“Message”
from Crystals of Water: Scientifically NOT Proved!
Alexandre
Fontes
da Fonseca
Instituto
de Física da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo,
SP.
ORIGINAL
PAPER
PUBLISHED IN PORTUGUESE IN JORNAL
ALAVANCA
489, JANUARY,
2004
Dr. Masaru
Emoto is a
well-known Japanese researcher of the influence of thoughts and
feelings on the
physical reality. He states that the crystalline structure of water
molecules are influenced
by the
“energy of vibration” from thoughts, feelings, acts and
even words and
music [1,2].
This
subject
was analyzed
by Kardec. In a footnote related to the 33rd question of The
Spirits’ Book
[3],
Kardec said that the action of magnetism,
directed by human will,
makes
the water magnetized or fluidified. In this process, water acquires
different
properties and, in certain cases, may be used as medicine for the
treatment of
several sicknesses.
Therefore,
it is not
being questioned our certainty, as spiritists, about the
possibility of
water to adsorb spiritist fluids from the ambient or directed to it by
humans.
We question the statement that “the phenomenon of adsorption of
fluids
by the
water was scientifically proved”. In fact, in a real scientific
point of view, it is not
true and we shall explain the reasons as follows.
According
to
Dr. Emoto [1],
the emission of thoughts and feelings
towards a given
sample
of
water; the submission of a portion of water to some kind of music or
sound; or the
gluing of a label containing a given word on a flask with water; will
make the
sample of water absorb a different kind of “energy” related
to the
moral
value
corresponding to the thought, the feeling, the sound or the word in
question.
This could be verified through the process of crystallization, where
the water
molecules form three-dimensional structures when passing from the
liquid to the
solid state, as happens with small pieces of snow. In the case of good
thoughts, feelings, sounds or words, the crystalline structures are
symmetric
and beautiful (see, for example, the homepage of ref. [2])
and,
otherwise, the
structures are
amorphous, possessing a bad sight [2].
We
are
not the
first to question the scientific characteristic of Dr. Emoto’s
research. There
is a Brazilian homepage [4]
which says that “the
Dr. Emoto’s
experiments have
not been endorsed by Science, but rather by mysticism. They belong to
what
is
commonly called as pseudoscience or not-science."1
It means that Dr.
Emoto’s research does not satisfy the characteristics of
universality
and
reproducibility usually present in all scientific research. The authors
of the
homepage [4]
alert that people who are
not used to analyze
what they read may think that it is enough “to write lovely words
in unclean water and use it to drink or to cook ...”1
[4].
Despite
the fact that Dr. Emoto does not suggest this kind of application of
water,
there is no guarantee that it can not occur.
We
have sent
an e-mail
to Dr. Emoto asking him about the publication of a
scientific paper in a “peer reviewed” scientific journal.
His wife
gently answered
the e-mail
saying that she agrees with the importance of such a
publication but it has not been done yet. That is an important
reason to
consider that Dr. Emoto’s results on research with crystalline
water
and its
relation to the thoughts and feelings can not be considered as
scientifically
proved.
In
order to
give a better idea to the reader about when a given research is
or is not
scientifically proved, we shall present the main steps needed
for any
type of research to be considered as that. When the scientific
community
performs
the same experiments related to a given research and verifies the same
results,
we can say that they are
scientifically proved. The first
step towards the scientific proof of any research is the publication of
a
scientific article (a scientific paper), about the research, in a
“peer
reviewed” scientific journal. It is very important because it is
the
only way
to let the scientific community know about the research. The editorial
method of
publication in a scientific journal selects the papers whose research
was
performed in accordance to the standard
rules followed by the
scientific community. It prevents the scientific community from reading
non-scientific papers and, therefore, avoids the lost of time
and money
(we should be aware that most scientific research is sponsored by
public
sources of money. So, the responsibility of the researchers in spending
time
and money on
scientific activities is very important.).
Also, the expression “peer
reviewed”
means that every paper submitted for publication in a scientific
journal is
sent to one or more researchers, specialists in the field of the paper,
who
make a critical reading of the paper, verifying several criteria as if
the
research was done correctly, if any detail was forgotten, if the
research has
not been done previously (to avoid repetitions), if the bibliography is
correct, etc. So, that is the reason why the publication of a paper in
a
scientific journal is the first step towards the consideration of a
given
research as scientifically proved.
On
the other
hand, we can use the spiritist criterion of judiciousness to
analyze one
of the results of Dr. Emoto’s research. Let us think about the
following
example.
Consider the experiment of putting a label on a flask containing some
water.
Let us choose the word HITTLER. This word was used by Dr. Emoto in some
of his
examples [1].
To most people, the word HITTLER brings
the terrible
actions
of Nazism to memory so, to them, they are
bad thoughts and feelings. Nevertheless,
there are some people whose name or surname possesses the word
HITTLER and
these people are
not, necessarily, bad. Imagine that we approximate the
flask containing water with the label written HITTLER to the mother
of one
of those persons whose name is HITTLER. This mother will vibrate love
as soon
as she reads the label. So, we expect the crystalline water to be
beautiful.
But Dr. Emoto said that the word alone is capable to produce a bad
amorphous
shape in the sample of water. That is the point where we think Dr.
Emoto’s research
is wrong. A simple sequence of letters is not capable of producing
vibrations.
Only spirits can vibrate thoughts and feelings. The conclusion that a
word
influences the process of crystallization of a sample of water is not
in accordance
to the Spiritist Doctrine.
We
conclude
this paper,
stating that the influence on the shape of the crystalline structures
of water
by the vibrations of thoughts and feelings cannot be considered as
scientifically proven. It does not mean that water cannot
absorb
spiritual fluids. We cannot claim that Science has accepted Dr.
Emoto’s
research as something scientifically proved. We respect Dr.
Emoto’s
work and
his main motivation for the preservation of pure water in our planet.
However,
his research must be published in a scientific journal in order to be
acknowledged by the scientific community. The publication of Dr.
Emoto’s
research in a book is very weak, in the scientific point of view
because the
publication of a book does not requires the process of “peer
reviewing”,
commonly used in the scientific journals. The scientific community
gives more
attention to the contents of scientific text-books (what is not the
case of Dr.
Emoto’s books) and scientific journals.
It
is timely
to remember the words of the Spirit Erastes in item
230 of The
Mediums’ Book {5}: “Remember
that it is better to repudiate a dozen
truths than to admit a single error”.
1
Our translation from the
original in
Portuguese.
References
[1]
M.
Emoto, The
Message from Water, Vol. I, Ed. Hado Kyoiku Sha, (1999).
[2]
http://www.hado.net e http://thank-water.net
[3]
A.
Kardec, The
Spirits’ Book, FEB, 6th Edition (1996).
[4]
http://www.quatrocantos.com/lendas/132_mensagem_agua.htm
[5]
A.
Kardec, The Mediums’ Book. FEB, 2nd Edition
(1986)
(Reproduced
from GEAE's
Spiritist Messsenger 059 - February 2005)