Do you know where your crystals come from? What was the impact of obtaining them? If you didn’t find it yourself in its natural setting, it’s hard to, and there are questions. Was it gathered by hand, in an environmentally responsible manner? Was it strip-mined somewhere to feed the demand of new age/metaphysical/occult shops? Is it even natural, or was it grown in a laboratory from pulverized less attractive crystals, which may well have come from a mining operation?
These are not just ethical questions about the purchase. They may also effect the work you hope to do with the crystal. How can you tell if it’s a problem? You can shop with more care going forward, but if you already have a crystal from an uncertain source, can you clean it so the source doesn’t affect your work with it? Do the lab-grown crystals work differently than natural ones? What about completely synthetic crystals? Our panelists will address these and other questions.