Truckers, the hard men of the highways, are not known as cry-babies. When Les Empson, a 40-year-old veteran of the trade, broke down in tears before work in June 1990, his mother was worried enough to insist he go straight to hospital.

"I just couldn't stand the pain any more," he admits. "I had been having headaches for six months but the doctor told me it was just a sinus problem. He refused to do any tests and gave me a bag-full of painkillers. I ended up taking loads of them every day. That morning they didn't work and the throbbing was unbearable."

Les walked into the X-ray theatre at West Herts Hospital but he came out on a stretcher. He had been diagnosed with an advanced brain tumour and given a week to live. An ambulance sped him to London's Royal Free Hospital for an emergency operation to remove the tumour. Although he survived the nine-and-a-half hour operation, it left him with his left side paralysed and with almost no vision. His surgeon, Dr Colin Shieff, predicted that he had a few months to live. In a few hours, Les had gone from a freelance truck driver earning up to £1,000 per week to collecting disability payments of £30.

As well as his physical problems, he started to have panic attacks and suffer from insomnia. "It got me down that I couldn't do anything for myself. I couldn't dress, cut up my food or have a bath. My Mum, who I live with and who was then 71, had to do all the hard work."

Desperate, he turned to his friends. One, Barry, who works in the demolition business, suggested seeing Harry Oldfield, nicknamed "the medicine man". Barry had fallen through a roof the previous year and was unable to move his arm until he was treated by Oldfield, a former science teacher turned crystal healer. Since physiotherapy was making little difference, Les decided to give crystals a go. Before his first visit to Oldfield's clinic, Les was cynical about the treatment.  But that did not last long. "Harry inspires confidence because he's so straightforward. He sat me down and after he had found out what was wrong, he put a sort of see-through tube containing crystals and liquid across my eyes and on my head. It was attached to a battery  but I didn't feel any electric current. In fact I just drifted straight off to sleep.

Oldfield, like other crystal healers, believes that gems give off vibrations, or frequencies, which influence our physical and emotional wellbeing. After 20 years of research into the field he has developed what he describes as an advanced form of crystal healing, called electro-crystal therapy, where electric currents are pumped through a variety of piezo-electric crystals (those which are good conductors of electric energy) to amplify their natural effects. These are encased in what he nicknames his "crystal-wand". Made from pyrex tubes or  flexible silicone-based plastic, these wands are filled with a saline solution which conducts electricity.

"They provide a vibration which is like an electrical massage," says Oldfield. If we look at the human body as a piano, the wand is like a tunic fork whose resonance helps bring the body back into tune."

Oldfield sees about 20 patients daily and claims a 60 per cent success rate. Les did not notice much difference after the first treatment, but a few sessions later things really started to change. "When I first went to see him I had to be carried in," he reports. "Later I was able to walk on my own."

Even more dramatic was the effect on Les's eyes. "After one session I went home as usual to lie on the settee. Then, suddenly, my right eye opened with a sort of pop, then my left eye--and I could see again."

Eighteen months after the original diagnosis, Les had another brain operation which restored his paralysed left side to mobility. His most recent scan showed that his tumour had completely gone. Now 50, he is free from any disability and is working as a caretaker. His doctors call him a miracle case but Les believes Harry Oldfield's work played a large part in saving his life: "Harry made me strong and gave me the will to carry on."

A growing body of conventional scientists believe that crystal healing can help. Dr May Soon Abdullah, senior registrar in rheumatology at St Thomas' Hospital, London, says that the healing process can be up to fives times as fast as with physiotherapy. "I have had incredible results with these machines," she says. "This is not New Age quackery. There is no denying the importance of crystals as a healing tool."

Michael Laughton, professor of electrical engineering at London University, tried one of Oldfield's wands on a strained shoulder uscle. "It had an incredible effect," he says. "How crystals work is as yet beyond our scientific knowledge but there's a lot of evidence that this therapy is effective." And although the way it works is not yet understood, Alan Bennett, emeritus professor of pharmacology at King's College Hospital, London, agrees with Oldfield that gems affect the vibrational frequency in humans. "The colour and shape of a stone determines its frequency. We know that colour can affect mood and it's possible that the frequency can also affect the internal organs."

Different crystals are said to work best on different parts of the body. According to Dr Abdullah, our bodies have various energy centres--referred to as the seven "chakras" in Eastern Medicine--which oscillate at different rates. (Interestingly, centres of biochemical activity are now being detected at chakra sites.) If the energies are disturbed, disease ensues. "Crystals seem to help to rebalance our systems," says Dr Abdullah.  "Quartz seems especially effective, possibly because it is made up of silica which has similar properties to the carbon in our own body."

Some claim that they can actually feel the electro-magnetic force of crystals. One woman was given a recently-charged crystal to hold by a healer. She felt a tingling sensation shoot up her arm and into her back, relieving a painful spasm that she had suffered for days. According to Greg at Wild Ones crystal shop in Chelsea, more people than ever are turning to gem power. Celebrities including Madonna, Cher, Sylvester Stallone and Tina Turner have been extolling the power of the crystal for years. Even Cherie Blair has appeared wearing a crystal bio-electric shield pendant, said to balance her life and protect her from the harmful effects of technology.

There is nothing new about crystal healing. Gems have been used over the centuries as talismans, amulets and breastplates because they were believed to hold forces that would enhance the wearer's life. They are mentioned in ancient texts from Sanskrit to the Bible. Egyptian pharaohs put blue lapis lazuli in their head-dresses to clarify the mind, American Indians used turquoise for protection and Chinese Medicine prescribes crystals to heal certain ailments. According to legends about the lost continent of Atlantis, crystals were used to generate power for entire cities.

Some Easter religions say that crystals not only act as conductors of healing energy but have a memory, much like a computer disk. These gems may also store "bad" energy from past owners. One Indian couple threw a diamond ring into a river because a soothsayer told them it was causing a run of bad luck. They say their fortunes completely changed after that.

Crystals are said to be useful for many purposes. Smoky quartz may combat the draining influence of a computer, and taping a small quartz to a mobile phone is claimed to neutralise harmful microwaves.

Although research into crystal healing is scant, the growing number of patients and scientists who testify to its potential suggest that it may be an effective, non-invasive therapy. Dr Colin Shieff, who operated on Les Empson and still sees him for check-ups, says "I have considerable faith in anything my patients find helpful to their condition. I would not recommend that they see an alternative therapist but I do not object as long as it does no harm."

by Anabel Cutler

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