Structured Water and the Fourth Phase: The Science of Living Water
For as long as modern science has existed, water has been described as existing in three phases: solid (ice), liquid (water), and gas (vapor or steam). Every textbook, every classroom, every child who has ever boiled a kettle or made ice cubes has learned this trinity.
Structured Water and the Fourth Phase: The Science of Living Water
Beyond Three Phases
For as long as modern science has existed, water has been described as existing in three phases: solid (ice), liquid (water), and gas (vapor or steam). Every textbook, every classroom, every child who has ever boiled a kettle or made ice cubes has learned this trinity. Solid, liquid, gas. That is all there is.
Except it is not.
In the early 2000s, Dr. Gerald Pollack, a professor of bioengineering at the University of Washington, published research that challenged this fundamental assumption. His laboratory discovered a fourth phase of water — a gel-like, liquid crystalline state that forms at interfaces, between solid surfaces and bulk liquid water. He called it “Exclusion Zone water” or “EZ water,” because it forcefully excludes particles and solutes from its space, creating a clear zone that can extend up to millions of molecular layers from a surface.
This discovery did not emerge in isolation. It connects to Viktor Schauberger’s observations of “living water” in the early twentieth century, to Mu Shik Jhon’s hexagonal water research spanning four decades, to Emilio Del Giudice’s quantum coherence domains, and to indigenous traditions that have always distinguished between water that is alive and water that is dead.
This article explores the science of structured water and the fourth phase, what it means for biology and health, and how it bridges the gap between laboratory physics and the ancient understanding that water is a living substance.
Gerald Pollack and the Fourth Phase
The Discovery
The Pollack laboratory at the University of Washington has been investigating the properties of water at interfaces since the early 2000s. The central discovery is this: when water comes into contact with a hydrophilic (water-loving) surface — such as a gel, a biological membrane, or even a glass tube — a distinct zone forms at the interface where the water behaves differently from bulk liquid water.
This zone, the Exclusion Zone (EZ):
- Excludes particles and solutes — microspheres, dissolved salts, and other substances are pushed away from the surface into the bulk water
- Is negatively charged — with electrical potentials measured as large as -200 millivolts
- Has a different molecular structure — NMR spectroscopy, infrared imaging, and birefringence measurements confirm that EZ water is a physically distinct, ordered phase
- Behaves like a liquid crystal — it has long-range molecular order, unlike bulk liquid water
- Can co-exist indefinitely with the adjacent bulk water phase — it is not a transient phenomenon
- Extends remarkably far — up to millions of molecular layers from the surface, much further than anyone expected
The Role of Light
Perhaps the most surprising finding is that EZ water is built by light. Incident radiant energy — including ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared wavelengths — causes the exclusion zone to grow. Infrared light is the most effective wavelength for EZ expansion.
This means that sunlight literally charges water. When infrared radiation from the sun strikes water, it converts ordinary bulk water into structured, ordered, electrically charged EZ water. The EZ acts as a battery, storing the sun’s energy as charge separation (negative EZ, positive bulk water).
This has profound implications:
- When you stand in sunlight, the water inside your body is being structured and charged by infrared radiation
- The 42 liters of water in a human body are not passive — they are a light-harvesting, energy-storing system
- The ancient practice of sun-gazing and sunbathing may have a scientific basis: you are literally building your body’s internal battery
The Chemical Formula
Pollack’s research suggests that EZ water has a different chemical formula from ordinary water. While bulk liquid water is H2O, EZ water appears to have the formula H3O2 — essentially a more ordered, more structured arrangement with additional hydrogen bonding. Some researchers describe it as a sheet-like structure, similar to ice but existing at room temperature and in a liquid crystalline state.
Viktor Schauberger: The Original Living Water Scientist
Decades before Pollack’s laboratory discoveries, Austrian naturalist and forester Viktor Schauberger (1885-1958) had already articulated the distinction between living water and dead water based on his observations of natural water systems.
