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Positive and negative words affect fruit rotting speed

billzbub

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Jan 14, 2011
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So I was on Facebook the other day, and an aquaintence of mine shared an article where someone did an experiment with fruit. It looks like they cut an apple in half and separated them. Then they said negative things to one half for some period of time and positive things to the other half. The poor apple half that was the recipient of all the negative comments rotted much faster than the other half. The commenters were all quick to agree that positive and negative energy is very powerful.

This seems to me to be a perfect MDC claim. I wanted to check here to see if this is paranormal enough to warrant me posting a reference to the challenge on their Facebook post. It should be easy to construct a test of the claim that the applicant can affect the rotting speed of a fruit by voice.

Someday when I'm retired, I want to spend my days trolling posts like that, but for now, this is the only one.

Thanks,

Billzbub
 
I'm not sure this forum is associated with the MDC any longer.
 
Does the language matter, or is it simply tone?

Just think of the possibilities for fruit preservation. He'll be a busy guy, billzbulb!
 
Negative comments make my wife go all rotten. She's much nicer when I use the happy, upbeat voice. So I believe the story.

I like the emphasis on dividing the apple into two halves. So what if you put one half in the refrigerator so it can't hear all the nasty stuff you are saying to the half on the kitchen counter?
 
This probably isn’t good for the MDC for several reasons.

1. There may be a natural explanation for the phenomenon. A cursory Google search indicates that there have been scientific tests that indicate the introduction of sound into an environment can promote bacteria colonization. I lack sufficient knowledge of biology to determine whether sound can be reasonably expected to modify the rate fruit rotting. To be paranormal, I would think the claim would have to be limited to the types of words used and the test would have to be controlled for volume and pitch to eliminate those factors.

2. This case may not meet the standard for “media presence”. Although some people on Facebook may be fawning over the power of will to rot fruit, a single test with a single apple is hardly convincing and may not be substantial enough to warrant a MDC test. Obviously one half of an apple is probably going to deteriorate faster than the other half. That gives 50% chance that the bad-words half rots faster. While that may be convincing to some, it is not really a demonstration that something paranormal has occurred that deserves testing.

3. The MDC doesn’t work well for long and complicated tests. It isn’t a scientific research project. It is a challenge to demonstrate something paranormal under controlled conditions. There are number of factors that contribute to the rate of rotting that would have to be controlled such as air moisture, temperature, availability of bacteria, damage to the apple skin, contamination of the sliced portion of the apple, as well as gases in the air and gases given off by the rotting fruit itself that could affect nearby fruit. The good and bad words apples would obviously have to be isolated so they don’t overhear the other words. But simply putting half in one room and half in another won’t do because there are so many factors of the room that could affect rotting. So it would need multiple room or multiple trials. A test for this claim would also require a large amount of trials to establish a pattern of rotting beyond chance. This test would require many trials done over a long period of time in very carefully controlled conditions, which of course would have to be monitored. Maybe Mythbusters could do something like this (they tested plant growth under different sound conditions). This would be better suited to a scientific research study rather than a paranormal challenge. Perhaps such a study has been done—I’m sure the agriculture industry has done many studies on the causes and prevention of fruit rotting.
 
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I agree with the part about the test taking too long.

I think that the actual sound waves hitting the apples isn't even required. You could put them right next to each other in sound-proof containers. The point is that the positive or negative mental energy you are projecting at each one causes it to be healthier or not, and your mental energy can go through the soundproof container just fine. In other words, you can fully isolate each sample as long as the applicant can see them.

Also, you would have to use 20 apples instead of just 1, and for the MDC I would imagine that 15 of them would have to rot significantly faster to overcome statistical chance. I'm no statistician, but you get my meaning.

But still, your are right, it would take too long to be practical for such a thing as the MDC.

I wish I had known about skepticism in high school. I would have formed a club and we could have all done these kinds of experiments for our mandatory science fairs. Well, I have two kids in high school. Time to live vicariously through them. ;)
 
I'd say negative comments are generally louder, and require more air to be transferred over the vocal cords ... hence more bacteria from the testers mouth, would get on the fruit.
 
In the experiment I have in mind, the apple halves would be isolated from the tester (except visually) so only the tester's thoughts could influence the apples, not the sound waves or air quality.
 
billzbub,

It's been a long time since I posted this list. These are other cash prizes that do not require any media presence nor academic affidavits. They are smaller than a million dollars, but they are still good money and winning any one of them would likely open the door to the MDC. Pick whichever one your acquaintance is closest to and let them know about it.

There's the Australian Skeptics' AU$100,000 Prize
http://www.skeptics.com.au/features/prize/
They also offer AU$20,000 as a "Spotter's Fee"

There's the IIG's US$50,000 Challenge in California, USA
They now have affiliates in Atlanta, GA and Washington, DC and are developing affiliates in Denver, CO, Calgary, Canada and probably other places as well.
http://www.iigwest.org/challenge.html
They also offer US$5,000 as a "Finder's Fee"

There's the North Texas Skeptic's US$12,000 Challenge in the USA
http://www.ntskeptics.org/challenge/challenge.htm

There's Prabir Ghosh's 2,000,000 Rupee Challenge in India
http://rationalistprabir.bravehost.com/

There's the Swedish 100,000SeK prize offered by Humanisterna
http://www.humanisterna.se/kristallkulan/

The Tampa Bay Skeptics offers a US$1000 prize in Florida, USA
http://www.tampabayskeptics.org/challenges.html

In Canada there's the CAN$10,000 from the Quebec Skeptics
http://www.sceptiques.qc.ca/activites/defi

In the UK, the ASKE organization offers £14,000
http://www.aske-skeptics.org.uk/challenge_rules.htm

Tony Youens in the UK offers £5,000
http://www.tonyyouens.com/challenge.htm

In Finland, Skepsis offers 10,000 Euros
http://www.skepsis.fi/haaste/

The Fayetteville Freethinkers in Arkansas, USA offer a US$1000 prize
http://fayfreethinkers.com/

There's a 1,000,000 Yuan prize in China offered by Sima Nan. This is his blog: http://blog.sina.com.cn/simanan

The Belgian SKEPP organization offers a 10,500 Euro prize
http://www.skepp.be/prijzen/de-sisyphus-prijs/

There's a €50,000 challenge offered by Irish mentalist/magician, Keith Barry. The announcement: http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/...0-2258739.html
and his website: www.keithbarry.com/

Like I said, it's been a while since I posted this, so there might be mistakes. If you find any mistakes or broken links, or know of any tests not on this list, please notify me in this thread.

Thanks,
Ward
 
Thanks for that! Not only did I learn that such a list exists, I also learned that there's a skeptics organization in North Texas where I'm spending a lot of time on work travel lately. They are screening James Randi's movie this weekend, which unfortunately I will not be there for. :(
 
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