Crystals are big money.
Huge money.
$22 million in a single sale kind of money.
And their value is only growing due to increased
interest in alternative healing methods bolstered
by celebrity endorsements.
So, how did healing crystals go from a holistic
cottage industry to mainstream markets?
Our fascination with healing crystals goes back
centuries. Lapidaries can be traced back to
antiquity. There were remedies for grinding
crystal into powder and putting it into breast
milk. Or if someone was suffering from thirst,
they would drink like crystal powder in honey
water or something like this.
So the idea that crystal is this medicinal remedy
has always been there too, associated with
something kind of spiritual or transcendent as
well. But the recent crystal craze started taking
off in the late '70s with quartz.
As time went on, it expanded into more and more
species of minerals.
The Tucson Gem and Mineral Showcase is the
nucleus of the mineral trade in the U.S.
Thousands of miners and sellers from all over the
world descend on to Tucson to buy and sell
crystals of all types, sizes and values during
the showcase. Experts say some $5 billion worth
of crystals are sold in a three week period.
It's everything from giant open parking lots with
people with piles of agates to extremely high end
motel rooms where you have to go through security
to get in. And there's a small fortune of high
quality gems or minerals for sale in those rooms.
Crystals are priced more subjectively than
gemstones. Size, color and clarity play a part,
but the overall aesthetic can give a specimen a
huge price bump.
Two Tucson's ago, a three and a half foot gemmy,
red tourmaline crystal was on offer at the Tucson
show for $22 million.
Traditionally, there have been two types of
buyers at the showcase: mineral collectors and
high end gem retailers like Tiffany and Cartier.
But there's a new wave of consumers causing a
sort of mania in the gem and mineral market.
I love all crystals.
The ones that I'm working with a lot these days
are Jade, selenite, smoky quartz is particularly
strong for me. People come into the store and
you'll see them and they'll pick up two stones
and hold them and close their eyes to try to
decide which one is calling out to them.
I'm certain there's a number of people who are
collecting because they believe in the healing
powers. And they've affected the market for
certain minerals species very strongly because
they sort of determine that a particular mineral
species is good for something, and it becomes
fashionable within that belief system, and the
demand for that goes up very dramatically.
Cavano says demand is increasing so much,
crystals that sold for $20 in 2010 are selling
for at least $100 today.
If I put this in the store and we posted it on
Instagram, within a few hours somebody would be
in the store to get it. For me it's just
unbelievable. There has been a 65% increase for
the search term crystal healing over the last
decade. So why exactly are people ignoring
science and turning to crystals?
Better yet, do crystals actually have healing
properties. Now, the one thing that is really
interesting about crystals from a science
perspective is there's something called the
piezoelectric effect. And if you take a crystal
like amethyst, which is the purple form quartz,
or clear quartz like this, and you squeeze it
under pressure, it actually generates
electricity. Now, can humans squeeze in and feel
it? I don't know.
I'm not going to say no, but I certainly can't.
While the commercial crystal market is rising in
popularity, so are crystal treatments.
My sessions are an hour and a half,
and for that I charge $155.
At Maha Rose, I'm affectionately known as the
Little Tangerine Quartz. I have been a healer
five years, but I'd argue that, you know, we've
all been healers our whole entire lives.
Sadie focuses on chakra realignment and Reiki.
She gets between three to 10 clients per month.
Crystals are interesting in that they have a
perfect vibration.
They're at a constant state.
And so, you know, when we use them for craft for
healing, the way that they help heal the body is
to encourage the body to match that same
resonance. I think clients fall into a deep
relaxation. You can see their bodies slowly start
to release tension and their breathing is less
labored. Not everyone is sold on the healing
powers of crystals.
Crystals are wonderful.
They are beautiful.
They're really interesting from the point of view
of chemistry and physics and even just to look
at, but the claim that they have healing powers
is, I'm afraid, total B.S.
University of London psychologist Chris French
conducted a placebo effect study on crystals.
