Post by Tamrin on Jul 5, 2008 19:14:37 GMT 10
Regarding Masaru Emoto work with water crystals, we find, despite urgings to do so, Emoto has not given prior notice to the scientific community of any experiments using double-blind controls. Thus, we read: 
"Water crystal under magnification"
Emoto's water crystal experiments consist of exposing water in glasses to different words, pictures, or music, and then freezing and examining the aesthetics of the resulting crystals with microscopic photography.
Emoto's work does not adhere to the long established practices and procedures of the Scientific Method, such as Double blind controls, which have been developed to reduce the effect of statistical anomalies and experimenter bias. As a result, critics of Emoto point out that his experiments are highly susceptible to selection bias and confirmation bias, with the photographers having full knowledge of both the hypothesis and expected result. For example, the person taking the photographs or the person judging the beauty of the photographs knows which water samples have been sent which messages. The photographer or judge’s attitudes towards Emoto’s claims - either sympathetic or skeptical - could distort their choice and ranking of photos, causing them to (knowingly or not) hunt through the diversity of crystals in each sample to look for those that match their expectations.
Even sympathetic commentators have criticized Emoto for insufficient experimental controls, and for not sharing enough details of his approach with the scientific community. In addition, Emoto has been criticized for designing his experiments in ways that leave them open to human error influencing his findings.
In the day-to-day work of his group, the creativity of the photographers rather than the rigor of the experiment is an explicit policy of Emoto. Emoto freely acknowledges that he is not a scientist, and that photographers are instructed to select the most pleasing photographs.
In 2006 Emoto pubished a paper together with Dean Radin in the peer-reviewed Journal of Science and Healing in which they claim to have proven in a double blind test during which 2000 people who prayed in Tokyo that those people could increase the aesthetic appeal of water stored in a room in California compared to water in another room.
James Randi, founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation, has publicly offered Emoto one million dollars if his results can be reproduced in a double-blind study. Randi has also stated that he does not expect to ever have to pay the million dollars.
"Water crystal under magnification"
