(first ever) Crystal Zone podcast (#1)

PODCAST INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the Crystal Zone podcast with Kyle Russell, of CrystalConcentrics.com.

Our motto is Crystal’s for Life.

INTRODUCTION TO PROMOTIONAL PARTNERS

You’re in tune to the Crystal Zone podcast, and we’re just taking a moment now to share a word from our partners…people who make this show possible and who might be able to help you in some way.

PROMOTION FOR NINAMANOLSON.COM

Hi, I’m Nina Manolson, and this is a message for you if you’re a woman over 40 who has been on and off diets for at least 10 years. I’m a nutrition and body relationship therapist and I help women feel truly at home in their body. I work with smart women who already have so much information about what they should or shouldn’t do to care for themselves, but still feel like they’re at war with their body and food. If this resonates with you, please visit NinaManolson.com. I have a free e-book for you: How to be a Woman at Ease in Your Body.

ACTUAL PODCAST CONTENT

This being my very first podcast – I wanted to introduce myself, give you a little bit of history – drawing from the very recent past and also the distant past.

So yesterday, I had a customer walk in with genuine interest in crystals. She was experiencing some grief and a sense of loss as the result of her grandmother passing on earlier in the year. But when she talked about her, I could feel that there was a lot of raw emotion still present, and there was also some very real interest in learning about crystals and how they could be helpful to her.

So I took her over to the sort of budget area, the budget table at my store, because she had said her budget was not high, and I wanted to hook her up. And it’s good to know that not all great crystals have to cost a huge amount of money. So what I showed her was the Apache Tear obsidian and the Smoky Quartz.

And I then also showed her to other types of stones that I thought were going to be relevant. But they were not. They didn’t feel immediately right to her. She went with the Apache Tear and the Smoky Quartz, which then inspired me this morning to record a video for YouTube where I outlined the eight stones I think would be most useful to people who are experiencing grief and loss.

MY GOAL, HOW I GOT INTO THIS, AND SOME OF THE STOPS ALONG THE WAY

Basically, my goal is to make the understanding of crystals relevant to people in a personal way that reflects both the inspirational and metaphysical nature of working with crystals, as well as the practical utility of working with them.

I have been doing this for 30 years, since I was awakened to the power of crystals. And that, interestingly, happened unexpectedly. It’s a great story. I won’t tell it in this episode, I might devote an episode to it. I also have a secret YouTube video link where I tell this whole story. It gives me the heebie jeebies.

Basically, the long and short of it is that I was given a crystal by someone who’s become quite famous in the crystal world. And that one crystal gave me such a jolt, such a powerful physical experience, which later led to a download of information about crystals that left me knowing – I often debate how much of a percentage of what I know, I knew then – this is going back to 1987. Was it 50%? Was it 80%? Was it 20%?

I couldn’t tell you exactly how much I learned in that extraordinary download, but the key is that I suddenly had a real intrinsic understanding about crystals and became what I call geo-sentient. And that means that I can pick up a rock and get a vibe, get a feeling from it it.

That is distinctive. It’s not the same from stone to stone. And it’s not the same as what you would get when you pick up a rock in the driveway, for example. It’s something more. It’s something deeper. It’s something spiritual or emotional. And I’m able to put that into words immediately at the time.

I started doing work with clients. I had private sessions. That was the only way that I worked with people. And I did some very interesting things. I did some past life regressions. I did what can best be called an exorcism, which is taking a soul, which has lodged itself in a person – or in their life or around them in a way that is not welcome – and facilitating the passage of that spirit on to the other side, so that the person on this side can be somewhat relieved of whatever burden (or stress or strange experiences) they have been experiencing as a result of that unwanted spirit being in their space.

So I did that work back 30 years ago, and I also started buying and selling crystals immediately. I’ve always been a collector. Going back to when I was a kid, I collected coins and stamps. And then later, I worked in some different businesses that also had a lot to do with collecting. Most tangibly, I had two retail stores. And if you’re familiar with the Boston area, I was in Harvard Square and on Newbury Street, and that was really an extraordinary experience at the end of the 80s. I was selling international clothing and jewelry. So that went from textiles hailing from Guatemala to African art, to silver jewelry from Indonesia. It was a lot of eclectic offerings that I had at that time, which I left to start a magazine.

I started a magazine about world music. And my goal was to help inform people about this wonderful music that the mainstream was pretty unaware of, and that the popular media was not really supporting. So that was an experience that went a number of years. And part of my goal with that was to support my own music career – because I had become a musician – actually dating all the way back to that same year, 1987, which was called the Harmonic Convergence. People are amazed by how interested folks are in crystals nowadays. But if you go back to then, that’s really when it began. And there was a huge amount of interest at that point in crystals also.

