Healing crisis

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In a message dated 7/20/04 2:55:28 PM,

Chinese Medicine writes:

 

LON: My experience confirms that, overall, certain aspects of the law of cure

typify what I'd call " healing " regarless of the modality. " Healing " is

empowered when the practitioner embraces a perspective that embraces the root

of

illness (the fundamental cleaveage of what's false from whats true) and the

various branches (all the ways that false momentum perpetuates physiological

dysfunction and its manifestation structurally). Treatment at any level is

always

oriented toward unification at the root of the imbalance-the dissolution of

what is false at the deepest possible level and the strengthening of what is

true. And healing means that the patient has arrived at a place, whatever his or

her circumstance, where they are no longer victimized by their condition and it

does not prevent them from full engagemment with life or the realization of

their potential.

If one doesn't have the interest or the depth of knowledge to treat at

this level then the LOC wont occur or will be missed if it does. The interested

practitioner merely needs to learn the LOC, or any principle, and then to see

if it is verified in his or her practice *now*. Clinical efficacy in a

practitioner's direct experience is the only reasonable test of any treatment

approach. However, if the practitioner is not authentically treating from the

inside

out, then the LOC of cure may well not be seen. In this case its an error to

draw the conclusion that the principle itself is invalid. And, it goes too far

to assume that because one is practicing CM, and CM " is holistic, " that one

is actually practicing in a way that supports what I've defined as " healing " .

 

Here, I post my discussion of the LOC from Nourishing Destiny

(spiritpathpress.com). I'm sure if I wrote about it now I'd do so differently.

Therefore,

I've put a note in brackets to edit my old thoughts.

 

The Nature of Cure and Healing

 

After ten years of the study of [medical] books [one believes] that there is

no incurable disease. After ten more years of study of [medical] books [one is

certain] that there is no curable disease.—Huai Yuan

 

Generally, when people think of the word “cure,†they take it to imply that

a specific condition is treated to the point it no longer exists. In truth

this is rarely, if ever, the case. The manifestation of any given symptom

indicates by its presence an a priori constitutional weakness that allowed it to

be

expressed. In other words, the patient had either a genetic and/or karmic

predisposition that allowed this symptom to become manifest. The inner tradition

focuses on constitutional issues which comprise that aspect of self that can

never fundamentally be changed because it comprises one’s inborn nature.

Medicine

can help compensate for our constitutional weaknesses but cannot ultimately

change what has been present from conception. Hence the inner tradition does

not focus on achieving a cure as an end point of treatment. Rather, the focus is

placed on guiding the patient through the process of healing. A condition is

considered to be healed when it no longer limits a patient’s self-expression

or hinders quality of life.

Even after substantial improvement, all symptoms, like habits, have a

tendency to return. After all, the constitutional basis that allowed them to

manifest in the first place is still present, and all people tend to fall back

into their old patterns of behavior. When a patient initially comes for

treatment, he or she may be suffering from migraine headaches four days a week.

The

condition may be so debilitating that the patient is virtually unable to

function. After a successful course of treatment, the patient may have only one

or two

migraine headaches a year. The patient whose quality of life is now greatly

improved may tell friends that the headaches have been cured. It is clear,

however, that the patient still has the same inner disposition that created the

headaches in the first place.

Ultimately, symptoms are warning signs of deeper imbalance. Patients must

learn to recognize their symptoms in their early stages before they become

fully manifest. They may then learn to make the appropriate internal shifts

necessary to avoid becoming ill. As people heal, they must be encouraged to

think

of their symptoms as signs that some internal matter needs attending to. By

taking responsibility for maintaining their own health, patients are less

dependent on the healer and should need treatment with decreasing frequency.

 

The Three Levels: Body, Mind, and Spirit

 

Using the language of classical Chinese medicine it is impossible to talk of

the separation implied by the English words body, mind, and spirit. Hence, the

character xin refers to the physical, emotional, and spiritual heart. The

Chinese language uses one term, xin, that has a multitude of meanings implicit

within it. On the other hand, the English language uses three terms body, mind,

and spirit to address what is implicitly thought to represent a unified whole,

namely, the human being. Each of the five elements may be thought of as being

comprised of spiritual, emotional, and physical realms of being. For example,

the spiritual aspect of the wood element corresponds to the hun and its

ability to be in contact with jing in a way that informs one of his or her life

plan. The mental aspect of wood involves the decision making faculties of the

gall bladder which transmit the potential of that plan into the world. The

physical aspects of wood are comprised by the actual organs of the liver and

gall

bladder, as well as all material aspects of being associated with these

officials such as the tendons, ligaments, eyes, and the course of the liver and

gall

bladder meridians.

