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The KonMari (Marie Kondo) website sells a shaped piece of solid aluminium, making the following claims for it:

Tuning Fork

Regular price $50.00

Marie uses a tuning fork in her everyday life to help her to reset. Striking it against something solid – a crystal is ideal – creates pure tones that have the power to restore a sense of balance. This KonMari tuning fork can help you to reset and be present. Made of aluminum alloy, it has a frequency of 4,096 hertz, which is said to amplify the healing properties of crystals – especially quartz.

https://shop.konmari.com/products/konmari-decor-konmari-tuning-fork

Is striking the Marie Kondo tuning fork on a crystal (especially quartz) more effective than placebo in healing illness, injury, or medical conditions of any kind?

A E
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    Doubling zero is still zero – Henry Jan 04 '20 at 12:44
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    I'd like to see a more precise claim. "Amplifying the healing properties" is so vague as to be untestable, even if we were to accept that crystals have magical healing powers. [Spoiler: They don't] – Oddthinking Jan 04 '20 at 13:27
  • @Oddthinking The claim is what it is, I didn’t write it and can’t (without dishonesty) edit it to make it more specific. I’ve made my own question (below the claim) more specific on purpose.

    IMO they’re being deliberately vague to avoid taking full responsibility for the healing powers they’re claiming the device possesses - eg they use weasel words “said to”.

    An answer that addresses the lack of healing powers of crystals in general would be very welcome - but I was concerned that you would deem a more general question along those lines insufficiently specific.

     – A E Jan 04 '20 at 14:56
  • https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/q/30917/37236 – Laurel Jan 04 '20 at 17:39
  • I could see a tuning fork being useful for meditation and being really generous I can see that as being the actual intent (i.e., "restore a sense of balance"); but anything else seems to be leaning heavily on crystals. – rjzii Jan 04 '20 at 22:20
  • @AE: Oh no, I am not suggesting that you get more specific than the claim. I was hoping we could find a stronger claim. (I watched the associated video in search of one, and it doesn't make any health claims.) I agree with you that they have taken care not to make a claim that could be checked, but that leaves us with nothing but fluff to grapple with. – Oddthinking Jan 05 '20 at 02:03
  • @rjzii: The associated video shows it being used for meditation. (Ironically, tuning forks have a history of being used in medicine - detecting fractures and hearing problems.) – Oddthinking Jan 05 '20 at 02:07
  • @Oddthinking Indeed and from a meditation standpoint, they can be quite useful for people but I don't see how whacking the turning fork against a crystal is better than any other hard surface. Other than aesthetics. – rjzii Jan 05 '20 at 17:53
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    The 4096Hz frequency is based on Scientific pitch - Wikipedia, which assigns powers of 2 frequencies to all the C notes. As far as I know, tuning forks of those frequencies are not used by musicians, but by the kind of people that would respond positively to this ad. These forks must be good though; they cost 10 times as much as the ones the musicians use. – Ray Butterworth May 12 '23 at 00:47
  • @RayButterworth Of course complete bs since 1 Hz is an arbitrary choice - it just makes it easier to write out and calculate. I would also question how harmonious a 4 kHz tone is... – pipe May 12 '23 at 14:49
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    @pipe says "1 Hz is an arbitrary choice". — Nonsense. The second has very fundamental mathematical properties. A day has 60×60×24 = 86,400 seconds. 86,400 has unique prime factors: 2⁷, 3³, and 5². The factors and their exponents, {2,3,5,7}, form the set of lowest prime numbers. That can't be coincidence. Further, combine the middle factor with either of the other two: 2×7+3×3=23 and 3×3+5×2=19, both of which are prime numbers, and consecutive primes at that; and it becomes obvious. And! the intervening prime numbers are {11,13,17}, whose sum is 41, yet another prime! – Ray Butterworth May 12 '23 at 15:27

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Wikipedia has a good article on crystal healing, stating that it

is a pseudoscientific alternative medicine technique that uses semiprecious stones and crystals[...] Adherents of the technique claim that these have healing powers, although there is no scientific basis for this claim.

The article also mentions

In 2001 Christopher French, head of the anomalistic psychology research unit at the University of London and colleagues from Goldsmiths College outlined their study of crystal healing at the British Psychological Society Centenary Annual Conference, concluding: "There is no evidence that crystal healing works over and above a placebo effect.”

Crystal healing doesn't work beyond placebo, so the idea that a tuning fork can enhance the "crystal healing effect" can't possibly be true.

Nico Damascus
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