Not just H2O

Trash flash: Estero de Paco’s abundance of garbage Photo by D. Villegas

Have you ever worried so much about getting ill that your worrying actually made you sick?

Iwas just 75 feet underwater chasing a sea turtle. Then, I found myself swallowing glasses of seawater during a series of surf wipeouts. Next, I figured it must already be rainy season after being drenched during my late-afternoon runs. On these three occasions, I could think of nothing but — you guessed it — water.

We were all taught that the earth is made up of 70 percent water. We also know that our bodies are essentially composed of it — 70 percent when you’re an adult, 96 percent at conception, and 80 percent at birth. It makes up 90 percent of our brain as well. Water is around and within us. It’s one of the earth’s most vital resources, but because it’s so common, we often take it for granted and rarely think of how big of a deal it actually is. Also, we’re so used to regarding it as mere matter, as H2O, that most of us are no longer conscious of the fact that it’s actually alive and that water is life.

It Totally Gets What You’re Saying (Plus: It Can Read Your Mind!)

According to Masaru Emoto, author of my rainy-day read, The True Power of Water, not only can drinking good quality water enliven us, it is itself alive — so alive that it can actually comprehend human language and respond to our thoughts and intentions. I’m reading the book just now, but I’d actually heard about this study way back in high school when someone forwarded an e-mail about a Japanese researcher who exposed water to different types of music and later froze them to create ice crystals. When John Lennon’s Imagine was played to one sample, it formed a beautiful starburst crystal when examined under a microscope, while heavy metal music prevented another sample from crystallizing, resulting in a malformed gray speck. In another experiment, he took water from the same source and put it into two bottles. He then labeled one with “Thank you” and on the other he wrote “You fool.” The “Thank you” sample yielded a clear and beautifully-formed crystal while the other failed to take shape. He repeated the procedure using words from different languages and, fascinatingly, it produced the same results.

The first time I encountered this, I thought, “what the — seriously?” (I stopped myself from even thinking of that four-letter word.) Now we can understand better why we feel good when someone sincerely says something positive to us and why four-letter words especially when directed like knives towards us can make us feel like — well, a four-letter word.

I know of a similar experiment conducted using boiled rice. One portion was repeatedly cursed while the other blessed. The former eventually became black and contaminated while the latter remained unspoiled. After swapping thoughts with a friend, she suggested that maybe it’s also the basis of the longstanding practice of people talking fondly to plants to help them grow. Why not? Perhaps the same thing goes for the age-old tradition of saying grace before meals, or sick people getting well when they’re prayed for.

According to one saying, we shape our world not just by our words and deeds but also by our thoughts. That’s not the only thing, though. Whether we’re aware of it or not, as we create (or contaminate) the world around us, we’re also either creating healthy water crystals within each other, or the opposite. Have you ever worried so much about getting ill that your worrying actually made you sick? According to Buddha, “We’re shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think.” It may sound hippie-ish, but considering Emoto’s findings, it’s exactly how it is.

Water + Tv, Cell Phone, Computer & Microwave Oven

In his book, Emoto also shares results of further tests where he looked at how every day gadgets and appliances affect water. The images he took of samples exposed to the TV, cell phone, computer and microwave are so frightening I can’t describe them. Imagine the state of 70 percent of your body when, say, you’re a call-center agent who works 10-hour shifts surrounded by computers. Then when you get home, you make a beeline for the TV remote and munch on something you popped in the microwave while fiddling with your phone (that’s permanently leashed around your neck) to check who tweeted you, liked your latest Instagram pic, or followed your pins. Man. And we wonder why more and more people are getting sick these days and why new illnesses are emerging.Now what? One thing I do now is keep my cell phone as far away as possible when I sleep. Plus, I don’t own a microwave. So, do we bless or curse? Purify or pollute? It’s our choice.

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Get in touch: www.katrinaanntan.ph / katrinaanntan@yahoo.com / Twitter: @katrinaanntan.