THE EDITOR Letter from By Debby Zelman Rapoport Pictured from left: Water crystals labeled with Love, Gratitude, Joy and I Hate You, You Make Me Sick He wrote: “By holding the intention of peace toward water — by thinking, speaking and acting with the intention of peace toward water — water can and will bring peace to our bodies and to the world.” I recently had a conversation with my son about (the late) Dr. Masaru Emoto’s famous rice experiment, of which the premise is that thoughts, emotions and words can change matter. He had taken three jars of rice, labeling two of the three – one with “thank you,” and another with “you’re an idiot.” Then, every day for a month, he said “thank you” to one beaker, “you’re an idiot!” to the next, and completely ignored the third. After 30 days, the rice in the “thank you” beaker was fermenting and releasing a pleasant aroma; the rice in the “idiot” beaker had turned black, and the rice in the ignored beaker had begun to rot. A few weeks later, while I was making wine with some friends, the vintner asked if we knew about Emoto’s study, referring to the one about water crystals. She went on to explain that when water is blessed with positive thoughts, it crystalizes differently because of the energy emitted. She then asked us to bless the wine, which we all happily did. For those of you who regularly read my columns, you know that I believe in the power of energy, and that the energy we put out is what comes back to us. Dr. Emoto believed this and built his career on spreading his thoughts. The water experiment, conducted much like, but prior to, the rice experiment, showed how water from various sources crystalized. He then went on to show that when outside elements, like music and prayer, were added, the crystals were affected accordingly. Dr. Emoto became renowned in the alternative medicine realm after self-publishing his book, The Message of Water, which became an international bestseller. He claimed that human consciousness has an effect on the molecular structure of water, writing that water could react to positive thoughts and words, and that polluted water could be cleaned through prayer and positive visualization. His ideas also appeared in the movie, What the Bleep Do We Know? His hypothesis was, “Molecules of water are affected by our thoughts, words and feelings.” In the prologue of his book, Dr. Emoto asked readers to evaluate their lives to determine if they are happy; if they have a sense of peace in their hearts, a feeling of security about their futures and a feeling of anticipation when they awaken in the morning. He continued that most people are unable to say that their life is everything they had hoped for because of surrounding chaos. He further stated that although people are different, they have one thing in common: the average body is 70% water. When he started to look at the world from this perspective, he began to see things in an entirely new way. He began to see how people could live happy, healthy lives by purifying the water that makes up 70% of the human body. He explained that water serves as a transporter – when it’s moving it remains pure, but when stagnant as a result of our emotions, it dies, since the condition of the mind has a direct impact on the condition of the body. Although Dr. Emoto was fully convinced that water is able to memorize and transport information, this concept was rejected by the medical and science communities. Although his experiments received a lot of buzz, there were too many outside variables to deem them scientific. When looking at test results, Dr. Emoto shared messages about how we treat ourselves and others, about the messages we send and what they do at the molecular level. If thoughts can transform water, imagine what they can do to us. He wrote: “By holding the intention of peace toward water — by thinking, speaking and acting with the intention of peace toward water — water can and will bring peace to our bodies and to the world.” While processing these ideas, the wine we recently blessed is distilling. I guess the proof will be in the potion when we bottle it next month! May 2015 n Beachwood Buzz 3