The Mystery and the Power of the Crystal Skulls

By Pearl Blackthorn (reprinted from Darkside Magazine) 

Crystal skulls have been arousing fascination for more than a century. They are reproductions of human bone skulls fashioned from crystal or other gems, though usually made from clear or milky quartz. Some claim that some of the skulls originate from the pre-Columbian Mesoamerican era, while others believe that all the skulls have more modern origins.

The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls

The skulls are considered to be one of the great world mysteries for a number of reasons;

• No one knows for sure who made the famous crystal skulls.
• It has not been possible to tell exactly how they were made.
• There is a number of phenomena associate with the skulls including healing, emanating energy, channeling of psychic impressions and formation of images inside the skulls. 

Famous Crystal Skulls

The Mitchell-Hedges Skull

Perhaps the most mysterious and well-known of the crystal skulls is the Mitchell-Hedges skull. It is very similar in size and form to a real human skull and even has a removable jawbone. Both parts of the skull are made form the same block of clear quartz crystal. It weighs 11.7 pounds and is about five inches high, five inches wide, and seven inches long.

The skull was brought to pubic attention by British explorer F. A. Mitchell-Hedges, who claimed that his daughter Anna unearthed it in 1924 in an ancient Mayan temple. However, documentation has since shown that Mitchell-Hedges purchased the skull at an auction at Sothebys in London, in 1943. The skull remains in Canada, in the possession of octogenarian Anna Mitchell-Hedges, who maintains that she discovered it during a Lubaatun expedition.

The Mitchell-Hedges family loaned the skull to Hewlett-Packard Laboratories for study in 1970.  Researchers made a surprising discovery when they found that the skull had been carved against the natural axis of the crystal. This is unusual because doing so usually ensures that the crystal will shatter. To add to the mystery, close examination could not reveal any markings on the skull to suggest it had been made with modern metal instruments or diamond-tipped tools. Art restorer Frank Dorland, who oversaw the testing, concluded that the skull was produced by means of a solution o f water and silicon sand; a procedure that would have taken up to 300 years to complete!

The Paris Crystal Skull and the British Crystal Skull

This pair of similar skulls is said to have both been bought by Mexican mercenaries around 1890. They are not as finely cut as the Mitchell-Hedges skull and are made from a cloudier crystal. Some of the details appear not to have been completed. The British Crystal Skull is on display at London's Museum of Mankind, and the Trocadero Museum of Paris houses the Paris Crystal Skull.

The Amethyst Skull and the Mayan Skull

These skulls are also carved with less specific detail than the Mitchell-Hedges skull. They are said to have been discovered in the early 20^th century in Mexico and Guatemala and were brought to the US by a Mayan priest. The Amethyst skull is made from purple quartz and the Mayan skull is made from clear crystal. They are very similar in size and form and like the Mitchell-Hedges skull, both were cut 'against the grain'.

The Texas Crystal Skull

This skull is also known as "Max" and is made from a single piece of clear crystal and weighs 18 pounds. It is believed to have originated in Guatemala then passed from a Tibetan spiritualist to JoAnn Parks of Houston, Texas.

The Rose Quartz Crystal Skull

Of all the famous crystal skulls, this is the one that most closely resembles the Mitchell-Hedges skull. It was reportedly found near the border of Honduras and Guatemala. It is made of a cloudy crystal and a little larger then the Mitchell-Hedges but it also is cut with fine detail and has a removable jawbone.

The ET Skull

This skull came to light in the early 20^th century in Central America. It is made from smoky quartz and was given its name due to its strangely elongated cranium and exaggerated overbite which gives it the eerie look of an extraterrestrial. ET belongs in the private collection of Joke Van Dietan.

The Crystal Skull Explorer

Joshua Shapiro has spent more than twenty years researching the crystal skulls, but his research has gone beyond a search for their origins into the deeper mystery of the power locked within them and their effects and uses. 

An Aquarian Age Networker, Joshua was first drawn to the crystal skulls in 1983 when he was traveling through California. While he was visiting a friend who owned a metaphysical  bookstore, Joshua saw a picture of  an amethyst crystal skull, which is now known as Ami.

"When I was looking at the picture I felt an inner earthquake inside of me, like a strong vibration, and I heard – it wasn't actually my thought but it was my thought – 'what is this doing out there?'  Now, when I think about that question that came to me, it implies that on some unconscious level I knew about this crystal skull though I'd never seen it before in this lifetime. So I assume it means I knew about it from another time, another lifetime. So then, as we were looking at the picture of it on the table, there was a real earthquake in California about twenty minutes later. I always believe that every human being, in a certain time, in a certain place, makes a decision, whether they realize it's an important decision or not, that for ever changes their life and between those two experiences, as I was looking at this, just the picture, not the real skull itself, I knew inside of me that they are vital and important for the future of humanity to help us create world peace."

A few weeks later the same crystal skull was being shown to a prospective buyer and Joshua was invited to go and see it.

"I was allowed to touch the skull and I put my hand on the very top part of the skull and I felt an energy that went all the way up my arm to my shoulder and stopped there and after that I would see the skull floating over my right shoulder in my mind's eye."

His experiences were so profound that Joshua began sharing information about crystal skulls in his own talks and lectures. He began attending lectures by F.R. Nick Nocerino, who although he passed away several years ago he's still considered to be an expert on the skulls. Eventually Joshua was able to meet other crystal skulls such as Max and the famous Mitchell-Hedges skull.

"…what I found when I was around them, particularly the Mitchell-Hedges skull, and people were asking the care-taker questions, I knew the answers. So I'd start sharing. Then she asked me to watch the skull for her for a little while and I felt like this skull was saying 'you have work to do with us.'"

