Acupuncture – healing needles from the Far East

The occult awakening in the West

We live in a time of occult ‘revival’. What seemed impossible a decade ago is now commonplace. What was even rejected recently by the average citizen as superstition, witchcraft and spiritualism, has become acceptable through science and parapsychology.
“Currently, the superstition comes to new, almost medieval-style zenith,” writes a German news magazine. “With a vehemence that a decade ago hardly imagine, have the people – even intellectuals – away in the western industrial states of the once high-strung science expectancy: disappointed of the scientific age, the Hermann rediscovered Hesse’s mysticism, or even the Zen Buddhism and transcendental meditation. ”
Thus, today more and more people are prepared to expect healings methods lacking any scientific basis.

Lay on Hands and Hypnosis

In a small Swiss village e.g. a woman offers her patients magnetism and spiritual healing, Medial consultations and meditation classes. Since one major newspaper reported it had about, thousands to her, to heal by laying on of hands of their diseases, primarily be suffering psychosomatic. Those who want to quit smoking will always find advertisements that offer them laying on of hands and hypnosis to solve their problem.
As long as these practices are exercised in the medical offside, few have anything against it. In America, you’re already one step ahead. The “New York Times” reported: “A novel therapy will be introduced in hospitals and sister schools around the country. Nurses try to make the patient their lot easier by laying on of hands. The therapy is in many ways similar to the laying on of hands of healers and mystics. . . ”
The classes in the laying on of hands is part of a new movement in America with the promising name “Holistic Health” (holistic medicine), whose program, acupuncture, acupressure, autogenic training, bio feedback, “creative dreaming,” Hatha yoga and other occult techniques of cure offers.

Even doctors are not immune

I know of several doctors who have studied with me that they belonged to an occult lodge, attended spiritualist seances or in the Transcendental Meditation were introduced.
More and more doctors can be harnessed for making one obscure foreign therapies known and socially acceptable. The aim of many occultists because it is also a “marriage of science and religion,” to arrange a romance of physics and the occult.
Physicians will now guarantee the success of acupressure and prove costly methods the curative effect of the TM technique. Today, physicians examine their diagnosis using the iris diagnosis in unclear cases and move the pendulum out of his pocket.
There is much talk of the ‘neutral’ use of different methodologies, which has its roots in the occult. A scientifically-trained doctor is only too happy to put as guarantee for ‘clean’ para-medicine. But the facts clearly show. Even the title “MD” is no longer safe for the patient that no outsider is applied with an occult background therapy in their “neutral, scientific” form, and therefore no impact on the psyche and the spiritual life.
Even mainstream medicine, a few years ago only domain of reason is increasingly permeated by Eastern philosophy. The hope of science, has to win over the great scourges of humanity shattered. The disappointment has left many physicians with a helplessness that drives them and their patients more and more into the arms of the gurus and healers.

Acupuncture – healing needles from the Far East

The American professors were stunned. They were invited by the Chinese government in the stands a modern operating room in the Beijing Medical University.
In the glare of a middle aged man lying on the operating table. To the patient, a surgical team is assembled. Now the doctor does acupuncture at the table and gives the patient a small dose of morphine into an acupuncture point near the lower jaw. Then he carefully cleans his left forearm with alcohol and then sticks a needle between the wrist and elbow. He gently turns her with his fingers back and forth. About twenty minutes later, the patient stated that he feels the typical feeling of heaviness and numbness in the area around the needle. The practitioner is now the surgeon to mark the start of surgery.
The American scientists, each a well-known specialist in his area look in disbelief as the surgeon in seconds, a 30-cm-long incision from the spine on the left side of the chest to the breastbone puts forward. He then removed with a scissors-like instrument, two ribs, they are pushing them apart with a retractor, and there is the pink lungs, to the rhythm of the breath and moved up. The most amazing thing: During the whole operation, which is one of the most difficult, as we know, talks and jokes with the doctors of the patient. After some time a break is inserted in the patient gets to eat. During the whole procedure, the practitioner is constantly moving the needle in the patient’s arm. One of the American Medical recalls: “The patient did not flinch, nor did he moved or he was sweating. He did nothing that indicated pain or discomfort. ”
Since 1971, when this happened, the reports of tear in the newspapers about the Chinese needle wonder no longer. Acupuncture has become in the universities of Western scientists to research a recognized object, whose method of the scholars are still not united. Large university hospitals e.g. Justus Liebig University in Giessen turn to acupuncture for thousands of patients, ostensibly to reduce the risks of anesthesia and drugs to save.

