Animal Qigong

I spoke with my acupuncturist about qigong (my expert consult) this week and mentioned how hard I was finding the concentration necessary to do qigong.  She mentioned to me that this concentration-focused qigong was only one form of qigong and that this was not the major form of qigong practiced in China.  She went on to describe a more active form of qigong, sometimes know as "Animal poses," so I've been looking into that this week.

It's a little silly, but a lot of fun.

The idea is this: there are five animal poses, and each pose is supposed to help with a particular part of the body where qi circulates:

The tiger pose helps with ailments of the lung

The bear pose helps with ailments of the kidney

The deer pose helps with ailments of the liver

The crane pose helps ailments of the heart, having to do with blood circulation

The monkey pose helps with ailments of the stomach



The idea is that during the posing, you become the personality of the animal you take on.  In fact, one site I've read warns that you should only try out these activities in the presence of a trained qigong teacher as, in rare instances, a person who assumes these personalities might not be able to return to their own personality.  So, if you find me acting like a monkey in class on day, you'll know what happened.

Here's the tiger--pretty...weird:

Science Speaks

As I've mentioned, there are some serious questions about the validity of ACM (ancient Chinese medicine).  While I've not yet found information regarding the scientific testing of qigong, I am finding lots of testing of acupuncture.  For instance, a recent professional study reports,

   "The study also supported the effects of three different forms of acupuncture: manual acupuncture needling alone and with the addition of high-frequency and low-frequency electrical stimulation. All treatments were performed by an experienced acupuncturist, applied to acupuncture points commonly used in pain management.
   The results provide a scientific background for the ancient practice of acupuncture, according to Dr. Dominik Irnich, Head of the Multidisciplinary Pain Centre, Department of Anesthesiology, University of Munich, and the study's leading author. Additionally, Dr. Irnich notes, "Our results show that contralateral stimulation leads to a remarkable pain relief. This suggests that acupuncturists should needle contralaterally if the affected side is too painful or not accessible—for example, if the skin is injured or there is a dressing in place."
   Dr. Steven L. Shafer, Editor-in-Chief of Anesthesia & Analgesia and Professor of Anesthesiology at Columbia University, views the results as an important preliminary finding. "Reproducible findings are the cornerstone of scientific inquiry," Dr. Shafer comments. "The authors have clearly described their methodology, and their findings. If other laboratories can reproduce these results in properly controlled studies, then this provides further support for the scientific basis of acupuncture. Additionally, the ability of quantitative sensory testing to identify specific types of nerves involved in pain transmission may help direct research into the mechanism of acupuncture analgesia."

Again, as I mentioned above, acupuncture is not qigong, and qigong's dependence on a more theoretical understanding of qi--while MD's can more easily accept acupuncture because of the fact that visible, physical manipulation of SOMETHING (qi or otherwise) is clearly going on--probably makes it easier for science to accept acupuncture than it will qigong.  I'll keep digging

What some are saying

I'd be remiss to write about Qi Gong and not mention the fact that some in the world of science have grave doubts about the real powers of Qigong.  When I did a recent SIRS search, I came across several articles that mentioned Qigong only in the context of "faith healing" and "placebo effect"--that is, these articles claim that Qigong works (and they do admit that it works) only because those who are using it believe that it will work, so that the curative powers reside in the believe him or herself, not in the actual Qigong activities. 

It's worth noting that many of these articles--the skeptical ones--come from science reporters, not scientific researches.  I need to do some more searching to see what the scientific literature (rather than popular science) says about this, to see if any real tests have been done.

But on another level, since Qigong is very much about controlling the mind (and, by controlling the mind, controlling the flow of Qi which, in turn, improves the body's health), then "faith" is, to some extent, what's being described.  Can a skeptic get the benefits from qigong exercises that a non-skeptic gets? I doubt it. 

The root problem here is that qi is not observable or measurable.  It's not like blood or cholesterol or something that can be seen in a microscope.  Health, of course, CAN be measured.  We can tell is someone is better or not better.  Can we be sure that a person gets better because the flow of qi is improved? I'm not sure; I need to search the literature about this.  I suspect that this can't be proven in the same way that we can prove that germs cause illnesses.

But what do we make of the fact that the Chinese have been using these theories as the basis for their medicine for many, many centuries?

This is where it gets complicated. 

I'll see what I can find about scientific tests involving Qi.

