“Grounding, stress, focus, stomach, abdomen, exhaustion” – for those emotions and body parts, a Jasper has healing powers – according to a sign in a stone shop in the historic quarter of Bergen – Bryggen (read more about Bryggen and different artists there in the magazine “Beyond Hanse”). Since 1982, the “Steinsenter” is located in Bryggen and led by Sigmund. His customers not only buy the minerals itself but also many of them are influenced by the powers the stones are supposed to have. Sigmund tells, not only tourists are buying stones at his shop, but he also has his regular customers, who have been coming there regularly over the last 40 years.

Not only in the shop in Bergen is it a popular trade but also online. On TikTok, you find more than ten million videos about the healing powers of stones. People showing stone rituals, for example, charging them in the moonlight or putting spells on them. They buy necklaces with special stones to wear them on their skin, to have the powers as close to their body as possible. One can say there is a own subculture online for stones and their healing powers. How is this topic so popular and resistant – in Bergen and all over the world online? And what is behind the myth of their healing powers?

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Sigmunds oppinion

Sigmund, the owner of the “Steinsenter” in Bergen, doesn’t believe in stones personally. He didn’t start the shop because he wanted to share any healing crystals or spread myths about stones. He got inspired by a woman, who was a geologist and was fascinated by stones. In his shop, you can find not only the Norwegian national stone but stones from all over the world. Though he doesn’t believe in stone powers himself and can’t feel any stone energies, he thinks that there are people out there, who can feel stone energies. “I have a Danish source to whom I give my stones, and the person feels the power”. That’s how he gets his description for the stones in his shop. “It is more of a faith than a science,” he says.

Scientific facts 

Professor Dr. Gregor Markle has a clear scientific answer to the questions about the healing powers of stones. He is a Mineralogist and Petrologist from the University of Tübingen in Germany. He not only researches minerals but also did research trips to Norway to explore minerals there. Stones can send out exactly two energies: warmth, if you heat them up before, or radioactive energies, like the mineral Uran. “But this applies to a lot of materials— wood or stones or potatoes.” There are no special powers to stones, that is scientifically proven or unique to stones. Markle explains that moonlight or rituals have no proven effect on stones.

Markle compares believing in stones to trusting in homeopathy. It is not about the objects themselves, that can heal us, but about the healing power of ourselves, our psyche. “If somebody believes that stones are helping themselves, then that just can have a psychological effect,” explains Markle. However, he emphasises one important distinction. One needs to separate strictly facts and science from faith and beliefs.