Tags
crystal healing, crystal skepticism, energy healing, quartz crystal healing, science, skepticism
The news
Scientists may have shattered one of the fundamental beliefs of the New Age movement: that dangling a crystal around the neck raises personal energy levels and uplifts the spirit.
New Age nonsense?
A study has shown that the sensations reported by believers in crystals – such as tingling, warmth and feelings of well-being – come instead from the power of suggestion. When given cheap, fake crystals, people reported exactly the same mysterious sensations as when they handle the genuine articles.
The claims
Crystals, it is claimed, can alleviate stress, boost creativity, cure disease, raise levels of consciousness and enhance psychic powers in areas such as divination and dowsing. The belief that quartz and semi-precious stones contain a subtle power unknown to science is a key part of the New Age industry.
Proponents claim that these effects are currently outside the testable boundaries of science, and stem from magical auras, vibrations, and frequencies.
Different crystals are also thought to posses different levels of energy, and produce different effects.
The study
Dr. Christopher French, a psychologist at Goldsmith’s College, London, set out to test the effects of crystals on 80 volunteers. Half were given a genuine New Age crystal for a few minutes while meditating. The rest were asked to handle a cheap plastic fake, but were told that it was the genuine article [control and blinding]. The volunteers were also primed to notice any claimed effects from the crystals, with the researchers telling them that they should experience any number of benefits [the suggestion].
These included tingling, more focused attention, balanced emotions, a rise in hand temperature, increased energy levels, improved sense of well-being, relaxation of the forehead, stimulation of the brain, increased swallowing reflex and “activation of all levels of consciousness.” Only six out of the 80 failed to experience at least one of these sensations.
The most common sensations reported were a warmer hand and increased concentration, which could easily be explained by much more plausible means, such as increased blood flow to the hand due to squeezing or increased concentration due to meditation techniques.
More importantly, Dr. French found no difference in the sensations reported by those holding a real quartz crystal and those given a fake. Believers in crystals were also twice as likely to report a sensation than self-professed skeptics.
Dr. French also looked at how susceptible the volunteers were to suggestion and hypnotism. He found that believers were far more susceptible to suggestions than the skeptics. He says:
The fact that the same effects were found with both genuine and fake crystals undermines any claims that crystals have the mysterious powers which they are claimed to have [emphasis mine].
The power of suggestion, either explicit or implicit, seems to be the not-so-mysterious power that may convince many that crystals have the potential to work miracles. The data presented are consistent with the idea that believers in the paranormal are more susceptible to this power.
What The Science Says
The New Age community is steeped in pseudoscience like this. Combining scientific-sounding words with ancient “spiritual practices,” the New Age mindset has found a home with billions of people. While I do think that it is natural to attribute supernatural powers to things due to either our pattern-seeking brains or wishful thinking, the beauty of science is that we do not have to simply wonder if crystals can have some effect, we can test it.
The smoking gun here is that people reported the same effects from the crystals regardless of if they were fakes or not. If a fake (placebo) produces the exact same effect as the “real” effect that you are trying to test, then the effect is not from the component being studied. This is also what we see with “spiritual and ancient” practices like acupuncture. It does not work beyond placebo, that is to say that fake acupuncture works just as well, and therefore acupuncture does not work. Like acupuncture and crystal healing, it is not what proponents claim to be working that is having an effect, it is something else (placebo effect, psychological priming, etc.).
Certainly there are better uses of time
The other important part of this study is that people had to be primed in order to see any effects from the crystals. Psychological priming is where you tell someone, prior to an activity, to have a certain mindset or anticipate a certain outcome. In this study, those who believed that something was going to happen were much more likely to report that something happened. When we compare this to the fact that skeptics were far less swayed by this priming, and that people could not tell the difference between real and fake crystals, the conclusion we come to is that the expectation of effect, and not the crystals themselves, were the source of any reported effects.
Our mind is very good at creating effects that are not there. If you can unknowingly take a sugar pill and feel subjective pain relief akin to Tylenol or Asprin, then it shouldn’t surprise you that it is perfectly rational to see any supposed effects from crystals as little more than placebo via wishful thinking.
If these crystals had any effects that went beyond placebo and priming, for instance if they emanated microwaves that raised the temperature of your hand, then there would be some scientific merit behind the claim that they do something. Furthermore, if the use of crystals produced effects that went beyond placebo, more study would perhaps be warranted, but they do not.
But if every effect that the New Agers believe can be replicated by a fake crystal, then it is pseudoscience to say that crystals can do anything at all that a sugar pill or some trickery could not.
True Pseudoscience
As I said above, there is little more to crystal healing than wishful thinking and the placebo effect, but of course that doesn’t stop New Agers from trying to make money.
Make note that absolutely zero of these claims are founded on science, research, or medical testing. Crystals are expected to treat or help treat:
- AIDS/HIV
- Alzheimer’s
- Anorexia
- Seizures
- Depression
- Epilepsy
- Cancer
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Scoliosis
- Tumors
Basically, they have something to sell you no matter what you got. It really is disgusting, and morally reprehensible, that these people claim that their rocks can cure your cancer with no proof, testing, efficacy, mechanism, or plausibility. They are keeping people from going to real doctors by pushing this “natural” nonsense, and have the nerve to say that a rock can help treat AIDS. Charlatans.
Why would a site make such claims? Because the authors: have no idea how the body works, no idea how medicine works, just want to sell you something, are delusional, have the scientific literacy of a 5-year old, I could go on…
I wanted to bring this kind of site to your attention to show you the kind of pseudoscience that is out there. There are millions of sites that are ready to cash in on gullibility, and you have to remain skeptical. Thankfully, with the application of real science, we can see that the claims made by New Age proponents about crystal healing are complete bogus. When it comes to crystal healing, it is all in your head.
Great write up, it’s nice to know a well-designed study has looked at this sort of claim.
to whome ever wrote this look into eastern medicine ….. it explains a lot an NOBODY claims that rock WILL heal you just aid in the process and even if its placebo it still helps you FEEL better and thats all that matters stop being such a bet blanket :P you suck and so dose this web site
Feeling better is not “all that matters.” Therapeutic treatments are fine, but I’d suppose that curing an ailment is pretty important too. Glad you liked the site. I’ll try not being such a “bet blanket.”
How is some psychologist that no one knows about, testing 80 people (the article didn’t mention if they were primed before) prove anything at all? Except that the placebo effect is real, which we already knew. I’m not siding, but this article has no weight to it as far as proving or disproving anything. The tone of the author is biased and angry. It seems this article was written out of a personal agenda, not fair unbiased facts or research. Also, if you don’t site your sources how can we believe you?
So if you’ve never heard of the scientist the findings of a study don’t count?
The article shows that any effect from a crystal is indistinguishable from placebo. To be equivalent to an inert pill is the same as saying no clinical value.
The sources are cited in the links provided.
i AGREE WITH RAIN and the other comments. THIS STUDY HAS FAILED TO MENTION ONE HIGHLY IMPORTANT THING ABOUT CRYSTALS… A CRYSTAL DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY HAVE AN EFFECT ON THE USER FOR ATLEAST 12 HOURS UNTIL IT BECOMES AKIN TO THE PERSON’S ENGERY. SO DOING A STUDY ON A REAL CRYSTAL AND FAKE CRYSTAL WITH NO LEAD TIME AND ALMOST INSTANTANEOUSLY WOULD DEFEAT THE ENTIRE PURPOSE OF ACTUALLY MEASURING THE CRYSTALS PROPERTIES. REAL SOURCES OR NOT THIS CLAIM/STUDY IS STILL COMPLETELY INCORRECT
LOVE AND LIGHT MY FRIENDS
“A CRYSTAL DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY HAVE AN EFFECT ON THE USER FOR ATLEAST 12 HOURS UNTIL IT BECOMES AKIN TO THE PERSON’S ENGERY.”
Prove it.
Interesting article, however with one major flaw in your summery.
You quote.
“It really is disgusting, and morally reprehensible, that these people claim that their rocks can cure your cancer with no proof, testing, efficacy, mechanism, or plausibility. They are keeping people from going to real doctors by pushing this “natural” nonsense, and have the nerve to say that a rock can help treat AIDS.”
In my many years of reoccurring, using and collecting crystals, I have never seen them advertised or indeed any claim to crystals to have the ability of being able to cure any illness or disease. In fact, in all the literature I have seen, every author or retailer will always quote that crystals can “Help” with the effects of such ailments, but “patients” should always seek the advice of a medical expert. For example. If using healing crystals on a family pet, the owner is always advised to seek the vet’s advice BEFORE applying the use of a healing crystal.
The fact that throughout history, Man has worn amulets and such like made from crystals, surely shows that it is a deep seated belief of mankind. Not, as you claim, a money making guise of the new age movement.
I do not question the scientific research carried out by learned people as yourself, but I do take offence in labelling people as charlatans. If holding a crystal brings some kind of personal relief to a patient, even if it is placebo, then where is the problem. If a person has devastating re-occurring nightmares, for example, purchases a piece of agate and places it under his or her pillow at night, and the nightmares stop. Who has the right to fault?
