Crystals
Submitted 4 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/f8790284-5292-4897-af6c-860f5384ed12.jpeg
Comments
Asafum@feddit.nl 4 months ago
UprisingVoltage@feddit.it 4 months ago
Top tier shitpost
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 4 months ago
underwire212@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Protection against other crystals lol
konalt@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Pondering my blue apatite rn
skittle07crusher@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
The irony of it being a choking hazard, lmao
jjagaimo@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
Attracts badgers, you say?
Contentedness@lemmy.nz 4 months ago
Old Gum is my jam!
leftzero@lemmynsfw.com 4 months ago
Transporter_Room_3@startrek.website 4 months ago
One day at work, I found out a work friend actually believed the whole “crystal energy” thing.
Since she was the first person I had ever met who actually admitted to that, I wanted to know more about what her specific beliefs about them were.
At first she was super bubbly about it, on par with her personality. But then as I asked a couple common sense questions about why science doesnt find anything measurable, and first she got hostile and mad that I would dare question another person’s beliefs, but when I explained I was genuinely curious and had no interest in changing her beliefs she just kind of broke down because nobody ever takes her seriously or believes her about her “personal healing journey”
The way I see it, it’s for adults who like pretty rocks, but can’t come to terms with the fact that they like something “childish” (because for some reason a lot of adults call a rock collection cringe or childish or dumb, but clearly they’ve never met a geologist) so instead of having a pretty rock and mineral collection, they have “healing crystals”, and eventually it just becomes kind of like part of their identity the way a religion is.
I will however, 100% giggle at their expense with my wife, later. Because anyone who buys $50 polished selenite
drink coaster“charging plate”, and a $200 brass pyramid to “recharge” their $50 “healing quartz wand” while refusing to listen to real science deserves to be giggled at.brucethemoose@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I will however, 100% giggle at their expense with my wife, later. Because anyone who buys $50 polished selenite drink coaster “charging plate”, and a $200 brass pyramid to “recharge” their $50 “healing quartz wand” while refusing to listen to real science deserves to be giggled at.
I mean, humans do all sorts of wierd, irrational, ritualistic things.
Did you buy your wife a diamond ring? Or at least gold? :P
spankinspinach@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
I think this is the perfect response haha. Ppl find comfort where they can in the world, even if it looks a little whacky. So long as it’s not hurting anyone, let them have their whacky
brbposting@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
humans do all sorts of weird, irrational, ritualistic things
lil private giggles about it seem fairly unobjectionable
Transporter_Room_3@startrek.website 4 months ago
No, I made the ring from sapphire (birth stone) and silver. Jewelry is easier than you might think when you’ve been doing small metalwork for knife handles, pommels, and guards.
kameecoding@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Wonder if they had a big wedding that cost quite a bit more than 200$
Kwakigra@beehaw.org 4 months ago
In many circumstances the placebo effect is superior to common medical environments. I was completely dismissive of homeopathy until I came to understand its actual appeal. Obviously there is no proven physical mechanism of the substance itself; the water is just part of the ritual. The ritual of being cared for and being paid special attention to by another person who cares that you get better and can do nothing for you but give you that attention you need is 100% placebo oriented medicine and 0% drug.
I was dismissive about crystals as well, but the reality is that if you are aware of them they are in some way altering your awareness by being present. The way they alter your awareness could be as simple as noticing an interesting looking stone, a reminder that there is a vast unknown and many others trying to find their way as you are, or a meditation weight and focus. I don’t know about crystal effects on vibrations other than to know that mass is literally energy and different compositions of molecular structures could have effects on the immediate environment beyond our ability to yet measure. I’m most comfortable saying that crystals definitely have some effect, definitely have assisted others in their healing journeys in some form or another, and beyond that I do not know many specifics.
Azzu@lemm.ee 4 months ago
I mean crystals definitely have gravity pulling you towards them.
I understand your reasoning and even the appeal, however I personally just wonder if all of these effects wouldn’t be possible by any other means. Why does it need to be crystals, intentionally overpriced at that. Theoretically, couldn’t you just go out into nature, find a rock you like, and it’d have the same effect?
Danquebec@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Wait, so you’re telling that to not feel ashamed of liking rocks for how they look, they believe silly things about them?
psud@aussie.zone 4 months ago
That appears to be their hypothesis
I suspect they’re just credulous, and believe in magic
tacosanonymous@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Meh. Placebos affect people so, I let them have it.
Saganaki@lemmy.one 4 months ago
If it “makes me feel better”, fine.
If it “makes it so I’m not contagious and won’t give you Covid”, no.
Signtist@lemm.ee 4 months ago
My mom died of cancer a few months ago because she was convinced that a combination of sunlight’s natural vibrational frequency and some expensive “medical” herbal teas would cure her. Placebos affect people, but if you let them believe that they’re an alternative to actual science and medicine, then they’ll use them as such.
