re:pathogenisis

[Guest guest]

Jon, Patricia and Yehuda,

 

I have been reading with interest your comments about TCM and

treating the spirit. I studied TCM and was always bothered by the

disconnect between the statements that we treated the spirit and the

lack of information about how to do that.

 

Fortunately there is a lot of good information about how to do that

outside the TCM cannon, namely the Worsley, Constitutional

Acupuncture tradition. Lonny Jarret has written 2 books which are

extremely helpful. John and Angela Hicks have written 5 Element

Constitutional Acupuncture. Dennis Willmont has written The

Energetic Physiology in the Acupunture Point Names and the 12 Spirit

Points. Willmont's books are useful for all acupncture treatments

because he explains how each point influences the transformation of

energy. There are also the books by Claude Larre and Elizabeth

Rochat de la Vallee who translate the medical texts and explain the

underlying Chinese philosophical basis for the medicine.

 

Not withstanding all the books on the topic the best way to learn

about how to treat the body, mind and spirit is to study with Niki

Bilton, a senior Worsley student. Her website is

www.tendingshen.com. Niki's incredible strength as a teacher is to

provide clear paradigms for analyzing the situation. Is the problem

truly rooted in the spirit or is it more mind level. How do you use

acupuncture to influence the mind or spirit. As you know, the spirit

can only be reached through the senses, so this poses a problem.

What the Worsley tradition does by looking at the Zang Fu as

officials rather than organs per se, is see which official needs to

be stronger to bring the emotion/will of the official into balance.

 

Niki will be opening a school, Ongiara College of Acupuncture and

Moxibustion next year. She will be offering some continuing

education courses.

 

What I would like is if you and others would join me in nagging her

to record some of her lectures so that a wider group of

acupuncturists can benefit from her teaching.

 

Zinnia

[Guest guest]

Zinnia,

The disconnect between the statements that TCM 'treats the

spirit' and lack of information simply has to do with the depth of

one's personal study and education, along with one's knowledge of

medical Chinese language. One book that would help you in this

impasse is " Transforming Emotions with " by Yanhua

Zhang. I agree that the Larre/de la Valle books are also very useful.

 

However, I feel that much of the Worsley approach is based on

Western sources and interpretations of psyche, emotion and spirit,

superimposed on the Chinese medical framework. I think we tend to

read into Chinese medicine our own biases, and fail to study the

cultural implications of spirit within Chinese culture itself.

 

 

On Dec 28, 2007, at 6:33 AM, zinnia wrote:

 

> Jon, Patricia and Yehuda,

>

> I have been reading with interest your comments about TCM and

> treating the spirit. I studied TCM and was always bothered by the

> disconnect between the statements that we treated the spirit and the

> lack of information about how to do that.

>

> Fortunately there is a lot of good information about how to do that

> outside the TCM cannon, namely the Worsley, Constitutional

> Acupuncture tradition. Lonny Jarret has written 2 books which are

> extremely helpful. John and Angela Hicks have written 5 Element

> Constitutional Acupuncture. Dennis Willmont has written The

> Energetic Physiology in the Acupunture Point Names and the 12 Spirit

> Points. Willmont's books are useful for all acupncture treatments

> because he explains how each point influences the transformation of

> energy. There are also the books by Claude Larre and Elizabeth

> Rochat de la Vallee who translate the medical texts and explain the

> underlying Chinese philosophical basis for the medicine.

>

 

 

Chair, Department of Herbal Medicine

Pacific College of Oriental Medicine

San Diego, Ca. 92122