Effects of man made changes on stones.
 

Hi,
Yesterday I bought a beautiful pale blue Topaz from a trusted and experienced dealer. I had previously believed that blue Topaz was achieved by irradiating the natural crystals to make them more saleable. Not always so said my dealer, some Topaz from Afghanistan is naturally blue. My pendulum indicates he is telling the truth.

It seems that crystals of various types may be irradiated, heat treated at very high temperatures and even artificially dyed as in some Lapis lazuli, I am wondering whether these man-made changes alter the recognised spiritual characteristics of these crystals? Does anybody know please?

Thanks, Chris.

I bought my Blue Topaz tumblestones a few years ago and was told the same thing. Just like natural Citrine they tend to sell quite quickly. However, some people may be drawn to heat treated stones ~ you just have to go with your intuition :)

I would think the characteristics do change, especially after reading how easily "baked amethyst" is sold as citrine. Two separate stones with different properties altogether.

Don't accept wooden nickels.

Personally not a fan of fake stones, but to each their own. Some people love heated or dyed stones, but IMO you might as well buy a piece of plastic. I know not everyone will agree, and it's just my opinion, so don't take it for gospel or anything. Treating is cheating. :smile:

I guess it would be sort of like :

" Wow, look at that pink/red sunset ! It's amazing ! Oh wait, first you have to put on these colored glasses and then you can see this amazing " natural " colored sunset. "

Up here in Canada we spell color as colour, and colored as coloured, but it gets autocorrected if I try and spell it like a Canadian. Even the internet is bias ! LOL

I prefer el` natural crystals and minerals so if I am looking for specific color quality I scour the planet looking for the best quality. Lapis from Afghanistan has such an amazingly rich blue. I lean toward Amethyst from Brazil sold from a specific dealer on Amazon. It has some amazing color and they dont dye their stones Hypnotic gems on Amazon also does not dye their stones either and the sell tumbled.

I do believe altering crystals from their natural state also alters their use.

I guess it depends how you look at it. Trying to pass of something of little value to something of great value and treating them to make them look very expensive or to represent something they are not is always a big NO to me.

However there are a few examples where humanmade changes are understandable. Stabilizing Turquoise is sometimes necessary to keep the stone from falling apart or to keep it from discoloring, it just needs to be on the label. Dying Howlite blue is not a problem if it is on the label, one of my books on stone healing even included it. Trying to pass it off to customers as Turquoise is a problem. Also Zincite is also made entirely by humans (accidentally at first) most of the time but still regarded as a very powerful and helpful metaphysical crystal. Then there are the Aura Quartzes which are pretty much accepted in the metaphysical community and included in most books on healing stones. Some people love them, some hate them but they have their use.

For me personally it just depends on the intention. Stones created with the intention to mislead will never be in my collection. Some human-altered stones and crystals are fine with me I guess.

I always had something against treated / man-made crystals myself, but I have come to appreciate them over time.

Did you know heat-treated citrine is the citrine that has the exact properties people want citrine for? Natural citrine works entirely different and most people don't even know what that does. They want citrine for what they know it does and for that you need the heat-treated variety, not the natural.

Nature also does 'heat treating' so in actual fact there's nothing wrong with doing it. Maybe sometimes it happens slower in natural, but I think not always. If a volcano erupts, the heat will likely also be instant. The biggest difference may be that cooling off is much much slower.
Doesn't change the fact that the properties ascribed to citrine -the reason people want it- go with heat treated version, not natural citrine.

In a way it is a mindset I think. In a way it's the ego block that tells us it's **, but is it really if you feel and intuit? Our egos and minds are the very things that trick us in life and cause us to miss out on a great many opportunities and growth.

A similar thing with Fire & Ice crystals: clear quartz that's been exposed to heat so it cracks on the inside and then creates these wonderful rainbows.
Years ago I felt sorry for crystals being treated this way. Now I own one of these, a large one at that, and I love its energy!

The one I find most difficult to connect with is opalite. I'm not certain whether it's knowing it's not natural or not 100%, or its energy.

To be honest, if you think of treated and/or man-made crystals and programmed natural crystals... what is worse?
I don't like people programming crystals and most don't have a clue what they're doing and mostly it's limiting the crystal's natural goal in existence and natural energies. I doubt most even feel before programming if the crystal actually wants to be programmed and if it is suited for the program.

