The power of words. We all have a sense of this power. Examples and stories are found in the Bible to the Power of Positive Thinking to Pippy Longstockings and The Little Engine that Could. But one of my favorites has been on my mind.
Japanese Scientist Dr. Masaru Emoto’s studied the response of water molecules to spoken words. His study, “The Water Study,” and can be found on You Tube. In it, photos were taken of crystallized water molecules that were exposed to different words. Words of love, peace, generosity and kindness were represented by beautiful snowflake-like patterns. Words of hate, jealousy, greed, and oppression were represented by asymmetric patterns that look similar to a Van Gogh abstract painting, or unattractive.
He also studied contaminated water before and after healing prayers were said. The water reportedly cleared within a few hours after a 60 minutes of healing prayer.
Dr. Emoto inspired a similar study on rice. Two glass jars were labeled “love” and “hate” and received equal amounts of fresh cooked chilled white rice. The jars were exposed to verbal statements at least once a day for 3-4 weeks. The experimenter picks up each jar and speaks positive words like “I love you!” and negative words for the other jar, like “I hate you!” This is the intervention: exposing an inanimate jar of rice to an emotionally charged statement, at least once a day, for 3-4 weeks.
As the days go by, there are visible differences in the jar contents. In a repeat of that study, two women chose to have a 3rd jar, as a control. The label on the 3rd jar was blank and it was basically ignored during the experiment.
The results after 30 days were obvious. The ‘loved’ rice showed very little change, with a small mold spot or two. The ‘hated’ jar developed some yellow and reddish mold and looked really bad. And the 3rd jar? It turned out to be to the most effected of the three, which confused the ladies. The bottom was covered in ooze and it had a large dark colored mass. If the other two responded to their daily positive or negative words, then the third one may have responded to no words at all. . . the power of being ignored.
Humans consist of about 70% H2O, as is our planet, and, according to this study, our bodies are very susceptible to the effect of words. Not only what we hear from others, but also the words we speak to ourselves. And if emotionally charged words have a changing effect on rice in just a few weeks, how much more will they affect you, and all those you speak to you over your lifetime.
So, choose a healing word over a hurting one. It just may keep you and those around you refreshed, encouraged, and enlivened. It is a huge payoff for a small effort. Remember, your words have power.
Catherine L Coon, LP, RPT