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H2Om
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H2Om is a website and company selling overpriced bottled water that has been "focused with positive emotional intentions". The water is supposedly altered by these focused attentions to, well, do something. It's a pretty classic example of water woo.
Origins[edit]
The site draws heavily upon the discredited work of Masaru Emoto,[1] who took pictures of water crystals and claimed to show that good thoughts made pretty pictures, and bad thoughts made ugly crystals. Emoto's work has failed replication and, as usual, fellow pseudoscientists ignore the importance of double blind studies and the scientific method.
In addition to Emoto's work, the site also claims inspiration from the movie What the Bleep Do We Know?,[1] a cognitive disaster of quantum woo and other pseudosciences. Supposedly all this "good intention water" creates something called "vibration hydration". The description of this strange form of hydration is a classic concoction of woo calling science "fancy terms" and "brain twisting mathematics" that can easily be summarized as "everything is a magical energy with a frequency" and their water has the "good" frequency and you will too if you drink it.[2] Again, not one statement on their site is supported by any actual science references — which isn't surprising, considering there is no science to support it.
Founders[edit]
The founders of H2Om are husband-and-wife team Lex Lang (a "voice actor") and Sandy Fox (also a "voice actor"). They are also connected somehow with The Love Planet Foundation, which "is a non-profit organization dedicated to launching exciting new fund raising projects and multi-media events which educate and inspire social & environmental awareness."[3] While admitting that the aims of the foundation and of H20M are laudable, the former seems to be hollow of any tangible goals and loaded with "happy talk", while the latter is almost totally science woo.
The magic of water!!![edit]
The site is very vague about what they claim their magic water can do, but does include this interesting disclaimer:
“”"Although this product is not designed to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, we do believe in the power of intention and that anything is possible."[2]
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Currently, their water is available in 7 "flavors":[4]
- Gratitude
- Joy
- Love
- Peace
- Prosperity
- Willpower
- Perfect Health
Each flavor is infused with special words and music and the process works as follows:[5]
- Music is played to the water during the bottling process
- Special inspirational words and pictures are placed on the label
- When a person drinks this water, they are supposed to think about wonderful things
- Good things then happen to the consumer
The magic in the label[edit]
Notwithstanding the added "vibrations", musical sounds, and pictures, the company seems to be at pains to point out that there is no real chemical difference. Presumably nothing which could be, you know, actually detected in any way. All the magic, it seems, is in the label. They say on their site:[6]
“”We don't add special potions, or bless the water before we deliver it to you, once you buy H2Om at the store, you let the label inspire you as you put your own belief and personal energy into it. At that moment two things happen, as you create your own personal intention while you drink in the delicious spring water, you are living in the “now", and you are naturally in a grateful state of being. You’ve created an energetic interaction with the element that sustains your life. Your body is completely receptive. You've created a vibration that puts the Laws of the Universe into action (The Law of Resonance and the Law of Attraction). And logically, as you absorb the water, you carry that “intent” with you throughout your day.
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What on earth all this is supposed to mean in the real world is not clear, but fitting the law of resonance and the law of attraction into one sentence is a quite impressive bit of woomanship.
Apart from this, if the only magical thing is really the label, then you might just as well drink a glass of tap water while reading the inspirational label and save yourself some money.
Technobabble[edit]
While some of the site is the usual marketing spiel about bottled water, it suffers from extreme attacks of technobabble. Probably the worst is their page on "vibration hydration",[7] which states that all matter resonates with... energy, which is the "inspiration and driving force behind out intention based, interactive natural spring water." They also confuse matter with energy, stating that "energy is the building block of everything". Admittedly, special relativity says that mass and energy are equivalent, to a degree.
It is difficult to find a single sentence on the page which is not an example of woo, technobabble, or equivocation.
International press[edit]
The website claims that: "The Wall Street Journal, InStyle magazine, and TIME magazine have recognized that there is something very special and positive about H2Om water."[8]
In fact, both the Wall Street Journal article[9] and the Time article[10] imply they are less than convinced there is anything special.
The website also has a nice photo gallery featuring celebrities drinking the water.[11] When there is no scientific support for a company's bullshit claims, why not resort to argumentum ad populum referencing people with a ridiculous amount of money to waste foolishly?