Acupuncture as effective energy medicine / Human intent as it affects health (these two questions are linked for me)
How can effectiveness of any treatment be measured? My graduate work was in medical anthropology; part of our study turned the lens onto western biomedicine. Studies within this field have shown how the amount of both the patient’s and the physician’s BELIEF in the treatment at hand impacted the efficacy of the treatment. Doctors have been quoted as saying “prescribe this medication while it still works” meaning that new medications often had a kind of “beginner’s luck” while belief in the medication ran high. If physician and patient were coming from two different belief systems, treatment was often not as effective.
I tend to think of almost any treatment as a placebo. Our minds’ belief in the strengths and limitations of treatments, and of our own healing powers, I think ultimately have the greatest impact on our health.
So...is acupuncture effective? To me, the overall metaphor of Chinese medicine is truer to life than the clinical and detached belief system of western biomedicine. Therefore, right off the bat I think it must be more effective, because it is truer to what I believe as a metaphysical reality of union and interconnectedness. Treating the body as a microsystem of the planet is much more respectful than treating the body as though it were a “dumb machine.” Life IS energy, and therefore it makes sense to me to treat the body as an energy system. I do think that “buy in” is almost always essential in any treatment, however. And I think more and more people are allowing themselves to respect their bodies as part of the natural order of things.
The effectiveness of acupuncture will be difficult to study because so many variables are involved and no treatment or practitioner is essentially the same, easily reproduced in exactly the same manner. What will matter, I suppose, is whether or not people who are treated feel as if it were effective and can see/feel the results themselves. I know that I personally have had experiences with acupuncture that affected me so profoundly and deeply that it is almost hard to believe -- kind of like seeing a ghost; the amazement at realizing the universe really is as mysterious and wonderful as we might have hoped, and that we are intimately connected to it as living energy beings! Wow! I have also gathered many, many similar stories from others relating how amazed they were by the profound effectiveness of acupuncture.
Acupuncture in the TV News media tells an interesting story of where we are with it in our popular culture...
Some healing stories about the effectiveness of acupuncture and other energy-based medicine...
What conclusions can you draw from Kirlian photography?
Only that we possess electrical energy which can be photographed.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Week Ten: Living Systems
Dead or Alive?
I know I’m a living system because...
I feel love. That sounds kind of cheesy, I know. I don’t identify so much with my body though as I do my soul. Identifying other things with their spirit essence instead of their physical construction makes it easier to attribute “living” qualities to things like rocks and pieces of trash. Reflecting on this question honestly scares me a bit. I’ve been working hard these last five or so years to identify more with my body -- to “be in” my body more...but today I realize I still think of my body as a rubbery unit that is necessary in order to carry my soul around. That’s not to say I don’t feel the pain in my shoulder today, or that I don’t love a good foot rub, or that dancing, running, singing, and sex aren’t four of the biggest joys in my life, but they are more like extracurricular activities -- the real business is my soul. I’m the sort of person who feels bad if I fling a beloved pillow carelessly on to the ground because I’m worried it will feel lonely. Or I wouldn’t necessarily pile a bunch of blankets on top of each other because the bottom one might feel smothered. I feel immature admitting that...like a little kid who thinks her stuffed animals are truly alive....but I’m wanting to be honest here.
I collect lost and broken things; I think I do this in part because I feel sort of "sorry" for them. Them seem to have quite a bit of "life" left in them still, however...and often get a "new life" with me!
Some items from my collection...they seem alive to me!
I also know I’m a living system because I eat and poop. And because I know I’m going to die some day.
I tend also to associate other people more with their bodies than I associate myself with my body. I have pretty strong intuitions about the location of other peoples’ pain, and where to touch them to alleviate it. Sadly, I don’t tend to know my own body quite so well. And this has been a very interesting exercise. Yikes.
Biophysics and Oriental Medicine...
Systems! It took me awhile to see a connection, but the connection here I think is that they both utilize systems thinking. Do a search for “biophysics” and “systems” and you come up with studies about cellular systems, systems biology, neural systems, populations, ecosystems, descriptions of “living systems” at a microscopic level...etc. Biophysics takes interactions within the systems into account. We are no longer living in isolation. The body is no longer made of separate, discriminate parts like a watch...although if you think about it even watch parts are part of a system (if the spring breaks, so goes the whole thing!). Biophysics is interesting to me because any living system can be studying using biophysics as a lens. The similarity with oriental medicine is of course that oriental medicine views the body as a system interacting within an environment. Parts of the interior and exterior system affect each other. Nothing is occurring in isolation. I think that biophysics’s systems thinking might lend greater credibility to oriental medicine, and that oriental medicine might begin to see western science as more of a like-minded friend. Each could begin to learn more freely from the other.
This image, taken from a biophysics department studying of proteins, looks somewhat similar to something that might be found in a book about the five elements in Chinese medicine....
I know I’m a living system because...
