donating blood

[mantis]

just today i finished my 3rd blood donation and i was thinking about it. in theory, wouldn't it help with stagnation and help circulate both chi and blood? it removes old blood that is simply recirculated and forces your heart to create new blood, if you have adopted a healthier life style, more nutrient enriched. thoughts?

[.broken.]

if i remember rightly red blood cells do not last very long (a matter of days) within the body and the bone marrow is constantly in the process of producing more.

 

my experience of blood donation was that it seemed to drain much chi away - and it took a few weeks to get up to a pleasant standard of all over body tingling that i'm now so used to. my experiences, however, remain mine - yours may be in favour of blood donation for your cultivation practices.

[VeeCee]

I have never had much success with giving blood because I am a "fainter" (pass out after giving). I used to give on a regular basis, but eventually gave it up because it was just too hard on my system (not to mention hitting the floor was no fun).

[mantis]

i donate and i have no problem (i'm 17, however, easily youngest here) and i feel good now, not even drained

[karen]

Hi mantis,

 

There's a lot that could be said about blood donation from a subtle energy point of view. It can have a weakening effect on the life force, as others have noticed in their own experience. If a person has stagnation, there are safer ways of addressing the imbalance.

 

In theory, blood donations shouldn't be necessary - there are some hospitals where they use normal saline infusions in surgery, because blood volume is all that's necessary. The body makes the rest itself. That avoids the whole problem of foreign proteins. Within 72 hours, the body replaces all the transfused blood with its own, anyway.

 

If a person has a condition in which they have too much iron, then reducing the blood volume can correct that, but it's a very crude way of doing it, and there are better ways.

 

Putting a needle into a vein is a shock to the body on a subtle energy level, even if the person doesn't feel it as a trauma. It's good to take homeopathic Arnica afterward, if you have blood drawn or donate blood.

 

Also, homeopathic China is good for loss of vital fluid, if you feel drained afterward.

 

-Karen

[rain]

...

Edited April 18, 2008 by rain

[Taomeow]

Someone close to me had to get a couple of blood transfusions (in a critical situation, for which modern Western medicine is not equipped with non-Western non-modern methods and which real medicine is not even allowed to touch, train, certify, legalize, practice, or preach). So, OK, it all went well, he needed it and it was a good thing he got it, out of all options available. I take him home from the hospital and he sees everything as strange and unfamiliar, as though for the first time. Then he sees a Carl's Junior, and goes, oh I'm so hungry for a hamburger, and a coke, and some french fries, let's stop there get some food! The punch line being that this person is a healthy eater who hadn't eaten in a place like that in years. Alright, we get a "carlsburger" or whatever, he gobbles it up, gets another, washes it down with a soda (something he never drinks), and three hours later, wants more of the same! This went on for two weeks, he craved all kinds of junk and nothing else. Then gradually it subsided, and one day he bites into the same hamburger and bun, makes a face and says, jeez, this is awful, it's like cardboard, there's no life in it, no taste, no juice, no nutrition, how could I ever want to eat something like this? And I tell him, hey, you're back! And that was the end of the junk food rampage, no desire for it anymore, back to normal. So we figured... we figured what happened was, as we were explained, when you get a "unit" of blood it's not all coming from one donor, it's mixed and the source of one unit is at least forty or fifty different people. He gets two units, that's blood from eighty to one hundred different people. And most of them are junk food eaters. So he was getting all their cravings and what-not with their blood. And god only knows what else!.. (He did a major fast later, unrelated to the transfusion and its aftermath -- but hopefully it took care of the repercussions of that too.)

[karen]

i was in surgery today and had narcosis. no bloodtransfusion involved though.

when i came out of it i went from warm

to cold and had like ever so subtle shivers and little spasm riding through my body from the

solar plexus and dan tien area. i was supervised until it qietened down, and was told that

some, not too many have this reaction and they are qurious to what causes it on the

physical level. the nurs said they thought this happen to specifically sensitive people

who are tense befor surgery. (i flippantly said yesterday that i felt apprehensive..)

anyway i told the nurse i am practising qigong (explained to her like something like taiji)

and that it is my natural way to release the shock of the needle and infusion of

narcosis and that trauma...

you recommend arnica for this too or fex. the rescue remedy of Dr.Bach?

hope it is ok i ask your advice?

thanx

 

Hi Rain,

 

Sure, no problem. Shaking can be caused by many things, and it's difficult to say based on a short description of symptoms. But it often comes from deep fears that create thermal disturbances, so people shiver or feel unusually hot or cold. It could be that your body was trying to release the trauma, as you said.

