A few weeks ago I had the privilege of speaking to the internationally best-selling author of The Power of Eight and The Field, Lynne McTaggart – a well-known name within the world of scientific developments in spirituality. As Gaia had recently released a documentary about her called The Power of Intention, I wanted to find out more about Lynne’s motivations behind her groundbreaking work, and why collective intention is potentially more powerful than individual practice.
Lynne started off her working life as an investigative reporter, with one of her first big pieces documenting baby seller rings in the US. Although Lynne’s investigative reporting past is behind her now, the roots of wanting to ‘establish firm proof, and keep pulling at the string’ until the answers are revealed have stayed with her. With all of Lynne’s work, from her books to her talks and experiments, she has always ‘provided the true story’, wanting to make sure that her work with the spiritual has truth to it, ‘not because I say so, but because there is proof to back up my statements’. On moving to England, Lynne began some of her investigations into health and medicine, following a bout of ill health that the orthodox doctors couldn’t understand. Through her research, she began seeing studies on holistic therapies that were giving positive results that she wasn’t expecting: ‘at heart I am a doubting Thomas’, she says. Lynne continued pursuing this line of research, looking to see if ‘there was really any truth to this – is there any reality’ to these holistic healing studies. This personal work evolved into a professional outcome, with the release of her own publication called What Doctors Don’t Tell You, where she aims to share the ‘in-depth information about dangers or ineffectiveness of certain conventional medicine, plus evidence of what works in alternative medicine, which even to this day is a unique publication on the market. When asked why she believed in the importance of community, Lynne stated that as she is in a male-dominated industry, she likely has a ‘different perspective [to my peers] but I do believe that community is highly important. We need to belong more than we need to breathe’. As Lynne’s research grew, her attention turned to intention, and a desire to know if there was a way to understand and show the potential benefits of intention. Early on in her studies, Lynne discovered that ‘the intention of a group seems to be amplified’, setting up the blueprint for her work with The Power of Eight and her Peace Intention Experiments. From her very first study looking at how intention can affect an object – which involved sending intention to a leaf with psychologist and author Gary E Schwartz – to her first Peace Intention experiment, carried out with Jessica Utts and the Foundation for Coexistence in Sri Lanka, Lynne wanted to understand one question more clearly. When it came to the power of intention, was she ‘talking about a subtle shift’, or something bigger? Very quickly, Lynne and her fellow researchers discovered that the impact of group intention was significant, with the findings going ‘so far beyond scientific thinking, it was extraordinary’. Along with the target object receiving overwhelmingly positive results – increasing the rate of growth of a seed, changing the pH of Lake Biwa, and reducing violence – Lynne also began to measure the effect on the individuals doing the intending. It has been consistently found that ‘50% [of individuals] felt more love towards everyone they came into contact with’ and that ‘a third found improvement or a cure to a mental or physical ailment’. In one study, Lynne was even able to see the unifying effect of group intention and the chance for forgiveness that it inspired. These studies have shown that intention ‘not just affects the targets but the people themselves as well’. When we are discussing these statistics, I ask Lynne what she believes the key is to all her findings. Her answer relates to the effect and power of altruism: ‘community can override challenges, but it is the altruism that is like a bulletproof vest’. Other studies in the field prove that helping others extends our life by years, so, as Lynne puts it, altruism ‘is necessary’. She believes that ‘the most healing thing we can do is not self-help, but other-help’, and that unity and oneness can overhaul the problems of today’s world. As our interview comes to an end, I ask Lynne what her advice is for people wanting to explore the practice of intention further. She reminds me that ‘our thoughts have the capacity to change physical matter’ – as her experiments show. That our thoughts are trespassers and that we are constantly letting our thoughts filter out into the world – and that the power to change is within us, more than we know. Lynne highlights that in all her experiments over the years, intention setting has only ever lasted for ten minutes. From changing the rate of growth to slowing down violence, the accessibility of this powerful practice is clear. For beginners, there are a wide range of free resources on Lynne’s website, and her experiments are always available to join for free. Lynne is holding her biggest Peace Intention Experiment yet on 1 February, 2025, which she invites us all to join online via the Gaia website: www.gaia.com/peace. The documentary The Power of Intention is available to watch now to find out more about Lynne McTaggart’s work, and the extraordinary findings that build a bridge between science and spirituality. Lynne McTaggart is an award-winning journalist and author of seven books, including the international best-sellers The Power of Eight, The Field, The Intention Experiment, and The Bond – all seminal works in New Science and translated into 30 languages. Now, she’s leading the call for a new way and a new world, with the Intention Revolution – a revolution enabling us to transform ourselves, our loved ones, and the world. If you enjoyed this article you may also enjoy: Journey to Balance: Connecting with Yourself and the Natural World.Grace is our Digital Communications Assistant and a hatha yoga teacher with a passion for holistic healing modalities. She has a strong desire to bring the tools of holistic health to her students in an accessible and welcoming way, allowing all to access their inner wisdom and provide alternative routes to finding their own meaning of wellness.
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