A History of Electric Medicine
- ResonantEquus
- 11 minutes ago
- 24 min read
Electric Medicine is not new, but its history can take a little digging to uncover ...
Electric medicine's rich timeline spans millennia, from 4000 BCE Indus Valley lodestones and Thales' 600 BCE static electricity discoveries to 18th-century galvanism pioneers like Nollet and Galvani, who pioneered clinical shocks for paralysis. The 19th century saw Volta's battery, Faraday's electromagnetism, and Duchenne's localized electrotherapy, peaking with Tesla coils and Lakhovsky oscillators before Flexner-era suppression marginalized it. Revived post-1950s through FDA-approved PEMF for fractures, TENS units, and Frequency Specific Microcurrent (FSM), this chronicle uncovers resilient innovations amid quackery accusations.
This is an attempt at a modest compilation of development and events encompassing the vast history of what we will term Electric Medicine. Historical sources are challenging to come by; this list is far from complete at this time, and the history is replete with controversy, "quackery," censorship, and misinformation. Much has been systematically destroyed after being dismissed as quackery, and what remains offers just a glimpse into the total history.
This post is for informational purposes only, does not reflect the opinions of Dr. Jessie or Resonant Frequency Medicine, and is not meant to diagnose, treat, or offer medical advice for any condition or disease. Instead, it serves as a curious and open-minded investigation into the evolution of electricity, particularly in the field of medicine. We hope you enjoy this journey!
Please note that we will be updating this page as we uncover more resources.
"MAGNETISM" & PULSED ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD THERAPY IN ITS EARLIEST DAYS
4000 BCE – People in the Indus Valley's use of lodestones were attributed to the treatment of disease (note: lodestones, which are magnetized magnetite (iron oxide), are an example of a magnetic modality: these examples speak to the ancient use of electro-magnetism therapeutically)
Egyptian physicians also supposedly utilized lodestones. There exist tales of Cleopatra sleeping on a lodestone bed or wearing a lodestone headband over her third eye center with the intent to preserve her youth.
2000 BCE – physicians in China developed written protocols for using lodestones on acupuncture points, as described in “The Yellow Emperor’s Book of Internal Medicine;" these projections are based on retrospective interpretations of early Chinese medical and philosophical texts; the best‑known classic, the Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon), is generally dated later (late Warring States to early Han dynasty, roughly last centuries BCE).
1000 BCE – In the Indian tradition, the medical text Sushruta Samhita describes using lodestone’s magnetic properties to remove embedded iron weapons, demonstrating is a clear medical use of magnetism.
1000 BCE - 1000 CE – Chinese texts from the late first millennium BCE and early first millennium CE, such as Lüshi Chunqiu and Lunheng, mention lodestone attracting iron and the idea that a lodestone can affect a needle; by the first centuries CE, Chinese writers describe magnetized needles and spoons that align with Earth’s field, forming the basis for divination devices and later compasses.
600 BCE – Electricity was not "invented" per se, but discovered as a natural phenomenon. The earliest known observations date back to around 600 BC when the Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus discovered static electricity by rubbing amber with silk, causing it to attract small objects.
600 BCE – Thales of Miletus is credited in later Greek tradition with noticing lodestone’s attraction to iron, which marks one of the earliest recorded recognitions of magnetism in the West.
500+ - 400 BCE – Greek and Roman writers recognized magnetite (lodestone), and later accounts associate Hippocrates (5th–4th c. BCE) with the idea that magnets could draw out illness or relieve pain. Hippocrates was reported to treat headaches in his healing centers with lodestones. The word magnet refers to the area of Magnesia in Central Greece where lodestones were historically obtained.
200 BCE – The Baghdad Battery is generally dated to around 200 B.C., placing it within the Parthian Empire era, which ruled from 247 B.C. to A.D. 228. Some sources suggest it could be as old as 2,200 years, with the artifact discovered near Baghdad in 1938 by German archaeologist Wilhelm Konig.
The 1995 PEAR report measured resonances of 95-120 Hz across six Neolithic (10,000 - 3,000 BCE) and Iron Age (1200 - 550 BCE) sites in England and Ireland, using swept-frequency sources up to 110 dB SPL; antinodes formed at outer walls despite irregular shapes. Debertolis et al. (2013) confirmed similar 90-120 Hz resonances at Neolithic sites in Europe (e.g., Malta’s Hypogeum, Newgrange) and linked them to EEG changes in volunteers, showing brain activity shifts at 110 Hz.