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 4 months ago
you really haven’t thought this through, have you?
Not only does this encourage scammers to scam people, which is itself obviously bad, but it also means that some people will buy these things instead of getting actual treatment.
dohpaz42@lemmy.world 4 months ago
If people are getting their medical advice from a meme post in a meme community on a link aggregator on the Internet, I doubt there is much that actual science, education, and common sense can do to help.
GarbageShoot@hexbear.net 4 months ago
Selling people fake remedies is always going to be to the detriment of real remedies unless they are targeted exclusively at conditions for which there are no real remedies.
Furthermore, the real issue isn’t about “letting people have their crystals”, it’s about letting people sell fake remedies, something that should be banned unconditionally. Profiting off of pretending to help people while not helping them is socially malignant.
OP is phrased in terms of attacking consumers because the poster is an idiot, as made evident by their absurd and pandering rhetorical tact.
7bicycles@hexbear.net 4 months ago
I feel like with all this placebo stuff you get like 10% increase in perceived well-being vs. a good 10% of the population just going full woo woo about this stuff
bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 4 months ago
I’m pretty sure the anti matter “crystals” it produces can alter one’s “frequencies” quite well. If we had enough of the stuff. In the mean time eating bananas is a good substitute.
Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
There is scientific evidence that backs crystals, it’s called the placebo effect.
So, you’re wrong.
nexguy@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Science doesn’t back the crystals, it backs the placebo effect.
milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee 3 months ago
“Science doesn’t back medical injections, it backs the body’s immune response.”
Mac@mander.xyz 4 months ago
Short comment:
Does the LHC explain emotions?Long comment:
Perhaps there are other “forces” in the universe than physical forces. For example what is faith but a non-physical force? And yet it drives people to feel certain ways and do certain things. Same goes for love.Just like the placebo effect there are many things that affect a person internally even though externally they don’t appear to be doing anything.
If something so simple as wearing a bracelet brings balance to someone’s troubled mind then I don’t see the issue nor do I see the reason to argue about it on the internet.
Now, all that being said, these products are just a grift. We lost the plot when we went from
“pretty rock that eases my mind because I get dopamine from looking at it”
to
“this rock has magical powers and you should buy it because of that”.Conclusion: people are allowed to feel spiritual and psychological connections with things and it is wrong to take advantage of those feelings for profit.
GiveMemes@jlai.lu 3 months ago
Yes. Insofar as our brains are made up of physical matter and interpret electrical signals from our body. Emotions are our meat computers’ interpretations of some of those inputs. If you could know the exact location and velocity of every physical particle, you could know/predict the future based on that information and physics. It’s impossible to get that knowledge currently, but that doesn’t make the underlying principle any less true.
But I do agree that this is a dumb thing to argue abt and to let people enjoy their little thingies.
MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
I forget the YouTube channel name now, but I recall someone testing some of the cleansing bracelets, with “energy” and “healing” powers…
It turned out that the energy was mostly in the form of radioactive materials, and the only thing you would be healed from by wearing it, was your continued life.
Crystals, on the other hand, are mostly just inert and harmless. So if someone wants to keep a “healing” crystal or whatever on them or put it in their office or something, okay sure. It won’t do what it claims to, but it won’t hurt you.
But if I see someone wearing a cleansing bracelet, I’m going to reach for my Hazmat suit (since I don’t own one, I’m just going to keep a safe distance from the person willingly carrying around what is very likely to be radioactive material), and reevaluate my association with anyone willing to buy such nonsense with absolutely no understanding that it’s probably harmful.
I forget the radioactive material used. From what I recall, it’s not “drop and run” dangerous, but prolonged exposure is probably going to have some unpleasant side effects… Kind of like radon (it wasn’t radon… Radon is a gas with an extremely short half life IIRC, but it can be dangerous to have long term exposure - many years, and it’s in most homes… Buy a radon sensor folks, they’re not much more expensive than a good smoke detector).
Katzastrophe@feddit.org 4 months ago
Maybe it was “The Thought Emporium”? He made two vids on it, one being a follow-up
MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
I looked and that seems right. I watched two videos on it, IIRC, and it was interesting and concerning.
At the end of the day, I’m not sure how much sympathy I can muster for people who are so superstitious that they’ll buy that snake oil, but at the same time, the manufacturer is being incredibly deceptive. So I’m a bit split on the issue. At the end of the day, one thing I’m not uncertain about is that consumer protection should be stronger for such things.
ladicius@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Crystals maybe help in the same way placebos do. That’s the most I would admit about such stuff.
Blackmist@feddit.uk 4 months ago
Where it gets dangerous, is giving up actual real working medication in place of a placebo.
MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
I agree. Placebos can help too.
Fact is, for it to work as a placebo, you need to believe it will work.
