The dark side of crystals

DW (English)

On social media, the healing powers of crystals are touted by gurus and influencers. But behind the hype, the industry is not what it seems.

Transcript

00:00Crystals have gone viral on social media. Celebrities swear by them.

00:07I believe a lot in crystal energy.

00:11And influencers sell them in vast quantities, for wellness, beauty, and as a health and spiritual remedy.

00:18But is there any truth behind the hype?

00:21And what are the working conditions of the people who source them?

00:25We investigate the crystal hype and uncover the dark side of the glossy business that spans the globe.

00:44To get a glimpse behind the scenes, we head to Stuttgart, Germany.

00:48There, we meet a social media influencer.

00:52We have all sorts of stuff here. It looks really cool.

00:56And we find ourselves in a world full of bling and fancy names.

01:01That one costs 26 euros.

01:04We have blue amber and peridot.

01:07We have unicorn stone, angel aurora.

01:10We have all kinds of crystals.

01:13That one costs 26 euros.

01:16We have blue amber and peridot.

01:18We have unicorn stone, angel aurora, starflash, rose quartz.

01:24Beer gets the first claim.

01:29Congrats!

01:31German influencer Sarah Boe runs a crystal shop on Instagram.

01:35Every Wednesday evening, she hosts a live sale for eight hours straight together with her mother.

01:41Nearly 4,000 people are taking part in this one.

01:46Almost sold out!

01:49What a beautiful labradorite.

01:51Looks really nice.

01:53And the shape is so cool.

01:57Many of her customers attend each of her weekly sales.

02:01My customers are in their mid-20s to mid-60s.

02:05Some buy the crystals for decorative purposes.

02:08Others only buy jewelry.

02:10Some look for really special ones and collect them.

02:14Or buy them because they do some kind of ritual with them.

02:20With each of her live events, Sarah sells crystals worth an average of 10,000 euros.

02:26Her business is so successful that she quit her previous job as a social media consultant.

02:32Crystals have gone viral.

02:34On Instagram alone, hashtag crystals and hashtag crystal healing get more than 40 million hits.

02:43I'm not sure if it's a trend.

02:45I'm just noticing that many people are now willing to talk about it publicly.

02:50Thanks to social media, they'll say, I think crystals are cool.

02:54They're more open about it and celebrate it as a lifestyle.

02:59Many celebrities are also crystal fans.

03:08I believe a lot in crystal energy.

03:11When I moved to LA, I enjoyed learning and educating myself about crystals.

03:16I used to go to the crystal farm. I learned how to meditate.

03:20This one's in the shape of a heart.

03:22It protects you from negative energy and brings you loving energy.

03:26I love having my crystal on me.

03:29This one's rose quartz too. It's supposed to help you attract love.

03:33But I'm coming across as way too esoteric. I'm not really like that.

03:39The online marketplace is brimming with crystals.

03:42And their popularity has grown since the COVID pandemic.

03:49Crystals are mined all over the world.

03:52But much of the polishing and processing takes place in India.

03:56The city of Jaipur is a hub of the industry.

04:02We're here to find out more about the people who process the stones

04:06and the conditions they work under.

04:09Some influencers are making big money from the crystal hype.

04:13But does it also benefit the local workers?

04:17Most of Jaipur's polishing units are small, employing just a few craftspeople.

04:23When we start filming inside a workshop, a young stonecutter is asked to leave the room.

04:29Child labor is officially illegal in India.

04:32But the law allows for some exceptions, which makes it more difficult to enforce.

04:38Many workers tell us that they started learning how to polish gems at an early age.

04:47Accidents are common, as 16-year-old Nafe Suddin tells us.

04:54You can get small cuts and sometimes big cuts.

04:57If you're not careful, you can also cut the stone incorrectly.

05:01People who are old leave this job. Older people can't do this kind of precise work.

05:06Their eyes can't see well enough anymore.

05:09And their hands are no longer steady.

05:12When you get old, your hands tremble.

05:15If your hands shake, the gem will get cut incorrectly.

05:21Day laborers like Nafe Suddin have no labor protections.

05:25They earn between two and six US dollars a day, too little for a family to live on.

05:33It's estimated that about 50,000 children work in Jaipur.

05:38Many have been trafficked into slave labor.

05:42The law prohibits this kind of work.

05:45Just like a 10-year-old boy we meet in a rescue shelter.

05:49His mother sold him to a trafficker, and he ended up working in a gemstone bangle workshop.

05:56For two months of work, he was paid the equivalent of just 12 US dollars,

06:01which was supposedly sent to his mother at home.

