Do crystals have healing properties?

Bre (Yes)

Crystals have been used in healing practices for thousands of years, and their popularity endures today. Incorporating crystals into a wellness routine poses no potential harm, and users swear by noticeable positive results. While skeptics may attribute any changes to the placebo effect, even that is a well-established, proven powerful phenomenon.

Often used in electronics for their conduit properties, crystals, or fossilized minerals, are said to possess and influence energy. Crystals, like humans, are known to oscillate on a cellular level at varying frequencies. These have the potential to influence one another, and crystals can actually raise the vibrational frequency of people who use them. Although the influence of crystals can be challenging to measure in the body comprehensively, crystal-infused water shows significantly improved quality, with increased mineral bioavailability, boosted oxygen and pH values, and the neutralization of harmful substances.

Crystal healing is among several alternative therapies believed to operate energetically. Physicists have uncovered through multiple fascinating experiments that energy is at the core of everything in existence. Additionally, scientists observe that energy actually responds to consciousness itself. This may explain the enhanced effects reported with pairing crystals with the proven healing potential of mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness-integrated healing is steadily gaining momentum and credibility. Energetic links to physical ailments and healing practices are being discussed and explored more and more, with non-invasive strategies showing much promise.

Semi-precious stones and their reputation for possessing healing qualities have stood the test of time. Not intended as a singular medical intervention, crystals are a virtually harmless way to enhance one’s belief in their own healing and well-being and, as a result, promote it.

Chad (No)

While crystals are indeed beautiful products of nature, they do not have healing powers. Any of their supposed health benefits are purely placebo-induced, as crystals themselves have no medicinal properties.

Crystals are solid materials comprised of highly ordered atoms that form uniform geometries. We can study the physics and chemistry of crystalline structures and use their unique properties in many applications, such as superconductors. Indeed, the bank of scientific knowledge on crystals is rich in knowledge.

However, no peer-reviewed study has ever shown any inkling of the benefits of using crystals as medicine. But there have been studies showing people will ascribe the same benefits to real and fake crystals. 

There has never been a proposed mechanism of action regarding the claims made about crystal healing powers other than mysterious energy forces that contradict the law of conservation of energy, or E=mc2. Most of the pseudoscientific claims defy the known laws of Newtonian physics and invoke misunderstood/misrepresentations of quantum physics. 

Furthermore, there is no consistency in their supposed powers--each culture and sect of crystal worship attributes different properties to the same crystal compositions--much like astrology.  

Any anecdotal reports of their benefit are due to psychology (placebo) rather than the physical properties of crystals. So, if you believe in them, and it helps, then, by all means, continue using them. But be wary of anyone making claims of their healing powers that could divert a person away from actual proven treatments and those charging large amounts of money for pretty rocks to take advantage of desperate people suffering from real ailments.