THE EMERGENCE OF ELECTRIC MEDICINE -- MEDICAL ELECTRICITY -- IN THE 1700s
1744 – Georg Matthias Bose in Germany, developed the “electric kiss” and pulse experiments, turning electricity into a fashionable spectacle while observing skin changes, muscle twitching, and pulse acceleration, explicitly proposing medical applications.
1745 – Christian Kratzenstein in Germany systematically applied sparks and shocks to patients with paralysis, measuring pulse changes and reporting functional improvement, making some of the first structured electrotherapeutic trials.
1746 – Jean-Antoine Nollet ran current through long chains of soldiers and patients, documenting shocks, muscle contractions, and early therapeutic attempts in paralytic soldiers at Les Invalides in his "human chain experiments."
1746 – Jean Jallabert – Expériences sur l’Électricité – Reports early hospital‑style applications of electricity, including famous paralysis cases, often cited as foundational for electrotherapy.
1746–1748 – Histoire de l’Académie Royale des Sciences (“Sur l’Électricité”; “Des Effets de l’Électricité sur les Corps Organisés”) – Documents controlled experiments on animals and humans, giving medical electricity institutional legitimacy.
1747 – Luigi Galvani showed that muscles contract when touched with metal arcs during electrical storms, founding the concept of animal electricity and inspiring later medical galvanism. He conducted frog leg experiments, discovering bioelectricity; and utilized electric sparks as a treatment for palsy.
1747 – Albrecht von Haller – “Historical account … concerning Electricity” – Surveys German work on electricity, helping spread clinical and experimental findings on its bodily effects across Europe.
1748 – Henry Baker – “Medical Experiments of Electricity” – Presents a series of therapeutic trials, particularly for neurological complaints, reinforcing electricity as a possible remedy.
1749 – Johann Lindhult – Report of diseases treated by electricity in Stockholm – Short hospital register showing practical use of electricity for various illnesses, especially paralysis.
1753 – Giambatista Beccaria – Dell’Elettricismo Artificiale e Naturale – Discusses artificial and natural electricity with explicit attention to their effects on living bodies, supporting a physico‑medical view of electricity.
1754 – Cheney Hart – Letter on results in the Shrewsbury County Hospital – Adds further case material on electric treatments in a clinical institution.
1756 – Richard Lovett – The Subtil Medium Prov’d – English‑language text that explains how to use electrification, sparks, and shocks for palsies and other nervous conditions, making medical electricity accessible to practitioners.
1760 – John Wesley – The Desideratum: Or, Electricity Made Plain and Useful – Popular manual that installs electrical treatment devices in Methodist dispensaries and teaches lay use of “medical electricity” for common ailments.
1761 (2nd ed.) – Recueil sur l’Électricité Médical (with Pierre Zetzell’s theses) – Multi‑author collection of medical dissertations and theses on electrical therapy, consolidating the technique as a recognized, debated form of treatment.
1767 – Joseph Priestley – The History and Present State of Electricity – Comprehensive history that includes a dedicated treatment of medical electricity, giving it a secure place in the broader story of electricity.
1770-1780s – Jean-Paul Marat's "electrotherapy baths" - Experimented with electrically charged water baths for gout and rheumatism, helping popularize electricity as a general tonic in pre-revolutionary France.
1771 – Joseph Sigaud de la Fond – Lettre sur l’Électricité Médicale – Focused letter on medical electricity, summarizing indications and practices, and reflecting growing clinical experience.
1777–1785 – Pierre‑Jean‑Claude Mauduyt de la Varenne – Series of memoirs on electricity and medicine – Offers some of the most detailed 18th‑century clinical reports on electrotherapy, including treatment protocols, precautions, and outcome statistics.
1780s – Pierre Nicholas Bertholon – De l’Électricité du Corps Humain – Discusses electricity in healthy and diseased human bodies, supporting the idea that appropriate electrical manipulation can restore physiological balance.
1780s – Giovanni Aldini publicly applied galvanic currents to animal and human cadavers, arguing that controlled electricity could revive or stimulate nervous tissue and suggesting therapeutic potential.
1782–1784 – Jean‑Paul Marat – Recherches Physiques sur l’Électricité; *Mémoire sur l’électricité médicale – Combines physical experiments with explicitly medical applications, arguing for specific therapeutic effects and mechanisms.