06:05He was then forced to work in a factory.

06:08He was paid the equivalent of just 12 US dollars,

06:12which was supposedly sent to his mother at home, 1,000 kilometers away.

06:17The boy, who we aren't permitted to identify, is willing to tell us about his ordeal.

06:25What happened after your father died?

06:29Forty days after his death, our money dried up.

06:33I went to school for another two months, and after that, my mother sent me here.

06:39This guy came and offered to help.

06:42He goes to villages looking for children to work, so my mother sent me with him.

06:50He came to look for children?

06:52Yes, for work.

06:54And how did you feel about doing this work?

06:57I didn't like it. I was scared.

06:59I would wake up at seven in the morning, start work in the unit at nine,

07:04and then had to work until nine in the evening.

07:07Then I would have dinner and go to bed at 10 p.m.

07:10Did you have to sit all day?

07:12Yes.

07:20We're heading to another location, where even younger children work in what are called rat hole mines.

07:25These two children spend their days looking for garnet.

07:29Sometimes all they find are tiny splinters.

07:35Climbing into these rat holes is the most frightening and dangerous part of their work.

07:40There are more stones here, and some of them are larger.

07:44The narrow and unsecured tunnels can collapse, killing the miners.

07:50Rat holes are illegal in India.

07:52And we don't want them to go inside while we film.

07:57The children don't know how old they are.

08:00But they have learned what to look for to earn some money.

08:09What's it called?

08:11Lali.

08:13What's lali?

08:15It brings money.

08:18You have a happy family?

08:20Yes.

08:22With a handful of stones, how much will it fetch you?

08:25A few cents.

08:29The two are risking their lives for very little reward.

08:33They tell us that all the children in their community come here to work.

08:37They belong to the Beel tribe, one of India's largest and poorest indigenous groups.

08:43Their families are landless, and they live in makeshift tents.

08:46They tell us that some of them suffer from silicosis, a lung disease common among miners.

08:52But they can't afford medical care.

08:55Some of the communities are known as widow villages, because so many of the men die at a young age.

09:01It's a strange paradox.

09:03Here, crystals are making people sick, while elsewhere, influencers tout them as cures for all sorts of ailments.

09:10It's clear quartz and blue apatite, which is really good for helping suppress your appetite, for weight loss.

09:17It helps you relieving the neck pain along with the shoulder pain.

09:21Use this remedy and let me know how it affected your life.

09:24We've heard a lot about different crystals and their supposed properties.

09:29But the belief in crystals wasn't invented by influencers.

09:33It's been popular for thousands of years, across different cultures and religions.

09:37From ancient Egypt and Greece, to Asia and the Americas.

09:42The use of crystals for spiritual purposes has also flourished since the 1970s, as part of the New Age movement.

09:50But is there any scientific basis for these beliefs?

09:54As a mineralogist, Peter Heaney has studied crystals for 25 years.

09:59There is no evidence of an energy transfer of a crystal to the wearer.

10:05When crystal healers talk about this transfer of energy,

10:10my concern is that they are using a scientific term for a process that is not actually very scientific.

10:18In India, child labor is illegal, but the definition allows for loopholes.

10:22Children under 14 are permitted to contribute to family businesses, and it's believed that millions do.

10:28These are the countries that reportedly use child labor or bonded labor in the production of gemstones and jewelry.

10:36We show our footage to Sarah in Germany.

10:39I'd really like to see supply chains become more transparent.

10:44The way it is now, it's impossible to fully vouch for people I don't know.

10:48I would absolutely vouch for my family or for my best friends,

10:53but I would never be willing to vouch for someone who just wants to make money,

10:58who might not care about other people.

11:05When confronted with the footage from India, Sarah tells us she usually buys from countries like Indonesia, Brazil and China.

11:11All I can do is to continue improving my relationships with my suppliers,

11:17so I know where the stones are coming from.

11:21If I leave the business, if I don't sell the stones, then someone else will.

11:26Sarah says she tries to avoid middlemen, but admits it's not always possible.

11:32We get all our standard stones from a wholesaler.

11:36They come to us in a ready-made package.

11:39Otherwise, I couldn't offer prices that can compete with other stores.

11:48Look at how pretty they are. I'll even put in another handful.

11:53You can get a scoop of this.

11:55Sarah doesn't tell us how much of her average per show sales of 10,000 euros end up as profit.

12:01She's at the end of a global supply chain, a business with winners and losers.

12:12Sold out. Empty. All gone.

12:16I don't want to sell anymore.

12:18Sold out. Empty. All gone.

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