The Secret Life of Water Page 5

  Just the way you are.

  “Hang in there” results in a rather tight and shrunk crystal. But “Just the way you are” results in a unique shape that seems to be stretching out, just as these words let an individual expand.

  You’re beautiful.

  Try to be beautiful.

  “You’re beautiful” results in a beautiful, natural crystal. “Try to be beautiful” is slightly deformed. This indicates that praise yields better results than pressure.

  Like

  Hate

  The word “Like” seems to take on the shape of a joyous heart, and “Hate” results in a hollow image, almost appearing to suffocate.

  Power

  Helplessness

  “Power” created a crystal that was unique but jumbled; not every problem can be solved with power. “Helplessness” results in a hollow-looking crystal robbed of its power.

  Innocence

  Doing things with innocence perhaps gives you the greatest power to accomplish them. The crystal became too large to fit inside the frame, and so we decreased the magnification to take this picture.

  Thank you

  You idiot!

  Thank you and You idiot!

  When the two words in the top two photographs from my previous book were combined, the result was a thin half-formed crystal. This might indicate that the power of “Thank you” is stronger than “You idiot!”

  “Thank you” in Malaysian

  “Thank you” in Tagalog

  “Thank you” in Portuguese

  As in my previous book, we looked at the results of “Thank you” in various languages. The crystal for Malaysian was especially unique. “Thank you” in various languages has different nuances, resulting in highly distinctive crystals.

  War

  Peace

  The crystal resulting from “War” was taken two months before September 11, 2001. The crystal looks almost as if a jet plane crashed into it. The word “Peace” creates a crystal resembling people coming together in harmony.

  New York City, September 11, 2001

  The events of September 11, 2001, shocked the world. The water formed a crystal like a terrible nightmare.

  Coexistence

  Competition

  The word “Coexistence” resulted in a crystal formed by two crystals, and the word “Competition” created a surprisingly beautiful crystal. This may indicate that wholesome competition is a positive thing.

  Peace of mind

  “Peace of mind” created an expansive crystal. Perhaps this is what people in these hectic times need more than anything else. This is a photograph you might want to put in your pocket and carry around with you.

  The god of happiness and wealth

  The god of poverty

  In Japan, the Shinto religion observes hundreds of deities; these are two of them. The top crystal is full and round, while the bottom one is pointed. I interpret the message to mean that if you live your life harshly like the pointed tip in the bottom picture, happiness and wealth may not come.

  Marital love

  This crystal may represent the relationship dynamic at work when one partner is caring and the other needful. Of course, it’s best when each partner takes turns caring for the other.

  Goods and capital

  Oil

  These are some of the forces that move the modern economy. They are not bad in and of themselves, but when balance is lost, chaos results.

  Hemp

  As I discuss in chapter 5, hemp has great potential and can be used to make various products, like food and clothing, with its good vibration.

  Healing melodies that touch the heart

  This music has the power to heal, as seen in the formation of beautiful crystals.

  Alan Roubik’s “Keys to My Heart” (1–6)

  Alan is doing research into the healing effects of music, and crystals formed while being exposed to his music are all beautiful. This attests to his music’s healing influence.

  Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March”

  This crystal results from the joyful wedding march. The crystal brings to mind a flower in full bloom, resembling a beautiful bride.

  Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries”

  Sarasate’s “Zigeunerweisen”

  These are two composers from the second half of the nineteenth century. Although the motifs are different, both crystals shine with a brilliant healing effect.

  Albinoni’s Adagio

  Schubert’s “Ave Maria”

  The first crystal is the reflection of a mournful melody, while the second one, reflecting “Ave Maria,” is a balanced crystal that appears to be overflowing with love.

  “Edelweiss,” from The Sound of Music

  Edelweiss in German means “noble white,” and so appears the crystal. We can imagine a glass mirror within the crisp white crystal.

  “Amazing Grace”

  This famous prayerful gospel hymn from America created a striking crystal full of grandeur and reverence.

  A Celtic folk song

  We played a song sung by Enya, who is an Irish singer of Celtic spirit. The resulting crystal was pure, innocent, and white, just like her voice.

  “Rokudan,” traditional Japanese melody played on the koto

  “Hyojo Etenraku,” ancient Japanese court music

  These two pieces of traditional Japanese instrumental music we played to water yielded beautiful and orderly crystals, indicating overlapping tones of koto (above) and orderliness of the court music (below).

  “Crane and Turtle,” traditional Japanese kouta song

  “The Green of Pine,” traditional Japanese nagauta song

  These pieces are traditional Japanese vocal music. It was interesting to see a turtle-like shape as the title indicates (above). “The Green of Pine” is a song about a beautiful prostitute.

  The power of prayer can change the world.

  Crystals produced before and after prayers were offered for the water and the world are dramatically different, as can be seen from these examples.