1786 – Frances Lowndes – Observations on Medical Electricity – Adds late‑century English clinical experience, assessing which complaints are most responsive and highlighting limitations.
1787 – Willem van Barneveld – Medizinische Elektricität – German handbook that codifies practical techniques for applying electricity therapeutically.
1791 – Luigi Galvani – De viribus electricitatis in motu musculari – Reframes electrotherapy against a new background: 'animal electricity' inherent in nerves and muscles, which suggests a deeper electrical basis for life and disease.
Late 1700 – Franz Mesmer coined 'animal magnetism' and developed a theory based off of the concept that there is a natural transference of energy between all things.
1780s – Giovanni Aldini (Luigi Galvani's nephew) - Performed animal galvanism public demonstrations including human corpse animation.
1800–1900: GALVVANISM AND CLINICAL ELECTROTHERAPY
1800 – Italian physicist Volta develops the first practical electric battery.
Michael Faraday 1800s – Michael Faraday studied electromagnetism, discovered electromagnetic induction, discovered diamagnetism, discovered electrolysis, created the first electromagnetic rotational device which would eventually lead to electric motors. Faraday established through his work and research that a changing magnetic field produces an electric field. “Faraday’s Law” later became one of the four Maxwell equations. Faraday proposed the concept of electromagnetic fields defined as forces extending into the space around a conductor.
1800 – Alessandro Volta – Contact electricity paper (pile) – Introduction of continuous current (the pile) provides a far more controllable and sustained form of electricity for therapeutic experiments.
1802 – Alessandro Volta – Letter on electric treatment of congenital deaf‑mutism – Early example of targeted galvanic therapy in sensorial pathology.
1802 – T. Gale – Electricity, or Ethereal Fire, Considered – Treats electricity as a vital agent and therapeutic force, blending speculative theory with practical instructions. You can read the entire book here: Electricity, or Ethereal Fire, Considered
1802 – J. J. A. Sprenger – Paper on Galvani‑Volta metal‑electricity for deafness – Shows clinical application of galvanic currents to hearing disorders, signaling the start of specialized electrical otology.
1802–1805 – Pierre Sue – Histoire du Galvanisme – Historical synthesis of galvanism and its medical uses, giving practitioners a reference work on the new current‑based electrotherapy.
1803 – Joseph Sigaud de la Fond – De l’Électricité Médicale – Integrates older static methods with newer galvanic techniques in a single medical‑electric framework.
1803 – Antoine Thillaye‑Platel – Essai sur l’Emploi Médical de l’Électricité et du Galvanisme – Practical manual specifically devoted to clinical use of both electricity and galvanism.
1804 – Jean Aldini – Essai Théorique et Expérimental sur le Galvanisme – Dramatic public and clinical demonstrations of galvanism, including work on human corpses, which popularize the idea of using currents to revive or stimulate tissues.
1820 – Michael La Beaume – Remarks… on the Medical Efficacy of Electricity… – Reviews history and argues for electricity in nervous and chronic disorders, reflecting continued confidence in electrotherapy.
1830s – Michael Faraday studied the effect of an electric current on solutions of chemical compounds. Introduced terms such as anode, cathode, electrolyte, anion and cation.
1842 – Michael La Beaume – On Galvanism – Updates and refines galvanic practice, emphasizing clinical methods for chronic diseases.
1846–1847 – Michael Donovan – Articles on electricity, galvanism, electro‑magnetism, and magneto‑electricity in disease – Compares different electrical modalities for therapeutic effectiveness, signaling a more analytical evaluation of electrotherapy tools.
Mid 1800s - Slow-to-heal fractures were routinely healed by surgically implanting needles around the fracture site and pulsing electricity through the area.
1861 – G. B. A. Duchenne – De l’Électrisation Localisée (2nd ed.) – Pioneers localized faradic stimulation as a diagnostic and therapeutic technique in neuromuscular disease, becoming a cornerstone text of clinical electrotherapy.
1874 – Arthur Mangin – Le Feu du Ciel (sections on medical uses) – Presents electrotherapy as part of a larger story of electricity’s power, maintaining public and professional interest in therapeutic use.
1879 – Thomas Alva Edison first exhibits his incandescent electric light bulb publicly. Edison develops dynamos for generating electric current.