Living Water vs. Dead Water
Schauberger observed that water in its natural state — flowing through shaded forest streams, spiraling through rocky channels, protected from direct sunlight and heat — had properties that water processed through human infrastructure did not:
Living Water (as Schauberger described it):
- Flows in spiraling, vortexian paths
- Is cool (approaching 4 degrees Celsius, the temperature of maximum density)
- Is self-purifying
- Supports abundant life
- Has higher dissolved oxygen
- Moves centripetally (inward-spiraling)
- Maintains its own energy and structure
Dead Water (as Schauberger described it):
- Forced through straight pipes and channels
- Exposed to excess heat and light
- Chlorinated and chemically treated
- Supports less life
- Moves centrifugally (outward-dispersing)
- Loses its structure and energy
- Requires external energy to move (pumping)
The Temperature Connection
Schauberger placed enormous emphasis on water temperature. He observed that at 4 degrees Celsius (39.2 degrees Fahrenheit), water reaches its maximum density. At this temperature, water exhibits its greatest capacity for dissolving minerals, carrying nutrients, and self-purification.
He noticed that healthy mountain streams kept their water cool through:
- Tree canopy shade over the stream
- Underground flow through cool rock
- Vortexian motion that creates cooling through centripetal acceleration
- Nighttime cooling and minimal exposure to direct sun
When forest was cut and streams were exposed to direct sunlight, the water warmed, lost its vitality, and the streams degraded — sedimentation increased, fish populations declined, and the water lost its self-purifying capacity.
This observation aligns with Pollack’s findings: infrared light builds EZ water, but excessive heat disrupts water structure. There is an optimal range — enough radiant energy to build structure, but not so much thermal energy that the structure is destroyed. Nature, as Schauberger constantly emphasized, maintains this balance automatically when left undisturbed.
The Vortex as Nature’s Technology
Schauberger observed that water in nature never moves in straight lines. It spirals, it eddies, it creates vortices at every scale. He studied these vortices intensely and concluded that the spiral vortex is nature’s fundamental mechanism for:
- Energizing water — the inward spiral concentrates energy rather than dissipating it
- Cooling water — centripetal motion creates cooling at the center of the vortex
- Self-purification — the vortex creates zones of different density that naturally separate impurities
- Oxygenation — the spiral motion draws air into the water
Schauberger designed water pipes and channels that mimicked natural vortexian flow. His egg-shaped copper pipes, with their internal ridges and hyperbolic cone geometry, forced water through spiral paths that replicated the motion of a natural stream. Water flowing through these pipes reportedly gained energy, remained cool, and maintained its “living” qualities.
His observations of fish behavior confirmed his theories. Trout held motionless in fast-moving mountain streams by positioning themselves at the center of the stream’s vortex, where the densest, coolest, most structured water flowed. When Schauberger had helpers pour warm water upstream, the trout lost their ability to hold position and were swept downstream. The fish were using the vortex structure of living water as a form of levitation.
The Implosion Principle
Schauberger’s most radical contribution was the principle of implosion versus explosion. He argued that modern civilization’s entire technological approach is based on explosion — burning fuels, splitting atoms, forcing things outward. Nature, by contrast, operates through implosion — inward-spiraling, concentrating, cooling, densifying movements.
“Implosion is a suctional process that causes matter to move inwards, not outwards as in the case of explosion. Implosion generates instead of destroying.”
Water’s vortex is the archetypal implosive process. When water spirals inward, it:
- Cools at the center
- Increases in density
- Gains energy (kinetic and potential)
- Becomes more ordered and structured
- Generates centripetal (life-affirming) forces
This principle is the polar opposite of the entropic, explosive approach that dominates modern technology. Schauberger believed that humanity’s future depended on shifting from explosion to implosion — from fighting nature to cooperating with it.
Mu Shik Jhon: The Hexagonal Water Pioneer
Dr. Mu Shik Jhon was a Korean physical chemist who spent over 40 years studying the molecular structure of water. His research culminated in the “Molecular Water Environment Theory,” formally presented in 1986, and the book “The Water Puzzle and the Hexagonal Key.”
