A while ago I wrote a blog post answering the question:

“Is the power of crystals & quartz energy a scam?”

This is that post.

Well, my usual MO on questions like these is to simply throw some science at it. That usually gets the skeptics to sit up & listen. 😉

In that post, I dove deep into piezoelectricity; a scientific property of quartz crystals that explains 1 way they give off energy.

That blog post certainly was (surprisingly to me)…a big hit!

What I thought would be a topic that would sort of quietly disappear into internet wasteland (yeah… I needed to write it anyway simply b/c it brings me so much joy to share the sparkly musings in my head)…with me blissfully spouting off my science mumbo jumbo as I tend to do from time to time…ended up being a very popular post with it sort of getting viraly shared about…and had many of you in the comments asking for more info about the other scientific properties of quartz that I had mentioned.

Well you don’t need to ask me twice!

I’m on it.

Just took me a while to get around to this post. (You should see the pile of backed up draft blog posts I have going on over here.) I don’t think I’ll ever run out of crystal content to write about on my blog…for joy’s sake! I have so much fun doing this shizzle. 😀

OK, here we go.

What is Pyroelectricity?

Similar to piezoelectricity…pyroelectricity is the ability to transduce (**transform 1 kind of energy from 1 form to another) a temporary voltage when certain crystals are heated or cooled. So we’re talkin’ transforming heat energy into electrical energy or vice versa.

This word comes from a Greek prefix: “pyr” which means FIRE…so we’re literally talking about fire-electricity here!

It’s hard to demo this for you b/c the temp change has to happen slowly & uniformly…so all over the crystal at the same time.

But here’s a graphic I made that helps to visualize it…

So it’s the change in temperature that causes the crystal’s atoms to gain or lose energy, thereby changing their positions in the crystalline matrix.

For whatever reason it makes the atoms want to polarize.

Polarizing is when all the negatively charged atoms want to go hang out together on one end & all the positively charged ones want to go hang out together at the other.

When said polarization happens, the change & movement of the atoms generates electrical potential! The effect is commonly known as static electricity.

This property was first noticed in tourmalines in the 1700’s when it was noted they could be used for cleaning ash from tobacco pipes…b/c when briefly heated, the tourmaline would polarize & then they’d easily attract & then repel the hot ashes like a magnet. Tourmaline can also attract bits of paper, dust & straw. Amber can do this too!

SIDE NOTE: It’s this property that makes tourmaline crystal such a great choice for flat irons & curling irons…yeah, the ones we use on our hair!

Tourmaline hair straighteners have plates made from actual ground up tourmaline crystals. (Always choose these over the ceramic or metal irons for your hair.)

Why?

Well, now you know that the pyroelectric property means that when tourmaline on the iron is heated up, it will polarize…so 1 end will be negatively charged & the other will be positively charged. It’s the negatively charged end that will be making the hair pretty here by making your hair look super shiny & smoothing down the cuticles.

Pyroelectric Crystals

• Colemantie
• Dipotase
• Amber
• Hemimorphite
• All tourmalines
• All quartz

Triboluminescence

This scientific property is an exciting visual one where we actually see a flash of light!…best seen in the dark.

Here I am in our bathroom with 2 rose quartz chunks demo’ing this very cool property for you….

With this property we can see the energy with our own eyes being transduced from mechanical energy into light energy…we actually see the internal & external flash of light. This is a property that about 50% of minerals have. And with over 4500 minerals and counting, that’s quite a lot!

Science can’t explain everything (**gasp!**) & this property isn’t really well understood in physics…yet anyway.

Some think that triboluminescence is much like lightning, in that the impact causes an electrical current that travels through the crystal allowing trapped molecules of gas to emit light. Some explain it by saying that the impact adds energy to the system which excites the crystals’ electrons. Eventually, the electrons fall back to the original state & when they do, you get that flash of light. 

Try It Yourself!

1. Wear some safety glass just in case…small shards of quartz can go flying
2. Grab 2 rose quartz OR milky quartz crystals (not your prized pieces b/c this will damage them somewhat)
3. Go to a darkened room
4. Now take the edge or side of 1 of your crystals & strike it against the other crystal. Use force…like you’re striking a match
5. Since this is something that can damage your crystals, you may want to think twice before trying this out with specimens that you are very protective of

You’ll see that characteristic orange-yellow spark/glow inside the crystal! You’ll also get a strange metallic smell in the air. Totally normal, Chick Pea. 🙂

Triboluminescent Crystals

• quartz
• sphalerite
• fluorite
• diamond
• calcite
• muscovite
• opal

You can get different energy glow colors too! It all depends on the type of crystal.

So how does all this scientific property mumbo-jumbo help us with Crystal Healing?

Now that I’ve explained how this energy transduction works, can you see how crystals can most certainly affect our environment on an energetic level?

And as I said before, I feel that understanding (at least on some level) the very real power that our crystals have…power that can be proven scientifically and is taught in physics and used in technology is the key to 2 things:

1. getting others to accept it as a healing modality
2. giving crystal healers the confidence that they sometimes lack

Not to mention that the piezo, pyro and tribolumenescent properties of certain crystals are highly beneficial to our energy fields.

In my Hibiscus Moon Method, I teach a very specific technique in detail that allows our Hibiscus Moon Certified Crystal Healers to tap into all the power inherent in these properties…and I teach you more on the physics behind why it works. We involve the transducing aspect, allowing it to play a big role in crystal therapy!

So please let me know … Did this blog helped you to learn a bit more about the science behind crystal healing?  Or did it bore you to tears?  …let me know that too in the comments below!

Crystal Blessings,

 

 

 

P.S. If this sort of thing appeals to you & you’d like to go way deeper in your crystal practice this is just a taste of the type of info I teach in the Certified Crystal Healer Course. We’ll be enrolling again for our fall term very soon. You can get on the Wait List here.