I don't know about memory and consciousness in particular but The Rosicrucians teach that water is a vibrational amplifier. By intoning certain vowel sounds, you can use it to make existing vibrations in a room much more powerful and dominant.

They also say (and I've heard this implied from Abraham too) that water takes on the vibrational properties of those around it.

I think Abraham once described water's properties as "being in the eye of the beholder".

Water is like plants when we speak to them they take on an postive and negative energy we send them. A japananese guy named Dr. Masaru Emoto believes that water forms beautiful crystals like snowflakes if you think good thoughts at it and turns ugly and asymetrical if you send it negative thoughts. I have seen these pictures and they are amazing to look at. What an idea and this gives us food for thought especially we are made up of 3/4 water

http://www.life-enthusiast.com/twilight/research_emoto.htm

http://spiritofmaat.com/archive/aug1/consciouswater.html

And now we have seen before our eyes the proof that water is far from inanimate, but is actually alive and responsive to our every thought and emotion. Perhaps, having seen this, we can begin to really understand the awesome power that we possess, through choosing our thoughts and intentions, to heal ourselves and the earth. If only we believe.

So water is concious to our thoughts and spoken words and of course our actions to how we treat it by polluting it with contaminates that is dangerous to our body which is around 70% water.

''does water have memory and consciousness?'' .. I believe yes, it does, like everything that exists. but of course, it's a different level of consciousness than we experience. maybe .. just maybe .. it's even a higher level of consciosuness!

The properties of water are used in the making of homeopathic medicines, best explained by this article: http://nccam.nih.gov/health/homeopathy/

Quote "The principle of dilutions (or "law of minimum dose") states that the lower the dose of the medication, the greater its effectiveness. In homeopathy, substances are diluted in a stepwise fashion and shaken vigorously between each dilution. This process, referred to as "potentization," is believed to transmit some form of information or energy from the original substance to the final diluted remedy. Most homeopathic remedies are so dilute that no molecules of the healing substance remain; however, in homeopathy, it is believed that the substance has left its imprint or "essence," which stimulates the body to heal itself (this theory is called the "memory of water")." end of quote.

Water sustains life on this planet because most terrestrial life forms require water as part of their physiology. There's nothing inherently mystical about this, it's just a biological fact. Plants and animals die without water because their bodies are mostly water and they lose it continuously through respiration, urination, evaporation (as sweat), etc. Water would sustain life in this way whether it had memory/consciousness or not.

If you care to put forward a plausible and testable hypothesis about how an inert, colourless, lifeless liquid could have memory or consciousness, I'd be interested to hear it. But on the balance of probability, I'm guessing it doesn't.