Magnetism has always intrigued scholars and ordinary folk alike with its mysterious, magical seeming powers, but what about the potential healing effects on human and animal health and wellness that this force supposedly can bring about? Nikken paves the way with Nikken water filter
Well right from the start, a therapeutic value was suspected to be originating from this mysterious substance that sprung directly from Mother Earth.
The word magnet itself has a claim of origin from a Greek shepherd who was named Magnes, and who it is said, first discovered this rock that could attract iron in a place now in Turkey and called Magnesia.
Now known as magnetite, these iron ore deposits were known as Heraclean Stones (from Heracles, now more commonly referred to as Hercules) to the Greeks, as lapis vivus (living stones) to the Romans, and as lodestones later on in the English speaking world.
The Greeks surmised that magnetism was a kind of `mineral soul' and were soon impressed enough to begin to celebrate it, so much so that Aristotle himself was convinced that magnets could be used to help headaches as well as aching joints anywhere on the body.
A physician named Galan was particularly effective at treating various malaises thanks to magnets, and Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, herself from Greek ancestry, was also a famous name to become attracted to the possibilities of magnets, it is said she wore a magnetic charm on her forehead to preserve both her beauty and her youthfulness.
In ancient India and China, there were also strong believers of magnet therapy, and they probably knew of it even before the Greeks and Egyptians.
Keep Flowing
In China, traditional beliefs state that the health of the body is caused by a life preserving energy known as Qi (pronounced as `chee') that flows continuously through and around us. It is imbalances in this Qi which causes illnesses both of the body and the mind, and so acupuncture techniques were developed to restore the free flow of the energy when it was blocked. But from the early days, it was not only needles that were placed in those special places known as acupoints, but magnets as well: Ancient medical texts from this part of the world often refer to `magnetic stones' that can restore health and remove pain.
Indeed, magnetic therapy has continued to be used throughout the east and today they look upon western doubts as to its genuine status with some amusement.
Europe is Attracted
In Europe, the Renaissance was the time of renewed learning after the end of the dark ages, and magnetism made a reappearance for the purposes of healing, this time thanks to the efforts of the Swiss alchemist and physician known as Paracelsus (his full name was Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim) but most of the time he used the pseudonym Paracelsus, and no wonder.
The torch was passed onto one Richard Mead, in England, who published a work in 1704 that theorized about `tides of gravity,' in it he argued that the planets could not only affect the tides of the oceans but also the air, and so fluids in the human body would also be altered by their influence.
One Hell of a Magnet
Later, in 1766, the Austrian doctor Franz Anton Mesmer would use the ideas of both of these men and a third, the unfortunately named astronomer and priest Maximilian Hell, to form his own ideas on magnetism and its relationship to healing.
New carbon-steel magnets had by now been invented in England which were much more powerful than naturally occurring lodestones, and Maximilian Hell was already convinced of the effectiveness of these magnets for ridding pain, believing that a magnetic field existed in everything. Mesmer was impressed by the results he saw, and would try it out for himself on his patients. Around this time the phrase "animal magnetism" was coined either by Hell or Mesmer, there is some debate as to which one used this phrase first, and a legal dispute soon sprung up as Hell claimed Mesmer had stolen his ideas.
But whatever the rights and wrongs of the case, magnetism had become fashionable and the term "animal magnetism" was often mentioned in the newspapers of the day. This was said to be a force field that surrounded everything that lived, and was evenly balanced in the healthy and not so in the unhealthy.
At first Mesmer claimed, like Maximilian Hell did, that magnets were the way to influence and calm this force field. But Mesmer was later to switch his belief to one that said that the touch of a healer could do the job just as well, and that someone with a strong force in them (like him) could use anything available to put this force into so that others could later benefit from touching it.
This theory led to various situations like people holding onto ropes suspended from a tree, that Mesmer had earlier `magnetized.'
The Viennese physicians of the day were not impressed by this, but had trouble explaining away some of his successes; and so it was that many people continued to believe that he was genuine.
