Water – Why Ken’s Wrong

Water enables all life on Earth. Find out how Ken Wheeler takes this simple and obvious observation and twists it into bizarre claims that would pose a public nuisance if anyone were to believe them.

As we all know, water is essential to life. We can live for a month or two without food, but we can’t go more than a day or two without water.

Our bodies are about 60% water. That percentage can be as high as 90% for some organisms.

Water also has unusual properties. It’s the only substance we can easily find as solid, liquid and gas all over our planet. Unlike most substances, water in its solid form is less dense than in liquid form, which is a good thing because otherwise, there would be thick blocks of ice all over the ocean floor, stopping life from arising.

Views on Water Fall Into Two Categories – Obvious and False

Ken Wheeler raises the subject of water in his videos quite frequently. Without saying so, and without fully grasping them, he has appropriated his odd claims about water’s spiritual significance from the teachings of the ancient philosopher Thales of Miletus. According to legend, Thales was so absent-minded that he fell down a well while lost in thought about water’s metaphysical properties.

Kentucky Ken’s views on water fall into two categories. Most of what the Theoria Apophasis creator says about water is blatantly obvious. The rest of his water pronouncements are logical fallacies.

His central, supernatural claim about water is that it’s “the antenna of the consubstantiality of spirit and matter.” As usual with the Angry Photographer, that’s a mouthful, so let’s break his assertion down.

Shape of the Water Molecule – Oxygen and Hydrogen

We’ll start with water molecules. As we know, water consists of two hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom.

The red oxygen atom is in the middle and the blue hydrogen atoms at the edges form a v-shape. Another word for this kind of arrangement is a dipole, because the oxygen atom has the opposite polarity of the two hydrogen atoms.

The word dipole comes up again in a different context. Many devices use antennas with similar v-shapes and polarities. The most familiar, but old-fashioned, type of dipole antenna is the set of “rabbit ears” on old-school TVs.

Claims Water Is an Antenna Connecting Spirit and Matter

Cherry-picking this coincidence, Kentucky Ken mysteriously leaps to a bizarre conclusion. Having noticed that H2O molecules and dipole aerials are both v-shaped, he claims he’s made the “irreducibly irrefutable” discovery that water is an antenna connecting spirit and matter.

In support of this peculiar notion, the YouTuber behind Theoria Apophasis offers a special kind of triangle to which he’s attached. It’s an isosceles triangle with the angles 108˚, 36˚ and 36˚. We cover this triangle in much more detail under Golden Ratio – Why Ken’s Wrong.

Because of these supposedly “sacred” proportions, Ken Wheeler insists that the angle of a water molecule’s v-shape is the same 108˚ as his revered triangle. As always, he’s wrong.

Claims Water Molecule Angle is 108˚ – It’s Not

The actual angle of the two hydrogen atoms bonded to the central oxygen atom is 104.5˚. The Angry Photographer tries to explain this away by saying he measures the “charged parameters” or the “influence region” of the molecule. He doesn’t explain what this means or how it changes the angle.

Elsewhere, he claims that an angle “of 85 degrees represents life, perfect proportionality and likewise representing the PLANE OF INERTIA of the polar water molecule.” He never reconciles this discrepancy.

In his The Perfect Harmonic Proportionality & Incommensurability of the Water Molecule, the Theoria Apophasis creator offers an array of arithmetic blunders such as 1/φ^-3 = 1 = 5 = φ³. While it’s true that 1/φ^-3 = φ³, neither of those two expressions equal 1 or 5, and it goes without saying that 1 does not equal 5. Presumably these numbers are symbolically equivalent in some unexplained way.

Fudged Geometry and Obsession with the Golden Ratio φ

All of this fudged geometry ties back into the Angry Photographer’s obsession with the Golden Ratio, the number mathematicians call phi (φ), as well as an arithmetic progression called the Fibonacci sequence. We’ve debunked his many other claims about both under the post The Golden Ratio – Why Ken’s Wrong.

Extending his mistaken idea that the water molecule is an antenna, the Theoria Apophasis host has latched onto some other pseudoscience about H2O. The fringe rationale for homeopathy includes a concept its practitioners call “water memory.”

Homeopathy itself entails a logical fallacy. It claims that if we heavily dilute an agent that causes a disease’s symptoms, that solution somehow treats the disease. For example, to treat a runny nose, we might dissolve a tiny trace of onion juice in a vast quantity of water.

Believes Disproven Homeopathic Idea of “Water Memory”

Homeopaths can’t explain how such extremely diluted substances could have any effect on our bodies, because of course they can’t. One rationalization for the supposed effect is that water somehow remembers the substances that used to be dissolved in it.

In the 1980s, the charismatic, French immunologist, Jacques Beneviste conducted experiments with ultra-high dilutions of an antibody that he claimed triggered an immune response in white blood cells.

On further investigation, other scientists couldn’t reproduce the fake expert Beneviste’s purported results. After forty years of investigation, no scientist accepts the notion that water can somehow remember substances it once absorbed after they’re gone.

No Credible Scientist Accepts Water Memory Hypothesis

If readers think back to the concept of the water cycle, they’ll remember that all of Earth’s water is billions of years old. Since the dawn of time, it’s been dissolving countless other substances while endlessly freezing, evaporating and condensing over and over again.

Many of those substances would have been toxic. At this point, it follows that every drop of water on our planet would be forever contaminated by now if water had a memory.

Of course, that’s not the case. This water memory idea is preposterous. Anyone who’s ever distilled a test tube of water in science class knows this.

Claims Water Has a Mind of Its Own

The Theoria Apophasis creator has extended the disproven concept of water memory into even more idiosyncratic views about H2O. He not only thinks water has a memory, he claims that water has a mind of its own.

