Crystal clear

By JON WOODHOUSE, For The Maui News

For centuries, various mystics have suggested consciousness affects reality, that our thoughts, words and feelings can influence our world. In modern times, best-selling self-help books have explored this idea, and some quantum physicists have proposed that our perceptions can change reality.

Working with the medium of water, Japanese scientist Dr. Masuro Emoto has discovered a way to demonstrate the impact of thoughts and feelings.

Emoto’s groundbreaking revelations have been disseminated in books like “The Hidden Messages in Water” and the feature film “What the #$*! Do We Know?,” screened several times by the Maui Film Festival, which explored the boundaries of reality, perception, emotion and quantum physics.

Using high-speed photography, Emoto has found that crystals formed in frozen water change shape when specific thoughts are directed toward them.

He claims that water from clear springs and water exposed to loving words produces brilliant, complex, and colorful snowflake-like patterns. In contrast, polluted water, or water exposed to negative thoughts, forms incomplete, asymmetrical patterns with dull colors.

Emoto began studying water more than a decade ago after he met Dr. Lee Lorenzen, a biochemist at the University of California, Berkeley. Wondering how water quality could affect health and pondering how snow can continually produce distinct, unique snowflakes, he was inspired to photograph frozen water.

Taking samples of water from various sources in Japan and freezing a few droplets, Emoto photographed them with a dark-field microscope. Water from a pure spring revealed a beautiful crystalline form, while water from a polluted river produced a muddy, smeared pattern with very little structure. He then asked a priest from a temple to offer a prayer to the polluted water sample and repeated the experiment. To his surprise, another beautiful crystalline structure appeared.

From this initial discovery, Emoto and his fellow researchers began investigating whether simple words or phrases written on labels on bottles might affect the water. They found stark contrasts in crystal formations.

Positive words such as “thank you” or “love/appreciation” produced intricate and attractive ice patterns; a negative phrase such as “you make me sick” made the crystal pattern break down and become formless.

The scientist says he was thrilled when he discovered that water produces similar crystals in reaction to certain words, no mater what the language.

“I was not surprised, but very excited that my instinct was correct,” Emoto says. “I believed beforehand that it would probably show similar crystals.”

In terms of water’s response to specific words, he reports he was “especially surprised when crystals of water that were exposed to images and photographs with a distinct shape, such as an elephant or a heart, formed a similar shape.”

In line with research suggesting house plants thrive when calming classical music is played on the premises, Dr. Emoto and his colleagues photographed water that had been exposed to various types of music. The resulting crystal formations varied considerably. Folk dance music produced flower-petal shapes. Lovely forms were produced when exposed to Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” or the music of Beethoven or Mozart. Elvis Presley’s ”Heartbreak Hotel” resulted in three kinds of crystals, one that looked like “a picture of a heart broken into two,” another that showed “two parts trying to fuse together.”

Heavy metal created dull, formless shapes.

One wonders was it Ozzy or Metallica or maybe Def Leppard?

Emoto is not sure of the band’s name. “According to the researcher, the song was a loud heavy metal type with lots of slang,” he recalls.

After his initial work was published in Japan in the book “The Messages of Water,” Emoto’s discoveries prompted families throughout the country to conduct experiments with rice. Filling glass jars with rice, for one month people people said “thank you” in front of one jar, and “you fool” in front of another. You can guess which rice rotted faster.

Some families added a third jar which they completely ignored. The ignored rice deteriorated the most rapidly.

“I think this experiment has the potential to teach us a very important lesson,” he writes in the English language edition of “The Hidden Messages in Water.”

“We must take care to give our children attention and talk with them. Speaking words of kindness and love should begin from the time of conception.”

Of all the combinations of words employed, after much experimentation, Emoto discovered that “Love” together with “Gratitude” produced the most beautiful, brilliant crystal structures.

“Among all medicines, there are none with the healing powers of love,” he writes. “I know now that it is not love alone that forms immunity but love and gratitude. I suggest that having twice the amount of gratitude as love is the balance we should strive for.”

“It is impossible to read this book and see the pictures of the endless variations of water crystals without being affected,” noted a review of “The Hidden Messages in Water” by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho of the Institute of Science in Society. “One may come away incredulous, yet inspired to look for deeper understanding of the remarkable phenomenon.”

