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.
Science-Based Life 
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.”
I think you have a point: even if the rock can’t actually heal you (and I agree that a rock cannot do this by itself), it can make you FEEL better if you believe in it; and since that’s as much as it can do, I guess that it succeeds, at least in part, at what it’s supposed to do.
Feeling better matters a great deal actually. It’s extremely difficult to get through more serious ailments without feeling positive and strong and supported. Hospitals, while they excel at most of the technical stuff, often leave out some of the most important parts of healing. (Especially the food- Yuck! How can anyone get healthy on freezedried crap and jello?! They can’t.)
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.
Well said Rain
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.
Ashley makes a valid point. The researcher assumes immediate results, when it is well known that many alternative healing methods, including herbals, may take weeks and months of repeated use to reach full healing potential. Even when western medication is scientifically tested, it is done over time, because initially the placebo pills are just as effective as the real med, due to – you guessed it – the placebo effect. In time, the placebo pill loses its effect, while the real thing, if it works, does not. Rain is right in that this study proves very little. Priming the subjects invalidates this study because it increases placebo effect and so does not give a true comparison of real & fake crystals.
I love how advocates of crystal healing always seem to find ways to make exceptions. I’m sure you could do the same study and check in with the participants after 24 hours (more than the supposed required time) and the results would be the same. Placebo is very strong!
@Clover:
The same Placebo is attributed to western medicine, where MORE people (millions of people) have been injured and killed by the use of prescription drugs, THAN illegal drugs suck as crack and cocaine. Stop being so faithful to your scientists, if they’re corrupted by money-hungry corporations, they lie. Ever watched “American Addict” or “The Union: The Business of Getting high”–Industries and Governments lie! You can shove that placebo up your ass.
If the study wasn’t fair, it’s not that these people are making excuses it’s simply the study wasn’t fair. If you’re suppose to be taking antibiotics daily for weeks to heal from a illness, but someone ran a test judging the effects of it, by testing a freshly ill person for only taking the antibiotics for ONE DAY, is that a fair trail? OF course not. Give the energy-rock people the same fair advantage, and if the results are the same, then you can talk.
does anyone see a flaw in this study?
well, Mr. Science….I challenge you. Take a pouch of pink opal from Peru and after taking your blood pressure, place them over your heart. In an hour retake your blood pressure. Then apologize for being WRONG. Take south African Jade and place on a tense muscle or ostio- arthritic pain area and give it 10-20 minutes. No pain, relaxed muscles. Your attitude is your problem, see if science can fix that. Name calling is so scientific. You have NOT proved anything. Placebos work with a lot of drug tests also, so all drugs don’t work. That’s your rational.
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
I was just reading the article with an open mind to both “sides” The only thing that jumped out at me was the idea that chemotherapy cures anyone…It doesn’t, there in it’s self is a placebo effect in action. Ever have a loved one with cancer that takes their round of chemo, and wow, they “recover” and even look healthier and then the idea that this is going to help them losses its effectiveness and they die rapidly afterwards? Perfect example of a placebo. I would rather hold a crystal.
Damn Lisa, word up :)…word up.
after chemo i got 12 months to live. then i did all kinds of brave things like fire my team of doush-bag doctors, fast n’ cleanse, practice qi gong and energy regulation as well as nutrient load on juice n herbs. i was warned by jack offs like you i would be wasting my money in my last year of life. Last time i checked standford was a really important hospital yet I some hoe cured my self of all cancer related drug effects n stopped relapsing with new lung n bone cancers. your helping people to harm themselves by the bloated medical industry standards of false care. there a possibly good industry that has gone bad with a pill for any concern. get a new religion dude cus science isn’t very scientific these days and as you said…disgusting. Car crashes, some birthing care is awesome, most of the rest of it is shit. The fake help of eat anything for 50 years n well save you when your heart gets the big grip is how this industry deludes the eat anything person into safety. Science will save and so will Super Man / Science Man. What a young soul you are-
If you know nothing bout negative energy cleansing and charching what make you think you are sharing a valid article, they are many scientist doctors that done many research on energy every thind is includongs rocks and all god creations we are conected, you can look up bruice lipton dr wayne dyer greg braden eckhart telle, imsread of calling people names go read more reaseach have an open mind, and know for a fact it is your ego a bunch of thoughts that are speaking calling people names, you are destrying your self, by being positive aware of whom you really are you will then know that you can heal your self with prayers being positive positive afirmations plants and crystals stone every thing is an enery,even your words your rude words are strenthening your distructive ego, be peaceful.
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
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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.
Negative energy is negative energy. You know, like positive and negative on a battery? It doesn’t mean ‘bad energy’. It means the negative side of energy, which is deconstructive, dark, etc. Don’t get caught up in the name, because Hippies kind of ruined it. It’s just the other half of electricity. It could be called E1 and E2.
See, if I were to tell you that you had an aura around you that could be healed by crystals, you’d think I was whacko. But what if I told you that your body emitted an EM field that when it came into contact with certain materials it (the EM field) could either be amplified or deconstructed? You’d at least look into it, huh?
I’m not saying crystals can heal people. What I’m saying is that science can explain a lot *if you let it*. Don’t just dismiss something because it ‘sounds weird’.
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
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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.
Sarah and J Dan have interesting points. I have always loved and admired minerals, yet remain skeptical about their metaphysical effects. I have a BA in Psychology/minor in philosophy, big whooop, but I did conduct my own research project, so I understand some basics and well, here is my input. =)
This study may have inadvertently created some confounds. IF it is true, that the traditional or proper and most effective method of crystal use requires longer use to manifest any effect, and the present study only examined the short term method, without “charging” the crystals, then this may suggest that the researcher did not conduct a thorough enough literature review and basic research into the use of crystals accurately. Therefore this could be a misrepresented conclusion and that it is in fact, a study on the power of suggestion, rather than a study on the power of crystals. Despite this, the above argument is weak simply because it assumes too much about crystals actually having metaphysical properties and that they weren’t being activated appropriately thus they lacked effect, this is not what I wish to support an argument with, so lets explore other options in support of cogent variables at play. It is still important to attempt to replicate the ritual/procedure of traditional/proper crystal use in order to validly represent the variable you are testing. (Because then, if you used the crystal “the right way” then that reduces the critics ability to claim “you did it wrong!! that’s why it didn’t work”)
It could also be that the power of suggestion was the cogent variable being mistakenly measured in part because the researchers told the participants that these crystals are supposed to have an effect on them. They also asked them to attempt to describe that effect (I view this similar to showing a person a photoshoped picture of them in a hot air balloon and asking them to describe their memory of it).
“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 control groups were based on real/fake crystals, not one group being
primed/one not being primed. All participants in both groups were primed. Skeptics believed less often than believers, this is obvious. This method of priming may have interfered with the participants being able to accurately report their findings. Also the number of people who claimed no effect whatsoever was incredibly small to the number who claimed to feel an effect. Only 6/80 participants reported no effect whatsoever, all participants were primed, this means that only 6 participants were unaffected by being primed. This ratio may lend support the claim that priming all participants lead to the overwhelming number reporting effects for both real/false crystals, simply because they were TOLD TO EXPECT an effect, in both groups.
Improvements on this study could include transforming it into a longitudinal study (length according to suggested amount of time for highest effect of crystals), proper preparation of crystals for use (to the extent of having a “crystal healer” “charge” them – participants are blind to this knowledge), specifying the effects to be studied (are they spiritual/psychological or physical?) in the report not to participants, using one type of crystal to promote a specific effect, in order to eliminate confusing confounds due to different crystals purporting different metaphysical properties.
It would be ideal to survey the participants to measure their spiritual/religious beliefs, pre-existing physical/emotional ailments/conditions, the general emotional and physical well being before the trials begin and after the study has concluded. It would be extremely challenging to control for the power of suggestion.We would have to explain to some extent what the research is about (the effects on crystals on humans), and it would be wise to assume that participants bias would be triggered regardless of how vague the description is. Besides, the power of suggestion IS the null hypothesis, which is what we would actually be testing. We would be testing to see if there is no effect of the crystals on the persons emotional and/or physical well being after long term use. Researchers are looking to measure no change, statistically, and if there is variation, is that variation significantly above the mean/average?
If there was no significant difference we would be implicitly accepting that the power of suggestion is the only thing at work for any purported effects that were statistically not significant. Other improvements could be made, hypothetically, but I’m tired now, and also I doubt there would be enough funding and meticulous researchers interested the potential interaction of “metaphysical properties of crystals” and human well being.
Remember that all research has its flaws, and subjectivity creates many traps as well as loopholes in empirical research.
Well put, Gabrielle. I think you bring up many valid points as well. If researchers want to measure the efficacy of crystal healing, then the traditional methods and suggested time frame should be considered. It’s too bad that the researchers didn’t do their own research first to find out how to correctly “charge” the crystals; I would have liked to see the results include this and take out the whole priming aspect. I’m sure this debate will continue until we properly measure the crystals’ effects instead of the placebo effect on test subjects.
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.
In what way is it possible? It seems like they continue to disprove and discredit stones and crystals with every single study. The results are always the same.
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.
Reiki has been scientifically proven many many times already. I find it quite unusual that you have placed the above statement on Reiki without researching. It has been measured so many times already, in double blind tests demonstrating the significant differences of the actual energies being transmitted from “trained” healers hands. You are not giving scientifically researched data here Kyle. It is in your best interest that you go back and do your research. Otherwise, you are creating a sad situation for yourself, because you are the ONE WHO IS MISLEADING OTHERS. If you are someone who has studied metaphysics, science, spirituality, myth, religion, and quantum physics, you would understand how you are PROJECTING ASPECTS AND DOUBTS ABOUT YOURSELF ONTO OTHERS. In truth, there are many charlatans in the New Age, as well as in Religion. And there are dangerous suggestions regarding crystals as well as there are dangerous situations in religion. History has amply proved that. You are a far cry from being a leader who is informing others. Do some more true “research”, but consider that to even merely grasp how reality is actually being formed here and what energy processes take place, consider that you will need to embark on the level of past a PHD to truly be able to express any fundamental truths. Those of us who have studied for 20 yrs plus, 12 hour study days to decipher the understanding of how conscousness is creating reality here, even hesitate to say that we understand what is actually taking place. So study some more. The doubts you are expressing and fears are actually something about you Kyle. In the meantime…begin a much much deeper research.
