A Purple Box said to cure drug addiction is interesting New Zealand's medical experts. Hibiscus Coast resident Ray Crumbles (pictured) says neuro-electric therapy can beat the addiction in three to 10 days. The former director of California's Borderland Research Foundation claims the device is being suppresed by the drug industry. But Tom Joll, Taranaki Hospital Board's drug alcohol treatment centre director, says he has talked to inventor Meg Patterson. She has used the brain tuner to treat rock star heroin addicts Boy George and The Who's Pete Townsend. "At this stage we have opted to wait to see results of Dr Patterson use of it in London. We are certainly not opposed to her form or treatment and I would say if it has possibilities."

Mr Crumbles claims doctors are burying their heads in the sand. He says the device, which uses a weak electron-magnetic signal to stimulate the brain, is cheap safe and produce's results quickly. "If it is good enough for pop stars then why isn't it good enough for Joe Public? It is only a matter of time before brain tuners are in use" said Mr Crumbles who is to lecture on the device in Auckland at the Alternative Medicine and Healthy Lifestyle Exhibition in March.

The battery-powered, electronic mechanism of the Tuner is in the little black box in Mr. Crumbles's left hand. The white yoke under the chin carries the signal to the contacts in the hollows under the ears. These are major acupuncture points for the head area.

THE BT9 TUNER - or Neural Electric Transmitter
This Electro-Magnetic device puts out a very weak, pulsing signal. When turned on the signal radiates in all directions. Held close the body's EM nerve system picks up the signal and responds or resonates to it very weakly. Body response is 708 stronger if the contacts or electrodes are touching the body anywhere. The whole system responds to the signal.

However, it is reasonable or logical to apply the contacts to the local area of the body causing pain or trouble -- though thousands of years of use of Acupuncture in the Orient has proven that this is not necessarily true. Because of the interconnecting nerve system -- or Meridians as they are called -- treatment in one part of the body can affect other parts. In modern times the weak, pulsed eletro-magnetic signal has replaced the twirling or vibrating of the gold and silver needles of Acupuncture.

Affectiveness of the NET or Brain Tuner device was established by a Chinese Acupuncturist, Dr. Wen, in Hong Kong in the 1970s by testing hundreds of patients at a clinic, most of whom were on drugs of one kind or another, alcohol, nicotine, heroin, etc, consciously or unconsciously trying to relieve stress, largely a mental condition?

It seems that the body -- or Brain -- gives up making its own pain-killers, Endorphins, when a person turns to drugs; but putting a weak EM signal into the; body, especially the head area, stimulates the brain into producing Endorphins again. Amazingly, the craving for the drug disappears in three of ten days and without withdrawal symptoms!

Dr. Wen found through experimentation that the most favorable place for the electrodes or contacts was the hollows under the ears. The EM signal does not have to be felt by the subject or patient, though in some devices with power controls the current can be turned up to where a slight tingle is felt. A stronger connection can be made if the contacts are moistened. They can be placed on other parts of the body if local treatment is desired there.

The clinical approach is 15 or 20 minutes per treatment, once a day. Those office visits are important to a doctor. But a person with his or her own NET or Tuner can treat themselves as often as needed -- though a person should keep in mind that body cells react immediately to minute pulses of electric current and one can have too much of a good thing. Probably the most important part of treatment is the intention of the user. Do you really want to change yourself for the better?