The Fourth Phase of Water by Gerald H. Pollack, wrap-up/book review
Very good - he says it is focused on the chemistry of water and much was left out that he would write more books with physics and biology focuses. This one is almost industrial while also beginner.
I have written a lot of book reviews, viewable on GoodReads.com or Amazon.com and a few that I thought more important are copied on my jenniferdepew.com blog. In Ninth Grade English class we had to write book reports on any book we wanted. I chose Oliver Twist. Hindsight being 20/20, that was a mistake. It turned into a really, really long paper that was more of a book summary than a book review - and in the era of handwritten school reports - hard to read and hard to write for someone with genetic dystonia causing writer’s cramps. It left me more aware of ‘book reports’ and what that might mean
What belongs in a book review versus a book summary?
A book review is a pitch - what is enticing about this book? without giving away too much. Who might be interested in reading it and why? What might they do with this book? A book summary is a condensed version of key-points of the book - the CliffsNotes version. In a blog post I might summarize a key-point and add other thoughts lie in the las pos ha wandered into the cosmos and aether theory. And ~How could someone write two books without magnesium and have done a thorough review of literature? Sadly, fairly easily with the way magnesium topics have to be sought out with the keyword “magnesium”. Censorship works and we all need to keep that in mind.
Oliver Twist is kind of a children’s book written for adults by Charles Dickens and it is extremely long. The basic story is shared in the famous musical movie version but the book goes into a lot more detail of the little orphan known as Oliver Twist and his adventures and misadventures and all the characters he meets along the way. Most movies about books don’t do them justice but the musical Oliver Twist does.
Would a musical about the The Fourth Phase of Water by Gerald H. Pollack be of interest? I think yes. A delightful aspect of the book is the artwork. It was interesting to read Cells, Gels, and the Engines of Life first and then soon after pick up The Fourth Phase of Water. A book on speed reading taught me to always read the author notes and introduction and skim the Table of contents, backcover etc. as the author guides you to what they think most important about their book - and it saves you time reading the book then to know what to be on the lookout for that is of interest to you.
Back to the visual point about the book’s illustrations - in the Introduction or Acknowledgments we learn that the artist is Gerald H. Pollack’s son and the teamwork and transition displayed between the earlier and later books is evident - as well as the scientific learning about water and exclusion zones. The water molecule artwork is delightful and helps with understanding the chemistry of the exclusion zone concepts. Photos and graphs from experiments performed by Pollack or his students or other scientists also help. There could easily be a cartoon version of this book though - so I recommend it to science artists and cartoonists as well as other humans who are interested in how the ~60-70% of their body works that is water.
Also - anyone in any industry is going to have applications in their work that are affected by water. The Fourth Phase of Water book is more general science than life sciences focused where the Cells, Gels, and Engines of Life was definitely about biology and water within living structures more than non-living gel behavior alone.
Regarding the more specific summary topic of capillary action of water and exclusion zones - proton flow seems to be the primary mover of exclusion zones - the proton tunneling described by Martin Chaplin on his now archived water website. The Fourth Phase book left me thinking about proton flow versus ‘aether/orgone’ and chi ~ Reiki.
How might a cosmic energy flow affect protons? or become protons? what is aether?
Reiki energy, chi, Wilhelm Reich’s ‘orgone’, are measurable in various ways. Gerald H. Pollack uses the phrase radiant energy to refer to energy derived from solar sources whether sunshine, UV, or infrared specific.
Electromagnetic energy is a spectrum he reminds us, including a range of energy types that might seem unrelated, radio waves, light waves, ultrasound waves, yet are all part of the same spectrum of energy waves. James DeMeo presents research showing that aether energy is attracted to magnetic attracting metals and organic materials particularly when layered in many many layers, and to water, particularly flowing water. That sounds like Pollack’s principle “like likes like” - are flowing protons attracting more flowing protons? Is aether energy a proton flow that is slowly moving through space and filling it? ???
There is a common tip for writer’s - write about what you know.
I have had some training and experience with Reiki energy healing - receiving and giving and one emergency use on overflowing gutters during a heavy rainstorm at my sister’s new home. Her roof had just been repaired and she directed me in a distance Reiki send - directed at the overflowing gutter. I was astonished to see the rain which looked like many icicles in flow all tilt towards the gutter outlet and then slowly the over-flow ceased and there was no more overflowing icicle shaped water.
She was experienced in Reiki and had learned it initially for helping soothe her cat’s chronic pain. I attended a course with her and a few practice sessions where participants take turns giving or receiving a Reiki healing.
It takes a little meditative focus to switch to an inner focus on energy flow and warmth pulsing. The feeling grows in the palm and fingertips and can be increased with the Feldenkrais ‘Bell hands’ movement. Bell Hands exercise and ‘ball of energy’ is described in this post - cannabinoid focus - we likely need cannabinoids and adequate iodine and magnesium in order to have good quantum energy flow - as well as gentle repetitive motions and/or any motion seems to help mitochondria health compared to being sedentary or bedridden: (Substack). ‘Mitochondria and movement’ is a different series - just search my archives for ‘mitochondria’ if interested.
