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Are there any seasoned acupuncturists around who I can ask some in-depth questions in a pm? I tried to get answers to these questions from a well-known acupuncturist but he kind of said that he rather explain these things in class/course. Due to Corona, I will not be able to see him this year but I would like to already make progress on these subjects.

My Naturopath/LaC employer is mostly retiring soon and will likely be selling some of his books and supplies related to oriental medicine. His wife also has a large amount of TCM materials in Chinese and so basically at this time, I am putting together a list if there are some people who might be interested in making offers on any of the materials. Hopefully this drive link will work: https://drive.google.com/open?id=11Vhlz74OJMwJNFu9oQoeLYRqIzhbTScqh Also other related materials including a vintage ultrasound, ear candling stuff really old Bach Flower essence kits that are unopened and according to the people that make them, they don't lose their efficacy when passed the expiration date.

Hi everyone This is my welcome post and I thought I would initiate a discussion about something I have been interested recently. Do you know any specific schools (UK), or Qigong systems which allows you to do Qi transmission in order to heal others. I have a background in Chinese Medicine, hence in my understanding that is partially whats happening during Acupuncture or massage, etc. However I am looking for a system which is more specialized in using such a healing method. In regards to my experience I mostly practice Yang style TaijiQuan and TaijiJian with some Qigong exercises on the side. Thanks

Hello! I'm new here but I've been a student of Daoism since I was little. I just graduated with my Masters Degree in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and will soon have my license in to practice Chinese medicine in my state. I have a blog where I write about Daoist alchemy, biophysics, and energywork. www.MakingTheMedicine.com My primary interests right now are in the Yijing, Daoist alchemy, and qigong practice. Currently reading the Cantong Qi and other works by Fabrizio Pregadio and trying to piece together my knowledge of Daoist alchemy by following the Yijing. Cheers to you all. Looking forward to taking part in these discussions!

In what order do I stimulate acupuncture points of the body, to relieve trapped qi and release blocked qi, and refresh the qi circulation throughout the entire body? Do i go: top down (left-side, right-side, center) top down (right-side, left-side, center) top down (center, left-side, right-side) top down (center, right-side, left-side) top down (right-side, center, left-side) top down (left-side, center, right-side) bottom up (left-side, right-side, center) bottom up (right-side, left-side, center) bottom up (center, left-side, right-side) bottom up (center, right-side, left-side) bottom up (right-side, center, left-side) bottom up (left-side, center, right-side) a different path around the body? thanks

In the early 1960's Bong Han Kim discovered a biological system that lined up exactly with the meridians and acupuncture points of the human body. Shortly afterwards Kim and much of his published research disappeared Prior to that, his research indicated, this system had energy carrying capacities, far beyond any other of the human circulatory systems. The next 50 years saw an active suppression of this research. But, the Bonghan system is now being resurrected as the "Primo Vascular System" by some pretty big names in biology, chemistry and cancer research. It seems that this new research is corroborating much of Bong Han Kim's earlier research. I am interested in how many Dao Bums know of this and what their understanding is of its' spiritual/meditative/health value?

I have had this problem for so many years. I have been to monks, I have been to teachers, I have seen my guru many times, nothing ever, ever, permanently fixes this problem. When I meditate, energy moves into my head, it builds into a giant ball of pressure, and then anger, delusion, confusion, and insanity start to arise as a result. For years I have tried to fix it, I have been taught so many techniques to fix it, nothing fixes this problem. When the pressure builds up in my head, it starts to hurt my heart and lungs below. I have felt like I was going to have a heart attack before. Every morning I wake up, there it is, the big ball of pressure stuck in my head, i meditate, it gets worse and worse. Everyday is another day of suffering and misery. Horrible horrible emotions constantly arising day after day due to this energy being stuck in my head. Is there anyone in this world that knows how to fix this problem? I haven't met one yet :\

Hello everybody. I'm a neurosurgeon from Italy running a spine surgery program in Milan. I am one of the teacher of the italian most important acupuncture school: so-wen (sorry for not being able to link their internet site). I'm about to start a project on a group of seminar concerning the study of oriental medicine physiology and I found great help in some of your posts while working on my power points. So thank you everybody and hope to start exchanging experiences on everything.

