To ask if you think crystals have any power?

[letitgo]

You know like healing or strength or helping you with whatever power the Crystal has?

Is this just a make believe thing like astrology or do you think there is power in crystals?

Of course not. It’s a load of bollocks just like astrology, homeopathy etc.

If they truly had any healing 'power' then the NHS would build hospitals with them!

It's all made up

Absolutely no way. One of my friends was in a woo shop in London and the lady in there was trying to flog him a crystal and enumerating the various ways that it was the answer to his problems. When he said that he couldn't spend £250 on that, she grabbed a totally different smaller one and said you can have this one for £25, it has the same powers. Course it does...

Of course not, I'm not a moron.

I'm pagan, so perhaps considered to be more likely to believe, but no, apart from being pretty, any meaning or power they have is in the mind of the person. Which is not to say I don't have crystals and use them, but I don't believe they are magically doing anything on their own.

As others have said - placebo effect. But the placebo effect is powerful.

Nope

And amazingly, apparently the placebo effect can work well even when a person knows it to be a placebo. That's what blows my mind - our brains are weird.

Yes. My 17yo dd has some crystals and she loves them, but she knows that they don't actually have any mystical powers. The way she has explained it to me is in terms of setting intentions and helping her to focus on the things that are important to her. I think that's fair enough.

Apart from potassium alum crystal its all bollocks😊.
Alum is amazing stuff.

Belief in most things can have power, so if you believe that your crystal has healing power this might help you to cope. I wouldn't use it to the exclusion of modern medicine though.

How much more of this can we take before everybody's brain turns to mush?

Mitchell and Webb did a hilarious take on crystal woo with their “Alternative A and E” sketch. Road casualty rushed in on a trolley by the paramedics:
”His chakras are fading! Quick, get the crystals…”

The way crystals work is by something called anchoring. And the power of suggestion, so if you’re told a certain crystal will help you with anxiety, then simply holding that crystal will help you calm down - cognitive bias has told you to do that. www.calmpathwayscounseling.com/news/07/11/2016/anxiety/calm

Anchoring helps with all kinds of things - making a connection with something to remind you to do something. For example, ages ago I read about doing kegels each time you walk through a doorway 😆 Same difference.

No. If you like crystals, feel free to buy them, but there is no evidence that they have any effect whatsoever. Selling them is simply an industry.

Also, while 'belief' alone might help someone with, eg, low-level anxiety or minor psychosomatic physical ailments, it will absolutely not cure an illness, and it will absolutely not protect you from harm, bring you good luck etc.

The placebo effect is real, but it is also very limited. For instance, a placebo might stop you from feeling mildly queasy from anxiety or travel sickness. It will not cure food poisoning or protect you from norovirus.

Unpopular opinion but I do. I've always believed in it and I'm very open minded.
Despite serious fertility issues, my boyfriend bought me a crystal which is meant to help fertility - and I fell pregnant less than a month after.
Yes i know it would have probably happened anyway, but to me made me believe even more.

No.

NO NO NO but if it makes you happy then why not same goes for clairvoyants.

@MargaretThursday yes sudacreme was magic cream too! I think my DD must have been more stupid than your kids, because the magic cream came straight out of the sudocreme tub.

I don’t think so.

But if I put a crystal on a table, does it have gravitational potential energy?

Obviously not, but I don't think it matters that some people - my daughter for instance - just enjoy the look of them and researching the lore and saving up to buy a pretty one, although she knows that the 'healing powers' bit is nonsense.

I do think it matters when people - a friend of the family, for instance - feels that there's no need to have her children vaccinated because she has made sure that they are protected by a diverse collection of crystals arranged on their bedroom windowsill.

No I don’t believe they heal. Nor do I think anyone should be touting the enormously irresponsible bullshit that they can be used instead of actual medicine.

that said, I have a few crystals. I like holding them when I’m nervous or stressed, they feel calming. Like a fidget spinner or stress ball I guess. They are smooth and cool to the touch, very tactile and and just enjoy rolling them over themselves.

Certainly not! There's a fantastic display of them at our local museum, complete with light show, and they are very beautiful. But, despite lifting them and admiring them in the museum shop (all chucked with gay abandon into plastic boxes and costing about a quid), I have yet to experience anything that makes my life better.

Well personally I think unscientific anti-woo is as bad as unscientific woo.
So, depending on the composition and the time and place of exposure/application, yes, crystals can absolutely have a powerful effect. Why wouldn’t they?

Some well known and powerful crystals for the skeptics;
Polonium
Cocaine
Salt

Can these examples be used extrapolate more subtle effects of less potent compounds/elements used with lesser proximity and time of exposure, such as what one might experience during “crystal therapy”?
Fuck knows but probably not. Or maybe yes if you have literally nothing better to do with your time.

Actually, thinking about it, yes they do.

In the 50's (I think) you could get a crystal radio that used galena. No idea how it worked.