It started with seeds. Not just any seeds—barley seeds. One hundred and forty of them, to be exact.

In a lab at the University of Arizona, a scientist carefully divided the seeds into four equal groups labeled A, B, C, and D. A photo of each group was then sent to an audience of 600 volunteers—located 850 miles away in Australia.

On the opposite side of the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of people had gathered to test the power of intention. One group of seeds at random. Then, Lynne McTaggart, the event organizer, stepped up to the microphone. With an image of the chosen seed group projected on the screen behind her, she led a ten-minute intention session.

The audience silently focused on this statement: “My intention is for all the seeds in the target group to sprout at least three centimeters by the fourth day of growing.”

After the session, researchers at the lab planted all four groups—without knowing which seeds had been the focus of the intention. Five days later, the seedlings were unearthed and measured.

The experiment was repeated six times, with different audiences in various locations. Each time, the seeds that received intention grew significantly more than the seeds in the other groups. The results were statistically significant, making random chance an unlikely explanation.

 

From Seedlings to St. Louis

Inspired by the results, McTaggart launched a series of peace intention experiments. In one such experiment, volunteers focused on reducing violent crime in the Fairground neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri—one of the most dangerous areas in the United States.

Dr. Jessica Utts, a respected statistician from the University of California, was brought in to analyze the data. In this short video clip, she shares what happened next.

McTaggart began teaching workshops on the power of intention. As described in her book, The Power of Eight, she organized workshop participants into small groups—about eight people each—who would spend ten minutes focusing healing intention on one of the group's members.

The results were extraordinary. Not only did the recipients report physical and emotional healing, but the intention senders also experienced benefits—such as relief from chronic pain and the mending of severed relationships.

Today there are innumerable Power of Eight intention groups around the world. I joined a group in 2022 and we are still going strong.