Posted this vid in the off-topic section but there's more traffic here. Good documentary.

A good friend of mine has been in medical school for the past three or four years and is training to become a surgeon. We often discuss our differences in opinion when we get together and I've learned to embrace the contradictions in our perspectives - I consider them balancing. It used to be that I couldn't hold up my perspective, mostly on an emotional level, under his rigorous scrutiny. He's a very intense character with a genuinely staggering mental powerhouse at his disposal (or vice versa). He's also emotionally numb to the degree that I don't think he has access to certain vital emotional and spiritual resources/experiences that have shaped my own mind and thinking. He's had very aggressive psychological behavior in the distant past that bordered on sadism, and I think he still has that proclivity, but abstains from indulging in it. Now I've come to a solid appreciation for his craft and for the work of scientists and medical practitioners everywhere. If you've read my posts, you know that I'm extremely interested and supportive of science, particularly study of the nervous system and of organic chemistry, although I don't fully appreciate or approve of their clinical applications. He knows this and is in agreement to some degree. This evening's topic of discussion was naturopathy, as I'm considering a dual-major in Chinese medicine and naturopathy this upcoming year. My argument, more or less, was that a naturopath is well-educated in western anatomical, biochemical and allopathic perspectives, but chooses to utilize "natural" medicine to promote health and healing. I openly embraced the limitations of this medicine, agreed that some naturopaths try to overstep their boundaries and training, and that it was important for there to be open communication between NDs and MDs, so that each professional could manage health and disease within the scope of their practice. I expressed my own goals clearly: to educate people and get them interested in their own health, and to treat what I am trained to treat using the same principles conventional medicine uses: give the patient what is proven to work and cross my fingers. But his skepticism and intense criticism of naturopathic medicine astounded me, as I thought this was an increasingly outdated perspective - in fact, I thought that just about any divisive or insular attitude was becoming unpopular among educated medical professionals. After all, it seems political to me. Why create division where there could be partnership? But to him it's a cold, harsh reality, that Western medical research has more or less obliterated any credibility naturopathy or other alternative medicine has to offer. Alternative medicine, he says, is really no more effective than placebo, and that practitioners are more or less menaces to public health, since they practice inferior medicine. Now, I share his skepticism toward things like homeopathy and some of the claims of hydrotherapy, but using herbs to treat illness seems extremely scientific to me, given that medicinal plants are highly bioactive and have been used successfully (meaning it has helped people, not that it has necessarily been clinically approved) for thousands of years. I'll add that I've given up entirely on trying to explain acupuncture to an MD like him, as I increasingly think they don't even deal with the same system... at all. But naturopathy... I figured we could come to some basis for agreement there. I offered him the fact that naturopaths have more time to spend with patients, and hence a better opportunity to educate. I talked about blood and urine tests to determine nutrient and mineral deficiencies. I talked about the importance of diet and lifestyle. And I talked about the common interest of all medical professionals: to be very very well-educated and to help patients. He talked repeatedly about cardiovascular health, heart problems, cancer, and diabetes, all of which he claims are the "real" problems (is this true? beats me... he's seen more than I have), and that naturopathy fails in dealing with any of these. He says most of the patients he's seen either need surgery (which of course naturopathy and acupuncture don't really do), have cancer, diabetes, or serious heart health issues. He also doubts that naturopaths are trained adequately to recognize serious medical conditions when faced with them. He included pancreatic cancer and other conditions I didn't recognize, and expressed his doubts as to the alternative medicine community's capacity to treat, let alone recognize these conditions. I think his perspective is valid in that someone who has taken such poor care of themselves as to develop intense obesity and critical heart health issues, is possibly outside the scope of a naturopath's power to heal. After all, the idea is to help the body heal itself, and if the body is wrecked already, there probably needs to be a more acute method of intervention to prevent an impending health-related death (thin the blood, unclog the arteries, and some other things that pharmaceuticals do incredibly well with minimal risk and low toxicity). So I agreed with him on many points... But, I think naturopaths have a place and it's not an inferior position to the work of MDs. I think it fills a very vital and necessary niche in healthcare. Anyway, we both got exhausted from talking and stopped. I decided to do some more research on the internet about the efficacy of naturopathy from a conventional medicine perspective, and I'm genuinely surprised to find that there are some intensely negative perspectives on its efficacy and value to human civilization. Honestly, it often reads like passionate political banter, but I keep wondering... with all the work conventional medical researchers go through to go about validating the efficacy of their own medicine, how could they be wrong? I genuinely respect them and am confused now. My uncle is a research chemist and says a single pharmaceutical takes on average, between 12 to 18 years to develop, perfect, and research, and that even with all this work, many pharmaceuticals never make it out of the laboratory, because they're simply not reliable enough to merit marketing or using on general public. So... I guess my question is, what might be going on here? Is there something psychological, emotional, spiritual or political going on in his mind, that distorts his perspective? Or is possible that he's right, and that many alternative medicines are bogus? I want to say that I genuinely don't believe in divisive or extremist ideology of any sort. I don't really want a conventional answer to this question, such as "western doctors are brainwashed," or whatever else. I want to work with MDs and DOs and chiropractors etc., not insulate myself from them. I consider them experts and future colleagues that I hope to develop professional and personal relationships with. I'd like to think we can learn from each other, and that our perspectives and techniques for healing the human body will change as we all become better educated, more ethical, and wiser in our thoughts and knowledge. I'd like to believe that my perspective is not naive, and I feel mature in holding space for both our perspectives calmly and equally, but I am definitely confused. I'm guessing many of you have dealt with similar friends, colleagues, etc. Opinions, guesses, perspectives are appreciated.

