This is SO WEIRD!!!
This week I have been practicing a series of 'invisible needle' techniques. I have written a little about this before, but once again this is a slight variation on what have seen before.
The theory of "5-element" or "5-Phase" acupuncture has a long history. There is an entire school of acupuncture that is based on this system. In short it is an understanding that one "phase' of energy leads to, or creates, the next phase. I use the term phase because to my mind the concept of element implies static or unchanging; phase implies change. It is understood that these phases are dynamic.
This line of theory states that "Water creates Wood; Wood creates Fire; Fire creates Earth (the ashes of a fire a like earth/dirt); Earth creates Metal (in the earth there are veins of ore); Metal creates Water (near those veins of ore it is not uncommon to find underground rivers). That is the "creative" cycle. There is also a 'controlling' cycle. Water controls Fire (Water cools fire); Fire controls Metal (Fire melts Metal); Metal controls Wood (Cuts); Wood controls Earth (the roots of a plant slowing erosion); Earth controls Water (Earthen dams, river banks). This is also seen as a family relationship; grandparents, parents and children. In an Asian family it is not uncommon to have three generations in one house and in that type of arrangement the grandparents have a lot of influence on the grandchildren.
What I have been working with is a variation of this where I am working to tonify one phase of energy, or more specifically one Organ system by treating it in a 5-phase context. Tonify the "mother" and sedate the "grandmother" to affect the energy of the "child." It would be interesting to consider this in terms of family dynamics, but that is the subjet for another blog.
What is REALLY interesting is that in the clinic I supervise as well as with my own patients I am not physically touching the patient with the needle. Yet they are feeling the 'energy.' Here is what happens.
At the end of a regular acupuncture treatment I feel the pulses once again, then depending on what their pulses are reflecting I perform an "invisible needle" treatment. I engage the patient by asking them to tell me when they feel the energy at the point. I hold the needle above the surface of their skin and work the needle the same as if it were "inserted." Every one of the patients has been reporting they feel this technique within 30 seconds. Way COOL!!!
Today I was working a point on the side of my patients foot, but I still had the needles in the rest of her. I was stimulating a point on the Spleen meridian, Sp-2; she still had a needle in at Sp-3 (just across the knuckle of her big toe). Just before she said I feel it I watched the needle at Sp-3 make a huge movement; BUT I DID NOT SEE ANY MUSCULAR MOVEMENT IN ANY OF THE MUSCLES ON HER FOOT OR CALF. I finished the rest of her treatment and her pulses had changed considerably so it was time to let her go on with her day. But I am still thinking about that treatment.
As I said, this is SO weird!!!
The theory of "5-element" or "5-Phase" acupuncture has a long history. There is an entire school of acupuncture that is based on this system. In short it is an understanding that one "phase' of energy leads to, or creates, the next phase. I use the term phase because to my mind the concept of element implies static or unchanging; phase implies change. It is understood that these phases are dynamic.
This line of theory states that "Water creates Wood; Wood creates Fire; Fire creates Earth (the ashes of a fire a like earth/dirt); Earth creates Metal (in the earth there are veins of ore); Metal creates Water (near those veins of ore it is not uncommon to find underground rivers). That is the "creative" cycle. There is also a 'controlling' cycle. Water controls Fire (Water cools fire); Fire controls Metal (Fire melts Metal); Metal controls Wood (Cuts); Wood controls Earth (the roots of a plant slowing erosion); Earth controls Water (Earthen dams, river banks). This is also seen as a family relationship; grandparents, parents and children. In an Asian family it is not uncommon to have three generations in one house and in that type of arrangement the grandparents have a lot of influence on the grandchildren.
What I have been working with is a variation of this where I am working to tonify one phase of energy, or more specifically one Organ system by treating it in a 5-phase context. Tonify the "mother" and sedate the "grandmother" to affect the energy of the "child." It would be interesting to consider this in terms of family dynamics, but that is the subjet for another blog.
What is REALLY interesting is that in the clinic I supervise as well as with my own patients I am not physically touching the patient with the needle. Yet they are feeling the 'energy.' Here is what happens.
At the end of a regular acupuncture treatment I feel the pulses once again, then depending on what their pulses are reflecting I perform an "invisible needle" treatment. I engage the patient by asking them to tell me when they feel the energy at the point. I hold the needle above the surface of their skin and work the needle the same as if it were "inserted." Every one of the patients has been reporting they feel this technique within 30 seconds. Way COOL!!!
Today I was working a point on the side of my patients foot, but I still had the needles in the rest of her. I was stimulating a point on the Spleen meridian, Sp-2; she still had a needle in at Sp-3 (just across the knuckle of her big toe). Just before she said I feel it I watched the needle at Sp-3 make a huge movement; BUT I DID NOT SEE ANY MUSCULAR MOVEMENT IN ANY OF THE MUSCLES ON HER FOOT OR CALF. I finished the rest of her treatment and her pulses had changed considerably so it was time to let her go on with her day. But I am still thinking about that treatment.
As I said, this is SO weird!!!
posted by Michael Clifford, L. Ac. | 11:11 AM
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