1883 – George M. Beard & A. D. Rockwell – A Practical Treatise on the Medical and Surgical Uses of Electricity (4th ed.) – Major handbook that standardizes indications, currents, and electrode techniques in neurology and general medicine; widely used in late‑19th‑century practice.
1885 – Paul‑Louis Ladame – “Notice historique sur l’Électrothérapie à son origine” – Retrospective history of electrotherapy’s beginnings, indicating that the field is now established enough to reflect on its own past.
1887 – Arrhenius, a Swedish chemist, proposed a theory to explain how an electrolyte in solution conducts an electric current.
1888 – Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), a psychogalvanic reflex, is discovered; practical measurement was formalized later in the 1900s. First observed by Charles Féré in 1888 measuring skin resistance changes with emotional changes; Carl Jung and Vladimir Bekhterev independently explored emotional correlates later in the early 1900s.
1880s France – d’Arsonval currents by Jacques‑Arsène d’Arsonval. He developed high‑frequency, high‑voltage but low‑current currents that produced deep heating without shocks, leading to diathermy-style electrotherapy.
Late 1800s - Russian engineer Georges Lakhovsky hypothesized that each cell has its own frequency, oscillating at a specific amplitude. Lakhovsky later developed a Multiple Wave Oscillator or Radio-Cellulo-Oscillator (see image below), which produced a wide range of therapeutic frequencies, from extremely low frequencies (ELF) to gigahertz (GHz) radio waves.
Late 1800s – Franz Oesterlen used high‑frequency currents on tuberculosis and chronic disease patients, arguing that oscillatory electricity could stimulate metabolism and immune response.
1890s - American Electro-Therapeutic Association conducted annual conferences on the therapeutic use of electricity and electrical devices by physicians on ailing patients.
1892 – Auguste Désiré Cornil Morel – Study on continuous currents and the acoustic nerve – Clinical and experimental work showing the targeted use of continuous currents in otological disorders.
1894 – A. F. Plique – “L’électricité en otologie” – Survey of electrical techniques in ear disease, consolidating electrotherapy as part of ENT practice.
1890s - Nicola Tesla's inventions included what would be termed the Tesla Coil, with implications as far reaching as power generation to human tissue healing. In an 1898 paper, “High Frequency Oscillators for Electro-Therapeutic and Other Purposes," Tesla stated that one feature of pulsed magnetism was its apparent harmlessness, passing significant amounts of electrical energy through the human body. These Tesla Coils were used to treat the body without contact using pulsed magnetic fields of up to a hundred thousand volts.
Nicola Tesla seated reading in front of one of his massive Tesla Coils
1900–1980: CLINICAL ELECTROTHERAPY AND BEYOND
1903 – Willem Einthoven, expanding on Augustus Waller’s earlier work, invents the electrocardiograph by using a string galvanometer.
1905 – Edwin J. Houston – Electricity in Every-Day Life – Shows that electrical devices, including therapeutic ones, have become commonplace, reflecting how routine electrotherapy had become in early 20th‑century medical offices.
Early 1900s – General electrotherapy devices – In many cities, physicians’ offices adopt electrical treatment devices for a wide array of complaints, marking a peak in mainstream electrotherapy use before its later decline.
1910-1935 – the Flexner Report, bulletin number ten published by the Carnegie Foundation was published in 1910 and subsequently, most forms electric medicine were banned from use for a period of time, particularly after 1935. Flexner's recommendations led to the closure of many medical schools, including some that taught eclectic and alternative therapies alongside mainstream medicine. The AMA instead championed pharmaceutical and surgical interventions and discredited less-researched electrotherapeutic modalities.
1916 – The Electromedical Society was founded by Dr. Albert Abrams. Albert Abrams created "Electronic Reactions of Abrams" (ERA) devices to detect / diagnose and treat patients via subtle vibrations devices. Here is a chronological list of his devices: Rheostatic Dynamizer (1910), Vibratory Rate Rheostat (1912), Measuring Rheostat (1912), Dynamizer (1918), Oscilloclast (1920), Radioclast (1921).
1916 – The Electromedical Digest was first published, appearing monthly during Dr. Albert Abrams' lifetime, serving as the primary communication channel for practitioners sharing frequency research, clinical cases, and electromedical protocols. Publication ceased after Abrams' death in 1924, with sporadic issues continuing until ~1937 under successor organizations before AMA suppression ended it.
