Crystal Energy in Metaphysics

While crystals are often recognised for its geological and ornamental value, it is the other mysterious and often enigmatic side of crystals that is seldom discussed – a topic that is generally unknown to many – the use of Crystal Energy in Metaphysics.

What is metaphysics? Is it a branch of science, like physics? Not quite. The definition for metaphysics given in my dictionary is: the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and space – an abstract theory or talk with no basis in reality.

And, that is precisely what crystal in metaphysics is – an abstract theory and talk with no basis in reality. At least to the uninitiated. The same could be said about holy figures of practically any religion today, and yet we spend millions building structures and devote ourselves to worshipping them, all in good faith without the need for hard evidence.

A History on Crystal Use in Past Civilisations

The use of crystal as a metaphysical tool is often linked to the word New Age in this day and time. However, there is nothing “New Age” about the use of crystal as a metaphysical tool in human civilisation. The term was coined due to the dawning of the new age – with the Age of Aquarius and its new beginnings, following the renewed realisation and awareness in the capabilities of the mineral kingdom beyond the expectations of every day living. But due to the way crystals have been commercially exploited, the term New Age had become a dirty connotation to some.

The use of crystal for its mysterious properties has its roots in antiquity. It is almost impossible to discuss crystal topics without touching on the history of Atlantis. The story of this antediluvian city is a long one and warrants a separate article on its own. Very briefly, it was crystals which led to the height of the Atlantean civilisation, and ultimately to its very own demise. I plan to write about this in an article another day, and will link from here when it is done.

But elsewhere in history, the following records are documented:

• In Christianity, Moses was given detailed instruction by God on how twelve crystals were to be assembled on the Breastplate of the High Priests. These crystals included Emerald, Topaz, Beryl, Amethyst and Sapphire arranged in a particular order of three columns and four rows. The different crystals represented the 12 ancient Tribes of Israel. God had also given instructions for the use of Onyx inside the tabernacle as passed down by Moses to the people, documented in the Book of Exodus. In fact, there are more than 200 references to crystals in the Holy Bible.



• In Islam, there are 5 important gemstones but probably none as important and revered as Carnelian, for Prophet Muhammad was known to have worn one mounted on a silver ring with the stone facing inwards toward the palm. Carnelian (or aqeeq as it is known) is said to protect one from enemies and misfortune and is thus a popular gemstone amongst Muslims. Also, millions of Muslim pilgrims make the trip to Mecca each year to circle around the Kaaba, where the Black Stone (shown at right), believed to be from the time of Adam and Eve, resides. The dark rock, believed by some to be a meteorite, is touched and kissed on by the pilgrims.
• Written in early Sanskrit, the ancient Hindu scriptures of sacred knowledge – the Vedas, contain philosophy and ritual guidance for the priests of Vedic religion, as well as include a number of references on the use of crystals and gemstones in daily life. The ancient texts describe how precious gemstones held powers that influence subtle energies, and because they were associated with the gods, these gemstones had the power to heal and influence destiny.



• In Tibetan Buddhism, a perfectly clear Quartz crystal is a symbol of the primordial wisdom. Prayer beads are often made of quartz, amethyst or other semi-precious gems. These crystals facilitate meditation, and aid on the path towards enlightenment.
• Native Americans, in particular the Apache and Cherokee tribes, use crystals in their daily life for guidance and as tools for healing and treatment of ailments.
• …and other accounts of early civilisations of the Mayans, Incas, Egyptians, Greeks and Druids where the use of crystals was beyond mere ornamental. The words amulet and talisman come to mind.

Problem is, many people today think that civilisations of the past who used crystals were delusional, or link them with the level of understanding as the Neanderthals. There is certainly nothing neanderthalic (if there is such a word) about the people from these past civilisations mentioned above.

