8/18/2019 Crystal healing - Wikipedia

Crystal healing
Cry stal healing is a pseudoscientific alternativ e medicine technique that uses semiprecious stones and cry stals such as quartz, amethy st or opals. Adherents of the technique claim that these
hav e healing powers, although there is no scientific basis for this claim. [1 ][2 ][3 ]

In one method, the practitioner places cry stals on different parts of the body , often corresponding to chakras; or else the practitioner places cry stals around the body in an attempt to construct an
energy grid, which is purported to surround the client with healing energy . Despite this, scientific inv estigations hav e not v alidated claims that chakras or energy grids actually exist, nor is there
any ev idence that cry stal healing has any greater effect upon the body than any other placebo; for these reasons it is considered a pseudoscience.

Contents Quartz crystals are often used in crystal

Ethnography healing

Scientific evaluation
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Ethnography
Precious stones hav e been thought of as objects that can aid in healing by a v ariety of cultures. [4 ] The Hopi Nativ e Americans of Arizona use quartz cry stals for div ination, including locating sources of pain or disease in the body . The Hopi also
traditionally use cry stals for other forms of div ination, as prisms to direct sunlight towards medicine bowls, and in other forms of ritual, such as imbuing the strength and toughness of the cry stal into one's heart. [5 ]

In the English speaking world, cry stal healing is heav ily associated with the New Age spiritual mov ement: "the middle-class New Age healing activ ity par excellence". [4 ] In contrast with other forms of complementary and alternativ e medicine
(CAM), participants in cry stal healing v iew the practice as "indiv iduated", [6 ] i.e., dependent on extreme personalization and creativ e expression. [4 ][7 ] Practitioners of cry stal healing purport that certain phy sical properties—e.g., shape, color,
and markings—determine the ailments that a stone can heal; lists of such links are published in commonly distributed texts. [7 ] Paradoxically , practitioners also "hold the v iew that cry stals hav e no intrinsic qualities but that, instead, their
quality changes according to both" participants. [7 ] After selecting the stones by color or their believ ed metaphy sical qualities, they place them on parts of the body . [1 ] Color selection and placement of stones are done according to concepts of
grounding, chakras, or energy grids.

Scientific evaluation
There is no peer-rev iewed scientific ev idence that cry stal healing has any effect; it is considered a pseudoscience. [1 ][8 ] Alleged successes of cry stal healing can be attributed to the placebo effect. [3 ][8 ] Furthermore, there is no scientific basis
for the concepts of chakras, being "blocked", energy grids requiring grounding, or other such terms; they are widely understood to be nothing more than terms used by adherents to lend credibility to their practices. Energy , as a scientific
term, is a v ery well-defined concept that is readily measurable and bears little resemblance to the esoteric concept of energy used by proponents of cry stal healing. [9 ]

In 1999, researchers French and Williams conducted a study to inv estigate the power of cry stals compared with a placebo. Eighty v olunteers were asked to meditate with either a quartz cry stal, or a placebo stone which was indistinguishable
from quartz. Many of the participants reported feeling ty pical "cry stal effects"; howev er, this was irrespectiv e of whether the cry stals were real or placebo. In 2001 Christopher French, head of the anomalistic psy chology research unit at the
Univ ersity of London and colleagues from Goldsmiths College outlined their study of cry stal healing at the British Psy chological Society Centenary Annual Conference, concluding "There is no ev idence that cry stal healing works ov er and
abov e a placebo effect.” [3 ]

Cry stal healing effects could also be attributed to cognitiv e bias (which occurs when the believ ers want the practice to be true and see only things that back up that desire). [1 0 ]

Cry stal healing techniques are also practiced on animals, although some v eterinary organizations, such as the British Veterinary Association, hav e warned that these methods are not scientifically prov en and state that people should seek the
adv ice of a v et before using alternativ e techniques. [1 1 ]

See also
Color healing
Energy medicine
Magnet therapy
List of topics characterized as pseudoscience

References
1. Regal, Brian. (2009). Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia. Greenwood. p.
51. ISBN 978-0-313-35507-3
2. Carroll, Robert Todd. "Crystal Power" (http://www.skepdic.com/crystals.html).
The Sk eptic's Dictionary. Retrieved January 14, 2012.
3. "Live Science" (https://www.livescience.com/40347-crystal-healing.html).
Retrieved 2018-07-29.
4. McClean, Stuart. "Crystal and spiritual healing in northern England: Folk-
inspired systems of medicine" (https://books.google.com/books?id=AQ2g6V8M
Jn4C). Folk Healing and Health Care Practices in Britain and Ireland:
Stethoscopes, Wands, and Crystals. Retrieved 2017-08-14.
5. Malotki, Ekkehart (2006). Hopi Stories of Witchcraft, Shamanism and Magic.
University of Nebraska Press. p. xxvii (https://books.google.com/books?id=dZA
hJVoyRFUC&pg=PR27). ISBN 9780803283183.
6. McClean, Stuart (2005-08-03). " 'The illness is part of the person': discourses of
blame, individual responsibility and individuation at a centre for spiritual healing
in the North of England". Sociology of Health and Illness. 27 (5): 628–648.
doi:10.1111/j.1467-9566.2005.00459.x (https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1467-9566.2
005.00459.x). PMID 16078904
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16078904).
7. McClean, Stuart; Shaw, Alison (2005-07-01). "From Schism to Continuum? The
Problematic Relationship Between Expert and Lay Knowledge—An Exploratory
Conceptual Synthesis of Two Qualitative Studies" (https://www.researchgate.ne
t/publication/7781227). Qualitative Health Research. 15 (6): 729–749.
doi:10.1177/1049732304273927 (https://doi.org/10.1177%2F104973230427392
7). PMID 15961872 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15961872). Retrieved
2017-08-14.
8. Spellman, Frank R; Price-Bayer, Joni. (2010). In Defense of Science: Why
Scientific Literacy Matters. The Scarecrow Press. p. 81. ISBN 978-1-60590-735-
2 "There is no scientific evidence that crystal healing has any effect. It has been
called a pseudoscience. Pleasant feelings or the apparent successes of crystal
healing can be attributed to the placebo effect or cognitive bias—a believer
wanting it to be true."
9. Stenger, Victor J. (2016-05-08). "The Energy Fields of Life" (https://web.archive.
org/web/20160508003317/http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/Medicin
e/Biofield.html). Retrieved 2018-07-29.
10. Campion, E.W. (1993). "Why unconventional medicine?". The New England
Journal of Medicine. 328 (4): 282–3. doi:10.1056/NEJM199301283280413 (http
s://doi.org/10.1056%2FNEJM199301283280413). PMID 8418412 (https://www.n
cbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8418412).
11. "Warning about animal 'therapies' " (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/uk/7240231.st
m). BBC News. 2008-02-12.

Further reading
Lawrence E. Jerome. (1989). Crystal Power: The Ultimate Placebo Effect. Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-0-87975-514-0

External links
Crystal Healing: Stone-cold Facts About Gemstone Treatments (http://www.livescience.com/40347-crystal-healing.html) - LiveScience
James Randi debunks Crystal Power (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RApN8veicPI)

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