1920s – Albert Abrams, California physician, developed ERA devices. The first device was called the Radioclast, followed by the Calbro-Magnowave. More about Abrams on BRMI online.
1920s – Electromyography (EMG) was invented by Herbert Gasser and Joseph Erlanger; biofeedback applications were later expanded by Neil Miller and Johannes Brucker in the 1960s–1970s.
1920's – Lakhovsky’s early work, Oscillation Theory, proposed that disease arises when cellular oscillations are disrupted and that external RF fields could restore normal “vibratory” health, influencing later PEMF concepts.
1922 – Alexander Gurwitsch posited that muscle tissues, the cornea, blood, and nerves are all transmitters of “biophotons,” coherent light emitted by animal and plant cells, his work and provided a basis for the design of later bioelectromagnetic therapy devices.
1924 – The EEG electroencyphylogram was developed by Hans Berger.
1924 Germany – Otto Overbeck marketed a home “rejuvenation” belt that applied mild currents over the body, promising restoration of vitality and illustrating commercial popularization of electrotherapy.
Mid to late 1920s – more radionics instruments appeared, including the Pathoclast (J.W. Wigelsworth), the Calbro-Magnowave (W.R. Caldwell and Myrtle Ross Bronson), and more advanced Radioclast designs.
1924-1950 – Morris Fishbein served as Secretary of the American Medical Association and Chief Editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Fishbein labeled natural healers (particularly Native American shamans, midwives, and chiropractors), as “quacks” and members of an “unscientific cult,” also campaigning against cannabis and herbal medicine. He played a central role as a prominent skeptic and crusader against medical quackery during the 1920s–1940s decline of electrotherapy, serving as editor of JAMA (1924–1949) and using that platform to marginalize unproven electrical devices and therapies. Fishbein was a major contributor to the repression of electric medicine during this time period.
1925 - Georges Lakhovsky built RF multiple wave oscillators producing a spectrum of wavelengths and proposed that cells resonate at specific frequencies, claiming benefit in cancer and degenerative diseases. He published “Curing Cancer with Ultra Radio Frequencies” in Radio News, stating “the amplitude of cell oscillations must reach a certain value, in order that the organism be strong enough to repulse the destructive vibrations from certain microbes.” Lakhovsky's Radio-Cellulo-Oscillator (RCO) produced low frequency ELF.
1926 – Ugo Cerletti developed Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) and conducted the first human trial in a Rome asylum in 1938 Rome asylum.
1927 – Calbro‑Magnowave - W.R. Caldwell and Myrtle Bronson’s firm mass‑produced radionic instruments using house‑current “emanations,” selling over a thousand units and institutionalizing Abrams‑style devices in chiropractic circles.
1929 – The San Diego Union reported on the progress of Dr. Royal Raymond Rife's work in Local Man Bares Wonders of Germ Life
1929 – Ruth Drown, a chiropractor and naturopath trained by Albert Abrams, developed Drown Radio Therapy, an instrument to detect "vibrational rates" of organs/pathogens remotely, and "Broadcast" healing frequencies back to patient via tuned circuits. She innovated Radionics and eventually radicalized Abrams' Electronic Reactions of Abrams (ERA) by eliminating the need for live subjects and developing remote blood-sample diagnosis/treatment—the most controversial yet technically sophisticated evolution of electronic medicine between Abrams (1916) and FDA suppression (1951). Drown developed and popularized a stick plate (rub plate) for diagnostic purposes which is still used today.
1930s – Ruth Drown developed the Homo-Vibra Ray: a therapeutic broadcaster using patient's geographic coordinates for remote treatment that claimed global reach: it could treat patient in London from California using a blood sample + address.
1930s–1950s – Soviet Union researchers developed pulsed magnetic field devices for wound healing and bone repair, treating magneto‑therapy as a serious biomedical modality in state clinics.
September 1932 – at a meeting of the American Congress of Physical Therapy in New York, Dr. Gustav Kolischer reported that cancer treated with high‑frequency electrical currents showed results that surpassed ordinary surgery, with Nikola Tesla publicly backing this approach. Read the article, titled SAYS CANCERS YIELD TO ELECTROSURGERY; Dr. Kolischer Tells Physical Therapy Congress Results Surpass Those With Knife. DR. TESLA BACKS REPORT Inventor Also Describes Use of High-Frequeney Current Up to 1,000,000 Volts to Cleanse Body available online, here.
