Water and Faith

I had the pleasure of reading Masuru Emoto's book The Hidden Messages in Water on a flight yesterday from Dallas-Fort Worth to Fort Smith, Arkansas. I found the book moving, if not compelling, at least from the perspective of its underlying message promoting love and gratitude. Not being a physicist or a chemist myself, I cannot comment on the scientific validity or lack thereof of Dr. Emoto's more technical claims, specifically, if he conducted his experiments in accordance with the scientific method, etc. However, I don't even know that it's precisely relevant. The message of the book is that we shape our world and our reality by the words we speak, the noise we absorb, the attitudes we have, the way we treat our fellow human, the way we approach the natural world, etc. I not only wholly agree with and endorse this premise, but I believe that if we look, open-mindedly, at the world's major religions, we find that this is quite established over the course of thousands of years of faith and practice.

For example, Dr. Emoto argues about the energy transportation of water, the essential life force of water, and its vibrant ability to heal, cleanse, and empower. I do not think we should take lightly this claim, particularly those of us who adhere to the suppositions and tenets of one of the world's major religions. From the Christian perspective, it takes but a moment for me to reflect upon the thematic importance of water throughout the Old Testament Scriptures and the Gospels. A perfect illustration of this is that there are 620 different verses in the Bible that make reference to water. Beginning at the immediate opening of the Old Testament Creation Story we find Genesis 1:2 says "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." What a magnificent bit of imagery that is. The Spirit of the Universe's creator was hovering over water, as if the water were his empty canvass on which he was about to paint. In fact, subsequent verses describe this precise action--"And God said 'let there be an expanse between the waters, to separate water from water." Water, as the lifeblood of God's creation, though, would not produce life on its own. As one of the earliest paradoxes of the mythology of Man, there had to be an absence of lifeblood in order for there to be life. God enabled creation by limiting its inherent lifeblood. What a parallel to the Incarnation. In order for there to be Spiritual life, there had to be a limitation of God Himself--and that was manifested in the person of Christ, all man, all God, physically limited, just like the Water in the Beginning. God's first creation of life was in water, "Let the water teem with creatures..." And then, in order for there to be life in the Garden of Eden, it says that a stream flowed up, watering all of the Garden. It was only after this that God created man.

Yet, in spite of the more than 25 references to water in the creation story alone, the theme continues. The offering of water was a sign of love, compassion, and gratitude throughout the Old and New Testaments. We find that the scarcity of clean water in the early Middle East caused it to be one of the most valuable gifts one could offer another. Many of the Old Testament's most meaningful spiritual stories occur when somebody was "going out to draw water," either from a river or from a well. Moses, as a small boy, was saved by the flowing powers of the River, which carried him from his mother to safety and from whence he would gain his position of great power in the land of Egypt. One of the early signs God gave to Moses to help Moses prove that he was sent from God was to pour out water from the Nile on the ground and it would become blood, which eventually turned into one of the plagues God wrought upon Egypt, the turning of water to blood. How curious it is, that the blessings of water have the converse of the curse of its absence. Of the more famous stories of Moses, the parting of the Red Sea showed the tremendous power in he who is able to control the waters.

The importance of water throughout the Old Testament continues, with the centrality of the theme of the Jordan River, a parallel that is extended into the New Testament, as it relates to cleansing and healing. The ending of the droughts by the prophets, the story of Noah and the flood, and on and on indicate such importance in the scriptures of water. One of the more famous passages in the Prophetic Literature is Jeremiah 17:8 where it says that a man close to God is "like a tree planted by the water that sends its roots out to the stream, for it does not fear when heat comes, for it will always be green. It has no worries of a year of drought, and always bears fruit." Looking forward to the coming of the Messiah, the prophet Zechariah writes that "on that day, living water will flow out from Jerusalem."

In the New Testament, water is amongst the most central metaphors and themes. Its first mention in the Gospels is a quote by John the Baptizer who said "I baptize you with water for repentance." When Christ encountered the woman at the well, he promised her that if she partook of His "living water," that she would never again thirst. At Pentacost, the heavens opened when Christ came out of the water. The entire notion of Baptism itself is rooted, most literally, in water. Christ showed his power over the water when he walked on the Sea of Galilee, and at the Crucifixion, Christ's pierced side flowed with blood and water simultaneously.

Although I am less familiar with the sacred texts of the world's other major faiths, I somehow imagine that they too are replete with hydro-metaphors, water references, and intensely meaningful utilizations of water for spiritual and physical salvation. Dr. Emoto's experiments, if they are to be believed, illustrate the universality of positive and negative energy when directed toward water. "You Fool" spoken to water in English had the same essential effect as when spoken in Japanese. What an interesting connection, since in the New Testament writings, it is said that "he who says to his brother Raca, Raca, will be in danger of council, but he who says to his brother 'thou fool,' shall be in danger of hellfire." Perhaps the unifying theme of Dr. Emoto's work, however, is my longheld conception of Sin as being its own inherent judgment. If our attitudes lead us to be unloving towards our neighbor, that unlovingness is itself a punishment. The behavior's internal consequences are sufficient effect, and no "outside" punishment is really necessary. When I am hateful, it has a deteriorating effect internally. When I have a negative attitude, it affects myself and everybody around me. When I do not take the time to reflect and have gratitude, that is, when I am driving myself so hard to reach some sort of material end or goal, I am guilty of a sin of omission, rather than of comission. When I do not take the time to be grateful to those who I love the most, who contribute so much to my health and well-being, I have sinned against them, and consequently, against God.

I tend to endorse Dr. Emoto's belief in faith healing and homeopathy as a viable, and even preferrable alternative to modern Western medicine. A sick body and sick soul are inextricably linked. I have been most ill, physically, when I am most ill spiritually. When I am at enmity with my fellow humans, I am, ipso facto at enmity with myself, since we are all connected by unifying life forces and by our eternal relationship to God. The saying about cutting off one's nose to spite one's face is parallel to this. We frequently, in order to spite our fellow human, do something to harm him. But what we don't always recognize is that action hurts ourself as much if not more than it hurts the one for whom the spite was intended. This happens when we try to manipulate those around us to get what we want, when we engage in backstabbing and other ill behaviors.

So let us keep all of this in mind, and pursue love and gratitude. Let us keep our attitudes pure, our intentions clean, and we shall all be healthier for it, both physically and spiritually. Our metaphysical selves will thank us.