But I put that a little bit on the back burner as I had my retail experience and did this magazine, which I also backed away from because I wanted to do music more full time. So for about 20 years, I did music very full time. I was in the Reggae field and we worked with artists from Jamaica, but also artists from England and from right here in the USA. There were many, many talented Caribbean singers in the Boston area and we had some great musicians.

We put together many, many shows, both in the East Coast and also over on the West Coast with some big tours that happened, taking us to Hawaii and to the entire west coast, Washington state, down to L.A., Colorado. We passed through Arizona. We even performed eventually in Jamaica, which was great. But there was a heyday to that whole experience with the music – and now that I’m thinking back to it – it was an extraordinary period, and I’m very blessed and lucky to have been part of that.

RETURNING TO CRYSTALS

I started to turn back to crystals in 2012 and tried to make that work. Looking at my tax numbers at the end of the year, which as an entrepreneur is about as often as we do look at our tax numbers. And I’m not saying everybody’s like that. But for those of us who are more improvisational and seat of the pants in our orientation, we take a look at the end of the year and say, hey, how did that year look on paper. And in 2012, I said, wow, this this is looking a whole lot better than I thought.

And maybe since the music seems to be winding down, it’s time for me to venture more fully into the crystals. And so I did that. I did that first in the same space I had been in since 1998, hosting a monthly open houses so that people could come in and see what I had. And I was showcasing things that I had had for years myself.

I also began to start buying crystals again, which started taking me to shows, and that started having me also exhibit at shows. And that was a very good time. I learned a lot. I remember the first time I got back into the Natural Living Expo. I was showcasing mostly just session stones, private pieces that weren’t even for sale to kind of gauge people’s interest. And then I started to acquire more stones and put all the money I made from the crystals back into the stones. And that grew and grew to a point where I felt that I needed to open a shop. And I started to have dreams about visiting stores and setting up shop again.

And this was after many, many years. I had left retail in 1992 and I guess I started getting back into retail in 2012. So that’s 92 to till 02 till 12, that’s 20 years later! I did not think that was something I would ever do again because retail is extraordinarily dependent on the weather and the market and the economy. And if those things go south, you are definitely not selling what you may have come to expect.

One of the big myths in the retail world is things just get better and better the more you are in business. And I learned for sure that is not the case. Sometimes you’re doing great and sometimes things slow down and sometimes they dry up. And and that’s what you kind of have to live with in the retail world.

BIRTH OF THE PORTAL

But my inspiration was so strong and I was able to secure a location that was just right for me – good amount of space – perfect for displaying my extensive selection, but also allowing for an art gallery and session rooms in the back that people could use for meditations. Practitioners could come in and showcase what they do there, including a nine month shamanic program, for example, and a number of different other interesting offerings that we’ve had and that we still have in this wonderful place called the Portal Crystal Gallery.

Now about the crystals and going back to my original introductory vignette.

PRESENTING WHAT I OFFER TO THE WORLD

What I’m doing is trying in these past few years to make my knowledge and understanding more accessible to others. I’ve never been motivated to have an accreditation or a certification program – which some of the big crystal folks out there do offer – and there are many reasons for that. And I think I’m going to save that conversation for another time, because it is kind of interesting and particularly interesting to me is that I’m starting to think maybe there is some way that I can offer a some sort of a learning program, because I now have well over 100 videos out on YouTube and I have probably that many up on Facebook as well. I’ve done a number of Facebook Lives. I’ve done a number of webinars.

So I’m giving a huge amount of sort of free learning to the world. But I’m realizing that it may be useful for people out there who are overwhelmed – as my customer was yesterday, coming into the shop for the first time – there may be a way for me to streamline and not spoon feed, but really organize the learning that’s already out there and help to frame it into a body of knowledge that people can take in (and leaves them feeling like they’ve got a pretty good handle on what it is that crystal healing is).

WHAT SETS ME APART

From my perspective, because my perspective really is different from what’s out there. And I say that because every time I watch someone else’s video or I pick up a book about crystal healing, I’m pretty turned off pretty quickly.

I did a video called Crystal Myths in which I list the various ways in which I diverge from some of this common crystal lore, and I’ll share with you a couple of examples of that way in which I do split from what other people are doing out there. And those two ways I can mention are cleansing of crystals and programming of crystals. Out there is a lot of obsessive focus on cleansing crystals because people are afraid of all the energies which may have crept into those crystals from being in a shop or handled by whomever.

