The reality of healing crystals

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Interesting thought. I used to diss the placebo effect, but now have a different POV. If a patient believes that something will work to help them “heal”, in whatever physical context that is, why not use whatever they’re using as long as it’s not physically harmful and does not imply the use of “magic”. Likewise, such alternative treatments should not be viewed as a replacement for the power of the Almighty.
 
Pattylt said:
We don’t sell the placebo pills as a treatment nor should we sell crystals as a treatment. A placebo only works if the patient believes it will. Selling a rock as a treatment for any illness with the disclaimer that it only works if you think it will, isn’t a great marketing ploy. Claiming anything else, however, is false advertising and quackery.
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Placebo effect releases endorphins and dopamine which reduces pain. It’s not a use of treatment for an illness but the crystals do not have the power to help you, it is the crystals that help you harness the placebo effect to do good. I think you can still have the awareness of the placebo effect and not believe its the rocks themselves helping and still experience the placebo effect as long as you believe the placebo effect WILL help you.
 
I thought having awareness of the placebo effect doesn’t necessarily mean the placebo effect wouldn’t take place?

The placebo effect releases endorphins and dopamine, which reduce pain. As long as you believe that then the placebo should work, which isn’t a deception.
 
, is it of God or is it not?
I think it would depend on your intention. When we discovered nuclear fissile materials we found that they can be used for healing but, we also found that we can use it to destroy cities. Incidentally, nuclear materials are composed of various crystaline lattice structures. Most electronic devices are made up of crystals that are grown in a laboratory. Your smart phone contains billions of them. The computer you use to access the internet is made up of crystals.
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Magnetism and high voltage were probably thought of as demonic or supernatural at one time.
It was actually the study of healing crystals that opened the gateway and led me to becoming more religious and eventually converting to Catholicism, my personal opinion is that it just seems counter productive if the study of healing crystals is demonic.
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I was raised in Catholicism but, I can understand why you would claim spiritual experiences. The crystals I was using were for scientific experiments involving the Pockel’s effect: the electro-optic effect where the refractive index along one or more axes is proportional to an externally applied electric field. Then I began to experience the energy coming from the crystals involving high voltage as an amplifier. Eventually I experimented with herbal remedies along with amplified crystals.
Once you are opened up to the energies of plants and crystals you begin to intuitively know how to use them. Crystals can cause physical problems if you don’t know how to use them. They can also, cause your perceptions to become lightened or darkened which might lead you to believe that you had a light or dark spiritual experience. However, this is true about pharmaceutical medicine. How many warnings about pharmaceutical medicines causing depression and suicide.
There is one experiment that comes to mind. A scientist focused a magnetic field into some patient’s brains and they described angelic and demonic impressions.
in reality its just a natural occurrence of your bio magnetic field reacting to the magnetic field of the stone (just a hypothesis)
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Based on my experiments some crystals react to our body field and visa versa.

I wouldn’t allow a self proclaimed practitioner put crystals on my body. I believe this kind of treatment would require some kind of awareness that is rare.
 
Hedgehog1 said:
I thought having awareness of the placebo effect doesn’t necessarily mean the placebo effect wouldn’t take place?

The placebo effect releases endorphins and dopamine, which reduce pain. As long as you believe that then the placebo should work, which isn’t a deception.
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I’m pretty sure that if you become aware that a substance, pill or rock, is a placebo, it no longer works. Once your brain realizes it’s being “tricked” it fails to trigger the endorphins. Knowledge defeats the effects.
 
I don’t know I think it depends on the individual and ones ability to master your own thoughts and emotions. I can see how being aware of the “trick” can ultimately stop the effects of the placebo. At the same time I feel like if I used the crystals now, I can remember how I felt about them prior to learning that it was a placebo and then sort of trigger the placebo like a muscle memory. Like if your brain learned “crystals = release endorphins” for years and years then once you become aware of it still happens like when you learn how to block your opponents hits in karate and it just starts to happen automatically when someone strikes at you because you have done it so many times.
 
You could test this theory by imagining you’re holding a crystal when you’re not and see if you can trigger the effect? If you can, then the crystal doesn’t matter. It’s just a Jedi mind trick! If you can only do so when holding the crystal, then it’s one piece of anecdote that it might help. The only way you will ever solve your curiosity is to experiment. Or, you can just move on and remember a time when you thought it was real…
 
It’s definitely a “mind over matter” type thing. I think the reason why it’s crystals most of the time and not umbrellas, toilet paper, ordinary rocks etc. Is because there is so much material written down that explain the properties of these stones in detail on top of the fact that they are pretty stones, makes it easier to trust that you will experience the placebo.

