The Effects of Reiki on Bacteria Survivorship Jordan Ciccone Central Catholic High School.
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Transcript of The Effects of Reiki on Bacteria Survivorship Jordan Ciccone Central Catholic High School.
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