An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane. Some stories believe you are granted eternal good luck, instead of just one wish, such as long life or recovery from illness or injury. This makes them popular gifts for special friends and family.

There is a very touching story called “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes”.
This true story is of a girl,Sadako Sasaki, who lived in Hiroshima at the time of the atomic bombing by the United States. She developed leukaemia from the radiation and spent her time in a nursing home creating origami (folded paper) cranes in hope of making a thousand of them. She was inspired to do so by the Japanese legend that one who created a thousand origami cranes would be cured by the gods. Her wish was simply to live. However, she managed to fold only 644 cranes before she became too weak to fold any more, and died on 25 October 1955 in the morning. Her friends and family helped finish her dream by folding the rest of the cranes, which were buried with Sadako. They also built a statue of Sadako holding a giant golden origami crane in Hiroshima Peace Park. (There is a children’s book you can get to get the whole skinny on this story, if you are interested.)
To this day people still make 1000′s of paper cranes on Obon Day (Japanese Holiday) and hang them at her memorial statue every year with hope to bring peace on earth.

In my studies over the years about Chi and the power of our minds, I stumbled over many different articles and books but one of the most interesting things that I discovered was about Noetic Science. Of which there is an entire institute in the U.S. dedicated to its study.
The Institute of Noetic Sciences proposes noetic sciences as an alternative theory of “how beliefs, thoughts, and intentions affect the physical world.” They claim to have watched thought literally heal cancers and other diseases. All with the power of thought. They have some interesting thoughts on how this takes place in our world in ways that some of us would normally dismiss to coincidence and others would say is the miracle of prayer. You should check out their studies if you have the chance, very interesting stuff.

So since I enjoy doing origami, Japanese folk lore and mind over mater I thought I should probably being giving this a whirl. I also am a firm believer in the idea that more minds at work are better than one. So I am hoping that some of you will get on board and join me in making 1000 paper cranes this year.

If you need oragami paper to make a paper cranes you can use this link: Roylco Economy Origami – 72 sheets

My plan is to make four per day and in 250 days I will have 1000. I figure that cutting 1 piece of origami paper in to four smaller sheets and folding the 4 cranes will take about 15 to 25 minutes. In the time that we will be folding, I believe that every fold will help to heal my medical issues. I know it sounds kooky but even if you don’t believe in this stuff, because you read it here the intention of doing it will theoretically lend to improving my health.

So for those of you who decide to help out or just want to fold some cranes, thank you in advance and I will be starting my folding on June !st. Also please feel free to post pictures of your cranes here. I am looking forward to seeing them. I will be posting a daily picture blog of the cranes as they multiply over the corse of the 250 days. Happy folding! Oh, if you do not know how to fold a crane here are the instructions for folding (click the image to see it at full size and printing).