Is It Crystal Clear?: A head to head opinion concerning spirituality’s validity

A girl with brown hair is going to ruin your life. You’re going to get cheated on. Your brother is going to get sick again.

Sitting with a psychic recommended by my friend in downtown KC, I listened to my predictions for the year. I went into the session with the intention of seeing if this spiritual world was worth my time or if it was just a bunch of hocus pocus. What I got instead was terrifying predictions that left me feeling incredibly anxious.

Every mind-trick or witchcraft is the same to an extent. Carrying a crystal that may bring you love, using essential oils to cure the flu instead of modern-day, tested, medicine or trusting a candle’s flame to suspect the longevity of a friendship is simply impractical. Instead of relying on outside sources to be a happy person, people should focus simply on their mindset and who they are as people.

If you can look at a rose quartz crystal and “feel the positive energy it’s radiating” then yes, maybe you’ll get a tiny boost of serotonin. But, in no way is it practical to say that a stone the size of my thumb is what’s getting you through the day. 

Manifesting is the same way. It takes a positive attitude about life to be a happy, balanced person. You can try to manifest positivity but if you live with a negative view on life, attempting to manifest simply when you need something isn’t going to make you a better person. 

The most important part of being positive is ultimately your perspective. Yes, crystals and candles might bring you a small amount of joy, but it won’t bring you happiness unless your perspective changes. By focusing on moving forward and looking at life optimistically, the chances of you being happy are much higher.

If you want something so badly that you’re willing to find the time every single day to put your energy towards that goal, then yes, manifesting is practical for you. But if you try to manifest something that isn’t even practical in the first place, you have to accept that repeated affirmations on a piece of paper probably won’t do the trick. 

For example, if a student in business school wants to land a big job in corporate America, that’s practical. But if you’re manifesting to be a Supreme Court justice without going to law school, then you should learn to accept disappointment as much as you accept your bundle of dried herbs being magic.

So no matter how many crystals, worry dolls, spells, herbs and mantras you find yourself frequenting, positive energy and your overall happiness shouldn’t be dependent on an amethyst crystal to make your fairytale dreams come true — it’s simply not practical.

In 8th grade I became a “rock girl”. The girl who had rocks of every color, shape and size stuffed in the front zipper of my backpack. The girl who collected scents and oils as a hobby. Manifesting and spirituality is part of what made me me. 

But when people tell me that “they’re just rocks” or “there’s no point in having them,” it’s clear that they just don’t get it. They’re not understanding the purpose behind them. 

Spirituality is similar to how others see religion. It’s based on recognizing that a higher power — in this case, the universe — is in control. It’s about realizing that everything, including your actions, has positive or negative energy. The trinkets associated with spirituality such as crystals, incense, or candles are what make people skeptical of the idea of trusting in the universe. There’s a common misconception that these things are believed to have magical powers, when in reality, it’s all about the energy they possess.

However, the act of lighting incense and “cleansing” things like your room can help to alleviate any stress you have. Sometimes the miniscule pile of clothes on my desk seems like it is taking up the entire room. Everything seems so chaotic and busy. Taking two minutes to burn the natural aroma around the area rids it of the up-tight cramped feeling that I’ve convinced myself exists. Something about the scented smoke trailing from its base and dispersing into the air creates a clean-slate vibe and seems to erase my stress.

I constantly worry. And instead of letting these concerns take over my daily life, I use worry dolls. The guidelines consist of giving a worry doll your problem and setting it underneath your pillow overnight. Before you know it, your anxiety over the  problems will have vanished. I’m not saying that a five-centimeter-long doll is absorbing all my worries, but instead of spending my life overthinking I can make peace with myself and my worries by trusting things will work out however they’re supposed to. 

Manifesting is the same thing — a way to exert positive energy into your future. I think that everyone manifests in some way — whether they know it or not. It doesn’t have to be sitting on a floor pillow, crystals in hand, with incense burning, writing down your wishes and burning the paper to release it into the realm of possibility, but it can also be the simple act of saying or even just thinking about what you want to happen so that it’s projected into the universe.

What you put out into the universe will come back to you. If you think positively about a job you applied for and say to yourself, “I think that went well. I can see myself in this position,” it’s much more likely to work out than if you were projecting, “That sucked, I suck, I’m going to fail.”

Spirituality isn’t something I would ever try to convince someone to practice simply because if you don’t believe in it, it won’t help you. But spiritual practices can help to incorporate positive practices into your everyday life. These routines stand to benefit everyone — devout practitioners and hesitant skeptics alike.