Of Rice and Ministry - Part 1

Recently, I attended the National Catholic Conference on Youth Ministry. The theme was "Formed by Living Waters". One of the speakers shared information and slides on the work of Masuro Emoto....

"...a creative and visionary Japanese researcher "

From a website:

"From Mr. Emoto's work we are provided with factual evidence, that human vibrational energy, thoughts, words, ideas and music, affect the molecular structure of water, the very same water that comprises over seventy percent of a mature human body and covers the same amount of our planet. Water is the very source of all life on this planet, the quality and integrity are vitally important to all forms of life. The body is very much like a sponge and is composed of trillions of chambers called cells that hold liquid. The quality of our life is directly connected to the quality of our water.

Water is a very malleable substance. Its physical shape easily adapts to whatever environment is present. But its physical appearance is not the only thing that changes, the molecular shape also changes. The energy or vibrations of the environment will change the molecular shape of water. In this sense water not only has the ability to visually reflect the environment but it also molecularly reflects the environment.

Mr. Emoto has been visually documenting these molecular changes in water by means of his photographic techniques. He freezes droplets of water and then examines them under a dark field microscope that has photographic capabilities. His work clearly demonstrates the diversity of the molecular structure of water and the effect of the environment upon the structure of the water."

For more information, and some intriguing photographs visit the following website:

http://www.life-enthusiast.com/twilight/research_emoto.htm

In this most interesting presentation the speaker shared with us an experiment using rice and water. The theory is that by placing words on jars of rice and water, the contents will be affected. The words on each jar are "Thank You", " and "You Fool". He also used one other jar with the same contents that was ignored. After some time the results were that the jar with "You Fool" and the ignored jar rotted, while the jar with the words "Thank You" remained clear.

The point of his message is that if water is that our human make-up is 60% water, and if water is so affected by words, what does that say about how we speak to each other?

When I got home from the conference you can guess what I did....yup, three jars of rice and water are now residing in our basement. Along with taping the words on the jar, I also touch them and say the words out loud to the first two, while ignoring the third jar.

Reactions have varied , including, "So now you're talking to rice?", sideways glances, a stern warning about "messing around with such things", to one person who fully expected somthing to happen.

So, despite the laughs, sideways glances,the dire warning, and with the encouragement of one, I forged on ahead. Read on......