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.
First off, the use of healing through crystal work has had some evidence in having some positive effects. Scientist Marcel Vogel and inventor Patrick Flanagen have done extensive studies with quartz crystals and water, with findings such as when crystals are left in water for a period of time they: boost the electrical conductivity of the water, decrease the surface tension of the water, and increase the alkalinity levels of the water, in which all of these results allow for the human body to operate much more smoothly. Second, to say that homeopathic medicine doesn’t work because of anything related to the FDA has no validity. The fact that they cannot put a patent on a natural plant and therefore not make the money that they would from drugs says it all. It’s the same as scheduling marijuana as a schedule 1 drug, making it not of any medicinal value and something of abuse, when it has shown overwhelming proof of being able to slow and stop tumor growths, curing certain cancers, reducing pain/inflammation to people with chronic conditions, and helping hundreds(if not thousands) of other medical problems. So why then is it that something that has been proven to heal like marijuana be scheduled as it is when obviously it does have many healing properties?
And just like crystals, your body is made of vibrations. When you attune to whatever vibration you’re trying to work with, be it crystals, plant medicine, or even pharmaceutical medicine(they all put off their own specific vibration)…you are changing the vibration that you are currently set on which can have effects on the body. Simply being happy or mad both have vibrations that will change the body and that is scientifically proven.
Word of advice, closed mindedness is a negative vibration which will cause problems somewhere along the way. It’s okay to be skeptical, but when making your decision it helps to try to look at all perspectives before simply shutting certain possibilities out because it sounds ridiculous. Quantum mechanics sounded ridiculous to scientists 100 years ago but religions have talked about similar ideas for thousands of years, which are just now proving to be correct.
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
The Lithium in Lithium Quartz is the same that’s in prescribed antidepressant drugs… Its a rock but contains medical ingredients so I’m sure having contact with the “rock” itself has some effects. You can try handling realgar, mercury or cinnabar without use of protective gloves and expose yourself to that and then reply back. A warning they do contain high levels of arsenic though!
[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.
May I point out that you’re putting a lot of faith in the pharmaceutical industry? Saying that alternative healing is going to get people hurt when medication kills people every day is a very bold and misled statement.
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.”
A Open mind can breath and get the 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and that 1% other it needs to sustain life.
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 have not seen a single crystal website which encouraged me to ditch the doc and give them my money instead, rather, they all cautioned me to do the opposite. But what if the doctor, and “good science,” can’t help me? After years of illness, I was finally healed when I dumped the doctors and heavy meds and turned to alternative medicine, including crystals. (Kyle will assert that this is only an anecdote, of course.)
Thank you, Mr. Wieland, for expressing so eloquently exactly the point I’m trying to make. Every form of healing has its place, every path up that mountain reaches the same summit, and we should all have the right to use what best heals us without being told that we’re doing it wrong. If I had listened to hard scientific data, I would still be sick! It is foolish, and very dangerous, to arrogantly claim to be in sole possession of the truth (Eckhart Tolle). This debate seems to be less about whether healing crystals work, and more about trying to be right and make others wrong, which makes it difficult to get any real insight into this topic.
PS. Sigliwa is correct that magic is a systemic body of knowledge. A skilled witch or magician knows and uses the flow of energy to achieve a specific result. True magic has been in use for thousands of years, and has nothing at all to do with tricks or illusions.
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.
There is a man named James Randi who has spent the majority of his life testing and debunking things like this. Here is a 5 minute video where he shows that rat poison and “healing crystal” have the same effect on a lady. He shows it was all suggestion from the “healing crystal expert”.
You could probably do the test at home as well with some of your friends, assuming you replicate it correctly and make sure it’s a proper “blind” study where the participants don’t know what they’re holding. Either by blind folding them, or keeping the crystal hidden in some way.
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)
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How do you explain someone I know that heals via reiki through energy, love and light? He even knows what I did on the day I see him from channeling into my energy…How about the psychics that tell you what your future holds using energy vibrations and have been spot on down to names of people and even a description of the people I will be dealing with? Explore that?
wow.. so many stupid people doubting the science… yet they still use their phones, their internet and claim that “the science doesn’t explain everything”.
The only stupid people are those who trust in science. How limited and egotistical the human brain is! The same science that said tobacco was safe to smoke, that thalidomide was safe, the science that said the world was flat etc etc. This study does not disprove the powers of crystals, it proves the power of human belief. What’s bad about that? Somebody believes something good will occur and it does, that’s wrong or bad? No the opposite is wrong and bad. Closed minded idiots afraid or incapable to look beyond the tiny proportion of their brain that ‘scientists’ actually know the functional reason for. Know what the rest is for? Look outside the box. Crystals would be a good start.
I strongly agree, with Amanda above. Science has screwed up and “brain washed” a lot of people minds, through out past lately. Especially about crystals, crystals has been here long before man. Long before anybody existed, when god first created earth they were put here. Now what really draw-ed my attention is they took two completely different crystals, one fake and one real. I wanta pacifically break to everybody out there and every “scientist” that you can not, you can not put anything, anything fake with the real. “And judge the two the exact some thing”. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!. It can not happen, two wrongs DO NOT MAKE A RIGHT, for as one is wrong and the other is right, anything real will bring out results. Anything “fake”, you get NOTHING, dry, no juice. It has come very clear to me that “science” is a “lie”, LIAR!. And it plays against “GOD”, anything that God puts here is REAL, for an example, weed or marijuana how ever you wanta put it. The same for crystals, if you can’t tell if anythings fake or real. Study it and look it up, especially go read about it. There are over a million books about crystals and their history with humans. Nothing will never come out right if you lean to your own understanding which us men have trouble with and so called scientist. And that’s my word for today, crystals are REAL!, very real, never let no body tell you different. I learn from the BEST!, God bless.
What we be a good place you suggest to get crystals I read something about not buying them but that looks like the only way for me
It seems to me that the results of this test would be less subjective if the administer was unbiased and the data given by the test subjects could be quantified rather than the subject’s opinion of how they felt before and after.
As for my personal opinion, I do not believe crystals have power unto themselves, but they can be useful for focusing. Often people find it difficult to believe in themselves, to motivate themselves, and believing that someone or something else supports them and gives them strength and power- be it crystals, prayers to an invisible friend in the sky, or a crow’s feather held in one’s trunk- can make a world of difference. Yes, they’re all crutches, but sometimes one needs a crutch.
(Keep in mind: crutches support but don’t treat. If one has appendicitis, go to the damn hospital!)
Interesting article. I am a rockhound myself and prefer to collect and just admire crystals in the natural sunlight. While I don’t believe they are truly capable of storing positive or negative energy from us, I do believe it is rather therapeutic to lose oneself in thought while gazing at them either from a distance or while touching them. In my personal experience, rather than some mystical energy resonating with me to create a happy place, I tend to stare at things when lost in thought and my mind associates those thoughts or feelings with whatever I’m staring at or even holding. Anytime I hold one of my crystals and stare at them, I feel happy, and so anytime I’m down, I do just that. I believe the association my mind has made with those objects is the key to the “healing” or “meditation” rather than the crystals outputting positive energy. The beauty, geometrical shapes, natural flaws, and the prismatic effects of crystals distract my mind from negative thoughts as I practically drool over my shiny precioussss in the palm of my hand.
I have yet to study the subject myself. But your obvious bias is pitiful to someone who claims to care about science and the truth. A study of fourty people who come from one city is hardly conclusionary and the fact that the study wasnt doubleblinded is also dissappointing and probably also lead to bias in the experiment.
Does Kyle believe in life on other planets?
Why? Because we CAN NOT see it, touch it, feel it, measure it, weigh it, or communicate with it…..but I bet as a scientist you believe in the theory of evolution.. so you must believe it’s out there…somewhere right? In ALL those planets and solar systems that we are still trying to create devices to see…or even the bigger picture of who, why or what our purpose is? Why we evolve and adapt? Things happen. The Earth is constantly spinning in a motion that creates a static friction that keeps us from falling off into vast nothingness. Do you know why the Earth continues to spin?
Not HOW it spins..but WHY?
We don’t know why…but just because YOU can’t figure it out, doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
K
This is one of the most widespread and atrocious fallacies: to say that because there are gaps in our knowledge that we can’t say anything is true or false. Or worse, that because some pretty-goshdarn-well proven fact isn’t something we experience in everyday life, that we can’t say for sure that it’s true.
Science is about winnowing down the options. Some things are true, some are certainly not, and other things are indefinite.
Heck, I’m an apologist for crystals. I see people every day who benefit from the things, though I don’t know why. To me, this makes them one of those indefinite things.
It’s not at all comparable to the fact that the earth spins, and that evolution occurs, because these things are not only true, they’v been proven many times over, and their mechanisms are well understood.
20 years ago I was cured of a major problem/illness by my own thoughts, guided by a philosopher and homeopathic practitioner despite all the analysis of “traditional western medicine” that said it’s irreversible and only surgery is the answer. I reversed the illness in 3 months time with 3 visits to the “healer” or whatever you want to call him and saved myself from surgery. Ever since I am a firm believer of the underestimated power of our mind, thoughts, life force, energy waves, qi, homeopathic medicine, diet, healing foods, crystals etc.
We should stay open to the possibility of healing power of Crystals since they do seem to have the power of storing information/thought/energy. Proper experiments should be conducted especially by people believing that there might be something there or at least with a real open mind, otherwise it’s worthless. If the experiment is done by someone pressed to prove how they do not work then not all key elements will be taken into consideration and put to real tests.
On the other hand I do believe that most people who are open or at least interested or fascinated by crystals take the time to explore, learn and experiment without looking for a quick fix. Charlatans, unfortunately most of the time work with people looking for a quick fix and this exists in all fields , western medicine, eastern medicine or whatever kind of “cures” including crystals.
However, one thing important is that many people, like myself, have been healed by “alternative” methods with amazing results. After the 3 months and having healed myself the doctor/specialist following me, just said that I was really lucky and had a chance in a million. Well, it was just the fact that I took the chance and worked hard with my thought process along with the help of the “philosopher” and a very little bit of homeopathy. The speed of recovery and final results will always depend on the person himself , as in every healing process, but non-invasive, natural methods do work, and it is up to the people themselves to chose the right method they want to go for at a particular time.
