How Have Magnets Traditionally been used for Healing?

Magnetic therapy is not something new and in some areas of the world it is absolutely not seen as an alternative method for healing but rather something which is known and accepted to be effective. In China, magnets have been used traditionally alongside acupuncture and reflexology. The latter two are pretty much accepted as healing methods in the West by now and they are often referred to by regular doctors to treat a variety of health issues. If and when magnetic therapy will gain the same status is hard to say but it might very well happen within the coming decade.

Cleopatra’s Beautiful Skin

Magnetic minerals in rocks were discovered many thousands of years ago and people started to use the magnets for healing. Lodestone is a rock which is thought to be the first magnetic mineral to be discovered. It has been recorded that Cleopatra slept on a Lodestone. She did this to keep her skin beautiful and youthful. A lot of the Egyptian knowledge of healing and medicine was passed on and later practiced in Greece. The Greeks loved the magnets and celebrated their force. Aristotle claimed that the magnets could cure headaches and give pain relief to aching joints in the body.

Chinese Wisdom

The Chinese used magnets in cooperation with other healing methods like reflexology and acupuncture. Based on the knowledge of the meridians in our body and the streams of energy they applied magnets to cause a healing effect. For the Chinese, magnetic therapy is not something which is only part of an ancient past. Till today they use magnets to cure everything from menstrual pain to arthritis. It could very well be the Chinese approach to magnetic therapy that has made the West more open to accept the practice given that they have been right about so many other things that at first glance seemed a bit strange.

Europe and America Catch on

After the dark ages came the Renaissance when Europe opened up to learning and during this time magnetism became popular as a healing method. Several scientists from that time period studied the effects of magnets and by the end of the 18th Century magnets that were stronger than the naturally occurring Lodestone had been designed. During the same time period magnets where used in America for healing. In Iowa, Daniel David Palmer opened up a school for magnetic healing where all sorts of ailments where treated with magnets. While magnetic therapy never gained the same respect and status in Europe and America there were several doctors that started to use magnets in their practice and till today magnets are a vital part of modern medicine. There is still a certain mystical shimmer around the use of magnets but even conventional medicine is starting to see the benefits of their use for treatment of pain.