The scientist may say “There is no logical explanation to how a rock under your pillow can possibly stop nightmares” The subject who had the nightmare surely may say, ” I don’t care about the science, I’m just glad the dreams are gone and I can have a good night’s sleep”.
Yours respectfully
Thanks for the feedback.
Although you may not have seen them advertised as such, they are still advertised in this way. Even a rudimentary Google search will turn up many people claiming such benefits.
I understand that people advise that a doctor should be consulted when using these “therapies”, but people already committed to alternative medicine do not take this seriously. Alternative medicine as an enterprise distances itself from traditional medicine. It is one thing to say that you should consult a professional on a website. But it is another thing entirely to say this and then offer people something that is much cheaper that “the doctors don’t want you to know about” which supposedly has the same benefits. When given the choice, people would go with the cheaper, more in-control alternative, if it produced the same effects (which the seller’s claim). This is the danger.
Just because humans have believed for a long time that crystals do something says nothing about their effectiveness or what they may be used for. While the New Age movement may sincerely believe in the power of crystals, they are still making money off of a treatment that does not work. If you are going to make money off of something that supposedly has health benefits, that treatment has to work or have efficacy. Because these crystals do not, it is disingenuous for them to be sold as such. It is not so much a guise, more so a delusion for sale.
Also, I am not saying that anyone who likes crystals is a charlatan. I am saying that someone who sells a product that does not work to people who should spend their money elsewhere for real help, and therefore keeps them from doing so, is a charlatan. I would find it hard for you to defend how someone claiming that a rock treats your epilepsy, and charges you for the treatment (in opposition to modern medicine), is not a snake oil salesman or charlatan.
The last contention is a common one. “What’s the harm?” you say. The harm is that this delusion about “alternative” treatments keeps people from getting real help, and furthermore it persuades them not to think critically about their own health. If you are willing to treat a minor ailment with a placebo (unknowingly), it may work for you. But this then makes it more likely that you will return to placeb0-driven treatments in the future, and for more serious health problems. Applying the same logic about your nightmares to your diseases is potentially harmful and even deadly.
The harm is that encouraging or not dismissing placebo-driven treatments will foster uncritical thought about how medicine works. When a cancer patient forgoes chemotherapy for acupuncture, chiropractic, or crystal healing, suddenly the harm is visible and grave. This is what the extrapolation of uncritical thought gets you.
Question Everything,
KCH
The nice thing about crystals over modern medicine is you never have to worry about a warning that says “you should take this, but heads up it might make you kill yourself, among other things.” just throwing it out there
Yes, you don’t have to worry about side effects from crystals because the have no effect in the first place. Likewise homeopathy doesn’t have any side effects because there is no active ingredient in the pills and dilutions.
Hi everybody,
Sometimes i do practice cristal sessions on my-self and also to some other people like friends, for free of course.
I was introduced in this world some years ago, i’m 26.
Basically who really knows something about stones and doesn’t want to get your money will never tell you i will heal you; don’t go to the doctor.
Be careful from those people. AND GET AWAY.
Personally i think that can help you to relax first and through the meaning that there is in every different stone you can understand better yourself.
I read this study and i think that what there is written about AIDS CANCER or something like that it is not true at all.
Of course it is not true!!!
But the experiment that this professor or researcher made has no value.
You need an expert to feel if a stone is fake or not.
Choosing 80 volunteers that maybe hear something about that has no meaning.
I normally suggest to everybody who wants to discover something more about it,
Go in a shop and without buying anything give a look to the different stones, and then choose how many you want, maybe 2 or 3 and make a reaserch about their meaning.
DON’T FORGET, DON’T BUY ANYTHING.
I started like that opening my mind and i was also skeptic but now i’m not skeptic anymore.
People need a lot of practice in working with stones and energy, it is not like you wake up Sunday morning and you decide ” Oh, i want to work with stones and Monday morning you are like an expert. ”
It does not work in this way for nothing.
Everything has to go step by step.
It’ s like asking to a farmer how to make a house.
Bye
Tommaso
wow..very nice blog .Crystal stones and crystals can be of great assistance in establishing angelic contact. These ‘angel stones’ are highly spiritual stones that possess metaphysical properties which can aid one in connecting with angels the Higher Self.
What you said is a big pile of nonsense.
A little rude of a response up there, but seriously, that’s nothing more than an unfounded claim
Pingback: Degrees in Nonsense Dropped from UK Universities « Science-Based Life
Reblogged this on Healing Auras.
There is a process to be do before use a crystal as a healing tool. Crystal healers call it “charge”. During the experiment, did the person who was going to use crystal, charged the crystal before use it? Just curious.
The study did not say. As far as I know, many New Agers believe that crystals have some “innate” energy to them as well. If this is the case, “charging” would not matter. But you’re right, I am not sure if the crystals were “charged” or not. Perhaps you could define for me what that is.
Every single website advising about crystals inform people that they must be cleansed and programmed. Without this they can hold negative energy (such as from the skeptical scientist holding it!) and transfer it to the person trying to be healed by it. Do your research!
Please define “negative energy” for me. If you can define it, we can look for it.
Piezoelectricity (pron.: /piˌeɪzoʊˌilɛkˈtrɪsɪti/) is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials (notably crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA and various proteins)[1] in response to applied mechanical stress. The word piezoelectricity means electricity resulting from pressure. It is derived from the Greek piezo or piezein (πιέζειν), which means to squeeze or press, and electric or electron (ήλεκτρον), which stands for amber, an ancient source of electric charge.[2] Piezoelectricity was discovered in 1880 by French physicists Jacques and Pierre Curie.
The piezoelectric effect is understood as the linear electromechanical interaction between the mechanical and the electrical state in crystalline materials with no inversion symmetry.[3] The piezoelectric effect is a reversible process in that materials exhibiting the direct piezoelectric effect (the internal generation of electrical charge resulting from an applied mechanical force) also exhibit the reverse piezoelectric effect (the internal generation of a mechanical strain resulting from an applied electrical field). For example, lead zirconate titanate crystals will generate measurable piezoelectricity when their static structure is deformed by about 0.1% of the original dimension. Conversely, those same crystals will change about 0.1% of their static dimension when an external electric field is applied to the material. The inverse piezoelectric effect is used in production of ultrasonic sound waves.[4]
Piezoelectricity is found in useful applications such as the production and detection of sound, generation of high voltages, electronic frequency generation, microbalances, and ultrafine focusing of optical assemblies. It is also the basis of a number of scientific instrumental techniques with atomic resolution, the scanning probe microscopies such as STM, AFM, MTA, SNOM, etc., and everyday uses such as acting as the ignition source for cigarette lighters and push-start propane barbecues.
OK, so you copy and pasted what the piezoelectric effect is from Wikipedia. While this is indeed a property of many materials, you have to prove that this effect is 1) present in “healing” crystals and 2) that the effect is an any way beneficial to human health.
Great article and very valid insights. I completely agree with your point that crystal healing is a culturally harmful pseudo-science along with many other alternative healing techniques.
Here’s an interesting thought this brought up for me: I have noticed emerging research on the connection of the mind and the body. (My observation is not very in-depth; it’s just browing.) .. for example, the toxic toll one’s mental stresses can take on one’s physical health, and the opposite- the physical health benefits of positive feelings in the form of endorphins enhancing the immune system. While science and traditional medicine should certainly without a doubt take priority over alternative methods like crystal healing, there may be a LITTLE value in recognizing that one’s belief in the efficacy of a pseudo-science may boost one’s belief in healing, which would then contribute to feeling good and enhancing one’s immune system in that very indirect way. Of course, it’s pretty sad that a pseudo-science may have the capacity to manipulate one’s mind to that extent, but the mind is a powerful thing…
I find this very interesting……however…there are a few flaws in the study …i find no controls at either end. but then I like rocks and was maybe a bit too exacting. Thanks for an interesting read.
Critical, scientifically minded thoughtfulness is a must… in all things. However, it’s not so much that proponents of crystal healing are doing harm to the populace in one degree or another- its control minded mental orientation that you’ve displayed in your article that is the real harm in our world today. If John paints mud on his forehead because it relaxes him then who are you to tell him that science has proven that in fact painting mud on one’s forehead has no scientific value related to the achievement of relaxation??? This is one of the biggest problems with humanity today. We always think we know better than the next person and we have a seething desire to place our own will on another. If someone is dumb enough to forgo seeing a doctor for a broken bone because they believe a rock will magically fix the problem then so be it… allow them to learn their own way. It’s not your duty or the duty of anyone else in this world to caretake other people’s path of experience. In more simpler terms- mind your own damn business and take care of yourself. Unless you are a god of some sort then I’m sure you have areas for self improvement that need your attention. I eat love science like a good steak, but people that harp on and on like this sound no different to me than Bible thumping troglodytes from nowhere America. There is no ‘one way’ in this world, science or otherwise. That is all.
