Sweet Talk – How Do You Talk To Your Water?

As we all know, water is a physical element, but it also spiritual. Dr. Masaru Emoto writes in his book, The Hidden Messages in Water: “We start out life being 99% water as fetuses. When we are born we are 90% water and by the time we reach adulthood we are down to 70%. If we die of old age we will probably be about 50% water. In other words, throughout our lives we exist in water.” His groundbreaking work, chronicling water crystals was a discovery about water and how we as humans relate to water. You may not agree or believe in what he does, frankly I’m on the fence, but take a moment to ponder this.

With Dr. Emoto in Honolulu

His photographs of water crystals were originally featured in his book, The Hidden Messages in Water, and first published in Japan with over 400,000 copies sold internationally. What has put Dr. Emoto at the forefront of the study of water is his belief that thoughts and feelings affect physical reality. By producing different focused intentions through written and spoken words and music and literally presenting it to the water, the water appears to “change its expression,” he says. He developed a technique using a very powerful microscope in a very cold room along with high-speed photography to photograph newly formed crystals of frozen water samples. Dr. Emoto discovered that crystals formed in frozen water reveal changes when specific, concentrated thoughts are directed toward them be those positive or negative. He found that water from clear springs and water that has been exposed to loving words shows brilliant, complex, and colorful snowflake patterns. In contrast, polluted water, or water exposed to negative thoughts, forms incomplete, asymmetrical patterns with dull colors. Many people do not believe Dr. Emoto’s claims since his findings cannot be exactly reproduced – each crystal is unique and different. Is it true? Can sending positive messages to our water make it better, actually more healing, imbued with a spiritual nature?

In October 2012 I was in Honolulu where Dr. Emoto led a group of people to the Ala Wai canal, long considered one of the most unclean canals in the city. We stood on the banks and Dr. Emoto lead a prayer as a group of diverse individuals said aloud repeatedly, “We love you water, we praise you water, we thank you water.” Can this exercise actually affect the life and health of this canal? I don’t know. And sure, I felt somewhat foolish overlooking a placid body of water assuming something might happen - that a ripple would occur over the glassy surface as if some sign might convince me that, truly, we were having an impact on water, and by extension the residents of Honolulu. But the water didn’t move. There was no flash of sunlight piercing the water’s surface, reflecting a sign. There was no flight of birds that alighted on the canal. Nothing happened. But that doesn’t mean we cannot have an impact on our world of water. Should you spend time thanking a canal, a stream near your house, the ocean as it crashes on the shore, your watershed in your city? I’m guessing that you won’t be doing that. But if we, even a little bit, think about water, and are grateful for what it provides in our lives, literally life itself, then maybe something might change, in our water, and in ourselves. As Dr. Emoto told me, “Water is the messenger of God.”