Traditional Chinese Medicine acupuncture

Acupunture is the Chinese healing art that can be dated back at least two thousand years. Some authorities maintain that acupuncture has been practiced in China for even four thousand years.
On the most basic of levels, acupuncture can be described as the insertion of very fine into the skin at specific acupuncture points in order to influence the functioning of the body.

Read more here: » Acupuncture: What is acupuncture?

Chinese medicine (Traditional Chinese Medicine, TCM): Ancient holistic system whose basics include herbology, nutrition, and the concepts of acupuncture meridians, the Five Elements (Five Phases), and yin and yang.

Traditional Chinese Medicine theory posits both Organs (the Triple Burner, for example) and Substances (such as Shen, or Spirit) for which scientific evidence is absent. Variations and hybrids of Chinese medicine include Korean medicine, Tibetan medicine, and Vietnamese traditional medicine.

Chinese medicine probably originated about 2,000 years ago, but it became dogmatic and stagnated for centuries; overall its development has been slow. It probably stems from shamanism. The basis of Chinese medicine is Taoism, a religion according to which spirits (shen) inhabit the human body and take care of its functions. The foundational text of Chinese medicine - known as the Classic of Internal Medicine, the Huangdi Neijing, the Inner Classic, the Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor, the Neiching, the Nei Jing, The Yellow Emperor's Classic, The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, and the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon - was completed by the first century C.E.

(See also: Chinese medicine , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Chinese auricular therapy (Chinese auricular acupuncture, traditional Chinese auricular acu-points therapy, traditional Chinese auricular acupuncture, traditional Chinese auricular therapy): Group of TCM techniques whose channel theory differs from that of body acupuncture. Its apparent principle is that several areas and more than a hundred acupoints on the auricle (the outer portion of the ear) interactively relate to other areas or to diseases. The fetuslike contour of the auricle inspired the distribution of points thereon. Chinese auricular therapy, which differs from auriculotherapy, includes: auricular analgesia, auricular diagnosis, auricular magnetic therapy, auricular massage, auricular moxibustion, auricular point injection, the auricular point laser-stimulating method, bleeding manipulation, and the seed-pressure method.

(See also: Chinese auricular therapy , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

 Acupressure Massage is a branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine based on Acupuncture where pressure and massage techniques are applied on the acupoints throughout the body following the meridians, which correspond with the muscles, organs and the nervous system (body's communication system). By using the principles of Chinese Medicine it can help stimulate the body's healing powers improving health and vitality

Read more here: » Acupressure Massage: Short introduction to Acupressure Massage

Chi

(Chinese, "ether," "matter-energy," "vital energy," "material force")

An important and multifaceted term in Chinese religion, philosophy, and science, the root meaning of which is "moist vapor" or "breath. "

• Early Chinese teachers spoke of chi as a vital spirit or energy that animated living beings. As such, it had to be properly nourished.
• For Confucians, that required moral cultivation so that one's chi, undistracted by external things, would conform to the dictates of will.
• For Taoists, it required mastery of the self through meditation, breath control, diet, yoga, and other techniques so as to harmonize one's chi with the material force of the universe ordered by the Tao (undifferentiated unity).

Traditional Chinese medicine attributed illnesses primarily to imbalances in the chi that pulsed through the body. Acupuncture, moxibustion (placing burning cones made of the dried leaves of the Artemisia moxa plant on the patient's skin), and other techniques helped to restore its balanced circulation.

Chi was also an important concept in the correlative philosophy that blossomed in the early Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 8) systematizing the correspondences between like things that explained their mutual interactions.

In the Neo-Confucian metaphysics of the Northern and Southern Sung dynasties (960-1279), all phenomena were said to be manifest through the intrinsic relation of principle (li) and material force (chi). Li constituted the essential, unchanging, perfect nature of all things, while chi represented their corporeal, transitory, and potentially flawed aspect. Individuals were instructed to perfect their humanity, to purify and harmonize their chi with their true Heavenendowed nature through the external investigation of things and mental introspection. Also Ki.

(See also: Chi , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Acupressure: Part of Traditional Chinese Medicine, often called “acupuncture without needles.” The practitioner applies pressure to centers along energy channels in the body to activate, balance, or drain excess energy in the body.

