Bio-energetic Medicine brings together advanced electronic and computer technology and the ancient wisdom of traditional Chinese medicine. Read on to discover the history of this amazing tool.
Bio-energetic Theory
Chinese medicine identified the meridians, energetic channels that form electrical pathways throughout the body. Stimulation of points on these channels with needles, heat or pressure forms the basis of many forms of health treatment, ancient and modern. The flow of life energy or ‘Chi’ in these channels relies on them remaining in balance and free of blockages, and our ability to stay healthy and fight off disease in turn depends on this vital flow.
Bio-energetic or Electro-dermal testing devices allow us to assess using galvanic skin response (changes in the electrical resistance of the skin) the state of the acupuncture meridians and therefore of the energetic health of the body. It also allows us, and this is where the real power of the technology lies, to assess how the body will respond to a huge number of different remedies or other substances.
All substances, whether living or non-living, have a characteristic resonant signature. Every specific tissue and organ in the human body has its own individual resonant frequency. By outputting a software-recorded ‘copy’ of these resonances we can predict how the energetic system of the body will respond to them. This scientific application of traditional methods removes the guesswork that’s involved in many analyses (conventional and complementary). This is the science of bio-energetic, or electro-dermal, screening.
In a bio-energetic health screening, the energetic signatures of a large number of substances are individually introduced into the energetic testing circuit and the patient’s response is assessed through skin resistance measurements. Galvanic skin response is a well-established principle that is also used in lie detectors.
To illustrate: when a patient with a normal liver has the frequency of a healthy liver put into the testing circuit, there will be resonance. The absence of change in the patient’s skin resistance indicates that the liver is not stressed. If, on the other hand, a patient with an energetically stressed liver has a healthy liver frequency run through the testing circuit, that frequency will not resonate with that person’s electromagnetic field relating to their liver tissue. This non-resonance increases the electrical resistance in the person’s body. The increase in skin resistance in this case tells us that there is an energetic stress in the liver. Subsequent tests can then be performed with other organs and toxins in order to obtain more information on the nature of the liver disturbance. By conducting a series of organ and toxin tests, we can construct a picture of the patient’s health status. This enables a practitioner to identify health challenges at their root and devise treatment accordingly, rather than merely treating symptoms of an underlying challenge.
Conventional laboratory testing procedures are limited in the information they offer and can be very misleading. For example, hair analysis may identify the presence of Iron. However, the hair is a pathway by which the body excretes iron, so we cannot conclude anything about the level of iron currently in other tissues. In many cases there is NO way of using laboratory testing to determine the levels of a toxic substance across the whole body (without killing the patient first!). This is why energetic testing is in many cases more useful. Energetic changes precede cellular changes – if the illness has not progressed to the point where there are cellular or structural changes, conventional tests will usually reveal nothing.
This is not where the implications of bio-energetic technology end. If every substance, living or non-living, emits electromagnetic frequencies based on the amount and rotational speed of their atoms, and if we can identify these frequencies, then we have an extremely valuable tool for treatment. Remedies can be tested for compatibility with specific conditions for every unique case that a client may present. Usin this approach, the practitioner can map out the most effective course of treatment. Furthermore, now that we have a database of frequencies of substances and conditions, we can imprint remedies, bespoke for the individual client’s requirements; a digital form of homeopathy completely customized for each case.
In years to come, as the demand for health assessment continues to rise, we will continue to witness the use of energetic testing as an effective preventative method in order to treat illness at its root and at the earliest possible stage.
The Evolution Of Bio-Energetic Screening Technology
Energy medicine is growing in popularity, but it is certainly not new. ‘Chi’ has been an integral part of Chinese medicine for millennia. The success of these well-honed and time-honoured treatments has been well documented anecdotally: a vast number of people know that energy medicine works because they have seen and experienced the results for themselves. As a complementary medicine, clinical research has historically been poorly funded and thereby very limited. Now, science, driven by the need to find methods more effective than symptom-suppressing drugs, is beginning to catch up with experience.
EDS Technology
The Beginning
In the 1900’s, Western science began to investigate the ancient theories of electrical energy and wave patterns in living things and objects. A number of scientists (such as Royal Rife) produced studies evaluating the electrical properties of various compounds and concluded that each had its own unique wave pattern or resonant frequency.
When the theories behind acupuncture points first came under scrutiny from western medicine scientists, European researchers validated the existence of such points by way of electrical conductivity readings. The electrical conductivity of these points would become the foundation of Electro-Dermal Screening (EDS).
