My son and I tried this experiment over a decade ago while he was in primary school. We have just tried it again, 13 years later with the same results. Each time, “love” jar forms a clear liquid at the bottom after a few weeks. Whereas the control jar goes all moldy. Astonishes me every time!
Try this simple experiment in your own kitchen. I would love to know if you get the same results.
How to do this experiment
The best time is straight after breakfast or whenevr you have leftover porridge, cooked oats or cooked rice.
In preparation, sterilize two glass jars by boiling them in a pot of water for 5 minutes. Then put some identical cooked oats porridge or rice into each jar and label them, and place both jars in the fridge. Then every day, or every other day, take out the one and say to it, “I love you. Thank you.” Just ignore and leave the other in the fridge or, if you have the stomach for it, take the second jar out of the fridge occasionally and say to it: “I hate you. You are awful!” (This time round, we mostly ignored the second jar and gave positive attention every few days to the other.) Compare the differences as the weeks pass.
As you can see from the images above and below, taken more than a month after first starting the experiment, we saw a huge difference in the 2 jars! ( The jar that got positive attention did not go moldy and over time developed a clear liquid at the bottom of the jar. The other jar did go moldy and the liquid was orange. Both times we tried this experiment we used cooked oats porridge and got the same results. This time we mostly just ignoring the 2nd jar instead of saying negative things to it.) I would like to hear back from anyone else who tries this experiment.
Attention as a creative act
The consequences if this experiment are profound. We have way more creative impact on ourselves and others than we realize. Puts another whole spin on judgement of self or others…
All these images were taken about a month after the identical oats porridge was placed into two sterilized jars
a closer look at the back of the “I love you” jar after one month.
A closer look at the “I hate you” jar contents after one month.
Back of both jars for closer comparison.