(See also: Acupressure , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Acupuncture: An ancient element of traditional Chinese medicine. This practice can balance the flow of vital life energy, or qi throughout the body. Practitioners insert special needles into accupoints just below the skin’s surface in order to bring qi into harmony. It can treat a wide range of diseases, help manage pain, and build the immune response.

(See also: Acupuncture , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

The Native American Sweat Lodge, Temazcal, is an ancient practice from the native indians of America; a sacred ritual for Healing and Purification. Participants at the Oneness Festival will be able to experience this very powerful ritual both at day time, and, when it is as most powerful, at night time.

Read more here: » Sweat Lodge: Temazcal II/III - Mexican Method of Sweat Baths for Curative Purposes

ACUPUNCTURE: Fine needles are inserted at specific points to stimulate, disperse and regulate the flow of chi, or vital energy, and restore a healthy energy balance.

The acupuncture, which puts back on an old philosophy of several thousands of years, is based on balance between the yin and the yang like on the doctrines of the five elements: wood fire, hearth, metal and water. In Occident, it is the most known component of Chinese traditional medicine. It consists in introducing fine needles on points located along the meridian lines (each one of these points corresponding to a part of the body) in order to stimulate and to rebalance the energy which circulates there.

(See also: Acupuncture , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Meridians , Ching Lo, Jing Luo, Jingluo, Luo, Jing ,  :

Classical loci in acupuncture. They are main and collateral channels, regarded as a network of passages, through which vital energy circulates and along which acupoints (ACUPUNCTURE POINTS) are distributed. The meridians are a series of 14 lines upon which more than 400 acupoints are located on the body. (The Pinyin Chinese-English Dictionary, p. 359; Dr. Wu Lancheng, Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing)

(See also: Meridians , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

The research and study of the Sacred Geometry and Space of Sacred Sites have been the focus of Martin Gray for more than 20 years. Martin Gray is an anthropologist and photographer specializing in the study of Sacred Power Places. During a twenty-year period he has journeyed to more than 1,000 holy places in 80 countries. This introductionary article will give you an introduction to the Power of Sacred Sites and the Sacred Space they provide for Spiritual Awakening.

Read more here: » Sacred Sites: Places of Peace and Power

Energy Medicine:

Energetic medicine as defined within the mind/body/spirit model, involves therapies that affect energy fields that defy measurement. These therapies are based on the oncept that human beings are infused with a subtle form of energy. This vital energy or life force is known under different names in different cultures, such as qi in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), ki in the Japanese Kampo system, doshas in Ayurvedic medicine, and elsewhere as prana, etheric energy, fohat, orgone, odic force, mana, and homeopathic resonance. Vital energy is believed to flow throughout the material human body, but it has not been unequivocally measured by means of conventional instrumentation. Nonetheless, therapists claim that they can work with this subtle energy, see it with their own eyes, and use it to effect changes in the physical body and influence health.

Practitioners of energy medicine believe that illness results from disturbances of these subtle energies (the biofield). For example, more than 2,000 years ago, Asian practitioners postulated that the flow and balance of life energies are necessary for maintaining health and described tools to restore them. Herbal medicine, acupuncture, acupressure, moxibustion, and cupping, for example, are all believed to act by correcting imbalances in the internal biofield, such as by restoring the flow of qi through meridians to reinstate health. Some therapists are believed to emit or transmit the vital energy (external qi) to a recipient to restore health.

Examples of practices involving putative energy fields include:

• Reiki and Johrei, both of Japanese origin

• Qi gong, a Chinese practice

Healing touch, in which the therapist is purported to identify imbalances and correct a client’s energy by passing his or her hands over the patient

Prayer specifically for health purposes – such as intercessory prayer, in which a person intercedes through prayer on behalf of another.

(See also: Energy Medicine , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Traditional Chinese Medicine: An ancient healing system that views the body as an integrated whole, so problems in one area are seen to affect other areas. It bases diagnosis on an individual’s pattern of symptoms and signs such as pulse, and skin and tongue condition. Therapies like acupuncture and herbal remedies are used to rebalance the forces within the body.

(See also: Traditional Chinese Medicine , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

A dictionary of Parapsycology. Please note that words in grey are hyperlinked to a corresponding archive with articles related to that particular topic.

ANCIENT MEDICINE: CHINESE AND GREEK

Chinese

According to the ancient Chinese system of philosophy, the human body is governed by Chi, which can loosely be translated as the 'Life Force'.

·      The Chi is made up of the Yin and the Yang - the feminine and masculine principles - that in perfect balance ensure health, peace and well being.

