Philip G. Garrison
Five Branches University
Santa Cruz, California
Chinese Medicine in a Quantum Universe
One of the most exciting prospects for Chinese medicine in the 21st century is the
integration of quantum physics into our collective consciousness, a quantum
consciousness. Quantum entanglement, the concept that the universe is not local and
that, on the microscopic level, a change in one particle affects another “entangled
particle”--possibly on the other side of the Universe--points to our unity with our
neighbors, our planet, and even our Creator. Chinese medicine provides a framework
for understanding this connectedness. The classic text of Chinese medical knowledge,
the Huang Di Nei Jing states, "From ancient times it has been recognized that there is an
intimate relationship between the activity and life of human beings and their natural
environment (Su Wen, Chapter 3)."
As mankind evolves toward a new quantum
consciousness, we will come closer to an understanding of the mechanisms by which
Chinese medicine operates. Within this new paradigm, the apparent differences between
Western medicine and Chinese medicine will disappear.
One fundamental difference between these two systems of healing is that Chinese
medicine is experientially based, whereas Western medicine is experimentally based.
The great Chinese folk hero and father of herbology, Shen Nong, was said to have tasted
as many as seventy herbs in one day: recording their tastes, impressions, and indications.
Chinese herbal knowledge, therefore, includes more than chemical constituents and
isolated ingredients. The herbs themselves are the healers, and their effects on the
organism are broad. In more modern language, these herbs have their effect at the
subatomic, or quantum level, of the organism--reaching beyond the levels of simple
biochemistry.
In his book, Medicine in China, Paul Unschuld provides the following depiction
of early Chinese medicine, "[It] focused its interest on a definition of various functional
entities in the organism, on the assessment of the linkages between these functional
entities, and, finally, on an analysis of their relation to the macrocosmic whole of which
they were considered an integral part."
Thus, the Chinese developed a deep
understanding of the functioning of the human organism, with minimal focus on
structure. Western medicine, on the other hand, focused its effort on understanding the
structure--right down to its smallest elements: the cells, the molecules, and the subatomic
particles. At this level of understanding, the human being ceases to become a complete
organism, but instead becomes a conglomeration of parts. As stated in the Zhuangzi, "If
you point to the different parts of a horse, you do not have 'a horse.'" Likewise, if you
point to the cells or subatomic parts of a human, you do not have "a human."
As Western medicine begins its quantum evolution, integrating quantum physics
into its understanding of the body, the language used to describe the processes involved
will also be applicable to Chinese medicine. If acupuncture, for example, is to be
updated for the 21st Century, its evolution will most likely come through using this new
terminology.
Take the word qi--this term, so fundamental to the understanding of
Chinese medicine, is often translated as energy, which is the basis for quantum physics.
Others, however, have suggested that qi may more accurately be thought of as
information, which also echoes quantum theory.
The great 20th century Japanese
acupuncturist, Dr. Yoshio Manaka, described the meridian system in the following terms,
"The twelve channels represent pathways of information/signal transmission and sites of
information/signal reception." While this interpretation has a more modern sound to it,
the underlying principle echoes the classical understanding that the channels allow qi to
flow throughout the body, and that this qi can be affected at specific points. Manaka
also asserted, "[This system] appears to operate at a more primitive and deeper level than
many of the flows of biological information--neural, hormonal, biochemical--that have
been clearly defined by modern science." Indeed, many of the modern concepts that
come closest to describing the mechanism of Chinese medicine echo this theme of a
primitive regulatory system.
Describing his research on the extracellular matrix, Alfred Pischinger, an Austrian
M.D., writes, "The extracellular matrix is older than the nervous and hormonal systems,"
and, "The higher regulatory systems can be influenced by the extracellular matrix."
Simply replacing the words "extracellular matrix" with "acupuncture meridians" in the
above statements provides a possible description of the mechanism underlying Chinese
medicine. The extracellular matrix includes the connective tissue, the only tissue that,
according to Pischinger, "has direct contact with all parts of the body." Dr. Robin Kelly,
who practices Western medicine and acupuncture in New Zealand, elaborates, "Our
living tissue, particularly our connective tissue, has the property of being a
semi-conductor...the acupuncture points are like sockets near the surface of the body
connecting to this semi-conducting electrical current within."
Practitioners of Chinese medicine use filiform needles to access these "sockets."
Modern research in Japan has led to the notion that acupuncture needles act as vectors:
they have power and direction. Yasumasa Katsumata, a colleague of Manaka's, writes,
"A needle is a dipole movement with positive polarity at the tip of the needle, and a
negative polarity at the handle end of the needle." While these statements resound
within modern ears, they are no more or less accurate than the statements made thousands
of years ago by the early Chinese sages who first described acupuncture.
Ultimately, the evolution of Chinese and Western medicine will be shaped by
practitioners of both healing modalities. The world of the 21st century is far more
complex than the world of ancient China, or the post-Newtonian West.
New
terminology may allow a better understanding, by the West, of the underlying processes
of acupuncture and Chinese medicine, but these new terms must accurately reflect the
fundamental truths of this system of healing.
Future practitioners may speak of
acupuncture channels as energetic probabilities, or as the "X-Signal System," to use
Manaka's terminology. Still, one must never forget the ancient wisdom of Chinese
medicine, which reaches forward to our quantum world to instruct and guide us.