Healing stone

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Minerals offered for sale as healing stones
Overview of different gemstones
Healing stone vending machine on the Baltic Sea beach

Inorganic or fossil substances, especially minerals, are referred to as healing stones or health stones , which supposedly have a healing effect on illnesses or are supposed to improve well-being ( gemstone therapy ; lithotherapy ). These effects should be achieved, for example, after “cleaning” and “charging” the healing stones by placing them on affected parts of the body, setting up larger stones, placing them in water or creams or wearing them on the body. There is no scientific evidence of a healing effect.

Alleged effect

In the opinion of esotericists , healing stones affect people through their colors (see color therapy ), their shape and the minerals they contain .

The first written mention of the use of healing stones, which was founded in antiquity, comes from the Middle Ages ( De Lapidibus by Pseudo-Aristotle ). In the Middle Ages, however, “healing stones” were rather specific, conspicuous dolmens or stone monuments to which people made pilgrimages in search of healing. Only in connection with the New Age wave, which also made use of the writings of the medical writer Hildegard von Bingen , did the belief in healing gemstones and gemstones spread in the population in the 20th century. The use of stones can be counted among the “energetic” methods of magic . The advisory literature lists numerous minerals and their ascribed effects, mostly quartz varieties such as amethyst or onyx , but also opal , malachite , hematite and many others.

Scientific review

There is no scientific evidence that healing stones are more effective than the placebo effect .

Legal assessment of healing stones

The Hamburg Regional Court found in a judgment of August 21, 2008 (Az .: 327 O 204/08) that promoting the healing effects of stones and designating them as "healing stones" is unfair competition , even if the lack of scientific evidence is based on the healing effect is pointed out. The justification for the judgment was that there was no evidence of a disease-preventive or curative effect of the stones and that such a designation would mislead potential customers.

literature

  • Hermann Fühner : Lithotherapy. Historical studies of the medicinal uses of the gemstones. Ulm 1902; 2nd edition 1936; Reprint there in 1956.
  • Wolfgang Wegner: Lithotherapy. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 858.

Web links

Commons : Heilsteine  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lithotherapy: healing treatment with precious stones, minerals and earth.
  2. ↑ Andreas Speer, Lydia Wegener: Knowledge about limits . Walter de Gruyter, 2006, ISBN 978-3-11-018998-8 , pp. 130 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed March 8, 2012]).
  3. ↑ Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer, Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli: Concise Dictionary of German Superstition , Section I, Superstition: Wall - Plowbread . Ed .: Association of German societies for folklore. tape 6 . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and Leipzig 1934, ISBN 978-3-11-006594-7 , p. 38 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed March 8, 2012]).
  4. ↑ P. Riethe: The medical lithology of Hildegard von Bingen. In: A. Brück (Ed.): Hildegard von Bingen 1179–1979. Festschrift for the 800th anniversary of the death of the saints. Mainz 1979, pp. 351-370.
  5. ↑ Ronald George Moore, Ronnie Moore, Stuart McClean: Folk Healing and Health Care Practices in Britain and Ireland: Stethoscopes, Wands, and Crystals . Berghahn Books, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84545-672-6 , pp. 158 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed March 8, 2012]).
  6. ↑ Tom Heller, Geraldine Lee Treweek: Perspectives on Complementary and Alternative Medicine . Routledge, in association with the Open University, 2006, ISBN 978-0-415-35161-4 , pp. 52 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed March 8, 2012]).
  7. ^ Frank R. Spellman, Joni Price-Bayer: In Defense of Science: Why Scientific Literacy Matters . Government Institutes, 2010, ISBN 978-1-60590-710-9 , pp. 81 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed March 8, 2012]).
  8. ↑ Misleading: Advertising with "healing stones" (April 2, 2009)