Mesmerizing Magnetism
Word spread, in part due to public performances and demonstrations across Europe, but his style changed over time. After watching a known exorcist of the day, one Father Johann Gassner, Mesmer started to believe that the state of the mind was as important as the state of the body. Rejecting the catholic priest's theory of demonic possession of those he healed, Mesmer put this down also to his "universal fluid" which flowed through all things, and his healing sessions became more like sances with patients linking hands or holding onto iron bars that stood in a container of weakened sulfuric acid.
It was noted that they attained a trance state, and from this we get the word `mesmerized.'
Mesmer continued to prosper, and those that saw a new way of healing eagerly distributed pamphlets to anyone who would care to read them, but this would not last: In 1784 a Royal Commission was set up in Paris to investigate the theory of "animal magnetism" with Benjamin Franklin one of those involved.
Unsurprisingly they dismissed the whole thing as merely being caused by the power of suggestion and the patients' imagination and own willpower. So it was to die out and Mesmer to fade away, branded a cheat by scientists who perhaps never wanted him to be known as anything else.
Though some still had interest, and what became to be known as hypnotherapy was begun to be studied because of Mesmer's work. Magnets though, seemed forgotten, perhaps Mesmer would have been better off to stick with his original thoughts (`borrowed' from Maximilian Hell) that it was the magnets themselves, and not those that directed their use, where the cure lay. Unfortunately, this prospect was not itself investigated further at the time.
Some Surprising Side-shoots
As well as hypnotherapy, the ways of chiropractic healing, also sprang from original believers in magnet therapy. Daniel David Palmer, opened a school to study curing ailments with magnets in Iowa at the end of the 1800s, but the magnets again would later be abandoned to be replaced by healing with hands.
Such beliefs in magnets also contributed in the forming of one of the branches of Christianity, with Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, being healed by magnets but later thinking that prayer alone could work even better.
It seems that many people have discovered magnets as holding healing properties as did the ancients. But almost talk themselves out of it, perhaps because of the elegant simplicity involved with their use; and have to find other more diverse reasons to explain what it is that is occurring in front of them.
Real Doctors and Quack Doctors
But interest would not disappear entirely, some doctors who were free from constrained thoughts, continued to work with magnets. Two of these were a Doctor Birch in England around 1810, who worked on healing bones with magnets, and just under a century later a German Doctor Kreft was convinced that magnetic therapy could help rheumatism and nerve problems like sciatica, as well as to calm or eliminate involuntary muscle convulsions.
But there were other supposed doctors as well, like the American C.J. Thacher, who made astonishing claims about his magnets that could heal almost everything anyone could care to mention in the 1880's, and produced a catalog to sell his numerous wares accordingly. Such blatant quackery did the cause of magnetic therapy no good at all, and doubtlessly many physicians were put off its uses for fear of ridicule from the majority.
More Power to the Magnet
As the twentieth century brought better science across many fields, it also brought much more powerful permanent magnets; alnico (aluminum, nickel, cobalt) alloyed with iron were developed in the thirties, then ceramic or ferrite magnets in the fifties, and rare earth magnets like samarium and neodymium in the seventies and eighties.
The success of these magnets and the wide utilization of especially the ferrite magnets which are cheap and easy to mass produce have caused an evolution of magnetic therapy today.
Armed with these adaptable and powerful magnets, which can be formed in the small sizes required for use on the body without the demagnetizing effect caused on the earlier alnico types. Proponents of magnetic therapy have once more started to march and to promote the claim that science has not been able to dismiss, and that more and scientific research is claiming might indeed be true: that magnets, just as the ancients said, can control and prevent pain.
Magnetic Therapy Today
Magnet therapy products are now widely available, and work for many people everyday, with prices ranging from just a few dollars to many hundreds.
Bracelets, necklaces, rings and other jewelry combine looks with their claimed therapeutic value, and many belts, wraps and supports are available with which to aid aching joints like wrists and elbows, knees, ankles and shoulders. Indeed, it is said that any aching joints or muscles, or tense nerves can be helped with magnetic mattress pads from serious back and neck pain, to arthritis, to carpel tunnel syndrome.
