Chinese and Oriental medicinemen in general have worked on mastering the chemical balance between male and female hormones for the past five thousand years. Diet and acupuncture, together with the prescription of a variety of esoteric physical and mental exercises have been their traditional methods of restoring health to ailing patients.
The therapeutic effects of acupuncture (metallic needle-point stimulation of the invisible electro-magnetic currents that flow within the atomic structure of our bodies,) though still not properly understood and analyzed by western medicinemen, has been generally acknowledged as an effective means for helping to restore health.
The Chinese understanding of diet, which involves an ancient alchemy of intuitive insights into the subtle male/female characteristics of gaseous, organic and mineral food-stuffs, remains largely a mystery to western science.
Of even greater significance is the Oriental focus on the power that the mind has over the body and their research over the millennia, by uncounted millions of mystical practitioners, into the development of the types of physical and metal exercises that can be employed to bring about a sense of balance to the complex chemistry of the human organism.
Our own scientific investigations into understanding the effect of the mind on the body, the powers of rhythmic breathing and the chemical balances of estrogen (yin)and testosterone (yang) in the human system, and exactly what effect they are having, not only on our health, but in determining the quality of our behavior, seems to be taking western medicine more or less down the same ancient path that China and India has trod for millennia.
I have no more than a layman’s grasp of the physical science of western or eastern medical chemistry and any corrections where I err in this thread are welcome. I do have some experience in interpreting both the mental and the metaphysical implications that Chinese and Indian medicinemen consider to be essence of the healing arts, and upon which foundation they have traditionally based their physical practices on. In this vast arena of the sub-conscious (where meta-normal energies can be evoked by the patient and thereby facilitate the recovery of that delicate balance between body, mind and soul, which constitutes the essence of well being) western medicine is playing catch up. It is in this extra-sensory arena that I hope to offer some insight.
Some one hundred million Westerners have taken initiation into oriental metaphysical practices since the 1960’s. It would be nice to hear any confirmations from those who have experienced the effects before proceeding
No. What has been their “traditional method” is to systematically neglect the proper methods of scientific research and experiment and pretend as if they are certain that such products actually do anything at all. Pseudo-science will always be popular and legal where there is no state regulation, and idiots need only watch a commercial on TV where some guy in a silk shirt is walking happily on the beach again because some ancient root from Tokyo healed his joint problems. Bullshit. None of that is certain. What is certain, however, is that another idiot was fooled into buying something he ought not have bought in a society where there is unregulated free-enterprise. Such a world is festering with fake science at every corner.
That said, acupuncture has been recognized by the NIH, and some foods do bear out into the male/female paradigm – for example, soy is absolutely loaded with oestrogen agonists.
In the same way that the old wive’s tale about eating willow bark for a headache lead to the discovery of aspirin, traditional beliefs should be looked into.
Most of them end up being glorified placebos, and the metaphysics underlying their method of action is bound to be almost wholly wrong because it was created in reponse to the manifestation of its effects rather than the cause of its effects . . . but, again, these things are worth looking into.
There are anti-virals that are being developed from mushrooms used in traditional Chinese medicine, a phosphatase inhibitor that is present in tumeric is of interest for its anti-cancer treatment, the list goes on. We just have to seperate the real effect from the false metaphysical cause.
What is pseudo in science is that it has sold us on the bullshit idea that matter is spiritless. We are only beginning to re-realize the ancient maxim that is mind over matter and not the reverse. Chi, when fully evoked can rise the dead.
Of course, Kalton isn’t a biologist, so he doesn’t address the idea of life as maintained disequilibrium.
Adding that concept to what Kalton has suggested, I question whether qi is sufficient to restore life, though it is necessary in the creation of life. Once something has manifested ultimate harmony (the Void), I do not think that qi could reverse that without violating much of the symbolic power of qi as it relates to life, harmony, and nature (ziran).
In a processal universe, which a qi-metaphysics demands (edit: Ames and Hall at the University of Hawaii have pretty conclusively demonstrated that), what there to ‘return’ to?
Death does not exist at the atomic level. Nothing ends. Chi radiates charismatic consciousness eternally.
My reference to the restoration of the dead is in relation to a “clinically dead” body that had not yet begun the process of tranformation. This only happens when the spirit (chi) abandons the body entirely. Because chi is the essence of consciousness, in special circumstances it can be recalled and re-engage in material action (karma). There are innumerable cases of the “clinically dead” coming back to life. Science has no answer for this.