Although doctors were telling me not to lose time and to just do the operation somehow I just didn’t go for it. I am not out ruling that at different times I might be open to go for western methods/medicine, but I would like to have the freedom to chose for myself. thanks….
Healing crystals are a scam
Acupuncture is not a placebo effect. There have been numerous studies done properly with fake acupuncture and real acupuncture which prove that it actually works. Please do your research before trying to discredit all these “new age” healing techniques.
Rick simpson said no to taking the doctor drugs when he got cancer and guess what happened to him..your a pretty rude person kyle. So
Much you can’t prove and your worried about this.
One of my favourite books is Carl Sagan’s The Demon Haunted World ( Science as a candle in the dark) I recommend this book for all those who just believe in things just because it ‘feels’ good to believe, which is what most of the above pro crystal healing power responses are. Feel Good Beliefs.
It clearly makes you feel good to be completely ignorant. Works both ways. It’s so easy to feel superior to people experimenting with ancient alternatives because we live in such a futuristic world. We all must be dumbasses if we don’t own iPhones or take Prozac when we’re depressed. Open your square mind.
Great suggestion! Demon hunted world is by far one of my favorite book ever writen! Please for the love of humanity, someone who happens to read this comment. Take the time to read this book, I promise it will have a profound effect on not only your life but possibly future generations!
I was disappointed to not find more references to what is actually claimed, specifically about crystal therapy. Most of the article simply made generalizations, and didn’t take into consideration the psychologically-proven effect of color on the psyche. Overall, the article seemed extraordinarily one-sided, poorly cited, and not well-researched, whatsoever. I question the credibility of the author.
This is the worst article I have ever read. Instead of trying to seek the truth…it tries to convince people about things that the author has no idea what he is talking about. Science lacks quest for real truth and open mindedness. I don’t have to prove to anyone the power of crystals…they prove themselves. Anyone with enough experience with them can easily tell you how they work instead of an objective scientist who doesn’t know how to use them.
Take down this blog post!! There isn’t even a very good scientific explanation for the placebo effect. Even if you think it was a placebo, you still can’t explain how the placebo effect works without spirituality. Science has tried to throw too many things into the superstition box and is ignorant of how reality works. In terms of dogmatic and one sided thinking, science has no advantage over religion.
Somebody needs to explain this to my dog because I’ve been putting crystals under her bed for at least three months and she’s probably not aware that they are even there. These crystals transformed her into a completely different, more positive being but she was just believing that they would impact her life positively and that crystals are just a rock.
As the author says, “Certainly there are better uses of time” when referring to meditation with crystals. I think everyone should ignore this blog and its lack of enlightenment. Maybe, you can find some good aspects of it, but overall, it’s vibrating a pretty low state.
It’s sad that a study was even needed to “disprove” this idiotic crap. When did common sense become such a rare commodity?
Just reading the words of these wackjobs in the comments makes me want to weep for humanity. Many of these people are mothers, fathers, and people with actual responsibilities, and they are seriously convinced that magical crystals are improving their life.
How the heck can full grown adults be this irrational? Oh well. Some people are just happier ignorant and there is nothing that can be done about it. I know you are trying to fight the good fight by posting this study, but I fear your words will be lost on these types. They are too far gone.
If you would have read the very short comments thoroughly you’d have realised no one is claiming that crystals completely heal disease. If you’re a logical thinker, think of it this way.. Crystals are a part of the huge organic spaceship orbiting the sun which we call earth. Us. Earth is a living library, LIVING. Everything that inhabits earth lives. Including crystals. As airy fairy and ridiculous as your afraid mind may make that seem, it’s reality. Therefore, crystals hold divine energy as does every other atom. The shamans experiment with crystals have been for hundreds of years and by my research, they’ve never gotten a thing wrong. Before you make yourself sound like a logical, ‘normal’ person, do some real research.
Also, it’s the rest of the evolving humanity that is weeping for you! Namaste!
Doowangle , as I said above , the explanation for for why people believe in this ‘Crystal Healing ‘ crap is it’s a ‘feel good ‘ syndrome. Just switch off your brain , develop an ‘open mind’ and end up with a hole in the head.
another randi wannabe
My daughter has been suffering from Complex Regional Pain Syndrome for eight months now which is a condition that affects the central nervous system. Due to the fact science only knows what it does about this system, the best the medical professionals can offer is to trial a wide range of drugs in the hope that one may reset the central nervous system to stop pain receptors being stuck in overdrive, not unlike a glitch in a computer system. When I asked if alternative therapies were shown to make a difference to this condition I was told as there is no evidence to support they make any difference to anything. My point is the same can also be said for our modern western medicine, of which the side effects so far add to or exacerbate my daughters condition. It is generally accepted amongst the medical profession from my recent understanding that 98% of the problems we deal with in health are based in the brain. Considering that and our experience, I believe that whether there is scientific understanding or lack of evidence to prove or disprove alternative treatment like crystal healing, unless we are open to try WHATEVER works we limit a potential understand of something so far unknown. What we know as a species is due only to where evolution has bought us. The limits imposed upon us by language alone slows down our capacity to know and understand certain things. I am not an advocate of either science or alternative treatments but rather what works. If the placebo works and is scientifically proven to work perhaps the focus shouldn’t be on the fact that it was a placebo effect but how the mind and belief can have such a profound affect on disease. Great article and responses.
Testing the effects of crystals is like trying to measure consciousness. It wouldn’t work. Science cannot explain everything and most things we think we know are mere theory! Crystals have actually been proven to be living things, an entity we cannot measure but know by research that it’s alive. And keep your attitude on ‘New Agers’ to your self, the whole point of New Age is a new era, an era without ignorance and stupidity. The world is moving on, we are evolving. It’s ‘logical’ thinkers like you that will be left behind. Crystals hold energy that with our current technology we cannot use yet. And I agree with the below, you seem to take new agers personally and are angered by it all. Did someone outsmart you?
It’s kind of funny that they are so quick to bash something that according to their study only through the placebo effect. When in essence, most modern day medicine works through the placebo effect. Also don’t you find it funny that the author pointed out diseases such as AIDS and cancer saying that they can not be cured through alternative medicine. I’m sorry… but when is the last time that modern medicine found a cure for AIDS? How often do patients die from cancer leaving the doctors baffled? It’s almost as if this is an attack on alternative science claiming that they are greedy, trying to take your money with promises that never hold up, but on the contrary, every time one goes to the doctors they may spend hundreds of dollars to have the doctor say, everything looks alright. I’m in the middle of the subject as of right now, but I just find it fishy that the scientific community goes through such great lengths to disprove anything that they can not prove, and use such horrible tactics such as slandering to help their case. That’s more like politics than science..
I would be very curious to find out if the crystals used were properly cleared and dedicated before doing this study. I think someone who knows more about the crystal side of the study should have been involved to make sure there was proper use of them. I would suggest doing the study again with someone trained, and don’t suggest any feelings of sensations and well being. Instead just ask what the subject feels.
“Testing the effects of crystals is like trying to measure consciousness.”
“I would be very curious to find out if the crystals used were properly cleared and dedicated before doing this study.”
“Overall, the article seemed extraordinarily one-sided, poorly cited, and not well-researched, whatsoever. I question the credibility of the author.”
Agreed, lol, with most of the comments actually… And I’ve never seen them advertised as anything other than complimentry to other therapies, and yes this article does seem a little bias and angry lol.
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I friend of mind recently died of cancer which could have possibly been caught and treated in time if he had not shunned modern western medicine and instead sought out alternative healing practices to cure himself. My friend was a good man, but deeply misguided, and I believe even arrogant in his “natural at all costs” attitude. He had three children, one a newborn, a beautiful wife, friends and family who loved him dearly, and he took himself away from us too soon with his obstinate attitude.
I am a strong advocate of critical thinking, of checking assumptions, analyzing beliefs, and looking at what is influencing my decision making even when we don’t like what we see.
Even so, I think it is equally arrogant to cling to a purely rational, critical thinking approach to life and to illness. D.H. Lawrence wrote:
I am not a mechanism, an assembly of various sections.
And it is not because the mechanism is working wrongly that I am ill.
I am ill because of wounds to the soul, to the deep emotional self,
and the wounds to the soul take a long, long time, only time can help
and patience, and a certain difficult repentance,
long, difficult repentance, realization of life’s mistake, and the freeing oneself
from the endless repetition of the mistake
which mankind at large has chosen to sanctify.
I share this poem to underline the importance of acknowledging an aspect of healing that cannot be done through a mechanistic stance towards oneself and body. I do not advocate the often simplistic, careless, or even dangerous way some alternative healing practices demonize western medicine (even though there is certainly a different kind of corruption and carelessness in that field), or promote their practices as a better way. I also do not seek to validate or become cohorts with others who have experiences with crystals. I simply know my own experience.
I have had extremely positive experiences with crystals, positive being a sense of communion with something sacred, heightened sensation, a connection to non-linear wisdom not unlike dreams, and a centering of my meditation practice. I know what the placebo effect is, and I’m fairly certain that is not what I experience (although maybe), because I am able to repeat my experiences over time, and they do not lose their significance.
Meditation cultivates direct knowing. For example, when I experience sensation in my knees, I don’t need the word “knees” or even “sensation” to experience it. I have a similar experience with crystals. It is its own kind of language, and different crystals speak in very particular ways.
I’d like to repeat that this is my experience, and I do not advocate “healers” or books that say “This crystal does this or that”, and especially do not advocate any claims to heal or even facilitate the healing of illness with crystals. I’m just saying that I have significant subjective experiences with crystals.
Would I have the same experience with fake crystals? Maybe. But to deny the significance of my experiences, and the intricate non-verbal information they provide, would, well, it would be boring for one, and not true to my self and my experience.
Anyway, I appreciate the article.
There aren’t millions of sites out there trying to sell crystals. If you want to stick to science based writing don’t use glittering generalities that “millions” of sites are out there. It doesn’t help get the point of view across, nor does attacking a person and basically call them an idiot (cause what else could they be if you attack the people that are smart enough to convince a lot of people). Charlatans aren’t dumb, underestimating them doesn’t make the situation better. They do peddle, what I don’t even consider pseudoscience but outright lies.
