I was handed a copy of The Secret of Water: For the Children of the World and asked to read it and give my opinion of it. I think it is pernicious.
It is published by Beyond Words Publishing of Hillsboro, Oregon and Atria Books, a trademark of Simon and Schuster. It is printed in China. This children’s book, apparently aimed at 5-8 year-olds, makes a special point on the jacket and one page that the United Nations proclaimed the years 2005-2015 as the International Water for Life Decade and gives the UN website to check it out.
There is some basic science in the book, so simplified as to be obviously inaccurate. Dr. Emoto’s text tells us that water evaporates from “collectors” like rivers, lakes, and oceans; he ignores the constant evaporation from land sources. In showing how “we” use water (“we” as in Americans, apparently) he says that we use “seven gallons” to flush toilets, (ignoring now-ubiquitous low-volume toilets), two gallons for tooth-brushing(?), and 50 gallons for a shower, coming up with 100 gallons per person per day. His illustration of the percentage of water in the human body from before birth to old age shows “100%” for a fetus in the womb, when 100% would be a water bag, not a baby. His old man, on the other hand, shows only 50%; I don’t think old people are that dried out, when a full-grown adult is 72% water by his figures.
But the point of this book is not science, but to sell Dr. Emoto’s idea of the responsiveness of water to human emotions, and the idea that happy thoughts can heal the world of all its troubles. After all, everyone and much of the world is made of water, and he thinks that emotions can affect that water. How? Emotions cause vibrations, and vibrations affect water. What is vibrating? He doesn’t say.
It apparently is air, as in sound. “Did you know water’s favorite music is classical?” is a line on the first page. He shows pictures of pretty snowflakes and non-pretty frozen water drops, and tells children that the first were formed after he spoke the word “love” and the second after he said, “You fool!”
The best illustration of the pernicious nonsense put forth by this book is an experiment at the end for little children to try. It involves trying to clear a cloud from a portion of the sky with one’s mind. He says, “To see the clouds better, choose a day with blue sky and white clouds.”
A child of 6 or 7 would not realize that, on a partly cloudy day, the clouds are constantly moving, dissolving, and forming. Stare at a patch of sky with a cloud; close your eyes for a minute; when you open them, the cloud will have moved, regardless of what one says to oneself meanwhile.
Some people would say that the nonsense taught by this book is harmless, and the intent is good: to get children to think good thoughts and be nice people. But he says nothing about how one should act toward others, only about how one should feel and what one should say. Making children think that they can affect the people and things around them with their thoughts and emotions, which are not completely under their control, he sets them up for guilt and fear when things don’t go well or they feel bad; they’re not thinking nice enough thoughts. And when they finally figure out that this supposed science is nonsense, it can make them reject all science. If one builds a moral code on such nonsense, it will eventually crumble.
Beyond that, it teaches the “wisdom” of the three monkeys: “See no evil; hear no evil; speak no evil.” It starts and ends with speaking, and the thinking and feeling it comes from. But one cannot allow oneself to see or hear evil either, lest on think about it, feel it, and speak of it. Evil cannot be fixed by thinking good thoughts and saying nice things; one has to recognize a problem and speak of it before it can be solved. Not seeing, hearing or speaking of evil is all evil needs to flourish.
On the other hand, “Wish in one hand; spit in the other; see which one fills up first” is a good experiment for kids to learn from, and all they have to do is think about it. We don’t need another children’s book that teaches wishful thinking and deliberate ignorance.