The Art of Business

Hot & Bothered: the sauna gets personal
by Mala Hoffman

You could say that Bernarr Schaeffer was born to build Saunex, a portable sauna cabinet with infrared heat emitters. Named after Bernarr MacFadden, a health writer known both for advocating fresh air and sunshine and for being on the medical establishment's "quack list," Schaeffer was raised with a firm belief in the benefits of "alternative" health care. After purchasing a small woodworking shop that made exercise equipment, including rowing machines and massage tables, in the 1950s, Schaeffer was soon led to his next mentor, John Harvey Kellogg, known both for cereals and for the sanatorium he operated in Battle Creek, Michigan (and who also appears on the same list as MacFadden).

Schaeffer's company merged with the Battle Creek Equipment Company, which was started by Kellogg and which produced 45 different products in the exercise and health field, including a steam cabinet, an offshoot of Kellogg's infrared sauna that was developed in 1891.

Although Schaeffer appeared with the cabinet on both "The Johnny Carson Show" (in a skit in which Johnny gets stuck and steam, created by dry ice, envelopes the stage) and "What's My Line," after four years with the company he decided it was time to leave. "I left mostly because they weren't aggressive enough," he recalled. "I was a creative person and wanted to do things, and they just wanted to sit there." The company purchased his share and Schaeffer came back to the East.

He moved to Rosendale, "bought a little machine shop," and continued his work in the health field, improving on products like the exercise gym bar, originally developed by a dentist in Chicago, which fits across a doorway and for which he holds two patents. The business, US Health Equipment Co. (USHECO), evolved into plastics and now produces 300 different products, including many for the Bruderhof in Rifton, VirTis in Gardiner, and Simulaids in Woodstock. "We're a job shop," Schaeffer explained. "We make parts for other people. We don't know what they use them for."

In fact the sit-in sauna cabinet Schaeffer spent four years developing will be the first product to be manufactured completely on-site. "My son Wayne became president of the company," Schaeffer recalled, "and that gave me some free time." He started to work on a juicer, but couldn't develop exactly what he wanted. Then he read in some trade magazines about a new heating system developed by NASA. The item, a plastic sheet lined with silk-screened conductors that could be heated to 200 degrees Fahrenheit, the necessary temperature to produce infrared wavelength, was perfect for one of Schaeffer's long-standing ideas. Infrared is considered optimum for penetrating the body more deeply, causing sweating at lower temperatures. "I thought, now we'll make a sauna."

The narrowness of the heating system enabled Schaeffer to develop the cabinet, which was limited to a width of 27 inches, so it could go through a doorway. The sauna includes 10 heaters, to surround the body, and two fans, so there is an evenness of heat. The adjustable seat accommodates those between 4'10" and 6'4" tall and the control panel is designed to automatically shut off after an hour. It is also on wheels, so it can be rolled to any room in a home. "There were two issues that made me think we had a great product," added Schaeffer. "I read in an old survey that half of the people who responded would never go into a sauna because they didn't want to breathe in other people's sweat and they were embarrassed to be undressed in front of other people. We've bypassed both of those things."

Unlike Kellogg's infrared sauna, which was heated by 32 bare light bulbs (and which Schaeffer himself tried out last year), the heaters in the Saunex are protected by a plastic cover with raised fins. The company also developed a way to significantly reduce the electromagnetic fields generated by the heaters, which is patent pending and which Wayne Schaeffer observed "might even be bigger than the sauna itself."

Schaeffer views his product, which will be marketed on the Internet beginning in April, as "a true health item. There are so many sick people, so many desperate people who will benefit from this." In its literature, the company states that elevated body temperature simulates a moderate workout and the accelerated metabolism due to heating increases lymph flow and other self-cleansing activities of the body. Three of the cabinets have already been sold to women who were ill, and two of the recipients report that their health has improved to the point where they can exercise again. Schaeffer also plans to market the product to the general public, including hotel and motel chains that can then offer clients a private sauna in their rooms. "Saunas are huge today," Schaeffer emphasizes. "So many people are interested. And the medical profession is in trouble. Alternative medicine is growing at a rate of 25 percent a year. People are not happy with drugs. We're providing one area where people can improve their health in a drug-free way."

For more information about Saunex call USHECO at 658-7576 or toll free at (877) 772-8639, or go to www.saunex.com. An open house will be held at the company, 138 Maple Hill Drive, on Saturday, April 26 from 1 to 4PM.

-Mala Hoffman

T he story of how Jeff Cuiule and Audrey Cusson came to own Mirabai Books in Woodstock three years ago reads like a modern fairy tale. And, with inventory and sales doubling since then, and resounding community support, it does have a happy ending.

