The question I'm asked most frequently.  I was even a skeptic when I first started working with crystals. After all, most of us are led to only believe in something if there is strong scientific research to prove it is true. But scientists are always discovering new things.

Yes they are pretty, but in addition to them looking great, crystals have healing benefits. 

"Concerning matter, we have been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. There is no matter" - ALBERT EINSTEIN

Science has proven that matter is 99.99999% empty space. What makes up that empty space? Energy. Everything is energy. Your body, the sun, the earth, that chair you're sitting on, those crystals you love so much... think of energy as a constant state of vibration.

The body's energy field 

Humans are rhythmic beings: Our heartbeat, breathing, and brain waves are all rhythmic. Rhythm = pattern = frequency = the number of vibrations in a unit of time. Everything has a certain frequency at which it vibrates. Colour has a frequency. Sound has a frequency. Crystals have a frequency. Each of us have our own unique frequency. We can send out a melodic frequency, or we can send out a distorted frequency. And life reflects back to us what we send out.

I like to refer to the body's energy field and the chakras as our "energetic ecosystem". If the ecosystem is in a state of balance - life tends to flow for us. However, this ecosystem can be quite unstable and easily influenced by things like stress, thoughts and emotions.

How crystals work with your energy

Have you ever been around a really energetic and joyful person? Or someone who is really calm and grounded? How about someone who is going through a really hard time? Just by being in their presence, their energy can influence your energy. You may have been in a flat mood, but after you're around an energetic, joyful person - you leave them feeling different; somewhat lighter. Their energy has managed to influence yours without you having to do anything. It's an energetic exchange - and the thing with energy is that it's always trying to come into balance.

Think of crystals as being around that 'uplifted' person, or that 'grounded person. Each type of crystal has a unique pattern, an internal structure, which identifies them. It's from this fixed, regularly repeating pattern of molecules that gives a crystal it's stable energy. Stable energy = more powerful. This stable source of energy can influence our unstable energy. 

"Some crystals are formed by enormous pressure, others grew in chambers deep underground, others were dripped into being - all of which affects their properties and the way they function. Whatever form they take, their crystalline structure can absorb, conserve, focus and emit energy." - Judy Hall, The Crystal Bible

When it comes to energy, an interesting phenomenon happens when similar energetic vibrations come into close proximity - they sync up. 

Author of 'Subtle Energy', William Collinge, refers to this process of syncing up as entrainment:

"What is fascinating about oscillators is that they can become entrained with each other. This was discovered accidentally in 1665 by the inventor of the pendulum clock. He had a room full of clocks and found that over time they would all "entrain" - that is, they would all start swinging together synchronously. When he interrupted the pattern so they swung randomly, within an hour or two they would all "sync" backup again."

Entrainment means the frequency of the pulsation of two different oscillators [1] coming together. It happens at all levels of nature, from atoms to cells. Flocks of birds and schools of fish moving synchronously are examples, and there can be entrainment between people, such as when the heart rate energy wave of a mother and nursing infant become entrained. 

The 7 energy centres of the body

To balance our energy centres (chakras) you need to know what frequency each energy centre vibrates at and then you add a stable source of energy (vibration) to it (e.g. crystals, sound) at a similar frequency, and the vibration builds (resonates) and syncs up.

Every crystal, just like every human, has a different energetic frequency. In terms of crystals, it depends on a few things like size, composition and most helpfully, the colour.

The colours we see are specific light frequencies. Red, for example, has a much lower frequency than purple. The same goes for our body's energy ecosystem. The lowest chakra (the root chakra) has the lowest vibrational frequency, and the crown chakra at the top of our head has the highest vibrational frequency (please refer to the blog for more information about the chakras). 

Because of this vibrational match between like colours, you can choose your crystal to match the colour of the chakra you want to balance. For example, the colour of the throat chakra is blue. If you have trouble expressing yourself and speaking up, a blue crystal would help balance this chakra. 

Sometimes you just need to experience, not understand

Prophets, spiritual teachers and philosophers have all tried to put the mystery of life into words using our limited vocabulary. Some things you just have to experience to know. As mentioned earlier, scientists are always discovering new things. The world was considered flat at one point - will it be the same with energy? In 100 years will they look back at this point in time and say ‘wow it's unbelievable people back then weren’t aware that they could manipulate, balance and work with energy’.

All I'm asking is to open your mind, experience the world of crystals and see for yourself. 

[1] oscillators: periodic fluctuation between two things based on changes in energy