welllll that's a bit extreme; let's say they have failed to research the experiment fully and have relied on wishful thinking's seductive tendency to coax us into believing stuff we hope is true. Science-flavored expressions of magical thought are inevitable in a world where science becomes more and more accessible. As understanding of science and scientific terms grows, so does / will the articulation and sophistication of the mistakes made in attributing scientific credibility to beliefs worded just-so (such as the fallacious and fantastic assertions of theists and atheists straining to resolve a question that, logically, can never be resolved).

Sometimes the stuff we hope is true is not true, no matter how logically it dovetails with our belief systems and the assumptions they foster.

It *would* have been neat if Emoto's experiments were sound and scientific, sure. Sadly perhaps to some, they weren't.

One need only pause to consider the consequences of his theory, were it proved: the alterations to existing technology in the modern sense; the way the history of human interaction with the environment would have been different, in the developmental / historical sense.

Like most mistakes of this kind, the theory itself places special emphasis on the importance of human attribution of meaning. If human attribution of meaning had the magical powers so many insist it does, our world, our species, our history, our technology would all necessarily be *so* much different than they are in reality.

It is hard, but the more people come to accept the reality of nature and the nature of reality, the more we can focus on sanely and responsibly limiting suffering and promoting well-being in the real world.


>> (Emoto) freely admits that he picked and chose particular crystals that fit his own definition of "beautiful" and even admits that isn't scientific. He then goes off into a digression about how science really isn't that sure of anything in the first place, erroneously invoking Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.

The crystals are simply random. That's all there is to it. Are they affected by "the personality and thought of the photographer"? Only in one very important way: Due to personality and thought, the photographer selects certain crystals and ignores others, from an initial collection that is totally random. As Emoto says, "the whim of the person doing the selecting certainly comes into play” and "I admit that the selection process is not strictly in accordance with the scientific method, but.." <<