Can Quartz be Beneficial to Wellbeing ?

Quartz crystal healing is a new age type of alleged complementary medicine which is ostensibly a lot of hocus pocus coupled with a large degree of quackery.

This surprisingly is the view that some people hold regarding the use of quartz crystals as a means to promote health and healing. The purpose of this article is to dispel these observations.

The first point to make is that their is absolutely nothing New age about crystals. The value of crystals can be seen in the tomb of Tutankhamun from  over 3330 years ago and prior to that in the construction of Stone Circles 4,500 years ago where stones were specially selected and in the case of Boscawen Un Stone Circle in Cornwall one of the Stones is made entirely of quartz. In the case of Stonehenge, a specific type of stone containing quartz, Preseli Bluestone was brought from over 150 miles away in South Wales to be used in its construction. Most Royal Houses today carry a collection of crown jewels. Even the Bible contains a reference to crystals in the book of Ezekiel 28-13;

“Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.”

This clearly indicates that a connection was thought to have existed between crystals and divinity. More recently in 1949 the song writer Jule Styne penned the song “Diamonds are a girls best friend”. Today people the world over wear items jewellery that contain a type of crystal.

Why? The question presents itself , What is the big deal with crystals ?

Firstly we will consider some of the properties of quartz, a widely available and very common gem stone that comes in Amethyst,Tigers eye,Agate,Aventurine,Carnelian,Flint and Jasper to name but a few.

Quartz has the remarkable ability to conduct very small electrical impulses and currents, many modern day applications are dependent on quartz, from the pure grade silicon quartz used in micro processors and silicon chips to the quartz operated wrist watch, also theirs the piezo crystal ignition for gas hobs and the Liquid Crystal Screen (L.C.D) technology now used widely in Televisions.

Our own central nervous system operates using micro electrical impulses, you will see this when you pull a jersey over your head and the static electricity produced by you makes your hair stand on end, another example is when you get a shock from a shopping trolley at the supermarket.Pain impulses from the nerves to the brain are electrical in nature. Even your very own life blood, when viewed under a microscope has a crystalline structure.

It is then, not too great a leap of imagination to suppose that quartz can interact with us on a biological level.

Moving away from the more scientific aspects it is worth considering why crystals are worn in jewellery. The answer is straight forward. crystals make you feel good. If something is aesthetically pleasing it automatically makes you feel better. Holding, admiring and contemplating a jewel releases serotonin in your brain, serotonin is a natural endorphin chemical that for want of a better expression, and yet quiet appropriately, raises your spirits.

As you gaze at your own crystal that is precious to you, a number of other beneficial biological processes occur. Your breathing slows, though you may not notice it, and you become quiet relaxed. Your heartbeat slows in accordance with your breathing reducing blood pressure.Your Brain becomes focused on the crystal initiating a form of mindfulness in that all other, perhaps more troubling and detrimental thoughts are exiled. A type of meditative thinking is taking place.

Based upon the information in this article it is perhaps worth reconsidering the possible view that crystal therapy is new age quackery. In fact crystal therapy is a very real and potent aid to well being practiced by any one who wears an item of jewellery containing a precious or semi precious gem.