A graduate of Yokohama Municipal University, Emoto’s discoveries have drawn criticism from some scientists who question the validity of his results.

“There has been no replication by other scientists, no control groups, and no publications in reputable peer-reviewed scientific journals,” noted John Olmsted, an adjunct instructor in psychology at Portland State University, and member of the Skeptics Society.

(In fact, Emoto’s work has been published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine, Feb. 2004, Vol. 10, No. 1.)

“When I consider hiring a new researcher to take crystal photography, I first give that person a blind test on water crystals,” Emoto says, responding to the criticism. “For example, I will provide some samples of water that we know will definitely form crystals, and some samples that will not produce any, such as Tokyo’s tap water, without telling the candidate. Depending on the test result, I will register that person according to his or her level. However, I do not require any blind test on any samples after that. I believe that the researcher’s aesthetic sense and character is the important aspect when taking crystal photographs. Therefore, I try to make sure that they can take photographs in a relaxed and positive atmosphere. I urge each one of them to try their best because beauty exists in everything.”

Asked if he knows of any other scientist pursuing this field he responds, “Even though my book, ’Message from Water,’ was first published in 1999 and has been translated in over 20 languages, I have not heard of anybody else conducting similar research. It is a wonder that there is nobody that thought of the same thing. The procedure is not very difficult and the equipment not too expensive. I have to guess that the realm of acceptable science has been too small to urge more people in this field. Luckily, I did not start out with any modern scientific background. I did not even know the limit of science to stop me from giving this research a chance.”

This unorthodox visionary has been encouraged by maverick British scientist Rupert Sheldrake, an acclaimed biochemist who taught at Cambridge University. The two have corresponded.

“At least once every week, I get a letter from someone telling me about you,” Sheldrake wrote to Emoto. “It’s likely in the future there will be a connection between my research and your research into water crystals.”

Lately, Emoto has been looking at the impact of different colors on the formation of water crystals. “I have already started some research; however, I believe that I need to do some more research before I can officially present it to the public,” he says.

How about the influence of various rock crystals like amethyst or quartz on water?

“That will be one of my next projects,” he notes.

As to any new discoveries not yet published in his books, he mentions, “I am learning that Benjamin Franklin’s 13 Virtues are also characteristics of water. Please stop by at my seminar to learn more about this new discovery.”

Living in a country that often experiences devastating earthquakes, Emoto believes water crystal photography could help with earthquake prediction.

“People do not suddenly get a heart attack or cerebral infraction. There are always previous signs,” he explains. “You can always predict it if you are paying close attention to your blood analysis. Earthquakes can be predicted in a similar way. We can take ground water from key areas and continually observe its crystals. We can keep records of the way crystals gradually break apart. We should eventually be able to learn at what stage of the breakdown of the crystals an earthquake will happen.

“However, this research requires a large amount of money and it needs support at a national level. Unfortunately, the Science and Technology Department of Japan has turned down my application twice. They still do not have the understanding for such research.”

Native peoples around the world have no such problem. Viewing water as sacred, many have eagerly embraced his work.

During a lecture by Emoto at Northern Arizona University, Hopi Indian elder Vernon Masayesva pronounced, “His work helps to show how critical it is to preserve our water resources and to use them properly. What Dr. Emoto has discovered about water is perfectly in keeping with what our Hopi elders have told us all along.”

“I have met indigenous people in Canada, New Mexico, Arizona, Minneapolis, Hawaii, Israel, Australia, Ecuador and Mexico,” Emoto reports. “Everybody had the same response when I met them. They all said, ’You have proven what our ancestors have been saying. Thank you.’ ”

Lecturing and traveling around the world, Dr. Emoto has inspired many to question the way they think and act. “I feel proud that an ordinary person like myself, with as many faults as any other human being, was able to help so many people around the globe realize something new and provide some type of inspiration,” he says.

Now promoting annual gatherings around the world to express gratitude to water, in the summer of 2003, he officiated at a ceremony at Israel’s Sea of Galilee, where a group of Jewish and Muslim religious leaders paid respect to the Japanese scientist.

“They said to me, ’You have not yet realized what you have done and what you are currently doing is such an extraordinary thing,’ ” Emoto recalls.

“They said, ’This is what will save the universe, if only everybody can just understand this.’ ”

Contact Jon Woodhouse at jonwoodh@maui.net.