The Secret Life of Water

About the Book

From its arrival on earth to the vast areas it traverses before emptying into the sea, water holds all the knowledge and experience it has acquired. As phenomenal as it may seem, water carries its whole history, just as we carry ours. It carries secrets, too.

In The Secret Life of Water, bestselling author Masaru Emoto guides us along water’s remarkable journey through our planet and continues his work to reveal water’s secret life to humankind. He shows how we can apply its wisdom to our own lives, and how, by learning to respect and appreciate water, we can better confront the challenges that face the twenty-first century-and rejuvenate the planet.

Introduction Starting with my first collection of water-crystal photographs, Messages from Water [Mizu kara no dengen] (Vibration Kyoikusha, 1999), I have come to realize that these water books have a strange and wonderful power. They have wings of their own and go beyond my own familiar boundaries to distant lands, where they have an enormous impact. They force people to experience a different way of seeing things, and I am often invited to speak to the people who have been touched by these books.

I sometimes feel like I'm being guided by the spirit of water. I feel like I can see and even talk to this spirit, which I see as water droplets shining brightly in the air. The droplets join together to form clouds, disappearing just as fast, all for my entertainment.

Even though I now feel like I am being guided by the spirit of water, my first conscious interaction with water was not at all pleasant. In Yokohama, Japan, where I grew up, my family lived on a plateau near the ocean. It was only a short walk down a slope to the water's edge. When the tide went out, the shallow shore was left uncovered for miles, making it a great place to hunt for various types of clams. But at high tide, the scene was completely different.

I must have been six or seven when the sea swallowed me up one day. I had gone out swimming with the boy next door, who was two years older than I.

We had gone out farther than we should have, and I suddenly began bobbing up and down, gasping for air. It was the first time I had experienced anything like it. I was only ten meters from land, but my feet didn't touch the bottom. I panicked and started waving my arms and kicking my feet. But the more I panicked, the more I sunk, and soon I started to swallow water. I thought that was going to be the end of me, but a small boat approached and pulled me out of the water.

When I went home and told my mother what had happened, she gave me some advice based on her own ability to swim and her understanding of water. "You can float if you just give in," she said. She told me that if I let the water lift me instead of trying to resist it, it would pick me up and carry me.

These words have stuck with me over the years. Since that time, I have tried to let myself go with the flow as I gently move in the direction that I wish my life to take me.

Now whenever I go swimming in the ocean or a pool, I like to just lie on my back and let myself be carried in the arms of water. And it's times like that more than any other that I feel the presence of the spirit of water in the form of shining droplets.

I feel quite confident in saying that the reason I came up with the idea of freezing water and taking photographs of the crystals was that I desired to go with the flow of life. The spirit of water came to my aid, guiding me to live the life that I now live. The spirit has led me and guided me over the years, teaching me the many things I need to know, culminating in the publication of my book The Hidden Messages in Water.

Shortly after its publication, readers began sending me letters of appreciation. Their kind words have helped to create a wonderful flow for me to give myself up to. Most of the letters expressed appreciation and also amazement in seeing the truth of nature revealed through water crystals.

**Contents and Sample Pages**