Based on an interview with his friend and associate Rumi Da
by Susan Barber

There are a myriad of sources, in books and on the Internet where you may learn about healing with crystals. Their focus and complexity, like the crystals themselves, come in many assorted flavors. Mainly,this data consists of sincere teachings by alternative therapists. But if you research the subject, you also will find reams of other material about crystals – claims, sometimes hyperbolic, of those who sell them; texts so technical that they are virtually unreadable by the layman; and channeled discourses of Ascended Masters and other Extra-Terrestrial informants – to name a few.

In all of this plethora of information, one source, one man, stands above the rest. His name is Marcel Vogel. In this article, we will refer to him, as his friends did, as Marcel – to distinguish him from the Vogel, or ''Vogel-cut® crystal,'' which was his legacy.

We spoke with Rumi Da, Marcel's protégé, close friend, and the steward of Marcel's crystal technology, who told us this revealing story:

The last time I was with Marcel, it was his 49th wedding anniversary and he was 72 years old. We were looking in his notebook, and then he closed it, with a really deep sigh, and he said, ''You know, sometimes I think I should stop this work because it's so potentially dangerous.'' A month later, he was gone.

At Marcel's funeral, in 1991, the eulogy, delivered by a medical doctor, includes a description of the man and his accomplishments:

"Those of us who are scientists or physicians and who worked with Marcel Vogel were well aware of his scientific achievements: his extraordinary work with phosphors, bio luminescence, luminescent paints, and the design of magnetic-disc coatings in computers. He was one of the most prolific scientists in IBM history, with over 100 patents in his name. Yet, until his recent honorary Ph.D., he possessed no official university degree. He made his mark because of the brilliance of his mind, his prolific ideas, and his seemingly limitless creativity." (Eulogy by Dr. Bernard McGinty)

Rumi Da admits that, although Marcel was a scientist's scientist who normally chose to interact with officialdom from that model, he was really a shaman, pure and simple. ''Marcel often held workshops for people in the medical profession,'' Rumi Da said. ''They would walk in as MD's, and walk out wearing feathers.''

The Vogel Crystal: Marcel's Legacy

Not to minimize Marcel Vogel's 100-plus patents and his awesome vision, he made two overwhelmingly important contributions to building the necessary bridge between science and Spirit. The first is central to this article:

He developed a way of cutting quartz crystals in order to magnify their power exponentially for healing purposes.

The second contribution is equally important, and we will discuss that in its place.

We asked Rumi Da (also known as Ron Carson), how he ended up devoting so much of his own life-work to crystal technology. According to his answer, apparently it was Destiny.

''When I was between five and eight ears old,'' he said,'' I was watching TV and this strange character named Elmer Fudd – you remember Elmer Fudd? – came on dressed up like a swami, wearing a turban, and staring into a crystal ball. And I remember looking at him and saying to myself, ''That's what I want to be when I grow up.''

It was not until he was nearly 30 years old, however, that the Vogel crystals emerged into Rumi Da's life, in the form of an audiotape series by their inventor. Stuck in San Diego with nothing to do for a couple of days, he bought the whole set and ''held a Marcel-a-thon.''

After that, ''I called him. I organized a seminar for him, then I went to his lab and – well, I became his associate. Eventually, we became more friends than associates.''

Marcel was not only famous, but also somewhat notorious, Rumi Da said. "This basically came out of the work that he'd done on human-plant communication, which made its way into the now-famous book The Secret Life of Plants. ''This was all new, and it was a challenge to science.''

But it led, finally, to Marcel's work with crystals. ''The plants could not handle all the psychic energy he was focusing on them in his experiments. They were dying, OD'd on energy. So Marcel turned to quartz crystals, instead. ''And he found that the un-faceted ones were very limited in what they could do. But the real problem was, they were all different, so they all gave different results. That kind of thing is a nightmare for science, because it means you can't duplicate an experiment. So Marcel cut the crystals in order to have repeatable experiments.''

Marcel tried many different shapes for cutting crystals – six-sided, single terminated, double terminated, and so on. But he had had a vision of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. And although he didn't know what that meant at the time, he kept returning to this shape. Eventually, it became the four-sided underlying pattern for what is now known as the Vogel-cut® crystal.

Why Use Vogel Crystals for Healing

Crystals, as Marcel knew, can both store and recover information. A group of Stanford scientists proved this in concrete terms when they succeeded in putting a 3-dimensional image of the Mona Lisa into a quartz crystal and then retrieving it (Newsweek, September 1994). We also know that crystals can broadcast information; early radios, in fact, were called ''crystal sets.'' And crystal or silicon technology is the basis of computers.