James Randi and the Skeptics Debunk

James Randi debunked crystal power and applied kinesiology in the 90s with probably good intentions. The video of this can be easily found on YouTube by searching the keywords (the first 8 words) in the sentence preceding this. However, from that particular video, I find the demonstration itself flawed in a number of ways:

1. The crystal healer in the programme, Soozi Holbeche, despite having had genuine spiritual awakening, being well-versed in her art and an expert on her subject, cannot be considered to represent the entire art of crystal healing. The art or study of crystal metaphysics is a non-regulated one with many unknowns still, unlike Medicine, where a doctor who has undergone formal education and training on subjects that are scientifically already proven with established facts where baselines can be drawn, can speak on the subject and on behalf of the entire medical fraternity. The handing over of the crystal to a totally untrained non-practitioner, is definitely a fault. Similarly, you wouldn’t hand a scalpel to an untrained non-surgeon and expect miracles to happen. Crystal metaphysics is NOT magic, as is often assumed and misunderstood.
2. Applied kinesiology. I am familiar with the term, and crystal healing is in most part about it. But is a raised arm really the appropriate way to test it, and more importantly, does the failure of such “tests” conclude that crystal healing does not exist? Personally, I think the raised arm method is bogus and doesn’t amount to anything. Crystal energy certainly isn’t at all about that. Perhaps a gym regime would have been more relevant. Given the comments I’ve read online (no less by those in the scientific-based community), I am surprised that this methodology was even accepted, although it may have been proposed by Soozi herself. The methodology should have been challenged in the first place. The raised arm test is a fallacy in itself. Science-based tests are all about repeatability, and where is the repeatability if the consistency of pressure exerted in one case cannot be made certain in the next? No arm pressure exerted force readings in Newtons were given. Why not the radionic device known as the Omega 5 from Marcel Vogel’s work?

Skeptics seem to only want to believe what they want to believe, regardless of the methodology, whenever the outcome suits their purpose. The same can even more often be said about the other side of science – the metaphysics – although true metaphysicians have nothing to prove to anyone but to themselves, in a journey of self-discovery.

I think it is of utmost importance, that for one to comprehend crystal metaphysical energy in healing or as a tool, the subject has to be properly understood and practised in its entirety. One cannot just read five books on the subject and conclude that crystals can serve mankind more than the transparent minerals that they are. Or worse, hold a crystal with no prior training and attunement, and expect it to perform miracles. I personally believe crystal metaphysics is more difficult to master than many science-based subjects for it requires non-common prerequisites, and without the essential spiritual training and background (which I gather nearly all naysayers do not have, including some self-proclaimed crystal healers), crystal healing would appear to be practically nonsense. Not many would have the patience or ability to put in just one hour of stillness and silence to undergo proper meditation as part of the practice – it is not as easy as it sounds.

Most people are usually afraid of what they do not understand, and prefer to dismiss it as hogwash rather than giving it a second look. Or, as the case may be, testing the unknown with dubious means. Ignorance is not the problem, but zealotry is, followed by an unwillingness to keep an open mind towards the unknown. Of course, James Randi has a quote (left) which is relevant to this. Whichever way you look at it, there will never be an end to this argument and, as is the case in the never-ending argument over religions for centuries, both sides would do well to just leave the other side alone, if there is nothing constructive to contribute towards either’s progress.

Luckily for those who are keen to understand crystal metaphysics, there’s this nice chap named Marcel Vogel.

Marcel Vogel

Born 14th April 1917 in San Francisco, Dr. Marcel Vogel was a research scientist at the IBM San Jose Research Center for 27 years. Being one of the most prolific scientists in the history of IBM, he had over a hundred patents to his name. He invented the magnetic coating for the 24-inch hard disk drive system for IBM, and contributed immensely in the fields of luminescence, phosphor technology and liquid crystal systems. But he’s probably best known for his work and experiments with crystal energies, man-plant communication, and eventually for the crystals that still carry his name today – the Vogel-cut® crystals.

If there was a scientist who came close to understanding the mechanics and true potential of crystals, it was Marcel Vogel. Marcel left behind a huge legacy, and his story is one that should be an article on its own which I hope to be able to write about someday. Interestingly, the life path that Marcel took was incredibly similar to mine in many aspects, as I came to know recently.

