Hi, @lozenge123- I have long been interested in Crystal Healing, am a Certified Crystal Healer (CCH), and a Certified Reiki Crystal Healer (CRCH). I am a Reiki Master/Teacher, too. I turned to Alternative healing in 1993 when I fell ill with a horrendous MRSA infection in my left knee, and saw the MRSA return time after time despite long-time treatment with antibiotics. I knew that something was wrong with Western Medicine- it was treating the results of something bad, but not the cause of this illness. I have long sought what I termed in another question as "hard science" to back up what I have seen with both Reiki Healing and Crystal Healing, and all I could find was the above-mentioned certifications and the small, but powerful, group of people who have gone before me and trusted themselves and what they saw and felt. Here I make an enormous nod to Reiki's origins in Japan, and the combined teachings I found from the shaman healers of the American Indians of North America. I was trained by a wonderful Native American Shaman named Black Rock, who taught me all he knew before he died of old age.

I have made what I think are logical steps towards that "hard science". First of all, many, many people across the world and through time have worked with the energy field of the human body. As a trained shaman, I am also familiar with what the spiritual world can do with that energy and towards real, certifiable healing. Belief plays a large role in any healing, whether Western medicine, Eastern medicine, or Shamanic Native American Healing. I asked the question here on Inward Quest in 2009: Does prayer really consist of a form of spiritual energy that we cannot measure?. I asked this question because it was what I was starting to postulate about the energy of the spirit world affecting the physical world. The experiments cited in the answer above by arpegme seem to point towards that idea. I was trying to say that I was seeing prayer as a form of real energy that is like a laser, directing energy towards its object.

This touches on our current question, asked about our power to imbue an object with spiritual power. We do seem to have that power! That, in my mind, seems to indicate that our beliefs, in other words, our prayers, can "charge" and affect anything physical. That, in turn, means this: Quite simply and wonderfully, the spiritual world is connected to, and underlies our physical reality. This is not real hard news to anyone who visits Inward Quest. We come to Inward Quest because we are looking for the connections between the spiritual and the physical, and we find these connections to be quite real and normal.

You see how I struggle to make "hard science" here? I am convinced that someday, "hard science", which is lagging far behind our spiritual advances, will prove that belief (prayers) have a real, measurable energy. At least, I hope so.

So, back 1993, when I started my "Inward Quest", I found that my mind and my soul, and my body were all at war with each other. To heal, I needed to get myself moving towards health and happiness. I needed that unseen laser to be directed towards my knee, and I needed to believe with all my heart in what I knew and felt to be true: Western medicine failed me because it was not treating my soul. My soul was hurting and wounded. It said so the only way it could: it disturbed my physical reality until I saw it. Period. Sadly, I kept returning to Western healing, and just kept refusing to practice what I was learning from the Spiritual Healers in my own life. It was that need for "hard science". That tripped me up all the time.

I had to have both knees replaced, my spine fused in two places, multiple sicknesses and near-death illness, to wake up. Now that is just stupid stubbornness, and a clinging to the need for "proof". What "proof"? I see now that I have been gradually shifting myself from Western medicine to a more mysterious, but more effective healing with Reiki and Shamanic Healing. The USA seems to empower doctors and dis-empower that which cannot be "proven" with "hard science". Sad. There is too much money to be made from the "Scientific" practice of Medicine, and no money to be made from "Voodoo Witch Doctors" and "Injuns". Until we remove the power of the Almighty God of Insurance, and replace it with Almighty God, we will stay stuck and sick. I am waking up to this.

Now, I said I was a Crystal healer. Oh Yes. Crystals affect the Energy Field of the human body, and that means they can effect healing...if we believe and can let them do their thing. Quartz is Silicon Dioxide, which makes up a significant part of the Earth's crust. We evolved here. We evolved on this planet, surrounded by quartz. The American Indians knew the Power of Quartz way before the doctors even arrived. They call crystals the "bones of Mother Earth". (Luc Bourgault, The American Indian Secrets of Crystal Healing, quantum publishers, 1997 (English), 1992 (French).)

I leave you with a final thought, and apologize profoundly for this long posting...Would man have survived to become modern man if shamanic healers did not heal him?

I doubt it.

Blessings,

Jaianniah (my name means "Heart of God", and was given to me through the American Shaman.)

