By now, most of you have heard of Masaru Emoto. His work on how attitude and thought affects molecular structure was introduced in the film What The Bleep Do We Know?, and is further detailed in his book Hidden Messages In Water. The film below is a visual tour of his research - beautiful, and straight to the heart.

The following article, called Mindpower, Emotional Addiction, and What The Bleep is also interesting.

The human mind can not only change how things seem, it alone can change how things are. We can even become physically addicted to emotions - to our own detriment. A new documentary film brings science to bear on some spiritual and philosophical mind/body issues.

Mark Vicente is one of the directors of the film What The Bleep Do We Know?. He sees current developments in quantum physics and neurology pushing us very close towards theology, mysticism and ancient texts about oneness.

Our guest gives an example of Buddhist monks who can demonstrably alter the structure of frozen water crystals - using just the mind. This was featured in the book Messages From Water by Dr. Masaru Emoto.

In the example, polluted water was frozen and then photographed. Buddhist monks then focused a particular emotion (love, gratitude, etc.) on the sample. After this, the water crystals were re-photographed and found to be free of impurities.

"How do you teach 21st century people about these ideas when they think they're silly?, asks Mark Vicente rhetorically. "You have to start showing them a science..." is his solution.

Mr. Vicente reckons there are scientific explanations for many of our seemingly illogical perceptions: "We're processing 400 million bits of information per second, and we're only 'aware' of 2000 bits, so there's enormous amounts of information," he explains.

Our filmmaker also explains how we can be innocent victims of our own negative emotions. He talks of neuropeptides released in the brain: "Specific emotions release certain neuropeptides," he says, "...if you're a person who gets angry all the time, you release a certain kind of neuropeptide which then docks with your cells which then produces the chemistry of anger. Now if you keep on doing that, again and again, the cell starts to realise, 'this is my form of nutrition'.

Mark sees this as similar to being addicted to drugs or junk food - you need more and more and end up with a emotional bio-chemical addiction.

There's even a personal anecdote: "My mum wakes up in the morning and she finds something to complain about," volunteers our guest, "...some of us are addicted to victimisation, some are addicted to sorrow... it's almost like you get off on it somehow," says Mark Vicente.

The film director suggests that science is now starting to close in on some of these things that we may have previously considered to be beyond the rational. He suggests that we may be able to slowly break down some of our emotional dependencies and unhelpful behaviour patterns. Unfortunately he doesn't say it'll be easy.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters
compared to what lies within us.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

May you thrive in peace and beauty.