Something a little easier

While I'm trying to figure out how to concentrate enough to stimulate the flow of Qi into my navel--I'm not having much luck so far--I thought I might also try something that seems a little easier, too.  This exercise is closer to what I've been doing in acupuncture and doesn't seem to involve a lot of visualization and concentration, activities that I'm finding pretty hard to do.

Acupuncture (as I've described) is all about poking key points on the meridians so as to increase the flow of Qi.  This exercise is designed to do something similar, but (of course) without the needles. 

This activity is sort of a form of self-massage, but, weirdly, it doesn't involve touching.  The idea is to move the palm of your hand over the meridians (again, without touching them) in a specific way so that the proximity of the palm to the meridian will stimulate and smooth out the flow of Qi.

Here's the pattern:

1. Start by sitting on a chair and concentrating on your palm.  
2. Move your palm from your torso down the inside of your arm to your hand.
3. Then, move the palm from the finger tips up the outside of the arm to your head
4. Next, from the head move the palm across the body and down the outside and back of your leg to your foot.  When you reach the tips of your toes, cross over to the inside of the leg and move up to your torso.
5. You can complete this pattern as many times as you like, making sure you balance yourself for both sides of the body.  When you feel you are done, move your hands, now locked, over your navel to seal the energy.

As I keep writing, a lot of this seems weird to me, and I'm trying to suspend my skepticism.  I'll try this stuff and see what I can see.  It runs so counter to most of what I believe about exercise and the body, but, well, I told myself I'd give this a try so I'll give it a try.  The connection between mind and body that is the basis for this stuff makes sense to me, I suppose, but, again, it's pretty foreign to most of what I've always believed about energy and muscles and exercise.  

Quiet Qi Gong--getting the energy flowing

In the last post, I mentioned how the simple act of walking can stimulate the flow of Qi through the body.  That's pretty simple stuff.  Here's another simple way to get things rolling, from what I've read: sitting quietly.

Well, it's not exactly all that easy, but it's not much more complicated than that.

The steps for this are simple:

1.  Sit on the edge of a chair with your knees about shoulder-width apart with your feet flat on the floor

2.  Put your left hand on your lap facing upwards and your right hand on top of it facing downward, with the center of your palms opposite each other.  Let your clasped hands rest on your lap.  This seals in the qi. 

The goal here is to focus your qi on a single spot in your body: your navel.  In a sense, you're bringing your energy to the center of your body.

3.  Close your eyes, quiet your mind, think calm thoughts, breathe deeply, count your breathing in and out, and simply allow yourself to slow down.  Place your attention on your navel and this should draw your energy there.

Then, mentally visualize three concentric circles that radiate from your navel.  This is called the "ba gua."  (Actually, it supposed to be concentric octagons, but do what you can.)  Imagine that you are taking a pen and tracing around these circles/octagons, one at a time.

Finally, "seal" the energy by placing the center of one palm over your navel with the other palm resting atop it--left hand first for men, right hand first for women.  Concentrate on this area and breathe into it.

If all goes well, this exercise should help you feel calm, grounded and relaxed.

I'm going to try this for the week and see how it goes.  I'm trying really, really hard not to be skeptical!  It all sounds a little hokey, but what do I have to lose?

Qi Gong--the points

As I mentioned in my last post, there are a limited number of Qi Gong points that are the focus of the exercises.  Here they are:

1. On top of the forehead
2. In between the eyes (sometimes called the "third eye")
3. A point where the tongue touches the top of the upper palate inside the mouth
4. Middle of the chest
5. Navel
6. Groin
7. Point where your two legs join
8. Palms of your hands
9. On the back, at the bottom of the spine
10. Point on the front part of the sole of your feet

 The goal of Qi Gong exercise is to do things to allow you to become aware of the energy that flows through these points.  Some of the exercises are simple.  For example, walking--just plain walking--activates the point on the sole of the foot.  This is called "activating earth energy."  The key is to be as aware as possible of the point on your foot while walking.  In theory, bringing attention to this point will increase your consciousness of the energy flow and, at the same time, will bring more energy to this point.

Here are some other simple activities that can stimulate Qi energy:

Simply being next to someone else--when you are next to another person (within 3-4 feet), you are stimulating that person's energy and they are stimulating yours.  (This reminds me of Feng Shui and its focus on how the environment around you influences energy flow.)

Touching--Same as above, but now you are not only sharing energy but you are sharing what is called "conscious intention," which is the emotion you feel for that person when you touch them.

Hugging--even more of the above.  When bodies touch, the points align and the energy exchange is that much more intense.

Of course, there are more active ways to stimulate energy.  I'll focus on that for my next post.