Yes. There are a huge variety of approaches to doing that throughout a wide variety of traditions. I actually have some of my own. Some of these are based on materials and their own already present virtues being bought out, while others involve the intercession and impression of powers upon something that is not in and of itself present in the material object concerned - most actually involve both. I'll outlay a brief outline of a few of those below for you.

I find it odd that the (only) source you found for that was yogic though. Yogis do not generally play around with the kind of stuff much, although I can think of some occasional exceptions, such as yogis recommending a student to wear a particular gemstone on a particular finger, to help counteract negative astrological forces acting on the person. But from what I've seen those kind of recommendations genuinely being done seem quite rare. Tantrikas on the other hand, do.

One very common kind would be a yantra, which is a geometrical design often placed upon a plate of metal (such as gold). It relates to a specific deity and typically would be blessed by a guru prior. Afterwards one will have it on an altar in the home and bathe it in milk, place sandalwood paste upon it, chant the particular mantra before it, offering incenses etc. It then acts as a type of gateway between your world and the deities, allowing their power to flood into your life. Though this isn't really a talisman proper, and often will be used as part of sadhana for various siddhi. But there are people who use these more or less as talismans.

Many western methods have a similarity to this and also involve inscribing certain metals or even gemstones with particular symbols, often with some basis in geometry and mathematics. These can be empowered through the time they are created (astrological) Cornelius Agrippa is the best source I know for outlining all the ideas behind this (and much else in these systems). He elaborates on what materials have what virtues, magical squares (based on mathematics...these are also present in the eastern equivalents) and such in his "Three Books of Occult Philosophy", particularly in Book 2 where he refers to "Images" of the mansions of the moon, of mars etc. The idea here is that one is creating and giving birth to something and the astrological circumstances that were prevalent at the time then permanently imprint themselves upon this new "being", just like they do upon a person to create their natal chart. This then exerts its influence upon you (or another). Those types of methods do not require any skill on the person creating them, other than to be the correct image and material at the correct time.

(Some of these can be found at http://www.renaissanceastrology.com/astrologicaltalisman.html although certain ones are not always done in the correct metal there...)

The other way western magicians would traditionally do this, is create the object and then call upon certain spirits to confer their office and powers upon it. The most classic example of this is in The Greater Key of Solomon The King (not really purest translation but it'll do...), which involves using an elaborate ceremony to call forth spirits to visible appearance and then asking them to confer their power onto a talisman. One example that immediately springs to mind is one inscribed on silver, calling on spirits of the moon sphere, which allow the magician to call forth rain when one places the talisman in a bowl of water, which I experimented with when younger. There are various others, such as to cause love when seen by another, or to open locks. Another classic example, is magical squares used in The Sacred Magic of Abramelin The Mage, which have been empowered by demons under the ruling of the magician.

Another common example of this is the gris gris or "mojo" bags of African derived practices, such as hoodoo. This typically will involve different herbs, part of the person (such as hair) and other things placed inside a flannel bag. This then goes through a ritual and is considered an alive spirit. The person feeds it regularly with some alcohol or oil and talks to it, carrying it on their person to help them with whatever it is purposed for.

A more direct, related to your person method, common in "modern" western magic is outlined by Israel Regardie in his work "How To Make And Use Talismans" This basically involves creating a congruent design on something as simple as cardboard and then building ones personal energies to a peak, altering them to the particular intent and then imbuing that energy/power into the talisman and sealing it.

As you can probably tell, it's a big subject and I'm just scratching the surface but think I have given far more than enough to allow someone to follow all those leads and find out more if they are inclined.

Have you heard about The Emoto Water-Rice and Water Crystals experiment?

Yes absolutely ... here is an "inanimate object" that i use regularly, almost every day, it's a servranx electret.(i suppose it all really boils down to what you mean by inanimate, everything vibrates in our physical world, so in this sense everything is living, is animated by spirit)

ffff

http://www.servranx.com/Products/Radionique/Materiel/Electret---1-piece.aspx

An electret is essentially a mixture of waxes, heated and cooled very slowly in a high voltage polarized electric field, then enveloped in a thin sheet of metal.

It can be charged in many different ways and for many different purposes. The simplest way to charge it is to hold it between the thumb and index as shown in the drawing, during 2 to 3 minutes and at the same time thinking of a particular aim.

then just place it near to yourself, in your pocket for example.

