Crystal healing, currently
one of the most popular New Age practices, is the use of a supposed
"power" inherent within crystals for healing, developing psychic
abilities, spirit contact, and other New Age goals. Crystals supposedly
contain the ability to focus and direct psychic energies for healing and
other occult pursuits.
Crystal work is a form of
animism in which inanimate objects are held to possess spiritual powers
that may be contacted, utilized, or directed. But in animism any
supernatural power contacted originates from the spirit world. Thus,
crystals per se have no magical powers and only become an
implement behind which spirits may work. When pressed, most crystal
healers we have talked with concede that the power behind crystals is
spiritistic.
Many similar objects are also
believed to possess magical properties (amulets, magical stones, or
gems), but one fact discounts this belief: Psychic abilities and powers
remain once the implement is dispensed with. In other words, these
objects are only contact material – a disguise through which spirits
work to gain influence over people’s lives.
All divinatory methods
utilize some principle object that becomes the focus and/or vehicle
through which spirits work to serve the client and produce the needed
answer to questions, character analysis, future prognostication,
supernatural power, etc. Common forms of divination and the objects they
use include astrology (the horoscope chart); tarot (a deck of cards with
symbols); I Ching (sticks, printed hexagrams); runes (dice); Ouija board
(an alphabet planchette); radionics/psychometry (the divining rod,
pendulum, "black box," etc.); palmistry (the hand); crystal-gazing (the
crystal ball or crystal rock); metoscopy/physiognomy/phrenology (the
forehead, face, skull); geomancy (combinations of dots or points); water
dowsing (the forked stick or other object).
Is it logical to expect that
mere pieces of paper bearing symbols (horoscopes), simple forked sticks,
cards, hands, dice, letters of the alphabet, rocks, facial lines, or
dots could ever supply supernatural power or miraculous information
about a person or their future? Even the practitioners of these arts
refer to "supernatural influences" – to "gods" and spirits who operate
through these methods.
The potential problems
arising from crystal healing include those of New Age Medicine in
general: misdiagnosis, mistreatment, and occultic influence.
