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All the crystals that I have found containing living rainbows come from Brazil. Except this one! This quartz crystal is from Arkansas. This is the only Arkansas living rainbow that I have ever discovered. See how fast it moves! As the crystal heats up and cools down, it goes through many changes. On the warming cycle, the rainbows expand. The shapes change, and create new patterns of vivid colors. Here it is again, in case you blinked. The colors in this crystal are very special. The spectrum is quite different from the rainbows we are used to seeing in the sky. Here’s a close up of the rainbow in the Arkansas Crystal. Crystallographers call these first-order interference colors.

Quartz crystals come in many different colors, including amethyst and citrine. Some of the citrine rainbows are spectacular. The colors are different from clear quartz, because of the golden tint of the citrine. Here’s a close-up of the previous one, showing some of the details of this inner transformation. Crystals absorb liquid from the ground during their formation. They also soak up liquids after they have completely formed. These fluids create the color movements we see here. As we zoom in on this crystal, you’ll see rainbow gardens that fill the stone with color, with light and with life. As the crystal cools off, the colors retract and the patterns return to the original rainbow. When the crystals are heated up, either by holding them in your hands or with a small heat source, you’ll see these colors grow into the shapes like ferns, flowers and trees. These inner gardens are amazing.

Most of the living rainbow crystals are fairly small, but some have been found as large as 60 pounds. Here’s a picture of the shadow of a rainbow. With backlighting, you can see all of the highlights in strong contrast. This crystal ball is one of my personal favorites!
When you first search for a living rainbow, generally you won’t see the colors. You’ll see white or silvery areas growing like a garden. As you adjust the position of the crystal, at a certain specific angle, all of the colors appear. We’re now looking at another image of the same crystal. All of the white patterns have turned into beautiful glowing colors. This crystal is lit with only one white light bulb. Through reflection and refraction, the crystal creates the colors!

This is a rare amethyst crystal rainbow, greatly magnified. The strange colors are created by the purple tint of the stone. I have personally watched over a dozen different ways that rainbows can move inside of quartz crystals. In this one, the colors undulate and expand. There’s movement around the edges, but without the feathery patterns. Sometimes you can see rainbows next to white or silvery areas. The contrast is delightful. The rainbows can cover a large area inside of a crystal ball.

Oddly enough, most of the living rainbows are found in crystal balls from Brazil. It’s so easy to see the interior when the outside is highly polished. Every time you change the angle of the crystal, or the lights, or the camera, the color scheme shifts. In this one, the purple and blues predominate. It’s the only crystal that has ever shown this arrangement of colors. This is the first of my living rainbow crystals.
You’re currently watching the first videos that were filmed back in 2001. I was overwhelmed by the number of moving rainbows I saw! It’s so interesting to see how the patterns expand and contract. In this first living rainbow, there’s a reservoir of color on the left side that flows over to the right side and creates fractal patterns. As the crystal cools off, the fractals move back to the left and fill in the colors that were there before.

The action in this 2-inch ball moves really fast. I had to figure out a way to slow it down, so you can see the details. These tiny shapes are less than 1/10th of an inch long! In this close-up shot, we’ll see something truly extraordinary. The rainbow is expanding like a tiny volcano! In addition to the shapes changing dramatically, the entire color scheme changes reflectance. Living rainbow crystals vary dramatically. In fact, every time they are heated up or cooled down, the patterns are different.

In this next picture you’ll see the same crystal with different colors at a new angle. All the color waves flow in rainbow variations. Sometimes the details look like hieroglyphic writing. Here’s the same crystal with snowflake shapes forming in layers. These ancient members of the mineral kingdom are over 100 million years old. Have the rainbows been waiting for us all this time?

It took years to assemble the equipment necessary to photograph these small images. Most of the rainbows I have found are only one, or perhaps two inches wide. This one is located inside of a 10-inch long crystal carving. There are miniature lakes and rivers inside of the rainbow crystals. These lakes and rivers consist of a reservoir, a boundary layer, and a fractal zone in between.

The crystals speak to me in languages of light and motion, of waves and fireworks. If you want to find a living rainbow crystal, there are a couple of techniques you can use. First make sure your crystal is fairly cold. Have a bright light behind you, with the light coming over your shoulder. Pay special attention to reflections from the silvery cracks inside the crystal. As you rotate the crystal, vivid color patterns will appear. After locating these areas, warm up the crystal by cupping it in your hands, or by placing a small room heater next to it, while it’s sitting on a base. In fact, it’s easier to have the crystal sitting on a stand, because it isn’t moving. You can move your body to find the correct angle to view it. If you move just a few degrees off angle, the colors will fade and disappear into a silvery flash of light.

While filming this movie, I changed the speed of some of these images, so you can see the patterns more easily. Sometimes I speed it up by applying more heat, and sometimes I slow it down by using a cooling fan. Each crystal has its own distinctive patterns, and its own speed of reaction. Some of them are so fast; they go by in a flash. Others move so slowly, they are just below the level of perception. At that point, by applying more heat, I can get the patterns to move fast enough to see the rainbows.

This citrine crystal has unique shapes and colors moving through it. This four-inch clear crystal ball shows some of the best patterns and movements that I have seen. One of the oddities of living rainbow crystals is that they won’t always move around when you want them to! Be patient- try again an hour later, or the next day. It takes time for some crystals to cool off. Others will reset in five minutes or less. On some days the rainbows come out to play, other times, they hide themselves away. You can see similar rainbows when oil and water mix on the street. There are shimmering rainbows everywhere- even in soap bubbles.

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