Â Agree or Disagree?

March 18, 2008

Thank you, RoseAnne. When I asked the question about where Qi comes from, it

disappeared without a trace! I asked for a couple of reasons: first, state the

obvious and make sure people are not assuming they know. Are we born with Qi?

Do we supplement Qi? If we're born with it, where does that come from?

Secondly, there are theories that we 'share' Qi. Julian Scott, peadiatric

acupuncturist from Britain, talks about children getting Qi from there parents

(thereby confirming my long-held belief that the little darlings drained my

energy around 3 in the afternoon, because their's always seemed to rise in

direct proportion to mine falling). What I believe he says is that the Qi of

very young children is undeveloped, or immature, and they will access the Qi of

their parents to sustain them.

I've also noticed one of the benefits of community style acupuncture is a

weaving of the Qi of group members - which supplements the treatment for the

individuals. So, do we share Qi with others? Do people develop Qi deficiency

because they are in situations where they are bolstering someone else's Qi?

I've lots more questions along this line, but I'd really like to know where

folks think Qi comes from. If my speculations are valid, that changes the

treatment picture some...

Karen

Karen R Adams, Lic Ac, Dipl Ac

296 Avenue A

Turners Falls, MA 01376

413.863.0088

RoseAnne Spradlin <ra6151

2008/03/18 Tue AM 10:33:13 CDT

Chinese Medicine

Re: Re: Agree or Disagree?

Since I am a relatively new practitioner, I usually don't chime in on

these kinds of discussions. But in your summary of people's

responses to the question about treating Qi deficiency, I do feel

something is being missed. That is, our bodies are not closed

systems. I think we can receive 'Heavenly Qi' or 'Earth's Qi'

through the skillful needling of a practitioner who is him/herself in

touch with this Qi. At least I think I have experienced this as a

patient.

--RoseAnne

On Mar 18, 2008, at 10:16 AM, Hugo Ramiro wrote:

> Hi all, thank you everybody for your comments, it's been an

> interesting conversation.

> So far it seems that most agree that Qi cannot come from the

> acupuncture itself and needs to be present somewhere in the body.

> There also seems to be a general concensus that acupuncture can

> treat qi deficiency via channel balancing. It was also pointed out

> that a primary qi deficiency is very different from a secondary qi

> deficiency, i.e. a " qi deficiency " caused by blood stagnation.

> There are also interesting points about what exactly " deficient "

> means, as well as the fact that many acupuncture points are

> specifically listed as treating one type of deficiency or another.

> A final issue of qi as intentionality or as physical modality was

> mentioned.

>

> So my question now becomes:

> How many of you are willing to treat your patient population with

> acupuncture only? If you are not willing, what is it that herbs (to

> put a fine point on the matter) bring to the table that acupuncture

> does not?

>

> Aha, let's see what all you smarty-pants come up with this time!

>

> Hugo

>

> ________

> Rise to the challenge for Sport Relief with For Good

>

> http://uk.promotions./forgood/

>

March 18, 2008

Thank you, RoseAnne, and Karen, for keep trying!!

I haven't chimed in partly because of time, partly because the issue with

practicing Qi was discussed long time ago in this forum but lead to somewhat

unpleasant departure of some members, if my memory serves.

Assuming we stick to Qi practice for the purpose of application and

adminstration through acupuncture I will jump in.

For the original survey, my response would be disagree. Several of my friends

and myself explicitly " transmit Qi " or " allow Qi to flow " to patient and

experiencing patient's Xie Qi (usually cold Qi) heading our direction through

the our fingers. Most patients can exerience " receiving " Qi and get " energized "

often on ST36, for example, or experience warmth on R4, for example. This is

done without thrusting or turning the needles and without the " intention " to

move Qi among different channels or different points of the same channel.

Where does Qi come from? To my understanding, Qi is in between substance(yin)

and function(yang); it's the intermediate state between substance and function.

It can be transmitted. Where do the practitioners who transmit Qi to patients

get their Qi from? They get it either from their own body's Qi (transformed from

substance) or from external objects, or, eventually, the universal soure of Qi.

Mike L.

kradams1 wrote:

Thank you, RoseAnne. When I asked the question about where Qi comes

from, it disappeared without a trace! I asked for a couple of reasons: first,

state the obvious and make sure people are not assuming they know. Are we born

with Qi? Do we supplement Qi? If we're born with it, where does that come from?