Friday, March 24, 2006

Waterworld

As most of us learned (or should have learned) in high school biology, over half the human body is made up of water. And, if our geography lessons took, we also found out that over seventy percent of the globe is covered in water. Pretty much all life as we know it depends on water.

A few years ago, a gentleman named Dr. Masaru Emoto decided to subject water samples to different thoughts and feelings through written and spoken words as well as through music. Now I know that sounds a little odd but stay with me in this. Dr. Emoto then froze the water samples, observed them through a powerful microscope and used high-speed photography to capture images of the ice crystals.

What he found was astonishing. The crystals varied in shape and color depending on what the water samples had been subjected to. For example, the photo on the right is of a crystal formed by water that had been drinking up Mozart while the shot below it is a water crystal on heavy metal music.


More interesting still are the two photographs below, the first of which is a crystal formed from water that was labelled "You make me sick." Take a look at how that one compares to the bottom right photo of water that was drowned in a sea of love and gratitude.

Dr. Emoto says that water from clear springs and water exposed to kind expressions generally show "brilliant, complex, colorful, snowflake-like patterns" while polluted water as well as water exposed to negative thoughts form "incomplete, assymetrical" patterns with "dull colors."


Having a difficult time fathoming all this? Read on:

Recently, researchers at Stanford University made a big splash when they discovered that water is not quite what we all thought it was. It had long been assumed that four water molecules got together to form a sort of pyramid structure with a triangular base - a tetrahedron. After examining X-rays of the little rascals, scientists found that concept was all wet. Most water molecules seem to only attract two other water molecules and form strong bonds with them in a ring and chain fashion.

I emphasized most because not all do. William Tiller, a former Stanford scientist says that "water can indeed have its properties and hence its structure changed rather easily." His review of over 100 different studies concluded that water is "a 'zoo' of mixed sizes of molecules." Professor Giulia Galli of the University of California Davis said that "in a tube ... holding 60 to 80 water molecules, interactions with the wall of the tube might change water's structure."

So if water molecules can be so easily persuaded to change structure and interact with other media, maybe the idea that they can react to suggestions, well, holds water. A Los Angeles company, H2Om (yeah, Om - like the mantra) is betting on it. They take bottles of spring water and claim to alter the structure within by labelling it "Love" and "Perfect Health." Nice entreprenurial move there, guys. But who's to say they're skating on thin ice?

I know this: we are all made up of water. Fifty to sixty percent water. Seventy-three percent water if you're a baby. And if Dr. Emoto and the Stanford team are right, what do you think we accomplish if we look in the mirror and say, "man, I look old" or "I'm too fat." Or what if we say something mean to another person? Are we completing some self-fulfilling prophecy for that individual? On the other hand, think of how good it feels when someone tells you they love you and you sense they really mean it. You know the warm feeling that seems to encompass your entire body. Could it be the reaction of millions of water molecules interacting with the words you heard? Makes me wonder.

And by the way, did I tell you I think you're great? No, really. I like you a lot. I'm thankful for you. Why not put on some Mozart, crack open a bottle of spring water and float in a sea of love and gratitude? You deserve it.