After reading several of the reviews, I guess I approached the book in a different manner than most. In the introduction of the book, the author writes, "... The more you understand water, the more difficult you will find it to deny the existence of a god." From that moment, I approached the book from a point of view that the man was using his experiments to understand the universe and our roles in it, and not so much prove a scientific theory. The author then documents his spiritual journey and awakening in the prologue and actually pretty consistently through the book. Since he was fairly clear throughout the book that water is the key to the universe and our soul, I got the impression that scientific theories, though interesting to the book, were not this author's main message to us, the reader. Taken from purely scientific point of view, if you turn to this book for scientific analysis of water and how it reacts to "stimuli", you will be disappointed. This is not a scientific journal, or an exploration of science as much as it is a testament to this man's faith and how he uses water and his experiments and theories to prove it. If your approach this book as a tool to prove scientific theories on water, you will be frustrated and completely turned off to what the author writes about. If you approach it as the experiments conducted by the author are a means to illustrate, investigate, or prove his belief in the role of water in our spiritual health, awareness, and state, you're better off. If you're looking for some sort of iron clad, scientific proof that water reacts to outside forces, energies, and stimuli, then put the book down now, or don't get it, because you'll be disappointed, or even angry.

Now that's out of the way...

From the spiritual aspect, I found this book fascinating. His theories on the 108 elements of the body connected to the Buddhist belief of the 108 earthly desires were very intriguing to me personally. I also found the information of the life-cycle of water (juvenile water, etc) to be very interesting, though I have to say that despite the fact that it's interesting, I hope for humanity that's a theory that's wrong, otherwise we're in serious trouble. The author raises some very unique and rarely explored theories as to the role that water plays in our lives, bodies, and mental states. His ideas on programming water to heal by introducing words or praying over it is also, from a holistic healing approach, something worth investigating further.

The most famous, most debated aspect of this book of course is his theories on how water reacts to "stimuli" (for complete lack of a more appropriate word). Water introduced to positive words like "love and gratitude" or "you're beautiful," or "wisdom" or other positive phrases formed complete and complex ice crystals, while water which was told "you fool" or shown the word "Satan" or "you make me sick, I want to kill you" failed to form ice crystals of any pattern or regularity, or completely failed to make ice crystals at all. Interestingly enough, water that was ignored formed worse crystalline structures than the water that was berated, suggesting that water can get depressed.

In another experiment, water was studied from various points around the world, the non-forming crystals made by tap water in Japan was a stark contrast to the crystals formed from water from a natural spring. I think for most, the latter is more easy to believe than the former, since the latter takes into account environmental issues like pollution which may explain the differences in the crystals, so the latter examples appeal to the scientific mind, while the former appeals to the "Fox Mulder" philosophy of life and spirituality, which I always find deeply intriguing.

It provokes an interesting debate in just how true is his theory that will never really have an answer, or at least won't in the near future. If his scientific experiments are recreated successfully, the result seemingly completely implausible from a scientific perspective will be waved off as new-age quasi science. If his scientific experiments are recreated unsuccessfully, the scientific mind will hold it as proof that his experiments were a failure, while the "Fox Mulder's" of the world will say that it proves nothing because if water is influenced and impacted by thoughts and emotions that it's introduced to that the experiments would have failed because the negative expectations and emotions given by the people performing the experiments impacted the water and caused the failure of the experiment. And around and around the debate on science vs. faith goes. :)

Nobody who reads the book can doubt or say that the author doesn't truly believe in his heart of hearts what he's writing about and he is deeply passionate on the subject, which is refreshing and intriguing since he has the guts to lay out there his spiritual beliefs to be analyzed and dissected, and opts not to marginalize things in an attempt to appeal to people. His theories on spirituality, though implausible to some or doubtful to others, I found to be well thought out and thought provoking. There were several theories I wish he had explored more... For example, the reason water recognizes words is because water is a living example in the Eastern philosophy on reincarnation (the water cycle_, which could go to explain why water retains this information and reacts to words. I would have also liked to see him discuss a little more how water reacts with other crystalline structures, like gemstones and crystals and track the results.

The book does suffer a little in parts due to the fact that the book was written in Japanese and translated. Because of this, parts don't flow easily, other parts read like stereo instructions (dry and monotonous), and a few parts have uneasy or jarring transitions from theory to theory, which can be distracting. I also think that many people may be turned off by the book because the spirituality that is dealt with in the book is Eastern, not necessarily Christian. Though I would not term the book "anti-Christian" by any leap, jump, or deed, people who are devout Christians (such as the previous reviewer) or people who may not be open to other spiritual practices may be completely turned off by the fact that his theories serve to prove more Eastern philosophies and spiritual practices than the commonly accepted Western theories. This book fills a funny void not seen in many English books where it's very spiritual, but not a traditional spirituality, but not occult or demonic or "witchy," or consistently new age, but very Eastern inspired. I found this refreshing, but it may be a turn off to people looking for a Wiccan, Pagan, New Age, occult, or mainstream Western spiritual belief.

I found the book deeply thought provoking and inspirational, and it serves the purpose that, I believe the author is trying to serve. To think of our role in the world with regards to the other elements in it. To think of spirituality on a global scale that is something more important and profound than religion, that involves everything and all of us because we share a common bond: water. I found myself pondering the spiritual theories he discusses for quite awhile. The pictures, of course, were unbelievably beautiful and awe inspiring. As far as I'm concerned, the book is worth the price of admission just for the pictures.

This book, in my opinion, is worth checking out, as long as you approach it with the right attitude. I think the variety of reviews speak for themselves, since if you agree with the book or not, it provokes a wide range of passionate reactions. Some are inspired in their faith, some are inspired to investigate the holistic healing aspect, some are inspired to try and recreate the experiments, some are inspired to devote websites to debunking the author's theories... But in the end, everybody was inspired to do something, and be it find inspiration to find spirituality or inspiration write an essay as to why the author is wrong, and inspiration in the reader was really all the author wanted, and in that I'd say the author did his job beautifully.