Crystals, Auras and Energy Healing: History and Evidence

Crystal healing, aura reading and energy healing are related modern practices built on the belief that people and objects carry an invisible subtle energy that can be perceived, balanced and transmitted for healing. Their ingredients are old: ancient and medieval lapidaries described the virtues of gemstones, mesmerists spoke of a magnetic fluid, and Theosophists described coloured auras around the body. In their present form they belong largely to the New Age of the 1970s and after. Controlled studies have not found effects beyond placebo.

Gemstone Lore in the Ancient and Medieval World§

Precious stones have been prized as amulets for as long as there are records. Egyptian amulets of lapis lazuli, carnelian and turquoise carried protective meanings, and Mesopotamian texts list stones with ritual uses. The Greek philosopher Theophrastus wrote a short treatise On Stones in the late fourth century BCE, mostly descriptive, while Pliny the Elder's Natural History (completed around 77 CE) devoted its final book to gems and recorded many beliefs about their powers, often with open skepticism.

The medieval lapidary, a book describing the appearance and virtues of stones, was a popular genre. The Liber lapidum of Marbod, Bishop of Rennes, written in Latin verse in the late eleventh century, was copied and translated widely. Hildegard of Bingen discussed the healing uses of stones in her Physica, and Albertus Magnus wrote a learned Book of Minerals. In this tradition the powers of stones were usually explained through astrological influence or the virtues placed in creation by God, part of the larger system of occult correspondences found in works such as Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Christian writers also interpreted the twelve stones of the high priest's breastplate and of the heavenly Jerusalem symbolically.

From Mesmerism to Odic Force: Invisible Energies§

The modern idea of a healing "energy" owes much to Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815), who taught that a universal magnetic fluid flows through living bodies and that illness results from its obstruction. A French royal commission including Benjamin Franklin and Antoine Lavoisier concluded in 1784 that the effects of mesmerism were due to imagination, but magnetic healing remained popular for generations and fed into New Thought and Spiritualism.

In the 1840s the German chemist Karl von Reichenbach proposed an "odic force" that sensitive subjects claimed to see as a glow around magnets, crystals and human bodies in darkened rooms. Later in the century and into the twentieth, Wilhelm Reich's "orgone" offered another invisible life energy. At the same time, Western interest in the Indian concept of prāṇa and the Chinese concept of qi grew, and these very different traditional ideas were often equated with each other and with mesmeric fluid. See our articles on the chakras and Taoist internal alchemy for their original contexts.

The Aura in Theosophy and Psychical Research§

The word aura comes from Greek and Latin words for breeze or breath, and halos and mandorlas around holy figures in religious art are sometimes cited as precedents. The detailed modern aura, however, is largely the creation of Theosophy. C. W. Leadbeater's Man Visible and Invisible (1902) presented colour plates of auras as he said he saw them clairvoyantly, with colours keyed to emotions and spiritual development, and Thought-Forms (1901), written with Annie Besant, illustrated the shapes that thoughts and feelings were said to take in subtle matter.

In 1911 the London physician Walter Kilner published The Human Atmosphere, claiming that a faint haze around the body could be seen through screens stained with a coal-tar dye called dicyanin, and that it might be useful in diagnosis. His findings were not confirmed by later investigators.

Kirlian photography§

In 1939 the Soviet electrician Semyon Kirlian and his wife Valentina began photographing objects placed on photographic film in a high-voltage electric field, producing glowing outlines. In the 1970s these images were widely promoted as photographs of the aura or "bioenergy". Physicists explain them as corona discharge, whose appearance depends on moisture, pressure, temperature and voltage rather than on any life force.

Crystal Healing and the New Age§

Crystal healing as a recognisable practice arose in the New Age movement of the 1970s and 1980s. The trance readings of Edgar Cayce, which described great energy crystals in Atlantis, were one influence, and books such as Katrina Raphaell's Crystal Enlightenment (1985) set out systems pairing stones with chakras, colours and emotional states. Typical practices include placing stones on the body, wearing them, meditating with them, and "cleansing" or "charging" them by moonlight, sound or running water. Practitioners often cite the piezoelectric property of quartz, its ability to produce a small voltage under mechanical stress, as a basis for healing claims, though this physical property has no known connection to health.

The global market for crystals has also raised ethical concerns, as journalists and researchers have documented poor working conditions and child labour in some mining regions.

Energy Healing: Reiki, Therapeutic Touch and the Biofield§

Several systems of hands-on or hands-near healing became widespread in the late twentieth century. Reiki was developed by Mikao Usui in Japan in the 1920s and brought to the West by Hawayo Takata, who learned it in the 1930s and taught in Hawaii and the mainland United States. Therapeutic Touch was developed in the early 1970s by the nurse Dolores Krieger and the healer Dora Kunz, herself a Theosophist, and practitioners claimed to sense and smooth a patient's energy field without touching the body. In the 1990s some researchers began to use the neutral term "biofield" for the energy such therapies describe.

What the Scientific Evidence Shows§

Scientific research does not support the existence of an aura, a biofield or healing powers in crystals. In a well-known experiment reported in 2001, the psychologist Christopher French and colleagues found that volunteers holding real quartz crystals and glass imitations reported similar sensations, which depended more on their prior beliefs than on the stone. A 1998 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, designed by a schoolgirl, Emily Rosa, found that Therapeutic Touch practitioners could not detect which of their hands was near hers at better than chance. Systematic reviews of Reiki have found no reliable effects beyond placebo.

Researchers note that these practices can still feel relaxing or meaningful, through attention, ritual, expectation and touch. The main risk identified by doctors is when energy treatments are used in place of effective medical care.

Frequently asked questions§

Do crystals have healing powers?§

There is no scientific evidence that crystals have healing powers. Controlled experiments have found that people report similar effects from real crystals and fake ones, which researchers attribute to suggestion and the placebo effect. Many people nonetheless value crystals as aids to meditation or as meaningful objects.

Where does the idea of the aura come from?§

Halos in religious art are sometimes cited as precedents, but the modern coloured aura was described mainly by Theosophical writers such as C. W. Leadbeater around 1900. Later claims to photograph it, such as Kirlian photography, are explained by ordinary electrical effects.

Is energy healing the same as qi or prana?§

Modern energy healing often borrows the language of Chinese qi and Indian prāṇa, but these concepts have their own complex histories in medicine, martial arts and yoga. The Western idea of a universal healing energy owes as much to mesmerism and Theosophy as to Asian traditions.

Sources and further reading§

• On Stones — Theophrastus, c. 315 BCE
• Natural History — Pliny the Elder, c. 77
• Book of Minerals — Albertus Magnus, c. 1260
• Man Visible and Invisible — C. W. Leadbeater, 1902
• Thought-Forms — Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater, 1901
• The Human Atmosphere — Walter J. Kilner, 1911
• Magical Jewels of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance — Joan Evans, 1922
• Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain — Alison Winter, 1998
• New Age Religion and Western Culture — Wouter J. Hanegraaff, 1996
• Snake Oil Science: The Truth About Complementary and Alternative Medicine — R. Barker Bausell, 2007