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.
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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.