Marcel’s story is quite an interesting one, and his dedication towards the study of phosphors and luminescence led him to great advances in this field. His contribution to science is a little too detailed to outline in this article (I tried), so I’ll be focusing solely on his work on crystal metaphysics, with some relevant side topics.

In 1969, Marcel stumbled upon an article entitled “Do Plants Have Emotions?” in a magazine, and decided to explore on this controversial subject. He was able to demonstrate that plants respond to thoughts, and act as transducers for bio-energetic fields that the human mind releases. It seemed that plants responded more sensitively to the thought of being cut, burned or torn projected from the human mind, than the actual physical act of those. The responsiveness to thought was regardless of distance, and the result of the experiments showed that the inverse square law does not apply to thought. Keeping an open mind for the unknown, it was at this stage that Marcel went from being a rational scientist to a spiritual one.

Marcel began venturing into crystals, specifically quartz crystals, and discovered that his thoughts and intentions could be transferred with a pulsed breath, amplified by a properly activated crystal. One morning at IBM, a colleague named Chuck Mignosa approached Marcel complaining about his back pain from skiing over the weekend. Without much thought, Marcel pulled his crystal from his lab coat, looked at it, and pulsed his breath, which sent a charge through the crystal which happened to be pointing towards Chuck. Chuck’s head immediately fell back as he entered into an altered state of consciousness, and fell to the floor. While Marcel didn’t think there was anything to it, Chuck was thankful that his back pain was now gone.

Marcel spent 17 years of research into such applications of the quartz crystal after that incident, and quickly realised the limitations of raw natural quartz. It’s not that uncut quartz did not work – they were simply inconsistent in their abilities due to variables in diversity. They were capable of storing, amplifying and transferring information, but they could not focus the energies as effectively as one which carried a specific form and shape. It was then that Marcel envisioned the idea of faceting quartz so that experiments could be repeatable, but the questioned posed to him then was – what form and shape? One morning in 1974, he woke up and saw a form in his mind – the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. At that time, this Judaism esoteric school of thought was unfamiliar to him, and had only visualise the outline of the 10 Sefirot forming a bi-terminated structure (as shown at right). For the next entire year, Marcel would spend most of his lunch hours at the IBM glass shop attempting to facet raw quartz crystals into the form and geometry as he had seen. After numerous versions of the cut crystals, he was able to develop a protocol, using crystals as energetic scalpels in etheric surgery, to remove undesirable vibrations and thoughtforms from an individual in distress. He developed various methods for remote and self-healing using his Vogel-cut crystals.

A true Vogel crystal is expensive as there are only three or so qualified cutters in the world today who were under the direct tutelage of Marcel. Prices range from the hundreds to the thousands of dollars for one of these. One would think that stories were conjured to commercially capitalise on the Vogel-cut crystals, but it is my personal opinion that this is not the case. Optically-clear raw natural quartz crystals are expensive to begin with, and the expertise required to shape these to their functional form is not simply a matter of lapidary skills (the often-overlooked intent is an important necessary ingredient), as had been shown to be the case with similarly faceted crystals by skilled Brazilian and German cutters. Authentic Vogel crystals may be obtained from www.vogelcrystals.net and www.crystalwings.com. Some information is also available at Luminary Studios, owned by Drew Tousley, one of the original cutters who used to work with Marcel.

Marcel Vogel died in 1991, leaving behind more information and relevant scientific-based research notes on crystal healing than anyone else had done before him. More about the man himself can be read in this well-written comprehensive article on The Legacy of Marcel Vogel.

Edgar Cayce

Edgar Cayce (18 March 1877 – 3 January 1945) was an American psychic who possessed the ability to tap into the Akashic Records and provide answers to questions on healing, health, reincarnation, wars and the story of Atlantis (Note: It is not the intention of this article to prove the existence of the Akashic Records, which should be easy to read more about online). These answers were always revealed by “the voice” while he was in a state of trance while being hypnotised, which earned him the nickname “the Sleeping Prophet”. In 1925, whilst in a trance, “the voice” had instructed him to Virginia Beach, across the street from the beach as the sand crystals there would have curative properties that promote rapid healing.