Nowadays chronic pain conditions are managed and controlled for more than a hundred million people all across the world each and every day, and while it may be true that some of these folks simply say it works because they want it too, others clearly do feel beneficial effects from magnets in the search for pain relief.
A Pulse that Heals Bones
Pulsed magnetic therapy has been medically proven to work in helping heal bone fractures more quickly, and some say that the brain can be influenced for the better by electromagnetic therapy that restores natural brainwave patterns.
Grab your Balls!
Other products like magnetic balls have proved popular, combining a stress management resource with added magnetic powers, some come with little spikes (blunt ones, obviously) to stimulate pressure points as well.
Some people prefer insoles for their shoes filled with multiple tiny magnets, seeking pain relief as they walk, and some like to magnetize their water before drinking it.
The list of products is extensive and varied, and for our animal friends too. A Nikken magnetic therapy sleep system is even available; to cloak us in a magnetic field through the night.
This latter might seem excessive to some, but if it works, then why not?
The Mysteries of Magnetism
Of course whether it does work or not is still up for debate. Magnetic therapy still has its opponents in the medical community, but since those who are getting on fine since they became attracted to magnets don't need a lot of drugs any more then there may well be ulterior motives for some of this resistance at least.
Other honest but doubtful physicians may just need to be convinced by more research, but if you try out some products for yourself, you can conduct your own little bit of research. With a healthy nutritional diet and exercise, along with vitamin supplements you may well rid yourself of more than a little pain and discomfort.
So spend a bit of money and find out, manufacturers and retailers are well aware of the skepticism that exists (in the western world at least), which is why some offer a money back guarantee. Now that can't be a bad thing, it proves they believe you'll be satisfied enough not to claim it.
Magnetism is everywhere, and it must surely affect us in some ways, whether or not it can heal us - only time will tell. - 14130
Well right from the start, a therapeutic value was suspected to be originating from this mysterious substance that sprung directly from Mother Earth.
The word magnet itself has a claim of origin from a Greek shepherd who was named Magnes, and who it is said, first discovered this rock that could attract iron in a place now in Turkey and called Magnesia.
Now known as magnetite, these iron ore deposits were known as Heraclean Stones (from Heracles, now more commonly referred to as Hercules) to the Greeks, as lapis vivus (living stones) to the Romans, and as lodestones later on in the English speaking world.
The Greeks surmised that magnetism was a kind of `mineral soul' and were soon impressed enough to begin to celebrate it, so much so that Aristotle himself was convinced that magnets could be used to help headaches as well as aching joints anywhere on the body.
A physician named Galan was particularly effective at treating various malaises thanks to magnets, and Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, herself from Greek ancestry, was also a famous name to become attracted to the possibilities of magnets, it is said she wore a magnetic charm on her forehead to preserve both her beauty and her youthfulness.
In ancient India and China, there were also strong believers of magnet therapy, and they probably knew of it even before the Greeks and Egyptians.
Keep Flowing
In China, traditional beliefs state that the health of the body is caused by a life preserving energy known as Qi (pronounced as `chee') that flows continuously through and around us. It is imbalances in this Qi which causes illnesses both of the body and the mind, and so acupuncture techniques were developed to restore the free flow of the energy when it was blocked. But from the early days, it was not only needles that were placed in those special places known as acupoints, but magnets as well: Ancient medical texts from this part of the world often refer to `magnetic stones' that can restore health and remove pain.
Indeed, magnetic therapy has continued to be used throughout the east and today they look upon western doubts as to its genuine status with some amusement.
Europe is Attracted
In Europe, the Renaissance was the time of renewed learning after the end of the dark ages, and magnetism made a reappearance for the purposes of healing, this time thanks to the efforts of the Swiss alchemist and physician known as Paracelsus (his full name was Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim) but most of the time he used the pseudonym Paracelsus, and no wonder.
