If we want crystals to affect us, we need to engage the same means that we use when we want to relate and connect to another person. When we meet someone for the first time, one of our first questions is: What is your name? So it is with crystals – when we meet a crystal or stone that we like, we ask: What kind of crystal is this?
Another early question in meeting someone is: “What do you do?” And again, so it is with crystals – we ask: What does this do?
Now, here is the part to remember: When we meet new people, we respond to them positively or negatively based on what? After much reflection, I determined that we respond to people based on how being near to them, and in conversation with them, and in the same room as them, makes us feel! If, when talking with someone new, we feel invaded, bored, tense, confused and other unappealing sensations, we will decide we don’t like this person. If however, when talking with someone new, we feel interested, stimulated, excited, inspired, or calm, comforted, soothed, reflective, (or a host of other possible appealing sensations,) we will decide that we like them.
However, we don’t really analyze all this data and we don’t put it into words – we just feel one way or the other, and go from there. We might say “Oh, that person gets on my nerves, I had to get away” or “That’s an interesting person! I would like to get to know her better,” but that’s pretty much as far as we go.
Of course, meeting a crystal is not really like meeting a person, because crystals don’t walk and talk and actively interact with us … But wait, perhaps that’s not entirely true. Here is the fascinating part – crystals don’t walk and talk – that part is true. BUT, they do interact with us!
And, if we want to hear that interaction, we need to become quiet and listen. In the same way as we cannot hear someone else if we are talking, we cannot hear crystals if we are generating a lot of internal noise. Plus, crystals can’t shout louder than us, the way people can (and will.) They have to wait for us to be quiet enough to hear them.
Once we can “hear” the crystal, that is, detect how our interaction with the crystal is making us feel, then we do well to somehow get those feelings into words. Getting feelings into words is the key to making progress. Words give us access to information, allow us to consciously build our knowledge, and empower us to remember.
At first, the words may be more global, just like our people responses: “Oh, that crystal seems interesting, I would like to get to know it better.” As we get more practice, we can begin to differentiate more and more sensations and more and more layers of our interactions with crystals.