It was dubbed "the Star Trek Device" by the European press, after the all-curing energetic medical device used on that popular science fiction series. Cures have been claimed from it for all types of disorders -- circulatory, respiratory, neurological, genito-urinary, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, endocrine, immune, psychological. Yet the SCENAR (an acronym for Self-Controlled Energo Neuro Adaptive Regulation) is entirely non-invasive. It is a biofeedback device involving no drugs and no surgery, only a light touch to the body with an electrical energy responding to the body's own signals.

The SCENAR was developed in Russia, which sits midway between East and West and is open to the innovations of both. Combining Western electrical biofeedback with Eastern energy medicine, its technology was a product of the space race. Both Eastern and Western physicists were encouraged to develop energy medicine under their government's umbrellas, as massive funding was poured into equipment for the American and Russian space programs. Astronauts and cosmonauts could not take along pharmaceuticals for every possible malady due to restricted storage space. Another form of treatment was needed, prompting the development of energetic medicine and biofeedback systems for healing.

The technology for the SCENAR was developed by a team of Russian doctors and scientists at Sochi University led by Alexander Karasev in the late 1970s. The team sought a method of treatment that was energy-efficient, portable, non-invasive, and circumvented the space flight problem of toxic waste storage. The solution they devised was a repeatable therapeutic treatment using electrical signals to stimulate the immune system, the body's own healer.

Solving the Health Care Crisis

Ironically, the SCENAR was never used in space; perestroika made it unnecessary. But its technology is helping to solve the health care crisis in Russia, and it could also help solve the health care crisis in the West. The device works on diseases and dysfunctions of every sort, by acting systemically on the energy field of the body. Yet it is the size and shape of a TV remote control and operates on an ordinary 9-volt battery. Only minimal training is necessary to use it for enhanced wellness and for cosmetic effects such as increased facial tone (the natural face lift). Even for use on serious diseases and injuries and on chronic medical conditions, the training required is brief compared to the years of schooling necessary to practice conventional medicine.

Results reported for the SCENAR have been remarkable. There seem to be very few ailments it cannot alleviate or cure. To date, over 50,000 cases have been reported involving the device. More than 10,000 practitioners are using it in Russia, along with some 500 in the United Kingdom, many as their principal treatment on a wide range of diseases and injuries. A large body of information available from research papers, clinical reports and training manuals indicates that overall, the SCENAR is effective in about eighty percent of cases (where "effectiveness" is defined as a cure in two-thirds of cases and significant improvement in the remainder). Dr. Keith Scott-Mumby, writing in Virtual Medicine (London: Thorsons 1999), reports cumulative rates of effectiveness for a variety of disease categories, as follows:
Circulatory 82%
Respiratory 84%
Gastrointestinal 93%
Genito-urinary 89%
Gynecological and Obstetrical 78%
Musculoskeletal 79%
Ear and Mastoid 82%
Eye and Adnexae 93%
Mouth/jaw/salivary glands 91%

The device also great reduces recovery times. At the 2000 Olympics in Australia, the SCENAR was called Russia's "secret weapon," allowing athletes to compete after sustaining serious injuries. In accident and emergency wards, it is used to aid recovery from cardiac arrest, massive trauma and coma. It has also proven beneficial in burns, fractures, insect bites, allergic reactions, immune disorders, depression and other mental afflictions, dental problems, and skin conditions.

In addition, Russian trials have demonstrated dramatic benefits for pain relief. Victims of both cancer and fractures have experienced more pain relief from the release of natural opioids stimulated by SCENAR treatment than from chemical opioids administered pharmaceutically.

How It Works

The SCENAR is operated by placing the device directly on the skin, where it collects electromagnetic signals that are modified and sent back to the body. This "biofeedback" feature is what distinguishes it from TENS machines and other electrical therapies, which send out a consistent continuous signal to which the body can eventually fail to respond. The SCENAR's signals, by contrast, change in response to body changes, preventing adaptation. The device sends out a series of signals through the skin and measures the response, each signal being sent only when a change is recorded in the electrical properties of the skin in response to the previous signal.

During treatment, the recipient feels only a gentle tingling or stroking sensation, as the SCENAR is run over the spine, abdomen, infected area or other relevant portions of bare skin. The device sends electrical signals, records the resistive response, and uses its sophisticated software to return a freshly modulated signal. The practitioner determines where to apply the device by looking for anomalies on the skin surface, indicated by redness, numbness, stickiness or a change in numerical display or sound from the device. These areas may not seem to be directly related to the symptoms for which treatment is sought, but experience indicates that the healing process is commenced by treating these "asymmetries."

