Wall St. bros get infected by flakey LA fad

By Doree Lewak

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Alex Hill, a CEO and former commercial real estate star, had a BMW and an apartment on the High Line but wasn’t happy. Four years ago, he turned to amethysts in his quest for fulfillment.Courtesy Alex Hill

Back in the good old days, Alex Hill used to drop a couple of grand a night on models and bottles at Provocateur and Top of the Standard. But now he spends his money on a different indulgence: amethyst crystals.

Hill, the CEO of his own real estate firm who once dabbled in investment banking, had all the trappings of a successful alpha-male existence: a sweet apartment hugging the High Line, a shiny BMW X5, nights out in the Hamptons or Las Vegas with five-figure bar tabs.

But he wasn’t fulfilled.

“I was seeking a deeper purpose, but I was blocked,” says Hill, a Riverdale, Bronx, native, of his realization.

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Some alpha-types swear by moldavite.Tamara Beckwith

So, four years ago, he turned to crystals for help, dropping tens of thousands of dollars on rocks and selling off most of his possessions, including the majority of his 35 suits and a Rolex Explorer watch, to fund his new habit. He went on a spiritual retreat in Brazil, gave up his apartment in the Meatpacking District and now spends much of his time in the Venice section of Los Angeles.

“I’m happier, focused on my mission and in love,” says Hill, who recently married a woman whom he met on the retreat.

The medical and scientific community considers “crystal healing” to be quackery: “They have absolutely no power whatsoever to affect the human body,” says Michael Shermer, the publisher of Skeptic magazine and a monthly columnist for Scientific American.

They’ve long been popular with New Age enthusiasts and wellness fanatics, from Kim Kardashian, who turned to them to recover from her Paris robbery, to Gwyneth Paltrow and her Goop followers. But, increasingly, crystals are attracting an unexpected demographic: alpha men. Finance titans and startup bros are dropping big cash on shining rocks that supposedly have healing properties, as the popularity of crystals spreads beyond hippie-dippy circles.

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At Astro Gallery of Gems in Midtown, Robert Teixeira says several of his buyers are wealthy, high-powered men.Tamara Beckwith

“These are people who run hedge funds, who work on Wall Street. These are guys who are running businesses and handling all these people’s money,” Colleen McCann, a bicoastal “energy practitioner” who charges $250 an hour for her “crystal reading” private sessions, says of her changing clientele.

Alphas approach crystals with the same intensity as investing in the stock market or launching a new app.

Anthony C., a 37-year-old who works in luxury commercial real estate and lives in exclusive Sands Point, Long Island, spent two months to find exactly the right moldavite, a rare stone said to be from a meteor that crashed into Earth nearly 15 million years ago.

His former guru, based on Long Island, told the single, lovelorn Anthony: “You’ll start manifesting stuff, get protection, abundance.”

But the guru turned on him when he found out Anthony wasn’t buying the crystal from him.

‘This is still a quest for material things. They’re still spending money on buying the most expensive or rarest crystal you can find.’

“He’s all about the money, so he’s not a good guy,” says Anthony, who eventually found a European dealer to sell him a 46-ounce moldavite set in 22-karat gold for a cool $10,000.

Anthony, who declined to give his last name for professional reasons and lives in a 15,000-square-foot waterfront home, thought nothing of dropping that kind of cash on a rock.

“I’m not thinking about the money — I’m thinking about what I need,” he says. “I’m doing it for all [kinds of] reasons — finance, making things happen in business.” The moldavite hasn’t arrived yet, but he’s confident it will prove effective.

He also says that other stones he’s purchased worked initially but lost their powers when they cracked, although he’s hesitant to offer details.

“You’re not supposed to talk about it,” he says. “Even good ones crack. They did their purpose, and now you move on.”

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Zya charges clients $175 per session for advice on how to use crystals.Tamara Beckwith

Experts say that it’s not surprising — or all that spiritual — that these men have turned into stoners.

“This is still a quest for material things. They’re still spending money on buying the most expensive or rarest crystal you can find,” says Kathryn Smerling, a therapist on the Upper East Side who works with many high-net-worth individuals.

Whatever the motivation, local gem shops and guides are enjoying the uptick in business.

“I’ve had millionaires come in here and [they] are totally into the crystal powers. These are CEOs of companies,” says Robert Teixeira, manager of the Astro Gallery of Gems in Midtown, where Anthony C. and Alex Hill have both shopped. Teixeira claims his crystals yield tangible results.

One time, a wealthy client bought a pyrite, believing it was a “money magnet,” recalls Teixeira. Three hours later, the buyer returned to the store extremely satisfied. “The contract he put a bid on six months earlier [had] just [come] through.”

Zya, a fashion blogger-turned-energy healer from Chelsea, helps clients, including professional men, find crystals and advises them on how to use them.

“I tell clients how to wear them — as bracelets, pendants, tumble stones in a pouch in their pocket,” she explains.

‘A lot of people didn’t really understand it at first — they thought it was drastic and not very well-thought-out.’

But some crystal bros say friends and family question their hobby.

“A lot of people didn’t really understand it at first — they thought it was drastic and not very well thought out,” says Hill. But they’ve come around. Now “everybody supports me.”

Eli, a real estate agent who declined to give his last name for professional reasons, doesn’t broadcast his crystal habit at work, but he definitely uses his rocks for professional purposes.

“If I’m on the phone with a client, I’ll hold the crystal — a citrine — to connect to its energy,” he says, although he admits it doesn’t always seem to work.

“Do I feel the energy all the time? No, but it’s nice for it to be there.”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3784076&forum_id=2#36065753)

moldavite = abundance

pyrite = money magnet

citrine = good energy for client calls

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3784076&forum_id=2#37559097)