I’ve had a few coworkers who had stuff like crystals on their desk because their partner believed in it. I understand why that stuff happens, the believer who (supposedly) cares about your well-being, gets benefit from it, and wants you to have the same or similar benefits from the same. But since they’re doing it to placate their partner and don’t personally believe, it’s just a rock on their desk.
webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 4 months ago
And its been proven that placebos work.
So as long as you define life changing energy as a subtle psychological buff…
ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Placebos don’t work. It’s a common misconception. Placebo effect is the error in measuring not any actual effect. It’s literally the barrier we use to define effective and non effective.
Anyone claiming they have something that provides a placebo effect to help is fraudulent or ignorant.
In the UK it is illegal to proscribe placebos. Because they don’t work.
MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml 4 months ago
Allowing the crystal myths to continue only leads to more harmful behavior down the road. Sure, it can work as a placebo, but so can other things that don’t tend to leave someone trusting unproven methods in lieu of proven ones.
primrosepathspeedrun@lemmy.world 4 months ago
the only thing you would be healed from by wearing it
not actually definitely true! look up ‘radiation hormesis’
I mean, it’s not what they’re advertising, and I don’t think we know for sure that it’s a thing, but it might be.
homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 4 months ago
The premise is flawed. The LHC is looking for specific things, and it takes forever-and-a-day just to look much less decide whether the-thing-being-searched-for is there.
The premise here is that the LHC found All That Is, and it didn’t find [magical-rock-mystery-waves] so pfffttthh stupid hippies.
roguetrick@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Until we figure out just what dark energy and dark matter is, we can’t throw out there being a fifth force that the LHC isn’t even designed to detect in the first place but if you think that humans are affected by things we only tend to notice on the cosmological scale, you’re putting the cart way before the horse. The whole reason we can’t detect them is because they don’t interact with us.
homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Yes but how do we know that.
zerofk@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Exactly. LHC also didn’t find that breathing air is good for you. I’m still not going to stop.
homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Good plan!
HawlSera@lemm.ee 4 months ago
They recently found evidence that not only was penrose right, but there’s these crystaline things in your brain that do quantum shit, not very specific on all the details… but the first thing I thought was
“Can’t wait for Spirit Science to completely and delibrately misinterpret this to sell more rocks.”
Xendarq@lemmy.world 3 months ago
I think you just did that as there is no experimental evidence at all to support Orch OR.
HawlSera@lemm.ee 3 months ago
turmacar@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Next up, Maxwell.
Turns out the secret to defeating entropy was demons all along.
HawlSera@lemm.ee 3 months ago
Not familiar with that one and I’m way too high right now to read an explanation.
bunchberry@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Orch0R makes way too many wild claims for there to easily be any evidence for it. Even if we discover quantum effects (in the sense of scalable interference effects which have absolutely not been demonstrated) in the brain that would just demonstrate there are quantum effects in the brain, Orch0R is filled with a lot of assumptions which go far beyond this and would not be anywhere near justified. One of them being its reliance on gravity-induced collapse, which is nonrelativistic, meaning it cannot reproduce the predictions of quantum field theory, our best theory of the natural world.
blaue_Fledermaus@mstdn.io 4 months ago
Not to defend these things, I also don't think they work, but the simplest argument is that they work on a metaphysical frequency/energy/whatever, so a physical instrument wouldn't be able to detect it.
grrgyle@slrpnk.net 4 months ago
Could also be a placebo which has been clinically proven to have some subjective effect. Not worth getting fleeced over, but worth 2 bucks for a nice rock that makes you feel hopeful.
When I was growing up (granola) everyone in my family had a special little crystal that represented them. I remember when we all picked them out from a big bin. Not to say this kind of thinking can’t have a dark side, though…
Nowadays I just find “special” rocks while I’m out on a walk feeling a certain way, and like mentally imbue them whatever feeling I need (stability, remorse, etc). Then I keep them around and think of that whenever I look them, until I eventually forget why I even got them.
Got a nice Jasper that’s flat on one side helping me through some shit with my family atm
Chuymatt@beehaw.org 4 months ago
I actually really love this. Even as a staunch user of the scientific method and an atheist, I feel that the use of symbolism and ritual is actually quite important for the human psyche.
Have a good one.
JudahBenHur@lemm.ee 4 months ago
what do you mean by metaphysical
credo@lemmy.world 4 months ago
“Not real”
ImWaitingForRetcons@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Metaphysical means that it’s beyond the bounds of normal physics - stuff like ghosts, spirits, religious stuff, etc. Basically, you can cover a lot of hokey with it.
Xtallll@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 months ago
Many of them are also dangerously radioactive.
grue@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Wait a minute, how radioactive? Better or worse than collecting old smoke detectors, Radioactive Boy Scout-style?
barsquid@lemmy.world 4 months ago
If they worked at all it would be possible to measure the effects indirectly in a double-blind study even if we couldn’t measure the energy directly.
