Crystal power is a belief that crystals have healing, mystical and paranormal powers. It is popular in the New Age movement, but regarded as baseless by skeptics and the general scientific community.

Crystal healing

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Crystal healers claim that every living organism has a "vibrational energy system," which includes chakras, subtle bodies and meridians. By using the appropriate crystals one can allegedly "tune" an energy system or rebalance energies, thus improving well-being.

The earliest records of crystal healing come from ancient Egypt. The Ebers papyrus states the medicinal uses of many different gems. Healing with crystals is also recorded in India's Ayurvedic records and in traditional Chinese medicine from around five thousand years ago.

Some authors of fiction have claimed that crystals can be used as a focal point for magical spells; an idea probably founded on scrying-gems such as John Dee's shew stone. This, and similar, was used by magicians, fortune-tellers, etc for one of two purposes; to co-ordinate the visionary power or to misdirect the attention of the customer.

Criticism

Most scientists, health professionals, skeptics and others consider crystal healing to be a pseudoscientific quack therapy, since there is no scientific evidence that healing can be achieved by it or that the claimed "energies" even exist. The placebo effect is a possible explanation for any healing that occurs in the presence of a healing crystal.

External links

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• Skeptic's Dictionary on Crystal Power

Alternative medicine | Energy therapies | Metaphysics | New Age | Pseudoscience | Quackery