The Hexagonal Preference
Jhon demonstrated that biological systems preferentially use hexagonally structured water. His findings included:
- Healthy DNA is surrounded by hexagonal water; damaged DNA has less hexagonal water around it
- Young, vital organisms contain more hexagonal water than aged ones
- Certain natural water sources (notably some volcanic springs in Korea and Japan) have higher percentages of hexagonal water
- The process of aging correlates with the progressive loss of hexagonal water from the body’s cells
Jhon’s work provides a framework for understanding why certain water sources have been revered for their healing properties across centuries. The springs at Lourdes, the waters of Hunza in Pakistan, the volcanic springs of Japan — these may be sources that naturally produce water with a higher proportion of hexagonal structure.
The Connection to EZ Water
Jhon’s hexagonal water and Pollack’s EZ water are related but distinct concepts. Both describe water that has greater molecular order than bulk liquid water. Both emphasize the biological importance of water structure. The key differences:
- EZ water forms at interfaces (surfaces, membranes) and is defined by its charge and exclusion properties
- Hexagonal water refers to the proportion of water clusters organized in hexagonal arrangements in bulk liquid
- Both may be aspects of the same underlying phenomenon — water’s tendency to self-organize into ordered structures under favorable conditions
Emilio Del Giudice: Coherence Domains
The quantum electrodynamics framework developed by Italian physicist Emilio Del Giudice provides a theoretical foundation for understanding both EZ water and hexagonal water at the deepest physical level.
The Physics
Standard quantum mechanics treats each water molecule as an independent particle. Under this model, there is no reason for water to form ordered structures beyond the fleeting hydrogen bonds that last less than a picosecond.
But quantum electrodynamics (QED) field theory — which accounts for the interaction between matter and the electromagnetic vacuum field — predicts something entirely different. When molecular density exceeds a critical threshold (which liquid water easily does), water molecules spontaneously organize into coherence domains:
- Size: approximately 100 nanometers in diameter
- Behavior: all water molecules within the domain oscillate in phase with each other
- Energy state: molecules oscillate between ground state and an excited state at approximately 12.06 eV
- Electron availability: the coherent oscillation creates a population of nearly free electrons
- Biological function: these free electrons are the basis for redox reactions — the fundamental energy currency of all life
The Implication
If Del Giudice is correct, then liquid water is not a random, disorganized fluid. It is a patchwork of coherent quantum domains interspersed with non-coherent bulk water. The coherent domains are capable of storing information in their electromagnetic oscillation patterns, responding to external electromagnetic fields, and providing the energetic infrastructure for all biological processes.
This is not speculation. It is a prediction of a well-established branch of physics (QED) applied to the most abundant substance on Earth. The fact that mainstream chemistry has not yet fully integrated these findings says more about the slowness of paradigm shifts than about the quality of the physics.
Building Structured Water in the Body
If structured, ordered water is essential for biological function — and the evidence from Pollack, Jhon, and Del Giudice strongly suggests it is — then a natural question arises: how do we build more of it in our bodies?
Light Exposure
Pollack’s research clearly shows that infrared light is the primary driver of EZ water formation. Practical implications:
- Sunlight exposure: especially morning and evening sun, which is rich in near-infrared wavelengths
- Infrared saunas: deliver infrared energy directly to the body’s water
- Red light therapy: wavelengths in the 630-850 nm range penetrate tissue and build EZ water in cells
- Grounding/earthing: the Earth’s surface emits far-infrared radiation
Movement
Schauberger’s vortex principle applies inside the body:
- Exercise and movement create vortexian flow patterns in blood, lymph, and interstitial fluid
- Yoga and tai chi — with their spiraling, flowing movements — may be particularly effective at structuring the body’s water
- Fascial movement (stretching, foam rolling, massage) keeps the hydrophilic surfaces of fascia hydrated with EZ water
Clean Water Sources
- Spring water from underground sources that has naturally flowed through rock and been structured by the Earth’s pressures and minerals
- Water from moving sources (rivers, streams) rather than stagnant sources
- Avoiding excessive processing: heavy filtration, reverse osmosis, and distillation may remove minerals and structure that support water’s natural organization
Emotional and Intentional Coherence
If Emoto’s and Radin’s research is correct:
- Prayer and gratitude directed at drinking water before consumption may improve its structure
- Positive emotional states may maintain better water structure in the body
- Chronic stress and negative emotion may disrupt the body’s water structure, contributing to disease
Cold Exposure
Schauberger’s emphasis on water temperature suggests:
- Cold showers and cold immersion may support structured water formation in the body
- Water approaches its densest, most organized state at 4 degrees Celsius
- Brief cold exposure may trigger the body to create more structured water as a protective response
Recent Discoveries (2024-2025)
The scientific understanding of water continues to evolve rapidly:
Quantum Tunneling in Water
A 2025 study published in leading physics journals revealed that the collective rotational motion of water molecules in small clusters enhances proton tunneling — a quantum mechanical process where protons pass through energy barriers rather than over them. This has implications for understanding how water facilitates enzymatic reactions, DNA replication, and other biological processes that seem to occur faster than classical chemistry predicts.
