| Vogel's work with plants made him something of a celebrity, landing him speaking engagements and appearances on television as well as a detailed overview of his work in the popular 1973 book, The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird. But, though he was as yet unaware of it, he was now ready to move on to a totally new area of study - the myth-enshrouded lore of crystals and the effect they have on human consciousness. Although he had been involved in extensive research with liquid crystals, Vogel's first encounter with natural quartz did not come until 1974 after a lecture he gave on his research with plants to the Church of Religious Science in Los Angeles. After the lecture, he was approached by a woman who introduced herself as Dr. McKistry. She told him that she had in her possession quartz crystals which had the peculiarity of vibrating when they were held in the hand. Though unimpressed with the notion, Vogel agreed to accept a sample to experiment with. When the crystal arrived at his laboratory in San Jose, Vogel found that Dr. McKistry's excitement was more than justified. As he remembers, "I took the crystal that she had sent me, held it in my hand, drew my breath in, and happened to point the crystal at a friend of mine, Chuck McNosa. As I pulsed my breath, a charge went through that crystal and into this man. His head went back and he went into an altered state of consciousness. That was my first encounter with a crystal. I said, "This is for the birds. I want nothing to do with it." Although he initially resisted working with the crystal, he eventually overcame his hesitancy, and has focused on quartz crystal research ever since. Research, which Vogel describes as a "back-breaking journey of struggle." After working with natural crystals, Vogel soon found their limitations. They did not sufficiently cohere the field that comes from the mind and body of a person. He felt that by cutting and faceting natural quartz, he could amplify the potential information storage capacity. Offering the analogy of a ruby, Vogel explains the value of cutting and faceting: "A natural ruby (aluminum oxide chromium) is just a nondescript piece of stone, but put it on a faceting machine and facet it, and you produce a gem. Now, go one step further. Take that same ruby, carefully cut it and polish it into a cylinder, put booster windows on it so that light pumped into it is reflected back and forth and you have a laser - a ruby laser. Pump energy into that laser and the amplified energy that is produced can cut a diamond or drill a hole through steel. It is the same light, but it is amplified. The same thing is true with these crystals. Nature has created the basic structure, but man forms it into a pattern that is for his purpose and use." | |
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