 

The body doesn't recover completely on its own from these types of traumas, because they create an actual energetic impingement on the life force. It's good to take the remedies that remove the impingements.

 

These are the remedies usually used for surgery - each one for a different aspect of it. The remedies can be taken together, since it was one event. These are the "homeopathic" form of the substances, just to clarify that.

 

For any type of physical injury - Arnica

For the trauma of injections - Ledum

For trauma to nerves - Hypericum

If it was general anesthesia - Phosphorus

For the emotional sense of violation - Staphysagria

For any drugs given - Nux vomica

If there was fear - Opium (can't be bought in the US!)

If there is currently fear - Aconite

 

And there are other remedies for various other emotional states that might be part of it.

 

Sometimes a homeopath can give a potentized remedy made from the exact drug you took, to remove the disturbance caused by that drug. Nux vomica is the general cleanser, but if the exact remedy is available (called an isode), that's even better.

 

Rescue Remedy has its use in certain conditions where there is not an actual energetic impingement. People who are healthy and just become a little emotionally out of sorts at times, can respond well to that remedy.

 

It depends on precisely what you're dealing with. In most cases, when an acute fear state isn't resolving quickly, this is not just a simple imbalance, and requires remedies that can act more deeply on the life force.

 

But natural medicine usually uses a "hit or miss" approach, where you try a little of this and a little of that, without there being an understanding of exactly what is being treated (a true diagnosis, which is very different from an allopathic diagnosis). When you have a true diagnosis, then the remedy that will cure that particular disease is clearly known. So it's not just a matter of "let's try something and see if it helps."

 

I hope you're feeling better, and it would be great if you could take some Arnica, at least.

 

 

 

Taomeow,

 

Very interesting story! The blood carries the astral forces of the donor, so it makes sense that it would affect the consciousness of the recipient.

 

And that's also why after a transfusion the body tries to get rid of it. The body will actually kill the blood of a transfusion and replace it with its own, within 72 hours - pretty amazing, huh? It treats it like an invader.

 

But your friend's reaction was so interesting. I had a major blood transfusion 10 years ago, and don't remember craving junk food, but come to think of it, I did have a thing for ginger ale - not even the real kind of ginger beer but the crappy cheap kind with corn syrup was just fine with me. Hmm.

 

-Karen

Edited September 18, 2007 by karen

[Yoda]

My Swami says that giving blood is one of the most powerful generators of good karma you can find. If you have good health, it's a great practice to get past blocks and stagnation.

 

I can feel psychic connection with others after I give blood and I've noticed that they do send their thanks on a subtle level.

 

Vampire bats share blood with each other if one has a bad night. I figure if vampires can do it, so can I.

 

But if giving blood isn't appropriate for one's situation, any sort of altruistic service is very freeing too and can also help with stagnation.

 

Yoda

[Lozen]

I donated blood yesterday so I could find out what my blood type is, and then I was told that in Chinese medicine they think that your soul is in your blood! Luckily I only gave away 1/12th of it.

 

It actually made me really hyper. Also I got a free apple pie out of the deal.

[minkus]

About the narcosis .. very strong substances are used to bring you under narcosis or keep your muscles tight for fascilitating the operation.

 

An example is ketamine, originally a tranquilizer for animals but for humans a strong hallucinogen in smaller dose.

 

I can understand why you feel strange shivers, spasms or changes in energy after narcosis. Others used often are adrenaline, atropine, fentanyl, etc.. wich can all have strange effects afterwords.

[karen]

It's not necessary to donate blood to get your blood typed. There are blood typing kits online that require only a finger prick. Here's one.

 

Also if you've ever had surgery, the hosital would have the record of blood type.

[Lozen]

Yeah, I didn't want to spend $15 and wait a week to get the kit so I just donated blood... I had surgery but who knows when and where that hospital was...somewhere in Pennsylvania. Anyway, too late.

 

It made me hyper though, which I didn't expect.

 

How many days til you get your soul back after donating blood?

[karen]

It made me hyper though, which I didn't expect.

The metabolism is furiously gearing up to replenish the energy loss.

 

How many days til you get your soul back after donating blood?

It's not so much that your soul is lost, although various traditions have various beliefs about that. It's more that the blood is the carrier of the life force and the soul's individuality. You don't want to deliberately weaken that. But you can take remedies for the energetic disturbance that it causes, which will help you recoup.