Come down, people! Allow me to give you two examples: does water have memory? and another one… Osa or apnea is dangerous. We know that but to test the real and effectiveness of the cpap therapy you need days if not months even the fact that you had a better sleep. Results of healing stones could be the result of years of direct contact with the frequency irradiated around a stone. Quartz absorbes the energy from the medium and irradiates back the same energy after being modulated… so it could take years to have a definitive answer about the reality behind stones. Even today science denies the water retains information about past contacts with elements… pollutants, frequencies and even music. Thanks.
I still find it amazing that people actually think that these rocks do anything at all. I’ve read through a bunch of these comments and it really makes me sad for the future. I’ve been forced into the crazy that is pseudo-science and have experienced all of it first hand. It’s all bullshit. Rocks, reiki, homeopathy, and all those other nonsensical activities. A room mate of mine contracted lyme disease while on a retreat up North. He did when he thought was was right and tried rocks, meditation, and homeopathy to try and get rid of it. He nearly died before they took him to the ER. They fixed him up and gave him a prescription, which he promptly threw out and bought some “Natural” medication. He would be better now, a year later, but he’s still weak. THIS is why placebos are an awful thing.
I think that it is very possible that crystals can have an effect on us, just because there isn’t any science currently stating this, that doesn’t mean it isn’t possible. Everything is interconnected and it really doesn’t seem that far fetched. As far as the article, like other readers stated, it really only emphasizes the placebo effect, which we have known about for ever now. I really don’t feel it says anything other than that.
I’m not feeling this at all….crystals are not just used by “new agers” they have been used for thousands of years by many different cultures and they absolutely do work….Ive used them and had my clients use them since 1999. I have seen skeptics use them and be amazed time and time again! The biggest flaw to this study is the length. They had ppl use them for 12 hours before deciding that they don’t work. Crystal therapy is not a 12 hour, one shot deal. Its a process that can take days, weeks, or months depending on the strength of the crystal and how it is used. Elixirs and yoni eggs work the fastest because they are inside of the body. This study needs to be redone over a 1-5 year period to really be useful.
Okay, I seriously need to find out what a “yoni egg” is…
whatever u found, whatever u believe in, its up to you. Maybe ur right, maybe ur wrong. cuz what we believe in is what we create. Its true if u dont believe that a rock can heal you, then it will never heal you. And what researches ur talking about? Problem with science is that today they say something else and next month they will reject whatever they said and a new “theory” will come out. Science or scientific researches can never ever truly understand those thing which are beyond its control. Ur doing research on brain by using ur brain? sound stupid isn’t? And there are people in this world who use good things for their own personal benefit, such as religion. And there are people who are using stones and crystals just for money and true those people doesn’t know a thing. But those who spent their lives on it, who have in depth knowledge, they have felt what energy is they have felt the energy of a crystal. Nobody can show you the energy a crystal radiate, ur eyes can only see limited things how can u say it doesn’t work? to fully understand it u have to go beyond the stage of seeing and enter the state of feeling. And ur a writer! u haven’t done this experiment urself, ur just believing in something someone did? its the same as those people who felt warm, tingling sensation with fake stones. U just google some researches and then u blog it, that’s what u do, u havent done a single research on it and ur banishing the whole idea. would like to end this with few quotes of some great scientists. if u really want to know whether it works or no, u have to feel it, try urself spend some time on it, meditate on it with an open mind and a heart. u call urself a researcher? what kind of researcher u are! ending this with some quotes from some people.
-What we know is a drop, what we don’t know is an ocean.” ― Isaac Newton
-It is important to realize that in Physics today, we have no knowledge what energy is. Richard Feynman
-The eyes only see what the mind is prepared to comprehend. – Henri Bergson
-“The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.” Oscar Wilde
-If I draw a conclusion, I act on an idea, on an image, on a symbol, which is the structure of thought, and so I am constantly preventing myself from having insight, from understanding things as they are. ~~ Jiddu Krishnamurti
did you consider psychosomatic effects? even if the claim is false but the effects of the stone give people positivity and a sense of control, does that not help an otherwise dismal, hopeless situation?
Kyle I think your article is very miss leading and you might consider taking it down until you have proper information. For one thing the very test your talking about here about real crystals vs unreal ones would not work for testing such a subtle energy. Because everything in nature is alive and we can talk to it just like Dr. Emoto’s water research suggests. So even a man made crystal can have energy and their for could react the same way a real crystal would. All you proved here is that they are the same.
In our life we are to seek to understand our relationship to life…look up the word relationship, then look up the next word, connection, then look up the key that gives you… to find a common link. Crystals are the oldest kingdom on the planet they were here first, imagine if you could talk to the oldest beings on the planet what they might have to tell you. The Rock people as the First Nation People call them, are our ancestors. Some Wise women and men call them the airports to the spirit world in South America. I have experienced healing with crystals personally and cysts disappear physically out of my body. I have witnessed crystals and stones healing people for over 25 years and can tell you it’s not made up in the mind. They were not given suggestion only the opportunity to connect and relate.
If you are truly seeking truth and you have not found it yet then consider what your doing. Putting out False information is damaging and irresponsible. Are you able to respond, that is what being responsible is. Please respond!
People will continue to use crystals, because they work. Regardless of this article and many others like it…
Crystals and stones operate on the subtle energetic fields, and modern science has a way to go before catching up and realising their extraordinary abilities. We are only just beginning to unleash their potential.
This article is interesting in that it mostly indicates to me that the author is closed to life’s many possibilities that exist outside what is solidly proven. This mental attitude is fixed and unyielding, I wouldn’t be surprised if this person is deeply unhappy in life.
Life is magic, life is creative.
If we are able to use crystals to take us to new depths of our being then that’s true healing.
I am just as adamantly against the belief in the healing of crystals and I am a perfectly happy guy. And also I have read quite a bit of evidence for crystal healing and I have come to the conclusion that crystal healing is nonexistent. If you have the guts to look at both sides of the argument like me then you should read the Bible.
This is definitely not a black and white debate. Both arguments possess merit I must admit, one would be unwise to assume without a doubt that the atomic integrity of a certain compound, in this instance a crystal, is completely unable to react with a human, somehow physically altering them to satisfy them psychologically without the effect of placebo! Although I must admit, I’m sure many more people would feel the effects of placebo from crystals than other changes if any existed. But this field does not have an adequate field of research to determine whether it is possible for crystals to alter your state from an atomic level, or an even smaller one. I agree whole heartedly with the author on the premise of alternative medicine should never be substituted for medicines that have scientific theory behind their chemical constituents and delivery, and I find it against reason based on what we do know now to maintain faith in the off chance crystals can affect any electromagnetic aura so to speak around a person. We cannot test these things, so scientific method suggests we do not believe in them. But I will put a quote up I read recently from an amazing book written by Carl Sagan called ‘A demon haunted world: science as a candle in the dark’, which personally sums up fairly well my own obtained viewpoints on this and some other debates.
“If you’re only sceptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. You never learn anything. You become a crochety misanthrope convinced that nonsense is ruling the world. (There is, of course, much data to support you.) Since major discoveries in the borderlines of science are rare, experience will tend to confirm your grumpiness. But every now and then a new idea turns out to be on the mark, valid and wonderful. If you’re too resolutely and uncompromisingly sceptical, you’re going to miss (or resent) the transforming discoveries in science, and either way you will be obstructing understanding and progress. Mere scepticism is not enough.”
My name is not Jennifer. I need a scientist. I am in possession of a crystal that causes my hand to actually feel like it is vibrating. The sensation is similar to when blood loss occurs in a part of your body due to constricted circulation. Am I allergic to this crystal? It is a Lemurian Seed Crystal, and when I hold it the sensation travels up my arm and into my chest. I didn’t know what it was when this happened. An old woman came up to me and said “This is yours” and just handed it to me. Is the stone dangerous? — I am not kidding. I would like clarification, or assistance in figuring out the science behind this. I was completely transfixed by the sensation. Maybe I was just stunned by the woman who was just sort of randomly giving me a rock? She said what it was and then walked away. So… any help? I am perfectly sane, a MENSA member, Summa cum Laude, top of my class- etc.
I have that exact same crystal too as well, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with you. Your body’s energy/”Bio-electromagnetic energy” is tapping into the crystals energy. there’s nothing to get excited about, Lemurian seed crystals has a powerful energy adaptation. That vibration sensation in your hand, is your body’s energy and the crystals energy renewing and cleansing the wasted energy that’s been used for so long that its being renewed. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. When i got my first sensation “from my crystal” i went on a happy spree, my whole body was surging energy for that whole day. Then that Tuesday morning i was nearly drained. But that’s just my part the story, you on the other hand, your energy in your hand is just being renewed, that’s nothing to worry about. I wish you luck your crystal and use it well.
~God Bless~
Ok. This is weird. I picked up a piece of labradorite and held it in my hand. It got hot to the touch. I came on the internet to find out why. I was looking for a scientific answer. Like it stores heat or something along those lines. I couldn’t find a scientific reason to why it got hot. I have never read that labradorite or any other crystal would get hot if you hold it before. Therefore, no “suggestion” involved. I’m going to do more research but my gut is telling me that there may be more to this. I am bragging in no way but just want to point out that I have a BS and MS so I have been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to receive a higher education. I do not profess that I know everything though. There is just so much we don’t know. I do know that I am going to research this some more.
From your writing, I hear that you are skeptical. I invite you to read The Biology of Belief by Bruce H. Lipton, he is a very famous and well respected scientist along with Dr. William Tiller and Dr. Richard Gerber who do have studies about “alternative healing” that prove your theories wrong.
I’ve always questioned everything, so I understand how all this may not make sense to you but all I ask is that you open your mind to the idea that there may be more than just one avenue to healing. I think that people have a right to choose.
My mom is a crystal reiki healer and when she was diagnosed with Melanoma, she got a biopsy to find out if it was in fact cancer and when she found out it was, she spent the next several months using crystals, reiki and other healing modalities to cure herself. When she returned to her doctor to see if it was gone, he couldn’t believe it, he actually wrote an article about it, after telling my mother numerous that there was absolutely no other way to get rid of it, except with chemo treatments or surgery.
