The following is an excerpt from Sue Lilly’s Book “The Essence Practitioner”, (Published by Singing Dragon 2014 ISBN: 978-1-84819-250-8)
The Wonder of Water
To begin to understand the way essences are made and are thought to work it is worth looking more closely at the carrier of most essences – water.
Water covers around 71% of the surface of the Earth, 98% of that 71% is in the oceans. We are 70% water. We also have other special relationships with water – Too much – we die; Too little – we die.
Water is a prerequisite for life to even have evolved on this planet. Enzymes and other compounds that are necessary for life do not work without water.
Water is the second most common molecule in the universe, the first being hydrogen (H2).
Although water has been widely studied, it properties continue to intrigue scientists and hints of its abilities are not completely understood by many.
Most people know the chemical formula for water:
H2O
This means that for every oxygen atom, there are two hydrogen ones.
To try to understand why water is so special the Periodic Table of Elements (see above) needs to be examined. It holds a lot of information about the different elements that make up our environment and how they relate to one another. This table as we see it today was built up over 150 years. Though most people attribute it to Mendeleev in 1869, it is still being adjusted today in the 21st century to accommodate new discoveries.
The table shows, at the top left is the lightest element, hydrogen (H). Following the table downwards shows the number of electrons, protons and neutrons in the atom increasing. This is reflected by the atomic number and the fact that the atoms themselves get heavier as the elements change name and quality.
The table also shows what Mendeleev did and that was to arrange the elements with similar properties together. This also enabled scientists to see where there were gaps for unknown elements, like the later named, germanium. For example, in the second column we have several elements that are related to one another and that are known from mineralogy – berylium, magnesium, calcium, strontium and barium. The further down the listing, the heavier the atom is, so if a piece of gypsum/selenite (calcium sulphate) is compared with a similar sized piece of celestite, the celestite would be noticeably heavier. Celestite is strontium sulphate SrSO4, and strontium is a much heavier atom than calcium.
C – Carbon, N – Nitrogen, O-Oxygen, F – Fluorine
P – Phosphorus, S – Sulphur, Cl – Chlorine
Their proximity in the Table would suggest that these elements form similar compounds that behave in a similar way. When they combine with hydrogen this is indeed the case, apart from when oxygen and hydrogen mix.
Carbon + Hydrogen = Methane – a gas at room temperature
Nitrogen + Hydrogen = Ammonia – a gas at room temperature
Fluorine + Hydrogen = Hydrogen Fluoride – a gas at room temperature
Phosphorus+ Hydrogen = Phosphine – a gas at room temperature
Sulphur+ Hydrogen = Hydrogen Sulphide – a gas at room temperature
Chlorine + Hydrogen = Hydrogen Chloride – a gas at room temperature
All these gases are dangerous to health and poisonous in large quantities.
It should follow that the combination of oxygen with hydrogen would be a gas at room temperature and would also be poisonous – but it is neither. It breaks the rules.
Water is weird!
Water Molecules
One of the reasons for the weird behaviour of water is thought to be how the molecules of water interact with each other.
The water molecule is sometimes called the ‘Mickey Mouse’ molecule, mainly because it can be represented like this:
However there is an imbalance or inequality of how the oxygen atom and hydrogen atoms share their electrons. In effect the atoms become tiny magnets and they start to attract other molecules. This phenomenon is called ‘hydrogen bonding’.
These bonds are strong enough in water to give water its unusual properties. DNA and enzymes both depend on the hydrogen bonding of water. Surface tension is also evidence of hydrogen bonding.
If there was no hydrogen bonding – there would be no life
If there was slightly weaker bonding – life would exist at lower temperatures
If there was slightly stronger bonding – life would exist at higher temperatures
If the bonding was much stronger – there would be no life
Hydrogen bonding in water means that at 4 degrees C water is at its maximum density. Above that temperature its volume expands and below that its volume also expands. Water becomes crystalline (ice) at 0 degrees C. Other compounds become denser as they get colder.
At atomic levels small clusters of water group together. This can happen in several ways and many ‘types’ of water have been identified. Ordinarily the clusters form and reform, some identical to others, some with similar part-patterns. This was only confirmed in 1998, but the idea of molecules replicating a pattern has been summed up by the phrase ‘the memory of water’, used by Jacques Benveniste (1935-2004). This brilliant man stirred up a lot of controversy over his experiments with water, which cost him his research post and some say he never recovered from the stress of those events.
His work was reported widely. Several laboratories set about reproducing his experiments and all succeeded except one, yet it was this one that was brought to everyone’s notice through the media. He was subsequently labelled as a quack and fraudster.