The great mystery

However, acupuncture is no longer just used for pain relief. An increasing number of naturopaths and alternative practitioners they consult with great success against diseases of all kinds, from hay fever to stomach ulcers, from sweaty feet to drug withdrawal. Today acupuncture practice in France over 1000 doctors in Germany more than 1500, and their number is constantly rising. Almost every year, is invented a new variant of acupuncture “.” Thus, in the acupressure instead of needles simply applied the pressure of the finger, laser acupuncture at the “one” stands out with the help of a small laser cannon. The Ohrakupunkteure finally say that it is enough to put the needles in the ear only. In the electro-acupuncture, the needles are connected to a battery-powered device that produces electrical vibrations of the fine. Basically, all these new methods are based on the principles of Chinese acupuncture. Among individual schools sometimes there is a fierce debate about the “right way”. In this dispute, we come to speak.

Especially unclear is how acupuncture actually works for. Alone in 1976/77 appeared in medical journals considered over one hundred scientific papers in which the scholars broke the head about how it was possible that, for example, a golden needle in the ear can reduce the symptoms of varicose veins.

What should we as Christians think of acupuncture? Did she, like me, a doctor said, “with the Chinese acupuncture, only the names have in common?” Or is it a new form of hypnosis, which can bring a person under the influence of ungodly powers? What are the implications of the background of Eastern philosophy on the application by the doctor and healer today?
I will try to bring light into these issues through the statements that make the acupuncturists in their books of our time, and because of the experiences of various pastors who have seen behind the scenes of the patients treated with acupuncture.

“The Yellow Emperor’s doctrine of internal medicine” – a short history of acupuncture
The Chinese medicine is ancient. The basics of traditional medicine of the Middle Kingdom are attributed to the legendary Emperor Huang Ti, was said to have lived about 5000 years ago. His teachings were passed down orally for centuries, and then in the book “Huang Ti Nei Ching” (translated: The Yellow Emperor’s doctrine of internal medicine) written down.

In it, the emperor has with one of his ministers on the functions of the human body, about his illness and its cure. The entire work is inspired by the astrological-¬ religious beliefs of that time and for the western reader understand how the great and mysterious land itself behind the Great Wall of China

It was the intention of later medical writers Tis and Huang in China, the function of man in the insert function of the universe. “Because the world is composed of five elements, there were five major organs: heart, lung, kidney, liver and spleen. Among them were five auxiliary organs: colon, small intestine, gall bladder, stomach and bladder.

They stood together in a strange relationship of friendship and enmity, which in turn fell on the peculiarities of the five elements of wood, fire, earth, metal and water. The kidney as an organ of the water had to be an enemy of the heart, which was regarded as an organ of fire. Every organ corresponded to a particular planet and a particular season. Possessed such a heart for example a correlation, “the summer.

Most important, however, the efficacy of energy flowing through all people, the Tao and its components, Yang and Yin. This “world spirit” allegedly moved through a system of numerous veins and channels – also known as meridians – which until now could not be detected. Since it was the Chinese, forbidden for religious reasons, to dissect human bodies, they had only vague knowledge of the anatomy. The brain she thought was a small insignificant organ, the spleen on the other hand, the thinking center. To replace this lack of knowledge by the assignment of the two forces yin and yang to the individual organs. So was the back of Yang, Yin belly. Liver, heart, spleen, lung and kidney were yang, while the stomach, gall bladder, large intestine, small intestine and urinary bladder were yin. Yang is the symbol of warmth, strength, virility. Yin represents cold, however, weakness for the feminine.

The “magic gate”

In the second part of the book, called “magic gate”, describes the “Nei Ching”, the possibilities of acupuncture doctor to prevent and cure diseases. This included not only the knowledge of the correct acupuncture points, but also a plethora of herbal recipes, various forms of massage and finally spells and amulets. You should all somehow restore the balance of cosmic forces. The theories of the first and the practical instructions of the second part of the “Nei Ching” still form the foundations of traditional Chinese medicine.

Was as in other civilizations in ancient China the knowledge of medicine in the hands of priests. This yielded bones from the second Millennium BC, on which were inscribed texts that deal extensively with various diseases. “The description of such conditions on oracle bones, were asked to help the gods for advice, shows how much the ancient Chinese medicine was once filled with the idea that diseases were sent by gods and demons.

