Common threads
Lesley E. Shearer11, Sunset Lane, Litlleton, Colorado 80121, USA
Acupuncture and Qigong are aspects of Chinese medicine, an antique medicine of energy which is thousands of years old. Its primary method of diagnosis is the pulse at the wrist, subtle information accessible to physicians only after years of training. Biophotonics presents the same information visually and makes it available to researchers everywhere, setting in place new experimental protocols for acupuncture and energy medicines. Combining this contemporary tool of technology with principles of the ancient medicine will facilitate in the development of not only medical sciences of energy, but all of the sciences of energy that are coming.
Keywords: Accupuncture, Biophoton, Energy medcine, Magnetic therapy, Qi Introduction
New insights are emerging rapidly on the subtle underpinnings of life. Biophoton research now makes accessible to anyone subtle information that was only available to those with special training or mystics in old days. This opens the door to the development of new forms of science and medicine. The medicine of the future will not treat the physical but will treat the energies underlying it. Although the medicine of energy is not widely known in the present culture, it is reminiscent of healing practices of earlier times when the world was perceived in a very different way.
Acupuncture and early energy medicine
Acupuncture, a historical oriental medical practice, applies fine needles to specific parts of the body in order to heal illness. Its lineage is ancient. Classic texts on Chinese medicine refer to times when needle for acupuncture were made of stone. Since metal was first smelted in China about 5000 BC, the possibility exists that this healing method is over 7000 years old.
In earlier times, the Chinese people considered themselves an integral part of the Tao, a vast field of intelligent energy, the substrate of matter and the eternal source of all that existed. Few records remain from this period in history. Some contain enduring truths and have survived. Lao Tsu, a historian in the sixth century BC authored a philosophy that is still valid today.
Number 25 of Stephen Mitchell’s translation of Lao Tsu’s Tao Te Ching1 reads as follows:
“There was something formless and perfect before the universe was born
It is serene. Empty. Solitary. Unchanging. Infinite. Eternally present. For lack of a better name, I call it Tao.
It flows through all things, inside and outside, and returns to the origin of all things. The Tao is great.
The universe is great. Earth is great. Man is great.
These are the four great powers. Man follows the earth.
Earth follows the universe. The universe follows the Tao. The Tao follows only itself.”
This civilization considered light as fundamental to the universe, present inside and outside every living thing. From the last passage of Number 52 of the same text:
“Seeing into darkness is clarity Knowing how to yield is strength.
Use your own light and return to the source of light.
This is called practicing eternity.
Health was considered optimum when one’s Qi, or life force energy perfectly integrated with this immense field, “the flux between heaven and earth.”
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Humans were expected to follow the same cycles as other creatures inhabiting the earth. The metabolism of the body followed the position of the sun in the sky. Disease resulted from lack of synchrony with the larger network. Treatment was aimed at reintegrating and rebalancing the small field of energy of the human being with the much larger energies of the Tao. The pulse at the wrist, generated by the beating of the heart, was the main tool of diagnosis. Second by second it reflected the intermeshing of the body’s energies with the energies of the greater world. A physician trained in the art of pulse diagnosis had the ability to perceive subtle information at the wrist that could determine the cause of the patient’s pathology, even to the extent of predicting his or her time of death.
The following excerpt from the Jia Yi Jing2, Huang Fu Mi’s second century reorganization of earlier texts on acupuncture encapsulates the philosophy of this ancient system. The Yellow Emperor, Huang Di, the mythical progenitor of Chinese medicine, lays out it’s precepts in a series of questions and answers with his court physician, Qi Bo.
In the following section Qi Bo answers Huang Di’s question about seasonal variations of the pulse.
“…The vicissitudes of Yin and Yang are regular and the pulse changes are in agreement with this. If they do not agree, this reveals (the influence of) the (involved) part. Since this part is known to be associated with a particular period of the year it is made possible to predict the date of death. Pulse examination is a subtle and delicate technique which involves painstaking study and one should keep to the established criteria whose basis lies in Yin and Yang. Sound is analyzed in terms of the five notes, colors in terms of the five phases and the pulse in terms of Yin and Yang. According to the Tao of pulse palpation, an empty mind and tranquil spirit are treasured above all else.
In spring the pulse is floating like a fish swimming on ripples. In summer, it beats in the skin like a flood or the fluorescence of living things. In autumn, it beats under the skin like insects to lie dormant. And in winter it lies against the bone like hibernating insects hidden in safety or gentlemen staying n their chambers.”
Notable in this translation is the phrase “the fluorescence of living things” Although left out of many versions of the same classic text, “the fluorescence of living things” is the Rosetta stone, the common denominator between sciences of the past
and contemporary research. According to Jenkins and White3, “If a solid or liquid is strongly illuminated by light which it is capable of absorbing, it may re emit fluorescent light.”
The science of Biophotonics study too decay curves, re-emission patterns of quanta of light of a living system after it has been exposed to a burst of light or ultrasound. Qi Bo’s statement, transcribed 1800 years ago from books of even earlier times, paves the way towards sciences and medicines of the future. This statement provides the interface between a highly developed but now antique medicine of energy and present ground breaking research on unseen energies that are at life’s foundations.
