There are three areas to the ear: outer, middle, and inner. The outer area is the hole you can see and water can easily go in and out of there. The middle area is separated from the outer area by the eardrum. The middle area contains the ear bones that enable you to hear. Water can only get into this area if the eardrum is damaged or if there is an infection. The inner area is separated from the middle area by membranes and actually does contain water. This area monitors sound waves and motion sense and sends that information to the brain for interpretation. The three areas are all separated from each other and from the brain, so any water in any area should not get into the brain. But guess what? Your brain is surrounded by water and actually floats within your skull. So if some water actually got to the brain from the ear, it probably wouldn't be a big deal. But if water could get from the ear to the brain, so could an infection and that would be a serious problem.