Laborer3652@reddthat.com 4 months ago
In terms of precision, I’m pretty sure LIGO is the most accurate measuring device ever created, and its not even close.
IIRC it can measure fluctuations in spacetime half the width of a proton at the distance of the diameter of our solar system.
xenoclast@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Pedant: they did say ‘particle experiment’
Rachelhazideas@lemmy.world 4 months ago
People will shit on crystals believers in one breath and tell people to ‘respect other’s religion’ in another or gloat about their MBTI assessment. The cognitive dissonance is unreal.
I don’t believe in either but at least I’m consistent. If you’re not, then you’re just finding an excuse to hate on a hobby that primarily attracts women.
This is the same thing that happens to anything that women likes: pumpkin spice lattes, uggs, horoscopes, tarot cards, rose, etc. It’s seen as trivial and stupid no matter how banal the average person’s interest are regardless of gender.
bizzle@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Now I’m just a humble weed farmer but I’ve seen “A Boy and His Atom” and it looks an awful lot like waves/vibrations to me. And I’m pretty sure some researchers have seen Lithium atoms collapse into waves near absolute zero. And we know that these waves and particles are effected by observation. And I’ve also smoked a bunch of DMT and eaten mysterious varieties of mushroom. That’s why I believe in m⛤gick.
Varyk@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
NASA is pretty into electromagnetic frequencies being actively healthy for humans, specifically promoting neural tissue regeneration, so try not to unilaterally dismiss everything crystal hippies say.
babies, bathwater, all that.
freewheel@lemmy.world 4 months ago
This concept is just as dangerous as the right wing claiming LHC will open black holes. There’s an implication here that just as soon as LHC was turned on it suddenly gathered information about every unknown Force, particle, and energy in the universe.
The Large hadron collider took 4 years to confirm the higgs boson; as of today it is only on its third data collection run. LHC is hardly a silver bullet.
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Honestly though?
At least it keeps the gullible from causing real trouble elsewhere.
Big_Bob@hexbear.net 4 months ago
Speak for yourself. My JO crystal is so supercharged I can levitate up to 6 cm from the ground and yell louder than a police siren.
I have won several fights by blinding my opponent with the flash of the JO crystal as I crank my hog with one hand and swing my crystal with the other.
My seed has become so powerful, I’m banned from donating semen in 17 countries, including Papua New Guinea and the Pharoe Island.
I have channeled the unholy energies from my magnetic wristbands and wooden bracelets to erect a dark labyrinth to contain me so I won’t accidentally break reality apart when I crank my hawg too hard.
Do not underestimate the power of crystals.
LambdaRX@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Don’t be fooled by CERN, LHC’s true purpose is time travel. El Psy Kongroo.
Hexamerous@hexbear.net 4 months ago
I and a lot of other people use crystal bracelet to help us sync up with other people. Even if we’re apart for days, we can show up exactly at the same place at the same moment if our crystals are vibrating at the same frequency.
How do you explain that?
mo_lave@reddthat.com 4 months ago
The person with the crystals has already concluded, by faith or by doing large logical leaps, that those contain new energy.
The scientists behind the LHC have to meticulously find evidence along the way before they can make a conclusion.
They are not the same.
deuleb_biezelbob@programming.dev 4 months ago
everything is energy, prove me wrong
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 4 months ago
VinnyDaCat@lemmy.world 4 months ago
At this point people can believe in whatever they want as long as it doesn’t harm anyone else. Someone believing in a bunch of crystals and burning their money on them is a lot less harmless than other beliefs that I won’t mention.
Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 months ago
I dunno, they might not be looking in the right place. Have they tried Mystic Mary’s Crystal Emporium?
Hupf@feddit.org 4 months ago
Don’t let Big Particle fool you! Invest in Light Matter today
HumongousChungus@hexbear.net 4 months ago
The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is the most complex and sensitive particle physics experiment ever constructed. If it hasn’t found evidence for “dark matter” or “cosmic strings”, some billion-dollar camera you stick in space is not gonna do it either.
EndMilkInCrisps@hexbear.net 4 months ago
Is the LHC experimenting on crystals?
pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
I’m having a hard time with this. We don’t know what we don’t know and it takes a lot of undeserved confidence to say anything is for sure. Fermilab never found the god particle and we’re pretty sure that exists. I’m not saying it’s true, but you guys are being a little over confident. Think about all of the theories and hypothesis that have been altered or completely changed over time.
numberfour002@lemmy.world 4 months ago
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Fleur__@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Lol those losers at cern wasted hundreds of millions of dollars to find out that there aren’t frequencies that alter your energy while I only spent 36 dollars.
Get real
Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
“I did my research”