The functional basis of disharmony may emanate primairily from the

physical, emotional, or the deeper realms of spiritual being. For example, a

lack of

benevolence and the presence of belligerence indicate dysfunction in the

spiritual and emotional realms of the wood element. It is quite possible however

that, at the time of the assessment, the patient exhibits no physical

symptomatology in the wood element. On the other hand, a patient diagnosed with

hepatitis C, a severe physical illness of the liver, may be perfectly healthy in

the

spiritual and emotional domains of liver function. Hence, the patient may be

tranquily benevolent and possess healthy self esteem. Identifying the level of

being which perpetuates dysfunction in each patient is a primary task for the

practitioner of the inner tradition.

Of the three depths, the spirit possesses the capacity to move most

quickly. In just one moment, the spirit may heal in a way that binds one again

to

true self and one’s life purpose. [My view now is that the spirit is always

whole, complete, and ready to go as soon as we identify with it-life does not

touch it and it is that part of ourselves where nothing ever happened. The

spirit

doesn't need healing. The spirit is simply the best part of ourselves that

has no history and is only ever moving forward-that's why spiritual healing is

always instantaneous and.......nothing is *ever* in the way of such a

transformation except our own lack of interest]

Healing in this way is signaled by increased experience of the virtues

associated with one’s constitutional type. Hence, a person who is wood

constitutionally will be better able to experience the virtue of benevolence as

it exists

at his or her core. Increased contact with one’s source of virtue corresponds

to a restitution of the basis of one’s capacity for intuition.

The mind’s capacity to heal is somewhat slower than the spirit’s. Though

profound insight may occur in a moment, the tendency of the mind is to

continually fall back into habituated patterns of thought and belief. Only

commitment to manifesting innate virtues paired with concious vigilance can

prevent the

mind from seizing control and motivating one’s attitudes and actions. Healing

of the mind is signaled by an increase of behaviors which reflect one’s

constitutional virtues. While the spirit may know virtue, it is the mind that

governs the movement of qi and wills actions that are consistent with fulfilling

destiny.

Of the three depths, the body takes the longest to heal. Once a

functional imbalance has manifested physically it is relatively more concrete

and

harder to influence through treatment. Spirit is that which allows us to be in

contact with virtue and mind is that which allows our actions to reflect virtue.

After original nature is lost and one is separated from the source of virtue,

it takes many years of dysfunctional thought and behavior for illness to become

embodied. While spirit and mind may move toward healing relatively quickly,

it will again take years for correct thought and action to be once again

embodied as physical health.

This last assertion may contradict what some believe to be true about

acupuncture. After all, many people experience long lasting relief from chronic

pain with just a few acupuncture treatments. One such example is the patient

discussed on page 00 [X-ref] whose pain associated with eight years of

polyneuropathy disappeared after only one session. However, immediate relief of

this

nature is predicated in large part upon movement of spirit and mind and often

does not reflect a true physical healing at all. Despite his decrease of pain

and renewed positive outlook, any objective measure such as a test of nerve

conduction velocity, would have reveled that my patient still had

polyneuropathy.

Imbalances of spirit and mind take years to become embodied as physical

illness. Rectification of the spirit and mind may lead a person to feel better

long

before the physical embodiment of dysfunction is actually healed. It is

therefore imperative to guide people to live in a healthier way so that true

healing

is promoted and the tendency to recreate one’s illness is mitigated.

