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Crystal Healing: the Therapeutic Application of Crystals and Stones

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Crystal Healing: the Therapeutic Application of Crystals and Stones THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL "We're all individuals": postmodernity and alternative health practices in Northern England being a Thesis submitted for the degree ofPh.D in the University ofHull by Stuart David McClean, B.A (Hons) October 200). A spectre is haunting scientific medicine: the spectre of alternative approaches to health and healing. J.W.Salmon Alternative stedicine. Popular and Policy Perspectives The power ofcrystals is upon us and cannot be denied... use your own intuition as you explore the resources ofthis phenomenal world of light. K. Raphaell Crystal Healing: The Therapeutic Application of Crystals and Stones II Acknowledgements Firstly, I must say a big thank you to my supervisor Dr Andrew Dawson. Andy has provided many perceptive and astute critical insights into the thesis since the very beginning. As well as his insight, a calm disposition when handling crises on the telephone has been a key factor in this being completed. I am particularly grateful for the fact that he told me on countless occasions to keep going, despite the set-backs that seemed to conspire against me. I would also like to thank Professor Allison James for her insightful comments on several drafts of the thesis, and in particular, with her suggestions on the medical sociology literature. This PhD was achieved in no small part by the generous financial contributions from my family. On this note, many, many thanks are due to my parents Janet and David, and my wife Carrie. Thank you to my daughter Lucy, who I hope has not suffered for having a father who at critical times ofthe day would go offto his desk and do "boring work". Reading stories and playing games always seemed a better option. Finally, I am especially grateful and indebted to Carrie for the emotional and intellectual companionship, which without question is the main reason why the thesis was completed. At times it has seemed like such a large sacrifice for such a small contribution. Bearing this lack ofparity in mind, it is to her that this thesis is dedicated, with love. III Abstract This thesis explores the use and practice of crystal and spiritual healing - therapies located on the fringe of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) - and what these 'represent' in the context of a profound socio-cultural transformation, characterised by the shift in Western societies from modernity to postmodernity. I explore this theme in relation to the empirical example of a healing centre in the North of England. The methodological stance I took was that of ethnography; data was largely gathered using participant observation. A central theme is that healing practice and ideas which emerge at the Centre reflect individual concerns. and therefore healing practices themselves are often highly personalised. In addition, I explore how, from a Centre that celebrates highly personalised practices, healing knowledge becomes institutionalised and consensuses emerge. Furthermore, I explain that the Centre collectively sanctions this personal expression. This tension between individual expression and the formalisation of group practice is, I argue, indicative of our times. Therefore. what emerges from this study is that the Centre fosters an ethos of the individual, but it is a collective ethos. In addition, crystal and spiritual healing usage and practice reflects levels ofdissatisfaction with biomedicine. the medicine of modernity. Though challenged by these healing practices, biomedicine has not been significantly weakened by this emergence. Even within the more esoteric healing practices, I point to the continuing influence of materiality, science and biomedicine. The appropriation of biomedicine can be witnessed in the Centre's attempts to professionalise and systematise practices, but it can also be seen in less obvious ways, in that healers seemingly infuse their practice with some of the language and science of biomedicine. This throws into question the conventional biomedicine/alternative medicine interface. and offers some insight both into the common metaphorical basis of healing and medicine. and biomedicine's continued hegemony. 