1934 – manuals like Miller's Radioclast manual, Vibratory Rates and Instrument Manual, Electronic Reactions of Abrams, and Electronic Reactions of Abrams were systematically destroyed and suppressed during the 1934-1951 era (hence the later VanGelder list of frequencies rediscovered by George Douglas and Dr. Carolyn McMakin being a simple handwritten on a notecard).
By 1935 – due to the Flexner Report and recommendations that followed, electrotherapy was becoming further marginalized in mainstream medical education.
1938 – Dr. Rife, Philip Hoyland and their ray-tube machine were a front-page story in the San Diego Evening Tribune. Rife invented the "Universal Microscope," and later the "Rife Ray Machine," utilizing very high frequencies purported to treat a wide variety of specific pathogens, which he could visualize in his high-powered microscopes. He posed that organisms have a natural range of refraction to various light environments, suggesting that organisms could be classified and identified by their index of refraction using the Risley prism under the Universal Microscope. His work was highly influential and subjected to litigation; his lab was eventually raided and his microscopes were destroyed. Too deep and complex a story to cover here, if you are interested in learning more about his influence, research and life's work, see this page.
1938 – Ugo Cerletti introduced ECT in a Roman psychiatric hospital, using controlled electrical seizures to treat severe depression and psychosis, which rapidly spread worldwide despite ethical controversies.
1935–1937 – William F. Peterson – The Patient and the Weather – While focused on weather, this multi‑volume work represents a clinical shift from direct electrotherapy toward interest in ambient electric and meteorological influences on patients, connecting the earlier medical‑electric tradition with biometeorology.
Patients were often wheeled out in their beds onto upper‑floor balconies or rooftop terraces and lined up side by side, creating the classic image of “rows of beds on the roof” or on large verandas. A well‑documented example is the Paimio Sanatorium (Finland, opened 1933), designed with sun‑balconies and a rooftop terrace where tuberculosis patients lay in beds or specially designed Paimio chairs to benefit from light and air. Another set of famous images shows Auguste Rollier’s clinics in Leysin, Switzerland (from 1903 onward), where TB patients were treated with carefully dosed sun baths on verandas and balconies, often photographed lying in beds outdoors.
1938 – The United States Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) – Required premarket safety testing for new drugs; gave FDA enforcement power over misbranded devices with "fraudulent therapeutic claims," and targeted consumer "quack devices" (electric belts, violet ray generators, radium emitters).
1940s – Ruth Drown developed Radio-Vision which utilized Radionic photography via blood crystal.
1940s in Germany – Siemens‑Reiniger Konvulsator (ECT apparatus): Industrialized ECT delivery in the Third Reich, supplying standardized convulsive therapy machines to psychiatric institutions for mass use on war neurosis and other conditions.
1946 – British naturopath & osteopath Harry Van Gelder bought a Vancouver, British Columbia practice containing Abrams-era (1922) unnamed frequency device and handwritten frequency list for tissue healing. Used successfully for decades across Canada, the US, and Australia. He would later train Dr. George Douglas, an early initiator of Frequency Specific Microcurrent (FSM) with Dr. Carol McMakin, as we know it today.
1946–1949 – Thomas Galen Hieronymus' Electro‑Biometer. Patented a “detection of emanations” device reading subtle fields from matter via tuned circuits and a stick plate, later extended into eloptic medical analyzers in post‑war radionics.
1940s – the Pathoclast (pictured below) was further modified and developed.
1946 – Heironymus Electro-Biometer was developed and then patented in 1949 (US Patent 2,482,773) by electrical engineer Thomas Galen Hieronymus. It was perhaps the first U.S.-patented radionics device post-Drown suppression; introduced the concept of "eloptic energy" theory (electrical + optical); posed that symbolic circuits work, and survived FDA scrutiny by avoiding medical claims.
1947 – William F. Peterson – Man, Weather and Sun – Further links atmospheric and solar phenomena to health, helping shift attention from electric treatment devices to environmental electric factors affecting the organism.
1950s - featured a resurgence of medical interest in electrotherapeutic modalities: research centers began again investigating electric and magnetic therapies for fracture non-unions
1950s – Dr. Jason G. Miller (aka J.G. Miller) through the–1970s was a Radionics practitioner who designed the Miller Radioclast, a post-Abrams instrument compiling vibratory rates from Abrams, Drown, and other suppressed researchers. He preserved frequency lists through the AMA/FDA suppression era, bridging Drown's destruction to the Van Gelder rediscovery (1946, documented 1983). Miller's Rate Atlas manual survives as a primary source for FSM frequency origins.