Although hundreds of generations have passed, the training of a contemporary acupuncturist is accomplished in a similar way as it was in times past. The fundamental diagnostic tool, an important remnant of this earlier medicine, is the pulse at the wrist, for Chinese medicine teaches that it responds to every nuance in the small microcosm of the body and in the larger macrocosm of the universe.
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The condition of the patient’s Qi, or life force energy may still be evaluated by palpating the radial pulse. Single minded concentration on the fine information signalled at the wrist connects the consciousness of the practitioner, not only to the unseen aspects of the energy of the patient but also to latent abilities within. Intense focus on minor discrepancies in the wave at the wrist magnifies and gives importance to information normally too insignificant to pick up. Ultimately, the consciousness of the practitioner breaks through to a larger awareness, one that transcends the limitations of ordinary perception.
Over centuries, theories about the nature of life go in and out of fashion. But life itself does not change. Now contemporary research in Biophotonics gives us further insights into its hidden aspects. According to Bajpai4, biophoton signals contain a faithful and instantaneous image of a living system. Biophoton signals are the visual analogue of the pulse. Through this technology the wave of the pulse is changed into an information bearing curve composed of particles of light. The computer image generated by a photomultiplier makes visual signals that in former times were only available proprioceptively. Information that highly trained acupuncture physicians could read on the pulse is widely available for research today. Translating and updating principles of the old medicine and applying
them to the emerging field of Biophotonics will provide inspiration in developing the sciences that are coming.
Recent developments in energy medicine
It is not certain whether scientists outside of China today, are aware of its ancient medicine of energy. Nevertheless, its main principles are being reconstructed and tested by modern science, piece by piece. In a contemporary echo of Lao Tsu’s vision of the universe, physicians in Eastern Europe have been exploring magnetic fields in the treatment of illness. Difficult to cure diseases are successfully treated with this therapy. According to Jerebek and Pawlek5, “Magnetic therapy is becoming recognized throughout the word as a legitimate medical discipline. The roots of this bioscience come from the studies done in biomagnetics, the studies of the body’s own magnetic fields. These fields are recognized only with the suppression of the earth’s magnetic fields. Within the earth’s magnetic fields, the physical body is germinated, develops as an embryo and grows into the human adult. All human activity is conditioned by the earth’s magnetic environment. Once the connection is made between the magnetic aspects of the biophysical chemistry of the human organism, indeed, all planetary biology, then it becomes easier to conceive of the body as a bioelectrical magnetic apparatus, subject to all the physical laws of magnetism.”
Perhaps the connection has already been made. Alexander Dubrov has cited over 1200 studies relating to effects of magnetism on life6. From the editors note; “A comparison of normal and abnormal {with respect to the constant component of the GMF (geomagnetic field)} in parts of Belgorad region show that they differ as to crop yield, occurrence of relict plants and incidence of disease among the population. In addition, the motor activity of insects and birds is altered in the area of the Kursh magnetic anomaly…This initial information indicates that a biological analysis of the conditions in the region of different magnetic anomalies will be worth while. Finally, the vectorial nature (the directivity) of the lines of force of The GMF also affects biological processes.” In the first chapter of the same book Dubrov states, “The earth is closely linked with the cosmic space surrounding it. Since the sun is the central star of our planetary system, it is obvious that its influence is decisive for the dynamics of the geophysical and biological processes occurring on the earth.”
It is interesting to note here that acupuncture medicine has a long tradition of needling certain parts of the body during certain times in the daily solar cycle in order to achieve a stronger effect. Jwing-ming Yang7, has proposed a possible explanation for its efficacy as he described the sun’s path in relation to the energies of the midline:
“As Qi circulates through the fire path, there is always one part of the path where the level is higher than elsewhere, and this area circulates around the path regularly every twenty four hours. It is this area of higher Qi potential which keeps the Qi flowing. (I believe that this potential is created by the earth’s spinning inside the sun’s electromagnetic field.) Just as water will only flow from a higher to lower level, Qi will only move from a place of higher potential to one of lower potential.”
The passage continues, describing the circuit of the higher potential is at the solar plexus at noon, a few inches below the navel in the afternoon, at the perineum at sunset, at the back in the evening, the top of the head at midnight, in the face at sunrise, returning to the solar plexus at noon.
Contemporary acupuncture practice
Even though so many years have passed, acupuncture physicians still evaluate the condition of the patient by assessing the pulse at the wrist. Since the energetic foundation of the human organism responds to and reflects the energies of which it is part, the acupuncture practitioner’s sensitivity to these energies is paramount. In Japan, acupuncture is recognized as a profession especially suitable for the blind. If the visual centres of the brain are unused, they adapt to process sound and touch. Many of these acupuncturists do not penetrate the body with needles at all. By taking the pulse they know exactly how and where to align needles in the bio-electric field extending outside of it. Even though this method of treatment is gentler than other styles of acupuncture, it is remarkably effective.
