Raising my voice
Personal Development, Technology
What am I trying to say on this blog?
I have been thinking about the question that I asked in my Limitations and possibilities post. I had no idea at the time and I am thankful for the encouraging comments I received. After this week it feels I am closer to an answer and that I have rediscovered something since writing What is energy medicine?.
I was guilty at the start of my shiatsu education and early writings on ShiatsuBlogger of trying to validate Chinese medicine with Western scientific ideas. An easy and natural approach for any Westerner trying to learn the concepts of Tao, Yin and Yang, and Ki. But for a while now I have realised that this is a mistake and that the only way to approach what Chinese medicine is about is to understand it in its own right.
Chinese medicine and Western science are two views of the same reality. Each is correct and verifiable in its own methodology. But trying to understand each in terms of the other just leads to wrong conclusions and confusion. It is like learning a new language: One has to get past that stage of translating back into your mother tongue. One has to understand the idioms of the new language as they are nonsensical when translated word for word.
While I now see it is not sensible to justify Ki in scientific terms I still feel the need to explore both models as I progress through my shiatsu education. I want to write about Chinese medicine and the other alternative practises I discover. But as a Western practitioner of shiatsu I feel it is important to understand the Western scientific method and how that objects to the growing body of natural health practitioners.
When I wrote my Falsifiability article I was not trying to translate Ki into science but trying to understand an argument that was being used against Chinese medicine. My point in Superhero Ki was that concepts get picked up and often misused. The alternative health lobby are as guilty of this as Western scientists: I sometimes feel the quantum link to Ki and shiatsu is an example of this.
This interface between the Eastern and Western traditions is what really fascinates me and that is where I want my voice to be heard. When I return from holiday I will start exploring this quantum shiatsu idea.
Tony Brown @ September 21, 2007