The murky business of crystal mining

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/jun/16/are-crystals-the-new-blood-diamonds-the-truth-about-muky-business-of-healing-stones

by laurex • 7 years ago

39 26 7 years ago

theguardian.com

logfromblammo2• 7 years ago

I first learned about this stuff from the game manual of Conquests of the Longbow. Knowing the spiritual properties of different minerals and gems got me past the guard at the swamp monastery. And I haven't found it useful since.

I bet someone could make some money by inventing a process to "re-naturalize" synthetic mineral crystals to make them look more like naturally-formed mined crystals. It would be unethical lucre, of course, but I might still be able to live with myself if I rationalized it as undercutting Goop, rather than just hoodwinking regular people.

The only ailment you can't cure with bunkum is stupidity.

bredren4• 7 years ago

Anecdotally, I've noticed a rise in interest in collecting crystals and various rocks as a hobby in some of my social circles. In some part, it is because they may have some powers. Or it is fun to imagine it--like a lottery ticket.

But they are also often quite beautiful, and for what it's worth a relatively inexpensive hobby.

eximius• 7 years ago

In some part, it is because they may have some powers.

What.

I will shamelessly admit to being an ardent fantasy fan, reading lots of silly things for the fun of it, imagining other silly scenarios for fun.

But this sort of... mass delusion that spirituality and feelings trump reality is baffling and concerning.

kazinator• 7 years ago

Crystals do have power: piezoelectricity.

Hug a crystal, get a shock.

w-ll• 7 years ago

I went camping at Mt. Shasta a year ago. There are tons of these gem/crystal stores in the town.

Sure many of them are very pretty to look at, but the way people talked about healing and energy I had a hard time not laughing.

These people also claim to be self conscious and care about the environment, but seem to have no understanding of where them gems came from. I could be wrong, but I think more are coming from china and are nearly the equivalent to blood diamonds, using the poorest labors to mine them.

It was very surreal. Other than that Mt. Shasta was beautiful, the laval tunnels were awesome.

bredren4• 7 years ago

This was somewhat tongue in cheek, but again I liken it to people who buy lottery tickets for the entertainment of spark their imagination of what they'd do with a windfall.

That said, there are plenty of folks that make room for "God." Crystals just don't have big churches or enough followers to normalize belief in their "power."

This reminds me of the notable video of parent's brawl at the kid's baseball game this past week. The camera person keeps calling for angels to come and stop the fight. The fight stopped...eventually. Probably because of the angels she called.

tim333• 7 years ago

There's always the placebo effect which is a sort of power.

m463• 7 years ago

I will say, geodes can be pretty amazing.

colechristensen• 7 years ago

He never planned to make much money from selling them and still, today, spends much of his time advising customers on, “say, which stones are best for anxiety, or which are best for blood disorders.”

Jeez, this guy is openly admitting to practicing medicine here. Somebody should actually call the FDA/AMA/police.

ggg2• 7 years ago

you also believe people selling mid life crisis people sports car fall in the same category?

DyslexicAtheist• 7 years ago

terminally ill patients, or those with a slowly deterioration condition who lost hope in Western medicine ... their attitude is that "at least it won't do harm, so what do I have to lose?" Doubt that this group of vulnerable people that are preyed upon here can be compared to somebody shopping for a sports car.

serf3• 7 years ago

sports cars provide their claims (fun, performance, image, etc), healing crystals don't.

No one buys a sports car to remediate a physical illness. ( well, maybe depression or other related psych problems? )

The car salesman's hyperbole will not kill me, in most cases.

A person telling me to use a gem to heal cancer is, in effect, harming me by prompting me to waste my precious time on ineffective treatments with no basis in reality.

tonetheman• 7 years ago

We have "mined" crystals in Arkansas before. Which really consisted of my kids and I digging around in the dirt until we found something.

It was fun though. And they look cool.

salmo• 7 years ago

We just did this over Memorial Day weekend and it was a blast. My 7 year old daughter starting coming home with "cool" rocks in her pocket last year and we just encouraged the interest, went to a local geology show, and got hooked. Now I'm in the back yard cleaning 50 lbs of quartz, clay, and rock in various sizes.

I don't know how ethically we mined (dug in dirt), however, since I heavily relied on my daughters as underage and super-distracted workers.

Oh and I had to raise my voice at my wife (not normally super-nerdy) to tell her to stop, that we had to take the truck back . But she was hooked, and the story has entered family lore.

blunte2• 7 years ago

Outside the mouths of mines (old gold mines, such as in the Colorado mountains) are great places to find crystals and rocks with formations. If you're willing to smash bigger rocks, sometimes you're rewarded with an internal structure.

ncmncm3• 7 years ago

At least they're mostly harmless. To the mark who buys them.

But don't put malachite in your mouth. Or... other places.

ncmncm3• 7 years ago

Back in the '80s the same crowd was chasing channelers and "spirit guides". They were the reason ST:TNG had a Ship's Channeler, er, "Counselor".

serf3• 7 years ago

that's an interesting thought, ST:TNG without woo.

Without Whoopi and the Counselor and their magic episodes it'd cut the library down like 20 or 30 percent I bet.

Personally I think the ST woo started way before TNG -- but I do think that it was presented and turned into viable story the best in TNG. That said, pseudoscience/magic/woo was around and plentiful around the world during the production of the original ST too, maybe that content was also prompted by the popularity.

Speaking of space-magic, if anyone reading is into space+scifi/fantasy and you enjoy Star Trek, check out UFO and Space:1999, or really any Gerry Anderson. Lots of similar topics, and its fun to determine which series did which subplot first.

blunte2• 7 years ago

If you do buy crystals, be sure to check youtube on how to "cleanse" and "align" your crystals; otherwise you might not get the results out of them that you expect.

The murky business of crystal mining

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