By the time you read this I will be in the Rioja district of Spain, with the attendees of our Spanish retreat. One of the areas we’ll be working on is the power of ‘conditioned’ spaces to supersize the Power of Eight® groups, which is why we are holding the event in two former monasteries, now converted into lovely hotels.

The idea of ‘conditioned space’ was first explored by former Princeton University psychologist Dr Roger Nelson at sacred sites. Nelson was intrigued by these sacred spaces and whether their special purpose, or even some inherent quality about the site, had ‘charged’ the space with an energetic resonance that might register on a random event generator machine.
He had run a number of experiments suggesting that a ‘field consciousness’ in a highly charged atmosphere, such as an intense gathering, affected the machines and made them more ‘ordered’. He carried around a portable REG, to register any changes in the randomness in the ambient field at various sites: Wounded Knee, the site of the massacre of an entire Sioux tribe; Devil’s Tower in Wyoming; the Queen’s Chamber in the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Nelson registered highly significant evidence of increased order on REGs at some sites, as if the location itself contained a lingering vortex of coherent energy, from all the people who had prayed or died there.
Institute of Noetic Sciences’s chief scientist Dean Radin also used REGs to investigate whether healing can condition the place where it is carried out. He placed three REGs near a culture of human brain cells, then asked a group of healers to send intentions for the culture to grow more quickly, and to engage in traditional space-conditioning meditations.
Any deviation from the random activity of the REGs would indicate the probable presence of greater coherence. Radin also prepared a control batch of cells, which were not to be sent intention.
After three days, there was no overall difference in the growth between the treated cells and the controls. Nevertheless, as the experiment progressed, the treated cells began to grow faster. On the third day, all three of the REGs began moving away from random activity and becoming more ordered. The intention of the healers also appeared to have effects on background ionizing radiation.
Like Nelson’s readings at sacred sites, Radin’s experiment offers tantalizing hints about the nature of the ‘linger’ effect of intention.
The REGs’ registering of movement away from randomness to greater order implies that the Zero Point energy of empty space has shifted into a state of greater coherence. The ‘charge’ of intention may have a domino effect on its environment, causing greater quantum order in empty space, which would enhance the effectiveness of its aim. Russian scientists have observed a similar phenomenon in water, which retains a memory of applied electromagnetic fields for hours, even days.
Other scientists have witnessed a similar ‘charging’ of intention space. In one series of meticulous studies, for instance, researcher Graham Watkins and his wife Anita recruited human participants, many known for their psychic ability, and asked them to attempt to mentally influence anesthetized mice to revive more quickly than usual.
The experimental mice were drawn from a batch that had demonstrated similar waking times when placed under anaesthesia; the chosen group were divided in two, with half acting as controls.
In the first batch of studies, the experimental group woke up about 4 seconds earlier than the controls, a result considered only slightly significant. However, in subsequent studies the wake-up times of the experimental mice improved, and continued to do so with every study.
The Watkinses repeated their experiment seven times. They discovered that the healing had a ‘linger effect’; if a mouse were simply placed on the spot on a table where another mouse had received a psychic’s intentions, the second one would also revive more quickly than usual. The space appeared to have developed a healing ‘charge’, affecting anything that happened to occupy that space.
Biologist Bernard Grad at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, observed a similar phenomenon during experiments with Hungarian healer Oscar Estabany: Once the Hungarian healer touched something – even simple fabric – it appeared to hold a phantom charge. The material could be used successfully for healing in place of Estabany’s healing hands.
The effect is like that of a laser; when waves of the ambient Field become more ordered, an intention may ripple through it like one powerful, highly targeted bolt of light.