Man follows the earth.
Earth follows heaven.
Heaven follows the Dao.
Dao follows what is natural.
—Laozi, Daodejing
odern science has shown the physical body to be a miracle of living engineering. But there is another miracle, less tangible but no less real, that has been known about in China for thousands of years. The body is not just made up of vis-ible matter that can be viewed under the microscope or analyzed in test tubes. Its fundamental structure is made of qi, just as every-thing in the physical universe is made of qi.
At the deepest level, qi is a unity that cannot be described in words. It is the source of all creation. At the next level, in the fa-miliar world of our ¤ve senses, qi exists in everything we touch, smell, taste, see, and hear.
In the East, people are content to accept that qi is a unity, and they don’t try to analyze it into various components. But since the aim of this book is to draw out and highlight those manifestations of qi essential to our understanding of health and illness, it is useful to consider how qi functions in several ways:
• As energy, qi is like an underground river. It ¶ows without ceasing throughout the whole body and in health it moves
si-M
Recognizing the Signals Your Body Sends 37 lently, harmonizing and balancing body processes second by second.
• As information, qi works like radio signals endlessly being transmitted and received. It is like a program going out on the BBC that takes live feedback from the listeners. In this case BBC stands for “body broadcasting center.” Whenever a prob-lem arises in the body, there is an immediate broadcast that reveals the underlying disturbance provided the message is re-ceived and understood.
• The qi that surrounds us all can conveniently be called envi-ronment-qi. We have discussed how the body works like a hologram so that each body part contains a map of the whole body. But remember that at a higher level of magni¤cation, the body houses a map of the whole universe! This is why qi travels between people, as well as throughout the whole of nature, and we shall look later at how one person’s qi can af-fect another, for good or ill.
A healthy body feels calm, relaxed, and strong. Body movements are light and accurate, made without strain or effort. The body is looking after itself so well the owner doesn’t need to be aware of it doing its job. This is because the energy-qi is full and well balanced throughout the whole body. Put another way, the underground river ¶ows swift, strong, and silent. At such times there is no need for news broadcasts because there is no bad news to tell and no cor-rective action required. When you listen in, what you experience is the background music of energy, lightness, and happiness welling up from within the self. It only remains to dive into the river of qi and ¶oat peacefully with the current.
A word of warning! In this relaxed state, it might seem to others that you are daydreaming. You may feel in a bit of a trance and it is true that it takes time to learn how to adjust to this in your daily life.
When you do adjust, you ¤nd that you are in fact highly ef¤cient.
Your intelligence is more focused, your concentration is heightened, your memory is enhanced, and your creativity surges.
38 The Information System of the Body
Many of the greatest discoveries of science owe their invention to this dreamy state of mind. Thomas Edison, who invented the light bulb, found that his most brilliant ideas came to him when he sat still in a state of deep relaxation. He would take a handful of metal ball bearings and hold them over a dish. When he relaxed to the point of sleep, the ball bearings would fall into the dish, rousing him to pick them up again. Friedrich Kekule, the famous chemist, struggled for months to understand the structure of the benzene molecule. Deep in reverie, the image came to him of a snake with its tail in its mouth (the ancient symbol known as the uroboros).
This vision instantly solved the problem for him; he saw that car-Uroboros
Structure of Benzene Molecule
Recognizing the Signals Your Body Sends 39 bon atoms form rings, and this breakthrough formed the basis of all modern organic chemistry.
All of us can bene¤t from the creative potential of relaxation.
Contemporary research has shown that deep relaxation enhances concentration and learning. In China, seventy-one college students were taught to practice qigong for twenty minutes daily for three months. Their scores on mathematics improved by 14 percent and on languages by 50 percent. Experienced qigong practitioners are known to have exceptional powers of the mind, with heightened vi-sion and hearing extending to extrasensory perception, and total control of body physiology such as pulse and blood pressure. In the state of deep relaxation the whole wisdom of the universe ¶ows in like a waterfall, and learning and creativity become effortless. This state is called ding neng sheng hui (wisdom within calmness).
In contrast, when the body is not in balance and we are tired and drained, the river of qi does not ¶ow as it should. It may be de-pleted, in which case the current will be sluggish. Our limbs feel weary, we start yawning, and there is dryness of the eyes, all of which result from the lack of nourishment of qi.
These bodily reactions are among the ¤rst of the news broad-casts to go on air. If we take a break then and there and wait till the river of energy-qi rises, we quickly ¤nd ourselves refreshed and the symptoms will disappear. Unfortunately, all too often we respond by pouring ourselves another cup of coffee, overriding the signals our information-qi is sending and paying the price later. When we ignore these early warning signals, the body tries to warn us by sending stronger messages such as increasing fatigue, tension, loss of concen-tration, headache, irritability, itching, ¶ushing hot and cold, aches and pains, and an unusual degree of clumsiness.
As the level of qi continues to fall, the body tries to compensate for the de¤ciency by using muscle pumps to drive the qi along. This is why tension arises in the muscles. Temporarily there may be an improve-ment, but in time the level falls so low that only a sluggish ¶ow of qi remains. Circulation of qi to the upper part of the body will be partic-ularly affected, hence the loss of concentration. Because the passage of qi through the skin is now so slow, itching is a common symptom.
40 The Information System of the Body
When the qi stagnates, toxic wastes build up and cause aching.
If the current of qi ¤nds itself completely blocked at a particular lo-cation, it tries to force a way through in an effort to keep ¶owing.
This produces a throbbing sensation or sharp pain if the qi is still strong, or a dull ache if the qi is weak.
If we still don’t respond to the warnings coming through, we are at risk of serious problems. For example, when we suppress a headache with a painkiller and then carry on as if it hadn’t hap-pened, we are covering up damage that has already begun. We be-come vulnerable to heavy colds, joint pains, muscle and ligament strains, and skin disorders. As time goes on, the immune system de-teriorates, resulting in chronic infections and in¶ammatory disor-ders such as chronic fatigue syndrome and multiple sclerosis.
Graph of Information-Qi
Recognizing the Signals Your Body Sends 41
At the most serious level of disturbance, we have ignored the warning signals to such an extent that we can no longer hear them at all. We have lost the ability to tune in to the underlying problem. All the body can do to force us to pay attention is to shout disaster from the rooftops. We fall victim to major accidents or develop life-threatening diseases such as cancer or heart disease.
The body is now in a state of life-threatening crisis. But such a crisis can be a turning point in life. The Chinese word for crisis is
“weiji.” “Wei” means disaster, but “ji” means opportunity. The changes that need to be made will be deep and far-reaching.
Here the message is simple yet profound: “Give up your old way of life and start a new one!”
Signs of Blocked Qi
42