QUOTE(Enochian @ Jan 10 2007, 11:47 AM)
Dont worry about the object your useing. If its a obsidian or clear crystal or black mirror or the mud puddle in the back yard it makes no differance. These things are all only focuses for your energy nothing more. The problem usually arises from not haveing a good single pointed meditation or disbelief one of the two. You have to dig deep and make sure there is no hidden disbelief. Hope that makes sense to you. You may even think "damn i know this is real" and still lurking somewhere is the religous teaching or something else that you subconciously hold too. Stalk yourself you will find the answer.
To a large degree, that is true. However, I've found that the material CAN matter. Certain people just mesh better with some things than others, and that's something to be taken into account. Stones, in particular, can have their own personalities (for lack of a better term), and different ones do different things. For example: I've a lovely rose quartz sphere with a star in it. For meditation and relaxation exercises, it's great. For scrying it's not worth the paper it was wrapped in to keep it from getting scratched on the way home. So...
Cultures the world over have used all manner of objects and surfaces to scry. See what works and what doesn't and go from there. And if you get better results by doing various meditations and rituals beforehand, great! Share them, I'm sure they'd help a lot of beginners get started.