FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Marginal]

Hello people.

I don't know if this is the right place to ask, but, does heat treatment damage the minerals?
I started using minerals as a healing aid, and some people mention heat treatment is modifying the mineral's properties.


Thanks.

[Gail]

This is a more scientific and social site, in all honesty you won't find many who subscribe to the "aura" of "healing" that minerals have unless you take some in a pill form. I know there are many sites that will satisfy your need to know in that regard, but I think you will not find an answer here. Most of us do not subscribe to rocks being able to heal. But, we wish you well and good luck in your task!

[Jordi Fabre]

Well said Gail

[alfredo]

I'll second what Gail wrote, and add one more aspect:

It's not any magical invisible energy from the mineral that is healing anyone, but rather it's the *belief* in the magic that is causing a healing effect. This is well known to doctors as the "placebo effect" and is an academically very well studied phenomenon.

So, Marginal, back to whether or not heat treatment or irradiation or any other type of treatment will alter a crystal's healing properties, it would be more meaningful to ask whether the treatment has affected your *belief* in the healing properties? ...and that is a question only you can answer.

[Marginal]

Thank you people.

[mraffordable]

Marginal,
I hear many arguments both pro and con on this subject. I was owner of a metaphysical gift shop for a few years. The heat treatment can, in fact, change the healing properties of some crystals. Quartz, for example, with the right amount of heat may become citrine. It depends on the mineral content and the amount of heat applied. I am one of the few members who share your belief. Somewhere there on this site there is a way for people to contact one another privately. I would be happy to share what I know.

[John S. White]

Sorry, I just can't ignore this. Heating some quartz may indeed change its color, most commonly from amethyst to citrine. However, there is no evidence that either amethyst or citrine can do anything for anyone insofar as healing, or rock crystal (colorless quartz) for that matter. If there was any truth to this folly then the folks who mine rock crystal in Hot Springs, Arkansas, or amethyst in Brazil or Uruguay must be the healthiest people on the planet. Somehow, I suspect they are not.

[Riccardo Modanesi]

Hi to everybody!
I confirm: quartzes are usually heat-treated in order to make their colour changed, from amethyst to citrine, or to green quartzes, etc.
Corundums, beryls (expecially aquamarines) and tourmalines are also usually heat-treated for the same reason and also in order to improve their clarity. There are so many publications (you should all know Ted Themelis, who did and still is doing many researches about) about this subject.
Greetings from Italy by Riccardo.

[Marginal]

Hi Ricardo and thank you for the reply.
My real question was though about the treatment to SHAPE the mineral / crystal beads.
Is there heat involved in that process or not, and if so, how does it affect the healing properties of the mineral.
Sorry to ask again in the wrong forum.

[Jordi Fabre]