I feel love. That sounds kind of cheesy, I know. I don’t identify so much with my body though as I do my soul. Identifying other things with their spirit essence instead of their physical construction makes it easier to attribute “living” qualities to things like rocks and pieces of trash. Reflecting on this question honestly scares me a bit. I’ve been working hard these last five or so years to identify more with my body -- to “be in” my body more...but today I realize I still think of my body as a rubbery unit that is necessary in order to carry my soul around. That’s not to say I don’t feel the pain in my shoulder today, or that I don’t love a good foot rub, or that dancing, running, singing, and sex aren’t four of the biggest joys in my life, but they are more like extracurricular activities -- the real business is my soul. I’m the sort of person who feels bad if I fling a beloved pillow carelessly on to the ground because I’m worried it will feel lonely. Or I wouldn’t necessarily pile a bunch of blankets on top of each other because the bottom one might feel smothered. I feel immature admitting that...like a little kid who thinks her stuffed animals are truly alive....but I’m wanting to be honest here.
I collect lost and broken things; I think I do this in part because I feel sort of "sorry" for them. Them seem to have quite a bit of "life" left in them still, however...and often get a "new life" with me!
Some items from my collection...they seem alive to me!
I also know I’m a living system because I eat and poop. And because I know I’m going to die some day.
I tend also to associate other people more with their bodies than I associate myself with my body. I have pretty strong intuitions about the location of other peoples’ pain, and where to touch them to alleviate it. Sadly, I don’t tend to know my own body quite so well. And this has been a very interesting exercise. Yikes.
Biophysics and Oriental Medicine...
Systems! It took me awhile to see a connection, but the connection here I think is that they both utilize systems thinking. Do a search for “biophysics” and “systems” and you come up with studies about cellular systems, systems biology, neural systems, populations, ecosystems, descriptions of “living systems” at a microscopic level...etc. Biophysics takes interactions within the systems into account. We are no longer living in isolation. The body is no longer made of separate, discriminate parts like a watch...although if you think about it even watch parts are part of a system (if the spring breaks, so goes the whole thing!). Biophysics is interesting to me because any living system can be studying using biophysics as a lens. The similarity with oriental medicine is of course that oriental medicine views the body as a system interacting within an environment. Parts of the interior and exterior system affect each other. Nothing is occurring in isolation. I think that biophysics’s systems thinking might lend greater credibility to oriental medicine, and that oriental medicine might begin to see western science as more of a like-minded friend. Each could begin to learn more freely from the other.
This image, taken from a biophysics department studying of proteins, looks somewhat similar to something that might be found in a book about the five elements in Chinese medicine....
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Week Nine: Towards a New Synthesis
Can I synthesize East and West?
In physics, I think a synthesis of Eastern and Western views has been apparent since at least the 1950s. In the general culture, I see a synthesis of East and West happening as well, though not quite as fully integrated. The “synthesis” is kind of like an introduction at this point to ways of being and thinking in both Eastern and Western cultures. Just through my own witnessing, and no particular research devoted to the topic, I list here some examples of Eastern / Asian influence in the West, and Western influence in the East:
Eastern influences in the West:
Martial arts: Karate, Tai Chi, Tae Kwon Do, etc.
Yoga / meditation
Chinese medical practices: herbs, acupuncture
Ayervedic medical practices
Buddhist and Hindu practices (books, monasteries, retreats)
Asian cuisine (Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, etc.)
Increase in population of Asians
Products made in Asia are ubiquitous
Presence of the Dalai Lama as a world religious figure
local Asian TV stations
Western influences in the East:
Capitalism (or some version of it)
Increased consumption (energy, cars, food, etc.)
Westernized styles (music, dress, food, etc.)
Allopathic medicine
With increased global communication and travel we have seen ideas and lifestyles from far away places infiltrate previously isolated cultures (except, perhaps, in Wyoming). In places, the East looks more like the West than ever before and the West looks more like the East. I wouldn’t necessarily call this a true “synthesis” at this point, but we seem to be moving in that direction.
Most of these changes occur first at the lowest level --that of popular culture. True synthesis will come when the thinking and practices inform scientific, religious, and medical practices at the root level, which will become apparent when we see a synthesis of these ideas in education--when the new generation learns something from both worlds of thought.
In physics, I think a synthesis of Eastern and Western views has been apparent since at least the 1950s. In the general culture, I see a synthesis of East and West happening as well, though not quite as fully integrated. The “synthesis” is kind of like an introduction at this point to ways of being and thinking in both Eastern and Western cultures. Just through my own witnessing, and no particular research devoted to the topic, I list here some examples of Eastern / Asian influence in the West, and Western influence in the East:
Eastern influences in the West:
Martial arts: Karate, Tai Chi, Tae Kwon Do, etc.
Yoga / meditation
Chinese medical practices: herbs, acupuncture
Ayervedic medical practices
Buddhist and Hindu practices (books, monasteries, retreats)
Asian cuisine (Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, etc.)
Increase in population of Asians
Products made in Asia are ubiquitous
Presence of the Dalai Lama as a world religious figure
local Asian TV stations
Western influences in the East:
Capitalism (or some version of it)
Increased consumption (energy, cars, food, etc.)
Westernized styles (music, dress, food, etc.)
Allopathic medicine
With increased global communication and travel we have seen ideas and lifestyles from far away places infiltrate previously isolated cultures (except, perhaps, in Wyoming). In places, the East looks more like the West than ever before and the West looks more like the East. I wouldn’t necessarily call this a true “synthesis” at this point, but we seem to be moving in that direction.
Most of these changes occur first at the lowest level --that of popular culture. True synthesis will come when the thinking and practices inform scientific, religious, and medical practices at the root level, which will become apparent when we see a synthesis of these ideas in education--when the new generation learns something from both worlds of thought.
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