Masaru Emoto

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Masaru Emoto
江本勝
Born July 22, 1943 (1943-07-22) (age 65)
Yokohama, Japan
Education Yokohama Municipal University,
Open International University for Alternative Medicine (India)
Occupation Writer
Spouse(s) Kazuko Emoto
Children Three

Masaru Emoto (江本勝 Emoto Masaru?, born July 22, 1943) is a Japanese author known for his controversial claim that if human speech or thoughts are directed at water droplets before they are frozen, images of the resulting water crystals will be beautiful or ugly depending upon whether the words or thoughts were positive or negative. Emoto claims this can be achieved through prayer, music or by attaching written words to a container of water. These claims have been strongly criticized as "pseudoscience."

Since 1999 Emoto has published several volumes of a work titled Messages from Water, which contains photographs of water crystals next to essays and "words of intent."

Contents

[edit] Biography

Born in Yokohama, Japan, Emoto graduated from Yokohama Municipal University with courses in International Relations, and in 1992 he received certification as a Doctor of Alternative Medicine from the Open International University for Alternative Medicine in India, an unaccredited institute with minimal academic requirements. [1]

Emoto is President Emeritus of the International Water For Life Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Oklahoma City, founded in 2005. He has three children and is married to Kazuko Emoto.

[edit] Water crystal work and criticism

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. [2]

Commentators have criticized Emoto for insufficient experimental controls,[3] and for not sharing enough details of his approach with the scientific community. [4] In addition, Emoto has been criticized for designing his experiments in ways that leave them open to human error influencing his findings. [5]

In the day-to-day work of his group, the creativity of the photographers rather than the rigor of the experiment is an explicit policy of Emoto.[6] Emoto freely acknowledges that he is not a scientist,[7] and that photographers are instructed to select the most pleasing photographs.[8]

In 2006, Emoto published a paper together with Dean Radin and others in the peer-reviewed Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing, in which they describe that in a double blind test approximately 2000 people in Tokyo could increase the aesthetic appeal of water stored in a room in California, compared to water in another room, solely through their positive intentions.[9]

James Randi, founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation, has publicly offered Emoto one million dollars if his results can be reproduced in a double-blind study.[10] Randi has also stated that he does not expect to ever have to pay the million dollars.

[edit] Books

Emoto claims to have sold 2 million copies of his books.[11]

  • Messages from Water, Vol. 1 (June 1999), Hado Publishing, ISBN 4-939098-00-1
  • Messages from Water, Vol. 2 (November 2001), Sunmark Pub. ISBN 0-7881-2927-9
  • The Hidden Messages in Water (April 2004 Eng., 2001 Jap.), Beyond Words Publishing ISBN 1-58270-162-8
  • The Message from Water III: Love Thyself (January 2006), published by Hay House ISBN 1-4019-0899-3
  • Water Crystal Healing: Music & Images to Restore Your Well Being (17 October 2006), published by Atria Books ISBN 1-58270-156-3
  • The Shape of Love: Discovering Who We Are, Where We Came From, and Where We are Going, Doubleday, 2007. ISBN 978-0-385-51837-6

[edit] References

  1. ^ Degree requirements for the Open International University for Alternative Medicine. See also this letter to the editor by Gary Greenberg.
  2. ^ How to Make a Water Crystal Photograph, September 15, 2005 entry on Emoto's website
  3. ^ Dr. William A. Tiller, another researcher featured in the movie What tнe Bleep Do ωΣ (k)πow!?, 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'. See Tiller, William, 2005, "What the Bleep do we Know!?: A Personal Narrative", in Vision in Action (VIA), Vol. 2, Issues 3-4, pages 16-20.
  4. ^ For example, see Ho, Mae-Wan. "Crystal Clear – Messages from Water", Part 4 of Institute of Science in Society (ISIS) miniseries "Water, Water, Everywhere".
  5. ^ For example, see Radin et al, 2006, page 408. See also Matthews, Robert, Water: The quantum elixir, New Scientist, April 8, 2006, Full text here.
  6. ^ See extract from a February 2005 interview of Emoto by The Maui News, available on Emoto's web site here
  7. ^ March 16, 2005 entry on Emoto's web diary, titled Twenty three- Vision 11 Casting Ourselves from the Principle of Yin and Yang, extracted from his 1994 book.
  8. ^ See 2005 interview of Emoto by Ray Hemachandra in New Age Retailer, here, page 4.
  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): 408-411. PMID 16979104.. http://www.explorejournal.com/article/S1550-8307(06)00327-2/fulltext. Retrieved on 2008-08-05. 
  10. ^ Talking to Water, Commentary, by James Randi, May 23, 2003.
  11. ^ Barcelona seminar, September 14, 2006 entry on Emoto’s website

[edit] Further reading

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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