To this day he still tells his patients about her and she has gotten many clients because of her experience and has continued to HELP not CURE all of the people she works on.
I’m not saying that the same thing works for everyone every single time, all I’m saying is that it is possible for people to experience healing in many ways. Science isn’t the end all answer, there lots of things science has said we’re fact that we now know are not the absolute truth.
Watch some TED talks about it, just open up a little bit and be willing to see it from another perspective.
Amen to that, let the truth be heard…let the truth be heard. Crystals have always been the healing source and power tools of the Earth. You have a good reputation kid…I’m with you, keep it up.
Glad to see this writing. I’ve felt for a while that New Agers were marketing things that either did not work or simply should not cost money. It scares me how gullible so many of these people are. They will change their diet, start doing yoga, start chanting, mess with crystals, and surround themselves with like minded friends.
None of this changes the world. It’s just big business finding a new demographic to sale to. Some of the things that are sold/marketed do have a use though selling them is morally reprehensible as selling water or oxygen in my opinion.
If you want a new age you build it. You don’t blindly give your faith to a trendy new possibility. You invest your time and energy into doing something you love which creates positive and mutually beneficial change in the world.
I’ve been wearing crystals/semi-precious stones for almost two years now simply because the wrap I wear is a beautifully crafted piece of art I got from a fellow street artist. I switch between this and a plastic elephant necklace a friend stole for me at a west Texas convenience store. There is no difference in the amount of luck/happiness/awareness/nothing.
If all these new agers would simply go feed the mentally/physically/spiritually starving masses inside and outside of our country they could actually make a change.
Oh wait, that’s what Christians were supposed to do 2000 years ago, you know, those people who were supposed to be known by their love?
Cycles.
Hi everyone after reading many comments I would first like to say I fully understand both sides of the coin here. I first come to this artical looking more into crystal healing and energy work, I personaly belive that crystals can help a person not fully heal them however I must say it is very intresting I have read other aticals on how people shrink there tumors with very bizzare methods that hold no merrit and they kive and no one knows why and many other intresting claims however I belive alot of this comes down to education (for now I will stay on the topic of crytals) I mean lets say crystals can not heal diseas but can help with many emotional issues (placibo effect or not) then shoukd correct traning in crystal healing be giving I mean I have seen many diffrent course all the same name all very diffrent. Shoukd there not be a regulated board that says ok we will teach u this and how to help people with crystal but rember this is not medicine it can not cure people and should not be uses as such but if people feel it is right for them it can help with emotional issues etc. I think this is a important step to take to say the least to at least say ok there are reports of crystalsand stone cureing people however since we can ot prove this lets say they can if people think it will help offer crystal healing to help with stress worrie and other emotional issues, I think that would be a big improvement I mean you will always get people saying its crap and people says it cures but this way it is agreeed that at least it is a safe way of useing crystals without harming people untill a point where we can say yes or no to the power of crystals. Also side note remember some people have there depresstion treated with placebo pills from doctoes and sometimes they do work so we can all agreee there are many things we do not know about the human mind and body and sometime we need a push (like sugar pills for depresstion) to unlock what it can be again just this side note is what I belive but I do not shun western medical pratice or even herbal medical pratice and other things like relfexology and stuff everything has it place we just need to know the limits of are feilds xxx
http://www.electricsense.com/2822/emfs-stones-crystals-and-healing/
Boom.
SMH “up and down”…I wounder how many people seen that. That is real evidence/proof of crystal healing, except, its in words, nice work Matt. There’s a lot of people that needs to see the bright side of this.
These articles are so annoying
“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.”
How can you write this ?? Why would you put such negativity out into the world. If you truly think this why dont you think it to YOURSELF and self destruct YOURSELF. Instead of posting it online to make other people believe they cannot heal themselves.
!!!So what if crystals or rocks dont actually have healing properties!!! It is the belief that creates energy happiness and healing. The study involves the human mind and the human mind can make or break such study. The great minds like Albert Einstein knew this. They could not conduct a physical experiment with scientists involved because what their minds where thinking altered the outcome of the result. Some people can heal cancer with their minds some people may need an object to create that belief. The placebo effect definitely proves the mind has the power.
Doctors give medicine, medicine is distributed through the pharmaceutical companies and the pharmaceutical companies give people time release pills to make them sicker and need more and more medicine we all know this.
My experience: I brought ‘healing’ crystals home for my female dog. She couldn’t berly walk due to arthritis in her back legs. I created an environment where I believed the crystal had powers to heal her I told it to her everyday. I planted the idea into her mind and she absolutely got better. Now she jumps into trucks . Doctors said she would never do that and had to have pain killers everyday.
You write about how disgusting it is people sell a crystal and they say it heals usually at a cheap good price. So its not disgusting how pharmaceutical companies manipulate people and even veterinary practices sell you medicine at top dollar saying your pets need it to feel and get better ? COME ON
My dad was diagnosed with parkinsons, a non curable disease. he went to the ‘doctors’ and was given medication that made his symptoms worse. We spent years practicing mind healing. I even used rocks I picked from glacial streams and told him they were specially energized for healing. After 3years he no longer takes medication has no discomoft and the ‘doctors’ dont understand whats going. It is ‘scientifically’ researched and studies say there is no cure yet. so there you go.
People you are brainwashed by science. Dont believe in experiments that involve the human mind.
And for the person who wrote this, challenging peoples positive mindsets, all I can say is sad. I bet you lead an unfulfilled life.
I don’t know how many times I’m going to stress this. Your mind is a top flight healing machine that CAN NOT BE DEFINED BY SCIENCE! nor can it be discovered by man or found anywhere on this planet. Your thoughts can effect you and everything else in so many million ways that I can not even put into words. Your thoughts is made of “energy” EVERYTHING ON THIS PLANET IS MADE OF SOME KIND OF ENERGY, that even includes “stones/crystals”. So how can you say “don’t not believe in the mind experiments” via “that involves the human mind” you say. This whole “placebo effect” thing that you guys so very much believe in…I take it to a grain of salt. Because i believe, there is nothing, nothing that i can’t do with my mind or when my “mind” is involved or when i set my mind to it.
There is a lot that all of you need to learn about “Psychology”.
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The study is not very detailed at all and assumes that crystals are a cure all and work instantaneously. Not even the science community can provide such an anomaly. If you use a pimple cream does it vanish the exact instant at which it is applied? If you cannot FEEL said pimple cream working does this prove that it is not working? Can you apply pimple cream to a headache and cure your headache? Is there only 1 type (ingredient) of pimple cream? Can you use pimple cream anywhere on the body? If I apply pimple cream to my foot, will my facial acne disappear? Many other things could be said at the incompetence of not only the study, but the assumptions made from it however I believe this to be sufficient.
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Well Crystals work regardless of what someone wants to prove with participants and fake or real crystals. theres crystals inside quartz watches to tell time, there is crystals in lasers and xrays, with lepdolite which is a crystal that contain “lithium” which is extracted for the making of anti depressants and medicines for bipolar disorder. the thing is crystals or stones are “minerals” just like copper which to you say it may “claim” to reduce inflammation. So basically your saying it doesnt work at all but if u swallow a crystal sulfur you wont die? sounds like a dumb argument. maybe the way it was tested was dumb. Did you have any type of equipment that looks at electromagnetic energy of the body? NO! or maybe a brain scan? NO! u just put a fake crystal and a real crystal in some volunteers hand and made an excuse for it not working. the skin is the largest organ on your body how could you have tested if it work or not without the proper equipment? putting crystals in water as an elixir can work as you know rock can deteriorate or release minerals in water but that wasnt suggested to tested. before u try to debunk something use more example of crystal uses and spend the money on the high tech equipment like real scientist do to debunk something you havent fully discovered. THANK YOU.
i find it better to dismiss no one, i listen and remain sceptic but always open to the possibility, i choose to look and exsamine then we will find the answers.
i am a man of science but i have to except that crystals have strange properties because i am also a man of philosophy the seeker of truth, so to convince you i will use what science we have got,,,,,,
Piezoelectric materials, especially quartz , have the property to transform electrical energy into mechanical energy and vice versa.
In technical applications this effect is utilised by applying an
alternating electrical field, which will cause the material to vibrate and subsequently resonate mechanically.
This electrical reaction permits usage as an electrical resonator
with a very high figure of merit Q and a low temperature coefficient.
http://www.kvg-gmbh.de/assets/files/PDF/IntroductionQuartz.pdfWhen
a crystal of quartz is properly cut and mounted, it can be made to distort in an electric field by applying a voltage to an electrode near or on the crystal. This property is known as electrostriction or inverse piezoelectricity. When the field is removed, the quartz will generate an electric field as it returns to its previous shape, and this can generate a voltage. The result is that a quartz crystal behaves like a circuit composed of an inductor, capacitor and resistor, with a precise resonant frequency. (See RLC circuit.)
Quartz has the further advantage that its elastic constants and its size change in such a way that the frequency dependence on temperature can be very low. The specific characteristics will depend on the mode of vibration and the angle at which the quartz is cut (relative to its crystallographic axes).[10] Therefore, the resonant frequency of the plate, which depends on its size, will not change much, either. This means that a quartz clock, filter or oscillator will remain accurate. For critical applications the quartz oscillator is mounted in a temperature-controlled container, called a crystal oven, and can also be mounted on shock absorbers to prevent perturbation by external mechanical vibrations.
A crystal oscillator is an electronic oscillator circuit that uses the mechanical resonance of a vibrating crystal of piezoelectric material to create an electrical signal with a very precise frequency.[1][2][3] This frequency is commonly used to keep track of time (as in quartz wristwatches), to provide a stable clock signal for digital integrated circuits, and to stabilize frequencies for radio transmitters and receivers. The most common type of piezoelectric resonator used is the quartz crystal, so oscillator circuits incorporating them became known as crystal oscillators,[1] but other piezoelectric materials including polycrystalline ceramics are used in similar circuits.
Quartz crystals are manufactured for frequencies from a few tens of kilohertz to hundreds of megahertz. More than two billion crystals are manufactured annually. Most are used for consumer devices such as wristwatches, clocks, radios, computers, and cellphones. Quartz crystals are also found inside test and measurement equipment, such as counters, signal generators, and oscilloscopes.
just saying you might not completely want to dismiss the possibility . luke
The writer has failed to follow a few simple rules about writing an article or effective piece
-DO NOT insert personal opinion or personal attacks(that is for blogging)
– Never appear Bias, even if you are.