Jack, what you say is good, but why? Even though it is a bit rude to tell people they are wrong, if they ARE wrong, then why should I not correct them using evidence or an experiment? It is not just be telling them they will burn in hell if they don’t listen. It is just me trying to help them and our society avoid another dark age.
Jack, it’s people like you that sit back and watch the world collapse because it’s “not your problem.” Because doing something to try and create a positive impact on someone else is called “not minding one’s business.” I agree that will imposing can be irritating, but having an opinion is one’s right. If some person that had HIV decided to use crystals instead of doctors as a cure, read this article and changed their mind about not seeing a doctor, then I’d hail the author; stupidity doesn’t quite merit accelerated and untreated AIDS in my book, and it’s not right to say that people should learn their own way, especially if you can and are willing to help them out. Fix your attitude. Have a nice day!
I disagree with you, Matt!! People like Jack aren’t the ones who sit back and watch the world collapse. They are the ones that make a difference by approaching a problem with understanding. Acting as though you know better than another and belittling them, because of their choice of treatment, will never help anyone. For example, for the individual with AIDS, I would ask why they chose that course of treatment and once I understand their thought process, I would let them know that I understand where they are coming from (regardless of whether I agree or not). Then, I would suggest that they continue with their crystals (therefore showing understanding rather than judgement) but also advise them to consider visiting a doctor and taking a more traditional route.
V.
is this “thee” jack sprat from the big D? well said feedback btw
Pingback: Statistically Significant Posts « Science-Based Life
I just read the article and comments and cannot help but want to weigh in on the subject. I have studied science and followed scientific methods. I understand how to think critically and appreciate the process of doing so. My thoughts remain neutral on this subject.
It says that the volunteers in the experiment were “primed”. Wouldn’t the subjects have to of been given zero information as to what they may or may not feel in order to conjure a genuine response to the crystals? I just feel that suggesting anything automatically biased the results and made the experiment about suggestion not crystals. It would have been more accurate to give them crystals and fakes and everyone say I felt nothing as opposed to suggestion, which we already know works!
While I agree with your point that society is too susceptible to bullshit, which is a completely different psychological issue. I am not ready to completely abandon the idea that there is something intriguing about rocks and we may come to find a scientific reason that people are drawn to them other than their aesthetic value. I am thinking along the lines of people, just like all matter, are made of atoms and potentially atoms are made of oscillating lines or strings…maybe we just vibrate better when we are standing next to certain rocks thus we feel better…I realize that sounds completely crazy but the idea of string theory is pretty mind blowing in itself.
I just try to encourage my scientist friends to maintain some level of open mindedness and creativity. Subjects like alternate dimensions had always seemed hilarious but science is proving today that these ideas probably exist.
J Dan,
I see your point, but I think using the example of alternate dimensions is misleading. There is reason to suspect that alternate dimensions may exist because there is rigorous theory and math behind them. There is nothing either theoretically or empirically that suggests that there is anything “special” to crystals. Geology and material science has progressed just fine with missing some “fundamental” aspect that “healers” and New Age folk suggest. In short, we don’t need any explanation other than a psychological one for “crystal healing” because the effects that we see are never strong enough to suggest more.
Again, using something like string theory to give credence to crystal vibration is misleading. Yes, string theory is weird, but it has theoretical support. What makes an idea plausible or possible is not its weirdness, but its evidence. Quantum mechanics is weird too, but it provides some of the most accurate predictions in all of science. If we open the door of credulity to anything that is weird just because other notions in science are counter-intuitive, we will surely let a lot of nonsense in.
Being open-minded doesn’t mean accepting any idea, it means evaluating ideas openly and accurately. When we test crystals, they have no benefit beyond what mere suggestion can provide. We opened our minds to them, they failed, and their subsequent dismissal cannot then be considered closed-mindedness.
I thought J Dan brought up an excellent point that Kyle Hill failed to respond to: “suggesting anything automatically biased the results and made the experiment about suggestion not crystals.”
You’re using as an argument that most of the participants, even ones with fake stones, reported the symptoms you suggested to them. But we already knew that they would, by the power of suggestion. You said that “the most common sensations reported were a warmer hand and increased concentration.” The former, as you stated, would happen just because they’re squeezing a stone; the latter, because they are meditating (which increases concentration). So of course most people reported sensations. This tells us nothing about the crystals.
This study doesn’t tell us that crystals do nothing. The most it tells us is that crystals don’t work in the way they were used in the study. There are a lot of different theories of how to use crystals for healing purposes. Some may work, some may not. Proving that one method doesn’t work does not prove that there is no method that works.
Crystals are much more effective when used long-term. You can’t try to test the effectiveness of SSRI’s by giving a group of patients with depression each only one dose. The pills wouldn’t work in such a setting because, much like crystals, they require a longer span of time before improvement is noticeable.
This article seems to lack its research, evidenced by the excessive use of the term “New Age” to refer to crystal healing. In fact, healing crystals have been used for centuries in parts of Asia, including India and China. I most often come across healing crystals in my study of chakras, which in Hinduist traditions are the energy centers of your body. Crystals have been used for metaphysical and emotional healing in India for centuries. I don’t see what is “New Age” about it.
Of course many would love to lie and sell so they can make money out of this story but i would like to give you a link and you can see the rest videos if you are interested further ;) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoUOn4Vbrz0&feature=plcp
The study obviously did not use a crystal that was charged. It is a completly invalid study. In addition, this is the only study you mention. You yourself, go to the people. People who have been cured can not be denied by you. they are the proof. How do we not know that you did not disclose that you make money off of some “scientific” cure?
The study tested the idea that “real” crystals were identifiably different (by people who supposedly knew how to tell the difference: New Agers and the like) from fake ones. I agree with you that studies should always be replicated, but with such a strong result and underlying scientific foundations (think Bayes Theorem), we have no reason to think that more study will overturn the laws of physics and validate the “charged crystal” theory.
We can’t trust the testimony of those who were “cured.” Human testimony is simply too saturated with bias, unaccounted for variables, and wishful thinking that we need rigorous conditions in place to sort truth from falsity. Removing these controls only introduces error, or at least invites the possibility of it were it needn’t be.
Lastly, I’m a kid. I’m a student. I’m not exactly rolling in the “scientific cure for things that crystals actually cure” money. If I was, I’d be in Bermuda somewhere. But sadly, the cold truth pays little (if at all). I have no incentive to be skeptical. I just like the real world, unimpeded.
This is a very good article. I agree that some of it is or can be placebo effect, but I also believe that their is a possibility that there could be a crystal or something that could heal. I think that is still a possiblity. Maybe its not on our planet or maybe it doesnt exist, but I do believe it is a possibility.
That was SUCH a ridiculous comment. “maybe it is not on our planet…. it is a possibility.” The sheer obvious nature of that statement makes it redundant. Possibility exists in everything, so you cant base any statement upon it. Crystal “healing” is a simple bland notion based upon suggestibility as this study has clearly shone. This is NOT the only study that has been utilized to denounce the New Age spiritual healing, as is the same for Christian healing and a plethora of other concepts used this modern age and years prior.
Homeopathic remedies exist and work, and guess what after a couple thousand years became what we know now as, Medicine.
I agree with most of your statement, expect that homeopathy is chemically identical to water, has only been around for about 200 years, and has never been shown to be anything but placebo and nonspecific effects.
I just received a bunch of beautiful crystals from my mother for Christmas and found this article doing some “research” if you can call it that, on the claimed “healing powers.” Came across this article and for what it’s worth, a truly ‘scientific” analysis of crystal healing, it’s ok….but just ok. Just because you can’t scientifically verify a method does not mean that it doesn’t work, or rather positive outcomes can happen. Same to say that FDA approved “medicine” does not necessarily work for everyone. It’s physiological effects may be scientifically verifiable, it’s end result may not be sufficient. I have suffered from chronic sinus congestion and sneezing. Hate taking medication and got to the point where I would try anything…a bat’s head, tree root, and a duck egg…I didn’t care. So given my GF is chinese, she naturally recommended acupuncture. I have been completely clear and sneeze free for over two months and have not been feeling this good for years. Was there a direct correlation? maybe. What matters the most is not whether it was acupuncture or suggestive imprinting, but rather that I feel better and no other doctor has been able to provide this. Of course my scientific rational says, “can it be replicated?” Truth is I don’t know but i’m going to try out.