1953 – Russian scientists began inducing "electrosleep" with the Somniatron, utilizing 100 pulses per second, limited between 1 and 4 milliamperes of current, which tended to relax patients and allow them to proceed to a restful sleep. Current was passed through the head with an electrode over each closed eyelid and one over each mastoid process behind the ears.
Somniatron 1957 – Dr. C. Walton Lillehei and Earl Bakken, electronic engineer develop the first portable pacemaker. Bakken later forms the Medtronics Corporation.
1960 – “Electronic Reactions of Abrams” pamphlet was published in the 1960s by the now defunct Borderland Research.
1960s – First neurofeedback by Joe Kamiya - alpha wave training at University of Chicago; clinical protocols refined by Barry Sterman in the 1970s via sensorimotor rhythm training
1960-70s – Italian born scientist Dr. Antoine Priore’s electromagnetic therapy machine was developed and researched in France. His machine involved a complicated mixing of multiple electromagnetic signals in a rotating plasma, modulating output over very strong rippling magnetic field to which the body of the test animal was exposed. He also treated sleeping sickness in rabbits with remarkable results.
1963 – a formal Heart Rate Variability (HRV) was developed and quantified by G. Ewing
1964 – Elmer Greene MD pioneered clinical EMG biofeedback, demonstrating voluntary control of muscle tension. Patients learned to reduce excessive tension through real-time auditory/visual feedback from surface electrodes, foundational work for modern biofeedback therapy. Greene transformed EMG from a research tool into clinical biofeedback, showing patients could consciously regulate "energetic tension" patterns in muscles—bridging 19th-century electrotherapy with modern mind-body medicine
1970s - Clinical Heart Rate Variabiliy (HRV) biofeedback was further developed by the HeartMath Institute researchers Doc Childre and Rollin McCraty; Coherence Training was later developed in the 1990s and is still utilized clinically today.
1973 – International Journal of Biometeorology symposium issue – Highlights biological effects of natural electric and electromagnetic fields, extending the medical‑electric concern from therapeutic currents to everyday exposure.
1975–1980 – Herbert König; Felix G. Sulman – Health, Weather and Climate; The Effect of Air Ionization – These works treat ambient electric fields, air ions, and atmospherics as physiologically active, reframing electric medicine from “electric as remedy” to “electric as pervasive environmental influence.
1970s to current - NASA researches and utilizes PEMF in space travel for mitigation of microgravity effects.
1970's – Fritz-Albert Popp coined the term biophotons and, building off the work of Royal Raymond Rife and others before him, showed that biophoton emission of living organisms exhibit coherent patterns, that this effect is universal across all living organisms. Popp and Bernard Ruth established a biophysical hypothesis which suggests that biogenic, long distance intercellular communication implies information transmission.
1975 – Accu-O-Matic inventor Thomas W. Wing, DC, ND, LAc created the first comfortable, non-needle microcurrent instrument (microamps, 1/1,000,000 amp) for surface electrical acupuncture. He further legitimized low-level currents and distanced his devices from "quackery" by focusing on muscle physiology rather than "energy healing."
1976 – due to the Medical Device Amendments, new electrical devices defaulted to Class III (requiring PMA), putting microcurrent therapy at risk of suppression similar to 1930s electrotherapy quackery crackdowns.
1974 – neurosurgeon C. Norman Shealy patented the first practical, patient-wearable TENS unit: a battery-powered device with surface electrodes delivering controlled low-voltage pulses (2-150 Hz). Shealy originally developed TENS as a pre-surgical screening tool for patients being considered for dorsal column stimulation (implanted spinal cord stimulators). Chronic pain patients (migraines, back pain, gout) wore surface electrodes for 1-2 weeks to test electrical stimulation tolerance before invasive implant surgery. Patients experienced such dramatic pain relief from the external TENS that many canceled their surgeries. This led Shealy to recognize TENS as a standalone therapy rather than just a screening method.
1979 – PEMF was approved by the FDA for treatment of fracture non-unions and for the enhancement of bone formation after lumbar and cervical spine fusion surgery.