The purpose of using a Vogel crystal is to amplify and cohere the thought and energy that you wish to direct into your body/mind or that of another person.

Amplification we can understand, but coherence is a somewhat difficult concept in physics terms. Simply put, however, at least where light is concerned, coherence is the property exhibited by lasers. If you take ordinary light and make it coherent, what you end up with is a laser beam! So the thought and energy we put into a Vogel crystal not only becomes amplified, but incredibly concentrated and focused. Literally, a Vogel crystal adds to our intent the power of a laser beam. We can begin to understand why Marcel Vogel might have seen danger in this technology.

Why Not All ''Vogels'' are Vogels"

In order to measure the energy that a crystal was putting out, Marcel developed a radionic device known as the Omega 5. The benchmark ''rate'' on this device for a Vogel crystal is 454. Even very powerful uncut crystals might have only a 333 rating. Other shapes, he found, have different, mostly lesser values, and all are different from authentic Vogels. There are many crystals that Rumi Da calls ''Vogel like.'' In other words, they have been cut into the characteristic shape, with the broad end cut at an approximate 51-degree angle (like the Cheops pyramid) and the other, ''firing'' end cut at a more acute angle in relationship to it. Most of these, he says, are machine made and imprecise. '

'With a true Vogel, if you hold the crystal between thumb and forefinger and twirl it, you can see that the girdle – the place where the tip facets joins the body of the crystal – is perfectly straight. With most counterfeits, the line moves up and down, like a roller coaster.''

But even master stone-cutters cannot reproduce a true Vogel, because the shaping of the crystal is done ''in a sacred manner,'' holding in mind the person who is going to be using it, and it is then programmed in such a way that the crystal cannot be used for harm. If you try to do something potentially harmful with a Vogel, the tip will break off, or worse [we always would recommend ''getting permission'' before involving yourself in any work of this kind--ed].

Rumi Da said:

I'll tell you a story to illustrate this. It happened to me. I was in a restaurant and found myself sitting at a table beside two people who had a little 7-day-old baby that was a cocaine addict.

I happened to have with me a 6-sided smokey Vogel, and smokey quartz is kind of an energetic sponge, it will absorb toxicity. So I said I wanted to see if I could help the baby. And I put the crystal on the child's chest.

After about 30 seconds, this gorgeous crystal just exploded. It broke into about 6 pieces, and those fell onto the floor and broke into more pieces.

I asked Marcel about it, and he said, ''Never put the crystal on the body of a child.'' And he explained to me that a baby's etheric body is not yet fully formed, and the crystal's power was too strong for it. So either the crystal had to break or the baby had to break, and because the crystal had been programmed not to do harm, it shattered.

Ruefully, Rumi Da added that he wished Marcel had told him this before his $500 crystal ended up in pieces on the floor. But Marcel liked people to learn by doing. ''He wasn't the kind of person who would rob you of your own experience. He would give you just enough to go on, and then let you find out for yourself. But he was always interested to hear what you had discovered.''

Another way in which a Vogel can break is if its rightful owner achieves a major spiritual break-through. ''A person's vibration changes when this happens, but the crystal can't change. So what happens is that the point will break off. You have to send it back to be recut to resonate with your new vibration.''

A crystal must be faceted not only with geometrical precision along the''C'' or growth axis, Rumi Da tells us, but must also be worked with right attitude, understanding, and consciousness. It is not simply a matter of mechanically cutting the same general shape.

If a Vogel Isn't Made for You, Does that Mean It Won't Work?

''We give workshops,'' Rumi Da answered, ''and bring Vogels with us for people to practice with. And sometimes, someone in the workshop will find a crystal that they resonate with.'' And sometimes, he admitted, he has seen counterfeit Vogel-like crystals that are very powerful. ''If you happen to find one that has a high vibration and also resonates with your energy, you may have good experiences using it,'' he said.

But there are some things that a genuine Vogel can do that the counterfeit cannot. For example, faceted quartz crystals can structure water. ''But when you remove the crystal, you can tell through the Omega-5 device that the structuring of the water begins to decay. It only lasts for a couple of days. With Vogels, the structuring is permanent. And with some, after you take the crystal out, the vibration actually continues to go higher for about half an hour.''

The Aaah Factor

I wondered whether it made a difference how big your crystal was, and Rumi Da said, ''Only if you need the awe factor.'' Or that's what I thought he said, but he explained it this way. ''You are doing a lecture, and you take out this little one-inch Vogel, and nobody is impressed. So you take out a 9-inch Vogel, everyone in the room goes 'Aaaah!' Sometimes, the Aaah Factor makes a big difference.

