Masura Emoto Hado Water Crystals

A correspondent sent me YouTube links to two video clips billed as a presentation of the healing power of water.
 
I watched the short clip, until about half-way through, and then began watching the 34-minute video. I entered with an open mind. In fact, after watching the short video, I’d already come up with a hypothesis that might explain any reaction to music by water as it crossed the phase boundary from liquid to solid (ice).
 
Early in the video Mr. Masaru says, “Academically, my study is not based on the natural sciences, but on the cultural sciences.” I don’t know what a cultural science is; however, he has committed a flaw in logic by making his starting point equivalent to, “Don’t seek a scientific, rational, or logical explanation. I have already discarded any arguments based on reality.”
 
He continues, “How I was able to come up with such a method is a mystery, even to me.” That’s about as anti-science a statement as he could make. Even when delving into the seemingly unbelievable realm of quantum physics (including the phenomenon Einstein called “spooky action at a distance”), science is based on a methodology called The Scientific Method.
 
“Traditional science with its conventional reasoning wasn’t enough to enter the world of the ‘unseen’ like water and HADO.” Actually, conventional science can see farther into the realm of the small (molecules, atoms, hadrons, quarks) than any of his images saw into water.
 
I’m writing as I watch, pausing the video as necessary, and only hope he says what “HADO” is. I’m starting to move from skeptical to disbelieving.
 
As soon as he explained that he transferred vibrational energy into water to create “HADO water” (still undefined), and that the water cured the physical symptoms of disease, he lost me. There is nothing in my understanding of physics, chemistry, or human physiology that allows me to believe that water that has been subject to vibrations can cure disease, even symptoms. Further, I could find no evidence of any double-blind testing, especially to eliminate the placebo effect and investigational bias.
 
He said, “Over 10,000 people were treated,” but not that over 10,000 people reported symptoms to be cured? A clever turn of speech, and the words of a charlatan.
 
His conclusion that, “If snow has crystals, then water should, too, when it’s frozen” is so self-evident, it’s puerile. It’s a tautology. It says and means nothing.
 
The comment that crystals were not observed in some tap water is not surprising and is easily explained: impurities in tap water, including chlorine used to treat water, would have interactions with water as it froze and could easily prevent the formation of perfect crystals. (As a matter of interest, I measured an average of over 70-parts-per-million of total dissolved solids in my tap water over a period of 100 days.)
 
The “researcher” “taps the bottom of the container to activate the water.” What was shown in the video could have caused some dissolved gasses to leave the water (think shaking a soda can before opening it), which could make crystals form more cleanly, but “activate”? Utter nonsense.
 
The researcher “identifies a sparkle, and photographs it.” Okay. They are illuminating the frozen water from below. Crystals bend light because their index of refraction is different from that of the air. The orientation of the crystals can focus light. These are all well-understood facts of optics.
 
“Everything in existence vibrates. Physics cannot deny this.” That’s what he said. Physics does not deny this. In fact, physics proclaims this. This was established by Werner Heisenberg, and his uncertainty principle, in 1927. (Perhaps earlier in Newton’s era when light as particle versus light as wave first surfaced, if I remember my history. Quantum physics, which has been around since the early 20th century, proclaims that everything (photons of light, atoms, Earth itself) has both particle and wave properties. Waves vibrate. Saying that physics cannot deny vibration is about as sensible as saying that “physics cannot deny that the sun is hot.”
 
Yes, “Vibration is just another word for energy.” Another tautology.
 
He said he believes vibration travels through water. Yes, shine a light through a glass beaker of water. The vibrations of the photons travel through the water (and, to some very slight extent, heat the water). Put the beaker in a microwave. The high-energy microwave photons travel through the water. Enough of them strike water molecules to cause them to vibrate. We feel that vibration as heat. So far, he’s still in the realm of middle-school general science, but expressing it as some great and unique discovery.
 
“…the hexagonal crystals represent the life force of Mother Nature.” He’s introduced an invisible magical creature that’s alive. He is correct in that the hexagonal crystals do represent a force at work.
 
The reason snowflakes (and most of the individual water crystals featured in the videos) are hexagonal fractals is because of the way hydrogen and oxygen combine, physically, to create a water molecule (H2O) and because of the way multiple molecules “hook up” to form the crystals that make a snowflake. It’s strictly a function of the electromagnetic force that holds atoms and molecules together, and is well understood by science. The same is true of crystals of salt, quartz, sugar and many other substances. All he has done is to personify that force.
 
“…the absence of hexagonal crystals can be seen as a sign that the life forces in that area have been compromised energetically.” No. See the note about impurities in tap water, earlier. Depending on the type and amount of pollution, of course, someone who drinks the water could have their “life force” compromised. Again, he’s restating in other terms things that science, chemistry and medicine have known for a long time.
 
I’m now watching the “exposing water to music” segment. That might explore my hypothesis regarding the vibration of music during the phase transition that occurs when water freezes (crystalizes). I hypothesize that the vibrations (which, by the way, would actually heat the water a tiny bit) could in some way interfere with the formation of crystals in the “normal” hexagonal fractals.
 
This is just a hypothesis I created to explain this man’s claims. It’s not even a good hypothesis, because I have no data to support it. It’s probably better thought of as a “notion.”
 
On the other hand, exposing water to music and then freezing it doesn’t allow that option. And that appears to be all that he did. [Like tapping the bottom of the bottle, the vibrations of the music could force trapped gasses out of the water, which could result in “cleaner” crystals.]
 
The sequence of crystals shown while Eine Kline Nachtmusik and other music is playing does not show (much less prove) anything. It is bogus to change the focus, as he did, to suggest a change in the crystal. Much of the change in these crystals can be attributed to melting during the photography. Some appear to my eye as duplicates… the same image used during more than one piece of music. Occam’s Razor: the simplest explanation is the more likely correct. Simple answer: bogus. He cheated.
 
This is when I quit watching. I have seen nothing that might convince me to believe these claims, much less spend another hour exploring them.
 
A search of the internet did not find any legitimate source supporting the claims, but many sources, including James Randi, debunking them.
 
I did note that Mr. Masaru’s undergraduate education was in International Relations (not medicine or science), and that he became a “doctor of alternative medicine” from an open university in India. Neither degree provides credibility, in my opinion.
 
References (accessed 2016-11-08)
 
Short clip, “Water Crystals and Emotion: https://youtu.be/OnbZN54IZNE
 
34-minute clip, “Full Documentary, Dr Masura Emoto Hado Water Crystals”: https://youtu.be/PDW9Lqj8hmc
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