If the Ammortal is good enough for the Denver Broncos…

At a passing glance, you might think the Ammortal Chamber was a set piece made for the Dune cinematic universe. The brutalist look of its two halves, which are bisected by a lightning bolt-shaped sheet of acrylic that glows red when activated, has the air of a concrete relic from the distant future.

But the growing class of champions for this machine—which combines photobiomodulation, pulsed electromagnetic frequency, molecular hydrogen, guided meditation, and vibroacoustic therapies into a single treatment—claims it has myriad real-life benefits.

“Very quickly, I started regrowing hair,” says Jonathan Krieger, cofounder of Padel United Sports Club, a high-end racquet facility in Cresskill, N.J., that houses the only Ammortal Chamber near New York City, of his experience using it. He credits the red-light component of his three or four weekly sessions with improving the appearance of his skin, too.

The other benefits he’s seen are even more impressive. “Inflammation? Down 70 per cent,” he estimates. “My sleeping, which was always a little whatever, just became much consistent. My energy and my general state of stress, I would say, just shifted.”

And while, in my experience, one session can be uniquely calming, restorative, and even fun, Ammortal’s CEO Brian Le Gette has observed that regular use has compounding benefits.

“This is a wellness product, not a clinical, medical device,” he says as a caveat before sharing anecdotes about user feedback. “We have hundreds and thousands of people who’ve had tremendous pain reduction. We’ve had people who’ve had trauma releases inside this thing, and they’re weeping afterwards,” he says. One collegiate lacrosse player used the chamber before a game and scored five of her team’s six goals. Before that, Le Gette adds, “She’d never come remotely close to two.”

So what is it like to use? The device dispenses all of its treatments simultaneously, in 15-, 25-, or 50-minute sessions. It’s recommended that you use it in your underwear so that most of your skin is exposed to the red light, and so that the near-infrared light can help treat your joints. (Some people use it in the nude.) Covers are provided to shield your eyes from the light, and a sterile cannula is attached to a tank so that you can breathe in the hydrogen during the session.

When you’re settled in, a touch screen allows you to select from a range of voices to guide you. Like a meditation instructor, the voice gives different instructions about breathing and visualisation, depending on the user. The more sessions you log, the more personalised such directions become, but in any case the goal is to help you reach a state of calm before the top half of the chamber lowers and the lights come on. “You have to be really calm,” Le Gette says, in order for your body to be receptive to so many treatments at once.

I spent 25 minutes in the chamber, taking deep breaths when told to, and nearly falling asleep because of the soothing soundtrack of spa-like music. When I was done, I felt somehow serene and energetic simultaneously, with a clear sense of focus that is hard to come by in this notification-riddled world.

While a variety of studies suggest that each of these therapies are beneficial when used on their own, Le Gette is hopeful that a number of clinical trials, to be conducted over the next 12 months, will validate that they’re powerful when stacked together. In the meantime, he has plenty of clients who have already bought into the machine. While 60 percent of Ammortal sales have gone to institutions, such as the Denver Broncos or the Santa Monica Proper Hotel, which has a chamber in its recovery room. The rest belong to individuals, many of whom are professional athletes who want to bounce back faster from their training routines.

But Le Gette’s overall goal is to make the Ammortal experience as accessible as possible. “This is something that should be in every gym,” he says. “Everyone that can afford a membership to something to do with their health should be able to get access.” That may take years to accomplish, but to that end, his team is already working on versions that provide similar benefits without the $160,000 price tag of the flagship model.

One thing that may not change is its distinctive shape; the Ammortal designers borrowed it from NASA, which researched the best angles to support people of heights from 4’8” to 6’8” on their journeys into outer space.

“They figured out that this back bend, hip bend, and knee bend were perfect for continuing to keep blood flow through the body while that force is behind it,” Le Gette says. “And what we found was, when we take that shape and vibrate it with very specific frequencies, it can feel like you’re floating.” It’s just another one of the many details that helps you leave a session in the Ammortal Chamber walking on air.

This story was first published on Robb Report USA. Featured photo by Ammortal