– Use multiple tests and results making sure references and links are used to prove the information obtained is legit.
-Make sure to dedicate atleast a paragraph to note the importance of the opposing side, in this case how crystal effects can still be possible and its benefits.
So all I got from this piece of writing was an arrogant, possibly egotistical person with a vendetta and need to feel righteous about their own beliefs with little to no respect for anyone who does not bask in their opinons. They felt so compelled to attempt to write a article about “research” that has taken place to prove the use of crystals to be bogus and to attack venders and users, failing to add important details. I neither believe or disbelieve as anything is possible but I for one know this should not be taken literally as it’s merely a douchebags rant. I was looking forward to a good read and got a poorly formed draft of a beginners debate
See how I used personal opinions in my comment? It is because that is what it is, an opinion, not fact and I would not write a dedicated article and pass it off as fact.
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It certainly proves the incredible power of the mind, how exciting! I would imagine we wouldn’t need anything, not even drugs then to heal ourselves. Eventually of course. I was thinking when viewing images of disturbing events, there is a rise in stress hormones, heart rate etc. so there is validity in surrounding yourself with “images” of beautiful things, resembling the one thing we can trust, the earth that created us does have a soothing effect. So, why do people value GOLD so much, why don’t we place value on FAKE gold, people dying over diamonds and precious metal, even metals that go into electronics. hmmm, really ironic, here we say don’t value crystals such as agates, but let’s value gold and silver and other precious commodities. like drugs, gotta pay an awful lot for that, plus doctors bills. ISNT IT ALL ABOUT MONEY! I love I can enjoy and heal myself independently of anyone’s permission. I’s the ritual that heals. we are the conscious creation of all. The earth and we are made of the same stuff. oh by BTW, respond whatever way you want, I’ll be just deleting it cuz I don’t care to hear it. Have a nice day
So there you have it: if the effect of something can be created by a fake and depends on the “priming” of the subject then it does not have a therapeutic effect.
This is, of course, exactly what science has proven about all the western medications and is now proving about the surgery.
Let’s live our lives in the knowledge and essence of what science brings us. Once we know and accept this knowledge we no longer have to keep searching for an external cure for our ailments.
Patrick
You wrote,”the New Age mindset has found a home with billions of people…” Billions? There are just a bit over 7 billion people in the world, “Billions” indicates more than 2 billion, so you are saying that more than 27% of the world have a “New Age mindset” Please cite your source for that “statistic”. Cite the source for the peer review in a refereed journal for this “study”; without it no real scientist will take this “research” seriously.You cite no references, nothing, nothing here that indicates that you know the first thing about science.Really Kyle, who is trying to mislead people? Shameful and irresponsible. You have no business calling anyone else out when your “work” doesn’t meet the criteria you demand from those you criticize.
I believe that genuine crystals formed in the earth core can be beneficial to healing. HOWEVER if they are used as a magic pill whilst you live your life in a negative way and consuming toxins and pesticides and animals that are killed inhumanely then you will never heal.
Also you need to ask how your crystals have been mined. With a growing market of crystals have people been abused and killed for them much like conflict diamonds? In which case your crystal will do nothing but send negative energy through you.
Don’t believe in anyone who says they can cure you with crystals unless they look at the whole of your health in a holistic way.
First and foremost, let me just thank you for the time you’ve dedicated! It’s imperative to expose people to the dangers of metaphysics and the overall lack of critical thinking involved. Mineralogy has been a passion of mine for the past 18 years! As a mineral dealer, collector, and overall mineralogy enthusiast. I’m all too aware of the threat that metaphysics pose to the wealth of knowledge obtained over the centuries in regards to the earth sciences! Being intimately involved in the mineral community, I’ve witnessed the resurgence in interest in the mineral collecting hobby. Unfortunately, since the new age movement took off in the 1980’s, the majority of people drawn to the hobby are interested in metaphysics. The pejorative term for said people are “healy-feelies”. Let me give an example of the high level of absurdity/ignorance involved with the thought processes that we are dealing with here… It was 2003 and I was in Tucson, Az working for a wholesale mineral importer, at the annual gem and mineral show. This show is the largest mineral show in the world, it takes place every year at this time. As a matter of fact that’s where I am right now! Anywho, the mineral specimens that we sold are displayed in cardboard fold ups. There was a young lady in our room buying minerals. We provided mineral flats(similar to cardboard beer flats) to carry the specimens you want to purchase. When the lady was finished shopping, she brought the minerals she wanted to purchase to me to check out. I noticed that the specimens where lose in the flat, not in the fold ups that they where in to protect them from damage. Basically, the where rolling around and some had sustained nicks and chips from rubbing against one another. I promptly informed her that the fold ups that the specimens where packaged in where for their protection and that she could have them. Thinking maybe that she was unaware of the fact… NO! Her response to me was: “Oh, I know! But I don’t want anything to to with them, they contain negative energy and contribute to the destruction of our Mother Earth” I shit you not, that is what she said to me! Now, I don’t see anything wrong with wanting to be a conservationist or being a “treehugger” for that matter. The shear lack of logic inherent in he woman’s response floored me and any one with in ear shot of her statement. You mean to tell me that trees used in the production of making paper is more damaging to the earth than Mining! Need I remind everyone that for all intensive purposes, trees are at least, potentially a renewable resource. You have to be kidding me! Seriously, with the immense, irreversible damage done to the earth during mining! Let alone, the destruction caused by mining. What about the negative effects to these people’s land and their resources. Or how about the perpetual poverty these people are subjected to and exploitation of children used to mine these mineral specimens? How in the hell is that any part of “positive”, “healing” “energy”! Oh what, just “cleanse” your crystals and its all well and good! Next time your using your crystal in a “healing” session and channeling your good vibes. Hold that crystal in your hand and try to channel the pain and suffering its caused while you sit comfortably in the first world. If these people didnt waste so much time trying to escape this dimension we might be able to address the problems we have in this reality! The problem being these people are all too willing to ignore the realities to suit the agenda they are interested in pushing! The lack of logic and sound reasoning is horrifying! Is this what we want for humanity? Pseudosciences bastardize and devalue the scientific method! For anyone who professes that science just can’t explain the unexplainable obviously hasn’t taken the time and are too lazy to understand the scientific process. Of course it can’t, and your not helping any! Science is a tool, not Belief! Science isn’t pompous and self righteous, lording over people and mocking them. It only seems uncompromising to the uninitiated. Science is the best tool we have for understanding our universe. How absurd would it sound if you where building a house and refused to use a hammer, because “it” thought it had all the answers? Science is the great equalizer, it’s a tool every single person can use and levels the playing field. You don’t have to be blessed, anointed, appointed, or born it to a certain cast ect. ect. All that is needed is discipline! All that I ask is that people be honest with themselves and look deep with in, truly question your beliefs. Do they hold up to the rigors of questioning or do you find yourself justifying and constantly having to defend them? Seems rough? Well.. welcome, youve just take your first steps into the world of science. I’m not trying to be condescending, I truly welcome anyone who is willing to use the many disciplines that have been gifted to us by those who came before us. Remember, it isn’t your beliefs vs science. It’s just a tool, similar to mathematics. If instance, if your belief claims that 2 + 2= 7 using math you can test that claim. Science is just used to substantiate or refute said claim.
Was my comment inappropriate?
Thank you for a very good article. I do find it amazing that some very nice and apparently normal people can still believe in this new age nonsense. I suppose they come from a number of different angles. Some are desperate for help, others do it for money, some obviously enjoy the feeling of pretending to be a healer without having to do any of the difficult studying to be a real doctor.
The biggest trick seems to be the ability to con oneself despite all the evidence. Used to be a bit of harmless fun but not any longer as it becomes a major scam aimed at relieving the gullible of their money.
Well said Greg
I am skeptical of the “healing” powers of crystals, but the way this study was performed doesn’t address how believers use crystals for healing purposes. Also, it doesn’t address the possibility that crystals – plastic or not – could provide the catalyst for self-healing. For example, a person who feels depressed could take anti-depressant drugs to change their brain chemistry which may or may not work OR they could change their lifestyle – more exercise, connecting with friends and family, eating healthy, sleeping with crystals under their pillow, etc. Does that mean that the lifestyle change which provides a catalyst to self-heal doesn’t actually work, but is a mere placebo effect? A lifestyle change doesn’t work with everyone and it not quantifiable, so how is that explained?
This study proves nothing at all. Saying that people who have held genuine crystals vs people who have held fake crystals and that both parties experienced the same effects does not prove that crystals cannot heal. It is akin to saying that tylenol has no beneficial health merit because people who have taken water pills have felt the same sensations when told that they are taking a pill that produces the same “healing” effects of tylenol such as headache relief, pain relief, etc. as those that have actually taken tylenol. If you were to research alternative healing methods from the middle east that have been around for over 5000 years, long before western medicine, you would understand the true benefits of these practices. Scientists are now proving what ancients knew long ago. Love and Light :)
For the skeptics and the curious:
I have an experiment for you. Pick up a crystal or three from your local metaphysics shop–there are a surprising number of these shops and a quick google search will give you one in your area–have a third party–maybe a friend or the shop owner–pick our a crystal for you. Carry this crystal around with you for one month, and then research what benefits accompany your stone. Think back on your last month’s experiences and DECIDE FOR YOURSELF weather or not you believe in these little balls of energy. (:
Happy Experimenting!!
ps. don’t forget, your crystals emit energy in the form of photons, and these photons need to be REPLENISHED IN SUNLIGHT. I recharge my stones every few days by giving the crystals a sunbath for a couple of hours.
Friend,
I have been reading your blog and have to applaud your determination (however unfortunately futile). Belief simply wouldn’t exist if our species were not willing to ignore truth and embrace fantasy as an end to define their existence. Finding the real answers takes a lifetime of hard work and even then you can never hope to find them all. It is far easier to fool yourself into accepting a child like interpretation of things if reality is beyond your immediate understanding.
The historical truth of this situation is that the weak minded are exploited, some gain from this situation and others loose and some like us will stand and despair.