His team of researchers asked participants to do
a five minute meditation exercise with crystals.
What they didn't know was that half the crystals
were made of glass.
What we found, which was pretty much what we
expected to find, was it didn't make any
difference whether people were handling real
crystals or fake crystals in terms of how many of
them reported these kind of sensations that we're
talking about. But whether or not the crystals
have scientifically proven metaphysical powers,
people are pouring large sums of money into them.
I think the psychologists probably should pay a
little bit more attention. I mean, we are dealing
here with something that worldwide is is a
multi-million dollar industry.
So, if nothing else, there's a kind of consumer
protection element to some of these findings.
There are several tiers of crystal sellers.
At the low end, are online retailers who mainly
deal in good-looking, but inexpensive stones,
ranging in price from $5 to $1,000. In
the middle are galleries and high-end internet
sellers. Those crystal sell for $1,000 to
$10,000. Anything above $10,000 is at the very
high end of the market.
There's a whole group of people who have come in
who treat mineral specimens like fine art.
You know, you can't buy a Rembrandt, you can't
get one. You can get the mineral equivalent of a
Rembrandt for a mere $10 million.
I say I'm the opposite of a car dealership
because when you leave my place, your crystal
immediately starts to appreciate.
Lenise Soren owns Serenity Rocks Malibu that
serves as both a holistic healing center and as a
super-premium crystal retailer.
This is one of my babies.
But we have the largest collection of large,
crystal angel wings.
Lenise is a sought after collector and says
between their rise in value and their healing
properties, there doesn't seem to be a limit to
how much your clients will spend on a crystal.
The combination of people seeing the result and
that there's literally not as many available,
it's going to affect the market, of course.
But she says the healing properties trump all
else when it comes to value.
The value and the result of crystals, I think
will start to change in that crystals will become
more of a necessity versus a luxury.
And so when that happens, you're going to see a
drastic appreciation.
Online retailers also make up a significant
market share. It's common to see private sellers
taking advantage of platforms like eBay and Etsy.
Dana and her husband Leland are the owners of
Ruby's House of Crystals.
Dana started out selling hemp wrapped crystal
necklaces on Etsy, and business was so good that
in 2014, she and Leland opened a brick and mortar
store. Leland and Dana sell well over 1,000
crystals per month, and the price of their
crystals ranges from $4 to $1,000.
Since 2014,
the only thing that's really changed is the
demand. I don't know that the price has changed.
And I always say if somebody comes into the store
and they really love something, price kind of
takes a backseat. But scarcity trumps
spirituality when it comes to the supply side of
the equation. Crystals are a natural resource.
So what happens if we keep mining and buying at
the rate we are? The reality is, is that large
crystals grow very, very quickly in the matter of
days, weeks, or perhaps a few years.
But it will take tens of millions of years for
erosion to get down to those crystals.
And that scarcity factor has a major effect on
price.
It's shocking. It's really almost shocking.
Not only of the increased demand and the
lowering of supply, obviously, but the price,
let's say, for Amethyst has, from when I started
to what I purchase Amethyst for, is remarkable.
Interest in crystals doesn't seem to be slowing
down, which is shining a spotlight on the way
crystals are harvested.
What's really interesting about the whole mineral
business is a lot of this stuff comes from the
third world. Is it being legally mined?
I don't know. It's showing up in Tucson, and some
of it's really, really beautiful.
But there's mines all over the world and who
knows how well they're being regulated and how
sensitive those people are to the environmental
regulations. There are crystals that aren't
sourced ethically, so you want to be very
particular. Even if you don't know a lot about
crystals, you can use your intuition than you
when you walk into a shop.
Do the people seem grounded?
Are they knowledgeable?
Do you feel there's a hustle or a sale, or do you
feel like it's relaxed?
You'd think that if people who were producing
those crystals were doing so under conditions of
abject misery, that that would somehow cancel out
the positive energy of the crystal.
And that doesn't seem to be something that's
entering the minds of the people who are using
the crystals for healing purposes.