What is energy medicine?

Chinese Medicine, Western medicine, Yin Yang

Tracy provoked an interesting discussion on her post Response to: What is alternative medicine anyway?. It is worth reading and it is interesting how some people view the concept of Ki.

I want to expand on my own contributions to that thread and develop the theme into what I suppose is my own view of energy medicine. To avoid confusion I will use the Japanese word Ki instead of the Chinese Qi below. The concept is exactly the same just a different word that tends to be used in shiatsu and Japanese arts.

The fact there is a different word for the same concept is part of the problem. In the classic Tao Teh Ching, Lao Tzu warns us that names are simply names and not the thing itself. What we call Ki or Qi is a human label on a phenomena that we experience. Ultimately we are all limited by our own experience. As that experience develops so does our understanding of what is meant but as words Qi or Ki remain unchanged.

In the West Ki is translated as energy or life-force but in my previous attempts at defining Ki I have tried to show that the word is trying to describe a fundamental texture of the Universe. There is almost a sub-atomic nature to Ki that pre-dates the work of Einstein and Niels Bohr. But although Bohr took the Yin Yang symbol into his coat of arms it would be a leap of imagination to say that the Chinese were describing quantum physics several thousands of years ago. Quantum physics is about uncertainty and Einstein was taking a more Taoist viewpoint when he said “God does not play dice with the universe“. The Chinese Taoist philosophy of Ki is describing an experience of the world understood as the balance of complementary opposites. Heaven and Earth, Fire and Water; polar opposites but necessary to each others existence or our ability to perceive them.

What scientists like Bohr acknowledge is that they are building on an understanding of the Universe that was perceived by the ancients but taking it to a level of incomprehensible detail. It is the scientist’s experience of the Universe to break it down into individual named pieces. Whether we name the texture of the universe a Higgs boson, Qi, Ki or Arthur we name the same thing but experience it differently.

It is the Western doctor’s experience to view the body as a system of described organs. It understands some of how these organs interact using intricate systems of chemical and electrical messengers. It is capable of incredible cures. A practitioner of a Ki based medicine can never hope to act on such a precise level but that is because they are taking a larger view of the same body.

Exponents of both systems understand how the body uses energy from the air and food. One talks of oxygen and gaseous exchange the other says kong-qi (Ki from air). One talks of proteins, carbohydrates and calories the other says gu-qi (Grain/Food Ki). In fact Chinese medicine recognises many types of Ki such as wei-qi responsible for fighting external pernicious influences and ying-qi that is the energy of Blood itself.

Ki is an elegant theory that the Chinese evolved to explain the Universe, the world and the body. This theory described the circulation of blood around the body long before William Harvey in 1628 or even Ibn al-Nafis in 1242. It explained the function of the lungs and their link to blood while the scientific West was still under the impression we breathed simply to cool the body. But this is not a competition it is just one approach requires proof to build a precise understanding. The other observes to paint a picture.

Shiatsu, acupuncture any the other Qi based therapies simply see the body in a different way to the scientific doctor. That the body is a reflection of what it eats, breathes, thinks and does over the course of its life is one benefit of explaining that body as a construct of Ki. Seeing Ki sees the person as a continuous flow of energy interacting with its environment. By understanding Ki we understand the whole person; mind and body.

And this holistic approach is something that conventional medicine is now discovering in its own way. Now that science is proving how we interact with our food and environment medical approaches are changing. Modern approaches to mental health problems might include talking, exercise and alternative therapies instead of drugs.

Ki is a philosophy and in my view does not require scientific validation. It is an approach to healing that is effective in those chronic cases that conventional medicine often fails because of its wider view of the body. It is not a theory to use if one does have acute chest pains or suffers severe trauma. Both methods have their strengths and instead of arguing over approaches each needs to take time to understand the other.

Tony Brown @ September 7, 2007