"There was one time when Marcel worked with a woman and he talked to her for along time, and then at the end he used the crystal, and she left, and she was healed. And he asked me if I'd noticed anything different about this session. The answer was, he hadn't cleared or charged the crystal.The woman didn't need it. But if Marcel had not pretended to use the crystal, she would have been disappointed and she would have undone everything that they'd accomplished.''

So, if the Aaah Factor makes a difference, then, yes, the size matters. But in reality, a one-inch Vogel is just as powerful as any other size.

Working With Your Crystal

Cleansing

Because Marcel used scientific instruments to measure his results, he was able to develop an entire technology in the handling, clearing, and programming of crystals. Rumi Da has shared some of this with us, and we include this information for those of you who would like to try to incorporate it into your work – whether for self-healing or in helping others. Many texts say that you should use salt, or salt water to cleanse most crystals. Marcel felt otherwise. Dry salt, he claimed, can scratch the surface, or finish, where some of the programming is stored. And saltwater leaves a film. Marcel also tested other forms of clearing, such as smudging with sage or cedar. These things, according to Rumi Da, did not work. Here's how Marcel says to clear a crystal:

Take a slow, deep breath as you focus on the crystal with the intent to clear it.

Then, pulse out your breath, in a burst through the nostrils. You can do this from anywhere. In workshops, people learn to clear their crystals first while holding them, then at a distance, and then from the next room. This way, they learn through experience that the distance doesn't matter.

Charging

You are going to be putting Love and well-being into your crystal. It helps to recall a real, physical experience of love. Rumi Da says that sometimes he even thinks about his Schnauzer licking him on the face.''Just pure love.'' The technique is pretty much the same as for clearing:

Breathe in the Love and well-being.

Hold your breath and focus and concentrate this feeling.

Pulse your breath out, this time mentally directing the Love and well-being into the crystal.

Programming

If you have done this correctly and with loving intent, Rumi Da said, you can hold your breath and you will feel your body resonate with the crystal, and it will vibrate in your hand. For some people it takes practice to feel this and others feel it right away. You may feel a reality shift. Once it has been cleansed and charged, you mentally put into the crystal whatever else it is you want to work with. But, again, the foundation is Love, Rumi Da said. ''That is an absolute requirement. Will is not enough.''

I asked why we can't simply learn to do these things ourselves. Since we are simply energy, anyway, why do we need the crystal? ''Marcel and I used to have this conversation a lot,'' Rumi Da answered. ''Why can't you just point your finger? ''Basically, I think what Marcel would say is that the crystal amplifies and coheres whatever you put into it. So wherever you are, the crystal is going to amplify and cohere that.''

Healing with Vogel Crystals

Because the crystal holds whatever pattern you put into it, and then broadcasts that pattern wherever you want it to go, as long as what you are doing is lawful you can change the functioning of glands and organs in the body. With diabetics, for example, they've done work using the crystals to duplicate the work of a healthy pancreas. Rumi Da told of a case where one man was able to stop using insulin completely through the agency of working with a Vogel crystal. ''Now don't go out and do something stupid,'' he said, ''because this kind of work is experimental. You need to do it under the supervision of an M.D. But many people have been able to decrease their insulin needs by three-fourths, or even completely.''

But The Greatest of These Is Love

We said that we would talk about Marcel Vogel's second main legacy. And it was this: He absolutely proved, using scientific, double-blind experiments in his laboratory, that the power, the matrix, the whole web of All That Is consists of Love.

At Marcel's funeral, the same Dr. McGinty we quoted earlier had this to say:

"I was one of a group of 16 physicians privileged to work with him over a number of years with body energies, especially the capacity to focus healing energies with crystals in the treatment of illness. All of us had an extensive background in acupuncture and appreciated the ability to manipulate body energies.

Under Marcel's guidance, some of us began to learn the process of transmitting thought, especially loving thoughts, unconditionally, to our patients. It brought us an even greater capacity to appreciate the power of the mind to influence illness, the power both to heal and exacerbate disease. And, most important of all, to appreciate the incredible presence of unconditional Love and its capacity to trigger transformative shifts in a patient's psyche.

[I]t is for his work with Spirit, his great spiritual strength, his wonderful capacity to love that I will always remember Marcel."

Tompkins, Peter, and Bird, Christopher O. (Harper Row, NY, 1973).

You may find a wealth of information on Marcel Vogel and his crystals at the Lifestream Associates website, vogelcrystals.com. Rumi Da's website is rumida.com.