  Water prayed for by five hundred people

  At the same time, five hundred people from all over Japan said a prayer of love for the water. It was normal tap water, which does not usually form crystals due to the chlorine, but the water formed beautiful crystals. Feelings of love have an instantaneous effect, no matter the distance or the source of the water.

  A Sanskrit prayer

  This crystal resulted from a prayer to Shiva. The pattern, as balanced and orderly as a mandala, is divine indeed.

  Before prayer, Lake of Lucerne

  After prayer, Lake of Lucerne

  We offered a Swiss Lutheran prayer at Lake of Lucerne. The crystal formed after the prayer resulted in a marked difference.

  Before prayer, Lake Zurich in Switzerland

  After prayer, Lake Zurich in Switzerland

  At Lake Zurich in Switzerland, the crystal formed before the prayer was deformed, but the one formed after was gorgeous.

  Before prayer, Bahamas

  After prayer, Bahamas

  We clasped our hands around a cup of water on the table and spoke to the water with feelings of prayer, resulting in a completely different crystal.

  Before prayer, Uchi Lake, Oklahoma

  During prayer, Uchi Lake, Oklahoma

  After prayer, Uchi Lake, Oklahoma

  We gathered people who lived near Uchi Lake in Oklahoma and had them offer a prayer for the water. It’s easy to see how the crystal changed from the prayer.

  Water’s Adventures on Planet Earth

  Imagine you have just returned from a trip into space. You step off your vessel onto our green planet and find yourself standing in a deep green forest. Rays of light filter through the trees towering above you. Fallen leaves soften the ground, and deep-green moss envelops the trunk of a fallen tree. Ferns cover the ground all around you. The sounds of life permeate the air—the flapping of wings, the calling of birds, and the wind whistling thr
ough the trees and shaking the leaves. As you take a deep breath of cool air and let the scents of pristine nature fill your body, you have a deep realization that this is your planet and your birthright. And that is why you must love it and why you do.

  You now see water trickling out between rocks, forming a pool of water. You cup your hands together and drink. You feel the energy of the earth filling your soul, and you know it’s because of all that water has experienced in its secret life.

  Where did this water, arising from the bosom of the earth, come from? Think for a moment about the earth as water has experienced it. Arriving from the cosmos in the form of clumps of ice, water fell from the sky upon mountains and forests to give moisture to the trees. That first droplet of dew on a leaf is water in its infancy. From there it begins a journey of unforeseen adventures on our planet. After water falls in the form of rain, what happens next?

  A good portion of rainwater—one-third of all that falls—seeps into the ground where it’s absorbed by plants, again to be evaporated into the atmosphere. In evergreen forests, as much as ten tons of water will evaporate from a square hectare (approximately 2 1/2 acres) in the first few moments after a downpour.

  The water will then rise into the air as mist that drifts among the trees, or it will rise even higher to form clouds. Water in the form of mist will sometimes take another path. When the temperature drops below the freezing point, the mist touches down on the leaves and flowers and forms a thin white layer of ice on the plants and the ground.

  It’s hard to find anything more beautiful than dew on flower petals and leaves. Clear, crystal-like dew is loved by the plants. A single drop of dew falls off the tip of a sprouting leaf on a branch and make its descent, through the forest canopy, and lands on the back of a frog. Thus, in the forest morning, water spreads itself about in multiple forms to shower love on the frog and the new sprout—and to be loved in return. Just as a mother instinctively loves her newborn, water in infancy is loved by all of nature.

  After falling as rain or forming as dew onto the ground, what is water’s next destination? Some water will be taken in by the roots of plants and then evaporate again into the atmosphere, but much more will seep slowly into the ground and begin an incredibly long leg of the total journey. Its main path will be the infinite number of secret tunnels under our feet.

  The ground is filled with spaces of air, such as the tiny tunnels created by creatures out of our sight: earthworms, centipedes, spiders, beetles, bugs, mites, countless microorganisms, along with moles, rabbits, and other animals. All these creatures serve to soften the soil by opening spaces in the ground in every direction. Spaces between rocks and sand, and openings left by melted ice, rotted roots, dehydrated soil, and cracked stones, all serve as possible pathways for water on its incredible journey.

  Water moves through layers of sand and clay and bedrock. Its journey downward is unwearied and profound. Depending on the hardness of the ground, it’s not uncommon for water to move as little as 30 centimeters in a year’s time.

  Deep within the earth, when water finally reaches hard clay or bedrock, the droplets of water come together and flow into streams, sometimes becoming rivers or lakes such as those that exist above the ground and have names we know.

  From the time when water left on this journey through the ground early in its infancy, it has gained experience and knowledge and has formed a personality depending on its path in life, much as a person’s personality is formed by his or her journey. Water that has experienced coal, for example, has knowledge of calcium and magnesium, which is why we call it hard water. And water that has experienced granite is mostly left unchanged by minerals and is known as soft water.