Apparently, Ken Wheeler once stored several jugs of distilled water on shelves in his kitchen. Two of the jugs sprang a leak and Ken had to mop up the mess.

Readers may not find this story noteworthy, and obviously it’s not. However, Ken Wheeler attributes these spills to the water wanting to “break from the prison of that jug.”

Says Simple Leak Was “Water Wanting to Break from Jug”

Of course, there’s a much simpler explanation that covers all the facts. It’s called plastic failure and it can be caused by the material used, poor design, sloppy manufacturing processes or improper handling.

Readers can judge for themselves. Which seems more likely; the water somehow came to life, or the jugs were leaky?

More recently, the Angry Photographer may have tipped his hand, revealing the motive behind this baseless claim about his water jugs. He shared with his audience that there’s a natural spring on some of the vacant land he owns.

Planning to Sell Spring Water in Glass Bottles?

The Theoria Apophasis host then asked viewers for suggestions about what he should do with the pure spring water. Is he thinking about starting a bottled water business?

Kentucky Ken went on to use his leaky bottle anecdote to prop up an unsubstantiated claim that water dissolves plastic bottles. Supposedly it absorbs toxic micro-plastic particles in the process.

Is his new business plan to package his spring water in glass bottles to sell to his viewers? If so, the glass would differentiate his product from competitors, while his odd claims could provide the value proposition for it.

False Notions About Dangers of Microwaving Water

Based on his conception of water as an antenna, Ken Wheeler also claims to be deeply concerned about an anomaly from microwaving water. Anyone who’s ever made instant coffee using a microwave will have noticed it.

Water heated in a microwave will foam up and sometimes overflow the cup when you add instant coffee crystals or a tea bag. This doesn’t happen if you boil the water in a kettle.

Microwave ovens work by inducing motion in bipolar molecules like water, generating heat. The foaming from this molecular motion can be a bit of a nuisance but is otherwise completely harmless.

Microwave Foaming a Nuisance but Completely Harmless

Insisting on impossible standards of proof regarding safety, the Angry Photographer claims that microwaves are causing serious health problems. As always, he has no facts or evidence on which to base this opinion, and experts fundamentally disagree with him. Medical science tells us that microwaving is better for us than conventional cooking because it preserves more water soluble nutrients in our food than applying heat.

Ken Wheeler then takes his “water as antenna” notion to even greater heights of absurdity. He insists that “every microsecond, people are being bombarded by millions and millions of frequencies.”

This is an issue, according to the Angry Photographer, because “the interlocutor for the tuning of the signal of the manifestation of consciousness is water.” Supposedly, radio signal traffic creates spiritual interference of some sort, causing mental illness. One wonders if he sports a tinfoil hat in private.

US Tap Water Comes from Natural Sources Like Wells

Kentucky Ken also has issues with US tap water, which comes from natural sources like wells, springs, rivers and lakes. After households and industries have used the water, it flows into municipal sewage systems for treatment.

After passing through sewage treatment plants, most utilities return wastewater to nearby natural bodies of water for even further dilution. There are a few exceptions in some places where fresh water is scarce, such as parts of California

Those communities may sometimes use reclaimed wastewater for irrigation. This treated water may also find its way into industrial facilities like power plants as a coolant.

No US Community Uses Reclaimed Wastewater as Tap Water

The important point is that no community in the United States uses reclaimed wastewater as tap water. Although sewage treatment health and safety standards are so high that treated wastewater would be safe to drink, out of an abundance of caution, regulations prohibit using it as tap water.

The Theoria Apophasis presenter claims “I’ve never drank from the tap in my life.” He tells his viewers he drinks bottled mineral water almost exclusively.

Bottled mineral water is a foolish waste of money for someone who is always crying poor and begging for donations. Disposing of all those bottles is also a genuine environmental concern.

Tap Water is “Quantitatively but Not Qualitatively Pure”

Ken Wheeler wrongly believes that tap water has passed through municipal sewage filtration systems. He goes so far as to call it “recycled toilet water.” This is patently false.

The Angry Photographer rationalizes this phobia by claiming that the water is “quantitatively pure” but not “qualitatively pure.” Since he believes tap water contains reclaimed waste water and that it has a memory, he thinks tap water is defiled forever.

According to Kentucky Ken, we’re “drinking filth” no matter what purification process tap water undergoes. No physical treatment of any kind can ever erase the vile memories of the countless disgusting substances tap water remembers forever.

Claims Treated Water Holds Memories of Toxic Substances

Once again, Ken Wheeler offers no explanation or evidence in support of this “qualitative” impurity, or that reclaimed wastewater makes its way into tap water, or that water has a memory. It seems the thought of water treatment removing “dirty cooties” simply makes him feel icky.

It’s odd to have so many phobias and misconceptions about something one believes is the source of all life. It’s also hard to misunderstand something as simple in principle as water, but Ken Wheeler somehow manages it.

The Angry Photographer brazenly declares that ” there’s not another YouTube video out there that will talk about this.” That’s because these ideas are patently absurd and mislead viewers in terms of basic chemistry and health and safety.

Ideas Are Patently Absurd and Misleading

These demonstrably false notions about dipole antennas, reclaimed wastewater, water memory and consciousness could become a serious public nuisance if anyone took them seriously. So, it’s important for Ken Wheeler’s viewers to completely disregard everything he has to say about good old H₂O.

Instead, go microwave some tap water, add some tea or coffee, savour it, and just let all this foolishness drift away.

Ken’s Evidence

The Many Secrets of Water
Water Properties
How Do We Draw the Dipole Moment of Water?
How to Make Coffee in the Microwave
How Microwaves Heat Your Food
Causes of Plastic Failure