How Crystal Vibes Have Shaped Our Lives
There are a handful of phrases sprinkled through our crystal community that I’ve always just accepted and never investigated. High Vibe Crystal, crystal vibrations, crystal frequencies, and several more related phrases have been thrown around without a second thought to the science behind the statement. In this week’s topic I’m going to apply some physics to this popular metaphysical expression.
In 1964 the United States Air Force released a video explaining in laymen’s terms how crystals are used to create an oscillator circuit. Crystals were and still are a superior material as they can produce a frequency through these oscillator circuits with good stability. This was important, for example, so radio stations didn’t interfere with other stations operating on a nearby frequency.
Quartz and tourmaline crystals both have piezoelectrical properties. This was first studied in the mid-18th century by Carl Linnaeus and Franz Aepinus. Piezoelectricity is most simply put, a crystal converting energy from an applied mechanical stress (such as squeezing) into electricity. Basically, the crystal is becoming a tiny battery but the only thing it needs to create voltage is a firm squeeze!
Fast forward to 1917 and this incredible property of quartz is put to the test. A thin layer of quartz was carefully glued between two steel plates to create a transducer. This new contraption sent out high frequency pulses underwater and the time it took for the echo to return after hitting another steel object was measured. This was the first ultra-sonic submarine detector used in World War I.
The next big technological breakthrough involving quartz came during World War 2. Now it is discovered that quartz can be cut in such a way to increase piezoelectricity and decrease its susceptibility to extreme temperatures. This “AT cut” quartz no longer needs heavy machinery to do its job and is placed in aircrafts, so pilots can communicate with the use of a radio while in flight.
If I were to flip through the pages of time in this post there would be too much material to read over a coffee that’s for certain. To sum up the many endless uses of quartz through history here is a short list of some notable applications. Before 1987 there is of course the quartz watch, microphones, TV remote controls, small engine ignitors, and many more piezoelectric quartz uses!
1987 - An inkjet print head is patented that squirts precise droplets of ink using piezoelectric materials. Also this year is a patent on harvesting the energy of ocean waves and converting them into electricity using piezoelectric methods.
2005 - Quartz is being used in cochlear implants to improve deaf people’s hearing.
2009 - NASA is using quartz to make helicopters quieter and more economical.
2011 - Research begins on harvesting piezoelectricity by implanting quartz generators into shoes and car tires where movement would create the energy for the crystal to convert to voltage.
2014 - Piezoelectric Heartrate monitor is patented to send information on the heart straight to a cell phone.
Beyond a shadow of a doubt there is proof from all sectors of science that crystals put out frequencies, which could otherwise be called vibrations and all it takes to generate these frequencies is physical contact. Are some crystals putting out a “high vibe”? To that I would have to say, probably not on their own accord. However, given what I’ve learned about piezoelectricity if a greater stress/force is put onto the crystal, it should in theory have a stronger output. Just the act of carrying a quartz crystal in your pocket is literally causing that crystal to convert the energy from your movement into electricity!
Science has only begun to understand and utilize crystals. Imagine the vastness of knowledge about these creations of earth that has yet to be discovered. This information does not make headlines, it’s not in the nightly news, nor will you find it on your Facebook feeds. An infinite source of electricity generated from renewable energy ring a bell? Nikola Tesla was researching this all the way back in the 1880’s. If you understand the power of a crystal without a scientific explanation, you are part of a select group of believers who trust the Universe to provide for us. I commend each one of you for that and am eager to continue to grow, learn, and vibrate higher together.
