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Though it might look (and sound!) like it’s masterminded by a midcentury supervillain, the BioCharger is one of L.A.’s latest ultra-niche, ultra-buzzy new wellness phenomenons. The large machine that’s blinking and whirring in the offices of more than 15 wellness practitioners in the L.A. area — works as a powerful “human recharging station,” thought to optimize cellular function through specific, concentrated combinations of pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMF), light, voltage and frequencies found in nature. So what if it looks like a sci-fi prop. It has become a favorite wellness practice among celebrities like Tony Robbins, Elle Macpherson, Julianne Hough and the Kardashians (Kourtney bought Khloé a BioCharger for Christmas).
The BioCharger website promises to help you sleep, support recovery, boost energy and relaxation benefits. But what is actually involved when you sit down in front of one of these machines?
To start the process, you cozy up next to a BioCharger and select one of its many “recipes.” You can choose from general selections like “immunity” or “feminine recovery” — or more specific, like “rosacea support” or “Vagus nerve” (or try a couple at once for a “recipe stack”). BioCharger sessions are contactless and last anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes.
Once a recipe is chosen, clientele relax; zoning out in nearby chairs as glass tubes alight and the machine purrs from within. It’s not painful, uncomfortable or invasive — in fact, at times it’s a little boring (but be warned: phones are often not allowed within a six-foot radius of the BioCharger, for fear of interference or electrical shock).
Though the experience itself is somewhat straightforward, the machine is not. Beyond its neo-futuristic design, the BioCharger is made up of four mechanisms that “work together intensely,” says Avital Sarir, a practitioner and client coordinator at Oxynergy2, a Hyperbaric Oxygen Center that has its own BioCharger. “They’re like the ultimate biohack for the body.”
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The “biohack” begins at the BioCharger’s base, where a large coil creates pulsed electromagnetic fields. At the top of the machine is a smaller coil that produces frequencies and harmonics. In the middle of the BioCharger, within the geometric, connected plates of glass, is a Tesla coil, which ionizes the surrounding 12 glass tubes that hold six noble gases, the gases in the earth’s atmosphere. When charged, these gases create “bright spectrum” lights, or lights designed to mimic those that naturally exist in nature. The frequencies from the BioCharger’s three coils and light from the tubes are said to penetrate the user’s cell walls to balance their cellular makeup, creating relaxation, clarity and, ultimately, fulfilling the user’s desired “recipe.”
“I saw it and was like, what is this wild thing? I want one,” said Katie Sobelman, a licensed esthetician who practices in Napa and Los Angeles. In her practice she often treats clientele with the latest luxury wellness technologies, and she creates online content educating the public on her cutting-edge practices — including the BioCharger.
“Microcurrent was my gateway drug into electricity and electromagnetism, and I slowly started adding things and doing more research,” she says of her eventual purchase of a BioCharger.
Sobelman integrated the BioCharger into her aesthetic practice, introducing patients to what she says has a near-instant calming and regulatory effect. “I like to joke that if we stood barefoot in a stream in a forest while looking at the sunrise, you would get a lot of the same benefits as the BioCharger,” she says.
This was original inventor of the device Jim Girard’s aim. After 30 years of studying different types of energy therapies under a protege of Nikola Tesla, Girard worked on early iterations of the BioCharger as a means of connecting with the frequencies of nature, in the comfort of one’s own home (or, for most, a wellness space). Girard eventually connected with Jim Law, and together they co-founded Advanced Biotechnologies, the company that manufactures and distributes the BioCharger. Law calls the BioCharger a “one-stop shop” for cellular renewal.
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“The only way our body can heal is through regeneration of new cells, but due to our modern day life, we spend 93% of our time indoors, blocked from those energy sources,” says Law, “The BioCharger restores those raw materials, allowing your body to regenerate perfectly healthy new cells. Healthy cells, healthy body.”
Despite its celebrity pedigree and hefty price tag, the treatment itself is one of the more affordable wellness options among the U.S.’ trillion-dollar wellness industry. There are now over 4,000 systems in 50 different countries. Most practitioners in L.A. price the treatment under $100, depending on the recipe stack and other added treatments.