The pair, who have been married for 15 years, were living in Manhattan and working in the corporate world, he in advertising and she in publishing. But something wasn't quite right. "Our lives were in an upward spiral, as society defines upward, but more and more, we felt there was no real purpose to what we were doing," Cuiule recalls.

"We both really loved our jobs, but that's all we knew," Cusson adds. To top it off, they were also in the process of seeing a marriage counselor in the city. "We had drifted apart," Cuiule explains. "We were both traveling a lot and working, and rarely saw each other." At one point, the counselor, Ray Bergen, who also had a practice in Saugerties, asked the couple to describe their dream situation. As they listed the elements - own a little bookstore with some purpose in the mountains, live in an apartment upstairs, work together - Bergen's eyes lit up. "He said, 'Wait a minute, I know exactly the place you're talking about."

At that point, Mirabai Books, a spiritually-based bookstore which had been in the center of Woodstock since 1987, had been up for sale for two years. Bergen introduced his clients to the owners and things started moving very fast. "It just clicked," Cuiule says. "We bought the store a week later."

Though neither of them had ever worked in retail before ("We didn't even know how to run a cash register," Cuiule laughs), they set about expanding inventory while still maintaining what they call the "mission" of Mirabai. "We cover all spiritual traditions and really provide a spiritual vortex," Cusson notes. "People might come in for Eastern philosophy and then find themselves looking through our Native American collection or books on Sufism or Judaism. We also have a very extensive health and holistic healing section."

And, in a nod to her publishing past, which included 15 years in children's books, Cusson has also overseen the establishment of a "very sweet" children's literature section, which includes books in traditions ranging from Taoism to Christianity to address those basic philosophical questions children always seem to have, as well as what Cusson describes as "a tight set of children's fantasy books," books on animal communication and lots of books about fairies and angels. "The section addresses the spiritual development of a child," she adds. "It's small but focused."

In addition to expanding the music section, which now includes a CD listening station and features healing music, chants and world music, the couple also set up a complete, year-round workshop schedule, which they offer in the quiet of their statuary room. "We offer 70 workshops a year," Cuiule says. "We have such amazing teachers in and around this area. We are blessed with an enormous amount of wisdom keepers and blessed that they want to be a part of our store." In April, workshops will include Healing with the Angels, with Holly Bean, to be held on April 5 from 2 to 4 PM; Hands on Herbal Medicine, with Susun Weed, to be held on April 10 from 7 to 9 PM; and Drumming with the Tabla, with Pandit Divyang Vakil of the Taalim School of Indian Music, to be held on April 13 from 2 to 3:30 PM

There is also an extensive crystal and jewelry selection, flower essences and essential oils, and yoga and meditation supplies. But books remain Mirabai's main focus. "What we try to do is make all of this material accessible to the average person," Cuiule emphasizes.

"Not only accessible, but inviting," Cusson adds. "It's bright and beautiful, not dark and academic, even though we have some very esoteric texts in here that cannot be found on Amazon.com, like a channeled text from the Coptic times, which is one of our bestselling books." The book, Pistis Sophia: A Coptic Gnostic Text, is a compilation of scrolls dating from the second or third century that was originally written in the Coptic language of Egypt and was recently published in English for the first time, "so it's a big event," Cusson adds.

Cuiule and Cusson agree that the support of the community and the knowledge of their staff, who remained with them following the sale of the store, have been keys to their success. "We've had tremendous support from the people who live here locally, and that's been very, very important to us," says Cuiule. "Not only right here in Woodstock, but throughout Ulster County, Greene County, Dutchess County. People will also come from New York City and New Jersey just to come here, to Mirabai. The reason for them is not because it's impossible to find a title anywhere but here, but because the environment is unique. The comment we get most often is, there's such a good energy in this store."

"It's a sanctuary," Cusson adds.

Though they acknowledge that it's not an easy prospect to run a bookstore these days, Cuiule and Cusson are hoping to live happily ever after. They bought a house in the woods and the apartment upstairs, where they lived for three years, is now going to be rented to healing practitioners who are moving up from Manhattan. Soon they may expand into setting up guided tours, perhaps to Europe or Egypt. The store continues to grow, and may begin offering rare and antique spiritual books for sale. And one thing is definite. Following Bergen's intervention, they are no longer in counseling. "The store is our therapy," Cusson says. "His loss is our gain."

Mirabai Books is located at 23 Mill Hill Road in Woodstock and
is open from 11 AM to 7 PM every day. For more information about the store or the workshops, please call 679-2100 or go the website at www.mirabai.com.

-Mala Hoffman