Qi Gong--My I-Search Topic

For my I-Search research, I'm learning about Qi Gong, another form of ancient Chinese medicine.  My interest in herbal treatments, acupuncture, and Qi has lead me here, to Qi Gong. 

As I understand it so far, Qi Gong means "developing Qi."  While herbs and acupuncture needles are external stimuli designed to push the Qi around, Qi Gong has more to do with getting in touch with the power of Qi inside you and learning how to manipulate it yourself.  You do Qi Gong to yourself; there's no need for an expert (a herbalist or an acupuncturist, for example) to intervene.

Qi Gong is something that you practice daily.  It consists of a series of movements or exercises--but not "exercises" in the traditional, physical, rigorous sense.  Some of the exercises involve small, slight movements and postures; others involve different types of meditation.  It's NOT like yoga.  There's no stretching (well, hardly any) or vigorous training of muscles.  It's not about muscles; it's about Qi.  It's about getting in touch with the flow of Qi in the body and learning to concentrate in a way that will regulate this flow.

If you think of Qi as an energy flow, Qi Gong is a little easier to understand--a little.  The meditative portion of Qi Gong is all about learning to sense this flow of energy inside of us, and the more active portions are about intensifying this flow.  Think of Qi Gong as a way of putting the flow of energy (Qi) in our bodies into a state where it's functioning and flowing correctly.  Like a tune-up.

Like acupuncture, Qi Gong identifies specific points where the Qi is focused, and the practices of Qi Gong focus on these points.  However, whereas acupuncture involves many, many points, Qi Gong seems to only involve nine or so.

Next: How to practice Qi Gong.

Food for Thought

A good choice?

Just read a blog post on one of the blogs I subscribe to that discussed what food to each for an acupuncture-approved diet.  Logically--but somewhat surprisingly--the blog recommends eating like...you're in a Chinese restaurant.  Of course!  Now, this doesn't mean the local Chinese greasy spoon.  Instead, it means a healthy Chinese restaurant, something that's not easy to find in the Brookline area.  Here are some of the specific recommendations, based on what is served at a Chinese restaurant:

1.  Lots of fresh vegetables, but all slightly cooked.  Raw vegetables are harder to digest.
2.  Variety.  In other words, eat family style, a little of this and a little of that to insure a wide range of vitamins and nutrients.
3.  No ice cold water.  This is why many Chinese restaurants serve tea rather than ice water.  Ice water halts the digestive process.  Warm water speeds it up.
4. No dairy.
5.  Very little dessert.  Who ever had cake at a Chinese restaurant? Fortune cookies only.

Of course, to suit American tastes (and speed up the cooking process to meet the demands of impatient diners), much food in American Chinese restaurants is deep fried, which negates nearly all of the benefits of this diet.  This is the problem: finding a place that doesn't Americanize the food so much as to ruin all of its benefits.  Not easy. 

Feng Shui

The four Elements of Feng Shui: Fire, Water, Earth and Wood

While I've been reading articles and books about acupuncture and ancient Chinese medicine, I've come across a lot about Feng Shui, a part of ancient Chinese belief that has to do with ordering and arranging the physical environment (natural and also man-made) so as to best orient ourselves with the flow of Qi around us.  On the one hand, this field has become widely popular, especially in design circles both in the East and (recently) in the West.  On the other hand, this stuff strikes me as incredibly mystical and hard to accept.  But I know I need to be patient and learn more before I make any judgment.

The basis of Feng Shui, as I understand it, is that there are forces of Qi and other energies that flow through the world around us.  The ancient Chinese saw these--literally or symbolically, I'm not sure--as manifestations of dragons' breath, which is both positive and negative.  The idea is that to live a life full of health, happiness, and good luck, one must arrange his or her surroundings so as to channel the flow of dangerous, negative energies away from us and the flow of positive forces towards us.  This might involve building our homes in a certain relationship to a hill or local mountain; designing the main openings of our houses to face a certain way; placing the furniture in our rooms in certain positions; or putting plants in certain places to deflect a negative energy's flow. 

Of course, there's a lot more to it that this.  It's easy to dismiss this idea as silly mysticism, but that's too easy.  Again, lots of people--lots of smart people--are using these theories to direct the way they construct houses, buildings, and even entire cities.  I suspect that much of the way the West has embraced Feng Shui (as reported in magazines like the New York Times Sunday Magazine and others) has more to do with style than with substance.  That is, without understanding the underlying philosophical and historical roots, Western designers are adopting the sleek, simply look of some Chinese homes.  My own home is so full of clutter that ANY new aesthetic might help!  What do I have to lose.