Two-State Liquid Confirmation
Research in 2024 confirmed that liquid water exists as a mixture of two distinct structural states, and that a critical point between these states is responsible for many of water’s anomalous properties (its density maximum at 4 degrees Celsius, its high heat capacity, its expansion upon freezing). This effectively means water is two liquids in one — and the balance between these two states may be influenced by external factors including electromagnetic fields, temperature, and possibly intention.
Correlated Vibrational Spectroscopy
A new technique developed in 2024 called correlated vibrational spectroscopy (CVS) allows researchers to directly observe the quantum interactions between water molecules through their hydrogen bonds. This technology is revealing that water’s internal dynamics are far more complex and organized than previously accessible through experimental methods.
Nuclear Quantum Effects
Research at the Max Planck Institute revealed how water “hides its quantum secret” — nuclear quantum effects in water’s hydrogen bonds are larger than previously thought but are concealed by competing effects that cancel each other out. This explains why water’s quantum nature has been so difficult to detect experimentally, even though it profoundly influences water’s behavior.
The Integration: Science Meets Wisdom
When you look at the totality of the evidence — Pollack’s fourth phase, Schauberger’s living water observations, Jhon’s hexagonal preference, Del Giudice’s coherence domains, and the latest quantum discoveries — a clear picture emerges:
Water is not a simple, passive chemical. It is a dynamic, responsive, self-organizing medium that:
- Harvests energy from light
- Stores energy as electrical charge
- Organizes into liquid crystalline structures at biological interfaces
- Operates as a quantum coherent system
- Responds to its physical, electromagnetic, and — possibly — intentional environment
This is what Viktor Schauberger meant when he said water is alive. This is what indigenous elders mean when they call water a sacred being. This is what your body knows every time you drink cold, clean spring water and feel something shift inside you that cannot be explained by hydration alone.
The fourth phase of water is not just a scientific curiosity. It is the missing link between physics and biology, between chemistry and consciousness, between the modern laboratory and the ancient spring.
We are made of this water. We are built by its light. We are charged by its coherence. And when we begin to treat water — in our environment and in our bodies — with the reverence it deserves, something profound shifts.
Not because the water changes. Because we finally see it for what it is.
Key References
- Pollack, G.H. (2013). “The Fourth Phase of Water: Beyond Solid, Liquid, and Vapor.” Ebner and Sons.
- Pollack Laboratory research publications: pollacklab.org
- Schauberger, V. (as compiled by Callum Coats). “Living Energies” and “The Water Wizard.” Gateway Books.
- Jhon, M.S. (2004). “The Water Puzzle and the Hexagonal Key.” Uplift Press.
- Del Giudice, E. et al. (2009). “Water as a Free Electric Dipole Laser.” Physical Review Letters.
- Del Giudice, E. and Preparata, G. (1995). “Coherent Dynamics in Water as a Possible Explanation of Biological Membranes Formation.” Journal of Biological Physics.
- Phys.org (2025). “Study reveals controlled proton tunneling in water trimers.”
- ScienceDaily (2024). “Deciphering the anomalous properties of water.”
- ScienceDaily (2024). “A new spectroscopy reveals water’s quantum secrets.”