After that Joshua started to lecture with Sandra Bowen and the two of them, along with Nocerino wrote and published Mystery of the Crystal Skulls Revealed, in 1989. Now, Joshua also has his own skulls each of which has is own name and unique traits.

Joshua has traveled all over the world doing presentations or meeting people who have crystal skulls and also conducting scientific research to see how their energy affects people. From his own experience with both ancient and modern skulls, Joshua has come to understand their meaning and their purpose.

"For me the skulls are living beings. Through our travels and all the people we’ve met and all the places we've gone and all their older brothers and sisters we've seen, they are alive. I call them my kids, and I call them my kids because they're evolving and the way I know they're evolving is because they don’t look like they did when I first received them. They have changed. Now according to scientists these are solid objects, they shouldn’t be changing. But we can conclusively say there are various people who have felt the skulls become lighter or heavier, or in a few instances with our big skull, which you see he looks like a gray color, kind of dark, he has become totally clear and everybody can see that. So, for me, my personal way of knowing if a skull is ancient, is not to figure out how it was made but to experience its resonance, its energy, because I've had a chance to experience some of the skulls that are quite old and they have some other level of energy that I feel; that's my gift I'm sensitive to energy. When I'm doing the crystal skull sessions and I'm going into the reading part, I use myself as a human barometer, let’s say, in order to feel the essence of the energy that I'm experiencing with the skull."

Although Joshua admits that there are no scientific tests to prove or disprove his own personal experiences or understanding of the crystal skulls, he has devised and conducted a number of tests to assess how crystal skulls can affect a person individually. During these tests meridian devices and corillian devices that show the aura were attached to the subject's hands and feet. The subject was then blindfolded and placed in front of a crystal skull. The tests revealed that in the presence of a crystal skull, the subject's energy was perfectly balanced, sometimes for a while after the skull had been removed. Detailed results of these experiments can be found in Joshua's forthcoming book Journeys of the Crystal Skull Explorers.

So what could be the origins of the crystal skulls? Joshua believes that they may have come from either an ancient civilization or from an extra-terrestrial race.

"There are many, many people that I've talked to and myself included, that have memories of Atlantis where we see crystal skulls there. They would have had a very advanced technology to be able to have created them. Some of the theories related to Atlantis include the use of precise lasers in order to cut and shape the skulls also, the possibility of using the mind to convert a bone skull into a crystal skull."

Crystal Resonance

The late Marcel Vogel was a former research scientist for IBM. During the 1970s he conducted extensive studies on quartz crystals which led him to create a faceted crystal now known as the Vogel-cut® crystal, which he used as an instrument to store, amplify and convert subtle energies. He also maintained that crystals are a repository for energy and information and that they resonate with the bones in our bodies. This means that anyone coming into physical contact with a crystal will feel some level of that energy resonating through every part of their body.  But is the shape of the crystal important and if so, why specifically the shape of a human skull? Joshua believes that the form of a crystal skull is very significant for a number of reasons.

 "…crystals have an affect on the people that they're working with and especially in the form of a crystal skull… What we're finding with the new crystal skulls is that we relate to them as persons whereas another form of crystal may have intelligence but we don’t relate to it as a person because its not in our form. Why take a crystal and put it into the shape of a human bone skull? Why is that important? Well first of all I believe that spirit created our physical form, or an advanced race created our physical form and the bone skull was created because its shape is conducive to receiving cosmic knowledge and information that moves and filters down through different levels of consciousness. It's a connection to the Godhead according to some of the primitive cultures of the Mesoamerican eras in Mexico and Central America. Quartz crystal, for me is a transmitter and a receiver of various frequencies of energy. It’s a door which spirit can use to communicate with us. So having such a material, putting it in the shape of a skull, it then becomes not only a door but a receptacle to store amazing information."

The Purpose of the Crystal Skulls

Many people are familiar with the date December 21^st 2012 date of the Mayan calendar. Some believe that this date signifies an apocalyptic end to the world while others believe that that after this date, humanity will pass through a transformative state to a higher consciousness. Joshua Shapiro is firmly convinced of the latter, and he also believes that the crystal skulls will have a significant role to play in this transformation.

"I have felt an affinity with my intuition about this 2012. …the Mayans work with cycles; the numbers 52 and 13 are quite sacred. I look at it as a symbolic meaning, that the world as we know it is going to go through a transformation. The reason why I know it will happen is because I have a spirit guide name Argis and Argis says "Joshua I am you in your future, in this lifetime after 2012. I believe that time doesn't exist. That if you’re actually sensitive enough you can actually be aware of who you are in the past present and future, not only in your current life but with other lifetimes. Argis tells me that this transformation has already happened in his time. This is why I don't consider any other possibility. I see through  his eyes what its going to look like and I see flying cities, I see crystal cities. I know that we're living in communities where all the adults are parents to all the children and people have total freedom to live their life however they want. Everything I do is based upon the fact that we're moving in that direction. As far as what role will the crystal skulls play in this, the Mayans talk about 52 crystal skulls, that there may be multiple sets of 13. Maybe they have one set, maybe there are some other indigenous people that have another. But they say there will come a time and a place where these skulls need to come together, and perhaps when they come together in the right place at the right time, that's the catalyst that shifts tings into a higher frequency, going from the third, I think we're already into  part of the fourth dimensional consciousness and then settling into the fifth. So I know the crystal skulls have a role to play in this. Right now, as people are having contact with them, they’re helping people to open up to their inner self and to their spiritual gifts."