My biggest misgiving about whether magic is really real comes from the unlikeliest of sources - a magazine article on product marketing (which sadly isn't online, so I'll just have to sum up the basics in my own words.)

In the 1950s, when psychology was a new and exciting science, some basic research was done on product packaging. If you put the same product in different boxes, what would a focus group think?

For example, 3 bottles of the same perfume, labelled A B C. Put them on the table, leave the volunteers alone with them... who haven't been told they're all the same, just to evaluate which fragrance they like best and why.

The results were something like this:
A has a sharp scent, too much so.
B is bland and the worst.
C is too musky.

And the people were adamant these perceived differences were real, they were very tangible to them.

A similar experiment was to put toy cars in boxes patterned with circles, squares and triangles.

The one in the circles box was top quality.
The one in the squares box was alright.
The one in the triangles box was shoddy, the worst ever, the wheels about to fall off.

And these perceptions were rock solid. No look, really, the car from the box with the triangle is crap, and it'll go to pieces the second my kid plays with it, just look at how the wheels wobble!

(The article then went on to explain how from this humble beginnings product design progressed to what I can only call a belief system with its own mystic traditions - warm colors and square edges are seen as masculine, advertising strength - cool colors and rounded edges are seen as feminine, advertising gentleness. It's why say, listerine is yellow (strong!) in a bottle shaped like a rectangle (powerful!) with rounded edges and shapes (but not too strong). It's why razors for women's legs have rounder handles than razors for men's faces. And so on. I wouldn't be surprised if similar thought went into the design of each iphone app, the colors of each Windows 8 tile.)

...

All this is a big problem for ritual magic, including the crystal magic I've written about many times.

When I put it to the test, writing down how I felt when wearing different stones, then comparing it to the books... was I just recreating those early psych experiments from the 50s?

In the New Age and Wiccan references I have, different colors and patterns of stone have different effects, spiritually, emotionally, and even physically. These references generally agree what those effects are, and my personal experience agreed with them too.

...the people in the focus groups generally agreed on the perceived qualities of the same products in different boxes.

It's known that color and pattern can have subtle but continuous psychological effects, and there's been quite a bit of research into it. It's something deeply ingrained into human instincts.

And there's the whole problem. On the one hand it means that yeah, numerology and choosing the correct ritual color candles for the altar and the right stones to wear for your chakra can have an effect. On the other, it means that effect is purely psychosomatic, AKA the placebo effect (to use it in a nonmedical setting which probably isn't kosher scientifically but that's a debate for another time.)

In a spiritual mood, I love this idea, that maybe what I'm doing is to tap directly into the placebo effect on a consistent basis, which is no small feat by any standard. Doctors have quipped longingly, "if I could bottle a pill that had the power of the placebo effect..." On the other hand, in an atheist mood, it means there's nothing magic about it. Spiritual forces don't exist and the only effect on me from wearing stone beads is in my mind.

Taken together with what I wrote in this journal from a spiritual side, about crystals not being all-purpose for ritual magic as the New Age believes, it's enough misgivings that no, I'm not really into crystal magic anymore. It's entirely possible that the perceived spiritual properties of all those materials (any material, really) are nothing more than the same psychological effect from those marketing experiments. When I speak of different semi-precious stones and types of wood having radically different properties, they have radically different colors and textures and so it might be nothing more than the natural world equivalent of those boxes with circles, squares and triangles.

I still love genuine natural materials for jewelry - stone, hemp, coral, wood - as opposed to plastic beads and synthetic cords. But I'm not so inclined anymore to think that their magical effect will be good for me... if they even have one at all.