At the base level we are all vibration, no solidity, merely energy constantly moving at a slow vibration. Take a tuning fork of a particular frequency. Ring it and set it next to a guitar string and watch the string vibrate in resonance with the tuning for. This is the underlying idea with crystals…that they have a particular frequency(like the quartz that us in your watch) and the exposure to such frequency can have effects on the body’s vibrational field to bring about a common resonance. What I sense though is that most people on the crystal bandwagon know TONS about all the healing qualities of the stones but very little about themselves and their own electromagnetic field of the body. Sort of like knowing all about what a space shuttle is capable of but no idea how it works or how to run it. This is where I divert in saying that I just don’t know. What I do know is that I find crystals a beautiful manifestation of nature and they are really pretty to look at, I like having them around me. Will the ones my mom gave me imbue all their purported powers to make me superman? I don’t know. But they are pretty objects coming from a wonderful person with nothing but love, and that makes me feel good and all I need at the end of the day.
kyle, your the only one losing out, placebo or not. magic is all around you, just open your eye. science is the explanation of magic, the problem is humans need definitions and simple explanations, better yet they want to be above those explanations, above the elements. when did we ever forget we were beings capable of so much. why did we forget? i haven’t, there doesnt’ have to be a gap between science and spirituality. ill fix it if i personally have to do reiki to everyones eye to get the stagnance out of their soul. whoever reads this should help too, you cant let this knowledge die, its beautiful.
Gabriel, in my view science adds much wonder to the world. I have written about it here before, more recently here. You can be scientific without losing anything “spiritually.” It’s not like I feel nothing at the sight of a mountain or a newborn child, my breath leaves me, as I’m sure it does for most.
As a side note, reiki has never been shown in clinical trials to be anything more than placebo and suggestion. This is exactly what we would expect from a “treatment” claiming to harness an “energy” no one has discovered with a method that has no biologically reason to work.
have you ever had reiki preformed on you kyle?
have you ever taken the time to sit down and analyse your perceptions of energy.
(also you cant really compare crystal healing with surgery, because surgery is somebody affecting you directly, the crystals help you help yourself. they dont fix things automatically, much like western civilization is used to. they hint you tward the way you need to take yourself) like weight loss for example. crystals dont make you lose weight, they just show you your not healthy and can make you want to start being active. im sure youve read up on the psychology of color and how it affects the brain. you could say wearing a agua aura quarts necklace would make you chill, if only because we think blue to be chill where as if you wore fire agate you might feel inspired to take some action (grounded).
also you have an endocrine system and thats the physical manifestation for your chakras. chakras specialize in output and inputs, just like glands do. you can learn to mentally stimulate certain areas of your body, this is proven (you think taking a piss would be nice so you piss ( generally unconscious but not necessarily). still on the subject of color psychology, why is it that a person wearing a blue shirt will talk more, or a woman in a red shirt seems more attractive, when you wear orange you smile more. there IS a direct correlation. people often feel more relaxed and like they can relate to people in green shirts.
No, I have never had reiki performed on me, but that does not matter. Because of the intricacies of human experience, biases, and cognitive flaws, my perception of whether or not reiki works is inconsequential to its truth. That’s why we have rigorous, controlled experiments. These experiments have shown that reiki is nothing beyond perception and bias.
Your discussion of color and how crystals mean nothing if the crystals themselves can be tested to no effect.
Crystal healing is not a case of subjects just holding crystals and being told to expect different sensations, they are applied in specific ways by a healer, not a skeptical scientist in an experiment.
I have also never come across any site selling crystals with claims that they can health ailments completely, they are a part of complementary medicine, ie alongside traditional medical treatment.
You have vast knowledge of science I am sure but do not appear to have researched your subject of crystal healing very well.
Though you personally have not seen it, the sites claiming the healing I describe do exist, and are easy enough to find.
It’s rather convenient, isn’t it, that in your view crystals won’t work when they are tested to see if they work. If all we have to support the idea of crystal healing is anecdote and speculation, this adds nothing to our knowledge of them. I am confused as to why you wouldn’t value proper testing in this one area when you would implicitly require it in all others. Would you want a doctor to tell you that no one has tested the surgery you are about to undergo?
It’s not that “crystals won’t work when they are tested to see if they work.” It’s that you have to test them properly. I’ve never seen any writing on crystal healing that suggests that holding a random crystal and meditating for a few minutes will do anything significant.
All the research I’ve done into crystal healing has told me that crystals need to be cleansed before each use, they should not be used by more than one person, and they need to be programmed. If you don’t take these precautions, then energy from other sources (such as others who have touched the stones) can effect the way the stone heals. They can sort of clogged and end up not working. This test probably used the stones incorrectly, and thus produced results that even believers could have predicted: nothing.
In addition, not all crystals have immediate effects. Some take a long time to work, possibly requiring repeated exposure to the crystal over a period of days or even weeks. I doubt that this study did any follow up reports to test if the participants had any long-term reactions to the crystals.
If your claims are to have any credibility, you should find a study that actually uses the crystals properly, after they are cleansed and programmed, in a proper environment, with follow ups to see if the crystals had long-term effects.
Otherwise, all you proved is that an uncleansed, unprogrammed crystal handled by a skeptical scientist, and used for only a few minutes of meditation doesn’t produce a set of nonsense sensations like warm hands (no duh! I don’t know any crystal healer or believer that wouldn’t already know that without this study).
It’s simply not enough to say that crystals need “cleansing” or “programming,” we need a plausible reason to think that a rock is anything more than just a rock.
Every assertion about the “proper use” of crystals that you made has no prior plausibility. Can rocks be “programmed?” Can rocks be “cleansed”? Rather, the study tested the underlying assumption: that these rocks affect the body in some way. The study conclusively showed that rocks are rocks; exactly what we would expect.
Before making an argument about programming, you have to establish how programming a rock is possible.
Where on crystalhealing.com does it claim that any of these stones will heal someone of ailment completely? I’m not seeing it.
i think the general idea is that if one is to believe a particular stone/crystal/whatever may help them, it very well could- psychologically. I’m sure most of the people that fork over money for a quartz crystal aren’t thinking it’s physically going to rid them of their ailment; that isn’t rational, and most places i’ve been to or seen don’t claim to that either.
Simply admiring a stone or touching it could create a positive situation for someone. It’s kind of like the idea of karma- some people take the term literally. For example, “oh, i did something good today, something good will happen to me tomorrow,” with the idea in mind that it’s something magical and that something will just “happen”. Really though, the fundamental idea is that if one partakes in a positive situation, this will subconsciously remain with them & increase the chances of another one happening. It’s all psychological. Studies show that people who are happier are more likely to beat cancer, etc. Yes, people might take advantage of the idea of “crystal healing” and inaccurately portray it for potential profit, but this happens everywhere, all the time. This shouldn’t spoil the potential scenario for someone to feel just a little bit better, even if it not physically.
I have updated the post with a link to another website which claims to help treat these various ailment (the other site was taken down).
No one is doubting that there are psychological effects (placebo). What I am lamenting is the harm that comes from overreliance on it. When someone can hold a rock and feel a bit better, they might hold off on real treatments to more serious conditions. When you begin to believe that crystals can help cancer, the nonsense has gone too far.
One of the websites you linked to in the article states “That Crystal Site nor the reader dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical or medical problem without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly.” MOST (if not all) sites on crystal healing say something to this effect. Crystals should be used as a supplement to “traditional” medicine to help one deal with their issue, not as a replacement for treatment.
Similarly, homeopathy is not approved by the FDA, nor intended to be used as a substitute for real medicine, yet people do so. As long as the pernicious idea that modalities that do not work can work through magic, there is a danger of misuse. Whether or not that particular website intends for people to use crystals for exclusive healing, there is an implicit encouragement to do so, and we see it in many of the “alternative” clinics and the lifestyle. And if these are shown to be ineffective, as the above study did, they shouldn’t be “alternatives” to anything.
Well crystals do something that’s forsure. I just read an article on how crystals assist in communication between cells.
Sure, but that’s missing the point. Water, for example, does innumerable things in the body, but that doesn’t mean that water can heal a wound or cure a disease.
No… But can you deny that water HELPS healing a wound or curing diseases?
If you have an operation and drink no liquid for a long period of time after, chances are you won’t heal as well as if you had kept hydrated.
What is the first thing to do when somebody experiences a burn to the skin? Run it under water. Water helps. Point being that crystals can help in certain cases.
Rocks are not merely rocks… As someone above rightly stated everything consists of constantly moving atoms, movement is vibration. Denied?
Do you agree that Eastern, more specifically but not limited to, Chinese medicine, is the best preventative medicine? eg. Using the right mix of natural substances such as ginger, lemongrass, lemons, oranges etc to prevent illness.
Do you agree that Western medicine is the best ‘after the fact’ remedy? eg. Surgery.
Isn’t it weird that all the natural substances that are readily available at a grocery could, in the right mix and moderation prevent many of the illnesses that are rife today. The problem is lack of moderation.
I strongly agree with a comment above that negative (too much) stress has a direct and negative impact on physical health. I’ve seen it.
Do a legitimate study on the effects of stress (mind) on physical health (body), taking into account that every physical being is different from the next.
Science cannot account for everything… Science isn’t everything – that’s where philosophy comes in, and with that concepts such as logic and epistemology, reason, critical thinking, spirituality and the connection between body and mind etc are discussed. Mind is stronger than body, that’s why placebo’s work… And how meditation, crystal or no crystal, has such a positive effect on the health of the body.
