Crystals have healing powers because they have taken energy from the earth. Mostly it's the power from the person using the crystal that makes it work, i would assume. If you don't believe that it's possible then you shouldn't worry about it. If it doesn't interest you or make sense to you, then you can either look into the subject and find out more, or you can leave the people who believe in the power of crystals alone.
I remember doctors suggesting chicken soup had no curative powers - who can know except those who have tried and either had success or failure? Might even hope that, if the stones have no healing power, perhaps like so many other things that focus attention, they can help the individual cure themselves (or at least aid the healing process.) If not true, it's certainly harmless enough as long as real and proven cures are not ignored.
Besides - Marble feels cool and crystals are facinating.
"And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." ~Shakespeare
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From what I've seen, crystals, like a number of other things, are useful as a focus, and as a useful obfuscation. Which is to say, I've seen a number of people manage some minor and not so minor healings using crystals as a focus, and if they need to think it's the crystals doing it, fine by me as long as the healing gets done.
Or, as somebody once said: "if it helps to turn your hat backward, then it helps."
If piezoelectric energy can make a quartz crystal do it's thing, then who is to say if maybe that small amount of electric energy inherent in the human body can't produce some small effect of some sort on other forms of crystals. I put on an old-fashioned wind up watch and it quits working, mayhaps that same "magnetism" can cause the tranfer of energy between crystal and person or vice versa.
Seriously, I know less then Mr(on the rocks)Sensitive. However, it seems as though believing in something wins half the battle. The mystery of what goes on between our ears seems to hold the solution to many of life's ills.
Posts: 8133 | Location: in the backwoods of North Carolina | Registered: 06-07-02
From the fantastic web site, www.skepdic.com comes this on crystals:
"A crystal is a solid formed by the solidification of chemicals, has a regularly repeating internal arrangement of atoms and molecules, and is bounded by external plane faces. Crystal particles form a variety of geometrical shapes due to their internal compressions. Crystals have aesthetic properties that have long made them attractive in jewelry. But they also have some properties that make them very important to the electronics and optical industries. Today, crystals are used in just about every type of modern technology.
For centuries, crystals and other gems have been desired for their alleged magical healing and mystical paranormal powers. This belief continues today among occultists and New Age healers, even though it is based on nothing more than testimonials, the placebo effect, selective thinking, wishful thinking, the Forer effect, sympathetic magic, and communal reinforcement. There is no scientific evidence that crystals are conduits of magical energies useful for healing and protection, or for telling the future.
We can dismiss the pre-scientific belief in the magical powers of crystals and gemstones as due to the lack of scientific knowledge. Modern occultists, however, distort and falsify scientific knowledge in order to promote belief in their crystal products. According to the purveyors of this crystalline pseudoscience, crystals channel good "energy" and ward off bad "energy." They carry "vibrations" that resonate with healing "frequencies," work with the chakras and help balance yin and yang. Crystals allegedly affect the emotions and can be used not only for physical healing, but for emotional problems as well. Crystals can not only help with emotional healing, but with self-expression, creativity, meditation, and the immune system. None of these claims is backed by any scientific evidence.
Today, crystal wands are used to heal auras in aura therapy. But one of the more egregious pseudoscientific claims regarding crystals is that, if arranged properly, they can provide protection against harmful electromagnetic forces such as those that are emitted from computer monitors, cellular phones, microwave ovens, hair dryers, power lines, and other people. The Bioelectric Shield was invented by a chiropractor from Montana, Charles Brown, who claims he heard voices in his head and had visions in his bed as to how to arrange crystals in the shape of a flying saucer in order to provide this protection. Marketed as "Jewelry With A Purpose," his bioelectric shields are sold for anywhere from $139 to over a thousand dollars. Cherie Blair, the wife of England's prime minister, wears one of these magical pendants. They are said to be "medically proven" and "based on Nobel Prize winning physics." Even if the claims about the protective power of these pendants were true, it would be necessary to envelop your entire body in one to achieve the desired result. By hanging a little piece of jewelry around the neck, you might be able to protect a small part of the throat, however.
The New Age idea that crystals can harness and direct energy seems to be based upon a misunderstanding of one of the more curious characteristics of certain crystals, namely, that they produce an electrical charge when compressed. This is known as the piezoelectric effect and was discovered in 1880 by Pierre and Jacques Curie. Other technological developments had to occur before the piezoelectric effect could be put to use, however, and it was not until the 1950s that the piezoelectric effect could be put to general use in record player needles and a variety of measuring devices. Nowadays, these devices "are used in almost every conceivable application requiring accurate measurement and recording of dynamic changes in mechanical variables such as pressure, force and acceleration."
