What’s behind the enduring popularity of crystals?

 

Proponents claim the stones can promote health and well-being. janiecbros/Getty Images

As New York City mayor Eric Adams attends ribbon cuttings, marches in parades and bulldozes dirt bikes, he wears an energy stone bracelet that his supporters gave him. In a recent interview, Adams discussed his belief that New York City has a “special energy” because it sits atop a store of rare gems and stones – the so-called “Manhattan schist,” which is over 450 million years old and contains over 100 minerals.

Adams isn’t the only one imbuing rocks with metaphysical significance. During the first year of the pandemic, the crystal industry boomed, with customers hoping the gems might relieve their anxiety.

Some people might be confused about the allure of these stones. But crystal enthusiasts aren’t deviants. Current ideas about crystals come from a larger tradition called “metaphysical religion” that has always been part of the American spiritual landscape.

More than rocks

Technically, a crystal is any matter with a repeating pattern of atoms or molecules. The crystals for sale in shops are known as euhedral crystals because they have well-defined surfaces, or “faces.”

For centuries, people have attributed special properties to crystals. Scientist Carl Sagan, in his book “The Demon-Haunted World,” traces their modern popularity to a series of books written in the 1980s by Katrina Raphaell, who founded The Crystal Academy of Advanced Healing Arts in 1986.

Crystals aren’t just eye-catching stones. Quartz is used in electronics because it possesses piezoelectric properties that cause it to release an electric charge when compressed. But, as skeptics are quick to point out, there is no evidence crystals can bring health, prosperity or any of the other properties that crystal enthusiasts may attribute to them.

Mining the metaphysical

Yet crystals are part of a broader tradition called metaphysical religion, a term coined by historian Catherine Albanese.

Metaphysical religion includes modern New Age movements, a nebulous milieu of alternative spiritual beliefs and practices, such as synchronicity or psychic abilities. Older traditions like Mesmerism, the idea that humans beings emit magnetic energy that can be used for healing, and Spiritualism, the belief that mediums can communicate with the dead, also fall under the metaphysical umbrella.

Albanese ascribes four characteristics to metaphysical traditions: a preoccupation with the mind and its powers; “correspondences,” or the idea of hidden connections between things; a tendency to think in terms of energy and movement; and a yearning for salvation understood as “solace, comfort, therapy, and healing.”

‘Contagious magic’

Metaphysical ideas about crystals exhibit each of these characteristics.

While crystals are physical objects, not thoughts, many crystal enthusiasts recommend “cleansing” and “charging” crystals through visualization and other meditative techniques. So the mind plays a key role in crystal spirituality, as it does in other forms of metaphysical religion.

Crystal sales soared during the pandemic. Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Correspondence refers to the belief found in many occult traditions that ordinary things possess secret qualities or connections to other things. A classic example is astrology, which postulates a correspondence between one’s birthday and certain personality traits. Metaphysical claims about crystals also reflect a belief in correspondences. For example, Colleen McCann, a self-described shaman affiliated with the crystal purveyor Goop, described the positive qualities of different crystals: bloodstones promote good health, rose quartzes help with love, and pink mangano calcites are good for sleep.

Modern crystal enthusiasts often use words like “energy” and “vibrations” that present their ideas in a scientific register. When enthusiasts talk about the energy of crystals – like Eric Adams did – they really mean that it exerts influence within a certain proximity. This is the principle behind crystal water bottles that can be used to “charge” water with “vibrational energy.”

Stripped of scientific language, the logic of energy and vibrations is another form of what anthropologist James Frazer called “contagious magic” found in many cultures, where simply placing one thing next to another is believed to cause an effect.

A source of stigma

Finally, metaphysical religion tends to focus on solving problems in this life rather than the hereafter. This includes health and prosperity, but also emotional growth and well-being. Crystal spirituality is certainly centered around these worldly goals.

This is a big distinction from traditions like Christianity that emphasize salvation in heaven. It is also a factor in why metaphysical ideas are stigmatized despite their popularity.

Protestant Christianity, with its emphasis on “sola fides” – faith alone – has historically dismissed many forms of material religion, or objects with religious significance, as superstition. So in a culture shaped by its historically Protestant majority, some Americans may be predisposed to look at crystal spirituality as foolish, greedy or even blasphemous.

But while claims about the hidden properties of crystals lack scientific validation, so do many of the claims of Christianity and other mainstream religions.