My position is actually a little bit different, and that is that I believe the crystals come to you with an enormous amount of knowledge and healing intrinsic to them. They are sort of like a tree that has built rings each year, showcasing how many years it’s been around and all the experiences it may have had with harsh winters or moist summers, whatever it is that makes a tree distinctive year to year.

I believe a stone is that same kind of way, absorbing knowledge and information over the ages. And for stones, those ages can be thousands, even millions or billions of years. So rocks are quite old. And what makes a rock different from a crystal is that a crystal is a more ordered form of a rock. I mentioned earlier the proverbial rock in a driveway as being just a rock whereas a crystal is a formed stone. If you look at a clear quartz, that’s a great example. You’ll see it has six sides. It comes to a point and it tends to form in predictable ways each time it forms.

Now that’s kind of a difficult point to make because calcite – for example, I heard – has 1400 different ways that it can terminate and form. Quartz is the same way quartz can show up as amethyst or as an elestial. And even within each type there can be many different forms that it’ll take.

But the point I’m making is that it has sort of followed some sort of intelligent design in order to manifest as an actual crystal, instead of just a rock. And as such, it’s a standout. It’s a standout because it is manifesting and funneling a very specific type of energy that is distinct from the type of energy that another type of crystal may be channeling. And that is what makes crystals different from rocks.

Now, the second thing that I had said I disagree with the general lore out there about crystals – is the notion of programming – that you can program a crystal to your will. And I find that particularly sort of imperialistic for lack of a better word. Just like with cleansing, if you got a computer and that computer came with all sorts of excellent software – you wouldn’t want to wipe the drive immediately when it already had so much to offer – and crystals in the same way. If you cleanse them or reprogram or try to wipe them of their memory, you are throwing away a tremendous amount of natural value which is coming to you unsolicited and automatically in that crystal. So reprogramming is not something I recommend – and cleansing is something I also do not recommend – and this is absolutely heretical to so many people out there.

And so I can understand that some people listening to this or who know me otherwise have shied away from working with me because they’re afraid of those types of shockingly revolutionary perspectives, and they are not interested in working with me for that reason. But if you are different and I know there are many of you who are looking for a different way of thinking about crystals…then this could be the place for you!

There are so many episodes I have in store that I would love to roll out to the auditory world, the podcast world, because I am used to doing things visually with YouTube and with Facebook and in person. But there is such a global audience with interest in crystals that I think that it merits and deserves having another voice like mine come in and shake things up a little bit and give you some brand new views that you may not have thought about.

When you think about crystals – the great big new view that I bring to the table – is my 10 Human Crystal Energy Zone paradigm, which I call the Crystal Concentrics paradigm. And that is truly revolutionary because it grouped all crystals out there into only 10 categories. And I might devote entire podcasts to one energy zone or I might explore a few. We’ll see.

FAREWELL

So I hope you’ve enjoyed this very first issue – the very first edition of the Crystal Zone podcast – and that you will tune in to future podcasts, now that you know a little bit more about me.

Feel free to email me: Kyle@CrystalConcentrics.com if you have any questions. I love questions and I will look forward to answering them in future podcasts. So definitely be in touch with me. I love teaching about crystals and I also love buying and selling crystals. I have a Custom Quality Crystal Mail Order business, which is not a conflict of interest. In fact, I think it really supports things because I believe that you can always be searching for better versions of any one type of crystal that you have. And I am certainly no exception to that rule. I am always on the prowl for – you know, interesting amethyst or type of quartz that I might have – but I believe there is something interesting or better out there. Not that the one I have isn’t great. Everything has its place and its purpose. But we are here to be engaged actively in this process of what I call Crystals for Life. That is the motto of this podcast.

And on that note, I think I’m going to sign off. Thanks for listening. Talk to you later.

OUTRO – CRYSTAL SALES OFFER

You’re in tune to the Crystal Zone podcast, talking all about Crystals for Life.

And you might wonder where would be a great place to buy crystals.

Well, we have a warehouse and storefront, the Portal Crystal Gallery in Arlington Center, Massachusetts. And you can have a look at all our displayed items. And also, if there’s something of interest, we have an extensive back stock.

In any case, if you’re more distant and you want to work by email and phone, we are happy to serve you through our quality Custom Crystal Mail Order service. \

A portion of our inventory is up at CrystalConcentrics.com. But you should definitely email Kyle@CrystalConcentrics.com with any questions. We can send you videos and show you all kinds of items which we have not yet had time to upload on to the site. Looking forward to hearing from you!

PODCAST LINKS

Our Liberated Syndication page: http://crystalconcentrics.libsyn.com/

Our Spotify Podcast page: https://open.spotify.com/show/3KjK3R6RFmsrfbWETE1CIC?si=ZBQ98N02RmuDNxYcFkUlJA