There is no physical evidence that crystals hold healing properties or good luck. Yet, there is still a huge interest and market for them globally - online, in street markets, and in independent businesses up and down the high-streets, no matter where you are.
The art of crystal healing is a pseudoscientific (a faith that claims to use science and facts but does not correlate with the scientific method) medicine practice used by many hypnotherapists, spiritual wellbeing and spa businesses/practitioners. This can even include “crystal therapists” (an actual profession) that teaches the use of crystals in energy healing and personal development in the body and mindset.
The history of crystal use goes all the way back to the ancient Greeks, where Plato first mentioned them as healing devices to read minds. This is also from where many modern crystals received their names e.g. amethyst meaning “unintoxicated”. The Egyptians used them in jewellery and for their metaphysical elements (the philosophy of understanding the base structure of reality); all throughout history crystals have been exploited for a number of different beliefs. This culminates in our contemporary perspective of the New Age spiritual movement which globally amounts to $1 billion dollars of sales per year (2019).
Many people dispute the possibility of crystals containing power and claim the alleged successes of their properties to be attributed to a placebo effect. In 1999, researchers French and Williams conducted a study to investigate the power of crystals compared with a placebo. Eighty volunteers were asked to meditate with either a quartz crystal or a placebo stone indistinguishable from quartz. Many of the participants reported feeling typical "crystal effects" - however, this was irrespective of whether the crystals were real or placebo.
Nevertheless, like all questions surrounding faith, it is not usually important to the users whether there is scientific evidence to a claim or not. For example, Charles Darwin - the scientist that created the Theory of Evolution - still believed in God even after his discoveries attributed human development to "survival of the fittest". Many people in favour of the powers crystals hold often begin with the argument “Can God be proven? Can life after death be proven?”, to which the general answer is no.
So, whilst the benefits of crystals cannot be proven, there is still a great comfort found in them by many, which is enough for most. Whilst reports are still being written on the reliability of chakras and auras, the main takeaway around the power of crystal use is to keep an open mind.
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