The Hidden Messages in Water Paperback – Illustrated, September 20, 2005

I learnt about Masaru Emoto’s water research in the film 'What The Bleep Do We Know!?' It was an information that really left me speechless, and I ordered his books at once.I will not enter here the discussion about the credibility of his research. Allegedly, his water photography technique is not meeting the standard of double-blind tests. So, I will base my book reviews strictly on quotes taken from the books, and try to check his research back with my own twenty years of bioenergy research.This is an approach that allows me to avoid judging the controversy, or any of the positions as ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, yet it helps to see that there is a certain probability that the memory of water is likely to reflect a certain bioenergetic functionality inherent in nature.I will try to bring some structure in this book review by relying not on hearsay, but on the author’s own statements. I will put some quotes and comment on them. If Emoto has not got full credentials, let us look what his writings reveal about him. I got the impression that he comes over as a wise man, a man with a very high level of intuitive knowledge, and also somebody who knows to write. His style is easy yet deep. He knows to express truth in a very clear and pristine way. To begin with, he writes:—So how can people live happy and healthy lives? The answer is to purify the water that makes up 70 percent of your body./xviFrankly I have never considered before in my life the fact that I consist mainly of water, and that because of this simple fact, I have to do something about that water I am consisting of. Have you? To be true, Paracelsus, one of the greatest healers in human history, said something similar. And my next question, logically so, would be: and why water? Emoto replies:—Water serves as a transporter of energy throughout our body. /xviiHaving studied virtually all written traditional knowledge about the bioenergy, after so many years, I overlooked the most essential and thus had to learn it from Emoto, that is, that this ch’i that flows through my body flows through my body because of water, because it basically flows through that watery substance in me. Now, Emoto puts it more precisely:—More now than in the past, the medical community has begun to see water as a transporter of energy, and it is even being used in the treatment of illness. Homeopathy is one such field where the value of water is recognized./xviiHomeopathy is indeed concerned with water. But most of us hardly ever knew why a homeopathic formula is diluted so much, and consists almost entirely of water? When we get to know that water is the magic here, and not the substances that are mixed with it in the homeopathic tincture, all becomes clear. Succinctly speaking, there are two major arguments that Emoto advances in order to explain his research, and that his detractors do not seem to catch up with. What is it that makes water to be a receptor and vehicle for thought? It is the fact that water, as all in life, is vibration and that this vibration can be manipulated through intent. But then, how and why does vibration change its frequency? Emoto writes:—What you really know is possible in your heart is possible. We make it possible by our will. What we imagine in our minds becomes our world./xxiiThe lesson what we can learn from this experiment has to do with the power of words. The vibration of good words has a positive effect on our world, whereas the vibration from negative words has the power to destroy./xxvNow, in fact this is true. The hermetic tradition taught since times immemorial that words are codified vibrations. The scriptures all converge in saying that in the beginning there was the Word, and that the Word was sacred and had creational power. In old Egypt and India, the hierophants used vibrations for healing.It is crucial to have a glimpse into the background of Emoto’s expertise, which is the Japanese Shinto tradition. Shinto is the native religion of Japan and was once its state religion. After World War II, Shinto lost its status as the state religion of Japan; some Shinto practices and teachings, once given a great deal of prominence during the war, are no longer taught or practiced today—yet they are still an essential part of the Japanese culture, be it only on the level of the collective unconscious.The fact that we vibrate, that we are a particular arrangement of frequencies, has been affirmed by not only the hermetic tradition, but also by clairvoyants. Not only do we vibrate, but we vibrate differently. In a sense, we all come with a unique vibrational pattern.I would like to add one interesting detail that was a surprising result of exposing water to positive affirmations, negative affirmations (insults) or else leaving the water completely unattended. The surprising outcome was that the worst water, the one with the worst crystals, was not the water that had received the insults from the school children who helped carry out the experiment, but the water that had received no attention at all from their part. Emoto comments:—To give your positive or negative attention to something is a way of giving energy. The most damaging form of behavior is withholding your attention./65This is a fact known from research on child abuse. Children who have been abused tend to go back to their abusers despite the fact that abuse is going to continue. And there was always a question mark in forensic research why children do that, and why they do not, or very seldom, betray their abuser in order to get rid of the abusive relationship?It has been found that it’s because the negative attention children receive in the form of abuse is for them still better than the total lack of attention they get in their homes. This fact may eventually lead us to better understand the true needs of children, because attention and love are one and the same thing. Try to show somebody that you love him or her and try to do that without giving them any attention. You will see that it’s impossible. The very thought of the person is already attention, and by thinking of the person you are sending out a vibration, and energy.What we commonly call love is exactly that bioplasmatic energy that pervades the universe, and that has been given so many names over the ages. And when we think in what Fritjof Capra calls the ‘systems view of life’, it is not astonishing after all to note that a natural element such as water can be impregnated with that energy, or its upside-down version, which is hatred.

I was in a lot of emotional pain due to spiritual awakening, this book came as a blessing and a big relief to ease my pain of withdrawal.The pictures had profound positive impact on me, it was like a medicine to assuage the pain. Very healing and highly recommended to someone who is going through withdrawal.

I decided to read this book after seeing some of Dr. Emoto's water crystal photographs at Jack Canfield's Breakthrough to Success Seminar in August. The library put me on an indefinite hold for his book, but I was able to sign up for a learning annex lecture by Dr. Emoto earlier this month on October 6 in New York. Then, last week the book became available at the library.If you are looking for a thorough scientific explanation of what Dr. Emoto found and his methodology, this is the wrong book for you.If you want to understand his process for understanding how water crystals may be affected by thought, prayer, music and writing, the book is excellent. In fact, the book explains his work much better than the public lecture did. And the book is a lot cheaper than the lecture was.I was glad to have attended the lecture, however. It gave me a sense of Dr. Emoto who seems to be a genuinely humble and open seeker after truth.As he pointed out in the lecture, his work has raised more questions than answers. But he does give us some theories that will intrigue you. Perhaps the most interesting and important one is that humans can uniquely create earthly harmony by their vibrations.If you are not familiar with his work, he developed a way to take photographs of frozen water that resemble snowflake photographs. While snowflakes vary in the same storm due to local conditions, water crystals seem to vary due to other factors. Pollution and other forms of human interaction appear to play a role.Dr. Emoto shows that human interaction can also create disharmony.The photographs are quite eloquent by themselves. If you looked at them merely for artistic purposes, you would enjoy this book.Many of his observations are based on spiritual beliefs such as in reincarnation so you can take those parts as you will. But they are not essential to enjoying the book.I found that I have changed several things in my life since the lecture. I bathe myself in as much beautiful and elegant classical music as possible. I used to do that and am enjoying my return to this practice. I also take time to retune my thoughts to make them more harmonious. I find that my creativity has been aided by this, and my latest book writing work has gone much better as a result.For skeptics, Dr. Emoto claims that others have repeated his results. I don't know about that, but I'm sure you could check it out if you are interested.I appreciated his reference to Rupert Sheldrake's work on morphic resonance. I had thought of the parallels when I listened to the lecture. If you are not familiar with Sheldrake, he believes that thoughts affect the physical form of the world and the minds of others. He points to experiments where people learn faster after more people have learned something . . . even if they have no physical or written contact with one another.With The Hidden Messages in Water, I felt like another piece of the puzzle about what thought is and isn't fell into place.Dr. Emoto has also started a project to share 650 million copies of this work with young people so that they can sooner learn to live in harmony.I think this book will provide many interesting epiphanies for you. Check it out!

Great reference book for sharing with others and applying in your own life. Label your water bottles & live better.