By Du Guodong

Can water think? Can it learn? After reading the book Water Knows the Answers – the Hidden Messages in Water Crystals, you may believe that water can reflect human emotions and has the power to listen, see, and know the answers to life.

The author, Japanese doctor Masaru Emoto, came to Beijing last week promoting his book, based on research into water crystals. Displaying 122 photographs of various water crystals, he demonstrated that water can memorize and communicate information.

The book described how the author refrigerated different kinds of natural water and shot photos with a high-speed camera as the droplets began to freeze, capturing images of amazingly beautiful crystals.

After constant research and experimentation, he came to realize that tap water crystals, contaminated with chlorine, are different from those of pure water from wells, glaciers, and springs.

Acting on a whim, Emoto wondered what would happen when water crystals are exposed to music. He was taken aback by the results, which showed that when a bottle of water is placed between two speakers playing classical music like Beethoven's Symphony No. 40 in G Minor or his Pastorale, beautiful and bright crystal hexagons were formed.

But when exposed to heavy rock music with angry lyrics filled with curse words, the crystals shattered into small pieces.

Emoto continued his research by placing a typed label reading "thank you" on one bottle and "you fool" on another and left them both overnight.

Later he froze the water samples and took crystal photos. He found the water crystals were different depending on the words shown. After trying the same experiment several times, he got the same results.

He claims the water reacted to affectionate words like "thank you," and "love," by forming crystals in the shape of a smiling flower, but created ugly crystals when the

 water "listened" to curses like "damn it," and "fool."

"Everything in the world exists through a kind of vibration and everything that vibrates in the world influences something else," Emoto told the Global Times. "Music and words are vibrations."

"Those who have a depressed attitude toward life will give off pessimistic vibration frequencies and those with optimistic attitudes will show happy vibrations. When falling in love, people will send out love frequencies and when serving the devil, they will give off vicious ones."

The author claims that water also has the power of memory.

"Water can record and memorize information, just like the sea can tell many stories of lives that feed on the sea, and the glacier can remember the endless history of the world," he added, "If we understand water, we are at the same time understanding the cosmos, the natural world, and the meaning of life."

The author spent six years on his water crystal research. Since its publication in Japan ten years ago, the book became an instant hit throughout the world and has been translated into 16 languages available in 78 countries, evoking people's love and gratitude for water, according to Emoto.

Despite the book's popularity, several scientists in Japan and the US challenged the findings and emphasized that the results are not in line with scientific procedures. Consequently, the findings are not reliable.

Emoto emphasized that his findings should not be categorized as scientific experiments. He said his work is merely an endeavor to present a unique observation of water crystals under different impacts.

"When my experiments were being promoted and classified as scientific findings, it really gave me a headache," said Emoto. "It is only a presentation of an amazing phenomenon, not based strictly on science like other scientific experiments."

"The findings are more artistic than scientific. I would like to be described as a missionary for water to inspire people's love and care for water, it isthe most common but most precious thing in the world. That was my purpose in writing the book."

Born in 1943 in Yokohama Japan, Emoto is a doctor of medicine and currently head of the Japan-based Institute of Hado Medicine and president of the International Hado Membership Association. He's been studying water all his life and says his affection toward it grows with every passing day.

"We are 95 percent water before we are born and 70 percent water when we become adults; therefore, we are mostly water. I want to express my deep affection toward water and say thank you and I love you," said Emoto.

Crystals (left to right) taken of well water, after "hearing" Buddhist prayer and "seeing"photo of a dolphin.