Traditional versus modern Acupuncture

CHANNEL RELATIONSHIPS VIA THE SHENG AND KO CYCLES

Five Phase Theory teaches that disorder in any one COS can directly or indirectly cause disorder in any other COS via Sheng, Ko or other energetic transfer routes. It is essential to the understanding of disease interactions in TCM and in the selection of the primary sites of disease.

It also teaches that if the primary disorder is corrected, the secondary disorders may self-correct rapidly.

A detailed study of Five Phase relationships and the uses of the Phase and Luo Points is essential to the therapeutic use of energetic TAP. The system can give dramatic clinical results in complex Syndromes but few western acupuncturists have the patience to study the system properly.

5. CONCEPTS of ECOLOGY, SYNDROMES and CAUSES of DISEASE in TCM

TCM teaches that Nature (all of creation, macrocosm and microcosm) is a unity which reflects the interplay of Qi, Yin-Yang, the Five Phases, the material and the immaterial. As we are wed to Nature, we feel Her claws or Her caress. And if we ravish Nature, or sow black seed at the time of white seed-sowing, or work against Her changeless Laws, we plant a bastard harvest, which we will reap. And we will weep alone, groan long in the hell of a Man-made night.

Health is a relative state. Optimal adaptation to prevailing circumstances (and the ability to adapt to new ones, if needed) are important factors in health. Healthy people adapted to living high up in the Andes mountains may have Packed Cell Volumes which would indicate serious dehydration or disease in people living in, say, Belgium. Adaptation to internal changes are also important. What may be healthy sport for a strong young man may kill a weak old man.

Many factors regarded by TCM to be involved in health are discussed below but TCM was also aware of acute causes of illhealth: trauma/wounds; undernutrition, genetic influences. (Modern Chinese medicine also recognises many other causes, as in western concepts: stress, toxicities, infection, parasitism, nutrient imbalances and deficiencies, metabolic and hormonal imbalances, senility etc).

Health depends on self-control: Chinese/Japanese parents dote on children, but their children are programmed very early in life to develop a high degree of self-discipline. This helps them to develop self-control of body and mind, which is perfected further in adulthood, to a degree which puts many westerners to shame. Mastery of the self was also part of the training and lifestyle of the oriental monks, who were said to be very healthy and resilient. The secret of good health is to strive for physical and mental control and to live in balance with Nature and with the Laws of Nature.

As part of Nature, the human or animal organism is influenced by Natural Laws, forces and energies. We dance or writhe to Nature's rhythmic tune. Conversely, the activities of the organism influences Nature for good or ill. Today's specific problems of environmental pollution (production and preservation of food to be eaten out of season by the use of chemical preservatives; dumping of toxic metals and chemicals, nuclear waste; the ozone hole/greenhouse effect etc) may not have been foreseen by the ancients but the global philosophy of Yin-Yang would have predicted them- we are creators and destroyers, a mixture of good and evil. A more recent law of physics can be adapted and extended to apply to biological systems: "To every action, in due time, there is an equal and opposite reaction". We decorate, or foul, our den, which, in time, empowers, or overpowers, us.

Avoidance of attack is the first law of self-defence. This implies that self-training to heighten one's awareness, perception and intuition have a prime defensive role. Strength (Qi) and skill (physical and mental) to deflect or minimise an unavoidable attack is the second law of self-defence. Rapid adaptation to prevailing circumstances is the key to survival.

Adaptation implies the ability to respond optimally to challenge. Clean air, exercise of mind, good food and a fit mind-body helps to develop Qi and to direct it when and where it is needed.