I've had a crystal -a huge one- that didn't feel right and I couldn't work out what its problem was. Turned out it had 3 different programs put on it that were all running, causing the crystal to be completely noodle doodle, its energy going all over the place.

So what is worse? Mistreating crystals with programming without proper knowledge or treating crystals which changes their energies but doesn't damage it.

Treating crystals to sell them as something they're not is wrong full stop, by which I mean things like dying howlite to sell it for turquoise.

I have heard that treated crystals have metaphysical properties similar to natural, but personally I am skeptical. I know that the Chinese have considered citrine to be a lucky stone, bringing wealth as well. The natural stuff isn't as deep of a colour, but it is more real yellow whereas most of the heated stuff appears orange.

I'll admit that some of these man made and treated stones are very pretty, but I just can't get my head around them. I know nature does heat treating as well, but it's a natural process not something heated in an oven or treated in a lab. With all the beautiful natural crystals, there is every colour under the rainbow, I don't see the need to supplement with man made stuff.

There have been times I wish I wasn't so picky, as there has been some outrageous man made crystals I have liked, but it goes against my principles. Part of the attraction for me with crystals is that they are natural art from mother nature. That being said, I am sure you have some really cool treated specimens. I am sure I would probably really dig them, it's just that it's not the type of collection I am shooting for.

I've always felt the same way, but a few years ago I became more open. I still don't have a lot, just the opalite goddess carving, 2 sunstones and a fire and ice crystal.
The most important thing for me is that I resonate with it.
And as for natural/not treated, in a way one could then also question polished crystals, which is likely more than 50% of what's out there. Spheres, tumbles, points and so on.
How far does one go with 'not treated'?
Since this topic was ' man made changes'... even digging up crystals is a man-made change.
When I see pictures of the huge chunks that are being removed from the Earth to then be chopped and sold off in smaller pieces I am shocked. The amount we remove from the planet for our pleasure is insane. And our 'natural' crystals weren't naturally in that shape we got them, not ever, as they were part of something much much bigger. Unless the planet herself spits them out, lol, and we can collect them without any digging involved.
So in that sense I guess one could say that 99,9999% of our crystals aren't really natural as natural means underground, connected to the deposit they grew in.
Meaning 99,9999% of crystals have been touched and altered by man.
Whenever I see photos of what's being taken from Mother Earth I think "What the heck are we doing?" It makes me feel to never buy crystals again. First it's gold & silver, then gas and oil, now it's crystals...
Think of the damage to Mother Earth just so we can have our crystals and other people can make a fortune of selling them.
No matter how much I love my crystals, in a way it's just sad.
How far does one go with 'natural' or 'not treated'?

Not that I am advocating treated crystals, not at all. I am happy my citrine is natural. It's a very very light yellow. So much so that you'd think it's clear crystal until you put it in clear daylight or take a photo of it. It's the most stunning natural citrine I've ever seen, even my fave crystal shop doesn't sell this quality. Needless to say it cost a bomb, the most expensive crystal I got.
My Leandro smokey quartz skull is the most stunning quality I've ever seen (Brazilian, Minas Gerais). It also happens to be the most powerful skull I've ever got. Whenever I posted a photo of the group, everyone always asked about him, even if you could barely see him in the photo. So his energy was felt by everyone. Not really a surprise, given that it is a top quality smokey quartz and a Leandro. The man knows what he does, but still. I had not expected people to pick up on it from a group photo.
Also natural smokey quartz, same as the citrine it looks like clear quartz, until you put the two together or in bright daylight.
I had another smokey quartz skull, not Leandro but Walmere, also top quality (Minas Gerais, Brazil), but still not the same as the Leandro. I sold it last year, it was gone within 2 days.

I'm babbling, lol, but yeah, I'm also mostly intrigued by what we call natural crystals. Not changed in colour or quality by heat or whatever.

I'm not an Expert on crystals I only know what I like and what feels right to me I have got a few myself.
I went to a spiritualist gathering where crystals were being handed out in a circle.we had to try to tell the genuine crystal to forced ones.
to me it was easy enough the forced ones were discoloured and felt like plastic.
but many were fooled as I say I'm not an expert but I could tell the difference

Namaste