In the world of alternative healing, acupuncturists have long been known for their ability to balance the body’s energy through ancient techniques. Today, some practitioners are blending traditional methods with the healing power of crystals, creating a holistic approach to wellness. One acupuncturist, David Nohr, has seamlessly integrated crystals into his acupuncture treatments, believing in their unique ability to enhance the body’s natural healing processes. In this interview, we dive into David’s philosophy, his journey into combining crystals with acupuncture, and his own personal use of crystals to enhance well-being.
Can you tell us a little bit about what you do and how crystals fit into that?
I am a licensed acupuncturist and I started back in 2009. I started with my interest in the application of food as medicine and diet. And that took me all the way into Chinese medicine which involves acupuncture needles and herbs and Moxa. There's also an application of minerals and so there's minerals that are taken orally. But then there is also a whole tradition of Chinese medicine that uses these crystals and minerals on top of the body and in a whole variety of ways and can get really in depth. But essentially in acupuncture there's an understanding that the bioelectrics of the body move along these meridians and at certain points on the meridians you have these light vortexes. At these vortexes, these are called acupuncture points, and you can use needles or burn particular herbs at these points and you can affect the rest of the body by addressing these points. In the tradition of crystals in Chinese medicine you would place the crystals along these points and because of the bioelectric frequency of the body and the stones, you can create change within the body and you can treat the body.
Where does the knowledge of crystals and acupuncture come from?
Chinese medicine is a very ancient tradition and unlike many other traditions around the world, since they were never really conquered outside of China everything was preserved. So you have thousands of years of well documented experiments and understandings without anyone coming and destroying it. For example, China already had state sponsored medical boards over 2500 years ago. So they're all very literate and understand the scientific process, especially for the sake of royalty they were willing to experiment on a lot of people. In Chinese medicine we say if something has only been around for 400 years, it's not long enough for it to be trustworthy. They want to see like someone's been tried and tested for thousands of years before they're like “Okay this works.” A lot of traditions were written down, but also many traditions were just passed down orally and so this went from father to son and down for generations. The crystal application of Chinese medicine as a topical medicinal practice is more of an oral tradition and there are some writings and is kind of like peppered in throughout some of the traditional texts. I think a lot of it was more oral tradition, but some of the stuff is now being put into writing.
What I found the difference between the crystal mineral medicine versus the acupuncture is that it's a bit like a freight train. It's very slow but also very deep and long lasting so you can affect deeper parts of the body. It's not necessarily as pronounced as if I just put a needle in you and take away the pain, it can happen slowly and last very long. You can mix the two by putting needles on the body and then you can even burn different herbs on top of the crystals. The crystals are composed of a whole variety of minerals and chemical compounds and so as you heat these up they do tend to affect the body. They seep through the skin since it is a very porous membrane, so if you put your bare hands on turpentine it will go right through your skin and into your body. Always be careful and watch what toxic things you touch.
When it comes to acupuncture in particular, what are some of the most common health problems that people usually seek treatment for or is it just general treatment?
In Chinese medicine, you have to consider the entire body. Western medicine is very isolated and specialized. If someone comes in with a headache or sore leg, they just focus on that and don’t pay attention to the rest of the body. In Chinese medicine, if someone comes in with a headache, you have to look at everything else since it’s all tied together. If you have a lower back ache, it can be connected to your digestive issues or emotional issues. In the West here, we have a big problem with digestion, sleep, and anxiety. I feel like in this society, especially with all the political and environmental things going on, there's a lot of emotional issues going on. Straight up pain - acupuncture is amazing for pain and but you know I can treat a huge variety of issues. Western medicine has its strengths and Eastern medicine has its strengths. There's some things that I can make better changes with, there's other things I can support Western medicine with so that the two work together. There's just some things that Chinese medicine is much better at: generally pain, digestion, and autoimmune stuff also tends to be a strength of Chinese medicine.
What crystals do you think compliment those common ailments you treat?
