Plugging into better health

By Lisa Barr

      Hands-on therapies don't always use the hands. Two of the newest modalities, the VIBE machine and ELT, use machines to affect the body's energies. "If a machine can be designed to create frequencies that support health and balance, then they can be effective in optimizing the body's energy in a beneficial manner," says Rich Israel, author of The Natural Pharmacy Product Guide (Avery Publishing Group, 1991). Ready to see if a machine can zap away your pain? Read on for the latest in high-tech healing.

 

The VIBE machine

      Greeley resident Gene Koonce, who's been in the electronics business for 28 years, invented the Vibrational Integrated Bio-Photonic Energizer (VIBE). Driven to help boost the human body's vibrational level, Koonce started experimenting with using electrical frequencies to energize water, to sell to people to boost energy. At one point during his experiments, the water turned blue. "As any inventor would do, I drank it," says Koonce.

      While his energy did increase, the charge in the water only lasted 20 minutes. "So then I thought if we can build a device where the individual can sit in front of it, we can charge up the body and give the body energy," says Koonce. His VIBE invention combined the technologies of energy machines built in the early 1900s by Georges Lakhovsky, a Russian engineer and Royal Rife, a scientist from San Diego . He also studied the works of Nikola Tesla, a Croatian-born American physicist who pioneered the use of AC (alternating current) power. Koonce began offering VIBE sessions to patrons of his electronics store in November 2002. A month later, he began making and selling the nearly four-foot-tall VIBE machines to individuals and existing holistic practitioners.

      According to Koonce, VIBE is based on Lakhovsky's idea that as the voltage in the cells decreases, so does health. Like little batteries, if the voltage of the cells increases, then they will function better. VIBE uses photons to increase the voltage of the cells as well as bio-photonic light, which is the frequency our DNA uses to communicate. This means our body's communication system improves: messages sent from one part of the body can travel faster and communicate more efficiently with other parts.

      When you arrive for a session with the VIBE machine, you'll first meet with the practitioner, fill out a few forms and talk about your current health concerns. The practitioner then decides how long you'll sit in front of the machine-usually between one and 10 minutes. The more serious the condition, the lower the initial exposure; practitioners say if toxins move out of the body too quickly, it can spur a "healing crisis," marked by exhaustion, headaches and flu-like symptoms. You'll sit in a room, on a chair, in front of the machine, for the designated period of time. You may feel something, you may feel nothing.

      VIBE devotees say they felt almost immediate-and dramatic-results. In June 2003, Jack Triplett, a mechanic from Greeley , was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent surgery to remove his spleen and most of his pancreas. Still, his follow-up blood tests looked grim. He sat in front of the VIBE machine as recommended by Koonce, first for one minute daily. After about a week, he had the strength to get out of bed on his own, and has been a VIBE believer ever since. He purchased a VIBE machine and has worked himself up to 10-minute daily sessions since he was introduced to VIBE over two months ago. "I wouldn't miss a day," says Triplett, whose recent blood tests have all come back normal.

Testimonials attribute the VIBE machine with improving a variety of conditions, from halting snoring and curing speech impediments, to zapping back pain and cancer. One VIBE client said that after one session, she felt as though she had just come back from a week long meditation retreat.

      The cost per session ranges from $20 to $35. Some patients go only once; others set up session plans over the course of weeks, depending on the nature and severity of their conditions.

 

Electro-lymphatic therapy (ELT)

      The lymphatic system is a vast sewage network that carries cellular debris from the body, and is a key to healthy immune functions. Made up of nodes, tonsils, spleen, thymus gland, lymphocytes, lymph fluid and capillaries, it's like a team of garbage collectors, filtering out, gathering up and taking out all the unnecessary trash we accumulate in everyday life. According to G. Simon de Montfort, inventor of Electro Lymphatic Therapy (ELT), if trash, or toxins, accumulate, the lymphatic system becomes stagnant, creating the perfect environment for disease to set in. De Montfort says that a clogged lymphatic network means a congested blood system as well: the waste of the blood cells has nowhere to go, and cells cannot do their job properly when there's garbage in the way.

      Lymph fluid contains proteins, dead cells and bacteria. Electro-lymphatic therapy (ELT) uses a wand with a glass head that contains ionic chambers and gases, which disperse photons or little packets of energy that cascade through the body to dissolve any obstructions in the fluid systems of the body, according to de Montfort. ELT charges the material in the lymph system, separating it so the waste can then leave the body.

      "The red cells in a healthy person have a negative charge on them because of the chemical coating on the cell itself," de Montfort says. "In an unhealthy person, they clump together and cannot efficiently deliver the oxygen into the tissue." When a congested lymphatic system is cleared, it eases up the pressure on blood capillaries. "Just by clearing things out, your body can then heal itself."

      ELT was more than 20 years in the making. De Montfort was working at the Miami Heart Institute on blood complications in the elderly. During his research, de Montfort discovered that finding a way to separate the blood cells from each other could boost the effectiveness of the lymphatic system. He began experimenting with a machine that would create that separation then took his device to MIT to have its energy fields checked. The machine proved to be safe. Nearly two decades later, in 1999, de Montfort began making and selling ELT devices.

      ELT is said to be effective for a wide variety of conditions, ranging from cellulite and sinus problems to TMJ, asthma and muscle pains, as well as many ailments that don't respond well to conventional treatments, such as fibromyalgia, cysts, fibroids and colitis. During a session, you'll first be interviewed for any health complaints, then you'll lie down on a massage table, fully clothed, and a practitioner will apply the head of the ELT machine to your skin to stimulate the lymphatic system. The cost is about $30 for half an hour, the average length of time for a session. The more "congestion" you have, the shorter the session-again, because of the possibility of a so-called healing crisis. How you respond to ELT will determine the length of your treatment, but most clients go at least twice to benefit.

      "Cindy" (not her real name), a bookkeeper from Denver , suffered from severe carpal tunnel syndrome. Twenty minutes into her first ELT session, she says her left hand-which had been in constant pain-suddenly stopped hurting completely. Afterwards, she was told to drink plenty of water and take extra vitamin C. She returned for a second session with extreme pain and numbness in her right thumb. Afterwards, she says, her thumb pain completely vanished and has never returned.

      Most anyone can use the VIBE and ELT machines, though pregnant women or anyone with a pacemaker, defibrillator or any electrical implant aren't good candidates. Also, if you're under the care of a homeopath, be aware that the machines could counteract the remedies.

      And while VIBE and ELT devotees are enthusiastic, skeptics say the machines are a bunch of hooey. "Things like this that are based solely on wild speculation are never right," says one physician, who asked to remain anonymous. "I would like to see the data to support this claim. You won't find any research to refute it-but you probably won't find any meaningful research on it at all."

      Be that as it may, many high-tech healing enthusiasts swear the machines have zapped their pain away. If you're out of ideas about a health condition, it may be worth the $30 or so to see.

Resources, local and beyond

For more information on the VIBE and ELT, check out the following:

	Bioelectromagnetic Healing and a Rationale for its Use by Thomas F. Valone (IRI, 2003)
	The Body Electric, Electromagnetism and the Foundations of Life by Robert Becker (William Morrow & Co., 1985)
	De Montfort's website www.lustretech.com
	Gene Koonce's website: www.vibemachine.com all the vibe practitioners

 

More Journeys