Introduction: In an Advanced Placement Psychology class at Durango High School our group attempted to replicate Dr. Masaru Emoto's water experiments. In his studies, Dr. Emoto showed a correlation between thoughts or messages and the formation of water crystals.
Original Methods: In his experiment Dr. Emoto used about fifty different water sources varying from glacial water in Japanese mountains to filtered water from a faucet. Dr. Emoto attached different messages to each water sample and even had a Buddhist monk bless some of them. Some of the messages were: "Love and Gratitude," "Thank you," and "You make me sick." He included a variety of positive and negative thoughts. He then froze the water samples on Petri dishes in a freezer at -4 degrees Fahrenheit for 3 hours. His stated results showed a strong correlation between the message and the formation of the water crystals. Water samples with optimistic messages on them created "nice-looking" crystals and the ones with pessimistic messages created "ugly" crystals.
Critique: Dr. Emoto's experiment appears to have overlooked certain variables, and some of his conclusions may be based on assumptions that are not necessarily true. For example, Dr. Emoto failed to realize that there are hundreds of crystals in one drop of water, and through "experimenter bias" he may have subconsciously noticed certain crystals while disregarding others because of the suggestion of a certain message. In other words, he could have looked through thousands of crystals to find a beautiful one if he knew the message was a positive one, and -- consciously or unconsciously -- he could have looked for an ugly crystal if he knew the message was a negative one. Dr. Emoto does not state if the experiment was a double blind study, in which he was unaware of which messages were attached to which water sample, a measure that would eliminate this kind of experimenter bias. Because of this, we do not know if Emoto only photographed the "pretty" crystals because of the positive messages or was unconsciously drawn to "scary" crystals when he looked at samples with negative messages. His experiment is also open to diverse interpretations. He implies that certain crystal structures may reflect the thought that was attached to them, but he fails to recognize that there may be other relevant interpretations for analyzing the crystal formations. Because of the unnoticed variables in the experiment, our high-school A.P. Psychology group decided to try to remake Dr. Emoto's experiment.
Our Methods: Replicating Dr. Emoto's experiment proved to be a little more challenging than we originally thought it would be. Dr. Emoto got most of his water samples from the mountains of Japan; we had to settle with water from the Animas River, and other various water samples. This may have created a discrepancy in our conclusions, but both experiments tested the effect of thought on water, so the water type should have had no bearing on our results. We also used a control group for each type of water: A sample that had no message attached. We had five different types of water: Dasani, tap water, river water, filtered tap water, and tap water from a different location. Each type of water was labeled with a color, and for each type we attached 5 different messages to 5 different microscope slides containing the water sample, as well as having one "control" slide with no message. So all together we made 30 slides. The messages we used were "I despise you," "You make me sick," "Thank you," "Love and Gratitude," and "You are beautiful." We taped the messages, as well as a piece of colored paper that corresponded to the water type, onto the bottom of each slide. We were unaware of which message was on which slide in each water group. Although we took special precautions and were careful about experimenter bias, our experiment was not as wide-scale as Dr. Emoto's. We didn't have nearly as many samples as Dr. Emoto did. Another difficulty we faced was the temperature of the freezer and the time that we left the water in the freezer. Our freezer ranged from -2 to -10 degrees Fahrenheit, while Emoto's was at -4 degrees. This created different freezing times for the water samples. We had to wait until a thin layer of crystals was just beginning to form on the surface of the water before we could analyze them underneath our microscope, but at the same time, we could not let the water freeze completely or else we could not observe any crystals. We also used glass slides instead of Petri dishes, another source of possible discrepancy.
Conclusion: We did not find sufficient evidence to refute or accept Emoto's hypothesis that thought influences water crystal formation. We noticed one interesting similarity between two separate groups of water samples: Similar crystals formed on the same message, "I despise you." But, for the most part, the crystal formations in each water sample resembled each other, regardless of the messages attached to them. We concluded that in order to make a significant finding, further research would have to be done. So, for now, we will have to live with our curiosity and continue to wonder if our thoughts have the power to influence water and ultimately ourselves.
Amanda White,
Robbie Else,
Scott Wilson,
Damian Nash (teacher).
AP Psychology Class
Durango High School
May 25, 2004
Note: Science-minded readers will appreciate the study done by Kristopher Setchfield at http://www.is-masaru-emoto-for-real.com/