Watch What You Say! (Literally!)

Today, my water bottle says "Love," "Courage," "Joy," and "Gratitude."

A friend and I were recently discussing the work of Masaru Emoto, a Japanese philosopher and entrepreneur whose best-known work relates to the power of words.

One of his projects involves freezing water, then examining the ice crystals that form and scrutinizing their shapes. Doesn't sound all that interesting until you learn that the shapes of the crystals differ greatly depending on the music playing while the water transforms from liquid to solid. 

The crystals have a completely different geometry, for example, when they are formed while Chopin plays versus Metallica versus the Beatles. But the most dramatic examples of his hypothesis--that words can shape matter--are evident in another experiment in which he assigns words to bowls of rice or water that's to be frozen.  As you might conclude, "Peace" and "Love" yield much more beautiful ice crystals than "Adolph Hitler" and "Anger."

Emoto says that if our words can affect water that way, how must words affect us, considering we, ourselves, are composed primarily of water ?  

To test the theory, my friend Sophia and I have launched our own experiment in which we label our water bottles with positive words, which, hopefully, will imbue our liquids--and eventually ourselves--with positivity and goodness. It can't hurt, right? And it might even help! (Results to follow.)

Do you believe in the power of words? What are some of the things you regularly say to yourself? If there are some negative things in there, you might want to join us on this experimental ride and see what kind of magic happens.