Crystal healing has been around for years. During the stone age our ancestors believed that these pretty gems held the secrets that would make us feel better.
Do they work? What better time to explore the possibility than in the middle of a pandemic?
These beautiful gemstones were traditionally used in jewellery. But new age healing and health fads say that these crystals can heal negative energies from the body.
Crystals are used to aid mindfulness, meditation and yoga. Different coloured stones placed on different parts of the body are also believed to help heal or align one’s chakras.
Chakras are focal points, concentrated on in the ancient practice of meditation.
Nowadays, they’re used in beauty and skin care like the Jade roller.
Some Hollywood A-listers are no stranger to crystal. Kim Kardashian used crystal healing to help cope with the trauma of being held at gunpoint during a robbery in Paris. In an interview with Women’s Wear Daily news journal, Kim explained how her friends brought her these crystals to aid her recovery. “It’s very L.A. and it’s very popular right now,” she said.
Nearly 6,500 kilometres away from LA, just past the Cliffs of Moher, in Liscannor, Co. Clare, lies The Rock Shop.
The shop sells and assortment of “Gemstones”, in store and online. There, you can buy a blue apatite tumble stone for €5.50, which “helps with cartilage, bones, teeth, joint problems and rickets” and “suppresses hunger whilst raising the metabolic rate, encouraging healthy eating”, according to the website.
A Carnelian Rough Stone is €1,50. This stone can “help with respiratory problems brought on by allergies and hay fever.” It aids fertility and “IVF when kept near the body.” It can also help to alleviate nosebleeds, according to the site.
Emma Buckley, 21-years-old, is the owner of an online store, Luna Crystals, primarily operating on Instagram.
She also said that there is no evidence of crystals healing physical diseases that “aren’t in energy form.”
“But I do believe that once you start believing and conquer your own mind, then your physical body will follow and perform better than it was doing,” she also said.
“I truly believe that crystals are there to get rid of any negative energies from the physical body and mental emotional part of the body,” she said. “Without getting too deep about it, I struggled last year with my mental health and I [had] never suffered before.”
After speaking to her mother about it, Emma tried meditation and other forms of spiritual healing. Then, she came across crystals.
“I knew about crystals for years but never understood the depths of it,” she said. “So, I bought myself a few crystals and from there on in, day by day, I began to feel stronger a little bit every day. I truly believe that they lifted the heaviness of that negative energy hanging over me for months.”
So, are crystals actually a legitimate method to wellness? Any claims of physical benefits have been cited as a placebo effect, such as on WebMD. But testing their healing powers on spirituality is harder to quantify.
Their legitimacy to mental wellness is based solely on the user. While crystals probably shouldn’t be used in placement of SSRIs if one is dealing with serious mental illness, there’s nothing to disprove that a rose quartz won’t calm you down if you believe it will.