Masaru Emoto

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Masaru Emoto
江本勝
Born (1943-07-22) July 22, 1943 (age 69)
Yokohama, Japan
Education Yokohama Municipal University,
Open International University for Alternative Medicine (India)
Spouse(s) Kazuko Emoto
Children Three

Masaru Emoto (江本 勝 Emoto Masaru?, born July 22, 1943) is a Japanese author and entrepreneur, best known for his claims that human consciousness has an effect on the molecular structure of water. Emoto's hypothesis has evolved over the years of his research. Initially he believed that water takes on the "resonance" of the energy which is directed at it, and that polluted water can be restored through prayer and positive visualization. Emoto's work is widely considered pseudoscience by professionals, and he is criticized for going directly to the public with misleading claims that violate basic physics, based on methods that fail to properly investigate the truth of the claims.[1][2]

Since 1999 Emoto has published several volumes of a work titled Messages from Water, which contains photographs of water crystals, and their accompanying experiments. Emoto's ideas appeared in the documentary "What the Bleep Do We Know!?". Like the film,

Contents

Biography [edit]

Born in Yokohama, Japan, Emoto graduated from Yokohama Municipal University with courses in International Relations. "In 1986, he established the I.H.M. Corporation in Tokyo and is currently the head of the I.H.M. General Research Institute, Inc., the President of I.H.M., Inc., and the chief representative of I.H.M.'s HADO Fellowship.[citation needed] In 1992 he received certification as a Doctor of Alternative Medicine from the Indian Board of Alternative Medicines in India.[citation needed] After learning in United States, he began studying water in more detail.[3]

Emoto is President Emeritus of the International Water For Life Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Oklahoma City. He has three children with his wife Kazuko.[4]

Emoto's water crystal experiments consist of exposing water in glasses to different words, pictures, or music, and then freezing and examining the aesthetics of the resulting crystals with microscopic photography.[5] Emoto claims that different water sources produce different crystalline structures when frozen. For example, Emoto claims that a water sample from a mountain stream would purportedly show a geometric design that is beautifully shaped when frozen. On the other hand, Emoto claims that polluted water sources will be distorted and will be randomly formed.

Criticism [edit]

Commentators have criticized Emoto for insufficient experimental controls,[6] and for not sharing enough details of his approach with the scientific community.[7] In addition, Emoto has been criticized for designing his experiments in ways that leave them open to human error influencing his findings.[8]

Blinded studies [edit]

In 2006, Emoto published a paper together with Dean Radin in Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing. They describe that in a double blind test they conducted, 2000 people in Tokyo could increase the aesthetic appeal of water stored in a room in California solely through thought.[9]

A better-controlled "triple-blind" follow-up study published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration did not yield positive results.[10] More than 1,900 of Mr. Emoto's followers focused gratitude on water bottles in a vault over a period of three days. The water was then frozen and compared to two different sets of controls. Crystals from all three groups were not considered to be particularly beautiful (scoring 1.7 on a scale of 0 to 6, where 6 was very beautiful). An objective comparison of contrast did not reveal any significant differences among the samples.[11] Writing about Emoto's theory in the Skeptical Inquirer, physician Harriet A. Hall concluded that it was "hard to see how anyone could mistake it for science".[1]

Books [edit]

Emoto has sold 2 million copies of his books.[citation needed]

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ a b Harriet Hall. "Masaru Emoto's Wonderful World of Water". Skeptical Inquirer (Nov/Dec 2007). 
  2. ^ "The minds boggle". The Guardian. 16 May 2005. 
  3. ^ "Authors: Masaru Emoto". Beyond Words. Retrieved 2010-03-24. [unreliable source?]
  4. ^ "International Water For Life Foundation". Retrieved 1 December 2011. 
  5. ^ "How to Take a Water Crystal Photograph". Retrieved 2011-10-10. 
  6. ^ Dr. William A. Tiller, another researcher featured in the movie What The Bleep Do We Know?, has pointed out that Emoto's experiments fall short of proof, since Emoto's experiments 'do not control for one of the three key factors in the supercooling of water'.Tiller, William (2005). "What the Bleep do we Know!?: A Personal Narrative". Vision In Action 2 (3-4). [dead link]
  7. ^ Mae-Wan Ho. "Crystal Clear - Messages from Water". Science in Society. 
  8. ^ For example, see Radin et al., 2006, page 408.
    See also "Water:The Quantum Elixir". New Scientist (2546). April 8, 2006. 
  9. ^ Radin, Dean; Hayssen1, Gail; Emoto, Masaru ; Kizu, Takashige (September 2006). "Double-Blind Test of the Effects of Distant Intention on Water Crystal Formation". Explore: the Journal of Science and Healing 2 (5): 408–11. doi:10.1016/j.explore.2006.06.004. PMID 16979104. Retrieved 2008-08-05. 
  10. ^ Dean Radin, Nancy Lund, Masaru Emoto, Takashige Kizu. "Effects of Distant Intention on Water Crystal Formation: A Triple-Blind Replication". Retrieved 21 February 2013. 
  11. ^ Stephen Kiesling. "Latest Message from Water: Is Dr. Emoto a Spiritual Madoff?". thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 21 February 2013. 


Further reading [edit]

External links [edit]

Authority control
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