Popular Delusions X: Crystal Power
To make it big the tenth installment of Popular Delusions, I'm turning my publicity to one of the most common and enduring superstitions among the New Age set: the confidence that naturally occurring crystals have some clear up of special power to store, cluster, or focus vaguely defined "energies".
A web search swiftly brings up hundreds of sites discussing the magical potencies of diversified crystals, most of which have to do with their supposed healing powers. Here's an from A to Z typical example:
Bloodstones are believed to have unrevealed and magickal powers, thought to be skilful to control the weather and have the ability to deport evil and negativity and to direct religious energy. It heightens the intuition and stimulates dreaming. It is a high revitalizer of your body and your mind. Bloodstone calms the disapprove of, dispels confusion and aids in the firmness making process. As the name suggests, they are very well-mannered at cleansing the blood and are known to be a energetic healer. It is used for an energy cleanser and exempt stimulator for acute infections. It aids the status and reduces the formation of pus, neutralizing over acidification. It cleanses the decrease chakras and realigns their energies.
All that in one stone! Others even review the supposed side effects or dangers of wrong crystal use:
If a woman is trying to get pregnant or is in the first two trimesters of pregnancy, she should circumvent any direct contact with Green Tourmaline.... Manipulating a lady's male energies by wearing Na Tourmaline could upset her endocrine system and could compromise the pregnancy or mayhap harm the fetus.
Who knew unpretentious crystals could be so dangerous? If this was true, one would entertain the idea the many sites that sell green tourmaline should be shown with warnings. They might be exposing themselves to serious legal encumbrance by selling those stones to just anyone! (I have to allow, I would just love to see that lawsuit...)
On the other tender, other crystal-boosting sites seem to shrug off these dangers. For model:
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: $2.99 