It's very important that there's a medical lens that we’re using the crystals through. One of the medical lenses is something called the five elements and it's the idea that there's five elements in nature and there's five elements in the body. These are very loose and very broad terms: fire, air, metal, water, and wood are the five elements. So the emotional aspect of fire is passion or over excitement - imagine the nature of fire. In the body, it would be heat. Wood in the body has to do with the liver, it also has to do with muscles and the emotion is anger. If you can imagine a pentagram with fire at the top and then the next one is earth and then metal and then water and then wood.
There's something called a constructive cycle or generative cycle. Fire creates earth, when fire burns things down it nourishes the earth and it creates more earth. Then metal is generated within earth, so then imagine metal is like a tunnel or tube or something that can contain water. Then water is of course going to nourish wood and then wood is fuel for fire. You can place these different crystals that will nourish each one of those elements. You can have it nourish an element, but you can also have it diminish an element. So, for instance, if you have too much anger you don't want to generate more water in the body and strengthen the kidneys because then that's going to nourish the wood which is already in excess condition. Instead, you go to a control cycle and that would be metal controls wood since metal cuts wood, wood penetrates earth, earth banks up water, and water will put out fire, and fire melts water.
This is a good lens to decide which stones you're going to use and then there's a lot of stones that fit in each one of these categories. For instance, a couple stones for fire would be sulfur or something red in nature. The colors can be significant, but you can almost apply everything to one of these five elements. Garnet would strengthen fire, or sulfur. For earth, hematite since it’s very heavy, dark in color and very grounding. Then, for metal it would be an apophyllite, and for water, a very watery type stone like opal because they have a lot of water or a blue stone like sodalite. If we wanted to nourish, let's say earth, then we would put a strengthening stone on one of the earth points but then we'd also want to strengthen the mother of the point. The mother is fire because the fire generates more earth. So, we'll strengthen fire and we’ll strengthen the earth points.
Let’s say you wanted to diminish fire, there’s too much passion, excitement or mania, you would strengthen water. To strengthen water, you would strengthen metal and water, which brings up the counter element. Now you have more water element in the system and that will slowly start to diminish the fire element. When you're using needles, you can also actually go right into the element and actually pull Chi out of that channel. You can't really do that quite so well with stones, so you would diminish it more by strengthening and controlling the cycle.
I struggle with sleep sometimes, and I know a lot of people also do, what stones would you use?
Sleep can be caused by a few problems. It can be caused by too much fire - a person in a state of mania. But it can also be caused by fire that's not strong enough to anchor itself. So for instance, in nature, fire rises but, in the body heat has to be driven in and down into the organs so that it's strong enough to metabolize fluids. When the fire element gets too weak it can start to flare up at nighttime when it should be going in and down into the body and then it starts to harass the mind. It could be that, it could also be that there's too much fire. We have to actually diagnose you to decide. Another reason for sleep insomnia can be earth that is too weak and there's too much dampness. So then the dampness kind of gets pushed up into the mind and this would be the type of insomnia where there's a lot of repeating itself over and over again.
We get a lot of customers who ask for “good healing crystals” but “healing” is such a broad term. Based on your experience and what you've seen with health, what crystals would you recommend as the most versatile for common health problems?
In Chinese medicine the digestion is crucial and, as we know, the quality of the foods in America are really poor, they're highly processed, the minerals in the Earth are depleted and so there's a lot of digestive issues. A lot of antibiotics and pharmaceuticals destroy the gut microbiome which are the little bacteria in the gut that are essential for digestion but also for making neurotransmitters like serotonin - they play a very intricate, important role in the body. I would say grounding, so anxiety, grounding, strengthen the Earth. Hematite along with a fiery Stone to to strengthen digestion, like Garnett or a red jasper, to work with aches and pains. Again, I think a lot of the aches and pains in the body have to do with dampness in the channels and this is again like there's not enough of this healthy young energy to metabolize or to strengthen the immune system to push these pathogens out and then they start to lodge themselves in the in the joints. I would say if I was going to pick one or anything it would be kind of strengthening Earth and generating healthy fire in the body.
