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Mircea Eliade – Shamanism Archaic techniques of ecstasy

Similar beliefs are found among the Negritos of the Malay Peninsula.  In his therapy the hala uses quartz crystals obtained either from the spirits of the air (Cenoi) or produced by the shaman himself with water that is magically ‘solidified’ or, finally, cut from fragments that the Supreme Being lets fall from the sky.

This is why these crystals are able to reflect what happens on earth.  The shamans among the Sea Dyak of Sarawak (Borneo) have ‘light stones’ that reflect whatever happens to the patient’s soul and so reveal where it has strayed.  A young chief of the Ehatisaht Nootka tribe (Vancouver Island) one day came upon some rock crystals that were moving and striking against each other.  He threw his coat over some of them and took four.  The Kwakiutl shamans receive their power through crystals