Which brings me to your study…. It’s all been said before… Badly executed with suggestive biases. No person should have been squeezing a ‘crystal’ that would manifest some of the suggested experiences due to squeezing not the crystal.
The study is null and void for so many reasons. Please do respond to what was raised by SarahH and avoided by you once more; you said “The study tested the idea that “real” crystals were identifiably different (by people who supposedly knew how to tell the difference: New Agers and the like) from fake ones.?”. Why would people who ‘know’ the difference need to be ‘primed’? Chances are if you know the difference between a real and fake crystal, you’ve heard of crystal healing/meditation.
My blood would not have boiled had I seen your mind open a bit over this string of comments… But you stick to the same belief without acknowledging the vast possibilities of the universe not limited to science.
Modern medicine and Western medicine is amazing in what it is able to achieve, and it could go so much further if it weren’t influenced so much by profit and politics.
Do you know of a plant called hemp? Do you know anything of its healing properties? Probably not because its not sold by pharmaceuticals.
Go and educate yourself outside what involves money.
I’m sure you’re a nice person so open your mind.
Google Run from the cure and Phoenix tears
[Disclaimer: Though I don't put any personal faith into crystal healing (or, for the most part, alternative medicine in general), I work at a metaphysical store. Helping people reach their own conclusions about various philosophies and phenomena is part of my job. So is selling crystals.]
In general, I agree with everything you’re saying, but I do think you’ve phrased your arguments in such a way as to cast the worst possible light on “magical” practices. A few things I’d like to point out:
1. You make it sound like crystal healers are in it for the money. Maybe in some cases, but there are a lot of easier ways to earn a lot more money.
2. Responsible crystal healers would never suggest anyone rely solely on crystal healing, especially if they are suffering from a serious ailment. Crystal healing is complementary medicine. A responsible crystal healer might sell you a crystal, but she (okay, almost always “she”) will insist that after you put it in your pocket you’d better call your physician.
3. Saying that something only works because people believe in something isn’t the same as saying something doesn’t work. Belief is powerful. Placebos, whether they come from the pharmacy or Ye Olde Crystal Shoppe, are some of the most effective “cures” known. You might ask, then, why not just invoke the Great Spaghetti Monster and wear any random chicken bone or fuzzy dice token around your neck? Because most people, if they just make something up, won’t truly believe in it. And without belief, it won’t work as a placebo.
By the end of this list, we’re getting into some sticky ethical territory. I don’t have any hard-and-fast answer to the ethical goo I’ve just implied. But in the day-to-day world, where people have to slug it out against nature and fate, there can be some benefits to having a little “magic” on our side. It makes very little difference where it actually comes from.
I’d love to see more studies like the one you’ve described. (In fact, searching them out is how I found this blog.) But I think we have to take some care interpreting simple scientific studies when applying them to the complexities of the human mind.
You’re right, I’m sure that most purveyors of “healing” crystals do in fact want to help people.
I have now heard a few times that people are not encouraged to rely solely on crystals for healing. I’m willing to concede that (welcome) point. But I still think the potential harm is there. As long as people have an idea that something that will not cure anything could be a possible solution, I think their thinking will be clouded on medical decisions.
By definition, if a modality does not work beyond placebo, it does not work. The placebo effect is nowhere near as powerful as many alternative practitioners like to think, and many physicians argue that it has not clinical application by itself. The power of belief is applicable to anything, therefore any specific treatment isn’t unique if it only has a placebo response. That is to say, a purely placebo-based crystal is as good as a sunny day on the beach.
I don’t think magic should ever be substituted in the place of treatments that have be shown to work beyond placebo.
Harm is plausible. If someone does not seek medical treatment for a serious physical ailment because they believe a crystal will cure them, yes, that’s bad. But in real life, I don’t know of a single case where this has actually occurred.
In my five years of experience, I’ve never seen anyone view a metaphysical shop as an alternative to doctors. I’ve never met a single soul who thought crystals could cure the common cold, or heart disease, or cancer. Yeah, it would be really bad if that happened. But as stupid as people can be about medical decisions (more on this below), I have yet to meet anyone that stupid.
A typical customer of our store would be someone who’s looking for help during a difficult time–for example someone who wants to give up smoking. If they come in asking about a crystal to help get over an addiction like this, we would usually recommend amethyst first. Amethyst, historically known as the “Bishop’s stone,” has the property of helping one overcome addictions. (Apparently bishops in the Middle Ages employed it to overcome their naughty novice behavior.)
If the customer asked me how this works, I would tell them they should put their intention into the stone, then keep it in their pocket to remind them of that intention. Their own energy, their own resolve.
Is that it, they might ask? Not quite, I’d say. The fact that this stone has been used for the same purpose for thousands of years gives it a certain heft. The “energy” of the stone has taken on this purpose, if for no other reason than the fact that this purpose has a very long history.
Actually, most of the time, people don’t ask how it works. I think they’d rather not know. Knowing the mechanism might inhibit belief, and belief is what makes it work in the first place. One way we help this along is to give them a pre-printed card with the properties of the stone they’ve bought. It will say “overcoming addictions” right there, and they’ll know I didn’t just make this up for their benefit.
And yeah, that means something. Purple rocks don’t, frankly, do squat against something as addictive as nicotine. Nothing, that is, except to harness the human mind.
Your argument would make all kinds of sense if people made rational decisions about health care decisions in the first place. And I would agree with you in a second if we lived in a world where most people actually exercised, didn’t smoke, ate healthy plant-based diets, didn’t think it sensible to take antibiotics for viral diseases… etc., etc., etc.
But as long as people make irrational decisions, I’m willing to sell them a purple rock for $1.25 that comes with a pretty amazing story. Even though I believe the story has a better chance of curing them than the rock itself.
Placebo is relative. Like gravity or space-time. Do you still accept Isaac Newton’s definition of gravity as truth? It’s still taught to our children in schools… does that make it true as defined by the scientific method? By definition the term “magic” refers to the unknown and what is now true was once only imagination.
First of all, you only site one study that is quite small (80 participants) and as many have already said, is completely bias due to the psychological prepping. You could have given those people a grape and they would have felt the same tingly feelings. What kind of college was this, what current research does their science department feature? Was this peer-reviewed? You claim to be a man of science, but all I am reading is an egotistical bias article with barely any scientific foundation and a lot of personal opinions. Before you write something like this you should do a bit more research on both sides, otherwise I cannot consider your information as valid or truthful. You are just as bad as those charlatans you so cleverly described. Not everyone is out to get you and people who claim to understand the energy flow of the human body and simple mineral elements are the least of your concerns.
Secondly, what science currently calls placebo effects FOR CERTAIN MODALITIES specifically of holistic healthcare (such as vibrational medicine) can very well be actual positive results which can not yet be scientifically measured. We only recently started studies on quantum physics and this is the leading theory behind the plausibility for vibrational medicine (in which crystal therapy and chromotherapy are subcategories). It was 1920 when Einstein’s paper of relativity was published and his groundbreaking, proven correct (or as a true scientist would say, not yet proven incorrect) equation of E=mc2 was public knowledge. 2013, and society has not yet transitioned to the notion of a combined space-time, even though scientists deal with this as a reality from day to day. With that being said, there are current scientific studies (that you apparently have not bothered researching) that do attest to the fact that vibrational medicine has shown to be effective. There are many outlets in which to find this information so just for example, I will list one. A respected scientist only trusts in the findings of peer-reviewed studies. These studies are published in scientific journals, and one journal that contains many studies that show how effective vibrational medicine can be is named “Evidence-based Complimentary and Alternative Medicine (eCAM Journal).
I won’t say much else. It doesn’t even matter my opinion on the subject of crystal healing. But I will say that it is blindly evident in your writing that you have a personal opinion on the matter, found one study on google, and have made a completely bias, unscientific judgement. You leave no room for possibility and we all know that science is mostly about what we don’t know. .
The equations of gravity are not influenced by which side of the bed you woke up on. No, placebo is nothing like space-time.
Before you support the charlatans that I deride, you can’t just say there are “people who claim to understand the energy flow of the human body” without offering evidence to support that. I can call these people charlatans not only because they offer people a medical treatment that will do most likely nothing, but because what they do has no plausible basis in reality, if you value physics or biology.
Please define “vibrational medicine” for me. Whatever it may mean (it seems like every “holistic” healer has a different definition), I assure you that it has nothing to do with E=mc^2. Don’t lump Einstein in with something he would have undoubtedly considered pseudo-scientific.
If we test the claims of “energy healing” directly, and they fail, yes, I can say there is little to no possibility that crystals work in the way we test them.
This article is not ground-breaking. I could take any medicine that is FDA approved and have the same experience as far as the placebo effect goes. Big deal. The mind is powerful and there are several healing modalities that use only the mind to cure. All this article tells me is that a non-believer did research to prove his non-belief. It’s like the surveys the government supposedly does to represent the people of the US. I’ve never been contacted for any of those surveys…have you? Let’s have a scientist who is a believer do this test and see what happens? That I would be interested in.
