HEALING WATERS EVENT IN MEMORY OF THE JAPANESE TSUNAMI AND FUKUSHIMA DISASTER – PORTLAND, OREGON

On March 11, 2012 at 2 p.m., the program opened in a beautiful public meeting room at the historic Mount Tabor Presbyterian Church in Portland, Oregon. Guests were invited to fill out a registration form, enjoy refreshments, and participate in activities that included writing wish papers for peace and/or family, creating colorful water-dragon prints at an art table, folding origami cranes, and purchasing raffle tickets and fundraising items for the WFWP school in Mozambique.

Our ladies prepared a round table in the front of the room with two large crystal bowls and two white candles. Guests brought small containers of water from various locations to be added together with water from the Pacific Ocean to connect us with Japan. Behind the water bowls was a presentation board of photos from the Japanese tsunami. At the base of the table were red roses and white lilies in crystal vases.  

At 2:30 p.m., Dr. Nadya Hinson, chairwoman of the Cascade Northwest Chapter of WFWP, gave a warm welcome to the special guests who came despite the cold, rain, and change in time due to daylight savings. Dr. Hinson held up a framed photo of Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon speaking in Tokyo for the 20th anniversary of WFWP and explained the tour that Dr. Moon was currently holding throughout Japan. She also described her experience in Moscow in November 1992, assisting with the inaugural address given by Dr. Moon and the startup of WFWP in the former Soviet Union.

The startup of WFWP in Russia created the platform that later inspired Dr. Hinson to start a program with WFWP in Seattle to bring children from Ukraine's Chernobyl region to the Pacific Northwest for a health respite. She also explained that she grew up in the area near the Hanford Nuclear Power Plant, the site where plutonium used in the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was produced, and so has been keenly aware of issues with nuclear energy disasters since she was in high school. Dr. Hinson wrote and published a book about some of these experiences in 2009. The meltdown of the Fukushima power plants after the tsunami is an important historical addition, she said, to the ongoing story of the past 60 years.

A video about the history of WFWP was shown, and then Dr. Hinson read an excerpt from the original speech delivered by Dr. Moon in 1992.

Following this, a choir of Japanese WFWP members sang in honor of those who suffered from the tsunami in Japan.

Dr. Hinson then presented a series of photos showing an aerial view of the tsunami as it was coming to shore in Japan and a picture taken by National Geographic of a rescue team uncovering the body of a woman huddled over the infant she was trying to save. She also showed photos of a recent team of young people in a youth program associated with a sister organization of WFWP called NextGen Academy, volunteering in Japan to help with cleanup and reconstruction projects.

Dr. Hinson introduced the main speaker of the event, Ms. Deana Delong, an expert on water purification and dehydration and author of several books about water. Delong used vivid illustrations explaining how important it is for people to drink up to 10 glasses of water a day to recover the water that is lost through the body as it pumps blood, performs digestion, eliminates toxins, moistens the lungs and hydrates the brain. The human body is 75% water, which needs to be constantly replenished. She also described the healing effects of increased water consumption and symptoms indicating dehydration in the body. The speaker gave this information in a very natural and often humorous way, which was well received by the audience.

Dr. Hinson then read a short description of the connection of water to the sacred, to the earth, and to the role of women as mothers. She used several metaphors found in spiritual traditions, including the word for water in Hebrew: mayim.

The next presenter, Rev. Kathleen Verigin, representing Anam Cara Connections, then came to the podium to read the list of places the water for the ceremony had come from. Locations included the Columbia River (near Portland and a source of water contaminated by the Hanford Nuclear Plant), local lakes and rivers, the Jordan River, the Well of Hagar in Saudi Arabia, and Korea. Dr. Hinson and Rev. Verigin poured small water samples into the large bowls containing water from the Pacific Ocean. She read a water poem by the late Celtic mystic and writer, John Donahue.

This was followed by a short video of Dr. Emoto speaking from his heart to the world after the Fukushima meltdown and asking for the world community to join together with one mind to bring comfort to the water that had been used to dissipate the incredible heat of the melted-down reactors. A local representative from the publisher of Dr. Emoto’s books about his research on water came forward and explained some of the insights that Dr. Emoto introduced to the world wherein it was found that the crystal structure in water changes based on words and thoughts that are projected on it.

Rev. Verigin led the group in recitation of the words given by Dr. Emoto: “Water of Fukushima. We are sorry for your suffering. We love you. Please forgive us.”

This was repeated three times. The water was then offered to anyone in the group that wished to take some home for healing or to put in a special place to remember the event.

Dr. Hinson then explained about the history of the Bridge of Peace Ceremony which has been a cornerstone of WFWP projects to bring reconciliation between people. The first ceremonies brought together women from Korea and Japan, and then expanded around the globe, as in Jerusalem with Palestinian and Jewish women.

A representative from the United States and one from the Fukushima area of Japan then met on the bridge. The American representative gave the Japanese representative a bouquet of red roses and white lilies to honor the 20,000 people who lost their lives due to the tsunami, with the prayer that they would find comfort and peace after losing their lives so suddenly and unexpectedly. Then a representative from the Hanford Nuclear Plant in the United States met a representative from the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in the former Soviet Union on the bridge and exchanged red roses and embraced. An African-American/Swiss woman then met a Japanese woman on the bridge to re-establish the connection they had made in a bridge ceremony a decade before.

Dr. Hinson invited any others from the audience to come up who wished to cross the bridge, and talked about future plans for events with the bridge. Two young Japanese women came up to cross. They had experienced the tsunami in different cities of Japan and wanted to embrace on the bridge. The group then joined hands to sing, Let There Be Peace on Earth, while a video with the song and words came on the screen for a warm goodbye.

People remained afterward to enjoy refreshments, purchase books and DVDs from Beyond Words Publishing House (Dr. Emoto’s publisher), talk to each other and enjoy the enchanted atmosphere in a very lovely setting.  

About 60 people came to the event. Many asked for more information about WFWP.