Working as a group, physicists, engineers, physicians and acupuncturists in Japan updated antique Yin and Yang guidelines for circulation of the body’s energy to positive and negative polarities. Using this information they pioneered the use of north (negative) or south (positive) oriented magnets, ion pumping cords and magnetized needles for use on acupuncture points. Treatment of illness is accomplished much more efficiently when using these tools.
Some acupuncturists use no needles. They achieve positive changes in the pulse by shining lights of various colors on acupuncture points. Even if the lights used are not perceptible to normal human vision they are still effective in changing the pulse. Others use sound. Tuning forks of various frequencies sounded on acupuncture points can change the pulse.
Injecting acupuncture points with sterile solutions can achieve positive healing results. Presently in China, the injection of solutions of specially prepared herbs is an emerging method to administer healing substances that are traditionally delivered as teas or pills. The reason for the effectiveness of the herbs on the body may have more to do with their structure than their chemical makeup. Andrew Wu, a contemporary doctor of Oriental medicine and Qigong master puts forth a novel explanation for the efficacy of herbal treatment as follows8:
“Many herbs store specific patterns of heaven and earth…When a physician prescribes herbs biased with a balancing property, he adjusts the deviation of certain aspects of the body. This is called “to correct deviation with deviation.”
Is it the structural or the chemical properties of pharmaceuticals that cure illness or is it just the change of the energy alone? In Europe, acupuncture physicians inject sterile homeopathic solutions into acupuncture points related to an illness to affect a positive change on the pulse. These solutions are so highly diluted that they contain no physical substance at all- only an energetic imprint.
Using photomultipliers, biophoton scientists detect and measure ultra-weak light emissions of living systems in the UV, visible and near infrared range. Since the human system responds to such a wide range of electromagnetic information, if the range of measurement were extended, would this significantly change the results?
Pulse changes at the wrist indicate that the human body is influenced by deliberate application of the many different aspects of the spectrum of energies that create the universe. With deepening experience, the acupuncture physician becomes aware that the pulse beating under the fingertips responds to thought. It is this realization that brings the physician to another level of practice, Qigong, the manipulation of human bioelectric energy not through needles but through mind and will alone.
Qigong is a facet of Chinese medicine whose history parallels acupuncture. Using willed intent, a
Qigong master can heal by projecting bioelectric energy from the area between the eyebrows or through the hands to the site of illness. Because these energies are not customarily perceived by normal human senses, their efficacy, if not their very existence, is often doubted by those unfamiliar with the practice. However, Biophotonics demonstrates their effectiveness.
In series of seminal experiments, Bajpai brought together ancient Chinese energy medicine and contemporary Biophotonics9. He asked subjects versed in Qigong to attempt to change light emission patterns of lichen samples sealed inside a test tube monitored by a photomultiplier by willing energy into the sample from a distance of four feet. With this treatment there was a significant change in decay curves of these samples shown on a computer screen. There was no change in untreated samples10.
Until this time there has been no objective way to demonstrate results of Qigong, acupuncture or other medicines that use energy for healing. These experiments set up new protocols critical in the development of these medicines.
Just as Qi Bo’s description of the pulse in summer, “the fluorescence of living things” ties past to present, Biophoton research will engender the sciences to come. Technologies of the future will be based on energy – light, sound and other aspects of energy of which we are not yet aware.
Fueled by pulses common to each one, threads of evolution spiral ever onward. Sometimes dark and sometimes light they drive the movement forward.
“Seeing into darkness is clarity Knowing how to yield is strength.
Use your own light and return to the source of light.
This is called practicing eternity”.
References
1 Lao-Tsu, translation by Mitchell Stephen, Tao Te Ching, (Harper Collins Publishers, New York) 1988.
2 Huang-fu Mi, translation by Yang Shou-Zong and Chase Charles, Jia Yi Jung The systematic classic of acupuncture and moxibustion (Blue Poppy Press, Boulder CO) 1994. 3 Jenkins & White Fundamentals of optics (McGraw-Hill,
New York) 1976.
4 Bajpai R P, Quantum coherence of biophotoons and living systme, Indian J Exp Biol, 41 (2003) 514.
5 Jerabee Jiri & Pawluk William, Magnetic therapy in eastern Europe, A review of 30 years research, (William Pawluk, Rancocas NJ) 1998.
6 Dubrov Alexander, The geomagnetic field and life, Geomagnetobiology, translation of the Russian Geomagnitnoe Pole I Zhizn (Plenum Press New York) 1978.
7 Yang Jwing-ming, The roots of chinese qigong (YMAA Publication Center, Roslindale, MA) 1989
8 Wu Andrew Qi, TCM in view of TaiChi, Chinese language edition, (China Books and Periodicals, Inc. Pisces Multimedia Group, Inc.) 1997, English language translation manuscript of the same book
9 Shearer Lesley E, Essays on energy I-eternal blueprints, Essays on energyII-kaleidoscopes, (Omega Company, Englewood, CO) 2006.
10 Bajpai R P, Quantum squeezed state description of spectral decompositions of a biophoton signal and its prossibility of remote intervention, in Biophotonics and coherent system in biology, edited by L C Beloussov, V L Voikov and V S Martynyuk (Springer Science + Business Media, Newyork) 2007, 33.
