I struggle to understand how one cannot be a believer upon reviewing Austin's work? Are you suggesting she is faking these images in photoshop? Or perhaps working in reverse, finding art which resembles what she can see in the ice? This would be very underhand behaviour if true and doesn't seem to fit the energy of this lady.
My own images are less conclusive I will admit, though I think spring water and a glass petri dish would have helped a lot. This and some practice. As with anything, we get better with time. The images I have presented here were all created on the first day when I was still very excited.
That final image is the bottom of a frozen glass, just like all the others. No idea what prompts I would use to re-create something like that in midjourney! Most of the tests I did on the second day were with my mind alone, just thinking of something while holding the water. And this image was one of them. Though I realised quickly this would not be a good way to persuade people like yourself I am being honest.
And just to be clear, they don't all work. Or at least, I cannot see the connection between my image and the ice. Simple things seem most effective and a calm environment for the water to 'see' clearly what it is being shown.
Personally I believe it's more likely that people that post media are being selective as you mentioned at the beginning. But some of Austin's photo side by sides are interesting. And the reason why I asked if your last one was AI generated or not is because it was a pretty good teepee. Despite being very skeptical I might give the experiment a try myself.
Not too sure about the selective argument when we are looking directly at the small area of a petri dish in which there isn't too much there to be selective about. A microscope on the other hand would provide a much larger area and in this case selectivity could be an argument.
I would be interested to find out if your own experiments yield anything interesting.
Have a great Christmas!