Peaceful Mountain Acupuncture

A weekly blog about Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine.

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Location: Rio Rancho, New Mexico, United States

This blog is going to be, primarily a venue for me to express my thoughts about Life and the complexities of the physical plane. My story is simple, I am an easy going individual and a moderate recluse. I am comfortable walking or sitting, talking or being silent. I am always seeking new friends and acquaintenances. I tend to look deeply and question myself about the lesson behind the experience. If you like what you read, please leave me a note, if you have a blog please leave me a link so I can read your writing as well. Thanks

Saturday, July 29, 2006

An update

A few weeks ago I wrote about a lady that was going "very deep in her process" and how I felt that was being reflected in her pulses. Well it's time for a little update.

Today when she walked in I noticed something was different. When I asked her how she was and what was going on she told me that, "After I left the last time I saw you, everything has changed. I am not seeing things the same way. I am more easy going." This is a GREAT CHANGE.

The treatment I gave her last time is another "Michaelism." It will take a minute to explain.

The energy, or "Qi" that acupuncture deals with travels in a continuous circuit. For conversation sake it has usually been described as starting at the Lung meridian, then into the Large Intestine meridian, then into the Stomach, into the Spleen. This goes on through all twelve meridians 'ending' with the Liver meridian where it starts all over again into the Lung meridian. Each meridian is said to have a "entry point" and an "exit point.' [Though as currently taught in China this is not taught, at all. But that is another story.]

What I did for this patient was needle Liver-3 ~ "Taichong", then Liver-14 "Qimen " (the exit point on the Liver meridian) then needle Lung -1 "Zhongfu " (the entry point for the Lung meridian). My theory is that she has A LOT OF LIVER QI CONSTRAINT, OR STAGNATION and I wanted to "course the Liver." I also added in some "Shen Calming Points" Pericardium-6 "Neiguan" and Heart-7 "Shenmen."

By coursing the Liver to this degree she was able to release a lot of the pent up frustration and anger that has been holding her back.

Today when I came back into the room to check on her she commented that this was the first time she almost fell asleep while on the table. For her that is huge progress.

Friday, July 28, 2006

A student says something intriguing

Last night while teaching the Immunology class one of the students asked me if I had ever heard of the "Rife Microscope?" "No, what is it?" I asked. She said this inventor in the 20's or 30's created this microscope that allows one to see actual living cells, bacteria and viruses.

Google is such a handy little tool.... go to this web site: "www.navi.net/~rsc/rife1.htm" or the second one "www.navi.net/~rsc/rifebook.htm". It seems that this gentleman actually created a microscope that could see beyond the normally accepted range of magnification, and more importantly it could see the samples without killing them. Think about that for the treatment of disease. He did. In fact if one believes him he found and isolated one of the causative factors for cancer. Then he developed a non-invasive, non-traumatic way of treating the cancer. Even harder to believe, it worked. Oh my dear readers, I can hear you asking "What was the result, and why have we never heard of this?" Well that is a good question. I can only tell you what little I read of his story before I got so excited I had to blog about it. [And I wanted to write something so you all know I am not freaked out abut H5N1...] It seems that the good man was locked up for a number of years and the AMA worked hard to discredit his name and research. H'mm why does that NOT surprise me? OK, Sorry I am getting too cynical.

Mr. Rife found a specific light frequency that would deactivate the malignant cells. Apparently it was not painful, or anything like that. The treatment would take 3 minutes evry three days for about a week. The cancer was erradicted.

Now, think your way through this. This article (linked above) is saying that this treatment modality was effective at erradicating cancer. Yet none of us have ever heard of it. And the inventor was jailed and discreditied. (This reminds me of the movie "The Count of Monte Cristo. It seems to be a good way of hiding or discrediting the information) At the very least I would think that the scientific community would want to learn about the microscope, but more in line with my concerns(personal and professional) I would want to know why this went down the way it did. It is a scary/sad/disheartening day when one thinks that there might have been an effective treatment for cancer in the 30's and we are still 'searching' for a cure 75 years later...

So, I found the comments of this student to be very interesting. She is a nurse and has seen enough of the allopathic medical model to be cynical in her own way. But for me it was really interesting because I have never heard of Mr. Rife or his universal microscope. I would encourage you to surf to the pages and see what you think. Of course we all know that you cannot believe everything you read on the web, but that is the beauty of it. You have to be intelligent enough to discern the truth from the untruth. Its all there...

Till the next time.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

I have been debating this for a while

As my family knows I have been contemplating and observing news reports about viruses for several years. This all started back in acupuncture school when I read the book "The Hot Zone" which is about the ebola virus. That book opened my eyes to the complexities of viral infections. Viruses are so intriguing to me, they can be active or 'alive' then switch to inactive or inert, then when the circumstances change back in their favor they switch back to active. (Sometimes I think that is what my brain does but that is another subject...)

