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This is a continuation of the POP (Power of Prophecy or Problems of Prophecy) series that I am presenting, in which I am sharing some of my own experiences in that field of search. This time I am going to write about something a little different. A scientific experiment, but at the end I hope you will see the relevance. I actually conducted three series in this area, the last with government funding but at this time I will tell you only about the first two series. They are with a growth inducer and a growth retardant. I hope that you will carefully read the description of the method and see that it was a carefully controlled experiment. I, and many other hundreds of researchers, have done the same experiment and you are welcome to repeat it yourself. First came the preparation of the subjects. We bought a dozen brand new aluminum pie pans taking them out of their original plastic wrapping so that we could be sure that none of them had been contaminated. We then took bags of sterilized soil, purchased from the store, and put the soil in the pans, leveling it off at the top with the blade of a ruler so that we could be sure that every pan had the same amount of soil. Next we drew a line through the middle of the soil in each pan and took red fingernail polish and painted the edge of the pan one-half way around on one side. We used the fingernail polish so that it could not be erased or moved, and so that we could always tell which half was which half of the pan. Next, in each pan, we put from the same seed packages, of non-hybrid seeds, two types of seeds - corn and bean, about two inches apart and two inches from the rim of the pan. Because the pan was round and we measured the distance between each seed there were two longer rows toward the center with 5 seeds two inches apart then progressing outwards in each direction two other rows with 3 seeds and 2 seeds, for a total of 10 seeds on each side of the pan. If you have the picture in your mind there were six rows in the pan with a total of 20 seeds and an imaginary line down the middle between the two longest rows. This was done exactly the same with each of the 12 pans. Now we took a water sprayer and gave each of the pans the same number of squirts of water. And then we took the fingernail polish and numbered each of the twelve pans. So far as we could tell, everything was now identical. We then wrote the 12 numbers on separate identical pieces of paper, turned the papers upside down on a table and shuffled them as randomly as we could. Then we called another person into the room and asked them to randomly select 6 of the pieces of paper, and the numbers of the pans on those pieces of paper we put in the control group. Next we took two chess pawns, one black and one white, shook them behind and held out two hands, each one containing a pawn and saying which ever one the person selected that is the one that would receive the growth retardant. (They happened to select the dark one and so the red side of the pans with the fingernail polish received the retardant and the other side received the inducer). The pans were then set on the table in front of the window, and each day they each pan received the same number of squirts of water all from the same water container and each day the pan on one end was removed and taken to the other end and all the pans were moved down one place in the row so that each would receive approximately the same angle of light throughout the experiment. The only difference was that twice each day, once in the morning and once in the evening the plants in the experiment received growth inducer on the plain side and growth retardant on the red fingernail polish painted side. The pans in the control group received nothing else than the measured squirts of water. I hope that you will agree that this was a thoroughly controlled experiment. Now let me tell you the results. Two weeks later, the 120 plants in the control group (6 pans with 20 plants) were all up one and a half to two inches tall. All healthy green looking - all very nice and even looking like a good farmer's field. The plants that had received the growth inducer were however very sickly. Only about half had come up at all. Some of these had actually turned down and grown back down into the soil. The plants that had received the growth retardant were, however, all there. Tall gangly and strange looking. Some over four inches tall - much taller than the control group. What can we conclude from this experiment? Think about it. That the growth inducer and the growth retardant had become mixed up? That each side had received the opposite of what we intended? This may all seem very off topic, but let me assure you that it isn't. The reason will be given in my next essay. I would just like you to take a moment first to think about the experiment. Remember, our goal is to find, if we can, a true source of prophecy, and we have yet, many things to examine. |
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This is a continuation of the POP (Power of Prophecy or Problems of Prophecy) series that I am presenting, in which I am sharing some of my own experiences in that field of search. Now, to explain what the growth inducer and the growth retardent were (in the previous email). They were prayer. Yes, that is correct - PRAYER. The plain side had received nothing else except prayer for its growth and the red side nothing else except prayer that it would not grow. If you find this latter strange, please do remember that Jesus cursed the fig tree and that it withered. And that such a prayer could be very effective against cancer, plagues of locusts and such. But no matter, the experiment did go strangely, (the side receiving the prayer for growth - withering, and the side receiving the opposite - growing astoundingly strange). and later I shall explain to you why. As I have said, these experiments, of the Power of Prayer on Plants, (there is a book by that name) have been conducted at Red Stone University, and elsewhere (I think perhaps Duke) and I know at the University of Wichita, because I later did them there myself. The experiments have been thoroughly controlled and there is no statistical possibility that the results are attributable soley to chance. POP this time stood for the Power of Prayer on plants, but we shall get around to the relationship between prayer and prophecy. My interest in prayer had been long standing. I am a class taught student of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College which is the training received by Christian Science Practitioners. I had already served as a volunteer War Time Minister, and although I am no longer a Christian Scientist I still have a deep respect for its teachings and can give many testimonies to its effects. Thus it was, at that time, I approached the Botany Department at the University of Wichita and asked permission to repeat my experiments there. I was granted use of the entire green house, and with the aid of the Department Chairman undertook the experiments on a much grander scale. We emptied and scrubbed the green house. New flats were obtained along with wheel barrows of sterilized soil. The Chairman insisted that we use hybrid seeds known for their consistent response and even growth. A planting device was devised to assure that all were planted at the exact same depth. A more accurate watering method was stipulated, and so forth. I won't go into the details, but the end result was that we had rows and rows and rows of the most evenly grown plants that one might imagine. To my mind the outcome was the result of the exact same cause that had contributed to the reversed results in the first experiment. What in Christian Science is called mental malpractice. I won't go into all the philosophical details, but there is good reason that Jesus said, "That whatsoever ye ask for secretly will be awarded to you openly." Similar results had been reported in the Redstone experiments. What I think happened in the first case was that my former wife, who was quite distraught with me at the time, was present with the plants on the table all day long, and she was quite aggravated with me, them, and the experiment, and consequently the inverted result, as with much else in my life at that time. In the University green house, many people made the trip down to the green house, having heard about the experiment, to laugh about it. Their cumulative mental influence and trust in the power of hybrid seeds far exceeded mine. Probably the world's most even crop ever. Miracles are only miracles to the person for whom they occur. If by a miracle we mean the repudiation of natural law, there is no such thing, but rather there is application of supranatural (not supernatural) law. Jesus said that if you have the faith of a mustard seed you can move mountains, but if one claimed this faith to a non-believer and they asked you to prove it, and you pointed at a mountain and prayed and it jumped into the sea they would simply say,
Even my grandchildren pray with more direct desire than I do. And I think that is well. When I have gone to Christian Science practitioners for help it has been immediately forthcoming for health problems and all sorts of other problems. On two occasions I was so broke that I had not eaten for 3 days. Both times I immediately received more affluence than I had previously had in my life. On the one occasion the next morning. A very dramatic story, but I won't tell it and on the other some the next day but within two weeks I had in my pocket over fifty million dollars. Literally. A cashier's check for $50 million dollars, plus a one hundred dollar bill that I took and placed with it, so that I could say that I had over $50 million dollars in my pocket at one time. There are MANY other things that I could tell you about, but once again miracles are only miracles to those to whom they happen. And I don't like relying upon Christian Science practitioners. It is sort of like relying upon the Ouiji Board. It works. But we don't need it. We are supposed to walk these journey's on our own. Not that I am saying it is not good to pray with others, and to ask others for help with prayer when you need it, because that is a very good thing to do. But what I am saying is that I don't have it anywhere nearly all figured out as yet. More to come. And it all does tie into the subject of prophecy - eventually. |
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