While I am sympathetic towards linking qi with energy, I think that your take on it disregards the strong physical aspect of qi. After all, the line between matter and energy, the physical and the spiritual is differently drawn in the Chinese example. Indeed, when Europeans first encountered Chinese philosophy, the Jesuits glossed ‘qi’ with ‘body’ and ‘li’ with ‘spirit’.
So, we one talks of the vital force (qi), they are not merely talking about the energy that drives the body, but also the body itself. These concepts are inseperable within qi metaphysics.
I also think that the idea of “not yet begun the process of tranformation” is nonsensical in the metaphysical system we are discussing since everything is contantly in a process of transformation. If one takes only one lesson from the Yijing, that would be it. So, again, the idea of ‘back to’ is meaningless unless it is in relation to the Void. It then becomes a matter of life arising anew within a different context.
This isn’t about pre-scientific notions of people returning from the dead, or embracing false diagnoses as a wonder, but rather realizing our place within the dynamic system. The process of decay is, after all, not an end of life but rather a beginning and transformation of new life as organisms feed on the corpse. When Joseph Campbell talks about “Life eating life” that is the fundamental truth he is hitting on.
Since every atom is endowed with the primal essence of chi one cannot strictly say that there is separation between matter and spirit. In order for consciousness to be expressed they are inter-dependant. (otherwise Creation itself would be purposeless)
The association of atoms into different forms creates an infinite variety of seeming different sets of consciousness, each one in turn, seeing itself as individualized, with no two acting precisely the same way. This is true at every cellular level. The charismatic force that holds Creation in balance is the individual desire for reunification as a singularity. The phantom concept of death allows this to happen - provided the full cycle of life has been experienced.
Collectively the human evolutionary cycle is barely half completed - thus we each return to life after death. In some cases this can be to the same body. (The resurrection iof Christ and numerous other adepts are cases in point).
In the Psyche-Genetic graph I show how the full evolutionary cycle of collective development toweards an eventual state of cosmic consciousness, is symbolically expressed in each individual life as it gradually matures between infancy and sagehood. Though we all grow old phsyically, we (the vast majority) actually *die" while still spiritually in our teens. Only fully enlightened sages transcends this cycle. According to Buddhism, that takes thirteen reincarnations - though it is possible, via special metaphsyical disciplines, (including experimenting with the metaphsyical energies in one’s diet) for advanced cycles of consciousness to be experienced in a single birth.
It is these subtle alterations of consciousness that I am aluding to when talking about balancing the chemistry of yin and yang. In the ideal it is impossible to tell if one’s consciousness is male or female. This state of consciousness allows one to realize sagehood.
I agree with you completely on the first paragraph.
We part ways after that. Your mysticism is incompatible with my cosmology.
Especially with regards to the teleology that is in your thought. I do not see the world in such a way.
Which is as it should be.
It is a mistake to fall into the doctrinal trap of viewing metaphysics as a repeatable experience. No two metaphsyicians can ever experience the Absolute in the same way - just as no two artists can ever paint any picture the same way. Each inner view is unique to the individual. That which is repeatable is not art, merely duplication. This is what limits science. It is also the reason way scientists without ecstatic spiritual vision dismiss the art of life and see only its mechanics - wonderous as that is.
All each mystic can do is contribute his or her vision towards embellishing the infinite facets and aspects of the Absolute. We do it by presenting one’s own take on it. Some people like Picaso, some do not. So too is with the visions of the Mystique. Some masters garner vast followings. Some meditate alone. Prolonged innner focus, sharpened daily by metaphsyical drills and exercise is the key to spiritual insght. Only guidance can be gained from scripture.
Another area where we disagree – the nature of the individual
So it goes, eh?
Edit: Though I will say that I don’t see anything ‘mystic’ about qi. To me, it is no more ‘mystical’ than matter/energy because it is matter/energy. The only distinction is whether we attach to that principle whether matter/energy is dead and inert or alive and vital. And since both of those are merely a matter of perspective/definition, well, nothing really has changed.
As we agree on the above, everything else is of small consequence.
I would like to add that the Creation spectacle is illusory - only energy exists. Shankara was the first seer to intuite five centuries ago; “all is maya”. The enigma of that illusion ( how one can say it is not Divinely mysterious underlines the chasm between physics and metaphysics) is being explored today in quantum theory.
What can never be proved empirically is that atomic energy is self-conscious. Essentially there is only One electric Consciousness. We are all playing along with the illusion, acting as witness to that mysterious Self. Narcissis staring into a pond, waiting for the ripples to subside and stop distorting His vision of perfection.
