The Hidden Secrets of Water: Discovering the Powers of the Magical Molecule of Life Paperback – September 19, 2017

This provided an in depth look into so many things we take for granted or may have never thought of. I loved seeing this portrayed from many views and felt like a cohesive understanding no matter your world view.

Water is truly the most magical and mysterious substance known to humankind. Tasteless, odourless, mostly transparent to light, we tend to overlook its importance, since it is so ubiquitous and yet no substance could be more crucial to life then water. In a sense, water is life. As the author of the book points out, the human body is the seventy percent water. This book broadly covers just about everything there is worth knowing about water. The dynamics of of water and how it shapes life on Earth, from animal morphology to DNA to animal behaviour. The book also looks at how water has been central to ancient and mystical teachings, exploring how the concept of water was used by the ancient Chinese civilisations and the wisdom of Tao, as well as how the concept of water was crucial to the the Abrahamic religions and Western thought. In particular, the book gives plenty of mentions to the Jewish Kabbalah mysticism which, like Christianity, acknowledged the importance of water as part of the source of human creation. On the more scientific side of things, the author discusses the physical properties of water and evidence for the theory that water has a kind of memory of the physical properties that it comes in to contact with. Key to this theory is the notion that the electromagnetic properties of water may be able to record and transmit information. This is something that designers of Artificial Intelligence should probably take heed of. One imagines that it is no coincidence that intelligent life requires water. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence has an antipathy to water - as anyone who has spilt coffee on their Mac will know. Will the future of AI require "machines" built out of the properties of water? Speaking of intelligence, a couple of the most interesting chapters were discussion of the "Aquatic Ape" hypothesis and dolphin intelligence. The author has a chapter on the arguments in favour of the controversial "aquatic ape" idea that Homo sapiens most immediate ancestor may have returned to semi-aquatic living rather then living on the Savannah of Africa. He also puts forward the speculation that water living animals generally evolve to be more intelligent the land-based animals. In particular, cetaceans like the dolphin may be just as intelligence as Homo sapiens, just possessing a different, almost alien-like, highly developed kind of intelligence. This book is certainly a very broad look at water as a physical, biological and even spiritual property, but in same ways that made the book slightly frustrating for me. The analogies or metaphors of water to other aspects of life are very, very many and the author seems to try to briefly explore almost all of them. The book covers a lot, from the holographic theory of the universe, to String Theory, to Chaos Theory, to Cold Fusion experiments, to dowsing for water, to outlining the health benefits of water and the therapies applied using water. Some of these topics will be more interesting to some readers then others, and while I admire the author's attempt to capture the significance of water in the broadest of terms, I wonder if some of these topics were given a little too broad of a brush? If you ever have to do an essay about water, this book is definitely the place to start.

Great book!.. super informative..still reading.