Yes There IS Something in the Water

Another popular meme in mainstream esoteric spirituality is the buzz about the Japanese guy who takes pictures of water crystals at a microscopic level, to prove that water responds appropriately to negative and positive input.

Dr. Masuru Emoto is enjoying the proceeds from his book, The Hidden Messages in Water. Mr. Emoto's book reveals photographs of water crystals which apparently respond to certain words positively or negatively in correlation with the nature of the words. He contends that not only are thoughts things, but that these thing-thoughts can alter the shape and design of water crystals. As if water has emotion.

No one in the legitimate scientific community is taking it seriously, and Stephen Lower, a Chemistry professor, even debunks this on his site. [1]

First, according to Lower, these photographs are not of water molecules, and "convey no information about water." And apparently, Mr. Emoto has only published in "Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing." This would seem to cover the peer-reviewed journal stipulation of credibility, and Emoto reportedly did a double-blind and a triple blind study. This would normally impart a stamp of credibility on the work, but let's ask the questions: who were the "peers" in this journal, and was it really a double-blind study?

Who Were His Peers?
It is my understanding that invoking the "peer" stipulation, implies the peers are reputable, and accordingly scientific. This does NOT refer to HIS peers, since his title of "Doctor" comes from his certification from the "Open International University for Alternative Medicine" in India.

According to The Skeptic Dictionary,

"For $3,750 USD one could buy any of the following degrees: M.D. (M.A.), M.D. (T.M.), Dr. Ac., or Ph.D. These letters stand for Doctor of Medicine (Alternativa Medicina), Doctor of Medicine (Traditional Medicine), Doctor of Acupuncture, and Doctor of Philosophy. Registration was an extra $1,000..." [2]

Okay, a diploma mill for a shady institution. It's bad enough to get a fake diploma from a RESPECTED educational institution, but to buy a fake diploma from a fake one...well, that's just rubbing it in.

Among his "peers" --the ones who "Reviewed" his findings--are:

Larry Dossey, M.D., the author of Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine and Prayer Is Good Medicine and How to Reap the Healing Benefits of Prayer. First of all, prayer is NOT medicine. The ineffectiveness of prayer has been debunked many times over in legitimate scientific experiments, and I debunked it again in my own book, Supernatural Hypocrisy: The Cognitive Dissonance of A God Cosmology.

Among the many other claims embraced by Dossey:

Uri Geller's powers; voodoo and "distant hexing"; a "93 percent accurate" cold-reader "Therapeutic Touch" (the New Age technique recently scandalizing the Colorado Board of Nursing); Robert Jahn's random-event generator experiments which "transcend space [and] time" (and which have since been debunked in a parapsychology journal!); William Braud's experiments showing that "the mental images of one person can modify the activity of the autonomic nervous system of a distant person [who is] unaware that the attempt is being made"; the Biblical story (Joshua 10:12-14) of the sun standing still: "In addition to standing still, could time become 'disjointed,' such that the future would precede the present, or the present precede the past?" (Anecdote: an unidentified man was spontaneously cured of colon cancer through his minister's prayer before the prayer was even said!) " [3]

Another peer? Dean Radin, who "has a master’s degree in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Illinois. He is director of the Consciousness Research Laboratory and Senior Scientist and Laboratory Director at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. He also does research for the Boundary Institute. He’s been active in psi research for several decades and has published more than 200 papers related to parapsychology." [4]

Interestingly, Radin was both a peer who reviewed it, and a co-author. Radin admitted to removing the double-blind aspect to get rid of some results that didn't match what he wanted to see. That's most definitely NOT scientific. Nor is it honest.

Radin is also the the Co-editor-in-Chief of....wait for it...

Explore.

The journal that published Emoto's work. Do you smell a rat? I do.

Was it Double-Blind?
Only to the truth, apparently. Dean Radin, Emoto's partner in aqua-crime, has a reputation that precedes him; albeit a bad one.

"Radin has been known to select data that fits his hypothesis and ignore that which doesn't, and so there's no reason to think that hasn't happened here. Radin even admits he un-blinded the study to eliminate some data he didn't like. Add the fact that there was no control group, the null hypotheses were not even rejected, and the only interesting thing they found required some (admitted by the authors) post hoc rationalization, and there really isn't much left worth looking at." [5]

In a paper entitled, "Review and analysis of Dr. Masaru Emoto’s published work on the effects of external stimuli on the structural formation of ice crystals," Vermont's Castleton State College professor Kristopher Setchfield had this to say:

" It is this crucial lack of scientific foundation that prevents Dr. Emoto’s work from attracting interest by widely accepted and respected scientists at long-standing research institutions. This is unfortunate for the world if there is, after all, truth to his claims--as reproduction of his results by any scientist would lend much credence to his work. A little change in Emoto’s experimental design would do great things for the credibility of his claims. I recommend the following to ground his work in sound scientific principle:

• * Eliminate the possibility of the scientist’s bias affecting the experiment’s results by implementing double blind procedures.
• * Publish the entire collection of photos for all water sample tests that he has performed, not just the ones that support his claim.
• * Minimize the sources of possible error in his procedures, such as variation in temperature and humidity between sample.
• * Pay more attention to the time-tested methods of the scientific community rather than disregarding them. Emoto’s research could go much farther if he could interest scientists around the world in testing his hypothesis.

After the lengthy review of Emoto’s research methods and results, I have come to believe that Dr. Emoto is offering pseudoscience to the masses in the guise of defensible research. Only time and review by others will tell if there is any truth at the heart of Mr. Emoto’s claims, as Emoto himself thoroughly believes in his findings but does not value the scientific method or community. What is truly fearsome is the great numbers of people that accept his words as proven facts without looking deeper to find out if his claims are truly justified. While I respect Dr. Emoto’s desire to save the Earth’s water from contamination and pollution, unless he can produce a scientific paper and get it published in a scientific journal, I believe that he will continue to be ignored by the scientific community, and his claims will never be soundly proved or disproved." [6]

James Randi, the infamous debunker of all things paranormal, has offered his usual one million dollar prize to Emoto if he can reproduce, in a REAL double-blind study, showing all his methods and results, that his claims are true. Emoto has not accepted the offer.

This is a sure sign of esoteric spirituality at its most embarrassing. Now, there is a whole slew of products based on this magical water, and gullible consumers are lining the pockets of those who offer it.

I can only call on an altered version of that beloved Styx song and say, "Domo arigato, Mr. Emoto." Thank you for giving us another reason to scoff at the scientifically ignorant, and for the opportunity to expose you for the charlatan you are.

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[1] Water Cluster Quakery: The Junk Science of Structure-Altered Waters
http://www.chem1.com/CQ/clusqk.html. Stephen Lower is a retired faculty member of the
Dept of Chemistry, Simon Fraser University Burnaby / Vancouver, Canada
[2] http://www.skepdic.com/microacupuncture.html
[3] http://www.gpposner.com/Healing_Words.html
[4] http://www.skepdic.com/refuge/radin1.html
[5] Skeptico: Critical Thinking for an irrational world. Mar 28, 2009. "Distant From Science"
[6] Vitalis News. http://www.vitalisnews.com/emoto.htm

Yes There IS Something in the Water