The torch was passed onto one Richard Mead, in England, who published a work in 1704 that theorized about `tides of gravity,' in it he argued that the planets could not only affect the tides of the oceans but also the air, and so fluids in the human body would also be altered by their influence.
One Hell of a Magnet
Later, in 1766, the Austrian doctor Franz Anton Mesmer would use the ideas of both of these men and a third, the unfortunately named astronomer and priest Maximilian Hell, to form his own ideas on magnetism and its relationship to healing.
New carbon-steel magnets had by now been invented in England which were much more powerful than naturally occurring lodestones, and Maximilian Hell was already convinced of the effectiveness of these magnets for ridding pain, believing that a magnetic field existed in everything. Mesmer was impressed by the results he saw, and would try it out for himself on his patients. Around this time the phrase "animal magnetism" was coined either by Hell or Mesmer, there is some debate as to which one used this phrase first, and a legal dispute soon sprung up as Hell claimed Mesmer had stolen his ideas.
But whatever the rights and wrongs of the case, magnetism had become fashionable and the term "animal magnetism" was often mentioned in the newspapers of the day. This was said to be a force field that surrounded everything that lived, and was evenly balanced in the healthy and not so in the unhealthy.
At first Mesmer claimed, like Maximilian Hell did, that magnets were the way to influence and calm this force field. But Mesmer was later to switch his belief to one that said that the touch of a healer could do the job just as well, and that someone with a strong force in them (like him) could use anything available to put this force into so that others could later benefit from touching it.
This theory led to various situations like people holding onto ropes suspended from a tree, that Mesmer had earlier `magnetized.'
The Viennese physicians of the day were not impressed by this, but had trouble explaining away some of his successes; and so it was that many people continued to believe that he was genuine.
Mesmerizing Magnetism
Word spread, in part due to public performances and demonstrations across Europe, but his style changed over time. After watching a known exorcist of the day, one Father Johann Gassner, Mesmer started to believe that the state of the mind was as important as the state of the body. Rejecting the catholic priest's theory of demonic possession of those he healed, Mesmer put this down also to his "universal fluid" which flowed through all things, and his healing sessions became more like sances with patients linking hands or holding onto iron bars that stood in a container of weakened sulfuric acid.
It was noted that they attained a trance state, and from this we get the word `mesmerized.'
Mesmer continued to prosper, and those that saw a new way of healing eagerly distributed pamphlets to anyone who would care to read them, but this would not last: In 1784 a Royal Commission was set up in Paris to investigate the theory of "animal magnetism" with Benjamin Franklin one of those involved.
Unsurprisingly they dismissed the whole thing as merely being caused by the power of suggestion and the patients' imagination and own willpower. So it was to die out and Mesmer to fade away, branded a cheat by scientists who perhaps never wanted him to be known as anything else.
Though some still had interest, and what became to be known as hypnotherapy was begun to be studied because of Mesmer's work. Magnets though, seemed forgotten, perhaps Mesmer would have been better off to stick with his original thoughts (`borrowed' from Maximilian Hell) that it was the magnets themselves, and not those that directed their use, where the cure lay. Unfortunately, this prospect was not itself investigated further at the time.
Some Surprising Side-shoots
As well as hypnotherapy, the ways of chiropractic healing, also sprang from original believers in magnet therapy. Daniel David Palmer, opened a school to study curing ailments with magnets in Iowa at the end of the 1800s, but the magnets again would later be abandoned to be replaced by healing with hands.
Such beliefs in magnets also contributed in the forming of one of the branches of Christianity, with Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, being healed by magnets but later thinking that prayer alone could work even better.
It seems that many people have discovered magnets as holding healing properties as did the ancients. But almost talk themselves out of it, perhaps because of the elegant simplicity involved with their use; and have to find other more diverse reasons to explain what it is that is occurring in front of them.