Besides using crystals in your work, what are your favorite stones to work with personally?
The ones that I just mentioned, sulfur and pyrite is great like flat pyrite I really like to use because I can burn Moxa on top of it. I definitely focus on generating this functional heat in the body because this is an intelligence that runs through the body. It is in charge of the immune system and directs the immune system on how to work and what to attack, it warms the body and animates life. When someone dies the body gets very cold, that young energy just disappears and you’re left with a big pile of Yin. I’m always very cautious to make sure that young energy is nourished enough and not working the wrong direction and not turning on itself like in the case of an autoimmune disease.
For mediation I like something different, I personally like amethyst I feel like for meditation, and maybe even emotional stuff. If you don't have my medical background, quite often you get a very basic overview of the five elements. Hold a stone, close your eyes, feel into it, feel like the stone is sort of an extension of you and that you can kind of feel into it. Just objectively pay attention to how the rest of the body is responding because, again, we're bioelectric entities. There's all this electrical stuff going on the body and all these gut microbiome and other flora in the body. They're very much affected by these electric currents and you'll get feedback from your body. Sometimes it takes a little bit of listening to because we live in a culture that doesn't promote quiet, introspective listening. Rather, everything's like X or Facebook and MTV, it's very fast and everything's outward instead of inward so it can take some practice. But, build a relationship with your crystal and once you’ve decided on one, don’t be stuck with it because your body changes all the time and no one crystal is perfect for one person all the time. You may pick it up one day and your body says, “no,” it means something has adjusted and you need a different medicine that day.
You mentioned Moxa a couple of times, what exactly is that, when do you use it and how do you use it?
Moxa is a very powerful part of Chinese medicine. In Chinese medicine it’s actually called acumoxa, it’s never just acupuncture. That's because the needles use the body's Chi and Moxa actually adds Chi into the body. Moxa is an herb called Artemisia Vulgaris. There's different formulas of it so that's kind of the main plant and then people will mix in different plants or you can even burn it on top of another plant or crystal. For instance, you could slice a piece of ginger and put it over your umbilicus, your belly button, and light a piece of Moxa there and that's a very powerful place to nourish your digestion and your kidneys. That's where we were nourished when we were in utero so it's a nice access point.
What are the best ways to work with crystals, for example: big crystals for feng shui or wearing small crystals as jewelry?
So there's something called feng shui in Chinese medicine and this is sort of how the energy flows in the room. Everyone's walked into a room that's a that's messy and it feels chaotic and you know it's hard to focus maybe. And then you walk into a beautiful space that maybe has a waterfall or fountain in one corner and some plants and everything is really neat, flows well and is easier to move around. Crystals are great for Feng Shui, a nice geode in the corner of the room can make a really big difference. It's kind of preference but if it looks good and feels good that's the right one for your room. Imagine it in different parts or actually move it to different parts of your room and see how you feel. Maybe even your plants in the room respond to the crystal in different parts of the room. In my meditation practice I like to have quite a few different crystals around, like I said, because I like to pick one up and if it doesn't feel right I'll grab another one. Usually I use larger stones for that, I like double terminated, I sit with it while meditating in my hands. You can lay down, maybe the chakra system is less complicated than the acupuncture points, and so putting it on the third eye or the heart chakra or the solar plexus or decide which ones you want. The color of the chakra is usually the color of the stone which is a good way to work with that.
Finally, let's end off with a random piece of health advice!
Again, I'm harping on the digestion. A nice way to keep the digestion strong and actually increase your metabolism is to eat a little piece of Ginger before a meal. It'll help you digest it better. I believe I've seen some studies showing that you actually lose weight, but it's also anti-inflammatory at the same time as generating that healthy functional young energy. It also reduces negative inflammatory energy. Another one, would be Chinese medicine generally doesn't like ice cold food. So you think of the digestion as like a pot with fire underneath it. It needs to be hot enough to break down the food, when you throw ice cold water on top of a fire or stove you have some negative effects. Especially in winter, keep it nice and hot. No ice cream, as delicious as it is.