Well, you have come to the right place my friend! Be prepared to have your mind blown :)
Historically, crystals have been used by the likes of the Romans, the Ancient Egyptians, the Chinese, the Ancient Greeks, Indians and the Ancient Japanese to promote healing, enlightenment and the attraction and fulfillment of all forms of desire. Crystal use dates back at least 6,000 years to the time of
the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia. They are considered to have metaphysical properties and some even claim psychic abilities with regular use. So it leads to the question….what’s so special about crystals?? Well, I must admit, I have never been the superstitious kind or believed in the benefits of rocks and stones (other than the apparent aesthetic ones of course) … so surely, I should leave the wonders of crystal use to my fellow ‘woo-woo -hippy’ counterparts, who quite clearly live in ‘La-la’ land….right? Wrong! I have swallowed my pride and become a true convert … I am the proud owner of a wide array of beautiful crystals. My journey with crystals started fairly recently, and now, not only do I carry one with me wherever I go, I gift them to friends and family, keep some in my water filter, make grids out of them, dote over them like they are my small (but very real!) family members and dream of mining crystals myself one day! Crazy huh? Please read on! Let’s take a closer look at what the fuss is all about …
All crystals (or Crystalline Silica to be precise) are considered to be one of the building blocks of life. They are made from the 2 most abundant elements on the planet – Silicon and Oxygen. The atoms bond together, under pressure, after which they arrange, incredibly stably, into a three-dimensionally repeating pattern giving the ‘crystal’ its structure. (Think floor tiles!)
Together, silicon and oxygen make up approximately 80% of the earths crust. Silicon is also an excellent conductor of electricity and, therefore, crystals are of great use in the technology industry. These properties have made Crystalline Silica an indispensable component of the natural and technological worlds. The crystal – Quartz – is one of the most stable crystalline structures around and therefore widely used. It is commonly used in transistors, the world of integrated circuits and is the backbone of all computer chips. It is also used in all forms of electronics including telephones, mobile military radios and advanced electronic systems. In the field of laser optics, quartz is used as prisms, timing devices optical filters. Certain crystals are also used for quartz watches and other time-keeping devices. It seems we are heavily dependent upon crystal technology in our everyday lives! Naturally, quartz is also a component of all forms of soil, dust and sand. It is abundant in igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rock forms. Certain microorganisms (radiolarians) use the compound, taken from water, to form their structures and shells. Quartz is also important in the construction trade. Concrete and cement are made using it, as well as plastic, rubbers and paint! Stone is between 70 – 90% quartz… I wonder whether quartz’ electrical, sound and light conducting properties had anything to do with their use in ancient stone structures! Hmmm….. So, how do crystals work? Quartz crystals possess a very unique property called piezoelectricity. A piezoelectric crystal converts mechanical pressure into electricity. That means that bending or stretching or compressing the crystal creates an electrical current. The reverse is also true; an electrical current causes the crystal to bend, stretch, or compress. When a quartz crystal is cut, or struck together, the pressure applied to it generates an electrical charge. When an electric charge is applied to the quartz, the crystal distorts, and as the voltage is removed, the crystal creates an electric field…. it vibrates…sometimes 30,000 times per second! Considering our bodies are constantly producing electrical signals, the interaction between us and crystals is pretty clear. Did you know, crystals can absorb an indefinite amount of energy? Researchers have been able to demonstrate the ability to store massive amounts of data indefinitely in a synthetic crystal. The research was led by Jingyu Zhang from the University of Southampton in the U.K. He successfully recorded a 300KB digital copy of a text file onto nanostructured glass using ultrafast and intense pulse laser. (Read the article HERE). They also stated that is able to store the vast quantities of data for more than a million years! Furthermore, the crystal was capable of thermal stability up to 1000°C! Have a look at the technical spiel below if you dare!….
“The prototype is made of a square of quartz two centimeters wide and two millimeters thick. It houses four layers of dots that are created with a femtosecond laser, which produces extremely short pulses of light. The dots represent information in binary form, a standard that should be comprehensible even in the distant future and can be read with a basic optical microscope. Because the layers are embedded, surface erosion would not affect them.”
- From the Scientific American Journal
This information suggests that crystals (specifically quartz) have the ability to store information through the medium of laser technology (which are effectively – wavelengths of energy). Furthermore, it suggest that this absorption process works particularly well with high intensity waveforms. This may be particularly useful when it comes to the absorption of other high intensity electromagnetic waves like ionising and non- ionising radiation! Certain forms of radiation are slower moving and are not deeply penetrating into the body (non-ionising radiation), like sunlight, heat and sound. Other types of radiation are fast moving and extremely harmful (ionising radiation), like the ones used in MRI scans and Gamma radiation. Could crystals play a useful role here? The damaging effects of high intensity ionising radiation appears to be at the forefront of our minds. The impact of radiation poisoning caused by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, for instance, can still be seen today. There are approximately 500 nuclear reactors worldwide used for the production of electricity. (Only about 10% of electricity is produced this way might I add!). A meltdown at a Japanese nuclear facility, near Fukushima, during the Tsunami of 2004, resulted in over 800 tonnes of radioactive material leaking into the Pacific ocean, every single day since then! Subsequently, the devastating effects on underwater wildlife is alarming apparent. Could crystals maybe help to purify radiation poisoning within the oceans and absorb the high intensity Gamma waves? The movement led by the Shaman Little Grandmother Kiesha, to place crystals into the Pacific Ocean to absorb radiation poisoning suddenly bears a lot more weight! (You might want to check her out!)
The benefits of crystals may well be underappreciated and poorly researched at this stage. Crystals have the amazing ability to influence and interact with our energy fields. They are unique, in that they are conductors of light, sound and electricity, yet can absorb high intensity energy endlessly. If nothing else, they are spectacularly beautiful to look at! I, for one, can’t wait to get my next one!