I'll keep reading.  I'm more interested in the energies that flow within the body than the ones that flow outside, but perhaps I'm missing half of the picture. 

Treating Colds

So, my attempt to use mushroom-based medicine to prevent my cold totally failed, so, with the help of someone who really knew what she was talking about, I'm exploring two other herbal medicines to treat the cold that I couldn't prevent.  That's what I'm writing about today.

1.  Astragalus: Astragalus is a plant, I suspect, but the medicinal form is derived from the root.  It can be made into a tablet, but it's most commonly found in tincture form (a liquid that you add to hot water to make a tea).  Astragalus has been found to strengthen the immune system, the system that gets compromised when you get a cold.  Astgragalus should help the immune system fight of the continued presence of a cold, shortening its duration.

2.  Echinacea: Echinacea is actually an herbal remedy from the Western medicine tradition, originally used by the Plains Indians (including the Chayanne, Lakota, Pawnee and Kiowa) long ago.  Echinacea is a flower, and the medicine is derived from grinding up the petals of this flower.  It's a local plant and easy to grow; I've had it in my back yard.  Recently, it's become a popular treatment for colds, and for this reason scientists have begun testing to determine the effectiveness of echinacea--with mixed results.  Some have found that taking the herb reduces the changes of getting a cold and, if taken after you have a cold, it can reduce the during of the cold.  Others are less convinced.

The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has begun testing herbal medicines and supplements more rigorously in recent years as more and more people have begun taking them.  Again, the results are mixed.  This is something I should look into more.  (Though I also have to say that my experiences with approved cold medicines are also very mixed; some say that most of them are worthless.)

mushroom power?

As of today, all three of the other members of my household (wife and 2 kids) have colds, and this has got me thinking about what I can do to prevent getting my yearly never-ending cold myself.  I usually get a cold in late October, one that I can't shake until the late spring.  I might as well buy stock in the Kleenex corporation.

In the past, I've tried to prevent and then ward off this cold with vitamins (esp. C, but also some others), but this hasn't worked too well.  Last year I went herbal, and this worked a little better but not much. 

So this year, in the spirit of my new interest in Chinese medicine, I will be trying...mushrooms.  Based on my reading, mushrooms have very strong powers for building up the immune system.  People in China rarely get colds (the web site I'm reading claims--I wonder if this is true), and it's because, at this time of year, they drink broths and teas that use a mushroom base.

I went to my alternative medicine supplier of choice (Whole Foods), and spoke with the kind man who works in the vitamin and supplements section.  First off, he's got a million tattoos and those weird ear things that makes it look as if he's got elf ears.  And he called me "dude."  But he seemed to know a ton about the wares in his section, so...I listened.

He told me a lot about mushroom-based treatments.  The taste of mushroom is not all that familiar to the US diet (he explained), so we've begun importing mushroom in pill forms.  (AND it was on sale!)

I'm trying it.  The label lists things I've never heard of, but the more I read, the more in intrigued.  It makes sense, I suppose, and, for me, that's a key to how I make my health care decisions.  My parents (both MD's) would be appalled, but nothing else has worked, so I'm game.

We'll see.

The Power of Qi?

On Friday, I had an acupuncture experience that was totally new to me. Marlene (my acupuncturist)tells me that the meridian that runs through my right arm has been blocked so the qi cannot flow through it smoothly. (I have been feeling pain and stiffness in my right arm, so this fits with my symptoms.) To help unblock this channel, she slowly pressed my arm from shoulder down to my hand, and then...

ZAM!

I suddenly felt what seemed like a huge, electrical shock running through my index finger. And I'm not talking about a tiny, static shock. I'm talking about a jolt of electricity. It came in pulsing waves; I could feel my finger jerking up and down. It was totally freaky! It is now Tuesday--four days later--and the tip of my index finger still feels numb, sort of like the feeling you get when you slam the tip of your finger with a hammer or when you get a burn on it.

Merlene insists that this was a good experience, that it's an indication that the Qi was surging through the meridian, having been blocked for a long time. Freaky!

It makes me think that the flow of Qi must be very intense and powerful, especially after it's been blocked.

Does it hurt?

I remember when I started acupuncture, the acupuncturist told me, "It's not about the needles." I once heard that the needles were so thin that you hardly even feel them.

NOT TRUE!

I definitely feel them! They definitely hurt.