It’s important to note that medicine that has been proven to work beyond placebo also have placebo effects, making them more effective overall.
Interesting views on placebo effects. Most medications are also run through double blinds with some patients receiving the medication and others the placebo. Many of those receiving the placebo report having the same results as those receiving the medication.
Perhaps a better question is how does the mind convince the body to have a suggested result when using a placebo?
Yes, I think that’s an excellent question.
Kyle also suggests that acupuncture is nothing more than a placebo affect.
I know a vet that uses acupuncture, he has considerable success including with my dog with a back problem. I sought his help as conventional treatment from my local vet was going nowhere after a couple of months and costing a lot of money.
After 3 sessions of acupuncture my dog was back to his old self.
This obviously means my dog is much more intelligent than I thought if it’s mind can form it’s own placebo cure.
It is not my suggestion that acupuncture doesn’t outperform placebo, it is the finding of the largest studies to date. They find that it doesn’t even matter if the needles pierce the skin, let alone where they are placed.
Frankly, I am much more likely to trust the results of numerous studies that your recollection of an anecdote.
Fantastic article!
This is very interesting since a man of science is actually saying those kinds of things. On the other hand, there things that cannot be measured by what we call “physical sciences.” Thoughts for example cannot be explicated by mere scientific theories and cannot be fully associated with the functions of the brain. The brain is a physical thing, the thought is actually a metaphysical thing since it cannot be measured nor it can be actually studied.
In physics, everything is about energy and movements. It is the same way that some of the “old beliefs” work–because of the unseen waves of energy. Crystals in itself is a source of energy since they are also created by energy. However this cannot be explained mathematically and “scientifically.”
Hasty generalizations with just a few references and without any actual experimentation is also misnomer in science.
Furthermore, if physical science is all and be all, how come that there are still inexplicable phenomena on this earth such as miracle cures? I am not underestimating your knowledge sir, but with all the hob-hob of being “pure scientific”, let’s admit that science does not have the monopoly of the answers, neither it has been the cure for the lifelong dis-eases and illnesses that the human civilization had endured and continues to endure.
Sometimes, we need also to let go of too much rationalization in order to grasp true knowledge.
Nevertheless, let me commend you for this wonderful article since it has also tackled some of the pertinent issues on alternative health care, and that is, the use of gullibility of some people to rake profits (this is the same way about the capitalism-driven science that we have nowadays). Peace be with you!
We may not be able to fully measure human thought, but it is without a doubt a physical thing. There is no question that thoughts arise from the brain, itself a physical thing. Furthermore, we can tangentially measure thought by associating it with brain activity in fMRI, for example.
Crystals “cannot be explained mathematically and “scientifically”" because your use of the term “energy” is incorrect. In physics, this refers for the ability of one system to do work on another system. “Energy” is not some magical cloud that everything is created from, it’s a physical description of interacting systems. So, saying that “Crystals in itself is a source of energy since they are also created by energy” is meaningless, as the terms are confused.
I would argue that there are no such thing as miracle cures in the first place. Don’t make an argument from ignorance. Just because science hasn’t answered anything doesn’t mean that it isn’t the most useful tool we have for exploring the world (it is). Unexplained does not mean unexplainable.
I’ll name one of the “ifelong dis-eases and illnesses” that science has in fact cured: polio.
Sorry Kyle but there is still no cure for polio:
Prevention does not mean cure
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/dm52sa.html
You are absolutely right. I was thinking of “cure” in the colloquial sense, meaning that we have dealt with it enough that we no longer have to worry about it (at least in this country).
But this is besides the point. You cannot possibly argue that science has not made incredible strides in human health and wellness. In the face of vaccines and antibiotics and water purification, balance bracelets (themselves having no plausible basis or evidence to support their use) are useless and obscure good science with pseudoscience.
It seems that you misread the statement, sir. :) if you’re really analytical, you must not encase yourself in arrogance that science is only physics, biology and chemistry. :) I am not saying it out of ignorance sir, and for I am also a fan of science. On the alleged erroneous use of the term energy, even energy cannot be measured exactly; numbers are just “symbols” of the alleged “physical manifestations” of things. Energy yes, is not a magical cloud and you also misused the word magic, which is also a systematic body of knowledge.
With all due respect, not all diseases and illnesses of the society (read: society and not the physical sicknesses) are cured by science. Here, we are talking about the social problems that are bred by the advancement of what you call physical science. :) Now you made me smile and now I know who’s more ignorant than myself.
Oh, before I forget sir — have you experimented with crystals also? If not, then you are not the authority to tell those who have been cured by the method. Besides you’re using secondary sources — so why we should believe thee? Namaste!
But it is a nice argument anyway. :)
Yes, energy can be measured. Kinetic, chemical, nuclear, thermal, gravitational, and potential energy (just to name a few) can all be quantified with high precision. And it is precisely these measurable quantities that suggest that there is absolutely nothing going on with crystals that would be of medical value. If they put out a real kind of energy, we could measure it. If they put out some kind of mysterious energy that you seem to suggest, then that energy produces nothing more than placebo responses, i.e., the same as a plastic rock would.
Magic is a systematic body of knowledge? Perhaps how to do certain tricks, but there is no magic-ology.
Again, it’s a fallacy to say that because science hasn’t explained everything therefore it’s not useful in some area or cannot explain some area. If you consider science to be incorrect on some issue, that doesn’t automatically mean that some other idea is correct. You have to prove that first.
If you think personal experience is what is the deciding factor here, then you do not understand how science works. Anecdotes are not data.
I do understand how science work sir. Since you don’t also understand the other side of things, then the argument is futile. On the other hand, you use approximation to the energies that cannot be exactly measured. Besides, the measurement were also product of the mind. So it is also a sort of abstraction. But I commend you for bringing science “to the grassroots”. But one thing for sure — before the physical science is, there is metaphysics. So my case is closed. It has been nice talking to you.
“The area of scientific knowledge has been enormously extended, and theoretical knowledge has become vastly more profound in every department of science. But the assimilative power of the human intellect is and remains strictly limited. Hence it was inevitable that the activity of the individual investigator should be confined to a smaller and smaller section of human knowledge. Worse still, this specialization makes it increasingly difficult to keep even our general understanding of science as a whole, without which the true spirit of research is inevitably handicapped, in step with scientific progress. Every serious scientific worker is painfully conscious of this involuntary relegation to an ever-narrowing sphere of knowledge, which threatens to deprive the investigator of his broad horizon and degrades him to the level of a mechanic …It is just as important to make knowledge live and to keep it alive as to solve specific problems. (Albert Einstein, 1954)”
Well, I hope you don’t believe in a God because then you would be contradicting yourself.
:)
For the person who wrote this words… if you say you know a lot about science you should look into Marcel Voguel work.. he is the father of many components that your divices use today! … clearly you need to get an open mind … not asking you to be live anything just to give the chance of the possibility .. crystals have been part of humanity throughout history I. The kings and queens crowns, holy grail and more… and you like it or not you use crystals everyday.. silicon dioxide is in every single electronic divice that u use.. why? Because is a great transmitter of information plus is great for storage information as well … you may not be live I font blaim you ..your school system had prison your mind so you don’t question.. last thing.. once upon a time people in Europe believed that the earth was flat then a guy came with the proof that was round what did they do? They hang him! Then another guy came and after along time that accepted the idea! So for thousends of years one belief was rejected and gge n accepted.. just keep an open mind..
“Keep an open mind, but not so open that your brain falls out.”
Fantastic thread here. I am very pleased to see that things have not quickly devolved into name-calling, and that a multiplicity of viewpoints have emerged.
I would like to add that sociologists, philosophers, and anthropologists have long been examining science (or “sciences”) as socially constructed knowledge systems. From Foucault, to Latour, to Haraway, scholars have pointed out that scientific “ways of knowing” are simply that: ways of knowing the world. Not right, not wrong, just another way to know. Since all knowledge is partial and indeed socially constructed, it is dangerous to assert that some knowledge systems are superior to others. Let us not forget that the self-proclaimed superiority of science and statistical thinking has lead humanity down some pretty scary paths; eugenics and social darwinism are the first to come to mind.
Scientific “fact” is exactly that: Scientific fact. Unfortunately, facts are not universal, but are made real by the knowledge systems in which they were produced. Likewise, non scientific “facts” are made real by other knowledge systems. Like social darwinism, it is imprecise to suggest that one knowledge system is more evolved than another. Some ‘ways of knowing’ may simply be incommensurable. They may be unable to translate knowledges between each other. This however, is not to say that any one is superior to another. Bruno Latour (and others) would suggest that there is indeed no bifurcation between knowledge systems, but that modernism has simply tricked us into imagining that “science” exists in a distinct realm.
Often, people draw from multiple knowledge systems to understand the world. This is a generous way to understand how crystal healers can at once make medical and scientific claims, while simultaneously drawing from esoteric and metaphysical knowledge practices. Epistemological pluralism is indeed what emerges in the contemporary search for truth/s. Humans are complicated creatures, and I think that we should honor these complexities and and not draw upon positivist thinking to suggest that our complexity is simply a set of contradictions.