 

-Karen

[Lozen]

Well, I can't find my arnica but I just took arnica powder for my foot thing, and I took homeopathic china.

[karen]

Well, I can't find my arnica but I just took arnica powder for my foot thing, and I took homeopathic china.

 

Those are good. But there are other shocks involved in a blood draw, in addition. Ledum for the puncture, Hypericum for damage to nerves, Staphysagria for the violation. And ideally in ascending potencies to clear the trauma on all levels. But people can safely take those remedies on their own in a medium potency like 30C.

[Yoda]

How many days til you get your soul back after donating blood?

 

You do lose some life, but it gets mixed with others and they pay you back with interest.

[doc benway]

just today i finished my 3rd blood donation and i was thinking about it. in theory, wouldn't it help with stagnation and help circulate both chi and blood? it removes old blood that is simply recirculated and forces your heart to create new blood, if you have adopted a healthier life style, more nutrient enriched. thoughts?

I'm a health care professional and do advocate blood donation but I don't think it's particularly healthy (or unhealthy, for that matter). I believe that the human organism in it's native state is more or less perfect, that is - exactly as it is. I don't really think that donating blood is necessary to improve circulation. I don't think that we were designed or adapted to have a need for removing old blood in any way other than our built in mechanism.

 

As I've said before, I don't look at qi as stuff as much as I look at our awareness of it as what we experience. I don't think the body is a vessel that contains qi, rather a manifestation or perception of it. In that way, I don't think there's much that giving blood would really do to deplete or restore qi, per se.

 

Interestingly, blood letting has been with us historically for millenia in terms of healing but I'm not really sure anyone knows if or why it works...

 

I recently saw a demonstration of a blood letting technique (combined with cupping and traditional Chinese herbal medicine) that caused a number of people to claim improvement in a variety of symptoms. I have my own opinions about why it works but that's for another day...

[karen]

Interestingly, blood letting has been with us historically for millenia in terms of healing but I'm not really sure anyone knows if or why it works...

 

Dr. Hahnemann described the life force as a polarity between that which sustains ("sustentive" power) and that which generates life (generative power). He saw that the bloodletting practices of his time were weakening the sustentive power of the organism, and that's exactly why it seemed to "work" to remove disease symptoms.

 

Symptoms come from the sustentive power of the organism - the natural healing power - as it tries to overcome blocakges or disease disturbances. So by weakening or reducing the ability of the body to produce symptoms, the person feels better temporarily.

 

But this of course isn't the real goal of medicine - it's to cure the underlying disease, not just kill the messenger or the counteraction (symptoms). Hahnemann saw that this kind of suppression of symptoms actually caused more disease (iatrogenic disease).

 

-Karen

[Lozen]

My Heilkunst person said I didn't need any remedies because it wasn't traumatic for me. *whew*

[karen]

My Heilkunst person said I didn't need any remedies because it wasn't traumatic for me. *whew*

 

Great! For someone who doesn't have a Heilkunst person , it wouldn't hurt to take remedies on their own if they weren't sure.

[Lozen]

Great! For someone who doesn't have a Heilkunst person , it wouldn't hurt to take remedies on their own if they weren't sure.

 

LOL! I was just concerned because of course some of the requisite remedies in my remedy kit are in various gym bags or somewhere else on the floor.

[karen]

LOL! I was just concerned because of course some of the requisite remedies in my remedy kit are in various gym bags or somewhere else on the floor.

 

Then maybe what you need for Christmas/Hannukah is a nice purse-sized remedy kit, in an elegant leather case - just the gift that everyone wants!

[Lozen]

Then maybe what you need for Christmas/Hannukah is a nice purse-sized remedy kit, in an elegant leather case - just the gift that everyone wants!

 

LOL! I have a purse-sized remedy kit!! I took out the remedies I needed and put them places...like I always take arnica to the gym, just in case. And I never use my purse!! I went to Target and bought this beautiful purse I loved, and my boyfriend looked at me kind of funny and said I didn't seem like the purse type. I spent an hour putting everything I needed in it and used it for about a week and am back to just carrying my wallet with me or random things I need in my pocket.

 

Oh yeah, about the soul thing...I guess in Chinese medicine they say your soul is in the blood, but at least they only took 1/12 of my soul. 92% of my soul is still intact, so I still have an A.

[kathrynwyles]

Blood cells don't stay in your system for very long, only a few days usually. They're constantly destroyed by the liver and new ones are made by bone marrow, so your body actually has a constant supply of "new" blood.