Rajender Menen - Magneto Therapy: The miraculous healing remedy

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Copyright: Rajendar Menen
ISBN: 978-93-81384-81-7
Edition: April 2011

The Copyright of this book, as well as all matter contained herein (including illustrations) rests with the Publishers. No person shall copy the name of the book, its title design, matter and illustrations in any form and in any language, totally or partially or in any distorted form. Anybody doing so shall face legal action and will be responsible for damages.

I wish to thank all the earlier chroniclers of magneto-therapy for their pioneering efforts. It is a difficult subject and yet they managed to get their point across. A big hurrah to Burl Payne, Dr Bansal and all the others who have managed to put magneto-therapy in the upper echelons of alternative healing.

M agnets are known to all of us. We have played with magnets or used them at some time or the other in our lives. We may have, unwittingly, even come close to magnets at the doctors office, in some medical examination or the other, and yet not given it a second thought.

Did we ever imagine, even for a microsecond, that magnets are all around us and the very essence of our being? The earth has a magnetic force, the planets have a magnetic force, every little atom in our bodies has a magnetic force all its own. For that matter, every living creature in the solar system has a magnetic force. Its presence is so universal, and so invisible, just like the air we breathe, that it is easily taken for granted.

Let me illustrate this with a simple example. The other day, while researching the book, I was sitting with a friend of mine at a bar. The friend, a well-travelled sports correspondent, is one who goes purely by empirical evidence. He is an agnostic and a complete believer in science. So I broached the subject gently, lest a reprimand sully an otherwise perfect evening.

I told him that I was working on a book on magnets and I had stumbled on an ancient truth that their invisible presence permeated every aspect of our lives. He looked at me with large, disbelieving eyes and suddenly, without a word, bent forward and, with his right hand, pulled out something from his back. It was a tiny magnet strapped to a piece of plaster. I got this at Heathrow airport, he told me, and I use it for back and muscular pains. It is very effective.

I was taken aback. My friend continued with some eloquence on the use of magneto-therapy in sport and how he had seen it work on himself with enormously gratifying results. I was, at that time, under the impression that I was researching a secret therapy! But later, as I asked around, I was surprised by the general affirmation given to magneto-therapy.

As I went along and met practitioners, I realised that magneto-therapy had entered the Indian consciousness. Magneto-therapy products were on sale at select outlets and there was a substantial demand for them. Belts, bands, necklaces, earrings and other accessories with magnets worked into them were also commonly used.

This gave me great joy. I realised that I was fortunate to be chosen to document an ancient therapy that was finally being accorded a place by modern science. If, at the end of the book, you will have gleaned something about the use of magnets for better health, the effort will not have been in vain.

Rajendar Menen

A s children, we have all been fascinated by pieces of iron that attracted and repelled each other with unimaginable force. We played with the little pieces in awe of the magic they seemed to exude until parents and teachers explained to us that they were magnets and that Nature had invested in them properties to attract and repel.

The entire cosmos, comprising universes and infinite galaxies of stars and planets, is delicately balanced by magnetism. Since man also shares the subtle and crude forces of the cosmos, it makes sense to believe that he must also be balanced by the same magnetism.

Magneto-therapy is a clinical system in which human ailments are treated and cured through the application of magnets to the body. It is a simple, cheap and entirely painless system of treatment with almost no side or after effects. The only tool in the entire treatment process is the magnet.

The earliest mention of the magnet as a healing agent occurs in the Atharvaveda - one of the four Vedas, which contains the treatise on medicine and the art of healing.

It is believed that the builders of pyramids in Egypt were well acquainted with the properties of the magnetic forces and utilised them in the preservation of dead. Queen Cleopatra of Egypt (69-30 BC) is said to have worn a small magnet on her forehead to preserve her beauty. There are innumerable other examples of the use of magnets in ancient times.

The mention of the mineral magnetite appears in Greek writings as early as 80 BC. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Chinese were familiar with the qualities of the magnet as early as the 2nd century. But it was only in the year 1300 AD that the Chinese developed a compass from the magnet. In Europe the first mention of the magnet occurs in a work entitled De Magneta (1600 AD) by William Gilbert. He established that a piece of magnetised iron loses its properties when heated, but regains them on cooling. The compass was invented in Europe much later.

Michael Faraday, the discoverer of electricity, was the first in Europe to study the force of the magnet and he called the area of its influence the magnetic field.

The discovery of the magnet was quite accidental. And if its healing properties were used by the ancients, it was done unwittingly. They were unaware of the magnetic forces in nature and anything awe-inspiring was ascribed to supernatural intervention.

Magneto-therapy was never made an object of scientific investigation till the beginning of the 16th century when a Swiss alchemist and physician P.A. Paracelsus undertook a study and brought to light the healing powers of the magnet. He made the revolutionary observation that the magnet could cure all inflammations, influxes, ulcerations and many diseases of the bowels and uterus. He opined, after considerable investigation, that magnets could be useful both in internal as well as external ailments.