As of today, I had numerous opportunities to witness the effectiveness of gemstones as a treatment to various diseases, some of which are considered incurable today. I have managed to rule out to a large extent the possibility of it being the Placebo effect by handing out gemstones to patients without explaining what effects they should expect, and receiving from them feedback about various results which had no connection to their original complaint. Due to the results obtained by the gemstones, I have decided to search for a logical explanation of their effectiveness.
One of the usual explanation is that the gemstones work by filtering light and projecting only a certain color upon our body. While this explanation seems plausible, my experience showed that gemstones produced an effect even when they had no direct contact with the skin but instead were merely placed in simple plastic bags in a patients pocket. The plastic bags which I used when I was trying to check the effect of a particular gemstone on a patient before setting it into jewelry also ruled out the possibility of influence doe to an electric charge that is produced by certain gemstones in response to heat or pressure, because they acted as an insulator.
As a scientifically inclined individual I couldn’t be satisfied with explanations such as cosmic rays, aura correction or effects of deities, as those weren’t a physical mechanism but an explanation based on belief. The effects of gemstones upon myself and my patients were however quite tangible, hence I began to study the physical properties of gemstones in order to find the answer.
Mechanism of operation
During my search for a possible method of operation I have stumbled upon the use of crystals in electronics and particularly in watches. During the 1930s scientists discovered that solids with a crystalline structure have internal vibrations which they called phonons, which can emit sound and heat waves depending on their frequency. The frequency of these energy waves is determined by the crystal structure and the shape of the crystal itself, and is constant and accurate enough to be used in such precise mechanisms as clocks.
Due to the fact that sound waves can pass through plastic bags and do not require light that doesn’t pass through the pockets of patients, it offers the best logical explanation to the effects of gemstones. The differences in the crystalline structure can also explain the differences between the effects of primary gemstones like rubies and secondary gemstones like red garnets.
The reliance on the crystal structure in frequency production can also explain the requirement for flawless gemstones as any crack, inclusion and change in chemical composition will influence the frequency produced. The heating process that is commonly used to improve gem color and clarity will also frequently damage the crystalline structure of a gemstones, which is one of the reasons gemologists are able differentiate between a heated and an unheated stone.
This requirement is also present in electronics, where synthetic quartz is usually employed to ensure that the crystal is free of defects. It should however be noted that frequently the synthetic crystals do not represent a perfect copy of their natural counterparts due to differences in the growth process which cause changes in their chemical composition or crystalline structure according to the manufacturing process, hence they will often produce a different frequency than that of natural stones.
Even though the crystal structure can explain the differences in the effect of different gemstone types, it cannot explain the differences attributed to the color of the stones. This detail is extremely important due to the fact that rubies, yellow sapphires and blue sapphires share exactly the same crystal lattice structure, yet produce completely different effects. Even when trying to explain this phenomenon from a chemical standpoint, we stumble upon the problem that in different gemstones the colors stem from different chemical elements. In rubies for example, the red color usually stems from chromium while in red garnets it is usually produced by iron.
I have found a possible solution in the fact that in most gemstones the color is the result of displacement of certain atoms in the original crystal lattice by minute amounts of atoms from a different chemical element, while in other cases the color of the gemstones is inherent due to its chemical composition, Hence in both cases there is a direct correlation between the color of the gemstone and its crystalline structure.
Despite this fact, the color of the gemstone is not what determines its effects as can be seen in the case of rubies and red coral. Also there are different gemstones with the right color that do not produce the expected effects and as such are not normally used in Vedic gem therapy. It seems that only when the color and the frequency produced go in tandem, the gemstone will produce the desired effect.
Effect on the human body
Even though phonons can explain how gemstones operate, and the energy required for gemstones to produce energy waves can be obtained from the temperature differential between the side of the stone that is closer to the human body and the one that is exposed to the ambient environment, this alone does not explain the effect of gemstones on patients from a medical perspective. The frequencies produced by gemstones can produce sound waves in the audible range, heat waves and even light waves as in the case of ruby based lasers, but a substantial part of the frequencies produced by gemstones fall within the ultrasound range.
While ultrasound frequencies fall beyond our hearing range, people sometimes report that they can differentiate between gemstones and other materials when touching them. Thus far science explained this phenomenon as psychological due to the brains ability to perceive sensations when one expects them, but the frequencies produced by gemstones can offer other explanations. Certain frequencies can shake the nerve endings in our skin and will be perceived as vibrations, a phenomenon called Pallesthesia. The hair growing on human skin is also sensitive to vibrations and can transmit them to the nerves connected to it.
From my personal experience, the sensation produced by gemstones is more similar to one of heat or cold rather than one of vibration, and a few specific stones such as lapis lazuli and rough blue sapphire produce a sensation of sharp pain after several seconds of holding them. Another patient reported a painful freezing sensation when holding rubies, and was even able to find rubies in a collection of different color sapphires while blindfolded using that sensation. The sensation was also perceived from heated and beryllium treated stones, but not from synthetic rubies, red garnets or any other type of gemstone tested. A test for sensations perceived from low range ultrasound resulted in an unpleasant tactile sensation for both me and that patient. The sensations perceived in the cases discussed here point to the nerves responsible for sensing cold being the ones most affected by contact with gemstones.
After succeeding in finding a possible explanation for the energy emitted by gemstones and its physical effect the human body, all that was needed was finding a logical explanation to the reported improvements in health that are obtained by the proximity of a gemstone to the body. In my search for information on the subject I have stumbled upon several studies in psychoacoustics, the science that studies the effects of sound frequencies on the human body. Even though we are just beginning to understand the medical effects of ultrasound frequencies, among the recorded effects observed so far are both positive influences on tissue regeneration and negative symptoms like headache, dizziness and nausea, and in certain cases even hallucinations. Thus while there are presently no studies to answer the question once and for all, ultrasound frequencies produced by gemstones can serve as a logical mechanism for explaining their health effects on the human body.
Conclusion
My current hypothesis is that gemstones work in a manner similar to a pacemaker, and dictate a certain frequency to our body through our nervous system that helps it deal with medical problems. This might also partially explain their reported cumulative effect that passes when they are taken off, as it would take time for our body to get used to the frequency it receives and produce changes in response. Regarding the non-medical effects, I’m afraid it would take quite a few scientific breakthroughs for us to discuss them objectively.
In closing I would like to point out that everything written here is currently merely a theory and would require a lot of rigorous research to conclusively ascertain whether that is the how gemstones work. Even so, this is another step that brings us closer to a true understanding of the power contained in gemstones that made them so desired by humans through the generations.