But thank you for trying, non the less :-)
Donk, clearly you are missing the fact that the burden of empirical scientific evidence is met through very specific processes. What was offered here is every bit as much belief as what your friend attacked.
Haha same. Last time I had the flu was when I got vaccinated in the army. Also never get headaches never take any prescription drugs. I get some sleep and feel a million times better. I beleive that humans have a source of energy that can be healed that sceince hasn’t found a way to measure. Bruce Lee is a prime example. No matter how much strength training you do you cannot send someone across the room. He focused his body’s energy.
Also here is a link of a guy that controls Chi energy. They have no way of measuring his energy but he can light up an LED. Science couldn’t explain.http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCsQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fm.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DhkiFNNIyqQY&ei=BLQdU9_GKsrGkgWswIDgBQ&usg=AFQjCNHk-smpwW-UQ2EtiiVC-YJxGjfeZg&sig2=Rnnql9qiuNaBkdRGMKkzxw
o_O um…..Bruce Lee knock a man back “5 to 10 feet” across his dojo with the one inch punch.
So….what are you talking about????
It’s best to leave personal opinion and insults (aka the use of “charlatans”) out of responses to scientific literature.
So I came to this page hoping to find out more about crystals and if they really work. I was pretty OK with the whole placebo effect and the research that was done and I think that this is an informative article, but I really dislike the tone of the author who wrote this article, especially the captions beneath the pictures. People are biased to their beliefs and I understand that but comparing people to 5-year-olds based on their scientific literacy..?
I guess people will believe what they want to believe and calling them that will not make anybody sound better or smarter.
This guy really needs to use a ouija board many times over in his place of residence, attempt to perform outright communication with the dead/angels/demons, invite spiritual forces into his home, and experiment with the occult many times, and he needs to do it with respect and genuine curiosity. He’ll probably believe in the invisible forces of the universe after he does that and not bash the occult anymore, but come to respect it. It’s amazing how many people discredit most or all aspects of the occult and yet refuse to experiment with it more than a couple of times in their entire lives. They never realize the power that can be witnessed and/or harnessed if they’d simply have an open mind and repeatedly build up energy in the same physical place, in order to literally open up gates to the next dimension/realm of the dead.
Anyone who believes that a crystal can in any way change them, then they are really off track and should maybe read the Bible.
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I agree that i am skeptical that a rock can do anything other than look pretty. It’s possible that the people charging high prices for them are probably charlatans however doctors nowadays aren’t much better. They are quick to prescribe medications that have bad and even dangerous side affects (ex. stroke, blood clots, common cold, suicidal thoughts, rash, hair loss, nose bleed, paralysis, greater risk of infection etc). If i had a dollar for everytime i heard a commercial advertising a medication that had side affects like that, i wouldn’t be stressing about bills. So whats worse, selling a rock that will do nothing or selling medicine that can cause even more health problems than you already have?
A truly scientific experiment has both blind and double blind parameters. This means there is no “priming” and that the person doing the experiment knows AS LITTLE as the subjects. Period.
Oh and look up ‘null hypothesis’ …
Marcel Vogel who had patents on liquid crystal systems, phosphor technology, magnetics, etc. etc. did a huge amount of study of quartz crystals (along with his IBM discoveries) found that crystals in fact DO HAVE energy. If anyone would care to research the work of Marcel Vogel, it will eclipse the mediocre example of research above.
I am a natural born sketpic on the matter of crystal healing. I have boughten some crystals before to see what all of the hype was all about. Since this article states nothing more than the placebo effect, I will say that with my crystals I bought, going into the experience of holding one of my hands at a time, I wasn’t biased or unbiased, I purposefully kept my mind free of any pre assumptions (in order to NOT experience a placebo effect.) I will say that after holding a couple of the crystals (very lightly. I understood before going into the experience that gripping the stones tightly could effect my body via temp, tingling, etc. ) So I purposefully simply held the stones in my palms and sat down. I had a clear quartz crystal and I also had a jade stone. I simply went to a metaphysical shop and picked out a couple stones- I knew the names, but I had never read the “qualities” that these stones possess. After holding the clear quartz crystal in each of my hands, my hands began to pulse very noticeably and my hands begun to get rather cold. It felt as if I could feel something in my arms move- maybe this is what the new agers call body energy or the aura. I don’t believe that this could have been a placebo effect simply because I was more skeptical than not. Coincidenty, later that night I was researching clear quartz on the internet and saw many new agers claiming the properties of the clear quartz crystal. Basically it is said that it is a energy stone, and that it doubles the size and power of the human electric field and that it basically is a “energy amplifier.” Interesting it was I thought that my experience, the heightened increase of energy I felt running through my hands and my body happened to match properties known to be produced by this quartz crystal. The other stone I bought, jade, did not produce a increased energy effect at all. Rather the opposite. I held the jade in my hand and after a couple minutes I started noticing a calming effect on my body. I became rather relaxed and almost dreamy feeling. Come to the evening, jade happens to claim “peaceful and relaxing effects” to the body and mind. Is this a coincidence? I went completely unbiased into my own experiment. If the placebo was present here, I’m not sure how that’s possible considering how careful I was about my experience.
Also something else worthy of mentioning is, what actually is the placebo effect? Even if something is fake- but if it PRODUCES the same effects as the real, what’s to say that the fake is less valuable? We must ask ourselves, where the limit of the mind is. If the simple belief that a sugar pill is going to cure or help treat (blank). if that belief alone actually determines the physical responses and healing of the human body, then the PLACEBO becomes new technology. I challenge scientists to truly study into the placebo and figure out how a sugar pill can cure (blank). Because a sugar pill should not cure anything. I study the mind a lot and it’s almighty very powerful. Our thoughts have effected water droplets alone depending upon the intentional emotions we set upon the water droplet. The vibration of the droplet actually changes according to the words we say above the drop. How is this? And then you have to take into consideration things like: when you’re at the grocery store and you hear thuder sounds and then the plants are sprinkled with FAKE rain sounds and FAKE thunder sounds. And the plants actually thrive and respond better. Isn’t this considered a placebo that…. works? Placebos work no matter what which is why they are called placebos. Nonetheless, if something works for someone, why would they not do it? Everything in our physical reality is vibrating.Nothing is actually what we see as “solid” but rather a bunch of atoms at the most basic level vibrating at speeds we can’t notice with our senses. This has been proven over and over so this leads me to contemplate the power of our beliefs upon our physical environment, and ultimately the belief around crystal healing. I have came upon some credible sources whom have proved that crystal quartz itself has a aura and it has actually been photographed rather recently. The human “aura” has also been photographed. I hate new ager terms, I consider it all science that hasn’t been explained yet. My issue with a strict scientific perspective is that it discounts any and everything that cannot be physically seen. But when new knowledge about electricity and atoms vibrating and new knowledge about the way matter behaves, we must retune our foundations of science. It’s most likely that these rocks simply are vibrating at whatever given frequency, perhaps a higher one than the human body which is why they help alleviate pain or such. Quantum sciences have done experiments with things such as water, sound and glass, and the higher the frequency of matter, the faster it vibrates. In my research on the photographing of the human “aura”, it is very well known that somebody who is unhealthy has a blotchy, darker colored aura versus somebody who is healthy, exercises and has a pretty clean diet. This goes to show that perhaps the person with the full, colorful aura with the clean eating and healthy body is vibrating at a higher frequency, which for the human body in relation to aura means a bigger solid aura (bigger electric field). Crystals could very well possess certain kinds of energy that is beneficial to a surrounding or the way it reacts to a person’s electric field around their body. It’s no doubt that theres something to it, but don’t discount it simply because of one experiment which in my opinion doesn’t prove anything.
I will also mention something of worthy contemplation, it has been proven that human love assists in the healing process of an injured or sick individual. The cells in the human body began healing a person faster when the person s bombarded with another humans touch and love and desire to heal the other person. Has anyone else heard of this? I could try to find some sources again. I found it mind blowing, to me it seems like another facet of simply the power of the human mind, thoughts? if this can happen, whats to say crystals are that much more far fetched?
What Monica said ~ yes we are all interconnected energetically. Hence the power of love to heal. Indeed love is real. The power of love to heal is real. Just like feeling negative energy from another person drains a person. Feeling love and positive feelings are healing.
That is all there is: Love or fear.
The absence of love is a vacuum where fear can exit. All negative ideas are based upon fear. Fear of loss usually. Loss of love, loss of ego, loss of image, loss of financial resources, loss of health — advertising companies are based upon it.
Love is the most powerful !
WOW! So many dumbass that believe in crystals!!!! HAHAHAHAHA I CAN’T STOP LAUGHING!!!!!!! PATHENIC OMG LOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!!
Very informative article about crystal therapy. Crystal Therapy is basically a alternative medicine technique which uses crystals and stones for healing the patient without medicines. Crystals are placed on particular parts of body called chakras. Chakras are the energy points in human body placed at plexuses of arteries, veins and nerves. Each chakra is corresponding to a different color. During Crystal therapy we place the crystal of associated color on particular Chakra. Crystals are placed to create an “energy Grid” in body which helps to cure diseases.
Thanks
For more details visit crystal therapy healing crystal
Hey there Mr. Kyle Hill,
I am happy you are trying to educate people on the truth, it makes me very sad that people have so little faith in science these days, when it is what is moving us forward from the dark ages of thinking. I look forward to the day that we can get all this nonsense behind us and know for fact what around us will cure and kill us.
From a fellow scientist and seeker of truth, I hope you are able to reach people and help them understand what is REAL because we have too many people that believe in pretty fairy tales.
Good luck Mr. Hill.
Ooooooo, the way you said, “prove it”, seems kind of angry. Chill out and just open your brain(mind) for a minute. You literally cannot be infected(corrupted) with misconceptions. You’ll always weigh the ideas for yourself. To get anywhere in this world, we’re gonna have to sift through all the ideas it has.