From the availability of records at his non-profit organisation known as the Association for Research and Enlightenment, a number of authors have written books based on Cayce’s readings on rocks, minerals, crystals and gemstones. I have two of these books in my library:

1. Edgar Cayce on the Power of Color, Stones, and Crystals by Dan Campbell
2. Edgar Cayce Guide to Gemstones, Minerals, Metals, and More by Shelley Kaehr, PhD

My Personal Experiences Working with Crystal Energy in Metaphysics

I have been involved in crystal metaphysics when I first discovered it in 1989, but only became more active since 2007 with better understanding on the topic. My personal crystal collection may be found here. I have had amazing experiences with them, and will just outline a few notable examples in the following:

In Pain Relief

• In 2008, I was suffering from some pain deep within the bones on my right shoulder and upper arm. I am not one who will resort to paracetamol for pain relieve, and usually prefer the non-chemical approach to treat such ailments. I reasoned that it was the kind of pain that would go away on its own after a number of days, but two weeks had passed and the pain was just as bad as when it started – it did not subside the slightest bit. On the third week, while walking at a shopping mall, the pain was so uncomfortable that I decided to try and use some energy healing. I used a smoky quartz (right and below), and visualised light that could heal pain gathering at the bottom of the crystal and became amplified as it travelled through the crystal, and then emanated at the tip with the most potent energy. This energy was directed at the region of pain, and in a matter of seconds, it was gone. Just like that. A pain which had lasted for 3 weeks was now totally gone. Either the pain or the energy healing was in my head wasn’t quite as important. The pain totally went away as if I had flicked an off switch for pain, and it felt as if I never had it at all.
• In 2013, I was suffering from a toothache on my left molar for a few days, and again I found myself walking at a shopping mall. Not willing to put up with the discomfort, I took a different smoky quartz (shown further below), focused on the coldness of the crystal and visualise it taking the place of my molar, as if my molar was replaced with the crystal, and in less than a minute, the pain was gone. I have not visited a dentist since, and the toothache never came back.

In Manifestation

• In 2009, I had needed some money to buy something which I needed quite badly. It wasn’t a huge amount, but having it then would have been preferable. I used the smoky quartz (above) and the Kabbalistic Tree of Life concept of “as above so below” to visualise the realisation and materialisation of the desire. I was reading about the Kabbalah at that time, and intuitively decided to use the same imagery of the sefirot for the manifestation of thought to the physical plane. The next day, a friend unexpectedly called to pass me the exact amount of money I needed, payment for an old job done which I had not collected.
• Not too long ago, again, I found myself needing a small amount of money to buy something. It wasn’t an object of critical necessity, but nevertheless something I didn’t want to use available funds then to buy. I had only needed $250 for this purchase. I took the smoky quartz (above) and used the same visualisation technique. Within the same hour, at 12 noon sharp as I remembered, an acquaintance called on the phone to return me the $250 I had loaned to him a few months before. He was a mattress salesman I had met at a shop months before, who desperately needed money to save his brother from the loan sharks due to a gambling debt. I had “loaned” him the money, not expecting to ever see him or the money ever again.

These and other events occur in ways where it’s difficult to simply justify with coincidence, and in the case of pain relief, placebo certainly comes close, but as long as it works, I accept it for what it is with gratitude. There are other occurrences which I am not too comfortable discussing or revealing here. I will not discredit or play down any of these experiences. At the moment, it requires of me a better and deeper understanding of the art, and my research shall go on indefinitely. I am not writing this article to prove that anything works, but merely to share my experiences, and to find others who have had similar experiences to share.

I also think most people misinterpret the term crystal healing, and often associate the word healing with the curing of diseases, expecting that crystals can take the place of conventional medicine and cure critical illnesses the likes of AIDS and cancer. It is my opinion that healing in this sense is taken to mean the healing spiritually of oneself, the realisation of our cosmic origin, that we are related to one another beyond what is plainly visible on the material plane. Oh, and to a certain extent, healing in the relief of pain as well, as I’ve encountered first hand!

