A concerned mom writes: “Lokai bracelets are the newest rage. Do you know anything about them?”
I looked into these bracelets and found nothing New Age or occult in their meaning or production.
For those who never heard of them, these are bracelets made of various colored beads including two special silicon beads – one white and one black. The white bead – which comes with the message “Stay Humble” – is supposedly filled with water from the top of Mt. Everest. The black bead, with it’s message of “Stay Hopeful” – is said to contain mud from the Dead Sea. The white bead represents the high points in life, and the black bead represents the low points.
Wearing the bracelet is supposed to inspire a person to remember the good times when things are going south, and to stay humble when things are good by remembering the bad times.
According to this article, Lokai bracelets are the inspiration of a Cornell student named Steven Izen who learned that his grandfather had Alzheimer’s while enjoying a family vacation at the beach in 2009. The contrast between the wonderful beach vacation and the dark news inspired what he would eventually call the Lokai bracelet. (The name Lokai was inspired by the Hawaiian word “lokahi,” which means unity and the blending of opposites.)
Izen opted on a bracelet which can be worn daily and remind people to stay “balanced” in their view of life – not getting too down or too high. He added a little drama to the gadget by injecting one bead with water supposedly taken from the highest point in the world (Mt. Everest) and another bead with mud from the lowest (the Dead Sea).
Unfortunately, I was unable to find any guarantee that the two beads contain water from Mt. Everest and mud from the Dead Sea. The site provides only a certificate of authenticity from FTI Consulting which confirms that the white beads are injected with water and the black beads with mud – but nothing to confirm that the water is from Everest and the mud from the Dead Sea. Even though the site provides colorful photos/video of Sherpas supposedly engaged in acquiring water for the bracelets along with promises to provide video of the acquisition of mud from the Dead Sea soon, that’s the only proof provided.
(Maybe I’m being too picky but none of this convinced me that the water and mud actually came from these places.)
Also found during my search was a Youtube video in which the white and black beads on six Lokai bracelets were cut open. None of the white beads had water in them while all of the black beads had some mud in them. Some wearers claim the water eventually evaporates but the experiment done in the Youtube video was supposedly on a brand new Lokai Pact.
The bracelets themselves are pricey – $23 for a single bracelet on Amazon – $98 for a “Lokai Pact which contains six bracelets. The company donates $6 of every Lokai Pact sold to its charities (such as the Alzheimer’s Association, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Make a Wish Foundation, Oceana, Best Buddies, etc.) which amounts to around six percent.
Personally, I see the Lokai bracelet as just another “pet rock” that throws a little money to charity on its way to extinction.