I am not advocating crystal healing, nor am I opposed to it. Whatever you believe and “allow in” can cause epigenetic changes. What I don’t understand in this post and in many others that are “science based” is the vitriol. This is usually accompanied by the comment that people who practise any form of alternative/complementary therapies are charlatans who “prey” on people and “prevent” them seeing a doctor. I am a 30-year medical journalist and reiki practitioner. I strongly encourage all my clients to see a medical professional if they have cancer or any other illness, and to take medications as prescribed. I believe, and have read studies on, how increased belief in one’s ability to heal, frequently generates a more positive outcome. I have not yet seen or heard of anyone who has stated that using a crystal, or reiki, or any other form of therapy is an alternative to seeing a medical professional. If someone chooses this route, however, then I would assume it was their choice to do so based on due diligence and/or a dislike/mistrust of current medical therapies. This post sadly presumes that people in general are idiots and that an “either-or” mentality prevails.
I was just thinking the same thing. I believe in crystal healing, but not as a replacement for modern medicine. Stones are not going to heal the body, but they can heal the mind, and science has proven how important healing the mind can be. People who should have been easily cured have died because they gave up, and people who should have died have lived years longer thanks to positive thinking.
And yes, it’s probably mostly a placebo effect. But placebos work. Ask anyone who’s ever worked with kids. I bet at one point or another they gave that kid a “magic” something or other to make them not homesick or to banish nightmares. It works just as well on adults, you just have to word it differently :P
Ocean. Great response :) I completely agree. Somehow the term “placebo” became solely associated with “sugar pill” to the detriment of most people’s understanding. I once told a young teen that his chemo-induced nausea would cease three hours after he painted a picture of it doing so, gave it to me, and allowed me to practise energy healing over it. Guess what happened…plus his mother’s sympathetic nausea ceased too. It was, I am sure, the power of suggestion in all its glory. The body understand better than “science” in many cases, what to do to heal. It is built into our survival mechanism and why we have an immune system. He did recover from his cancer – 9 years ago now – and this may well have been due to the the medications he was given (the family refused chemo and left the country). But who really knows? Only the arrogant will presume to.
Every single person commenting negatively about this article is forgetting the first premise of the burden of proof. Are there perhaps some flaws in this study? Yes, although there are reasons why major scientific studies will not be done on ridiculous claims such as crystal healing therapies. There is a total lack of any scientific evidence to begin with. The burden of proof ALWAYS lies on those that make the claims, in this case it is those that promote energy healing, crystal healing, etc. Telling the author to ‘open his mind’ is absolutely ridiculous, you people are all uneducated and not qualified to comment if that is your stance. Bring some proof and I will open my mind, maybe you are all just butthurt that not everyone is gullible enough to believe this shit without question, hell I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of you practice these therapies yourselves and perhaps even charge for them.
Just because science cannot confirm or deny it totally does not mean it does not exist. In a lab asking you to feel something or not is ridiculous to say the least. People are reaching for something to feel during that time. Science cannot measure when someone sees a ghost or feels their dead loved ones either Duh! and I am educated!
God warns about worshipping (asking for and expecting help from) the creation rather than the creator. i love rocks for their beauty. would never expect one to supply my need. I have God for that.
Hello,
I think we have a profound point here, in the fact that the volunteers experienced varying sensations from what the study concludes as “power of suggestion.” In other words, the human mind is capable of creating physical change in the body, simply by the mind itself “suggesting” it.
Several studies have shown that the human mind is capable of both stressing the body and relaxing it, which comes as no surprise seeing as how the brain controls each of the body’s functions, including the heart beat. Our brains are complex organs, capable beyond our knowledge, and the link correlating mental concentration to physical relief is often overlooked.
I would argue that crystals are tangible, material objects one might use to symbolize or embody the intention at hand. Evidently, any object could be used for this same purpose, much like purple rocks could have as easily signified monetary worth as do rectangular pieces of green paper, had we chosen to give them that value instead. Naturally, neither object holds more “meaning” than the other. But socially, money has power. “It has power because we believe it does.” Crystal users might endorse their stones as a way to punctuate their thoughts, if you will. In having an object on which they can focus their mental desire, it materializes in a way. The next time they pick up the crystal, their mind might associate with it the same “feelings” they “put into it.”
Given this perspective, I am curious to experiment with objects that I choose to represent my own personal desires. I think crystals have been a popular choice due to their elemental foundation and physical properties.
Thanks for the read!
Yep, have tried believing in crystal healing for some time and it’s definitely placebo effect. Thankfully I never wasted more than 20 bucks on this crap. I even had one lady who believes in it actually say to me “Even if it is placebo, at least it makes you feel better.” I was blown away by her calmness about the fact that she was knowingly tricking herself into being fooled by this stupid stuff. Glad I know better now–am going to chuck these rocks out into the street and gutter where they belong.
Not a scientist, me, but an observer of natural phenomena and I agree. There’s nothing magical in crystals. I wish there was. The placebo effect is astonishing as a metaphysical study, however. I know people who swear by crystals, but I’ve never seen outcomes which could only be attributed to the ‘crystal effect’. I’ve heard people say they hold some kind of ‘charge’. Has anyone actually detected an electrical emission or frequency from a crystal? What studies are available?
BUT
You missed the point.
It’s right in front of your face.
You believe the very same concept you’re disputing, in a different way.
That’s irony.
It’s sort of the same thing as people who “pray” when someone is sick or if they’re anxious. Of course a crystal has no healing properties, (like prayer) of course it’s not going to cure a disease, but if a crystal can help someone to focus (something that HAS been proven to aid overall wellness) or if a crystal can help someone calm down their anxiety I think in these cases the crystal does “work”.
If the person who is seeking healing feels healed by the time they’re done using their crystal (in whatever fashion) – it has worked. Placebo or no, it’s the same as prayer or meditation and for the people trying to be better these things usually help them get or at least feel better, which aids them on the road to recovery.
I don’t think people should try to prophet from tricking people into buying crystals saying it will help cure serious illnesses, but if someone wants to wear a gem to remind themselves to stay calm because they have anxiety, or if someone likes to meditate with crystals in their hands because it helps them focus then let them because it does help them. :)
I don’t think you have tried Theragem if you had you wouldn’t be so small minded.
God gives us many gifts to utilize, crystals and minerals are one of them they are not solid as are any of us. We and everything around us are energy. positive negative and neutral. I did not say I worship or use crystals instead of God. I will however utilize energy. using people as lab rats and telling them what your doing already plays into power of suggestion instead of using non bias own feelings
Up to three hundred years ago, for centuries man had thought that blood is static in the
body. The idea of the circulation of blood was non-existent all over the world. Just three
hundred years ago, physicians became aware that blood is constantly moving at a fast speed —
the blood that is in your feet, within seconds will be in your head, and it goes round and
round. Its circulation is absolutely necessary to clean all dead cells from your body, to take
them away, to bring new oxygen to your cells, because each cell needs oxygen for its life.
But you are not aware of it all, and in fact if you were aware, you would go mad. So much
is happening inside you that it would be impossible for you to maintain your sanity.
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U.S.A
Honestly, I never believed in the healing powers of crystals. I thought people were off their rockers. I liked rocks because they were pretty. That was almost 10 years ago now, after an experience that changed what I thought I knew. I’ve done a lot of research, a lot of personal reflection, and a lot of experimentation.
I’ve had crystals change from clear to cloudy, change in weight, change in color, just because you are holding them or giving a massage with their help. You can’t help but start to wonder. If it was just an object with no energy, there would be no change.
We are made of energy just as the rocks are. Just as a magnet has a field of energy around them, so do other crystals. Our energy field is known as an aura.The crystals interact with your energy field, fine tuning it. Just like piano wires will vibrate with a tuning fork, crystals will activate a vibration in the body.
New research into Quantum physics is beginning to explain the metaphysical world. A relatively easy to read book that helps to explain quantum physics and healing is called The Biology of Belief.
PS: I AM A SCIENTIST and you sir have a lot to learn about life and apparently science too…
Take Care and best wishes.
In America placebo out performed valium should we then conclude that valium does not work and the effects are all in the mind. No the point is most study like this are very scewed and leading as to look for magic or mystical effects in anything is setting up an experiment that will fail becaue there is no such thing and then to tack on statistics and placebo results to compound a point is rubbish as you only include the information that you want to. If a crystal works by placebo so what the only thing that matters is it worked just because it didnt work in the harry potter way you set up the test to disprove shouldnt matter. Point is you can take your placebo in a natural non harmfull crystal or a addictive chemical drug.
The funniest part is where you basically admit that the power of suggestion is real and western medicine is a placebo effect. Administer some pills, tell anyone they’ll heal, and a happy fool will believe you though a cynic will doubt. One will heal and one might not, depending on a million variables. Crystals may not cure cancer, but they have power. Garlic, alone, may not cure cancer, but it has power. It works FOR your ailing body and mind much like water, therapy, health foods; not against you like CO2 emissions, Cheetos, rage, and Yaegar from morning til night. Stress kills, so I guess it is pretty horrible of these charlatans to try to bring peace of mind with a little piece of rock. A woman gave me so much energy and love and discounted stones one day. I felt better just by her caring love. None of my scientific friends reach out to me when I’m sad. Only spiritual ones. Or people who get paid heftily to treat me. Ruminate on that for a minute while you scoff at people giving $2 crystals to cure when hospitals won’t even let them in the door.
The ‘study’ conducted was extremely limited- it’s very unscientific to call it ‘proof’ of anything. Not saying the power of suggestion isn’t a factor in the use of crystals but the ‘research’ above is oversimplified and very lacking.
hi .. everyone … ever heard of ethereal crystals ?
using the energies of crystals for healing distantly .. etherically
no physical crystals needed?
to mean … no PRICE or MONEY involved
my point is … I am placing distant crystals to the author of this article
mark the time (October 11, 2014 Sunday PHilippine Time 3:03 pm)
you will be expected to feel any mental, emotional, physical detox
most persons under distant healing suddenly drinks a lot of water … or sudden hunger or deep sleep
just mark the time …. it is the only proof that I can give this author FOR FREE — to mean there are some healers may it be distant healers or crystal healers who’s not interested about money
Kyle Hill .. you distant CRYSTAL HEALING starts now —
Aura Cleansing started right now
I would be happy to hear from your reply … and I honestly expect you reply THRUTFULLY whatever your felt during this time
if you are a TRUE WRITER — you will write everything you felt during the time frame starting right now
God bless you Kylie Hill
then I hope your views about HEALING will have a 360 degree turn around
This is about the creepiest thing I’ve ever read. And I say that thrutfully.
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