中醫學 Traditional Chinese Medicine

What is the substance that animates a human being in life and leaves a lifeless husk in death? The greatest difference between Western, or Allopathic medicine, and Traditional Chinese Medicine, or TCM, is that medical students in the West first learn diagnosis and treatment with cadavers, and in TCM, students learn on living human beings. Some would argue that this simple difference is the beginning of Allopathic medicine's deep skepticism of the herbal, homeopathic and energetic treatments that have existed for thousands of years and are still used with much success in TCM and other holistic practices. Eastern traditions recognize a vital substance which interconnects and charges all matter, and Western medicine sees a separation between body and mind and does not base treatments on manipulation of this subtle driving power.

The energy force that pulses unseen through our very being is called chi, or simply, light. We human beings are pure consciousness and our shell is a thought form. The concept that what we see and feel is composed of solid matter is an illusion. The world we see before us is merely an infinity of electrons pulsing and moving at various speeds. To speed up the motion of electrons, light can be added. This same idea applies to the human system, which is in itself an energetic system. When this life force is stagnant or blocked, disease is created.

TCM has spent a few thousand years cataloguing and mapping the patterns that this energy uses to travel through the body, and these pathways are called "meridians." These strands of bio-electricity connect with others to form circuits, and it is these circuits which the acupuncturist is stimulating with needles. TCM also notes the interaction of the body within its environment, and recognizes the influence of five elements as well as a polarity of opposites called " yin and yang." Yin is the passive, receptive force, and yang is the active, creative force. All matter is composed of various combinations of the elements, as well as differing balances of yin and yang.

While a recent controversial aspect of Allopathic medicine is the ubiquitous reliance on pharmacology, especially for treatment and maintenance of chronic diseases such as asthma or arthritis, TCM has much more success treating these ailments. TCM has recently been the focus of much study and attention due to its success in treating leukemia.

Dr. Andrew Weil is among a growing number of Western doctors who are proposing a new system of healing which recognizes the best parts of Allopathic, Eastern, and Holistic Medicine and is called Integrative Medicine. The key to increased longevity and better health lies in the study and understanding of the interconnectedness of the human being within its environment as well as the traditions of Chinese Medicine which has several thousand years experience studying the force that radiates through every cell of the human body and is the very essence of life.