I look forward to comments and responses.
Josef N. Wieland
A reader said earlier that he uses crystals as reminders, and I think that he is onto something. In ancient times people used crystals to store information. I think that crystals, like water (see Emoto’s work), respond somehow to thought energy and possibly amplify it because of the geometric structure. But why so many types? There are literally 100′s of different crystals and gemstones, why would the Earth create so many different types of stones? I am just wondering out loud :)
Regarding your previous comments – we can’t accept anything as a fact, there always needs to be people who disagree – because otherwise we would still think that the world is flat and therefore miss out on the bigger picture. This is humanity’s struggle – I call it evolution. The constant search for perfection of knowledge and of being.
1000′s of types of crystals are created because they are simply the precipitated combination of elements into minerals, there is no magic it is completely understandable and explainable. It’s like making a cake, add some silica and oxygen in a chemical reaction with a small amount of iron at the right temperature in the right pH conditions and you’ve got a pretty clear purple rock (amethyst).
It’s the same reason you get lime scale in your coffee machine, precipitation of minerals (calcium carbonate) due to changes in physical conditions (a reduction in temperature). Trying to attach spirituality to these objects is pointless, the fact that they have been created inside the earth through chemical reactions over millions of years and look as amazing as they do is wonderment enough for me.
I’m not siding either, but this article appears to have no weight to it as far as proving or disproving the assertions on this web page. The tone of the author is indeed less than impartial and biassed. It is unfair and discourteous to indulge in name calling simply because you have a different opinion. If there was a proper study involving proper and representative sampling of a cross section of society over a period of time using scientific instruments to monitor the reactions of those sampled, where can the report be accessed? Who authenticated it? A good Scientist will have done this automatically before producing a report that may damage credibility.
Please point out any such link for further reading then I can make an unbiassed judgement.
It is probable that the college recieves funding from pharmaceutical companies that will want to disprove any treatment other than their products. I personnally find crystal healing works.
Tony, even if the college does receive funding, it does not necessarily mean that the results are bogus. That is something that you have to prove.
There bogus.
The arguments you present in this article should – and could – also be applied to current western medical practices with the deadly and toxic chemicals they force onto people in the name of ‘healing’ – ‘suggesting’ to each patient what side effects and suchlike they ‘might experience’.
How is that any different to the New Age Mumbo Jumbo crap? It’s not. Medical ‘science’ is cleverly fudged because it has the money and power to do so, backed by their puppet masters, the drug companies.
Open your eyes a little wider next time you choose to attack one group over another.
Please define what these ” deadly and toxic chemicals they force onto people in the name of ‘healing’” are.
From what i’ve discovered from browsing and personal experience, a lot of these alternative medicines require a positive outlook going into it. So something like crystal therapy probably wouldn’t ever have any beneficial impact on you, because you would never let it. That being said, the human mind can do astonishing things.
But Kyle just give up, you can’t win an argument like this on the internet…. So if you don’t want to stop being that little kid from school who doesn’t view things with an open mind and tells people they’re wrong, you’re just going to stress yourself out.
The funny thing to me is how people, such as yourself, Kyle, claim that natural treatments are ‘alternative’ and the Western treatments are ‘traditional.’ Since when? How did healing techniques passed down for literally thousands of years (and I’m not just specifically speaking of crystals) get turned into the ‘alternative’? And then how did Western Medicine, which is completely driven by large corporations with vested interests in a) making A LOT of money and b) keeping people sick enough to spend money but not actually curing or preventing anything and c) eliminating competition, suddenly over the last 100 years become ‘traditional?’
Believe me, I am very much scientific minded. I check for hard facts and strive to understand from all angles. IMO, Western Medicine is particularly useful in trauma accidents and time sensitive emergencies.
With that said, I do love crystals, but I simply use them as ‘reminders’ to bring my own consciousness and awareness to an area of my life or body so that I may begin the healing process myself through conscious thought. Although, it is nice to keep in mind that crystals are capable of storing massive amount of data and information (just look into diamond quantum computers.) Also, considering we (and all matter) are constantly exchanging traces of dna, could it not be possible that information stored within a crystal could influence our cells at the dna level? (<Just a hypothetical possibility.)
Also, other commenter’s who have claimed that there is an obvious bias in your writing are absolutely correct. And, seeing as how there is plenty of data to prove the placebo effect…wouldn't it make sense that the placebo effect could work in reverse? i.e. If you DON'T believe in something than it will not work (or will have significantly less effect.)
I am constantly surprised at the hypocrisy found amongst advocates of Western medicine of natural 'alternative' medicines, especially when they claim either a) natural healers are selling 'snake oil' or b) that Western medicine is better because it is 'proven.' Really? I'm not saying that ALL people selling natural remedies are genuine, or that none of them are in it strictly to make money (sadly, that attitude is found everywhere) but what makes you think that Western institutions, such as the CDC, FDA, ACS, WHO and all their friends in Big Pharma, are NOT selling snake oil?
Example: Flu vaccines have repeatedly been shown to be less effective than claimed. And the fact that these institutions say that the flu vaccine is 'the best way to stay protected' is a joke. Most of these new vaccines they are coming out with 9for H1N1 and other 'nightmare' strains) are not even clinically tested. Not to mention, they can be extremely dangerous to some, and are shown to have no significant effect on the elderly. On top of that, they are immune suppressive. How counter intuitive is that?? The best way to stay healthy is through diet, supplementation and plenty of sunlight (and/or Vitamin D3 supplement.) You have to build the immune system.
Also, look at the havoc that antibiotics are causing. Not only are antibiotics also immune suppressive, they are leaking into our foods and water supplies and are causing bacteria to become 'resistant.' You know what kills most anti-biotic resistant strains of bacteria? Natural essential oils (not all of course, but ones like Clove, Cinnamon, Oregano, Tea Tree and many others are a medicinal powerhouse.)
Also, look into contaminated vaccines by Novartis. Or the hemophiliac drugs by Bayer that were knowingly contaminated with HIV and yet still shipped overseas for profit. The list goes on and on. (Hope that answers your question above about what ”deadly and toxic chemicals they force onto people in the name of ‘healing’” are.)
(…not to mention the toxic chemicals used in chemotherapy and radiation…and the fact that our institutions still claim that flouride in our drinking water 'helps our teeth and plaque build up' which is completely false and has no scientific backing.)
These are the SAME COMPANIES who pay for 'scientific studies' as well as a large chunk of medical texts and grants to Universities. You really think they stand on a moral high ground and are doing this strictly to help humanity? I think not.
Science is great. Facts are great. Research is great. But this whole 'Western vs Natural' mentality is ridiculous. It's a scam. The sciences can (and have to some extent) merge with the natural. Believe it or not, even natural remedies, essential oils, herbs, tinctures, juices, vegetables (you name it!) have SCIENTIFIC explanations. They have (natural) chemicals that many many times are more powerful than the laboratory derived chemical variants.
Sadly, people such as yourself, are so sold on the snake oil of Western Medicine that you blindly disregard natural treatments. You also see this as black and white and assume that ALL people who choose natural treatments have some vendetta against ALL western medicine. That's not true at all. Western Medicine has done marvels for many, including people within my family. However, I have taken zero forms of western medicine (pills, advil, cough syrup, antibiotics, etc.) in many years…and I haven't been sick either. Last time I got the flu was the last time I got my flu shot (still in elementary school.)
Anyway, I appreciate the info in your article, but not the attitude that you hold or the way you have responded to other people commenting. You are very condescending, fyi. But you are a smart guy. I hope that you can use your knowledge and journalistic skills in a way that is truly open minded and not just regurgitating the latest news of QuackWatch (<< which is a complete scam in itself, by the way. Google it.)
I like your comment about using crystals as reminders. Apparently in the ancient times they were used to store information – so perhaps they really do work this way? Like I said before, I love crystals and I wish we knew more about them.
Taylor nailed it. Hill seems very smart and educated, but could relax a little bit. He is WAY to concerned about something that has very little significance to the real world. Go write a paper about child labour, or something that is a REAL issue, this is really not a problem, like at all. Plus it has been around LONG before he was ever alive so why should anyone listen to him? If people have done it for a long time shouldn’t that be some proof?
So yah, he should use his intelligence for something useful and let people believe in what they want to believe.
He wrote an article for a website ok? It is not his life’s work, he did not sit down and say “today I am going to write about the most critical problem that the world faces.” and then promptly wrote about stones and new age healing rip offs. I am going out on a limb here by saying this: I respect Kyle Hill for personally responding to almost every comment with his opinion. He could have just left you all foaming at the mouth over this but instead he kept neutral (most of the time) and responded dilligently. Not many people bother to do that these days! So where is the credit hey guys? And just for the record, I love crystals and gemstones but I don’t why. I think there must be a purpose for them, such as when we find plants in nature and we discover that what we thought was a useless weed is actually a herb. I wish we knew more about this. I have psychic gifts (telekinesis), which science has “proved” doesn’t exist so I will continue to form my own opinions about everything, and I will continue to point out where I think people have been treated a bit poorly. Thank you in advance for not responding negatively to my comment ^_^
Thank you Taylor, you saved me the time of responding to the ever so young Mr. Hill. You covered every point worth making. Appears we have two choices here for our disposable income. 1. Buy crystals. 2. Donate to Mr. Hill.
