The Effects of Reiki on Bacteria Survivorship

Jordan Ciccone

Central Catholic High School

ReikiJapanese spiritual healing practice meaning “universal life energy.”

Training is done by a Reiki Master.

Reiki supposedly works via the practitioner intentionally willing the energy toward target areas.

Either gets rid of negative energy or provides positive healing energy (disputed).

Supposedly works on all forms of life.

Reiki (continued)Most practitioners use Reiki to complement Western medicine.

Some use Reiki as preventive medicine.

Few peer-reviewed scientific studies; no foundation in science.

Critics propose the placebo effect as the source of Reiki’s effectiveness.

Escherichia coliA prokaryotic, gram negative, unicellular, bacterial cell which can most frequently be found in the large intestine of endothermic animals.

May be used as an indicator organism for fecal contamination and has been a motive behind some product recalls.

Used in this experiment because it is exemplified as a model prokaryote for scientific study due to its extensive documentation.

Cellular StressesSeveral variables may be responsible for stressing and killing cells.

Temperature

Toxins

Viral infections

Radiation

Heat

Oxidation

RationaleThe purpose of this experiment is to determine the effectiveness of Reiki on peroxide-stressed bacterial cells. Any significant difference in survivorship curves will lend scientific support for Reiki’s effectiveness with little possibility of a placebo effect.

Hypothesis1. NullReiki will not significantly alter the survivorship of peroxide-

stressed E. coli.

2. AlternativeReiki will significantly increase the survivorship of peroxide-

stressed E. coli.

Materials40 LB agar plates(1% tryptone, 5% yeast extract, 1% NaCl, 2 mL 1M NaOH, 1.5% agar)

YEPD Media (1% yeast extract, 2% peptone, 2% glucose (dextrose))

LB media (1% tryptone, 5% yeast extract, 1% NaCl)

Klett spectrophotometer

Sterile pipette tips

Micropipettes

Vortex

Incubator

Sidearm flask

Spreading platform, spreader bar, ethanol

20 mL Sterile capped test tubes with Sterile Dilution Fluid (SDF) (10 mM KH2PO4, 10 mM K2HPO4, 1 mM MgSO4, 0.1 mM

CaCl2, 100 mM NaCl)

Escherichia coli

0.22 micron syringe filters + 10 mL syringe

Reiki practitioner

Two 1 Liter Beakers

Water

Thermometer

Hydrogen Peroxide

Procedures1. Escherichia coli cultures were grown overnight in sterile LB media,. 2. Samples of the overnight cultures were added to fresh medias in a sterile

sidearm flask.3. The cultures were placed in incubators (37°C) until a density of 50 Klett

spectrophotometer units was reached. This represents a cell density of approximately 108 cells/ml.

5. The microbial cultures were serially diluted in sterile dilution fluid to a concentration of approximately 103 cells/ml.

6. The Reiki practitioner was permitted to prepare the other room with the identical setup for the treatment of the cell cultures within test tubes by the use of gestures and vocal harmonics.

7. 0.1 ml. of the E. coli culture was then added to 4 test tubes, yielding a final volume of 10 ml. in each tube. This step was repeated with four other test tubes for the identical set up in the other room.

8. Dilutions of hydrogen peroxide were then created in order to create an exposure concentration kill curve. The concentrations were 10^-5, 10^-4, 10^-3, 10^-1, and 0 (control).

Procedures (continued)8. The E.coli cells were then exposed to the various concentrations of hydrogen

peroxide. 9. The Reiki practitioner was then instructed to treat the cells with Reiki in that

room only, by which she used tuning forks, quartz and celenite crystals in addition to gestures and vocal mantras to administer treatment to the cells.

10. After 15 minutes, an independent source color coded the four(stressed, non-stressed, treated stressed, treated non-stressed) tube groups with blue, green, black or red so as to mask the results to the experimenter for a double blind experiment.

11. After vortexing the test tubes to evenly suspend cells, 0.1 ml. aliquots were removed from one tube and spread on 5 plates of labeled with the same color. This was repeated for the other 7 tubes. Two tubes were used to help safeguard against procedural errors.

12. The plates were incubated at 37°C for 24 hours. 13. The resulting colonies were counted by the experimenter. Each colony is

assumed to have derived from one cell. The colors were then identified as their respective variable groups by the independent source.

Experimental Layout

Plate Layout(LB plates)

Experimental Layout(Test tubes and heat source)

➔

Plate Count

Hydrogen Peroxide Exposure

0 Exposure

E-5 H2O2

E-4 H2O2

E-3 H2O2

E-1 H2O2

REIKI 463, 452, 445, 435, 478, 421, 484 431

450, 480, 471, 432, 501, 412, 453, 437

450, 443, 400, 415, 420, 460, 418, 409

360, 400, 390, 373, 430, 401, 363, 432

2, 5, 3, 1, 1, 4, 2, 4

NO REIKI 456, 434, 412, 475, 419, 437, 476, 429

412, 470, 494, 473, 462, 341, 525, 381

450, 447, 460, 475, 449, 435, 470, 446

455, 521, 434, 380, 380, 444, 400, 430

4, 13, 6, 8, 7, 7, 3, 12

0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.120

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

Non-Treated E. coli Survivorship

E. coli Survivorship

LD50: .05 ( 5 * 10^-2 )

Colo

nie

s

Exposure

0 10^-5 10^-4 10^-3 10^-10

125

250

375

500

Effects of Reiki and Oxidation on Escherichia coli

Reiki TreatmentNo Reiki Treatment

# o

f C

olo

nie

s

0.073939

H2O2 Exposure

0.461177 0.0087660.690562

ANOVA Analyses

Exposure: 10^1 10^3 10^4 10^5 Control

P-Value: 0. 03342 0.073939 0.008766 0.690562 0.461177

Reiki to Non-Reiki Groups

Dunnett’s TestReiki Group

T-crit: 3.02

Group T – Value Interpretation

10^-5 Not Significant

10^-4 Not Significant

10^-3 SIGNIFICANT

10^-1 SIGNIFICANT

0.299

2.145

5.086

39.659

Conclusion• Dunnett’s Tests show that the Reiki

therapy on E.coli exposed to oxidation concentrations of 10^-3 and 10^-1

had a significant effect on the survivorship of E. coli, lending support

for the alternative hypothesis.

• Dunnett’s Tests show that the hydrogen peroxide concentration of 10^-1 had a

significant effect on the survivorship of E. coli

Improvements●More replications

●More trials

●Account for more variables

●Simultaneous plate spreading

●Analyzing Reiki’s effects in normal settings

References●Centralcatholichs.com/biology