So a couple of years ago when I heard about the Bird Flu H5N1 I started paying attention to it. I have been on again-off again monitoring the World Health organization's website. They have been concerned about it and have good deal of information. There is a 'time-line' to see how the virus has mutated over the last 4 years and how it is slowly adapting itself to be more transmissible within the human genome. Go to www.who.int and look for avian flu, read the timeline, and read the fact sheet. Both are sobering reading, to say the least.

What catches my attention and why I am writing about this today is when the scientist say it is not a question of "if" it is a question of "when, and how severe" there will be a major influenza outbreak. Then they said there have been human-to-human infections. Then finally they have said that this fall it may break out and become a world wide condition. Because the human race has never had to deal with the H5N1 virus before we have no immunity to it, therefore it is quite serious, with a fatality rate above 70%.

That got my attention. Then I went to the CDC's website to see what the Center for Disease Control has to say. This was also eye opening; go to www.pandemicflu.gov to see what they have to say. Essentially they also agree and the CDC says that when it hits (again not an if statement) expect the medical system to get overloaded and shut down. Expect the utilities to go off after a few days or longer, be prepared to have no governmental support for as long as 2 months. What is really revealing tome about this is the admission that "you will be on your own."

Another site to go to would be "www.survivetheflu.com/whattodo.html" it gives additional information on supplies and preparation.

We all saw what happened in New Orleans after Katrina. Can you imagine what it could be like if that was multiplied by 1,000. The issue to remember is that with a virus you are contagious before you are symptomatic, so Jane or John Doe is contagious and gets on a jet with 300 other people. Everyone breathes the same wonderful air for the duration of the flight. Each of those 300 people is now exposed, possibly infected. Each one goes on with their day. How many people will he or she contact in the next three to five days? How many people will those people contact? Now Jane or John Doe is getting sick, and they go to a hospital; lets be kind and say the hospital immediately recognizes the disease (highly unlikely at first). How may others have Jane & John been in close contact with over the last 4-5 days? See the problem? There honestly could be 10,000 unaware, infected carriers by the time the initial carriers become symptomatic. This is how the medical system gets overwhelmed, it can happen in 2-3 days.

SO, BY NOW YOU ARE ALL WONDERING WHY IN THE WORLD I AM WRITING ABOUT THIS ON MY BLOG? Well to be honest so am I.

I feel there is a need to talk about this potential pandemic in our society. I do realize that the government is in a bind, if they start talking truthfully about this it could cause a HUGE panic and that would be as bad if not worse. But I do think it needs to be talked about in a sane, calm manner. I am not an alarmist, I am not an extremist. All I have said in this blog is backed up by science.

We need to be prepared. How prepared and how you prepare is an individual question. But as an analogy I will leave you with an old story out of the mid-east.

There were these two camel herders going across the desert. They saw a storm was approaching and decided to make camp before it got to them. The one man got off his camel and immediately started pitching his tent. The other man said "What are you doing? You have to tie up your camel to keep him from wandering off in the storm." The first man replied back to his friend, "I have given that to Allah. He will take care of my camel." His friend replied back, "You do not understand, first you tie up your camel, then you give it to Allah."

So my friends and family. Please think about this and if you care to, tie up your camel, then give it to your own individual God within.

Maybe next week I will have a more pleasant subject to blog about...
Respectfully,
Michael

Saturday, July 08, 2006

A pulse reflecting the process

I am seeing a patient that is going extremely deep in her process. She is questioning every aspect of her life, including why she is seeing me, as well as every other thing ~ Life, Work, Husband, you name it...

What I am finding to be very interesting is how her pulses are reflecting her process.

Last appointment she was very external. Things in the outside world were bothering her, a lot. Her pulsese were "surging," or stronger at the surface, wider and with more force. This time she is very internal, questioning everything; her pulses are deeper and less forcefull.

As I have written about before, feeling the pulses is where I always say the "science of Chinese Medicine meets the art of acupuncture." By that I mean that it is where I have to be able to discern specific, concise differences in the quality of a pulse and describe those differences in logical, conscise specific terminology. To say it is a challenge is an understatement.

So where do I go with this? Well in this particular case I am opening up the Liver meridian to coarse or reduce the Liver Qi Stagnation, but I am also opening up the Lung meridian as that is where the Liver Qi flows to, then I am tonifying the Lung Qi and opening up the Large Intestine meridian as that is where the Lung qi flows to. 10 needles, could have a dramatic effect, or could have no effect that I ever hear about.

Regardless it is always interesting to see how a pulse can reflect a process and I do respect how deep this lady is going in her process....