cover image The Shape of Love: Discovering Who We Are, Where We Came From, and Where We're Going

The Shape of Love: Discovering Who We Are, Where We Came From, and Where We're Going

Masaru Emoto, . . Doubleday, $18.95 (149pp) ISBN 978-0-385-51837-6

As author of several spirituality-cum-science titles including The Hidden Messages in Water , Emoto introduced the world to his claim that a sample of water is capable of responding to human words. Using a high-powered microscope camera, he demonstrated that water reacts to positive language by the formation of beautiful, snowflake-like crystals and to negative terms by forming ugly or distorted shapes. This breakthrough was featured in the hit underground film, What the Bleep Do We Know? While Emoto's earlier works were generally focused on health and healing, his new book attempts to extrapolate a religious narrative of the origins of life on Earth. The hypothesis—which includes the assertion that the water on earth was delivered by God in comets sent from somewhere near the Big Dipper, as well as the claim that humans were "sent to the earth in the form of water crystals"—is mostly incoherent and unsatisfying. Worse, it strays from the simplicity of his powerful earlier work with the water samples. Still, newcomers will be pleased that Emoto rehearses much of his earlier material, and serious fans will doubtless find his flights of fancy intriguing. 40 color photos, not seen by PW . (Apr. 17)