How the SCENAR heals involves neuropeptides, the internal pharmacy of chemicals by which the body is kept in physiological balance and healing is achieved. Without the activity of regulatory peptides produced by the nerves, the body can adapt to disease states, which may be caused by injury, injection or toxicity. The SCENAR stimulates the nervous system to produce its regulatory peptides, thereby prompting the body to heal itself. The device catalyzes the production of neuropeptides for use where necessary to reestablish the body's natural physiological state and cause healing. Because these peptides last up to several hours, the healing process continues long after the treatment is over.
The healing process is ongoing for another reason. Disease occurs where portions of the body have been blocked from communication with the energetic system that keeps it in balance. The SCENAR begins a dialogue with these blocked areas. Once the lines of communication have been reestablished, the information-starved areas keep on talking. They want to stretch and move and come back to life. Healing is reported not only in the nervous system but in conjunction with other chemical imbalances, correcting sleeplessness, appetite, behavioral problems, learning ability, memory, sexual function and overall physical health.

Arguably, these results could be due to the placebo effect. But Roger Meacock, a British veterinarian, has achieved results that cannot be so easily written off, because they are on animals. He has successfully treated horses, pigs, cattle, sheep, dogs and cats with the SCENAR, and has found it to be the best available treatment particularly for musculoskeletal injuries in horses, giving fast and profound healing to tendon and ligament injuries.

As for the principles behind SCENAR treatment, Dr. Meacock explains that the body has a finite amount of energy that must be divided among multiple functions. Its most essential survival functions are energy replacement (feeding), reproduction, and the fight-or-flight response. Injuries need to be repaired, but only sufficiently for the organism to maintain its survival functions. When repair reaches that level, the stressed organism with insufficient energy for all its needs abandons the healing process and returns to eating, reproducing and fleeing enemies. The SCENAR works on an informational level to remind the body that it still has repair work to do.

The body is continually influenced by external stimuli, which it reacts to in a way that maintains internal balance or homeostasis. Because these stimuli are infinitely variable, no two stimuli are experienced in the same way. But pathological signals are experienced as repetitive, so the body adapts to them and fails to recognize it has a problem. The pathological vibratory signal becomes self-perpetuating and gradually spreads, leading to organ dysfunction. The SCENAR modifies the pathological signal so the brain becomes aware of it, inputting electrical impulses that are never the same and cannot be adapted to, forcing the body to respond. Central nervous system involvement is reintroduced by neuropeptides that alter the regulatory pathway, breaking the repetitive pathological cycle and allowing cellular and organ recovery. The result is markedly reduced healing times and pain relief.

FDA Approved

The SCENAR is approved in England for pain relief, and in May 2002 [check] it received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for use as a biofeedback device in the United States.

No unwanted side effects have been demonstrated from SCENAR treatment in over twenty years of use in Russia and Europe. The impulses sent by the device are similar to the body's own nerve impulses and are quite safe, even for children and pregnant women. The only absolute contraindication is for people with cardiac pacemakers, although certain other diseases and injuries should be treated only by a practitioner with thorough training.
As with all natural treatments that stimulate rather than suppress the body's own healing power, the initial effect may be a "healing crisis" that makes the patient feel worse before feeling better. A lack of energy or general malaise may result as old problems and toxicities are brought to the surface for treatment and elimination. But this necessary bit of housekeeping soon passes and is followed by new heights of well-being, increased energy, and more refreshing sleep.

Russian research indicates that for long-lasting effectiveness, chronic problems may need treatment three or four times a week for up to six weeks. Acute problems, however, often resolve after only one or two treatments. Fresh injuries or acute inflammatory processes may require intensive treatment once or twice daily for several weeks [check], reducing gradually as the condition improves.

The SCENAR costs about $2,500, a very reasonable price for something that works generically on virtually every form of health condition. Although it can be used at home for pain relief and enhanced wellness, for best results professional consultation is advised.
Training sessions are conducted in England and the United States by the Scenar Training Centre, headed by a Russian M.D., Dr. Zulia Valeyeva-Frost. [Check.] For more information, see

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Ellen Brown has written nine books on alternative health care, including Healing Joint Pain Naturally (Broadway Books 2001), Nature's Pharmacy (Prentice Hall 1998) and Nature's Pharmacy for Children (Crown Books 2002).

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Unpublished work (c) 2002 by Ellen Hodgson Brown [1745 words]