Real Doctors and Quack Doctors
But interest would not disappear entirely, some doctors who were free from constrained thoughts, continued to work with magnets. Two of these were a Doctor Birch in England around 1810, who worked on healing bones with magnets, and just under a century later a German Doctor Kreft was convinced that magnetic therapy could help rheumatism and nerve problems like sciatica, as well as to calm or eliminate involuntary muscle convulsions.
But there were other supposed doctors as well, like the American C.J. Thacher, who made astonishing claims about his magnets that could heal almost everything anyone could care to mention in the 1880's, and produced a catalog to sell his numerous wares accordingly. Such blatant quackery did the cause of magnetic therapy no good at all, and doubtlessly many physicians were put off its uses for fear of ridicule from the majority.
More Power to the Magnet
As the twentieth century brought better science across many fields, it also brought much more powerful permanent magnets; alnico (aluminum, nickel, cobalt) alloyed with iron were developed in the thirties, then ceramic or ferrite magnets in the fifties, and rare earth magnets like samarium and neodymium in the seventies and eighties.
The success of these magnets and the wide utilization of especially the ferrite magnets which are cheap and easy to mass produce have caused an evolution of magnetic therapy today.
Armed with these adaptable and powerful magnets, which can be formed in the small sizes required for use on the body without the demagnetizing effect caused on the earlier alnico types. Proponents of magnetic therapy have once more started to march and to promote the claim that science has not been able to dismiss, and that more and scientific research is claiming might indeed be true: that magnets, just as the ancients said, can control and prevent pain.
Magnetic Therapy Today
Magnet therapy products are now widely available, and work for many people everyday, with prices ranging from just a few dollars to many hundreds.
Bracelets, necklaces, rings and other jewelry combine looks with their claimed therapeutic value, and many belts, wraps and supports are available with which to aid aching joints like wrists and elbows, knees, ankles and shoulders. Indeed, it is said that any aching joints or muscles, or tense nerves can be helped with magnetic mattress pads from serious back and neck pain, to arthritis, to carpel tunnel syndrome.
Nowadays chronic pain conditions are managed and controlled for more than a hundred million people all across the world each and every day, and while it may be true that some of these folks simply say it works because they want it too, others clearly do feel beneficial effects from magnets in the search for pain relief.
A Pulse that Heals Bones
Pulsed magnetic therapy has been medically proven to work in helping heal bone fractures more quickly, and some say that the brain can be influenced for the better by electromagnetic therapy that restores natural brainwave patterns.
Grab your Balls!
Other products like magnetic balls have proved popular, combining a stress management resource with added magnetic powers, some come with little spikes (blunt ones, obviously) to stimulate pressure points as well.
Some people prefer insoles for their shoes filled with multiple tiny magnets, seeking pain relief as they walk, and some like to magnetize their water before drinking it.
The list of products is extensive and varied, and for our animal friends too. A Nikken magnetic therapy sleep system is even available; to cloak us in a magnetic field through the night.
This latter might seem excessive to some, but if it works, then why not?
The Mysteries of Magnetism
Of course whether it does work or not is still up for debate. Magnetic therapy still has its opponents in the medical community, but since those who are getting on fine since they became attracted to magnets don't need a lot of drugs any more then there may well be ulterior motives for some of this resistance at least.
Other honest but doubtful physicians may just need to be convinced by more research, but if you try out some products for yourself, you can conduct your own little bit of research. With a healthy nutritional diet and exercise, along with vitamin supplements you may well rid yourself of more than a little pain and discomfort.
So spend a bit of money and find out, manufacturers and retailers are well aware of the skepticism that exists (in the western world at least), which is why some offer a money back guarantee. Now that can't be a bad thing, it proves they believe you'll be satisfied enough not to claim it.
Magnetism is everywhere, and it must surely affect us in some ways, whether or not it can heal us - only time will tell. - 14130
About the Author:
Dingle Hoffman writes on a variety of health topics including Nikken wellness products. Buy all your Nikken products by visiting the Nikken link at http://www.water-purification-filters.com/benefits-of-drinking-water.html
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