From a historical perspective, Adams’ ideas about crystals don’t make him an outlier. As a scholar of religious studies, I see him as a normal part of the American religious landscape.

Joseph P. Laycock, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Texas State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

Y chromosome loss through aging can lead to an increased risk of heart failure and death from cardiovascular disease, new research finds

 

Chromosomes change over time, whether through the process of aging or exposure to harmful substances in the environment. Steven Puetzer/The Image Bank

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

The Y chromosome can be lost through the process of aging, and this can lead to an increased risk of heart failure and cardiovascular disease, according to a recent study my colleagues and I published in the journal Science.

While most women have two X chromosomes, most men have one X and one Y. And many people with Y chromosomes start to lose them in a fraction of the cells in their body as they age.

While loss of the Y chromosome was first observed in 1963, it was not until 2014 that researchers found an association between loss of the Y chromosome and shorter life span. Y chromosome loss has since been linked to a number of age-related diseases, such as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. However, it has been unknown whether this loss is just another benign indicator of aging, like gray hair or skin wrinkles, or whether it has a direct role in promoting disease.

Over time, the degrading Y chromosome may play an increasingly smaller role in development.

My colleagues and I wanted to figure out if Y chromosome loss directly causes disease and, if so, how. Historically, the Y chromosome has been difficult to study because much of its genetic material is repetitive – it’s easy to get “lost” trying to decipher the sequence.

However, we were able to take advantage of these repeat sequences by targeting them with the DNA-editing tool CRISPR. We used CRISPR to introduce breaks into the Y chromosome DNA of white blood cells in mice, destroying and eliminating the Y chromosome. We chose white blood cells in particular because they tend to have a high prevalence of Y chromosome loss.

We found that while loss of the Y chromosome did not have immediate effects on the young mice, they ended up aging poorly, dying at an earlier age than mice that still had Y chromosomes. They also had more buildup of scar tissue in the heart, a condition called fibrosis, as well as a stronger decline in heart function after induced heart failure. Treating the mice with a drug that blocks heart scarring, however, was able to restore lost heart function.

We then evaluated the effects of Y chromosome loss in people. We analyzed data from the U.K. Biobank, a large database of medical and genetic data from 500,000 participants in the U.K. We found that men who had lost their Y chromosomes in over 40% of their white blood cells had a 31% increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease compared with men who hadn’t lost their Y chromosomes, including a two- to threefold increased risk of dying from congestive heart failure or heart disease. In other words, those with the greatest Y chromosome loss had the greatest risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

Screening for Y chromosome loss could help lead to earlier treatments for age-related conditions. Olympia Valla/EyeEm via Getty Images

Why it matters

Men are reported to have shorter life spans than women in many countries. In industrialized countries like the U.S., this is typically a difference of five years. While social, behavioral and other genetic factors may also be at play, they don’t entirely account for the differences in life span.

Our work shows that loss of the Y chromosome can directly contribute to age-related diseases like heart disease through tissue scarring. We believe that a better understanding of how the Y chromosome may contribute to age-related diseases, and potentially the process of aging itself, could lead to ways to screen and prevent excessive tissue scarring that can lead to cardiovascular disease.

What still isn’t known

While our study primarily focused on the heart, we also found that mice with Y chromosome loss also had scarring in their kidneys and lungs as well as accelerated cognitive impairment as they aged. Further research can help clarify the role of Y chromosome loss in diseases affecting other parts of the body.

What’s next

We are currently searching for specific genes that are lost with the Y chromosome that may be responsible for the disease-causing effects of Y chromosome loss. This information can help us better analyze exactly how loss of the Y chromosome can lead to disease and aid in the development of treatments for it.

Kenneth Walsh, Professor of Internal Medicine, University of Virginia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

Monsters are everywhere in the Bible – and some are even human

 

A 12th-century commentary on the Book of Job shows Satan transmitting a disease to him. DeAgostini Picture Library via Getty Images

What is a “monster”? For most Americans, this word sparks images of haunted houses and horror movies: scary creations, neither human nor animal, and usually evil.

But it can be helpful to think about “monsters” beyond these knee-jerk images. Ever since the 1990s, humanities scholars have been paying close attention to “monstrous” bodies in literature: characters whose appearance challenges common ideas about what’s normal.