  Eventually, water learns all it can from the ground and is ready for the next stage in life. Out of darkness, it moves upward, toward the light above ground, and then after untold adventures and experiences, water emerges into the light.

  From the ground’s crevices rises water, cold and pure. From a tiny spring, water merges with other water fallen fresh from the sky and water permeating the soil to form a small stream that makes its way downward until, eventually, a river is born.

  The river builds momentum and eats away at layers of soil and ground as the flow slowly widens and deepens, like a bright-eyed child emerging from infancy. The river becomes strong enough to carve away at a mountain or even to create a canyon. But the carving away of hard rocks and ground is not accomplished by water alone; most of this work is accomplished by the gravel and sand caught up in the flow of the water. These small particles carried along by water carve away at the surrounding land and bring in even larger rocks and stones, building enough strength to eventually carve away even the largest of stones.

  The river begins to develop characteristics that give the river its reputation. While one river becomes dark brown from the earth it carries with it, another one flows clear and pure, and still another roars downward, smashing against rock and stone.

  In its downward journey, water witnesses a great deal. It might witness salmon migrating upstream. Deer, bears, squirrels, and other creatures gather on its banks to quench their thirst. And trees brought down by a storm might even alter its flow.

  The river eventually comes to gentler reaches, and now it flows gently as it winds along like an enormous snake crawling boldly across a plain. Never satisfied with its current course, the river will continue to change, at one point widening and letting sediment accumulating into a sand-bank, and then later narrowing to grind its way past stone.

  If we could see the passage of ages in seconds, we would see just how much rivers turn and twist over time. Most rivers plot their courses so slowly that it defies human measurement, but there are some that shift relatively quickly. The Mississippi River, for example, has been known to shift by more than 20 meters in a single year.

  After a river has shifted, the sand and soil it carries often accumulates and forms natural banks. Then a flood will come and wash away the bank, pushing the sediment onto the flat land. These floodplains become fertile land that gives birth to civilizations.

  The Egyptian empire arose along the fertile floodplain of the Nile. So while floods are considered natural disasters, they also provide land with nourishment that civilizations require to establish themselves and grow.

  When water encounters human beings, it has even more to witness. An old man crossing a bridge, a young girl on her bicycle, a couple sitting and watching the river flow. Ever slowly and ever gently, the river watches children playing in the park on its banks and a father and son playing catch.

  The river, now in its twilight years, becomes ever more gentle as it inches toward the sea. Then the moment comes when it finally touches the sea, and the flowing of water finally comes to an end.

  All the sediment carried by the water is then dropped into the estuary of the river. The result is the formation of a delta. The Ganges, the Mississippi, and the Amazon rivers have all formed great broom-like deltas at the points where they enter the ocean. What must have started as a small sand-bank eventually grew into a great expanse of land, creating a new and spacious coastline. These fertile deltas form some of the greatest agricultural regions in the world—the final gift that water has to offer humankind before, at the end of its life, it gives itself up to the ocean.

  But this is not really the end of life for water, for the ocean is also teeming with life, and together with all the creatures of the sea, water is even now just beginning. In the process of eternal rebirth, water is there to give us a full account of all its wisdom and experience. In a cycle that we would count as eternity, water travels the path from above the earth to the tips of mountains and to the depths of the ocean, carrying life within its bosom and linking everything together in perfect balance.

  As water makes it journey through life, it becomes a witness to all of life on earth, becoming itself the flow of life.

  For the second collection of water-crystal photographs in this book, we took p
hotographs of water collected at various points along water’s cycle, from the source to the bottom reaches of rivers. We also exposed water to various photographs of nature and plants to see how the water would reveal itself through crystals. Within the crystals can be seen the reflection of life.

  Let Water Flow

  Much of human history has been set along the banks of rivers. The great cultural hearths of civilization have all developed along the banks of rivers—the Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates, the Indus, and the Yellow River. And wherever explorers have traveled, they searched for water along their way.

  From the days of the horse-drawn carriage to the automobile, rivers have observed the workings of our race. Today people continue to walk along the banks of rivers, talking with friends, looking at the flowing water, and speaking their hopes and dreams.

  But now, armed with technology and knowledge, we work to change the very flow of water under the belief that the result will yield great benefits for humankind. And we have succeeded. Or so it would seem.

  In 1971, construction on the Nile River of the Aswan High Dam, 3.6 kilometers across and 110 meters high, was completed. Its construction had required the relocation of the enormous and ancient Temple of Abu Simbel, along with 100,000 people who lived in the area. The completion was met with cheers of joy. Mankind had finally conquered the Nile, putting an end to a long history of flooding while also producing enough electricity for a quarter of Egypt’s population.