In terms of things like mental issues, anxiety, lack of confidence, etc i feel like these mental issues themselves can be overcome by using your imagination, you can search many mental exercises that involve visualization to help overcome social anxiety. That being said the crystals could offer a physical reference to aid you. Very much so with the placebo effect.

There’s lots of different opinions in the catholic community regarding this subject. Its one thing to say its the spawn of satan and another to say they angelic rocks from the 5th dimension. What if it’s neither? Perhaps it’s just a natural method use your mind over matter for mental issues or pain?

It is mind over matter, right now I feel like if you can have the benefits of a placebo effect despite knowing its not actually the crystal itself then lucky for you, you can control dopamine/endorphin releases in your brain thanks to the power of belief. Which then opens up the possibility that using crystals in this way is actually good 🤔
 
Hedgehog1 said:
It is mind over matter, right now I feel like if you can have the benefits of a placebo effect despite knowing its not actually the crystal itself then lucky for you, you can control dopamine/endorphin releases in your brain thanks to the power of belief. Which then opens up the possibility that using crystals in this way is actually good 🤔
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I know many Catholics that get these benefits from an hour or so in Adoration. Have you ever tried that? Definitely approved of by the church so you don’t have to worry about negative reactions.
 
Yes 🙂 there are lots of benefits from an hour of adoration. And I have tried it.

However I don’t think it has to be an “either/or” situation. As you should be able to train your mind to naturally overcome mental issues and go to adoration. Plus its good to expand your horizons when it comes to things like coping mechanisms because there may be times you can’t go to adoration when you want to.
 
drjsp said:
Interesting thought. I used to diss the placebo effect, but now have a different POV. If a patient believes that something will work to help them “heal”, in whatever physical context that is, why not use whatever they’re using as long as it’s not physically harmful and does not imply the use of “magic”. Likewise, such alternative treatments should not be viewed as a replacement for the power of the Almighty.
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I used to diss the placebo as well. With studies done on the placebo effect we can see it releases dopamine/endorphins which relieves pain. The power is you, not the crystal. The crystal allows you to harness the placebo. Which we previously thought the placebo means “no success” which isn’t entirely true. The challenge is to be aware of the placebo but still be able to trigger the placebo. Which I think is perfectly possible, especially if you meditated and trained your thoughts to not influence your expectations.

The crystal is just a visual reference, you could technically use anything but its easier to use crystals for this because there’s alot of material written down about them in detail and they look pretty.

I don’t know, I’m just trying to think about it more academically instead of the ideas you normally see about this subject.
 
Rocks are pretty and/or interesting. People often feel good in some way when they see or handle a pretty, natural object. This is why people go on nature walks and have flowers in their home and have rock collections etc.

One can appreciate crystals for being part of God’s wonderful creation. One can look at or hold a crystal and think about it from that perspective. If one is science or math minded, one can also think about the construction or formation or magnetic properties etc of the crystal, and this might be relaxing.

Crystals don’t have some supernatural power to heal though. People need to appreciate them for what they are, God’s gifts to us, not as having some kind of power unto themselves, or power that comes from the sun or the earth etc.

And the whole idea that this rock helps with energy and that rock helps with anxiety is just a bunch of hokey wishful thinking.
 
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It’s good to have hobbies, and hobbies ought to be realistic. They ought to ground us well and be truly enjoyable. When hobbies become idolatrous or superstitious then they create problems.
 
How about The Dark Crystal?
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Sundiver makes an interesting point. We don’t know everything. Properties of crystals are the subjects of research.

God created a wonderful and complex world. Herbal remedies that 100 years ago were the purview of witches or other pagans are now the basis of some modern medicines. Unless crystal use requires belief in a deity other than the true God, I wouldn’t definitely call it demonic.

Having said that, I own some crystals. They seem like ordinary rocks to me.
 
No. My beliefs are the truth. And this being a Catholic forum, we do not countenance New Age beliefs here (especially in the Moral Theology subforum). They are directly contrary to Church teaching.

If you want some neutral forum, this is not it.
 
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Were not discussing new age beliefs. If you read my original post you would see that I’m not trying to prove the idea that crystals hold a supernatural ability (not the new age belief) but rather from a scientific standpoint that they may have effects that we don’t know much about yet.
 
I gave my opinion on the topic and I believe it to be a reasonable one. I even suggested some scientific ways crystals might make people feel good, by connecting them to God’s natural world, or reminding them of subjects they like to think about.

People are free to disagree, but what I posted comports with Catholic teaching, and you are in Moral Theology subforum. Therefore I did not violate any forum rules.
 
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I listened to an interesting podcast with Jimmy Akin last week where he talked about St Thomas Aquinas’s view on the Occult. He made some interesting remarks about how healing crystals aren’t necessarily out of the realms of possibility, . Unfortunately today the major opinion seems to have shifted to more new age-iness, but it hasn’t always been that way.
 
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