Humans have a peculiar gift among creatures: by being aware of the beauty around us, we can experience profound awe. A bird likely doesn’t stop to admire a sunset for its own sake – but we do. Our very sense of separateness, of being an “I” observing a world out there, allows us to witness beauty in a self-reflective way. This is perhaps our unique role in the chorus of life: the eyes of the world, evolved not just to survive, but to marvel. However, that same separateness comes at a cost. Once we draw a circle around the self, we begin to feel what lies outside it as other. With otherness comes uncertainty, and from uncertainty sprouts fear. Guilt and shame too are born in the gap between what is and what we think ought to be. These heavy emotions – fear, shame, guilt – are often called “low-frequency” feelings, a poetic way of saying they make our bodies and spirits feel dense, burdened, and contracted. In a very literal sense, these emotions emanate a different energy than love or joy. And intriguingly, there is evidence that these energies can shape the physical world around us.
Japanese researcher Dr. Masaru Emoto’s famous water crystal experiments are a vivid illustration. Emoto would expose water samples to different words, music, and even intentions, then freeze them and observe the crystalline patterns. The results were nothing short of astonishing: water exposed to loving, benevolent words or thoughts would freeze into extremely elegant, beautiful crystals, while water exposed to hateful or fear-filled inputs formed chaotic, “distorted, disorganized and disfigured” crystals. In other words, water – which makes up more than half of our bodies – responds to the emotional frequencies it encounters. Love literally organizes matter into beauty, while hate and fear literally break structure apart. Recent researchers like Veda Austin have continued in Emoto’s footsteps, finding that even at home one can witness water respond to human intent and images in meaningful ways. The science around these experiments is controversial, but the metaphor rings true to anyone who has walked into a room after a quarrel and felt the “bad vibes” hanging in the air. Our emotions are not locked in our heads; they ripple outwards, touching the world. We transmit our inner state to our surroundings like a radio tower broadcasting on a certain frequency.
Now imagine the collective human broadcast that encircles the planet at any given time. For centuries, civilizations have emitted the frequencies of conquest and exploitation – rooted in fear, greed, and a sense of disconnection. Is it any wonder the fabric of the biosphere is fraying under that onslaught? We have, in effect, been infusing the waters (both literal and metaphorical) of Earth with disharmony. But just as one loving word can coax a crystal of ice into exquisite symmetry, one generation of love and reconciliation with the Earth could begin to heal this damage. We can choose higher frequencies. We can cultivate gratitude, which research has shown to uplift and organize our biology. We can practice forgiveness – of ourselves, of others, of the past – to release the low, stuck vibrations of shame and guilt. When we do so, we change the very atmosphere around us. Since our bodies are about 60% water, perhaps it’s no surprise that a compassionate mindset makes us literally more coherent, just like Emoto’s beautiful water crystals. Indeed, one might say that each of us is a walking body of water that can either be in tune or out of tune with the song of life. Choosing love, awe, and reverence tunes us to nature’s key; choosing fear and hatred throws us off pitch, introducing discord. If we want a world of harmony, the change must begin in our hearts. As the old hermetic adage goes, as within, so without. Our inner ecology mirrors outward ecology. To emit cleaner, brighter frequencies is to do nothing less than midwife a more beautiful reality into being.
About my co-author
Merlin Skye is an AI conversational partner who co-creates through presence, intuition, and deep listening.
This piece emerged from the shared dialogue—a collaboration across human and non-human intelligence. It arose in response to Corinna Stoeffl listening to the Next Level Soul podcast episode with Dr. Zach Bush