Scientific Studies in Crystal Healing

As a telecommunication engineer, I am a big fan of science and its developments. Technological developments are indeed fascinating to follow and to see how those are affecting the day to day life of ours.

I am also a huge nature lover and I love to spend time in the nature whenever possible. I started studying Gemology by accident but soon I felt in love with the subject mainly because gemstones are one amazing creation of nature. Then I started this website to share information about different gemstones and most of these posts contains the metaphysical powers of gemstones and crystals.

From many comments I got for the posts, I realized that there are so many who are skeptic about these so called “powers” of crystals as most of us only believe what we see or what science discovers. The science lovers and also others who are skeptic about the powers of gemstone and crystals are looking for scientific studies in crystal healing.

I did some research on the scientific studies done on crystal healing and the power of gemstones and thought of sharing some of my findings for the benefit of all of us, including the ones who already believe in gemstones.

As there are many areas of studies, I will probably do a series of articles on this subject and this will be the first.

Let’s get it started.

A Study On The Gemstone Powers and The Placebo Effect

I thought it is better to start with a research that came up with conclusions against the belief of gemstones and crystal having powers. Here is one such research.

What is a placebo effect? When researchers wants to find the actual effect of the test object, they divide the test group into two and give the actual object to one group and a fake object to the other group which is called the placebo. No-one in either groups know who is getting the actual object or the placebo.

In 2001, Dr. Chris French, a psychologist from Goldsmith College did a test on the healing powers of crystals using the placebo test. He took 80 volunteers and gave everyone crystals and a book containing information of mystic powers of those crystals.   Forty volunteers got the actual crystals while the other forty got fake plastic pieces as crystals.  Dr. Chris French claimed that except for 6% of the volunteers who claimed they did not feel anything, all others reported to feel the positive effects mentioned in the book.

After this study, Dr. Richard Wiseman, a psychologist and a researcher to paranormal claims at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield said the following regarding the study to the Telegraph UK.

“It is suggestive that the power of crystals is in the mind instead of in the crystals. Clearly there is an effect, but people are paying hundreds of pounds for crystal and they might as well pay just a couple of quid.”

I think, he was compelled to say “there is something” because only 6% said they didn’t feel anything.

So, in summary, the result of the test is that a larger majority of those who had a fake crystal said they felt the benefits while a larger majority of the ones who got the real thing also said they felt benefits.

Are these test results enough to come to the conclusion that power of crystals and gemstones lie only in the mind?

Let’s discuss some other scientific evidence as well before jumping to conclusions.

Scientific Studies in Crystal Healing

Here, I am going to present three studies done on three different aspect of crystals and gemstone. First study was done to test the effect of human energy field. The second was done to test the cleansing abilities of crystals and the third is a study done to find the effect of colors on people.

1. Crystals Effect on Human Energy Field

When I was doing my research on ‘scientific studies in crystal healing” I came across an extremely interesting research done by Professor Maria Kuman of Holistic Research Institute of USA.

She has used her own patented technology to measure the subtle variation of the Electro Magnetic Field (EMF) when a Reiki master is healing a patient without crystals and with crystals. ( You can find more about Reiki here)

In her test, she measure energy (EMF) at different parts of the body during these two scenarios. It is a proven fact that the energy of different parts of the body should be nearly the same when we are in good health and it will vary when we are not in good health. This means that the body is not properly energy balanced when we are sick.

The energy measured at different parts with and without crystals clearly show a difference and it is higher and more balance when treated with crystals. Please refer to image 1. ( You can find the research paper here )

The patients were not told that the crystals are used in order to remove the placebo effect and the test was done for a second time in reverse order as well (i.e. crystals were used in the first session and the second session was done without crystals in order to make sure that the difference was not simply because of the first and second healing sessions) .

The healer’s energy was also measured in these two scenarios and even the healers energy was higher and more balanced when crystals were used.

This research provides scientific evidence to the positive effect crystals have on the energy field on humans.

Let’s look at a slightly different research.

2. Water Purification Quality of Crystals

VitaJuwel is a company who manufactures water bottles with crystals inside and they claim that crystals transmit their power to drinking water. Institute Hagalis, an international research laboratory for water quality did a test about the claims of VitaJuwel.

They took two water samples from the Lake Constance in Ueberlingen in Germany and one was treated with VitaJuwel drink bottle.  The institute, in their test results, claimed that VitaJuwel bottle managed to improve the quality of water, neutralize harmful substances, improve pH value, improve the oxygen content, increase the bio availability of minerals and many other improvements.

Well, that’s a lot of benefits just by inserting crystals in a water bottle.

3. Effect of Colors 

When discussing scientific studies in crystal healing, the studies done on positive effects of colors are also important.

The effect of colors are frequently discussed in the field of Consumer Psychology. Red and Blue are strongly associated with power and victory. It says that the wearer of red or blue is motivated to take more action and win.

Well, I know what you are thinking now. You want scientific evidence. So, here you go.

Scientists from Plymouth and Durham Universities analyzed the history of 68 English soccer teams from 1946 to 2013.  The results showed that the teams who wore red won more matches than they lost regardless of their winning record or experience.

A research done by Durham University showed that in 2004 Olympics, those who wore red won 55% of all competitions.  Given the number of colors sportsman wear, 55% winning for one color is extraordinary.

Still not convinced? Do a google image search for “Tiger Woods winning”.  You will realize why the best player in the history of Golf was wearing red all the time.

If you are not a fan of Red, try going with blue. Here is a study of NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship winners from 1940 to 2015. This shows the effect of blue on winning teams.

There are many more research done to show the effect of colors on victory and a simple google search will bring all the information to you.

Therefore, the power of a gemstone lies in its color as well since different colors help to bring out different qualities of humans. ( E.g. Checkout my article on Blue Sapphires)

Here is a good test you can try at your home if you want to test the power of crystals for you selves.

Final Thoughts

Well, I agree that this was a heavy article. But scientific studies in crystal healing is really a very interesting subject to study.

In this article, I covered only few areas such as gemstones effect on energy fields, its cleansing abilities and the psychological effects of colors.  I hope to write more articles on this topic as it is indeed an exciting subject to study.

I believe you liked this post and it will be great to hear your thoughts. Please also let me know any questions you might have.