Background: Johrei, a noncontact healing therapy that purportedly channels "universal energy", is an easily taught technique with numerous positive reports of healing in human trials. However, studies on humans have been limited by small sample sizes, the placebo effect and baseline differences between groups. Overcoming some of these limitations, this study evaluated the effect of Johrei on the physiological potential of lettuce seeds.
Methods: Lettuce seeds were subjected to thermal stress and then treated with Johrei before and after two years of storage. The seedling emergence percentage, emergence speed index, classification score, percentage of viable seedlings and root and shoot dry mass of the treated seeds were determined.
Results: Stress-treated seeds treated with Johrei had a greater seedling emergence percentage than those not treated with Johrei (p<0.0001). Johrei also resulted in a greater emergence speed index (p<0.0001), a higher percentage of viable seedlings with higher classification score (p<0.0001) and greater root and shoot dry mass regardless of the storage duration (p<0.0001).
Conclusions: Johrei effectively preserved lettuce seed health, and the efficacy of Johrei can be assessed by evaluating its effects on the physiological potential of stress-treated seeds. Using live plants allows the influence of Johrei to be evaluated without interference from the placebo effect. Future studies should evaluate the influence of Johrei in primary aging processes in plants, such as cellular respiration by mitochondrial analysis, to gain insight into Johrei's mechanisms of action and enable inferences regarding similar cellular-level processes that occur in humans.
Keywords: Complementary alternative treatment; Johrei; Mokichi Okada; Placebo effect; Seeds; Universal energy.
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