During the days when I used to read voraciously, Eric Van Lustbader made an impact on me with his "The Miko" as it takes you through time-travel through the Japanese culture – very similar to the movie "The Last Samurai" which has Tom Cruise in the lead role.
To say the least, the books are engaging enough (atleast, the Japanese novels of his) as he has also brought Jason Bourne into the twenty-first century in being given permission to carry on Robert Ludlum's work. (Here's his official website that you check out.)
Oriental philosophy is like that – absorbing, mentally stimulating, traditional and very deep… and their philosophy doesn't stay between the covers of a book but is practiced diligently.
An example of this is Traditional Chinese Medicine which is practiced in China and other parts of Asia even though it is considered to be alternative medicine in Western countries.
However, forms of treatment such as Shiatsu, Tui Na, herbal medicine and acupuncture has been in the news for their effectiveness as a treatment with little or no risk.
Chinese Acupuncture
As mentioned earlier, Chinese acupuncture has been a part of traditional Chinese medicine long before any other form of treatment or even science for that matter was in existence.
Much like the other forms of medicine that do not follow the Western system of medicine, several researchers and medical experts have taken a lot of interest in the subject of acupuncture leading to varied conclusions about its effectiveness of not.
But before we validate or refute these claims, let's understand what acupuncture is all about.
The treatment itself is about inserting very thin needles to ease the pain of any patient and as off late, is a method used to cure any disease that they might be afflicted with.
The principle behind this treatment is that a healthy body is one that has energy that is flowing freely through pathways called meridians. It is only when this energy (also known as Qi) is blocked that one's health is affected greatly leading to illness and pain.
Perhaps this analogy will help you understand the concept better: a river needs to flow freely, and if it is blocked will overflow its banks at great cost to dwellers on either sides of the river.
So, acupuncture believes that in allowing the Qi to flow freely by using these tiny needles at these meridians, one can be cured of pain or any kind of ailment. This also will bring the entire system of the body back into balance!
Chinese Acupuncture – Faith Based healing or conditioning?
While there have been several experiments that have been conducted on the effectiveness of acupuncture, one was conducted amongst 1000 patients with back pain.
There were three seperate courses of treatments for these patients such as:
#1: Traditional acupuncture
#2: Fake acupuncture [the placebo effect]
#3: Medicine, exercise and other forms of physical therapy
According to their findings, 45 percent of the groups which underwent #1 and #2 responded to the treatment while only 25 percent responded positively to #3.
So what was the conclusion?
A case of classical conditioning where the patients suffering with chronic back pain was cured due to their expectations of the treatment of acupuncture, as indicated by the statistic in #2.
These results have be found to work against acupuncture as a solid treatment for a variety of diseases that even Western medicine does not have a cure for, thanks to the cold, discerning eye of scientific inquiry.
In Closing
Yet if one has to be fair to the entire system of Traditional Chinese Medicine, it is a philosophy (much like a religion) that has been practiced for many years.Very similar to faith-based healing…
Once you do take sometime to understand the Chinese and how they live (much like in the movie – The Last Samurai), you'll find yourself appreciating them for who they really are.