It is normal, as I have experienced with both the natural quartz crystals above, to encounter headaches when first acquiring and getting use to them new. This usually takes about 30 to 45 days of acclimatization, during what I would term as the metaphysical adoption stage, which I suspect is the bringing of equilibrium of two different frequencies – usually the practitioner following the crystal. Others have also reported similar experience as I have come to learn. The inverse can happen as well, resulting in a cracked crystal, though this is more uncommon.

What is Science, anyway?

Searching for hard evidence of metaphysical energy within quartz crystals is like searching for hard evidence of the soul within the human body. Does the mere absence of the soul undetected mean that the soul does not exist? Could the discredit hurled towards crystal practitioners be similar to the “heresy” Galileo Galilei was accused of for subscribing to the Copernican heliocentrism – that the earth was not the centre of the universe as was accepted by the church then?

This is best discussed by bringing up the phrase “If, a hundred years ago…“.

If, a hundred years ago in 1914, someone were to say that quartz crystals could be used as an oscillator to create a signal with very precise frequency for radio transmitters and receivers, it could have been dismissed. 12 years later in 1926, radio broadcasting stations and amateur radio operators made this a reality. 100 years before that, people would have dismissed and laughed this notion off as nonsense.

If, a hundred years ago in 1914, someone were to say quartz crystals could be used in the very precise measurement for a second in timekeeping, it could have been dismissed. 14 years later in 1928, Warren Marrison of Bell Telephone Laboratories developed the first quartz crystal clock. We take this forgranted these days with the quartz crystals in our watches.

If, a hundred years ago in 1914, someone were to say ruby crystal rods could be used to amplify light to produce a coherent beam which could eventually be designed to burn, it too, could have been easily dismissed, only to be realised in 1960 when Theodore Maiman built the first laser out of a pink ruby rod with Brewster windows, despite many scientists who at that time had doubts about ruby being an effective laser medium. Could Marcel Vogel have hit a critical point with his idea on faceting quartz crystals?

If, a hundred years ago in 1914, someone were to say silicon crystals could be used to store information, it would have been dismissed. We take forgranted that the ubiquitous flash drives of today evolved from the flash memory consisting of silicon crystals invented by Dr Fujio Masuoka in the 1980s.

As reported in the September 1994 issue of Newsweek, Stanford University physicists have successfully demonstrated a fully digital model of a device which stores information holographically within the subatomic structure of a crystal. An image of the Mona Lisa was stored and retrieved. While the crystal then only held 163kB of memory, it is expected that up to one million megabytes of memory could be stored. The article further stated that crystals store information in 3D, and could be ten times faster than the fastest system then available. No doubt a progress in science and technology.

Long before that, it was already believed that quartz crystals have the capacity to store information, before science came along and made it happen. So what if, thought could affect matter, and hence transfer information to be stored in crystals as is postulated, but we’re just not advanced enough to detect and measure this, at this point in time?

Perhaps we are jumping the gun without having seen the study of crystal metaphysics evolve to its fullest potential yet. Perhaps our scientific measuring devices are currently just too “primitive” for us to conduct tests on this unknown phenomenon to take us to the next level, devices which can measure and prove conclusively that crystal energies have an effect on the physical plane. It would be arrogant of us to assume that we know everything today, when the future still holds much more than meets the eye.

Marcel Vogel for one, understood why scientific investigations in the area of subtle energies such as crystal healing cannot be replicated on demand as it was not a matter of scientific protocol, but of relationship requiring the greatest cohering agent – love. Sadly, most scientists do not consider this to be an important enough ingredient in the test methodologies.

Crystals serve as tools that amplify the power of the mind, helping to focus thought into a coherent energy that facilitates healing and the structuring of matter. Like a scalpel in the hands of the non-surgeon, a crystal is practically useless in the hands of the untrained person and unconditioned mind, and requires activation and a prior connection to its caretaker who is committed to spiritual work and meditation. At least, these are the results of my findings, personal experience, and study of this subject over the years.

Note: All the books suggested further below are from my library on this subject. Books for the advanced user require some level of understanding on the art before the contents can be appreciated.