This preceding discussion illustrates an important premise in the inner

tradition: therapeutic measures administered with the intention of promoting

healing will be received by the deepest aspects of self which perpetuate

dysfunction. Of course, the focus of constitutional diagnosis is to direct

healing

toward the deepest aspects of the patient’s being. One’s constitutional

dynamics are the basis for all expressions of true self in life. In directing

treatment to this depth, the practitioner lays a foundation for subsequent

healing by

attending primarily to the most essential aspects of being. These principles

are also present physiologically. Functional imbalances often begin with

excessive physical and/or emotional work and then proceed to qi, blood, yin,

yang,

and ultimately jing deficiency. Deficiency of jing signifies the physiological

depth of an imbalance. If a patient is jing deficient one must tonify this

root of the imbalance to promote substantial healing.

If the symptoms of dysfunction are suppressed, illness will be driven

deeper into the level of being that perpetuates imbalance and subsequently

increase dysfunction in the other levels of being. If an imbalance of spirit is

treated in a way that suppresses its expression, then the root of the imbalance

will continue to perpetuate dysfunction as the patient becomes increasingly

distanced from original nature. Eventually what began as a spirit level

dysfunction may become embodied as physical illness. For example, a patient who

has been

physically abused and subsequently experiences rage and depression may be

given antidepressants as a long term intervention. These drugs do not, however,

address the root cause of the problem which may be located in the spiritual

depth of the liver official. In time, the spiritual dysfunction which has been

unattended to will undermine the functioning of the mind and body ultimately

leading to physical illness.

On the other hand, illness may begin in the physical realm with the

invasion of an external wind/cold pathogen. In this case antibiotics may be

administered which eliminate the bacterial source of the infection but do

nothing to

eliminate the wind/cold. Excess heat generated as the body attempts to move

the stagnation of cold will, over time, consume fluids. Depletion of fluids, in

turn, will predictably lead to the more serious state of lung yin deficiency.

By the time the yin of the lungs is injured, the imbalance is likely to have

entered the spirit and emotional realms and the patient may evidence grief,

longing, and difficulty receiving quality in life. It is important to note that

the suppression of symptoms is not limited to the inappropriate use of Western

medical interventions. Treatment in any modality which eliminates pain but

does not educate the patient has the potential to perpetuate ignorance and drive

illness deeper.

 

The Path of Healing

 

At the moment original nature is lost, a separation occurs between the heart

and mind which compromises the functional integrity of the heart/kidney axis.

Original nature as a guiding force in life is obscured to the degree that shen

is unable to access jing. During healing, as the connections between heart

and mind, and shen and jing are rectified, psychospiritual issues which have

been sublimated will begin to move toward the surface and into consciousness.

The

force of original nature being restored will, like a flood, erode the

foundation upon which ignorance is built. As the edifice of imagined self that

is

predicated upon habituated qi begins to crumble, the potential exists for

physical and emotional states that occurred in proximity to the loss of original

nature to be reactivated.

Constantine Hering (1800–1880), a founder of homeopathy in America,

formulated a framework that describes the general process of healing when

patients

are treated holistically. The “law of cure†states that symptoms disappear

from within to without, in the reverse order in which they occurred, and from

top to bottom.

Though the “law†of cure originates from a tradition of practice outside

of Chinese medicine, I find that it is generally accurate in predicting the

overall course of a patient’s path of healing when they are treated in the

inner tradition. To designate these principles as “law†in the same way that

the

laws of physics are considered to govern the motion of physical bodies is to

state the case too strongly. Infact, I find the third principle to be wholly

irrelevant to my experience in clinical practice. However, the first two

principles do influence my assessment of every patient’s progress toward

health.

Of particular importance is the relationship between the turning point,

as conceived in the Yijing, and the healing crisis as conceived of in

homeopathy. Both the turning point and healing crisis signify that the patient

has

reached a crucial juncture where the restoration of original nature is imminent

and symptoms may be temporarily exacerbated. By following a patient’s progress

according to these tenets the practitioner may be alerted in advance to the

arrival of the turning point and be better prepared to guide the patient during

this most critical time.

 

From Within to Without

 

@T:At the depth of each human being is the central reality of primordial

dao. This exists physiologically as the jing and the yuanqi. The most external

aspect of self is the weiqi ( ), the defensive qi that surrounds each person.

This qi protects us from invasive pathogenic influences, whether they be

environmental pathogens such as a virus or the negative attitudes of another

person. Between the core of self and our outermost projection of defensive qi

are

many successive levels of being that exist on a continuum from internal to

external.