You cannot argue with Kyle, I have never know him to be wrong.
Once he thought he was wrong but but he was mistaken.
I greatly appreciate the research behind this. I recently had a debate over this subject matter and suggested the power of belief (from personal experience, I know I can will a lot of different pains away, gain more focus, etc, etc) as the driving force behind the “power of crystals” and other new age-y things. I’m not sure why people would rather rely on an external force than the power of their own internal force. I like to think my mind is greater than a rock.
The debate sparked some unhappy feelings from my counterpart so I decided to check some facts, and this delivered. I’ll be referencing this post.
Reading your blog I felt happy that there are some sane people in the world. Reading the responses to your blog I laughed a little to myself and felt sad for all these poor souls. “If a non believer tries to heal someone then they will transfer the negative energy and not be healed” LMAO
You people seriously pay a little more for your scam please. Keeps my economy going
I noticed that part of the blind test was using a real crystal (Quartz I assume) and a plastic fake. The test would have been much better if the fake was a glass replica of a crystal. Plastic is easy to identify even when blindfolded.
I have an extensive collection of rocks and minerals. I enjoy handling the specimens and the ones that I have actually collected myself have, over a period of time , a ‘sense of place’. But that is as far as I would go in saying that crystals ect have any effect on ones person. Most of my collection however , especially the crystallized specimens are a pleasure to own and handle,
I have known about the placebo effect for a long time however the bizarre thing is that crystal healing works for me. Perhaps it is just through the placebo effect, but I have to have a crystal that is supposed to do a certain thing, i.e. I can’t just use any stone. Maybe it is just hearing from an outside source the healing properties of that crystal that makes it more powerful (perhaps as a placebo, easier to convince self, but then why does it still work if I know it might just be a placebo). I have cured myself of various serious ailments using crystal healing including insomnia and eating disorders (also moonstone works better for me at alleviating menstrual cramps than paracetamol or ibuprofen). The other weird thing is I have been using amber to combat feeling rather low recently and yes it was cheering me up but for some reason I had been gaining weight (had not changed eating habits, in fact probably eating more healthily), I found out today that amber is a great stone for weigh gain (!). Now that can’t have been a placebo effect because I didn’t know about this… I’m sure there is an explanation but it’s not my diet, I know that much.
Well if nothing else crystals provide a focus for energy.
Continuing with my comments above , as a mineral specimen collector the one thing I have noticed over the last 20 years or more is the dramatic increase in the price of mineral specimens.of all grades , from the well crystallized to the quality ‘study’ specimens. This is obviously because of the increase in the number of collectors brought about with the increase in the ‘new age’ crowd who have started buying mineral specimens.This happened when the ‘crystal healing ‘ charlatans began creating a market and publishing their glossy pseudo science books dealing in the power of crystals to ‘heal’
Even many of the mineral specimen dealers have got in on the act. Well I guess it’s all good for business but the downside to all this is the more people collecting mineral crystals ect , the more the cost of everything goes up. (supply & demand)
I’m really sick of putting modern science on a pedestal. If there’s something modern science can’t explain, it’s probably the placebo or something. I got just one message for those smart guys out there. You know much less than you think you know. Nuff said.
In my opinion, the ‘placebo’ effect shows what people have been saying for thousands of years: “Faith heals.”
I would be very interested in seeing a study done on placebos where the skeptics and believers are separated to see who has a higher ‘placebo’ effect.
Crystals emit a frequency and frequencies cause effects. The magnitude of the effects caused by such frequencies are subtle but can still be great over time and with correct use.
You say crystals “emit a frequency.” This is something that a number of scientific instruments could verify, but they find nothing. Crystals are glorified rocks, and emit no frequencies that can be measured. Before you claim that “frequencies cause effects,” you have to prove that a crystal has a periodically repeating process going on inside them.
Actually! The reason they use quartz in watches is because of their frequencies.
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/clocks-watches/quartz-watch2.htm
You are right, but in reference to your previous comment this is not quite correct. Quartz crystals have a resonant frequency only when they are bent (or subjected to mechanical stress) or when an electric current is applied to them. The crystal does not produce a frequency itself, it must be prodded into doing so. And even if it did produce a frequency on its own (which it doesn’t), you would still have to demonstrate that a frequency (an amorphous concept that no one ever defines) can affect the human body. I don’t know of any scientific studies which support that assertion.
you say crystals must have an electrical current pass through them before they can have have a resonant frequency…but the human body produces electrical currents, does it not?
I think this article does a great job of explaining how the human body is affected by all different types of energies.
http://www.skininc.com/skinscience/physiology/17969919.html?mobi=y
And more, if the person is particularl attuned to their own energy and how to direct it through conscious thought, they may be ‘better’ at harnessing the crystals innate energy, no?
And if you don’t believe humans are capable of producing more energy through conscious thought, google “qigong ripleys believe it or not.”
While it may sound like science, the claims or Dr. Becker have absolutely nothing to do with the claims made by crystal proponents. What Dr. Becker says may be true (though we have reason to suspect that it is not), but mining for a quote made by a doctor that has the terms “energy flow” and “frequency” in it is invalid. Considering that the same claims made by Dr. Becker are also used to promote theories of “blood electrification” which supposedly “eliminates all viruses, parasites, fungi, bacteria, and pathogens in the blood” and “pulsed kilogauss magnetic fields” that involve “externally applied magnetic resonance of lymph, spleen, kidney, and liver” to “ help neutralize germinating, latent alien invaders” (www.cancertutor.com/Cancer02/BobBeckPaper.pdf), there is no reason to take him seriously. Even stipulating that Dr. Becker knows what he is talking about, his research is completely devoid of anything that has to do with crystals. The jump in logic here is absurd: ancient ideas about energy flow are true, the body has an energy flow, a doctor says that the body has an electric frequency, therefore crystals work. Don’t be fooled; if you have to do mental gymnastics to make these claims seem even remotely plausible, there is most likely something wrong with the claimant, not you.
Food for thought.
“While there are no scientifically proven reasons (none currently well established) for why rocks could effect some one’s health, the idea is not as far fetched as the more analytical person might think. It is a scientific fact that we all emit energy, usually this is called radiation. It is a fact that each object on the earth emits this energy, rocks and crystals as well. It is also known by science that when energy passes through rocks or crystals the object changes the energy. Light is energy and what passes through the other side of a crystal has been changed. Quartz are used in a wide variety of electrical applications, such as in watches (quartz movement) and in your commuter (called semiconductors) – because of its great ability to effect the energy we call electricity. So the idea that a rock could change energy is present in science.”
- http://www.earthbliss.com/Rocks.htm
To say that light is radiation and can pass through a rock, therefore this energy can affect the human body, makes no sense to me. Light and heat are known sources of radiation, the fact that these can be modulated by a different material is a far cry from claiming that crystals have health benefits.
Light is a frequency and frequencies do effect matter, including humans. Sound frequencies, like the sound of a soothing voice or a musical instrument have beneficial effects on people. So I don’t think it’s that far fetched.
Neither light nor sound “are frequencies.” Light is a particle/wave. Sounds are pressure waves. Neither are a repeated periodic process (a frequency), like an engine’s RPM. And certainly light and sound affect people, but this is a product of human interpretation, not something inherent to a single wave or particle.
They both have frequencies.
Visible light has a frequency between 3.7 x’s 10^14 Hertz and 7.5 x’s 10^14 Hertz
Ok, better question, is there any reason to think that this could affect human health in any way?
I enjoy reading my Mineralogy books in which the sub branch of Crystallography is discussed in great detail including the six crystal systems. Also covered extensively is the atomic lattice structure of the various inorganic elements and compounds (minerals) that occur naturally in the earth. It’s been about 170 years since modern Mineralogy has been established , principally with the great publication of Edward Salisbury Dana’s “The System of Mineralogy”. A great deal of scientific knowledge has been developed over all this time concerning the natural occurring minerals and their crystal forms. Nowhere in all this science has there ever been a discovery of the ‘healing powers ‘ of crystals.This tells me that the ‘new age’ idea of crystals having some sort of effect on human health ect is simply a ‘fun’ belief system’
If you really want to learn all there is about crystals , especially mineral crystals go get yourself a good book on Mineralogy. A good one to start with is the handy little field guide “Rocks & Minerals” by Frederick H. Pough (Peterson Field Guide Series)
Pingback: Teething Necklaces: Are they a scam? (I’ll give you a hint, the answer is ‘yes’) | NannySavvy