Obviously, the treatment goes with needles that are later in the West “acupuncture” (from the Latin acus = needle and punctus = point), called back to the earliest physicians, probably due to spiritualist shaman. “The struggle against the supposed demons in the body of a sick person had entered the latter perhaps thought to drive away evil spirits by puncture with needles”.
The later scholars left the ghost theory and built instead of acupuncture into their astrological systems.
Not only did the Chinese medicine treatment of their own ways, they also developed their own diagnostic procedures. Early on we had been looking for external signs of internal diseases. »Random observations led to establish relationships between the appearance of the tongue or the eye with hidden disease”. This is then an entire edifice was constructed, which was based more on speculation and rampant imagination than in reality. One is involuntarily reminded of modern diagnostic methods outsider, like the iris diagnosis. The most important place was occupied, however, ¬ “one pulse diagnosis”, because the pulse was a member of the great imagination of the cosmos and man.
Through the millennia in China was also assessed themselves to acupuncture differently, but it remained an important part of folk medicine. By Jesuit missionaries who were active in China, was brought to the knowledge of the acupuncture 200 years ago in France. During the French Revolution was a real fashion to acupuncture therapy, but they soon disappeared from public view.
However, before we deal with the use of acupuncture in the West, we want to take a little more on the philosophical background of acupuncture, particularly in the Taoism.

Harmony with the cosmos

Taoism is an ancient Chinese religion, which goes back to the fabled philosopher Lao Tse. “She shimmers in all colors and contains elements of philosophical Taoism. . . “together with elements of ancient folk religion, magic, alchemy and geomancy.
Long before Lao Tzu in ancient China, there was speculation about the force of nature that this world has produced. This cosmic force they called Tao, and their various impacts led it back to the two forces of yin and yang. They are opposed to each other and yet one. It is not in Taoism, as the Bible teaches it, the two opposing forces of light and darkness, between God and Satan. Good and evil come from the same source. “The Chinese people,” writes Marcel Granet, a connoisseur of Chinese Phi ¬ phy, “” see in religion and in magic any more than in the pure and impure in absolute opposites. Such a doctrine known as “monism” (mono = one). We find them again in all the eastern religions, but also behind all modern natural therapies. This theory is logically applied to the Chinese medicine. “For the Chinese medicine is the whole person, body and soul, a real unity, which makes perfect harmony until the Tao.”
“This universe vibrates back and forth between the poles of yin and yang,” writes a modern Taoist philosopher. “All beings and natural phenomena that appear and disappear, are nothing else but diverse manifestations of this primordial cosmic energy. Everything flows from that one infinity and differs only by a different degree of yin and yang “.
Yin and Yang have relations with the constellations and the natural elements (fire, wood, water, etc.) to the seasons and the colors of our emotional feelings and our body functions. Repeatedly, Chinese philosophers developed systems that classify all of these relationships. “They also shared the body into eight parts, which it assigns to eight characters. These consist of short and long beams, which are arranged in three tiers above the other and therefore also called trigrams be. They were formerly used mainly by the masters of the art Oracle to make diagnoses. Today, we find it again and again imaged in the acupuncture books.
The main theme of the Taoist philosophy of harmony between man and cosmos. The person should be put under the sway of the sky, the action of Tao and virtuous living. The Chinese philosophers were convinced that the macrocosm, so the stars and the forces of nature, an influence on the micro-cosmos, have the so what happens inside the human body. Who are the relationships between the orifices and the Eingewei ¬ to know who knows not only know about humans, but have thus also an extensive knowledge of heaven and earth, because there are correspondences between viscera, virtues, ele ¬ ments, emotions, and the heavenly energy “Ch’i”, which flows through the universe and the human.

Immortal through meditation?

Lao Tse could also be a freak of today, because he was against science and culture and saw salvation in a return to natural and simple life. Many Taoist hermit and Aske ¬ th attempted by immersing himself in the Tao and the closeness to nature to prolong their lives. With the help of alchemy, dowsing, magic and mysticism of all kinds of elixirs of life and immortality pills were manufactured. Who put his absolute confidence in them, witnessed the success of the funds.
Another element of Taoism was the meditation. Through them we wanted an ethereal, attain exalted above all limitations of this world body. Through physical and intellectual discipline should be wiped out one’s own ego and take its place, the world-embracing Tao. Those who have achieved this, which could no more harm in this world. He goes through walls and ride the clouds. The ghosts and demons were subject unto him, and he could summon them and give them orders.
Health and invincibility through meditation who is not here is reminiscent of the promises of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his Transcendental Meditation program? Again and again and always offer a new look occult doctrines of the people, of which he is dreaming a long time! But what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and yet still takes damage to his soul?