Not a ton. It's not as if I'm in agonizing pain. But they do prick when they enter the skin, often making me jump and squirm a little. I've gotten used to it, but they still hurt. Sometimes when a needle goes in, it sends a pulse of...something (Qi?)...through a meridian, and that's pretty freaky. I'm a pretty needle-phobic person and this has taken a lot of getting used to, but, even after two years, I'm not really used to it.

(My friends wonder why I do it.)

The acupuncturist (her name is Marlena) puts the needles into a number of points: some on my feet, some on my legs, some on my arms, some on my shoulders (this is where I've been aching recently), and some on my head. Yes, my head. Recently, to help with my allergies, Marlena has been putting needles in my ears, which is very weird. There's also a point between my eyes, right above--where the "third eye" in Hinduism is supposed to rest, I think--and sometimes she puts a needle there, too.

And then I flip over on my back for more.

Again, after two years of this, I've very much gotten used to it, but I certainly would never say that I don't notice it or that it doesn't bother me. I've learned to block it all out by closing my eyes and thinking about...anything else. Had I known in advance what I was getting into, I probably would have been too chicken to try it out.

But I don't have regrets; I'm glad I went into this blindly.

Qi--now things get complicated

If Qi were simply a force that flows through the body--sort of like spirit, or, on a more mundane level, blood, this would be easy to understand. But things get far, far, far more complicated when I begin to think about the fact that there are many different types of Qi and all are important for health.

For starters, we are all born with Qi. However, there's also Qi that we get from the food we eat and the things we drink--which makes diet especially important because it a bad diet can through off the Qi balance. Furthermore, the internal organs (heart, liver, lungs, etc.) generate their own Qi. And then there's the Qi that is fundamental to our gender, more commonly known as Yin and Yang-Qi. There's also heaven and earth Qi, which might be understood as the Qi that comes to us from the environment around it. The process of creating a living environment that produces balanced, healthful Qi is called "Feng Shui."

Are all these forms of Qi the same? I'm not sure. I'm not sure that "forms" is really the right term. My sense is that Qi is an energy, a force that flows through the universe and which is directed or misdirected by all of the different things we encounter: food, living conditions, psychological pressures, emotional states, conditions of our body, and a host of other elements.

For this reason, Ancient Chinese medicine (ACM) must be wholistic: it must treat the body as part of a larger, universalized system. Illness, properly understood, is caused by the mis-flowing of Qi, which can be caused by all kinds of things, both inside of us and outside of us. To restore a person to health, an ACM doctor must work to get the Qi flowing properly again.

This restoration might focus on the Qi that flows through the meridians of the body (acupuncture), Qi that flows through the body as a whole (tai Chi), Qi that flows through our living spaces (Feng Shui), Qi that flows through our spiritual life (Buddism?)...and I'm not sure what else.

I find this both complicated and cool. I like thinking about health as wholistic rather than as a simply result of microbes or viruses. It's empowering, in a way.

I've started reading a little about Feng Shui and will post about that soon.

The mysterious Qi

At the center of the theory of acupuncture is the ancient Chinese idea of Qi, which is pronounced "chee" (sometimes spelled "chi"). Definitions of this term vary, but all have something to do with "energy" or "life force" or "flow." It's an elusive concept, one that I'm just beginning to make sense of. Here's a stab at it:

According to ACM (ancient Chinese medicine), Qi, this force, flows through the body through a series of channels that are called "meridians." The image I included on the last post has some of these meridian lines drawn in. These lines run all throughout the body, connecting part to part, in ways that sort of resemble the nervous system to me. The meridians ARE a system--a system of channels that carry the Qi through the body.

But this metaphor isn't really exact. The meridians are really tunnel-like tubes. Instead, as I understand it, they are pathways, sort of like a roadmap, of how the Qi flows.

When the body is healthy, the Qi flows along the meridian lines at a nice, even pace; when the body is suffering in some way, this is due to the fact that the Qi is obstructed or not flowing at the correct pace. Does the obstructed Qi cause the body's problems or does the body's problems cause the obstruction of Qi? I'm not totally sure. However, restoring the correct flow of Qi is the goal and focus of acupuncture.

[There's a lot more to Qi. I'll come back to this.]

At the beginning of an acupuncture session, the doctor takes several pulses--pulses in several places. She's checking how the Qi is flowing (I think) along various meridians, just as someone might check how the blood is flowing--the traditional pulse--at the beginning of a check up.

