Blog assignments for this week:
- Acupuncture as effective energy medicine
- What conclusions can you draw from Kirlian photography?
- Human intent as it affects health
Check out the following links on the Institutes of Biophysics in China:
http://www.lifescientists.de/ib0100e_.htm
Institute of Biophysics, Academia Sinica, Beijing, China
http://www.lifescientists.de/members/Shen.htm
The Research group in the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R.China
http://159.226.118.206/detailt.aspx?newsno=8094
Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
1. It would depend on how the term 'energy medicine' is defined. NCCAM (National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine) defines acupuncture as one of the types of "putative energy medicine" (as opposed to veritable energy). "Putative energy medicines" such as acupuncture "invoke" such energies (in this case qi) which according to NCCAM doesn't offer a definition that can make it subjective to falsification or quantification (Wikipedia). This differs from "veritable energy medicines" which use "physical" energies such as electromagnetic and light therapies, which are "provable." Despite what the definitions sound like, veritable energy medicines are the ones most often debunked because of lack of evidence, according to Wikipedia. Acupuncture fits the definition, however, and so by these terms is effective energy medicine (meaning that it can be described in these terms, and it works). I find such a definition quite awkward, however. Qi is not so obscure. It takes qi for me to type this, for the reader to read this, and qi may move inside myself or the reader as we do so to affect our emotions, depending on whether this is offensive, eye opening, or deadly boring, etc. It also has qualities. If i type smoothly and with few mistakes my qi is different than if rush, stop and start, and erase my words several times. It is difficult to define in modern medicine, because it is not just confined to our bodies, or bound by time. It is easier to say what it isn't in some ways, which is probably why modern medicine may refer to it as an undefined phenomena.
ReplyDelete2. "Important" would be a stretch for me, but Kirlian photography is certainly interesting. I think it shows one aspect of a visual interpretation of the "fields" that are part of our bodies. It could be misleading in the sense that it just shows the part that responds through one particular type of radiation, therefore isn't the whole story, but it could be helpful in illustrating the fact that our body is more than a greasy skin bag full of yucky stuff.
3. Human intent affects health because it brings focuses qi. It is also helpful when both doctor and patient are informed of each other's intentions because it focuses the treatment, allows the doctor to see what other aspects of the patients life are affecting their health (particularly emotional/lifestyle), and may be a way to increase patient awareness around behaviors or sensations. This is very powerful, and not limited to any particular type of medicine or non-medicine as it is a universal ability.
From Graham:
ReplyDeleteAcupuncture as effective energy medicine - Only recently has acupuncture been thought as something other than energy medicine. Western minds have understood that inserting needles into the body can benefit the body but their minds don't know why. Sometimes they surrender to the feelings of energy shifting in their body and other times they object to it as energy medicine because their minds are threatened by the words. Whatever, the needles are totally overrated. One doesn't need needles at all, and sometimes they just get in the way. I've seen bodyworkers who use the points to give sessions that effect some serious change, that really shift the person's energy. This shift in their energy shows up in the body and their physical symptoms abate. It's not the needle, it's the energy.
Kirlian photography - This method of photographing people's energy bodies has some merit to it. For those who do not believe that people have energy bodies, this proof could be helpful. It's always tricky to rely on physical proof of the non physical. Our culture does not respect the non physical realm as much as I would like to see, but we are making headway. For those who need proof, I would recommend some type of healing modality like bodywork or acupuncture or psychic reading where they can experience first hand the FEELING of energy moving through their bodies...
Human intent - We all have many intentions as we move through life. We have some intentions that we are aware of and some intentions that are subconscious. What matters is the strength of these intentions. If we have one intention to get into acupuncture or some healing modality to help people out and make the world a better place, and another intention to get into the field because we were never able to save our parents and this would be one way that we could engage in that old pattern of living, then the strongest intention wins. Sometimes this is the subconscious one. So if we can become conscious of all of our intentions, we can have choice.
From Luchun (Part One):
ReplyDeleteAcupuncture as effective energy medicine
I know acupuncture when I was a teenager in China. At that time, I noticed that the chinese medicine doctor in China inserted needles into patient’s skin. I felt it was amazing, why these needles could really help patients to get better? When I got older in China, my classmates told me her experience about visiting a chinese medicine doctor to cure her problem. She had a serious mental problem that she could fall into sleep at anytime. For example, She might fall into sleep while she was walking on the street. It was dangerous for her. Even though she had already visited some western medical doctor to treat her problem, it still didn’t has obviously effective for her problem. The western medical doctor said it was a mental problem and suggested her to visit a chinese medicine doctor. Therefore, she decided to visit chinese medical doctor in my hometown. The chinese medical doctor decided to use acupuncture to treat her problem. She told me that the doctor inserted many needles on her head. After few sessions treatment, I found that she got better. She could finish a whole class session without sleeping! At that time, I knew acupuncture and knew that acupuncture was really effective on human body.
