Essence Of Crystals: Science To Metaphysics

Crystal power, like pyramid power, has become one of the hundreds of lodestones that attract new age devotees. And, despite the title, the emphasis in this tape, which is primarily composed of footage shot at the Crystal Congress, is definitely on the metaphysics. These "flowers of the mineral kingdom" are introduced by artists Lawrence Stoller and Glenn Lehrer, who, in the spirit of new religions, make claims for crystals which go way beyond the boundaries of art. Si Frazier, a mineralogist, discusses the atomic structure and various configurations that crystals can take. And then we're off to the Congress, where speakers Katrina Raphaell, Uma Silbey, Harley Swiftdeer, and others, sit around a table wearing headbands and speaking in the vaguest generalities imaginable. One of the few specific claims comes from Raphaell, who explains that the ancients encoded their knowledge on the faces of the "record keeper" crystals, and for good measure, gave it to the dolphins. It's anybody's guess which "code" we'll crack first. We can live with this kind of absurdity because it at least sticks to the subject. But these people range far and wide in their ignorance: a dowager's hump comes from being unloved (a medical condition most educated people would call "osteoporosis"), or the statement that all truth is totally subjective (a philosophical stance which virtually makes everything outside the speaker the figment of his/her imagination which is hardly what the speaker meant). Of passing interest is the uncredited Roots and Reading Rainbow star Levar Burton, who sits there at the Congress head-banded and nodding. Levar, there are good children's books waiting to be read, o.k.? Net recommended. (Available from: JB Video, P.O. Box 96, Sebastopol, CA 95473.)