In 1951, a researcher named Nivoyet established that acupuncture points do in fact have a lower skin resistance than points elsewhere on the body’s surface and that by implication, their conductivity is higher.
In 1952, Dr. Walter Schmidt examined patients that had a variety of known disorders. He examined the corresponding acupuncture points using an electrical current and found that resistance at the specific acupuncture points that related to their disorder increased when that organ was malfunctioning. In contrast, this resistance remained constant when the function of a corresponding organ was not impaired.
These two vital findings were not consolidated until 1953, when German physician Dr. Reinhold Voll researched and developed a systematic approach for evaluating the body through skin resistance measurements. Cumbersome and complicated though it was, this was the world’s first EDS(Electro-Dermal Screening) system.
Because the techniques Dr. Voll developed were so difficult to implement, German physicians went on to work hard on developing EDS practices that would reduce the quantity of acupuncture point measurements needed, as well as reducing the quantity of remedies required in medication testing. As these modified practices developed, they became known as “Bio-electronic Functions Diagnosis & Therapy” (BFD).
Second Generation EDS
Dr. Helmut Schimmel, a medical and dental physician and clinical researcher from West Germany, worked with BFDfor nearly a decade until, in 1978, he developed a third incarnation of the system. The “VEGATEST-Method” orVRT (Vegetative Reflex Test) was the culmination of some thirty years development and experience of German Electro-Acupuncture. The new technology and practices became hugely popular in Germany and spread overseas to the USA, England and Australia.
Computerised EDS
In 1979, an American named James Hoyt Clarke launched a machine named Dermatron. This was the world’s first Computerised Electro Dermal Screening (CEDS) system. Clarke would go on working to perfect a computer system capable of taking electro-dermal measurements quickly, simply and accurately. After 16 years of research and development, he achieved this, introducing the LISTEN (Life Information System Ten) System to the world in 1991. This second-generation computerised system allowed faster and simpler operation with more accurate results. Clarke programmed tests against 18,000 substances.
The LISTEN system was the basis for BioMeridian’s BEST System, which was released in 1998. Fully Windows compatible, this system would test against 29,000 substances. Because of these radical improvements in accuracy, scope and convenience, EDS and bio-energetic technology gained popularity amongst independent practitioners worldwide. Since then popularity for bio-energetic medicine continued to spread; and science began to catch up. Energy medicine began to gain widespread clinical acceptance, with results now backed by scientifically documented research.
Fourth Generation Computerised EDS
In 2003, the EDS technology evolved from the BEST system to the Asyra. Aside from software developments, by far the most important change was that the Asyra was capable of filtering (through use of specific frequencies) the information it gathered to allow accurate single-point testing. No more multi-site probing! Criticism of EDS until this point had focused on the time and training necessary to take accurate readings. But now, with The Asyra, one site could be screened to obtain all the necessary information, rather than dozens. Instead of using probes, the practitioner could simply hand the client two hand-masses. This represented a major advance in EDS and bio-energetic technology and would make the screening procedure significantly faster and completely non-invasive.
The Asyra brought bio-energetic screening to hundreds of independent practitioners worldwide, giving them a better chance than ever of high rates of positive treatment results. This widespread application of the technology in busy private clinics highlighted new demands: practitioners needed the screenings to be faster still; and they needed probing that would be completely insusceptible to practitioner bias or error. Maximum accuracy, consistency and ease of use in minimum time would now be the focus for research and development in the EDS and bio-energetic medicine field.
The Future
The Asyra AT3, introduced in 2006, marked a significant step forward for the technology. It was one of the first truly flexible probeless EDS devices. Not only did the AT3 eliminate operator bias, it also enabled many of the ponderous techniques associated with probing to be automated. In a single stroke screening times were reduced dramatically. So much so, that a test of all major organs and body systems was reduced from around an hour to less than a minute. The benefits of this to the busy practitioner are obvious.
As well as being fast, the Asyra AT3 is extremely flexible. Treatment protocols can be tuned to meet the varying needs of individual practitioners, new protocols can be created and preferred remedies, from any supplier, can be quickly and easily added to the system’s database.
All this adds up to a powerful tool, which can enhance the skills and knowledge of practitioners from a broad spectrum of health disciplines.
In April 2009, the Asyra AT3 was updated to the Asyra Pro. Please click here to read the notes from the launch.