1\ Contents Acknowledgements III Abstract IV Contents Preface \'1 Introduction 1 Methodology 16 1 The contemporary resurgence ofalternative medicines: from 29 biomedical hegemony to plural health care 2 The rise of individuation: knowledge, the body and identity in 61 postmodern society 3 The VEHC: exploring healing practice and its relationship to 82 healers' everyday concerns 4 Healer classification of ritual space: exploring the spiritual and material 117 realities 5 The orchestration ofhealing I: innovation, performance and role 142 6 The orchestration ofhealing II: exploring procedure and 172 performance in the healing act 7 Healing bodies: bridging the material and the spiritual 199 8 Concepts of health and illness: contested healer views at the 226 VEHC Conclusion 255 Bibliography 268 Preface Crystals and Stones: formative experiences As a young person (early to mid 1980s) I recall being particularly fascinated with crystals and stones. For example, on school visits to places of cultural and historical notr1~ould ensure that I had spending money for the small bags of stones that the tourUops sold in cheap plastic presentation boxes with the label describing their 'precious' contents. Despite appearances, they were neither expensive nor rare gemstones, just rocks that were often indigenous to the region, and in abundance. As far as I can recollect, my primary interest in these artefacts was aesthetic - the crystals could be smooth or craggy, opaque or cloudy and they exhibited beautiful colours. The hobby, not necessarily unusual at the time, lasted perhaps two or three years, or at least until more typically teenage pursuits took over. It wasn't until 1991 that crystals moved back into my social sphere. Returning home from university during the Christmas and Easter vacations, I was conscious of a significant change in the 'spare time' activities of some friends. Before leaving for university, these friends became interested in meditation, yoga practices, and tai-chi. These are bodily regimes that help to focus the mind and are used to alleviate stress, amongst other things. I thought it was nothing exceptionally unusual. perhaps another middle-class lifestyle preoccupation. It was not expensive to undertake, unlike other therapies such as acupuncture. The emphasis was on self-help. Furthermore, it seemed that then: was no right or wrong way of healing your body - you chose the type of healing that worked for you. On returning home during the summer vacation at the end of my first year studies. mv friends' interests were taking a new and unexpected tum. Now they were buying crystals and stones and saying they healed the body. For some inexplicable \I reason this excited me in a number of ways, and perhaps it validated my earlier fascination. Although the tourist shops in areas ofgeological interest still sold rocks and stones in abundance to hoards of school children, the crystals that we sought were of a 'higher' order. By this, I mean they were more 'exotic', more expensive, from all regions of the world, and were sold in 'New Age' shops along with books on self-help and healing. In short, a very different set of meanings were attached to the crystals sold in these shops in comparison to those that I bought as a child. During a period of experimentation with these unusually mundane objects, some close friends and I began to use crystals to heal the body. It was thought that they could be used for self-healing, though in practice it was not that easy. For instance, if you were lying down, listening to calm and relaxing music on the cassette player, it did not help when the stones that you placed on your body kept falling off. Each time you picked one up that had fallen and replaced it, another would topple. So, we started practising on each other. This occurred on an ad hoc basis, in that it depended on who could give up their bedroom to being an alternative medical centre for the afternoon. This was how our activities continued for a few summer months: surreptitious visits to each others' houses, each carrying bags full of crystals and gemstones. We would take it in turn, one healing the other, and then alternate, until we had all healed and had been healed. I did not think then that four years later I would witness similar routines, though with very different meanings attached, being carried out at a healing centre in the North ofEngland. Returning to University for my second year. the healing routine slipped somewhat. I suppose the gap between academic study and crystal healing was too large undo besides, outside of the narrow social space of some old friends nobody that I knew seemed to he interested. The time for personal and social experimentation was coming to an end, and the crystals were packed into boxes. I wasn't to take them out again until VII m. \ finals were over and l d decided to embark on a Ph.D. This time. thev. became the serendipitous inspiration for the subject matter of my study. rather than as a tool for healing - though this was soon to change. "I' Introduction Crystal and spiritual healing;' background and context As expressed in the preface, my experiences using crystals to heal the body became an inspiration for my PhD. By the time of the research I felt I had 'distanced' myself from 'believing' in the healing properties of the stones. Nevertheless, I thought that it would be worthwhile to consider why individuals practised a therapy that is located on the extreme fringes of mainstream health care. However, I thought that the issue would have been addressed copiously within the social sciences (sociology and social anthropology), not least because the practice and usage of therapies like crystal healing were increasingly ubiquitous.
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