L McTaggart and the Intention Experiment

[nantucketsunset]

I did a search for Lynne McTaggart here on this Forum and didn't get any hits - has anyone read this new book she has written called the "Intention Experiment" or her previous book, The Field (or the Living Field or Living the Field or something similar)?

She's now doing global experiments with her readers on scientifically proving that thought intentions can have effects in real life, something along the lines of the prayer experiments on bacteria/viruses, and remotely changing temperatures in a certain location, and that kind of thing. Apparently the global experiments are being done with reputed scientists (Popp and the guy from Arizona) and they are also having a conference in London in two weeks' time about this topic.

I don't know anything about it - never read the books, won't be going to the conference - but I have seen the website and I have read the forum there [which has about 15 contributors and 15 threads, a far cry from this forum :-) :-) ]

As a scientifically-minded, logical, agnostic sort of person, I do like the more experimentally-based sorts of explanations of this kind of IM phenomenon.

I am toying with getting her new book but am not sure -- does anyone recommend it?

[dor]

I am telling myself NO MORE self help books -I have enough and i need to better absorb the ones i have but this one intrigues me

[nantucketsunset]

I'm truly an outsider to all of this, but I'm just wondering if there are "cliques" in the IM / Conscious Creation / Cosmic Ordering / all the other names that are used to describe this idea World?

Few have looked at my post even though it's sitting smack dab in the middle of a forum space devoted to its topic, and I'm wondering if it's because the author of this book is British or maybe she is on the "outs" with the Secret panelists, etc., or maybe she is not respected, or something. I have no idea about her - I don't know anything about her except for reading her website the other day, so it's not as if I'm sticking up for her slice of the IM pie.

There must be different groups who are promoting these ideas in this new marketing explosion of them - the old school, the partly irrelevant (i.e. John Grey in the Secret talking about mars & venus), the independent ones, the hangers-on, the jumpers on the bandwagon.

And what happened with the Hicks and the Secret movie? The Secret movie that I saw just for the first time the other day had Mrs Hicks talking in it, so I am confused - they took all her comments out?

Last year, I noticed that the Secret website used to have "past masters" or whatever they called it with little bios and photos of Emerson, James, Einstein, etc. but that part of the site seems to be turned off now.

I am not trying to stir up trouble at all. Just the introverted observer in me that finds human behavior fascinating.

[JJH]

I read The Field about a year ago, and just finished The Intention Experiment last month. Both good books from a journalist rather than a self-help guru. I too was surprised no one else had brought it up here.

She takes the scientific approach to her writing and investigations ~ so it is really the closest thing to "the science behind IM" I've seen anywhere.

I can recommend both books, as I've gotten a lot of great info out of them. Not to mention more references to research further. She presents scientific information to back up what guru's and spiritual teachers have been saying sinse forever (without the science to back them up). So, if you're after a good read about the scientists experimenting with this stuff, go for it. It's all practical, repeatable experiments. If you're looking to improve your IM, you won't find much new info here.

[Pagoda]

I am halfway through The Intention Experiment now. It is a good book, but it does get technical.

It would have been great if she would of had a one paragraph synopsis of each experiment as well as the multi-page accounts that are in the book. Then the reader could have been able to choose how much detail they preferred for each chapter.

Also, she does a thorough job of explaining the procedures for the experiments, however she only gives generalities for the results of many of the experiments. Often she will say an experiment showed a significant positive result, but not say what that result was (could of been 3% more than the control group, or 80% we don't know.)

I haven't finished the book, so maybe this information is somewhere else, but it is lacking in the chapters.

I do plan on being a part of the next thought experiment she does and I will share the experience in the forums.

[JOE]

I am also about half way through the intention experiment

good book.....as was her last one THE FIELD


There was a great chapter about some french scientist who was able to replicate the power of specific drugs, just by getting their electronic signature/ audio trace or something(it has been a while since I read the first book and it is not to hand)

really interesting stuff.....sort of like electrical homeopathy

I agree it gets a bit technical at times, I too struggle to see how all the experiments actually work but presumably as McTaggart uses extensive footnotes and references, the results would be replicable or at least the experiments repeatable to others interested or skeptical about the claims

I recommend both books for anybody interested in a more scientific and mainstream take on Zero Point fields/ the matrix/ the Field/ Force/God or Universe....whatever you want to call this force that keeps popping up in all our literature

[nantucketsunset]

thanks guys, for your reviews and reactions to these books!

i completely agree that it's not enough to be fuzzy about the results of the experiments - depending on how you do it and the size of the sample, almost anything can be statistically significant.

her next thought experiment is in the middle of march. to take part, you have to buy the book (there is apparently some kind of participant code in the book) because she wants to make sure the people doing the intention experiment have made a commitment to the information.

there is something somewhere about 10,000 people taking part, but that might just be marketing hype.

i find her site to be a mixture of logical, explanatory, thoughtful information and the infomercial-scammy you've-got-to-pay-to-really-know-what-my-message-is kind of smokescreen. (this also goes for one of her other sites, "what doctors don't tell you".)

she's having an intention manifestation conference next week at Imperial College, London. i won't be going, but it's got 3 days of presentations.

[wisped]

McTaggart's book The Field was a stepping stone in the path that has led me to here, and if I hadn't read it and books like it (on quantum physics and convergence of science and spirituality) then I would probably think IM was much too airy and hard to hold on to for too long. For those working on manifesting who find doubt creeping in and getting in the way of allowing, maybe you just need some meat on the bones of your belief. Here's a big chunk to chew on:

Science, Culture and Integral Yoga :: Metaphysical implications of the quantum 'Zero Point Field'
BIG excerpt from THE FIELD


Wendy