Masaru Emoto

Masaru Emoto (江本 勝, Emoto Masaru, July 22, 1943 – October 17, 2014)[1] was a Japanese businessman, author and pseudo-scientist who claimed that human consciousness could affect the molecular structure of water. His 2004 book The Hidden Messages in Water was a New York Times best seller.[2] His conjecture evolved over the years, and his early work revolved around pseudo-scientific hypotheses that water could react to positive thoughts and words and that polluted water could be cleaned through prayer and positive visualization.[3][4][5]

Masaru Emoto
江本勝
Born(1943-07-22)July 22, 1943
Yokohama, Japan
DiedOctober 17, 2014(2014-10-17) (aged 71)
Japan
EducationYokohama Municipal University
Spouse(s)Kazuko Emoto

From 1999, Emoto published several volumes of a work entitled Messages from Water, containing photographs of ice crystals and accompanying experiments such as that of the ‘rice in water’ 30 day experiment.

Biography

Emoto was born in Yokohama, Japan, and graduated from Yokohama Municipal University after taking courses in International Relations. He worked in the Nagoya Office (Central Japan Office) of the Yomiuri Shimbun, then founded the International Health Medical company in 1986. In 1989 he received exclusive rights to market the Magnetic Resonance Analyzer,[6] a device patented by Ronald Weinstock (USP 5,592,086), which was alleged to be able to detect the magnetic field around a human hair, for example, and diagnose almost any disease.[7] He renamed it the "Vibration-o-Meter," became an operator himself, and started a business dealing in vibrations.[8]

He was President Emeritus of the International Water For Life Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Oklahoma City in the United States.[9] In 1992 he became a Doctor of Alternative Medicine at the Open International University for Alternative Medicine in India,[10] a diploma mill which targeted quacks to sell its degrees[11] and was later shut down.[12][13]

Ideas

Emoto said that water was a "blueprint for our reality" and that emotional "energies" and "vibrations" could change its physical structure.[14] His water crystal experiments consisted of exposing water in glasses to various words, pictures, or music, then freezing it and examining the ice crystals' aesthetic properties with microscopic photography.[9] He claimed that water exposed to positive speech and thoughts created visually "pleasing" ice crystals, and that negative intentions yielded "ugly" ice formations.[9]

Emoto held that different water sources produced different ice structures. For example, he held that water from a mountain stream, when frozen, showed structures of beautifully shaped geometric designs; but that water from polluted sources created distorted, randomly formed ice structures. He held that these changes could be eliminated by exposing water to ultraviolet light or certain electromagnetic waves.[14]

In 2008, Emoto published his findings in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, a scientific journal of the Society for Scientific Exploration that has been criticized for catering to fringe science.[15] He co-conducted and co-authored the work with Takashige Kizu of Emoto's own IHM General Institute, and Dean Radin and Nancy Lund of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which is on Stephen Barrett's Quackwatch list of questionable organizations.[16]

Scientific criticism

Commentators have criticized Emoto for insufficient experimental controls and for not sharing enough details of his experiments with the scientific community.[9][17] He has been criticized for designing his experiments in ways that permit manipulation or human error.[9][18] Biochemist and Director of Microscopy at University College Cork William Reville wrote, "It is very unlikely that there is any reality behind Emoto's claims."[9] Reville noted the lack of scientific publication and pointed out that anyone who could demonstrate such phenomenae would become immediately famous and probably wealthy.[9]

Writing about Emoto's ideas in the Skeptical Inquirer, physician Harriet A. Hall concluded that it was "hard to see how anyone could mistake it for science".[5] Emoto was personally invited to take the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge by James Randi in 2003 and would have received US$1,000,000 if he had been able to reproduce the experiment under test conditions agreed to by both parties. Emoto did not accept the invitation.[19][20]

Reception

Emoto's book The Hidden Messages in Water was a New York Times best seller.[21][2] Writing in The New York Times Book Review, literary critic Dwight Garner described it as "spectacularly eccentric", and said its success was "one of those 'head-scratchers' that makes me question the sanity of the reading public."[2] Publishers Weekly described Emoto's later work, The Shape of Love, as "mostly incoherent and unsatisfying".[22]

Emoto's ideas appeared in the movies Kamen Rider: The First and What the Bleep Do We Know!?.[23][24][25]