The piezoelectric effect, however, does not give crystals healing or protective power, despite the claims of those who use and sell crystals in New Age and neo-pagan occultist shops. However, wearing crystals seems to give some people a feeling of protection. This, and their aesthetic qualities, seem to be the only virtues of crystal jewelry.
Nor do crystals work any better than animal organs for divining the future, although grinding crystals for fortune telling is more humane and sanitary than disembowelment of poor creatures who don't know yesterday from tomorrow."
"Man's most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe." - Euripides
Nope, Brookers, you and Dogspit were right on the money. Scryers use crystals or even pools of water to help see visions. Nostradamus was most notably know for water gazing.
Posts: 168 | Location: Fort Riley, Kansas | Registered: 06-06-02
crystals are used in healing just as any other icon, like the holy cross or a medicine bag. if you believe they will help you, they just might. its yahoos like charles brown, mentioned in johngalt's post that give new age ideas a bad name.
Mr. Sensitive, crystals are used in a lot of ways, sometimes as charms or talismans, sometimes for healing, sometimes for scrying. Different rocks and stones have different attributes and meanings, and you borrow from those stones when working a spell or charm. A crystal infused with energy can be used for healing. I do not work with crystals myself, I use pure energy without the crystal to achieve the same purpose. It just depends on the person and what works best for them. So yes, Prothero, it has a lot to do with focus and yes. Belief and intent have a lot to do with it.
Scrying is much like divination. You peer into a mirror or pool of water or use crystals in order to foresee and make determinations.
And John, thank you for your fascinating take on the new age rhyme scheme.
Posts: 4654 | Location: Rochester, NY, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
quote:Originally posted by mattlynda: crystals are used in healing just as any other icon, like the holy cross or a medicine bag. if you believe they will help you, they just might.
The difference is that with real medical science, a person can be cured whether they know they are getting the treatment or not. Not so with pseudoscience.
If a person has cholera and you perform whatever magic ritual in front of them and proclaim it will heal them, they will may get better to the exact same (and small) degree that any sugar pill placebo would likewise “heal” them.
However, if you surreptitiously slip the cholera victim 500 milligrams of tetracycline every 12 hours, they will be cured of the disease to a much greater extent (approaching near certainty) than any placebo. And it will happen even without their knowledge of their being treated. But if you perform the magic ritual without their knowing about it, they will not get better.
john i agree with you completely. i would never use crystals for a serious helth problem (physical or emotional). i do have my 'happy crystal' as my husband calls it. when im feeling sad all i have to do is hold it and i feel better. it was given to me by someone special and just holding it brings back good memories so i feel better. this is about the only thing crystals can really be used for, unless you belive that using them in rituals helps channel the energy in them (and yes i do believe they have energy, they are part of the earth after all and everything here has part of the earth's energy in it) that and making pretty paterns on the floor for the cat to chace when the sun hits them :]
Herbal remedies, crystals and charms are absolutely no substitute for conventional medicine when a serious illness is involved. But, if they make the person feel comforted, there's nothing wrong with using them, too. And, if all else fails, non-traditional therapies can sometimes ease the mind even if they do not always succeed in healing the body.
Posts: 4654 | Location: Rochester, NY, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
I would like to see some scientific evidence of the scrying. all the sites given are skeptic cult sites... also I would like to go on the topic of one of the other people's
quote: Well... they get fluoride from fluorite...
silver is used in silvidine (burn cream) also for drops in babies eyes when they are born.
Listen... flouride is an ion of the element flourine. Flouride did not originaly come from florite. I don't know much about rocks, but I know that it is the ion flouride that interacts with the body, it has nothing to do with flourite. I have to say I fail to see your point. None of the examples you gave even delt with crystals. The drops in babies eyes is silver chloride an ionic compound. Silver is an element which is very reactive so it would replace it
Skeez, the term "crystals" is generally usued interchangeably with "gemstones." Fluorite, silver, onyx, quartz... they are gemstones used when working with crystal energy. I'm sorry, but you sound very bitter about this topic. What exactly are you looking for here?
Posts: 4654 | Location: Rochester, NY, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
