Diamonds: your body's best friend

We've had crystals. We've had colour healing. Now, it's time to suspend your instinctive disbelief for the latest remedy - Lux IV, the electronic gemstone therapy transducer. This complicated new wonder involves shining lights at varying wavelengths through gems (real ones - - diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds) onto whichever part of the body requires healing. It is claimed to be able to sort out anything, from asthma to arthritis. Yep, I know. It sounds too far-fetched - and far too simple - to do anything of the sort. But the weirdest thing about the treatment is the surprisingly good results it has achieved with conditions as diverse as eczema and chronic fatigue syndrome, which has led two NHS hospitals into active discussions about getting hold of machines for themselves.

Gemstone therapy is being championed by Lilias Curtin, who has made a name for herself as a bit of a whizz at magnet therapy. "Magnets are very good for pain, but not so good with skin," she says. When she read that the Lux machine was claimed to stop eczema in its tracks, she set out to find one.

The Lux is the invention of Jon Whale, an independent research scientist who designs and develops things like x-ray image intensifiers and medical scanners. It's a serious piece of hospital-grade machinery, costing thousands of pounds, and Whale is anxious that it shouldn't be confused with colour therapy or crystal healing.

Quite how it works is a complex matter of frequencies and vibrations. To put it simply, in the way infrared lamps can induce heat into patients' limbs, so the Lux machine uses the properties of precious gem stones, through a particular frequency of light, to induce energy into diseased or injured tissue, organs and glands, "It works at a level that erases cellular memory and gives it a new message," explains Lilias. Like telling the afflicted area of the body to be healthy, rather than unwell? More or less.

She looks impossibly clear-skinned and bright-eyed for someone with two small children and a busy practice. "I'm 58 and I use my gem machine to stay young," she says wickedly, and for a panic-stricken moment I believe her, before reason prevails (she's 38).

It's all a bit Harry Potter, and it's tempting to see Lilias, measuring her precious gems into a filter-chamber, as a modern alchemist - a handful of rubies here (harmonising and cooling) and a scatter of diamonds there (stimulating, anti-depressant) - but the testimonials she offers, all gathered in the past three months, are impressive.

Here is Miss CB, a 31-year-old City banker, whose stress-related insomnia has been put to flight; Miss LS, 48, whose lower-back-pain has evaporated; and Miss JB, 81, whose agonising rheumatism has been greatly eased.

There are pictures on the wall of a baby with contact eczema, with a sorry-looking, lumpy-skinned face. In another snap, the baby is smiling, hoisting its toes in the glow of an emerald-light treatment. In another, the same baby, its skin as peachy-perfect as any Johnson and Johnson ad could require. Most impressive of all, is Peter Sadler, 66, who came to see Lilias with a deep-seated infection in his leg. His various doctors couldn't shift it, and amputation had been threatened. But after five gemlamp treatments, the pain, says Sadler, is 80 per cent better, the swelling and discolouration much reduced and he can do without the support stocking he has been obliged to wear for the past 18 months to get through his working day as an osteopath.

I tried a treatment, just for fun. I didn't expect much, but found that 20 minutes in the dark with sapphires glowing around my temples - the way all treatment starts, as it slows down the body and makes it more receptive to what follows - tranquillised me for the rest of the day.

Next came an emerald light on a stiff bit in my shoulder which, afterwards, was strangely loosened. Yikes. Sorcery? Or the treatment of the future? At the moment, there are fewer than 10 practitioners in the country.

One of them is Guru Dharam, who runs the Lotus Healing Centre in the West End. "It's excellent," he says, "particularly good for ME and other treatment-resistant conditions. I use it for everything, along with the acupuncture and Chinese medicine.

The great thing is that it is completely noninvasive and non-toxic, and there aren't many things that get results which can claim that. "I've had a 90 per cent success rate in curing asthma in children," adds Lilias. "At the end of the day, we're getting results that doctors can't come near. That's why the NHS is so interested in the machine."

Treatments with Lilias Curtin cost £70. Call 0207 731 4715 for bookings. For more information, visit www.electronicgemtherapy. com or www.whalemedical.com. The Catalyst of Power, by Dr Jon Whale (Findhorn Press, £12.95).