Biblical scholars like me have followed in their footsteps. The Bible is full of monsters, even if they’re not Frankenstein or Bigfoot, and these characters can teach important lessons about ancient authors, texts and cultures. Monsterlike characters – even human ones – can convey ideas about what’s considered normal and good or “deviant,” disturbing and evil.

Hidden messages

Sometimes, monsters’ bodies are depicted in ways that reflect racist or sexist stereotypes about “us” versus “them.” Literary theorist Jack Halberstam, for example, has written about how Dracula and other vampires reveal antisemitic symbolism – even on Count Chocula cereal boxes. Such images often draw on antisemitic tropes that have been around for centuries, portraying Jewish people as shadowy, bloodsucking parasites.

Biblical monsters are no less revealing. In the Book of Judges, for example, the judge Ehud confronts the grotesque Moabite king Eglon, who is fatally fat and dies in an explosion of his own feces when a sword gets stuck in his stomach – though most modern translations render this a bit more chastely: “[Eglon’s] fat closed over [Ehud’s] blade, and the hilt went in after the blade – for he did not pull the dagger out of his belly – and the filth came out.”

In describing Eglon, the text also teaches Israelites how to think about their Moabite neighbors across the Jordan River. Like their emblematic king, Moabites are portrayed as excessive and disgusting – but ridiculous enough that Israelite heroes can defeat them with a few tricks.

‘David with the Head of Goliath and two Soldiers,’ from 1615. Found in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collections. Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Hulton Fine Art Collection via Getty Images

Figures like Eglon and the famous Philistine giant Goliath, who battles the future King David, offer opportunities for biblical authors to subtly instruct readers about other groups of people that the authors consider threatening or inferior.

‘Why me?’

But the Bible sometimes draws a relatable human character and then inserts twists, playing with the audience’s expectations.

In my own recent work, I have suggested that this is exactly what’s going on with the Book of Job. In this mostly poetic book of the Bible, “The Satan” claims that Job acts righteously only because he is prosperous and healthy. God grants permission for the fiend to test Job by causing his children to be killed, his livestock to be stolen and his body to break out in painful boils.

Job is then approached by three friends, who insist that he must have done something to prompt this apparent punishment. He spends the rest of the book debating with them about the cause of his torment.

The book is full of monsters and already a familiar topic in monster studies. In chapters 40-41, God boasts about two superanimals that he has created, called Leviathan and Behemoth. A mysterious, possibly maritime monster called Rahab appears twice. Both Job and his friends refer to vague nighttime visions that terrify them.

And of course there’s another “monster,” too: Job’s test is instigated by “the Satan.” Later in history, this figure became the archfiend of Jewish and Christian theology. In the Book of Job, though, he’s simply portrayed as a crooked minion, a shifty member of God’s heavenly court.

But I’d argue there’s another “monster” hiding in plain sight: the man at the center of it all. As biblical scholars like Rebecca Raphael and Katherine Southwood have pointed out, Job’s body is central to the book’s plot.

Job stoically tolerates Satan’s attacks on his livestock and even his children. It is only after the second attack, which produces “a severe inflammation on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head,” that he lets out a deluge of complaints.

To illustrate his suffering, Job repeatedly describes his bodily decay with macabre, gruesome images: “My skin, blackened, is peeling off me. My bones are charred by the heat.” And, “My flesh is covered with maggots and clods of earth; My skin is broken and festering.”

‘Monstrous’ wonder

Job’s body is so transformed that he, too, can be seen as a “monster.” But while Job might think that the deity prefers ideal human bodies, this is not necessarily the case.

In the book’s telling, God sustains unique, extraordinary monsters who would seem, at first glance, to be evil or repellent – but actually serve as prime examples of creation’s wonder and diversity. And it is Satan, not God, who decides to test Job by afflicting him physically.

Some books in the Bible indeed view monsters as simplistic, inherently evil “others.” The prophet Daniel, for example, has visions of four hybrid beasts, including a winged lion and a multiheaded leopard. These were meant to symbolize threatening ancient empires that the chapter’s author despised.

The Book of Job does something radical by pushing against this limited view. Its inclusive viewpoint portrays the “monstrous” human as a sympathetic character who has his place in a diverse, chaotic world – challenging readers’ preconceptions today, just as it might have thousands of years ago.

Madadh Richey, Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible, Brandeis University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.