this sort.
5. Put the jars in the fridge.
6. this is my favorite part: every day, twice a day, take the jars out of the fridge and speak to the jars (I honestly swear i am not kidding). The jar marked "good", should be petted and spoken nicely to. The other jar you should mock, yell at and so on.

Now: The method, in order to proove the fact that words have powers, says that after a week, the "good" rice will still be white, while the "bad" rice will change color and rot.

Please, debunk this nonsence.... My thoughts on the matter were that the "bad rice where put in a bad location in the fridge (near the door, or infront) while the bad rice is put in the back or a safer place.
If I won't find the answer soon, next week I will have a neighborhood full of people talking to jars of rice...


Thanks,

Tipush

[Normal Dude]

A good way to debunk this, without insulting your neighbors, is to do the experiment yourself and then tell them the results.
Also, not exactly a peer-reviewed article, but if your neighbors like Mythbusters you can always point out that they did an experiment of this nature (not rice though) as well - you can guess what the result was.

ETA: Mythbusters found it was "plausible", but did not confirm it, and that was regarding plant growth; not killing rice. Of course the show is for entertainment and is not strictly scientific.
This is just something I dredged up on Google: http://river.clarion.edu/statgrassexps/Greenaway.html
Not exactly thorough, but there you go.

[Tipush]

I am not sure I will try this at home (my boyfriend will go mad once having that thing in the fridge). I don't know myth busters, is it a tv show?

[SezMe]

A good way to debunk this, without insulting your neighbors, is to do the experiment yourself and then tell them the results.
Not really. If her neighbors are really into this woo, they will just reject her findings as being biased if the results (as they will) don't match their expectations.

I think a better approach would be to say to all the neighbors something like, "Hey, this is cool. Let's try it ourselves" then set up a simple experiment whose outcome will demonstate the woo to the very people who claim it to be true.

[c4ts]

Feed your friends the rice and ask them which came from which jar before you show them. Better yet, give all your jars the same label and the same treatment before you serve it, and tell them it came from a good and a bad jar.

[fishbait]

I am not sure I will try this at home (my boyfriend will go mad once having that thing in the fridge).You're asking forum members to "please debunk this", but you're not willing to do a simple experiment?

I just lost interest in this thread.

Welcome to the forum. Your OP was interesting and well written, but....

[Tipush]

You're asking forum members to "please debunk this", but you're not willing to do a simple experiment?

I just lost interest in this thread.

Welcome to the forum. Your OP was interesting and well written, but....

It's not the fact that I am "not willing" to do the experiment myself as much as:
1. My boyfriend has a terrible problem with things "living" in the fridge. He tends to throw stuff out and thinks I am insane for willing to try it (I've discussed it with him before).
2. I am assuming that If I do decide to do the experiment and it does proof this is woo (which it obviously will), they will claim that I've "done it worng" or "don't believe in it enough".
3. I was wondering if someone had heard of this before, debunked it before etc, googling wasn't too successful "talking to rice" (alot of Condi Rice references) or "talking to plants" (which brought up all sorts of stuff but nothing i can use).

I did not ask anyone to do this "for me" i was just wondering if anyone had anything which might make it easier (link etc).

I apologize if i made the wrong impression.

Feed your friends the rice and ask them which came from which jar before you show them. Better yet, give all your jars the same label and the same treatment before you serve it, and tell them it came from a good and a bad jar.

lol, would you eat rice that you thought was sitting in the fridge for over a week? I'm sure I wouldn't. I think they won't either.


Thanks,

Tipush

[fromdownunder]

I would seriously suggest that 7 day old rice, even if cooked properly, cooled quickly and correctly, and kept properly at under 4 degrees for seven days would all be "bad rice", no matter how nice you talked to it, and would have the potential to cause serious food poisoning.

Those cute little bacteria (Bacillus cereus) just love rice, especially if it not stored correctly.

I reheat rice a maximum of one day after I cook it. If I intend to keep it any longer I freeze it, and am very careful in re-heating.