Each of the elements contains a yin organ that is relatively internal

functionally and a yang organ that is relatively external. Each element also is

paired with an external structure in the body. For example, in the metal

element the lungs represent the inner aspect of function and the large intestine

represents the outer aspect. Both these organs are relatively internal compared

with the skin, which is associated with the functioning of the metal element.

We can illustrate the course of illness and cure according to these

principles with the example of a young girl who had developed eczema. This skin

condition initially manifested for her as a red irritation appearing in the

crooks of her elbows in the area of acupuncture point Lung-5. Upon seeing her

scratching, her parents took her to a physician who prescribed cortisone cream

to

apply to the area of the rash. The cream worked quickly and, as long as she

applied it regularly, the symptoms of the rash were alleviated. This treatment,

however, merely suppressed the expression of the symptom that is the outer

expression of internal heat in the girl’s lungs. With administration of the

steroid cream, the heat is unable to exit through the skin and thus builds in

her

lungs to the point that she eventually develops asthma. The symptoms have

progressed from the relatively external manifestation of a skin rash to the

relatively internal manifestation of asthma. It is expected with treatment in a

holistically based tradition of Chinese medicine that, as the asthma improves,

the

progression of the symptoms will reverse and start to move more externally. The

reappearance of the skin rash signifies that healing, rather than

suppression, has occurred.

There is another way to think about how symptoms move along the continuum

of internal to external during healing. This continuum proceeds from the

nonphysically manifest inner levels of spirit, through the intermediary stage of

the mind, to the physically manifest and relatively outer level of the body.

Spiritual and emotional imbalances may begin to manifest more physically in a

given official as they resolve. For example, a man whose central imbalance

manifests in the spiritual realm of the lung official may exhibit depression

predicated on his unconcious feelings of having been betrayed by God because of

the

death of a loved one. As he heals, he may experience a severe flu

characterized by the expectoration of a great amount of phlegm from his lungs

that

corresponds to the physical embodiment of his spiritual grief.

 

Symptoms Leave In Reverse Order

 

In the earlier example, a patient reexperienced her skin condition as her

asthma improved. This illustrates the principle that symptoms tend to

reappear in the reverse order to their first appearance. It is critical at this

juncture that the expression of the skin condition not again be suppressed with

medications. Rather, life has provided another opportunity to heal the initial

issue by treating the underlying heat in the lungs on which it is predicated.

Only by conducting a thorough intake that covers the patient’s health history

can the practitioner know if the appearance of a given symptom signals the

worsening or improvement of a functional imbalance.

The emergence into the realm of conscious awareness of issues which

unconsciously motivate a person’s habitual behavior is another example of

pathology

moving from inside (the unconscious realm) to outside (awareness) during

healing. A general principle is that when habituated behaviors begin to subside,

a

person is often confronted with precisely the same life issue that initiated

the habitual behavior to begin with. For example, a teenager may begin to

drink alcohol excessively as a way of coping with sexual abuse. Twenty years

later

the patient may seek treatment to help maintain sobriety. As the momentum

toward health builds, and drinking subsides, the issues surrounding sexual abuse

are likely to reemerge into consciousness. While confronting these issues,

symptoms which occurred in proximity to the abuse such as heart palpitations,

anxiety attacks, and nightmares may reappear signaling a law of cure reaction

and

the patient’s proximity to the turning point.

 

Symptoms Leave from Above to Below

 

The law of cure predicts that as a functional imbalance heals, the

general progression of symptoms is from the center of the body out to the

extremities and from the top of the body downward. For example, a man may suffer

from

pain localized in his lower back and traveling into the buttocks. As the

functional basis of this symptom is balanced, the pain may subside in the back

but

follow the course of the bladder meridian (which corresponds to the course of

the sciatic nerve) down his leg. With initial improvement the pain may move to

the back of his knee and then eventually just be felt along the outer edge of

his foot until it eventually leaves completely.

I have never found this aspect of the law of cure to occur at a frequency

any greater than would be predicted by chance alone. In my experience,

sciatic pain is just as likely to become localized in the lower back as healing

occurs as it is to move toward the periphery. I therefore disregard this tenet

in

assessing a patient’s progress.