CM/WM

[Guest guest]

, " " wrote:

sources ranging from unschuld to kapchuk have proclaimed qi is a

concept, not a " thing " that exists " out there " . According to

kapchuk, qi is an organizational tool that exists solely in our

minds. >>>

 

This is clearly supported by the Chinese literature. For example,

Elisabeth Hsu's essay in her book, *Innovation in *,

speaks about qi as being " generally the last constituent of a

compound word, a 'categorizer' in terms of lexical semantics. "

 

But, how does Kapchuk, Unschuld, or Hsu---or anyone in the field---

reconcile this idea with the phenomena of qigong masters who

experience qi as a warm, substantial, and (subjectively)

quantifiable " substance " that circulates through or along various

meridians? Is it like someone else's religion---totally imaginary

without the personal investment of belief?

 

 

<<< I won't touch the reality of meridians, . . . >>>

Interesting way to put it. Did you say that tongue in cheek? In the

scientific perspective they are already gone. In a few years, a

continued belief in them may be deemed as creditable as the belief

in a flat earth or flying saucers.

 

 

<<< but one thing about herbs is clear: if you remove the

biochemicals, they don't do anything, so they must be dependent in

some way on these biochemicals. I agree that the science of

complexity will probably allow us to do more a sophisticated

analysis of polypharmacy formulas and how they act, but I think it

is an error to think complexity science is an abandonment of

reductionism. >>>

 

I agree that it will be interesting to see that development. But I

don't think complexity theory should be considered the abandonment

of reductionism. I think of it simply another way to process

information. The Chinese perspective of seeing relationships and the

Western perspective of reducing things to objects are probably two

extremes of a continuum.

 

 

Jim Ramholz

[Guest guest]

James Ramholz wrote:

 

> The

> mitochondria is the water element on the scale of the cell. It helps

> store energy and convert it to a useable form like the kidney yin

> and yang. The Kidney stores qi through its association with Dan

> Tian, and kindey yang is associated with the adrenals and is

> considered the root of spleen yang.

 

Okay, so if oxygen is Lung Qi and on a cellular level and mitochondria

can be thought of as Kidney energy, would we discover any patterns of

" Kidneys not grasping Qi " type asthma showing up in research as more

prevelant among children whose mother has asthma? After all, the

mitochondria is passed down through the mother.

 

After taking a quick look though some research with keywords of

" asthma+mother+genetic " I have found a few studies that suggest exactly

this! Here's one:

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve & db=PubMed & list_uid\

s=10780889 & dopt=Abstract

 

You'll probably have to cut and past this long URL together as it'll be

broken up in the email. I supppose I could find studies that suggest

the opposite too, but it is nice when we can extend our TCM logic into

existing medical research.

 

--

Al Stone L.Ac.

<AlStone

http://www.BeyondWellBeing.com

 

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.