Modern medical science has long debated the validity of Qi, and the results are fairly inconclusive. It's a spiritual concept, so I'm not sure that science could measure it, though some scientists connect it to certain electro-magnetic pulses that CAN be tracked by instrumentation. This, too, I will explore further.

What, in fact, IS acupuncture

To be honest, before I started acupuncture, I didn't have much of a clue what acupuncture was. I knew that it involved needles, but, beyond that, I was pretty clueless. I told the doctor at first that I was very nervous because I was sort of needle-phobic. She told me that "it wasn't about the needles" and that I wouldn't feel them very much.

Well, that wasn't true. I can certainly feel them! (But I quickly got used to that.)

Acupuncture centers around the idea that inside all of us is a flowing force called "chi," which I'll write about more soon. Ideally, this chi should flow through the body easily and freely. When it doesn't--when it goes "stuck"--it needs to be made un-stuck so that health can be restored. In other words, illness (or any sort) is due to the chi not flowing correctly. The application of needles to key pressure points in the body helps to free the stuck chi so that it can be returned to it's free-flowing ways and thus return the body to health.

Because the body's chi system is complicated, it requires careful application of pressure at various parts of the body to get the desired effect. For example, needles in the foot can influence the flow of chi in the shoulder as the two (I think) are connected by a chi passageway. An expert acupuncturist knows how to manipulate the body's passageways to enable the free-flow of chi.

I'll stop here. It's a lot to chew over.

Turning to acupuncture

Several years ago, I began to lose faith in Western medicine. Not complete faith, of course, but I developed enough doubt in the miracles of modern science to be motivated to try something else.

For several months, I had suffered with dizzy spells, back and neck pains, and insomnia that my doctor was not able to explain. In typical fashion, she sent me for a lengthy battery of tests--everything from Lyme disease to rare, tropical illnesses--but nothing came up on the tests. She tried again: more tests. More negative results. She sent me for a CAT scan and then sent me to several other specialists including one who took very cool (and, I suspect, very expensive) ultrasound images of my neck and throat. Nothing. I'd done 12 blood tests in 6 months. I was still feeling dizzy, feeling pain, and losing sleep.

One year prior to that, I had invited a friend of a friend to come speak to my public speaking class. He claimed to have one of the hardest public speaking jobs imaginable: convincing people to allow him to stick them with needles. I figured, "what the heck. Let's see how convincing he can be." He came to my class, spoke for a few minutes, and then--to my total shock--walked around the room and put a needle in the arm of every student who was willing. I was sure Dr. Weintraub would find out and yell at me. There's no way this was legal for a public school teacher to subject his students to this. But no one fainted, no parents called the next day, and Dr. W never came up to give me a pink slip.

When this acupunturist spoke to the class, he explained acupuncture's philosophy of "chi," and most of us in the room were incredibly skeptical. It sounded like some pre-scientific, religious mysticism, something left over from the days before we understood viruses and symptoms and modern biology. At the end of his visit, he and I sat down together and talked. Eventually, I had to tell him that his explanation--while very interesting--just seemed way to weird and simplistic for my to buy. He asked me a great question:

"Do you believe in modern medical explanations of illness because you understand the science or because it seems so complex that the complexity makes you think it must be valid?"

He was right.

When my doctors used fancy words to explain what might be going on inside of me and fancy terms to explain how medical tests might determine a diagnosis, I really had no clue about what they were talking about...but they sounded so convincing. "Medicine is complicated," I figured. I don't understand it because it's advanced science and the fact that I don't understand it simply indicates that it's very advanced--and thus it must be right.

The explanations the acupuncturist offered (on the other hand) were incredibly simple. (more on that in a later post) How could it be this simple? How could something so simply really be valid? How could a simple explanation (one that even I could understand) really be more valid (or as valid) as a fancy scientific explanation that used the language of experts and highly trained professionals?

But...

When Western, scientific medicine failed me one year later and the dizziness (etc.) could not be diagnosed or treated, I remembered what this visitor to my class has said and, with great fear and trepidation, decided to give it a try.

The purpose of this blog is to help me (and perhaps others) better understand this form of treatment that I've been undergoing now for the past two years, a treatment that I've grown to have great faith in. The world of acupuncture is incredibly rich: mystical, magical, logical, primitive (in some respects), spiritual, and fascinating. Now that it's been two years, I figure it's time for me to find out what it is that I've actually been doing. What's behind acupuncture? What up with Chi? and yin and yang? and the techniques that seem (at times) one step removed from the leeches that were used on my Russian grandparents back in the old country?

I've got a lot to figure out.