Crystal healing

In Plato's account of Atlantis, crystal healing is also mentioned. According to Plato, the Atlanteans used crystals to read minds and transmit thoughts.[6] The Sumerians purportedly used crystals in their magical formulas 6000 years ago.[7]

Ancient Egyptians mined for crystals and used them to make jewelry. Crystals or gemstones were also used in practice, for their metaphysical properties. Specifically, they used crystals as aids for health and protection. They often would bury a lapis lazuli scarab with their deceased, with the belief that it would protect them in the afterlife.[8] Additionally, in Ancient Egypt amulets were used to ensure the well-being of the individual.[9] The amulet's shape, decoration, inscription, color, material, or ritual performed with the amulet dictated its power.[9] Amulets were worn or placed on the body, in the form of stones, piercings, rings, necklaces, or other jewelry.[9] The Egyptians used amulets to benefit their afterlife, often representing an Egyptian deity and their specific powers. Amulets were also placed on mummies or in between the mummy's bandages, with funerary pieces usually being larger than those worn by the living.[9] In funeral practices they also used headrest amulets, these were full-size headrests placed in tombs to protect the dead, they also symbolized the deceased rising and being revived, and the sun rising between two hills, which symbolized resurrection and rebirth.[9]

The Ancient Greeks assigned a multitude of properties to crystals. The word 'crystal' is derived from the Greek word "krýstallos" which translates to "ice".[10] The Ancient Greeks believed that clear quartz crystals were a water that had frozen to the point where it would remain in its solid form.[11] The word "amethyst" in Ancient Greek language means "not intoxicate." Amethyst was worn as an amulet that they believed would aid hangovers or prevent intoxication.[8]

John Dee's crystal, used for clairvoyance and healing, and supposedly given to him in November 1582 by the angel Uriel

Precious stones have been thought of as objects that can aid in healing—in a practice known as lapidary medicine—by a variety of cultures.[12] The Hopi Native Americans of Arizona use quartz crystals to assist in diagnosing illnesses.[13] Both Pliny the Elder and Galen claimed that certain crystals had medicinal properties. In Europe, the belief in the healing powers of crystals (and in particular crystal amulets) persisted into the Middle Ages.[14][15] The alleged medicinal properties of precious stones, as well as other powers they were believed to hold, were collected in texts known as lapidaries, which remained popular in Medieval and Early Modern Europe until the 17th century.

Across cultures, different stones can symbolize or provide aide for different things. An example of this is rose quartz. In Egypt, it was believed rose quartz could prevent aging, but the Romans used rose quartz as a seal to signify ownership, while in the Middle Ages it was used in healing potions, today rose quartz is known as the "love stone" and is used to balance emotions, and heal anger and disappointment.[16]

In the English speaking world, crystal healing is heavily associated with the New Age spiritual movement: "the middle-class New Age healing activity par excellence".[12] In contrast with other forms of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), participants in crystal healing view the practice as "individuated",[17] that is dependent on extreme personalization and creative expression.[12][18] Practitioners of crystal healing purport that certain physical properties such as shape, color, and markings, determine the ailments that a stone can heal; lists of such links are published in commonly distributed texts.[18] Paradoxically, practitioners also "hold the view that crystals have no intrinsic qualities but that, instead, their quality changes according to both" participants.[18] After selecting the stones by color or their believed metaphysical 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.

Worldwide, retail sales of crystals were estimated to amount to more than US$1 billion per year in 2019.[5][19]

India, China, Brazil, and Madagascar are the main producers of crystals.[5] In Madagascar, one of the sources of crystals, most crystals are mined in unsafe, non-industrial or "homemade" mines, with parents and children working together to dig crystals from pits and tunnels they dig with shovels.[5] The miners are usually paid between 17 and 23 cents per kilogram for rose quartz (less than a penny per ounce).[5] The miner's income may be just 0.1% of the final retail price.[5] Some people in the industry say that the low pay for miners is because customers in developed countries want low retail prices; others say that it is due to shops in developed countries wanting to be more profitable.[5][19]