·      Any imbalance between the two causes disease.

·      As early as 2700 BC, the complicated system of Acupuncture had identified pressure points in the human body that were considered crucial for the healing process. By manipulating these pressure points, ancient Chinese physicians could treat the most complicated of diseases.

Greek

·      Ancient Greek medicine (circa 450 BC) is synonymous with the name of Hippocrates, who is deemed to be the father of modern medicine.

·      Hippocrates based his study and his practice of medicine on logic, reasoning and scientific experimentation.

·      For the first time in the ancient world medicine was separated from religion, philosophy and superstition. He recorded all his theories and observations in a series of books, which are now held sacred by the practitioners of modern medicine all over the world.

• From about 6th century BC, many important developments were made in the fields of surgery, orthopaedics, opthalmology and obstetrics in Greece. Greek surgeons using various types of knives, syringes and forceps as surgical tools. Although there is a school of thought that believes that transfer of similar knowledge from India through the trade connections cannot be ruled out entirely.

(See also: ANCIENT MEDICINE , Ayurveda, Ayurvedic Dictionary, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

TCM acupuncture (New Acupuncture): Form of acupuncture that arose in the People's Republic of China during the Cultural Revolution. Symptoms or syndromes (patterns of disharmony) are its focus. TCM stands for Traditional Chinese Medicine.

(See also: TCM acupuncture , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

traditional acupuncture (Traditional Chinese acupuncture): Form of acupuncture based on the meridian theory of, and usually practiced in the context of, TCM.

(See also: Traditional acupuncture , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Meridian:

A traditional Chinese medicine term for the 20 pathways throughout the body for the flow of qi, or vital energy, accessed through acupuncture points.

(See also: Meridian , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

ACCUPUNCTURE:

·      The modern name is derived from the Latin words Acus (needle) and Punctura (penetration). It is, however, an ancient Chinese art of healing that sticks needles into a patient's skin or even muscles to correct imbalances in the `yin' & `yang' of the body.

·      Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, one of the oldest medical texts in the world, comprises a special section called `Magic Gate', which is devoted to this therapeutic style.

·      Although modern acupuncture charts more than 2000 points in the body - located along invisible energy called `meridians', 12 channels in each half of the body and 2 major channels (Ren & Du) along the middle line - traditionally there were only 365.

·      The western explanation for this is that a needle inserted at specific acupuncture points of the body releases certain chemical substances, that activate neuro-transmitters, which then pass on nerve impulses to the brain to obtain the desired effects. Must be performed by trained practitioners only.

The fundamental difference between these two systems being:

ACUPUNCTURE

·      A form of surgery where needles are penetrated into specific points of your body.

·      To cure chronic aches and pain.

ACUPRESSURE

·      A form of physiotherapy that indulges in massage and stimulation of precise points of the body.

• To ease all kinds of aches and pains and provide relief from tension, exhaustion and disease.

(See also: ACCUPUNCTURE , Ayurveda, Ayurvedic Dictionary, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

History of Herbs

The traditional definition of an herb is a non-woody plant that dies down to the ground after flowering. However, "herb" is often used to describe any plant of which any part is used for medical treatment or nutritional value. In this sense of the word, herbs have been used and studied since prehistoric mankind. Five thousand years ago, the Sumerians kept the first written record of the use of herbs. In 2700 B.C., the Chinese wrote an herb book listing over 365 medicinal plants and their uses. Herbs are mentioned in the Old Testament, and the medicinal practices of ancient Greeks and Romans rose from herbalism.

The first European book on herbs dates from the first century A.D. It refers to more than 500 plants and remained an authoritative reference into the 1600s. During the Middle Ages, the Christian church discouraged the practice of medicine. Herbalism was preserved in monasteries, by monks hand-copying manuscripts of herbs, and planting their own herb gardens.

In the 17th century, the introduction of active chemical drugs and the development of chemistry led to the decline of herbalism, although folk medicine still existed in the home and small villages. By the end of the 19th and into the 20th centuries, orthodox medicine had pushed homeopathic medicine further from the mainstream.

Herbalists today seek to help people build their health with natural sources. The philosophy is that the body is capable of healing itself given the proper conditions. Herbalism, psychic healing, acupuncture, aromatherapy, touch therapy, and massage therapy can all work with orthodox treatments to create a healthy body.

(See also: Herbs , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)