Norm

[Tipush]

OK, found the summery for this "Myth Busters" show which states:

Seven small greenhouses were set up on the M5 Industries roof. Four were set up with stereos playing endlessly looping recordings (as having the Mythbusters actually talk to the plants could contaminate the samples with their expelled carbon dioxide): Two of negative speech, two of positive speech (Kari and Scottie each made one positive and one negative soundtrack), a fifth with classical music and a sixth with intense death metal music. A seventh greenhouse, used as a control sample, had no stereo. The greenhouses with the recordings of speech grew better than the control, regardless of whether such talk was kind or angry. The plants in the greenhouse with the recording of classical music grew better, while the plants in the greenhouse with the recording of intense death metal grew best of all.

I will try to find a recording of that show, I think this is hardly enough.

[Tipush]

OK, found the summery for this "Myth Busters" show which states:




Seven small greenhouses were set up on the M5 Industries roof. Four were set up with stereos playing endlessly looping recordings (as having the Mythbusters actually talk to the plants could contaminate the samples with their expelled carbon dioxide): Two of negative speech, two of positive speech (Kari and Scottie each made one positive and one negative soundtrack), a fifth with classical music and a sixth with intense death metal music. A seventh greenhouse, used as a control sample, had no stereo. The greenhouses with the recordings of speech grew better than the control, regardless of whether such talk was kind or angry. The plants in the greenhouse with the recording of classical music grew better, while the plants in the greenhouse with the recording of intense death metal grew best of all.

.

This is hardly enough though, I am afraid. Still looking for more references if available. Will update, if anyone interested. :)


Thanks,

Tipush

[SezMe]

Tipush, whatever the outcome, I like your style. Dig. Find facts. Investigate. Your skeptic-fu will serve you well.

[fishbait]

I did not ask anyone to do this "for me" i was just wondering if anyone had anything which might make it easier (link etc).

I apologize if i made the wrong impression.OK. I was wrong in assuming you didn't make an effort to research this.

Here is a page (http://www.life-enthusiast.com/twilight/research_emoto.htm)from a guy who talks to water:From Mr. Emoto's work we are provided with factual evidence, that human vibrational energy, thoughts, words, ideas and music, affect the molecular structure of water, the very same water that comprises over seventy percent of a mature human body and covers the same amount of our planet.

Here is a page debunking it (http://www.beliefnet.com/story/187/story_18725_1.html):Masaru Emoto notes that "sometimes fantasy is the best way to get a clear picture of reality." Sorry, not where science is concerned.

Not rice, but the idea is the same. This idea seems to have come from the goofy woo film "What the Bleep Do We Know?"

[Cuddles]

Hmm, mood rice. Can we pour it in the statue of liberty and use it to fight ghosts?

[fishbait]

I did some further Goog-a-boogling and found an article about the very experiment you are asking about. (http://www.nbc10.com/news/5476558/detail.html)Indeed, Matsuro Emoto, the water guy mentioned in my previous post is the rice guy as well. So, we're hot on the trail!This experiment is based on a picture of Emoto's work summarized in his book "Messages in Water." Emoto found that the rice that was told "thank you" was nearly fermented and had a nice, mellow, malted-rice aroma.

The other bowl of rice that was told, "you fool," turned black, became rotten and smelled disgusting.:boggled:

So, we have a source for this specific experiment and a source debunking it (cited in my previous post).

I hope this is helpful.

I'll see if I can find some additional debunking sources.

[fishbait]

Tipush,

Matsuro is the guy behind all this. I found tons of stuff on him with Google.

Also, enter Matsuro Emoto into the JREF Forum search function and you will find loads of debunking stuff there with lots of links.

I have to go talk to my coffee pot now.

Happy debunking!:D

[fishbait]

More Emoto.

Randi challanged him to take the MDC in the May 23, 2003 commentary (http://www.randi.org/jr/052303.html).If Dr. Emoto wants to win the prize, let him agree to perform his tests in a double-blind fashion, and I predict he'll get fuzzy results that prove nothing.