Publications

Books
  • 水からの伝言: 世界初!! 水の結晶写真集 (Mizu kara no dengon: sekaihatsu!! mizu no kesshō shashinshū) [Messages from Water] (in Japanese). 1. Tokyo: Hado. 1999. ISBN 9784939098000.
    • English edition: The Message from Water: The Message from Water is Telling Us to Take a Look at Ourselves. 1. Hado. 2000. ISBN 9784939098000.
  • 水からの伝言： 世界初！！水の氷結結晶写真集今日も水にありがとう (Mizu kara no dengon: sekaihatsu!! mizu no kesshō shashinshū) [The Messages from Water] (in Japanese). 2. Tokyo: Hado. 2001. ISBN 9784939098048.
    • English edition: The Message from Water. 2. Hado. 2001. ISBN 9784939098048.
  • 水が伝える愛のかたち (Mizu ga tsutaeru ai no katachi) (in Japanese). Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten. 2003. ISBN 9784198617509.
    • English edition: The Shape of Love: Discovering Who We Are, Where We Came From, and Where We are Going. New York: Doubleday. 2007. ISBN 9780385518376.
  • Love Thyself: The Message from Water III. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House. 2004. ISBN 9781401908997.
  • 水可以改變我生命 : "愛和感謝"的心情可以創造積極的能量 (Shui ke yi gai bian wo sheng ming : "Ai he gan xie" de xin qing ke yi chuan zao ji ji de neng liang) (in Chinese). Taibei Xian Xindian Shi. 2006. ISBN 9789576864971.
  • Water Crystal Healing: Music & Images to Restore Your Well Being. New York; Hillsboro, OR: Atria: Beyond Words. 2006. ISBN 9781582701561.
  • The True Power of Water (Book): Healing and Discovering Ourselves; Beyond Words Pub, 2005. ISBN 9781582701288.[26]
  • The Hidden Messages in Water;Beyond Words Pub, 2004. ISBN 9781582701141[27]

See also

References
  1. "Masaru Emoto" (in German). Koha Verlag. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
  2. Garner, Dwight (March 13, 2005). "TBR: Inside the list". The New York Times Book Review. p. 30. ProQuest 217307067.
  3. Kenneth G. Libbrecht. "Snowflake Myths and Nonsense". California Institute of Technology. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
  4. "The minds boggle". The Guardian. 16 May 2005.
  5. Harriet Hall (November 2007). "Masaru Emoto's Wonderful World of Water". Skeptical Inquirer.
  6. 江本勝『波動時代への除幕』（サンロード、1992年）5刷、P.24
  7. Neurosceptic (January 31, 2015). "Does Quantum Resonance Spectrometry Work?". Discover. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  8. This is from Japanese Wikipedia.
  9. Reville, William (February 17, 2011). "The pseudoscience of creating beautiful (or ugly) water". The Irish Times. Dublin. p. 14. ProQuest 851900025.
  10. Gordon, Sari (September–October 2004). "He talks to water ...and the water talks back. Meet Dr. Emoto". Utne Reader (125). p. 73. ProQuest 217433470.
  11. "Fake university 'VC' targeted only quacks to issue degrees - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  12. Dunning, Brian (September 23, 2014). "Skeptoid #433: The Water Woo of Masaru Emoto". Skeptoid. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  13. Jaisankar, C. (2019-01-11). "Fake varsity sealed after operating for 12 years". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  14. Gray, Donna (July 26, 2003). "Message in the water". Calgary Herald. p. S8. ProQuest 245079696.
  15. Michael D. Lemonick/Gainesville (2005-05-24). "Science on the Fringe". Time magazine. Archived from the original on 2018-07-16. Retrieved 2008-06-02.
  16. Barrett, Stephen. "Questionable Organizations: An Overview". Quackwatch. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  17. Koh, Lay Chin (January 28, 2009). "A 'hado' will never replace a home full of life". New Straits Times. Kuala Lumpur, MY. p. 17. ProQuest 272168250.
  18. Matthews, Robert (April 8, 2006). "Water: The quantum elixir". New Scientist (2546).
  19. Mason, Phil (2010). Quantum Glory: The Science of Heaven Invading Earth. Maricopa, AZ: XP Publishing. p. 150. ISBN 9781936101597.
  20. Randi, James (May 23, 2003). "Chiropractic Crackup, Talking to Water, Sylvia Emerges!, Bidlack's Lumps, An MS Miracle, and a Korean Magic Stone..." Swift (online newsletter). James Randi Educational Foundation. Archived from the original on 2003-06-02.
  21. Previch, Chad (January 21, 2006). "Want rain? It's all in the brain, expert says". The Oklahoman. Knight Ridder. ProQuest 463050722.
  22. "The Shape of Love: Discovering Who We Are, Where We Came From, and Where We're Going". Publishers Weekly (book review). 254 (7). February 12, 2007. p. 79.
  23. "The minds boggle". The Guardian. May 15, 2005.
  24. Olmsted, John (October 1, 2004). "Ramtha's school of quantum flapdoodle". eSkeptic (movie review). Skeptics Society. ISSN 1556-5696. Retrieved 2014-08-21.
  25. Poppy, Carrie (March 11, 2014). "A grain of truth: Recreating Dr. Emoto's rice experiment". Poppycock (blog). Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Retrieved 2014-08-21.
  26. Emoto, Masaru (2005). The True Power of Water: Healing and Discovering Ourselves. ISBN 9781582701288.
  27. Emoto, Masaru (2004). Mr. Hillsboro, Oregon, United States: Beyond Words Pub. p. 159. ISBN 9781582701141.

Further reading
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