Re:Now Qi, channels & position

[Guest guest]

Hi Joseph,

 

Thank you for your fine elaboration on the theme of Qi, channels & position. I was thinking of you and Jim Ramholz today during my morning run. It's an extension of my meditation. I was also "running" Fernando's beautiful answer to Ken's question through my mind. It occurs to me (as it must to you) that during life, the membranes of all muscle cell types as well as neurons are transmitting electrical current as emf. We call their results action potentials. In fact we measure the emf of the heart muscle (EKG) as well as the brain (EEG). I did an undergraduate physics thesis on the nature of magnetic force with regard to emf current flows. So I can see that Western science has certainly posited a nice variety of forces that could account for Qi channels and collaterals as well as nodal points in the system that could be viewed as major acupuncture points.

 

The Chinese ancients could speak more easily of Qi mobilization and flow, I believe, because they were employing a more synthetic perspective. Really Qi mobilization could relate to the normal movements of blood, lymph, food, feces, and anything that normally has a flow within the body. Put your hands on the sides of your head. Our eyes literally flow from the sides of our head to the front of our head in a matter of days during fetal develpment. That, too, is a Qi flow. Western science's analytical perspective diminishes our capacity to more freely associate ideas and develop synthetic styles of viewing the world. Only a few physicists (Einstein and Schroedinger) and a few philosophers (Husserl, Heidegger, etc.) have been permitted such lattitude. Here in America, we philosophy students were not permitted to study Husserl and Heidegger until the late 1960s. I entered college in 1966 and had to endure endless amounts of linguistic analysis and logic before being permitted to study a bit of continental philosophy, and even then I had to endure the disdain of my professors (except the guy from Yale who taught Heidegger). I often wonder if people realize how conservative our state universities are: such as S.U.N.Y., Univ. Texas, Univ. of California. People think of U.C. Berkeley as a place rife with progressive thought when in fact the faculty and most especially the administration is incredibly conservative. Whereas, Harvard and M.I.T. are radical institutions that house the likes of Noam Chomsky.

 

Sorry to digress. Thank you for your thoughts. I agree that Western science has the tools but not the fortitude for synthetic thought. Qi flow will remain a Chinese idea for some time to come. Acupuncture points which stimulate or regulate Qi in the channels will someday be a revolutionary finding for Western science. I'm still meditating on Fernando's answer to Ken's question which has everything to do with this topic.

 

Emmanuel Segmen

Emmanuel Segmen wrote:>>>As an anatomist who as yet sees no basis in anatomy for acupuncture points and meridians, I have no problem accepting and utilizing the existence of acupuncture points and meridians. I'm prepared for the existence of points and meridians to be supported by anatomy/physiology. In the meantime, I see no point to jump to any conclusions. CM works and is a complete system. If WM did not exist, CM would still work. I accept the world where it is now.<<< Emmanuel et al.,It seems to me that a reasonable definition of qi is physical life force. Cadavers contain all the nerves and other structures of 'anatomy,' but there are no longer any acupuncture channels. Qi is the driving force for physical life. One definition of a dead body is one that no longer contains any qi. Dead bodies still contain all the chemicals and structures that they did when they were living, but now they are dead. Why? Usually just because the qi is gone, for whatever reason. Extraordinary channels begin working at the embryonic level to organize, position and fulfill the orders of the life force as coded in the DNA. At birth, the main channels begin working to provide an independent bodily existence.Western medicine has never provided a satisfactory definition of life, or life force. They continually ignore this simple but profoundly important fact. CM provides the tools with which to understand life and life force. This is the missing ingredient in Western medicine. The life force has its own consciousness and provides the intelligence to drive the physical body, providing its physical, emotional and mental motivations. Without qi, the body has no motivation, no life. The extraordinary channels are all about 'position,' as you put it.Joseph Garner

[Guest guest]

People think of U.C. Berkeley as a place rife with progressive thought when in fact the faculty and most especially the administration is incredibly conservative. Whereas, Harvard and M.I.T. are radical institutions that house the likes of Noam Chomsky.

>>Only politically and then only one kind of politics. so not much different in that sense as well

alon

[Guest guest]

This is the missing ingredient in Western medicine. The life force has its own consciousness and provides the intelligence to drive the physical body, providing its physical, emotional and mental motivations. Without qi, the body has no motivation, no life. The extraordinary channels are all about 'position,' as you put it.>>>However, while we use Qi as a unifying idea, WM does recognize many of what we call qi and life energy. Its only that in the current reductionism tendencies of WM they can not use langue for which they are unable to document a structure or its effects- what we often call qi. But this does not stop them from using therapies which they have no idea as to their function or how they work. Its only when you use words like qi or energy that they go into convulsions and the high horse of well tell me how it works and what it is.

Alon