Book Review: Masaru Emoto’s, “The Secret Life of Water"

Just read Masaru Emoto’s, “The Secret Life of Water.’ If I have to rate it, I will give it one star for writing, three stars for insightful thoughts, two stars for scientific evidence and four stars for photography. All in all, an interesting book to read if you have been probing your soul and bookshelves for some vague spiritual awakening. If you are a practical person like me who demands evidence before accepting even him/herself, I warn you, you may be disappointed. I don’t say, the theory of water drops crystallizing into stunning hexagons like sparkling chandeliers after being exposed to prayers and optimistic thoughts is fantastic and unreal but, what I mean here is that the author failed to convince the readers. The scientific data is lacking. Candidly, Dr. Emoto agreed himself that the pictures, which by the way are beautiful, were selected with a subjective bias. When the water which could be in the form of a river, a pond, or a glass of water put on your kitchen island was showered upon goodwill and the samples were frozen, variable crystals were formed that could be classified as beautiful, well-shaped or broken and really, it was the discretion of the photographer as to which one (s) to include in the book. Since the photographer is the author, wouldn’t it be understandable that he chose beautiful pictures in these cases emphasizing his theory that water reacts to our words. None of the experiments were randomized or blinded, at least not the ones he mentions in the book, the results were not statistically derived and hence, they loose their objectivity and authenticity. 

The book however asserts the importance of recycling and saving our green planet from the impending doom of global warming for which, I give it full points. The writing is simple but disjointed; the author jumps from one topic to the other without much order. There is mention of the ‘Hado theory’ that all substances and phenomena emit vibrations, which is interesting but hard to follow. The healing powers of water, which it appears works in conjunction with the hado theory is briefly touched upon (there is another book by the same author elaborating more on this). It is indeed a thought provoking book especially for those of us who believe that words are powerful, optimism is the key to success, and we need to undo the damage caused by chemical pollutants to replenish our beautiful planet but what the shape of water crystals or H2O has to do with all that, I am not sure.