The ocean gives us all we have

Water, flowing everywhere, touching all it finds: cleaning, carving, healing, seamlessly connected drops, wearing down even the hardest rocks, grinding, softening, world-shaping, water.

The three-atom molecule, H20, is simple yet powerful. Existence depends on it. The currency of life on our blue planet. This quintessential element contains neither calories nor organic nutrients.

The volume never changes. Although humans have polluted their rivers and oceans, we still have the same amount as we did 3.5 billion years ago. Whether liquid, frozen or evaporated, on ground, beneath ground or in the air, the cycle never ends. Like energy, water’s neither created nor destroyed, only transferred between forms. It does not escape into space.

More than 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by water, most of it seawater. The sea’s a home for life and life may well have started there.

Some would say that water has miraculous properties. In many Indian homes, flowers and other beautiful objects are placed around the drinking water receptacle. The water’s left to sit before being used. Tradition holds that water absorbs surrounding energies. Letting it sit allows it to soak up higher vibrations before applying it to the body.

The Japanese author Emoto famously elaborated on this idea, claiming that water can respond to human emotion, thoughts, words and written messages, intrinsically connected to consciousness. After exposing water to different thoughts, words, emotions, prayers, and music, he froze the samples and studied their crystals using microscopic photography.

Although stunning, his results were denied by the scientific community, who considered his processes unscientific. Emoto was personally invited to take the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge by James Randi in 2003 and would have received US$1,000,000 if he had been able to reproduce the experiment under test conditions agreed to by both parties. He did not participate. Nevertheless, the idea resonates, and his books have had a far-reaching impact on popular culture. Sometimes things are true on a metaphorical, if not a literal level.

Let’s explore Emoto’s ideas for a moment. Water comprises 60-70%, sometimes more, of the human body. We’re like miniature earths, our bodies bags of sea. Of all the organs, hearts, brains and lungs contain the most. Imagine all this water responding to thoughts and emotions, a physical receptor and translator of consciousness, feeling the tiniest vibrations, unfiltered by mind, directly responding to the emotional realities that engulf us. The result could be intuition, that sense of knowing something irrationally, with your gut, your spirit, and not just your logical mind.

Most religions ascribe a special status to water. Considered a purifier, it is used in diverse rituals. It gives us life and then, once alive, it shapes our life, our emotions, our consciousness. It came before us and will live long after us. Our oceanic planet, for all its diverse wonders and life-forms, could not exist without it.