I’ve tried Johrei on my own crops, though I can’t yet say I’ve felt the results myself. A friend of mine, however, tells me he has seen real changes in his fields.
What I have seen with my own eyes is something simpler. I once planted daikon radishes in two planters filled with the same soil. To one, I spoke kind words; to the other, harsh ones. The plants given kind words grew noticeably better. I was surprised — and I’ve since learned that others have tried the same thing and noticed something similar.
I can’t fully explain it. But it left me wondering whether the invisible side of things really does reach the plants we grow.
Can an Ancient Japanese Practice Help Crops Grow Better?
Farmers following Mokichi Okada’s natural farming method began reporting something unexpected. Their harvests were improving — not just because they had stopped using chemical fertilizers, but because of something else entirely.
They were using a practice called Johrei.
What Is Natural Farming?
Okada believed that modern farming had it backwards. For generations, farmers had been adding fertilizers to the soil, assuming more inputs meant better results. But Okada said the opposite was true. The more the soil was treated with artificial substances, the more its natural vitality was suppressed.
Clean soil, he argued, grows better crops. And the results reported by farmers who followed this principle were remarkable.
Why Johrei Made a Difference
Johrei is a practice Okada developed, based on the idea that everything in the natural world has both a physical dimension and a spiritual one — including soil.
When soil is contaminated by artificial fertilizers, Okada said, its spiritual dimension becomes clouded. And when that cloudiness is cleared through Johrei, the soil’s natural growing power begins to return.
As the soil becomes purer, and as the residual toxins in crops themselves are reduced, both work together. Growth becomes more vigorous. Harvests improve.
Okada described this as the principle of spirit leading matter — the idea that the visible, physical world follows the invisible, spiritual one.
A Different Way of Seeing the Natural World
Whether or not you share Okada’s spiritual framework, his core message speaks to something many farmers and scientists are beginning to rediscover today: that healthy soil is alive, and that what we put into it — or stop putting into it — changes everything.
Read Next
👉 Why Your Home Garden Isn’t Thriving — And What a 1950s Japanese Thinker Said About It
Read the Original
This is a short introduction. The full text — written by Okada in Japanese in 1951 — is available on meshiya.jp.
👉 浄霊の偉効（meshiya.jp）
Natural Farming Series — All Articles
Modern Farming Is Losing Its Balance
The Soil’s Secret Strength
Why Pesticides Are Making the Problem Worse
When Floods and Typhoons Hit, Some Farms Survive. What’s Their Secret?
Why Do Parasites Thrive — And What Does Our Food Have to Do With It?
Can an Ancient Japanese Practice Help Crops Grow Better?← You are here
Why Your Home Garden Isn’t Thriving
The Quiet Revolution