The Blessing Experiment

“Are the events of the universe already inscribed in a timeline that is simply playing out as our lives? Or is time somehow malleable? And if so, are the events within it changeable?”

— Gregg Braden
from The Divine Matrix

The History of the Experiment

The experiment began in early 2006 after writer and graphic designer, Kate Nowak, created and released a short flash presentation entitled May You Be Blessed. The response to the movie was phenomenal, with countless messages arriving each day from people all over the world writing of how the little “movie” had touched and changed their lives.

Based on the number of people stating that they had been blessed, Kate wondered if it would be possible to bless a million people or more within a 100-day period, and launched the original Million Blessings Experiment. It was a great success with more than 1.6 million unique visitors logging in and watching the movie in the first 100 days.

Later Kate realized that even more people could be blessed, not by simply watching the presentation, but by actively becoming involved in the process of blessing others. She launched a new experiment, the One Billion Blessings in 1000 Days Experiment with the target date being set for October 18, 2007, a day to be designated as the First International Day of Blessing.

Realizing that any true experiment must be tested and documented, she began working on the creation of an interactive working laboratory where people the world over could actively participate in proving or disproving the theories advanced. This site is the result.

“I used to believe that we must choose between science and reason on one hand, and spirituality on the other, in how we lead our lives. Now I consider this a false choice. We can recover the sense of sacredness, not just in science, but in perhaps every area of life.”

— Larry Dossey
from Reinventing Medicine

The Laboratory

A definition of blessing is the first step in understanding the potential effect it can have on the evolution of a population. For the purpose of the Blessing Experiment, we will define a blessing in its purest state, as an acknowledgment that we live in a perfect universe. It is an invitation we extend to our current perspective to be open to change, to be willing to see that perfection. While a prayer is usually considered a petition to God asking for intervention, a blessing arises from that inner place of knowing that no intervention is necessary. God already created a perfect world and it is not the world, but only our viewpoint of it, that need be changed. The world, and all its inhabitants, already are and always will be perfect, whole and complete.

In his book, Blessing, The Art and The Practice, author David Spangler further defines a blessing as a way of affirming our connection to one another: “A blessing is much more than just an act. It is an affirmation of our interconnectedness. It is the creation of an opportunity for the power of that connectedness to pour through into our lives and the lives of others. So in practicing the art of blessing, we are really practicing being connected. We are practicing how to discover and express those parts of ourselves that innately understand that connectedness and the wholeness that emerges from it.”

The power of raised consciousness and prayer has already been well documented, having been highlighted in the work of Dr. Masuru Emoto, Dr. Larry Dossey, The Global Consciousness Project, The Dubrovinik Peace Project, the work of Lynne McTaggert and the Intention Experiment, and many, many others. We are unaware, however, of any having been done on the simple process of blessing one another. Please understand we are not attempting to re-invent the wheel here. Our goal is simply to recognize our interconnectedness and our ability to bless one another as magical.

Measuring the Effects of Blessing and Its Components

This is done through the establishment of various “blessing experiments” from which those participants in the Blessing Project who are willing to accept the role of research assistant, can pick and choose. Once a certain experiment is chosen, the participant will:

After registering, Follow the prescribed steps listed as the testing method, observing any and all changes.

Record observed changes by posting in the Better to Bless Community Forum designated for the chosen experiment.

“Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.”

— Marcus Aurelius

The Experiments

Below you will find the first three experiments in our Blessing Experiment Project. The focus of each is the individual participant and thus all observations made will be from the individual’s singular perspective. For those who question why we are not expanding to include experiments on a more global scale such as establishing world peace, ending world hunger or bringing an end to global warming, our answer is simple: We must be the change we wish to see in the world. These experiments are specifically designed to bring about self-change.

Experiment No. 1

“For the majority of us, the past is a regret, the future an experiment.”

Mark Twain

Blessing the Enemy: The target of this experiment is any person or situation you find to be extremely difficult, preferably someone or something you truly loathe. The only requirement for this experiment is your willingness to let go of your current feelings toward this person or situation. You will be asked to document not only the changes you notice in yourself, but any changes noted in the target.

Experiment No. 2

“If I had thought about it, I wouldn’t have done the experiment. The literature is full of examples that said you can’t do this.”
Spencer Silver, inventor
of Post-It Note adhesive

Blessings At The Gas Pump: There are multiple targets in this experiment, ranging from the person or persons owning and/or managing the individual station where you purchase fuel for your vehicle to the men and women sitting on the boards of major oil companies and the leaders of OPEC. The primary target of this experiment, however, is you. As with the first experiment, you will be asked to document any changes you note in yourself and in the other targets of your experiment.

Experiment No. 3

“The experiment is to ask the question; the observation is to look at yourself and see what happens. Being a science the law cannot vary. Any apparent variation is in you, you will have stepped off the way of facts into conclusions.”
Barry Long

Blessings in the Marketplace: Blessing total strangers is the purpose of this experiment. You will be required to enter a busy store, seek out the most frustrated, angry or confused customer or store employee you can find and then concentrate your thoughts on sending blessings of peace, resolution and unconditional love.

“Blessings are contagious, so to speak, and are transmitted in a fashion that is rather like catching a cold. If somebody has a cold and you are too close, you catch a cold too. Likewise, if you get close to a master who has blessings, they can be transmitted to you. Blessings here mean the sense of some power of realization or power of samadhi, some kind of atmosphere of realization that is naturally present. You move close to him, in the sense of opening yourself up through devotion and making sincere, heartfelt supplications. In other words, you lower your defenses, whatever doubts and suspicions that prevent you from being ‘infected’ with blessings.”
— Drubwang Tsoknyi Rinpoche