Infrared Spectra Alteration in Water Proximate to the Palms of Therapeutic Practitioners
📄 Original study ↗📌 Appears in:
Plain English Summary
Can healing practitioners physically change water just by holding their hands near it? This pilot study tested that wild-sounding question rigorously. Fourteen practitioners held sealed, sterile water vials near their palms during healing sessions, then researchers analyzed the water using infrared spectroscopy — a technique that reveals changes in chemical bonding by measuring how molecules absorb light. The results were striking: treated water showed significantly different O-H bonding patterns compared to untouched controls, with odds against chance of roughly 2,500 to 1. All three exposure durations individually produced significant effects, though curiously longer exposure didn't mean bigger changes. Actively practicing healers showed stronger effects than those who'd stepped away from practice. Temperature and air pressure were ruled out as explanations. One puzzling wrinkle: some control vials in the same room also changed, raising the tantalizing possibility the effect spreads beyond direct proximity — or that researchers themselves were influencing the water.
Research Notes
One of the few healing intention studies using an objective physical (non-biological) dependent variable. Replicates earlier work by Grad (1965) and Dean & Brame (1975) on water intention effects. Data likely collected in the 1980s based on equipment vintage and co-author Brame noted as deceased. Part of the water-intention research line with schwartz_2019_water and yu_2024_effects. First author is Stephan A. Schwartz (Saybrook/Mobius, remote viewing researcher), not Gary E.R. Schwartz (University of Arizona) — catalog previously misattributed. Session control contamination is a key methodological issue.
Pilot study testing whether sealed sterile water vials held proximate to the palms of 14 therapeutic practitioners during healing sessions with recipients show measurable IR spectral changes. Using attenuated total reflection IR spectrophotometry with a JANOS MIR unit (25 reflections), the O-H bonding ratio (3350 cm⁻¹ / 3620 cm⁻¹) was measured. With zinc selenide IRE: Treated vs calibration controls z = 3.54, P = .0004; all three exposure durations (5, 10, 15 min) individually significant. However, no dose-response relationship was found. Practicing practitioners showed more robust effects (P = .001) than Non-practicing (P = .04). Temperature, barometric pressure, and sampling order were examined as artifacts and did not explain the results. Some session controls were also affected, raising questions about proximity effects or researcher influence.
Links
Related Papers
Same Paradigm
- Effects of Distant Intention on Water Crystal Formation: A Triple-Blind Replication — Radin, Dean (2008)
- Effects of Intentionally-Treated Water on Cell Migration of Human Glioblastoma Cells — Yu, Chang-Tze Ricky (2024)
- Compassionate Intention as a Therapeutic Intervention by Partners of Cancer Patients: Effects of Distant Intention on the Patients’ Autonomic Nervous System — Radin, Dean (2008)
- Alterations in Random Event Measures Associated with a Healing Practice — Crawford, Cindy C (2003)
Same Research Program
- The Location and Reconstruction of a Byzantine Structure in Marea, Egypt, Including a Comparison of Electronic Remote Sensing and Remote Viewing — Schwartz, Stephan A (2019)
- Nonlocality, Intention, and Observer Effects in Healing Studies: Laying a Foundation for the Future — Schwartz, Stephan A (2010)
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📋 Cite this paper
Schwartz, Stephan A, De Mattei, Randall J, Brame, Edward G. Jr, Spottiswoode, S. James P (2015). Infrared Spectra Alteration in Water Proximate to the Palms of Therapeutic Practitioners. Explore. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2014.12.008
@article{schwartz_2015_infrared,
title = {Infrared Spectra Alteration in Water Proximate to the Palms of Therapeutic Practitioners},
author = {Schwartz, Stephan A and De Mattei, Randall J and Brame, Edward G. Jr and Spottiswoode, S. James P},
year = {2015},
journal = {Explore},
doi = {10.1016/j.explore.2014.12.008},
}