I think energy medicine is to talk about qi, meridians, acupoints. Acupuncture is one part of chinese medicine. It is about inserting needles into specific acupoints on some specific meridians lines to balance qi flowing and balance yin and yang.
According to the example about my classmate in China, I think acupuncture is an effective energy medicine on mental health disorder and releasing pain such as depression and stroke.
From Luchun (Part Two):
ReplyDeleteWhat conclusions can you draw from Kirlian Photography?
I will draw my conclusions from Kirlian Photography through two questions. My first question is that in Kirlian Photography, there is a half leave, but because of some reasons, we can see the whole leave on the picture, why? My second question is that why high voltage image can shows body changing.
My explaination for the first question is that all living things have energy. Even though we cut a whole leave to a half leave, it still has energy discharge from the half leave. Therefore, I can say because of energy discharge from living system, I can see the whole leave under high voltage image. I think that means living systems or universe is a whole, we can’t cut it completely, it must be has something connect each other even though sometimes we can’t see it just by our naked eyes.
My answer for the second question is that people can use high-voltage equipment to detect the energy flowing and energy transferring in our body, therefore, people will know how the body changing under different situations. To psychology, we will notice that how body changes while a person do psychological activities. For example, through Kirlian Photography, we know there is a difference between when people doing a pleasant job and when people doing a unpleasant job. To body structure, some equipments such as X-Ray helps us to see the changing of body’s tissues, organs, and tumors, etc through detecting electrical discharge from the inside body.
Connecting to acupuncture, through high-voltage image, we will know if acupuncture benefits our body after we insert needles into acupoints . Also, the image helps us to know what kind of disease can use acupuncture and what kind of disease can’t use acupuncture.
Human intent as it affects health
There are many factors that affects health. Human intent is the one of these factors. I would say that human intent is based on human attitude. A personal attitude relates person’s education, working and social experience, and family background, etc. Personal attitude affects many things such as job, health and human relationsip.
From Kirlian Photography, I know that qi and energy inside our body change frequently because of our attitude. Good attitudes show strong and positive qi and energy flowing. It means it can help people to stay healthy. Bad attitudes show weak and negative qi and energy flowing. It means it harms our body.
Therefore, I hope everybody can keep a good and positive attitude to face our life, and try to make our life to be easier and happier. Don’t forget to talk to psychological doctor when we feel we have psychological problem. Also, energy medicine is a good way to balance our body energy such as acupuncture and qi gong, etc.
From Jennifer:
ReplyDelete1. Chinese Medicine as an effective medicine is quite a topic of debate depending on whom you talk to. Some see Chinese medicine as a strictly energetic healing method that has no proof according to the western way of thinking; while others do not see Chinese medicine in that way. According to the handouts given in class, Energy Medicine is “to use any means to balance the fields and energies of the body”. Chinese Medicine and many other healing arts would fit that definition, but Chinese Medicine also fits the definition of what medicine is. According, to Merriam-Webster dictionary medicine is defined as a substance or preparation used in treating disease. Therefore, Chinese medicine as effective Energy Medicine is as effective as Chinese Medicine as effective Medicine. What is meant by this is that it does not matter how you define Chinese Medicine, what matters is if the medicine works or not. Obliviously, since were all going to school here, we have experienced Chinese Medicine as a working entity.
2. The conclusions that I can draw from Kirlian photography is that it is photographing auras, light, that most of us humans cannot see with our normal eyesight. The one thing that you would learn about in a photography class about cameras is that they do not judge. What I mean by this is that they pass no opinion and just do what they were meant to do. To me, that is what Kirlian photography is; it is a specialized camera designed to photograph the auras that we as humans, and other things have. I believe that as our technology develops so will this camera, and the rates for detecting cancer, etc. will only grow with time. For now, it works as a neat instrument to show the general population that auras exist.
3. Human intent as it affects health is another topic of debate that scientist have been fascinated by for years. Intent is movement, intent leads and the body follows. You often think about wanting to go to the grocery store, intent, and then you get in the car and go, the body follows. If we looked at it through our Chinese Medicine goggles they would see intent as having no separation from the body since everything affects everything else. What I mean by this is that the way you feel and think affects the body. If your super excited about something, it gives you energy and makes your body feel good.