Acupuncture without any eastern philosophy

The occult background of acupuncture is being played down by many of their modern followers. So writes Dr. J. Bischko, a Viennese acupuncturist, the Chinese were “no mystical people, quite the contrary, very strong realist. You have understood but it masterfully, by insertion of higher powers to enforce certain things on the earth. Thus, when construction Geomancer were drawn, which should investigate whether the proposed location of a dwelling and the various spirits would be pleasant. In reality, these people were landscape architects. . . “

It is not surprising in this attitude that led to the Bischko Dr. Ludwig Boltzmann Institute in Vienna, among others, with the pendulum ‘research’ is operated.

Other acupuncturists have turned away entirely from the mother of their art, from the Taoist philosophy. “Remember,” the ancient teachings of Taoism, an acupuncture doctor told me. “What we produce today with our needles, is based on the stimulation of the autonomic nervous system. Yin corresponds to the parasympathetic, sympathetic to the Yang. The ancient Chinese recognized this system in a brilliant way to have it but for lack of better knowledge built into their philosophy. “

This view is represented mainly by scientifically trained doctors who do not want to deny a certain effect, but otherwise want to keep clear of occultism and superstition. To find such acupuncture doctors, like looking for a needle in a haystack, because, as I said an acupuncture specialist: “Ninety percent of all acupuncturists work with occult means.”
This is also reflected in the literature on acupuncture. What play down some and disbelieve in others, will be defended vigorously by the third group. Your amazing acupuncture has effects “only when the dentist, governed by the original rules based on age-old principles,” says the acupuncture specialist Dr. C. Freiburg Schnorrenberger. Even a combination of Western and Chinese diagnosis treatment, he refuses. He advised the western acupuncture doctors, they should allocate in any case their injection points of Western medicine. Must “be sure the acupuncturist also based on the theories of ancient Chinese medicine, if he wants to have significant healing results. If he behaves otherwise, he might bring about, at best, something like a non-specific stimulation therapy. ” This view also represents the modern Taoist philosopher G. Ohsawa. He says quite clearly that oriental medicine is inseparable from its philosophical foundations. For many psychics and spiritualists which acupuncture is a proof of their occult teachings. And more and more people believe them, under the influence of the success stories that are published everywhere.

Pulses, points, meridians

We see that acupuncturists are not even united. But before we begin, let’s take a look at the terms they use again and again:

1st The Ch’i Energy
2nd The Meridians
3rd Yin and Yang
4th The acupuncture points
5th The diagnosis
6th The therapy

Then we want to have their say some researchers who have studied these things in detail. Is there any scientific evidence for the claims of acupuncture?

In another section, we discuss the theories that have been made about the effectiveness of acupuncture. Is it possible to demonstrate the effect of acupuncture scientifically? Why it works well in European patients in the hospital, such as during anesthesia?
Finally, we turn to the question of whether and where occult elements come into play in the modern practice of acupuncture.

1st The Ch’i Energy

“The root of acupuncture is in the mind. . . The human mind is given from heaven, the body’s energy comes from the earth. “It describes an ancient Chinese writing.

We have already seen that the creative primal force played a central role in Chinese thought. The energy that flows through the people and emanating from the infinity of the cosmos, is called ch’i. Each invisible force, it was the sound of thunder, flashes of the tremor, the movement of an arm or the growth of a plant is returned to Ch’i. The same idea we find among the Hindus, who gave the life force called “prana”. Prana manifests itself in space, but has its headquarters in the heart of man. With their energy also expect the charmer, and therefore some of them are called “pranic healer”. This energy has other names. It corresponds to the “etheric body” of Anthroposophy and the “subtle energy” to work with the spiritualist healer.

The Ch’i of the human body is taken according to the Chinese from the ch’i of the air and goes from there into the organ system of the lungs, which in turn is connected to the colon. The stomach escapes his ch’i of food and passes it to the spleen.

Man can only work if his ch’i with the cosmic energy is consistent. A mother can only receive a child if she lives in this cosmic harmony. Decreases the ch’i in the body, the result is a weakening, and death occurs when the ch’i escape from the body.

2nd The Meridians

The energy circulates in the opinion of Chinese researchers in prescribed paths, also called “meridians”. These have nothing to do with nerves, arteries, veins or lymph vessels do. Our body as apparently to twelve meridians, which are assigned to the various organs. So there is a heart meridian and a gall bladder meridian, one lung and large intestine meridians, etc. Everyone will be designated with a letter and a number. Plays a special role of the meridian with the flowery name “Triple” heater. About him three functional groups are affected: breathing, food intake and sexual potency. During these twelve channels as a pair of six yin and six yang meridians are created, there are two “wonderful vessel,” the “Conception Vessel” and the “GV”, on which there are many important points.