Hey! The deal is this: I am putting together an exhibition about chinese medicine where I will illustrate the relation between anatomy and energy, between medicine and cultivation. There are some topics I will take up with my pictures: -direct relationship between anatomy and energywork -illustrations of movement of qi -illustration of healthy qi movement contra diseased qi movement Now, practitioners of chinese medicine and cultivators, i need your help. I am 80% handyman when it comes to my artwork, and I want to broaden my spectrum of ideas. What are creative ways to illustrate these things? And, do you have any other ideas of what you would want shown through an image? So far I have only made two images: 1. cultivation. This image is a more anatomically-oriented version of the neijing tu combined with some elements from the xiuzhen tu. 2. internal and external pathways shown with anatomy and the three dantian. So, please everybody, give me your opinions and ideas for how I can make a really awesome exhibition in october, and if lucky help evolve the way we imagine our body and mind. best wishes, j

Im posting this in the Taoist discussion because the technique I wil be introducing works with the energy system using a chinese acupressure technique and the person that taught it to me was a Taoist. If it belongs in another section, I'm sorry. So, to give more significance to this technique I want to tell the story of how I came across it and how I completely 360'd out of mental illness into a life of happiness and spirituality with it. It is called the emotional freedom technique. And it will probably seem a little goofy to you until you experience the benefits for yourself. Or accept the benefits instead of refusing to leave your paradigm, which I will explain later. The emotional freedom technique uses tapping on your acupressure points, repeating a phrase, all while experiencing and concentrating on the emotion you don't want, to remove the emotion you don't want, leading to insight, and of course the removal of your fear or anger, depending on what you're experiencing. So, a long time ago, when I was around 11, I came down with a fear of being around other people. I played the victim and was able to get out of school at around 12, locked myself in my room, played world of warcraft until 5 in the morning, slept all day, masturbated 2-4 times after waking up to pornography, thought extensively to the point of exhaustion, grew a hardcore hatred for people and the world, had large bags under my eyes by the time i was 13, slept 15 hours a day and was still tired when waking up, by the time I was 16 I was in jail for drugs, turned 18 in jail, got out, was still a miserable jerk. Then only when I was backed into a corner and had no way out, did I finally try this technique. I was in therapy seeing the same therapist since I was 13. He taught me the emotional freedom technique multiple times. I would go in, we would do a routine with the technique, and literally right before my eyes, after doing the technique, a gigant series of emotional traumatic nonsense would disappear completely out of reality, losing every single ounce of effect it had on me. Maybe a dislike for women, or an anger toward my dad, whatever it was, in those sessions I would get rid of something. I would unblock the energy. Then why didn't I get better you might ask? I didn't get better because I refused to accept that it had happened. It was incredibly bizarre. Fear I had toward confronting my dad would disappear, but I would play it off as a placebo or just completely ignore it all together and forget it had happened. Meanwhile, I still had a whole gigant load of terrible stuff I was holding onto that I could have gotten rid of with the technique, but didn't, because the idea that I could get rid of it by tapping on myself was too stupid to believe. It didn't fit into my belief system, and because of that, I didn't use the technique. Even though I had seen it work, I didn't believe it worked. But at some point after getting out of jail and moving back in with my family, it was either do something or this is the end. So, I did something. I used all of my anger and turned it into energy for meditation. For 4 days I did a routine of sitting and walking meditation for 30 minutes each. I made the intention to do it for 10, but it didn't last. However, during the first 4 hours, I got up to walk, and I realized that all of my rapidly changing moods were impermenent and not really a big deal. I also realized the nature of the body to surcome to injury and illness and broke attachment