If you want to get up close and personal with Dr. Emoto, sign up for the floating woo asylum. (http://www.oceanofgratitudecruise.com/)Bask in the warmth of Conscious ConversationsIndeed. Unconscious conversations have a very low basking factor.

[Tipush]

Thanks alot :)

Still looking into it. I will start the experiment this weekend (been a hectic week). I will take pictures and post it once I am done, Still have to finish the jar of pickles (it has to be matching jars)....


So if anyone wants free pickles, tell me ;)

[Tipush]

I would seriously suggest that 7 day old rice, even if cooked properly, cooled quickly and correctly, and kept properly at under 4 degrees for seven days would all be "bad rice", no matter how nice you talked to it, and would have the potential to cause serious food poisoning.

Those cute little bacteria (Bacillus cereus) just love rice, especially if it not stored correctly.

I reheat rice a maximum of one day after I cook it. If I intend to keep it any longer I freeze it, and am very careful in re-heating.

Norm

I couldn't agree more

[yairhol]

Tipush, who is that celebrity person doing the woo?
Regards,
Yair

[Old man]

Thanks alot :)

Still looking into it. I will start the experiment this weekend (been a hectic week). Tipush, doing this 'experiment' with only one repetition of each treatment will be a waste of time. The two jars will decompose at different rates. Even if YOU find that your ‘pampered’ jar rots faster, other people will have the opposite happen, and you’ll have ‘proved’ nothing.

Look up some info on the scientific method, and pay particular attention to discussions of why we do multiple ‘repetitions’ of each treatment.

I suggest that you do at least four reps of each treatment, and I’d also include a control treatment that is handled the same as the other two treatments, but doesn’t get spoken to at all.

Just a humble opinion, from someone who’s been involved with replicated trials for over 30 years.

[Tipush]

Tipush, who is that celebrity person doing the woo?




The local celeb is Avri Gilad. He also wrote about the experiment in "The marker cafe"
http://cafe.themarker.com/view.php?u=4

Yair, I am still trying to live with the fact that Israel and Woo are practically synonyms.



I suggest that you do at least four reps of each treatment, and I’d also include a control treatment that is handled the same as the other two treatments, but doesn’t get spoken to at all.

Just a humble opinion, from someone who’s been involved with replicated trials for over 30 years.

I couldn't agree more and thought of that already :)
I was thinking of having 4 jars and 2 different kinds of rice. I think i will just go for the 4+1 jars. still need one more jar, I am still working on that :)

Thank you,

Tip-Tipush

[yairhol]

Tip-Tipush, I can't find his blog. Are you sure it's where you directed me to?
How can I search for it?
damn, blogs are stupid.

Regards,
Yair - King of all people who are TipTipa TipTipush

[yairhol]

Just found his stupid blog.
Wow, what crap.

Tipush, if you are subscribed to cafe the marker please add a comment to his blog saying he can win $1M if he can show this experiment works in a double blind test in a controlled environment. Then he can stop being on his stupid T.V. show although I do like him on the radio.

Regards,
Yair - king of ....

[Tipush]

Sorry Yair, I am not subscribed to that BS. That neighbour of mine is.
I am tempted to subscribe and post. On the other hand, I have better things to do than start a flame- war with him and his fans.

If you are worried about the TV show, just do what I did and throw your TV away. Trust me, it works ;-)

[phildonnia]

I would seriously suggest that 7 day old rice, even if cooked properly, cooled quickly and correctly, and kept properly at under 4 degrees for seven days would all be "bad rice", no matter how nice you talked to it, ...

I've found that old rice stored in a dry refrigerator is best for making fried rice. So much so that if I plan to make fried rice, I'll cook the rice a couple of days ahead of time to let it age.

I never thought of saying mean things to it, but perhaps this would help accelerate the process. I wonder what phrases rice might find particularly insulting?

[777]

Just tell your neighbor: I didn't know rice understood English.