The Original Jade Infrared Biomat
Originally, Biomats were made with jade, as you see in the picture below. Richway International introduced the first infrared mat in 1997. It was a Jade mat. The founders of the company observed healing effects from individuals spending time in a jade and amethyst mine they owned in Korea. To better understand what was happening, they brought scientists in to review the situation. The scientists determined the healing effects were brought about by the infrared coming from the crystals. After this review by the scientists, the founders wanted to replicate the healing effects observed in the mine through the construction of a heated crystal mat. Originally, jade was used.
Later, they begin studying the effects of infrared passing through different crystals. One characteristic was the transmissivity of infrared. That means how much of the infrared light passes through the crystal. Jade only allowed about 60% of the infrared to pass, while amethyst would pass about 92%.
As they studied more, they found amethyst had some unique qualities in how it interacted with infrared. It was found that infrared alone was not as effective for the healing, but rather the addition of information being released from the amethyst provided the greater effect, as hypothesized by researchers. As one Korean research scientist said, “It appears that with infrared we are talking about energy, but with the addition of amethyst, we are now talking about energy plus healing information”.
Following this research, jade mats were discontinued in favor of amethyst.