The memory of water is very short unless other materials or substances are present. So if water has a memory that needs to be preserved some ethanol could be added. This is what Dr Edward Bach did with the Bach Flower Remedies in 1928-1936. Other preservatives are vinegar, citricidal, honey, salt and glycerol. Using spring water as a starting point helps too, as it contains minute amounts of minerals that encourage the creation of the bonding mechanism. Even using glass equipment helps because some of the ions from the glass move into the water.
Succussion, or rapid shaking of a liquid, encourages the patterns in the water to replicate, as in homoeopathic dilutions, but there is no explanation as to why a human being is then able to react and use this pattern as a healing tool.
In mineralogy, individual gems and crystals can be identified by the way the crystal lattice deflects laser light, and the angle between the atoms are so precise that correct identification can be made because the angle is always the same for that molecule.
The atomic bonding angle in water, however, is not constant. It varies from 104.27 degrees to 109.28 degrees, the norm being accepted as 104.35 degrees – this suggests that there could be lots of different ‘waters’, a belief held by many water energy experts.
Dr Bernard Grad (1920-2010) of McGill University discovered in the 1960s that if water was subjected to a small magnetic field or to light the atomic bonding in the water gets altered and there is also a reduction in surface tension. He went on to show that a person can emit enough of a magnetic field to alter the atomic bonds of water. Indeed when someone focused positive intent into the water and that water subsequently was used to water plants it resulted in strong growth of the plants. The effect of water focused on by someone who was upset or disturbed was shown to produce little or no additional growth in plants.
More recent research, first published in English in 2005 by Professor Bernd Kröplin from the University of Stuttgart has looked at the mechanisms by which water collects, stores and disseminates information. He showed that even the temporary influence of weak energy fields can cause changes in water structure. He showed that the effect on the water was influenced by the experimenter, so the phenomenon cannot be reproduced independent of an observer. In effect any work on water structure cannot ever be objective. The observer is inescapably part of the experiment and whatever their mood is added to the effect on the water. This last sentence is very important as it may well explain some of the failures by other researchers to reproduce Jacques Benveniste’s experiments in 1988.
Kröplin and his team took the work further. They looked at what happens when a single drop of water dries on a glass slide and is then observed through a dark-field lens. (The use of ‘dark field’ excludes the un-scattered beams of light from the image. This leaves the image on a black background). It was observed that distilled water left no trace. Different homeopathic potencies produced different, distinct patterns, distinctly different from water. Minnie Hein, a member of the research team was familiar with essences. She calls them ‘informed’ water as they have not been serially diluted and succussed. Water drops from the same essence dried by her and a colleague appeared slightly different from each other, though the basic characteristics remained the same. This also suggested that the experimenter was influencing the structure of the drops in some way. Even the same experimenter on different days using the same essence resulted in dried drops that varied slightly.
Minnie Hein, one of the experimenters, came to the conclusion that the dried drop was a joint picture of experimenter and ‘informed’ water. Over time this experiment was repeated again and again with different people, showing slightly varied drops. Experiments continued using human saliva. Two samples were collected by several experimenters. One was collected before people anchored their personal energies to the planet (being grounded) and calmed themselves (being centred), and the second taken after they had done so. Not only were the drops more coherent after each person was grounded and centred, but the drops taken by the each experimenters also had their own characteristics.
The team also looked at the dried drops of saliva when subjected to electromagnetic fields, like those produced by mobile phones. The subjected drops showed structures that were more rigid and less diverse.
Research has also been conducted by several people into how water flowing in certain ways affects the surface tension – in effect making it ‘wetter’. The most well know of these researchers was Vicktor Schauberger. (1855-1958). He discovered that if flowing water was made to pass through a vortex that spins the water anticlockwise towards the apex, it affected the surface tension of the water. By drinking water that has been ‘spun’ the body seems to heal quicker and become stronger.
Several studies have been carried out on the physical propertied of homeopathic potentised water. Wursumser (1948), Gay and Boiron (1953), Stephenson (1955) investigated the way light is absorbed by various potencies of chemicals like sodium chloride. They showed that anomalies in the light absorption of the various potencies could be measured and plotted to reflect the dilutions. Ansaloni and Vecchi in 1989 did similar work with water that had been potentised by healers.
Water responds to sound and can produce surface wave patterns when subjected to music (Hans Jenny (1904-1972) and Alexander Lauterwasser (1951-). The more popular work by Masaru Emoto (1943 -) has shown that ice crystals reflect the coherence of the music that the liquid was subjected to before it was frozen.
In conclusion it can be clearly seen that there has been a significant body of research into the phenomenon we call water and to how it holds energy patterns. Serial dilution and succussion has been shown to change how water reacts. The popular media and its pundits are always keen to trash homeopathy and the ‘fanciful’ idea that water has memory on the premise that there is no scientific evidence, even when there is plenty of replicable work done by brave researchers who are prepared to see for themselves, refusing to be confined to what they have been taught, or by the expectations and results of their peers.
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