Metaphysics of the tea ceremony: a randomized trial investigating the roles of intention and belief on mood while drinking tea.
Explore (New York, N.Y.) January 1, 2013 Yung-Jong Shiah, Dean Radin
Drinking oolong tea that had been intentionally treated by Buddhist monks improved mood more than drinking ordinary tea from the same source. Over seven days, 189 Taiwanese adults in Kaohsiung recorded their mood each evening. On three of those days, participants drank 600 mL of tea twice daily. One group blindly received tea treated with good intentions; the other received untreated tea. Those who drank the treated tea showed a greater mood increase (Cohen's d = 0.65). Believing one was drinking treated tea also produced a large mood improvement, but only when actually drinking the treated tea, suggesting that belief and the intentional treatment interact.