The popularity of healing crystals has increased in recent years. More people are becoming open to the idea of spiritual wellness and the properties that crystals may have. But anything that becomes mainstream comes with a price, and this price also questions authenticity.
Healing crystals are all about high vibrational energy. Whether you are looking to eliminate negative energy in your space or bring more love into your life, there is a crystal for you with those working powers and positivity.
According to an article on Livescience.com, this spiritual practice dates back at least 6,000 years to the spiritual work of ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia and Egyptians who used crystals to reject negative energies.
The article discusses how “the philosophy of modern crystal healing is based on traditional concepts borrowed from Asian cultures, most notably the Chinese concept of life-energy (chi or qi) and the Hindu or Buddhist concept of chakras, which are vortices of this life-energy, said to connect the physical and supernatural elements of the body.”
Crystal healing is not something that anyone can jump right into because of the immense research it takes to choose the crystals whose properties you need, where to buy them and how to cleanse them from old or negative energies after usage. Finding a local crystal shop is your best bet rather than a retail or discount store.
A part of the research process before buying new crystals is learning the differences between man-made or lab-grown crystals and natural ones. The Smithsonian Education website explains that natural crystals have been created through a scientific process of fluid, heat and pressure underground for billions of years, which is no comparison to crystals that are man-made.
Heather Askinosie, a spiritual worker, and co-founder of a crystal shop called Energy Muse, expressed her concerns about lab-grown crystals to wellandgood.com. She is quoted in an article on its website.
“When a crystal forms of natural circumstances, it holds the energy, memories, and history of its surroundings: the earth,” Askinosie said. “[A lab-grown crystal] holds the artificial energy of how it was created.”
From $12.99 healing crystal starter kits in Spencer’s and $3.25 crystal necklaces in Five Below, it is becoming harder to trust the legitimacy of these cheaply sold gems in chain stores.
Rain Bryant, spiritual worker and manager of the metaphysical shop called the Bodhi Tree in Governor’s Square Mall, believes that energy and shopping with intention are the biggest things to focus on when shopping for authentic crystals. If a store has good and positive energy, you are buying crystals from the right place.
“Instead of helping people based, it’s making money based, especially if it’s [crystals] not real and authentic,” said Bryant as she explained her position on stores allegedly selling unauthentic crystals.
Bryant said her store only sells natural crystals that come straight from the earth with many in-house crystals imported from places like South America.
Many healing crystals are rare and cannot be found naturally in your backyard, which explains why lab-grown crystals allegedly sold in stores tend to be cheaper than those in legitimate metaphysical shops. According to Wellandgood.com, checking the shape, color and texture of a crystal may help you decipher if your crystal is natural or not.
If you plan on shopping for crystals any time soon, do your research to familiarize yourself with this healing practice and shop at your local metaphysical store to buy natural crystals.