The pulsating energy in these meridians in a specific cosmic rhythm. Each meridian has its maximum at a certain time of energy abundance, at other times its greatest power void. Thus, the “Master of the heart has its greatest sensitivity 12 to 14 clock, the liver meridian,” but 2 to 4 clock in the morning. On all these rhythms, the acupuncturist must take into consideration when he wants to be treated properly.

3rd Yin and Yang

The forces of Yin and Yang are not only in Chinese philosophy an important role. As to the whole nature of yin and yang and fro, so it is also in the human body. As long as these forces are in equilibrium, energy can flow Ch’i.
Yin and Yang but got out of balance, then illness occurs. Thus the terrible attacks of malaria fever by Emperor Huang Ti are explained as follows: “The feeling of frost and fever are caused by the alternating dominance of yin and yang. The appearance comes about by the summer heat is stored under the skin, which then in the other seasons, when shifting the balance between yin and yang, in the form of chills and fever manifests. “

For the western trained doctors and the suffering caused by a shift of energy are combined, it is difficult to Meridian with the guilty. Thus creating a yin-yang imbalance in the Spleen of the following symptoms: nausea, stomach pain, hiccups, indigestion, insomnia, excessive craving for sweet-tasting food, daytime fatigue, diarrhea and general malaise.
Is the small intestine is affected, can cause numbness, yellowing of the eyes, elbow pain, neck pain or facial swelling.

4th The acupuncture points

On the meridians are more than 700 points, the needles can be. The acupuncturists distinguish different types: tonifying and sedating, source and transit points, herald and approval points, Reunions and cardinal points (after Bischko). To locate these points with a diameter of 1-3 mm, the acupuncturist uses a Punktoskop. This is nothing more than a Hautwiderstandsmeßgerät. When it comes to a point with a lowered skin resistance, so the acupuncturist can see this on a scale or a lamp. The scientific value of these often marked by great technical Klimbim Punktoskope is very controversial.

5th The diagnosis

Chinese medicine recognizes four types of diagnosis:

1st WANG = Watch
2nd TING = hearing, and smelling
3rd WEN = questioning
4th TSIE = pulse diagnosis

If the acupuncturist is observed, it does not look like the Western doctor for signs of illness, even if he is going quite similar. He particularly observed the body openings, of which the tongue and eyes are important. The eyes are the opening of the liver, the spleen provides information on the upper eyelid, and the whites of eyes showing him the condition of the lungs. The process belongs to the forerunners of today’s Iris Diagnostics, which we will discuss later.

Learns by hearing, and smelling of acupuncture physician other important details. He not only listens to the vibrations of the voice, but also tries to determine the finest body odors, which help determine the center of the yin-yang disorders, a work that is not him through the modern cosmetics industry it any easier.

Also in the interview, the acupuncturist puts a different emphasis than the Western-trained physicians. Because the four cardinal directions have relations with the organs, susceptibility to disease is dependent on where a patient lives. According to whether he must also use its needles differently. In its survey, the acupuncture specialist interest therefore particularly suitable for the climate under which the patient lives for his food, for its activities and not least for its daily rhythm, because the time of day and the stars have in his view, certain influences on the body. All questions refer to Yin and Yang and give him as according to Chinese philosophy, the best information about the physical health.

These old methods of diagnosis are used by acupuncturists in the West today in various ways. Some think nothing more of it and rely instead on the western diagnosis of blood, urine and faeces, while others insist that only the Chinese ¬ ness, type of diagnosis the right insight for the correct treatment is.

Particularly controversial in the camp of Western imitators Huang Ti’s is the most important Chinese diagnostic aid: the Pulstastung. For the acupuncture doctor means more than just the pulse beat of the heart. He sees the Pulisieren of cosmic energy, which may make him the best statements about the condition of the patient.

He takes the patient’s hand about at the point where the western doctors feel the pulse and puts three fingers at a distance of about 1.5 cm on it. First he sets his fingertips and touched only lightly on this superficial the pulses that give the right-hand information about the function of the colon, stomach, and the “Triple Burner.” Then he stepped up the pressure to the “deep to palpate pulses,” Show him the right hand at the condition of the lungs, spleen, and the institution’s “circulation sexuality”.

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