Healing stones gather interest

- 1 May 1989

Sunday Star, 30 January 1988

Interest in the healing power of mineral stone crystals has taken off in the past five years and not only in the United States.

New Zealanders, too, have been among those quick to take to crystals. Nigel Robins, director of Wilderness Gems in the Hauraki Plains town of Negatea, says sales have increased markedly in the past five years.

Mr Robins’ 100 sq m crystal warehouse contains 200 varieties of stones from all over the world. Brazil has been a major source, but stones are also imported from India, Africa and Australia.

• Mr Robins says he caters for lapidaries, casual buyers and each day with between 10 and 20 people asking about ihe healing qualities of the stones. People are willing to pay high prices for the crystals they want. Amethyst crystals, noted for their healing qualities, range in price from 50c for a lcm piece to $2000 for clusters. Quartz crystals cost up to $100 for a piece 30cm by 7.5cm. Far removed from the hype of American “New Age’ mania, Gina Allan, onc of New Zealand’s formost experts on the use of crystals, relaxes in her Bombay home. A mature woman of gentle dispositien she does alt she can to dispel the image that she is some sort of crank.

Mrs Allan spends much of her time lecturing on crystals and tours the world offering instructions and using them in practical healing in countries such as Tibet as well as in her own neighbourhood.

Mrs Allan explains that crystals are one tool that people can rely on before they learn to rely on themselves. She also uses a whole range of other alternative therapies, including Chinese food therapy, numerology and homeopathy.

Crystals van help a person to find God, says Mrs Allan, though she has in mind a different concept from the Christian one.

Amethyst and quartz are popular with businessmen. An amethyst on your desk keeps the room warm and reduces stress, while the quartz crystal which many businessmen are carrying in their pockets helps them to clear their thoughts, she says.

Mrs Allan says the “New Age” (a term she loathes) movement in America has lost its way and has become too interested in money. Former screen star Shirley Maclaine charges

$300 for attendance at her lectures and has set up her own spiritual centre which she wants to run at a profit so she can set upa chain around the country.