During the course of sampling and photographing different types of water, it seemed to me that the quality of the water crystals depended on more than just whether it was natural water or tap water. I came up with the hypothesis: “Water shows different shapes of ice crystals depending on the information it has received.” I was certain that the difference in ice-crystal formation was not due solely to the presence or absence of chlorine but to the other information affecting it.

To test this, I put water into two glass bottles. On one bottle, I pasted a label typed “Thank you,” and on the other, “You fool.” The water in both bottles was the same. I then froze the water in each bottle.

The water in the bottle with “Thank you” formed beautiful hexagonal crystals, while the one with “You fool” had only fragments of crystals.

If water collects information and its crystals reflect those characteristics, it means that the quality of water changes based on the information it receives. In other words, the information we give to water changes its quality.

I was more motivated than ever to study water, and at the same time, I started to think about how people would be able to become happy with good water.

As this experiment convinced me that my theory was correct, we then began to give water various information, freeze it, and photograph the crystals. The results were very interesting.

We consistently found that water responded to positive words by forming beautiful crystals. As if it wanted to express its joyous feeling, the crystals opened up like a flower. In contrast, when water was shown negative words, it did not form a crystal.

For example, when we showed water the word “happiness,” it formed crystals with well-balanced shapes like beautifully cut diamonds. On the other hand, water exposed to the word “unhappiness” resulted in broken and unbalanced crystals.

We continued to show a pair of opposite words to the same water: “well done” versus “no good,” “like” versus “dislike,” “peace” versus “war”. Water formed crystals only when it was shown the positive words.

Interestingly, water responded to foreign words in a similar but not exact manner as it did to Japanese words. Water formed beautiful crystals to all the words expressing gratitude all over the world, such as thank you (English), duoxie (Chinese), merci (French), and kamusamunida (Korean).

Water seems to correctly understand the essence of what it was shown--- in this case, the feeling of gratitude, and take that information in. Water didn’t recognize the word it saw as a simple design; rather, it understood the meaning of it. When water realized that the word carried good information, it formed crystals. Perhaps water is also capable of sensing the heart of the person who wrote the word.

As we were exposing water to lots of words and taking photographs of the resulting crystals, my eyes were glued to one photo, more beautiful than any other water-crystal pictures I had seen.

The crystal was opened up strongly as if a fully blossoming flower. It was as if the water was stretching its hands fully expressing its joy. The words we had shown the water were “love and gratitude”.

Since then, we have talked to water with many kind words, showed it beautiful pictures, and played wonderful healing music, but we have never again been able to take water-crystal pictures as beautiful as the one that resulted from showing water the words “love and gratitude”.

To water, the words “love and gratitude" must be the best information.

Excerpt from The True Power of Water
Translated by Noriko Hosoyamada

[Masaru Emoto (Yokohama, Japan, 1943) is a graduate of Yokohama Municipal University. In 1986 he established the I.H.M. Corporation in Toyko, where he is presently the head of the Research Institute and president of the company. In 1992 he received a Doctor of Alternative Medicine certificate from the Open International University. His books on water crystals have been translated into several languages.]