Firstly, welcome to the forums. I'm sure you'll find a lot of friendly and knowledgeable people here.
Regarding the crystals, you can put them in salt water and stick them out in natural sunlight. If you don't have access to the beach, you can use normal water with salt (not table salt) added to it. If you don't have sunlight.. :P you can get some kyanite to charge your crystals. And it may be worth mentioning that crystals are 'programmable'.. once they've been cleansed and charged, you tell them what you'd like them to do.
With seeing auras, you should begin in low light with a background a similar colour to your hand. Sit with your hand outstretched towards the background, and focus on the edges of your fingers. Move your eyes around so you don't get an afterimage (cellular fatigue), and imagine that you're seeing your hand through your third eye. Focus your attention on your third eye (pineal gland) and imagine energy coming up from the ground and down from the sky to meet in your third eye. Imagine it growing bigger and glowing (it may help to imagine this being indigo.. but feel what works for you).
At first you may only see the first etheric layer of your aura.. it may be a few millimeters in width, but should expand slowly (over time; weeks / months) to be a bit more than a centimeter. At this stage, you should start to see some colour moving around in the next 'layer' of your aura. Keep practicing and your third eye will slowly open, allowing you to see the aura more clearly. And it should go without saying that you'll also start seeing spirits.
You may find benefit in working on decalcifying your third eye:
http://spiritualityhealth.com/blog/b...e-pineal-gland
Good luck on your journey. Please let us know if there's anything you need help with.