Can crystals, minerals and gemstones really heal you?
From Cleopatra to popes, the belief in the healing power of crystals and stones has persisted for centuries, and even modern medicine has weighed in on the matter
Whether you are a wellness aficionado or not, you will have heard of the touted healing powers of crystals, minerals and gemstones. For thousands of years, metal pendants and crystal charms have been worn around the neck or wrist for their perceived health-boosting properties. Some ancient skincare potions contained pulverised crystals. And today’s believers can even find gyms fitted with crystal walls. While no meditation centre worth its salt would be without a crystal singing bowl.
Before dismissing it all as hocus pocus, consider how their reputation has persisted for centuries. From Cleopatra to popes, crystals and gemstones have been stitched into robes and cut into amulets for protection, or ground into powders to beautify the complexion and heal wounds and diseases.
Modern medicine has attempted to shed light on the their use. Dr Robert O. Becker, an orthopaedic surgeon and professor who has dedicated his life to researching the regenerative powers within our bodies and its electric currents, documented in his book The Body Electric, that open wounds do emit a certain electric current, and the currents’ intensity determines how quickly one person heals compared to the next. His research has also focused on the purported potential of electric fields in healing bone fractures and heart murmurs. This suggests that our bodies actually do correspond with the energy and vibration levels of crystals and mineral stones, which all possess natural energy fields and properties.
Hong Kong-born, London-based geneticist and biochemist Dr Mae Wan-Ho championed the more radical idea of holistically fusing Western and Eastern medicinal lore in her book The Rainbow and the Worm: The Physics of Organisms, in which she writes about how liquid crystals exist within our ligaments, muscles and tendons and are “chieftains” that connect one point to another in order to enable the body to function properly. If this sounds familiar, it’s because it borrows from the principles of acupuncture.
“Utilising stones as a practice has been done for centuries in Eastern traditions and is something that is now being incorporated into Western medicines,” says Kristin Petrovich, author of Elemental Energy and co-founder of Sjal Skincare.