It can also be charged by visualization, graphs, radionic batteries, colored filters ... etc

Servranx provide an explanatary book "électret"

http://www.servranx.com/Products/Radionique/Livres/Les-electrets.aspx

Here's an interesting take by a colorful character that i've recently discovered, Charles Cosimano (thanks Wade), and by the way, psionics is another name for radionics, it's all to do with subtle energies and subtle energies are essentially holographic in nature or more simply, within any part can be found the whole;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVawPlMrKQQ

We collect antique weapons. Swords, spears, armor -- mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia.

In the southern part of the Philippines is a tribe called the Moro. Combined with their martial arts and swordsmanship, some of the most deadly fighters the world has ever known. In the mid-1500s Magellan was killed by a Moro broadsword.

The Moro were the reason our army went from a .38 special pistol cartridge to a much more powerful .45ACP. We were finding too many incidences where a Moro warrior with all six .38 special bullets in his chest still had enough strength to cut an American soldier in half. Super-human in battle.

So what does this have to do with imbuing "an inanimate object with spiritual powers or qualities?" First - when a Moro warrior first gets his Kris (battle sword) he stays up for days and nights with his unmounted blade asking that a Genii comes to inhabit it and give him special power.

Most of our swords were used in ferocious battles. Enemies died from them. Moro fighters died holding them.

To me, it feels like they are imbued with some kind of power. Some from the intense spiritual consecration by the Moro warrior and some by the energies of battle. Holding one of these blades will leave you with powerful feelings of distant lands, voices and a strange kind of power.

We have other objects. A central theme for me is that our artifacts have a spiritual significance. We have an African Judge helmet mask. When a tribal man donned his mask, he became an ultimate judge, deciding tribal issues. He was no longer a person, but transformed into something else.

Are we talking about "primitive" people because they often had no written language? Lived in huts? Low technology? Or are we looking at people with a rich, though unwritten heritage who were very close to the spirit world?

And their artifacts that were working tools to them, yet "High Art" to us. Ever wonder why an old piece of wood can cost tens of thousands of dollars in our world? Maybe because we know down deep that it is some kind of doorway, a portal, a nodal point to another realm of existence?

"Is it possible to "charge" or imbue an inanimate object with spiritual powers or qualities?" Come hold one of our pieces, or weapons and your question will be answered with a resounding "Yes!"

it already has spirit
contained inside its form
at the level of its kind
scheduled by Nature to evolve

I think i read in the bible somewhere about cloths being used to heal the sick. Didnt the apostle Paul pray over them.....cant quite remember the exact details, but im sure its there somewhere.

I would imagine that the inanimate objects have absolutley no power at all. HOWEVER i would hazard a guess that "our perception " of them having power would in our own consciousness create or release this power.

There isnt any power outside of consciousness anyway, so the object would only ever have an effect ( albeit a perceived) one on our consciousness. And out "perceptions" have much power in themselves.

So i would say no, the object cant be imbued, but we can be imbued.

Everything vibrates and in this sense everything is animated by a living force. Everything has a specific essential energy field and each object influences all surrounding objects, they all "charge" themselves with the influences emitted by all the others. This is even more evident when the object is under the influence of a human, these accumulated charges modify the original influences emitted by the object. We naturally and unconsciously charge objects, for example clothes that we wear often, we can "feel" the difference between a new T shirt and a T shirt that we've often worn.

This phenomenon is called impregnation which means to permeate, imbue, fill throughout, saturate.

So our good old T shirt gives off a remanence of contact or influence received from the past, remanence being the magnetic induction that remains in a material after removal of the magnetic field. In this way the past becomes detectable, it's imprint is still active, and some people just by touching your T shirt could discover a lot about you. We are all sensitive to these influences, these vibrations, but they are mostly dissipated unless we dispose of a means of directing and amplifying our subtle reactions to them.

Here's a practical experience of remanence; a trompeter plays a note of music in front of a white sheet during which time a photo is taken of the sheet. A dowser can detect from the photo, the note that was being played, so long as during the experience an identical trompet is playing slowly the whole range of the musical notes.

Here's another example of impregnation given by the experience of G.Brochenin - a cigarette paper is placed on the temple of someone who's thinking of something in particular, after a few seconds or at the most after one minute, the cigarette paper's impregnated, not by the person but by what the person was thinking.

Wax is very easily impregnated that's why it's used during ceremonies often in the form of white candles, but other colours and objects can be used too depending on the aim of the ceremony. Impregnation can be performed by visualization, imposition of hands, exposition of radionic graphs, coloured screens, words, chanting, music, inscriptions, symbols etc.