to it for a little while. However, I wasn't getting better fast enough, and something else happened. So I used my meditation motivation and started using the emotional freedom technique. At the time I was living in the ghetto. I was still an agrophobic, afraid to leave my house, especially in the neighborhood I was in. But to use the emotional freedom technique, I needed to bring up the emotions before I could get rid of them. So I went outside and sat on a chair on my porch. I started by waving at cars that drove by. At the time, that brought up incredibly embarassing feelings and I felt like an idiot. But I just tapped and they went away. Eventually I developed a routine of doing walking meditation in my front yard while tapping on myself while cars went by. This led to my dad making fun of me and embarassing my family, but I continued. And this started a whole stream of me purposely doing things that I was afraid of or felt stupid doing so I could get rid of these things. As I tapped and got rid of all of this trash inside of my body and mind, hate, fear, insecurity, I physically felt the organs and liver and the inside of my stomach moving and readjusting itself, as if recovering from a terrible accident. My body was healing before my eyes, my mind was changing as if I was transforming into a completely different being. All of the nonsense I believed was disappearing and being replaced by love. I started to walk around day and night with a backpack and county map searching for my fears so I could face them. Once a cynical basement dwelling terribly afraid child, I had become a wandering ascetic in search of transformation. Every feeling I got rid of was replaced by clear sight and peace. The things I once hid from I began to welcome. The people that were suppose to be helping me, I became their teacher. The more I told this to my therapist, the more we connected. It turns out he was a Taoist, and the techniques he teaches,not just the emotional freedom technique, had to do with moving with the way, unblocking energy, healing with shaministic theory. And I witnessed groups with him doing different techniques on people. Seeing other people go through this process is quite strange. As one problem fades, another comes up behind it. Sometimes they don't even know. Sometimes, even though they can get rid of suffering, they would sometimes rather just complain about it, because they have justified their own suffering to cope with it, so it is ok for them to suffer and they don't want to get rid of it. It is almost like witnessing the paranormal seeing a part of someone that they believe to be themself, that they have had for the last 20 or 30 years ruining their life, just disappear in the blink of an eye, then watch that person deny that it had happened, while at the same time admitting that their problem is gone. For example, there was a person that was terrified of ladders. He wouldn't go within a hundred yards of a ladder and if he did he would freak out. The therapist had him use eft, and he just went and climed up and down a ladder. So when they asked him how great it was that eft did that, like the freakin twilight zone, he denied that the technique did that and said he never had a problem to begin with. I was told this was because people live in a certain paradigm that they sometimes can't step out of. There was a story once of an advanced meditator that was having a heart attack. He called his son away from the dinner table calmly, walked him outside, and told him he was having a heart attack and to drive him to the hospital after dinner. So the son drove him to the hospital, and he told the doctors. They said it was bs, couldn't be happening, and they wouldn't treat him. So he ended up dying of a heart attack right in the hospital. And since it wasn't within a doctors paradigm to believe that someone could be having a heart attack while being that calm, they just ignored it. It's like the skeptic that argues with someone that healed themselves of cancer with qi gong. Even though this person had cancer, and as soon as she started qi gong it went away, it's outside of his paradigm to understand this. So it must be some kind of placebo he says. Dr david r hawkins described this as being on different energy levels. Or different planes of consciousness. Anyways, I've kind of lost interest in typing this. The whole point I think was to tell you how well eft works. If you have major emotional issues meditation can take a while to get rid of them. The eft technique can just blow them into the wind with a few rounds. So check it out and good luck.