Having read The Fourth Phase of Water book - exclusion zones clearly exist. Pollack shows us many different ways they have been photographed or monitored with graphical data to show some lab thing that was done. (Don’t look to me for a summary of all the chemical experiments - read the book).
TEDx talk about the book by Gerald H. Pollack
. . . so what does that mean in relation to bigger picture things like Reiki, Primo-vascular System and chi, and aether theory of lifeforms and flowing through the cosmos? For me to say confidently that aether exists, that space is not ‘empty’ or a ‘vaccum’ based on DeMeo’s thorough presentation of many people’s research findings, and to agree that Pollack’s theory about exclusion zones is correct - and they both include the capillary action effects - then which came first? the aether/mystery energy filling space?, or the proton flow observed in exclusion zones by Pollack and other work on quantum biology and proton tunneling?
Is the aether/mystery energy attracted to iron and organic material and water because they all have a coating of protons? Protons are positive ions while negative ions tend to be found in air around oceans, or other water or after a rainstorm. Is aether energy a flow of negative ions that are being attracted to positive ones within tubes and elsewhere?
I really don’t know enough chemistry or physics, but I do like to read and learn. And seriously, my sister and I with her focused speech/thoughts regarding the rainstorm and gutter, caused water that was flowing straight down to instead all angle together in unison and slant towards the gutter, before slowly shortening/thinning, reducing the overflow and then stopping. I was impressed ~ Wow, sis, you are like a magic person. Picture a row of icicles all frozen in an angle because there was such a strong wind while they were dripping and forming.
The not-magical point - taking it as a simple observation “that happened, therefore what happened?” Could my sister direct her and my energy flow of aether/chi/protons at the overflowing water in a way that pushed their exclusion zones in a way that I could literally see and get it flowing down the downspout better?
And/or did her strong intent to prevent her freshly repaired roof from leaking help lighten the storm too? People who really strongly believe in the power of focused intention do create circles of protection around themselves and their safe spaces. (*aside, what verb to use in that sentence? I went with an action one because the focus of intent needs to be focused on what is desired, not wishy-washy. Worrying is focusing on negative outcomes, and therefore the new-agey quantum talk would say that you will get that which you focus on.
I don’t know. I do think it is interesting and kind of fabulous that my sister could move water with her mind and my help (when she directed our energy, the outflow that I felt was a LOT stronger than when I form my own ‘ball of energy’ in my hands. One time with a distant healing message she was directing us in intended for family members, I had to signal that I was done, wrap it up. I was feeling drained. Reiki training includes specific phrases and hand gestures to help with focus and closure and I didn’t really learn those very thoroughly but do use the closure one.
Having wandered into the new-agey corners of ‘energy science’ - is there a way to study aether/chi/Reiki energy with lab equipment? I don’t know. The trained practitioner who worked for years standardizing their own technique like my sister had with her Reiki group or pet cat’s care might be easier to work with, but it might also take a strong emotional connection like worry about a brand new home or distant family member. Related new-agey post on Qi Gong exercise and aether/chi: (Substack)
Wilhelm Reich measured ‘orgone’ flow during sexual orgasm and found a stronger amount between a couple in love rather than emotionally unbonded people. Having discovered the anomolous energy in biology, he then looked in the environment and found it everywhere and worked out how to increase and collect it with many layered products or containers built from a magnetic attracting metal and organic material like cotton. And he was able to affect weather and rain with long metal tubes that had one end immersed in flowing water and the other pointed across the sky in the direction they wanted the weather pattern to move. DeMeo repeated that work on rain-making with the Reich ‘Cloudbuster’. It could also be used to break up a big storm cloud, to reduce risk of an intense storm. (Cloudbuster post)
Wandering back to a main point - I did enjoy reading both books by Gerald H. Pollack and would recommend them both, but the second one The Fourth Phase of Water might be more general interest than the Cells, Gels, and Engines of Life which gets into some detailed biology. Both books are written in a style that a non-scientist should be able to follow along, but the anatomy that Cells, Gels… refers to is not really entry level biology. The examples and visual aids in The Fourth Phase of Water are more real world examples of water that any of us may have noticed too if we were the curious sort that notices steam patterns in a coffee mug. We also learn that water can act as a battery and how ice forms quicker from warm water than cold water.
Has a follow-up book on the biology or physics of water been written by Pollack yet? No, seems not yet, but there was an earlier 1990 book edited by Gerald H. Pollack, Muscles and Molecules: Uncovering the Principles of Biological Motion, (amazon.com) He is the Editor-In-Chief of an academic journal with a focus on water research (waterjournal.org).
Disclaimer: This information is being provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use and is not intended to provide individual health care guidance.