This is from Bruce Beach.

This is a continuation of the POP (Power of Prophecy or Problems of Prophecy) series that I am presenting, in which I am sharing some of my own experiences in that field of search.

This time I am going to write about something a little different. A scientific experiment, but at the end I hope you will see the relevance. I actually conducted three series in this area, the last with government funding but at this time I will tell you only about the first two series.

They are with a growth inducer and a growth retardant. I hope that you will carefully read the description of the method and see that it was a carefully controlled experiment. I, and many other hundreds of researchers, have done the same experiment and you are welcome to repeat it yourself.

First came the preparation of the subjects. We bought a dozen brand new aluminum pie pans taking them out of their original plastic wrapping so that we could be sure that none of them had been contaminated.

We then took bags of sterilized soil, purchased from the store, and put the soil in the pans, leveling it off at the top with the blade of a ruler so that we could be sure that every pan had the same amount of soil.

Next we drew a line through the middle of the soil in each pan and took red fingernail polish and painted the edge of the pan one-half way around on one side. We used the fingernail polish so that it could not be erased or moved, and so that we could always tell which half was which half of the pan.

Next, in each pan, we put from the same seed packages, of non-hybrid seeds, two types of seeds - corn and bean, about two inches apart and two inches from the rim of the pan. Because the pan was round and we measured the distance between each seed there were two longer rows toward the center with 5 seeds two inches apart then progressing outwards in each direction two other rows with 3 seeds and 2 seeds, for a total of 10 seeds on each side of the pan. If you have the picture in your mind there were six rows in the pan with a total of 20 seeds and an imaginary line down the middle between the two longest rows. This was done exactly the same with each of the 12 pans.

Now we took a water sprayer and gave each of the pans the same number of squirts of water. And then we took the fingernail polish and numbered each of the twelve pans. So far as we could tell, everything was now identical.

We then wrote the 12 numbers on separate identical pieces of paper, turned the papers upside down on a table and shuffled them as randomly as we could. Then we called another person into the room and asked them to randomly select 6 of the pieces of paper, and the numbers of the pans on those pieces of paper we put in the control group.

Next we took two chess pawns, one black and one white, shook them behind and held out two hands, each one containing a pawn and saying which ever one the person selected that is the one that would receive the growth retardant. (They happened to select the dark one and so the red side of the pans with the fingernail polish received the retardant and the other side received the inducer).

The pans were then set on the table in front of the window, and each day they each pan received the same number of squirts of water all from the same water container and each day the pan on one end was removed and taken to the other end and all the pans were moved down one place in the row so that each would receive approximately the same angle of light throughout the experiment.

The only difference was that twice each day, once in the morning and once in the evening the plants in the experiment received growth inducer on the plain side and growth retardant on the red fingernail polish painted side. The pans in the control group received nothing else than the measured squirts of water.

I hope that you will agree that this was a thoroughly controlled experiment. Now let me tell you the results. Two weeks later, the 120 plants in the control group (6 pans with 20 plants) were all up one and a half to two inches tall. All healthy green looking - all very nice and even looking like a good farmer's field.

The plants that had received the growth inducer were however very sickly. Only about half had come up at all. Some of these had actually turned down and grown back down into the soil.

The plants that had received the growth retardant were, however, all there. Tall gangly and strange looking. Some over four inches tall - much taller than the control group.

What can we conclude from this experiment? Think about it. That the growth inducer and the growth retardant had become mixed up? That each side had received the opposite of what we intended?

This may all seem very off topic, but let me assure you that it isn't. The reason will be given in my next email. I just want to give you the time to think about the experiment.

Remember, our goal is to find, if we can, a true source of prophecy, and we have yet, many things to examine.

Peace and love, Bruce Beach language@webpal.org