Crystals: Just a Placebo Effect?

From the book 'Wiccapedia'

A chunk of rose quartz in the centre of the labyrinth

I was walking a labyrinth in a local park a few weeks back and in the centre of this labyrinth is a big pink coloured stone, which on closer inspection is what looks to me like a chunk of rose quartz.
Syncwalking the Labyrinth and Awakening at the Center of the Mandala?

Rose quartz is associated with women (and probably The Virgin Mary), so it made sense I guess, since the labyrinth is pretty much a womb like structure and the word matter is derived from the word mother, or so I'm told when listening to Nicholas Pearson talk about crystals and rocks and his book 'Stones of the Goddess' on the 'Stirring the Cauldron' podcast -
Nicholas Pearson Stones of the Goddess

I wrote a post about Nicholas' other book in this old post -

Healing Properties for Black Obsidian?

Even the word matrix comes from the Latin word for womb according to Nicholas, which is all powerful mental imagery if you happen to be walking a labyrinth while imagining this world as some type of simulation.

But do people give too much power to crystals when it comes to meditating and healing?

In the podcast the host brings up Wikipedia, which is funny, as I had just read the book 'Wiccapedia' where there was a section on quartz crystals and what the authors of that book think about crystals when it comes to healing, Wiccan ceremonies and picking a crystal to use as a pendulum -

 In Pursuit of the Perfect Pendulum?

I have a clear quartz crystal above me on my computer desk that I tell people is my meditating crystal, because it sits on my desk doing nothing:-)  

I don't use it myself for meditating, because I rarely meditate anyway, as my brain seems to be in a constant waking meditation anyway.
Although when I first bought the crystal, I did try holding it in my hand and meditating with it like the crystal gurus told me to do, and to be honest I didn't find it much different to meditating without holding it in my hand.
I personally think that while they look pretty sitting on a desktop their healing effects are pretty much no more effective than a placebo.
The placebo effect can be a powerful healing vehicle ... if you can believe in it, but when it comes to crystals I can't.

The imagination can be a powerful form of magick I imagine and that seems to be what magick is all about, especially when it comes to crystals ... or labyrinth walking.

Otherwise, it's just all a walk in a park and nothing more ... which can still be very Zen:-)