Shealy's TENS device received Class II clearance by 1979, just one year before Wing's microcurrent reclassification (1980). This made TENS the first modern electrotherapy to survive FDA scrutiny post-Flexner Report suppression era.
1980 – Frequency Specific Microcurrent (FSM) pioneer George Douglas learned from Dr. Van Gelder in Ojai, California. Dr. Douglas received a list of frequencies from Van Gelder. After graduating from Western States Chiropractic College in Portland Oregon in 1983, Douglas began teaching where Dr. Carolyn McMakin, who would later systematize and teach Frequency Specific Microcurrent, met him and was introduced to the concept of frequencies in 1991. In 1992 Dr. Douglas purchased a Precision Microcurrent instrument with two channels (as did Dr. Van Gelder’s antiquated machine) believing it may be useful as a way of delivering the paired frequencies.
Handwritten FSM Frequency List from Harry Van Gelder 1980 – Thomas W. Wing, DC, ND, LAc's Accu-O-Mtic evolved into the My-O-Matic for muscle stimulation after FDA reclassification, a regulatory shift that allowed Wing's My-O-Matic device to transition from a Class III (high-risk, investigational) status to Class II (moderate-risk, 510(k) cleared for muscle stimulation) device, enabling legal clinical use without full premarket approval (PMA). Wing successfully bridged acupuncture electrotherapy to modern microcurrent, continuing the 18th-century electric medicine lineage into modern, FDA-compliant muscle/tissue therapy, saving it from Class III oblivion (which was the fate of radionics and other electric modalities).
1983 – Solco W. Tromp – Medical Biometeorology – Brings together weather, climate, and geophysical electric and magnetic fields as medically relevant, synthesizing centuries of medical‑electric thinking into an environmental medicine framework.
1985 – Robert O. Becker's The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life was published
1985 – Becker, Dr. Andrew Bassett, and Dr. Arthur Pilla, developed a PEMF generator to stimulate bone fracture healing, currently approved by the FDA with an 80% success rate.
1992 – LENS (Low Energy Neurofeedback System) by Len Ochs developed from earlier microcurrent neurofeedback research.
1995 – Carolyn McMakin develops Frequency Specific Microcurrent. Learn more at FrequencySpecific.com
2020 – FDA allows PEMF systems to be marketed without FDA approval as long as promoting wellness and not making medical claims.
2020 – McKusick developed Biofield Tuning, a therapeutic method using tuning forks to detect and correct distortions in the human biofield (electromagnetic energy field surrounding the body), mapping coherent/incoherent frequency zones to emotional/traumatic imprints and demonstrating measurable changes in heart rate variability and stress markers through clinical practice and research. Her peer-reviewed paper "Inter-Rater Agreement of Biofield Tuning: Testing a Novel Health Assessment Procedure" (Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2020) examined practitioner reliability in identifying turbulence locations along standardized body sites.
2025 – Dr. Gerald H. Pollack proposes that water adjacent to hydrophilic surfaces forms a structured, negatively charged "exclusion zone" (EZ) that behaves like a battery, separating charge and potentially driving flows and biochemical work in cells—detailed in his latest book Charged (2025)—thereby offering a biophysical basis for electrical phenomena in tissues that earlier electrotherapists exploited without understanding the underlying mechanism.
Currently - there is a resurgence of electric medicine and electromagnetism in wellness, with new devices marketed and emerging frequently. You can follow the case reports, editorials and research on PEMF and FSM (two modalities Dr. Jessie utilizes in treatment sessions) on the Resonant Frequency Medicine blog.
This compilation illuminates electric medicine's resilient evolution—from ancient magnetism to Abrams' radionics, Rife's frequencies, and today's FDA-cleared PEMF and FSM—proving electricity's therapeutic potential endures despite historical suppression. As new devices emerge weekly, it invites open-minded exploration of bioelectromagnetic healing's resurgence, bridging forgotten pioneers with modern wellness applications at Resonant Frequency Medicine. Updates will continue as more sources surface, fueling curiosity in this vital field.
FILMS ABOUT ELECTRIC MEDICINE & THE HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY
At Resonant Frequency Medicine, Dr. Jessie incorporates modern electric medicine in the form of frequency-specific microcurrent and PEMF therapies into her Physical Therapy treatment sessions. She also supports horses and pets with PEMF technology and fully customized frequency protocols. You can book in for a free 15 minute consult to speak directly with Dr. Jessie and learn more.
RESOURCES & REFERENCES
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