As you might already know, acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medical approach for treating health problems. It is speculated to be somewhere around 3000 years old. It applies putting stainless steel acupuncture needles into acupuncture points that will have specific benefits for the patient.
But, how does acupuncture really work? According to Johns Hopkins medical school, one of the foremost medical programs in the country, Acupuncture points are believed to stimulate the central nervous system. This, in turn, releases chemicals into the muscles, spinal cord, and brain. These biochemical changes may stimulate the body’s natural healing abilities and promote physical and emotional well-being. The Mayo Clinic views the acupuncture points as places to stimulate nerves, muscles and connective tissue. Some believe that this stimulation boosts your body’s natural painkillers. They also state ,There’s also evidence that acupuncture works best in people who expect it to work.
You could spend the rest of the day reading about acupuncture and probably not find out how it actually works. They might tell you what the results are and what could possibly be expected, but none will explain HOW it works.
If we look back at the history of acupuncture we can start to understand how it actually benefits a patient. Most of us believe that acupuncture requires placing the stainless steel needle into a specific acupuncture point, but that is not exactly correct. Actually needles were not around 3000 years ago, and there is evidence that bones or blunt objects were used to activate acupuncture points by putting pressure on the points. We know that acupressure also works that would likely validate that history.
We also accept that it is an energetic modality and supposedly uses manipulation of energy for health benefits. According to the Chinese, the body is made of energy and it moves around via different meridians and access to these meridians is through acupuncture points. There are about 380 acupuncture points in most animals.
If acupuncture works with subtle energy, then how does it benefit the material body? No one can seem to explain this and this is why it is considered not scientifically proven. It is easy to measure the end results of activating acupuncture points but the measured results are the changes that have occurred in the physical body after activating the point. For example, we can measure the stomach acidity in a pet and then activate the acupuncture point, PC6. This point is known to balance the stomach energy and will reduce stomach acidity if the patient is producing excess stomach acid. After the point is activated we measure the stomach acid level again and see the obvious changes. This can be repeated time and time again. Another example dealing with pain. There are many pain points that will activate the release of endorphins which reduce pain. Again, we can measure these levels before and after activating these points. Most scientific communities will accept these results and consider that it is a beneficial modality but cannot explain how this happens.
The reason this is difficult is because we are using the wrong science. Conventional medicine considers the body as form (material) and the science that explains how it works is based on Newtonian science or the laws of matter. Acupuncture and Chinese medicine see the body as energetic and not form. The only way to understand how this works is using quantum physics, the science of sub-atomic energy.
In conventions medicine, the body is composed of parts ranging from tissue and organs down to the chemical structure we call the atom. The word atom is from the Greek work, atomus, meaning that that cannot be divided. This was about 400 BC and obviously our science has proven that the atom can be broken down into subatomic energetic particles. Needles to say the science that explains the atom cannot explain the subatomic makeup of the body.
If we look at how quantum mechanics works, we realize that energy appears to move from a higher, less dense dimension towards a lower, more dense dimension. This is how we can explain how acupuncture and other energy modalities affect the physical body. A good example is chronic stress. We accept that those of us who have chronic stress will eventually become physically ill. The less dense energy of emotional stress affects the more dense energy of the material body. This is not a theory but a proven fact.
Now that we know a little about subtle energy, quantum physics and the body, let’s go back to the question as to how acupuncture actually works. If we place a stainless steel needle (material) into an acupuncture point (subtle energy) how can this have an effect? It cannot. Why? Because energy only flows in a direction from less dimension towards dense dimension. We call this the direction of influence or vector of influence of energy.
Then how does it work, because we see the positive results from the treatment? We can answer it by using the same vector of influence. It takes higher, more subtle energy to influence lower dimensional energy. This comes from our mind. Our mind directs the intention in order to see the result on the body. We call this focused intention. The stainless steel needle functions to keep our intention focused during the treatment.
This might sound bizarre but it is not. It is a scientific law. Acupuncture originated in China and was used for treating people and horses. They did not treat pets so there is no data as to where the acupuncture points are located in pets. Many of them are the same as in people and horses, but some are not. We call these acupuncture points transitional points. If an acupuncture point is located on the lateral side of the big toe in humans and the dog only has four toes, where do we put it? This was the enigma of finding transitional points.
The acupuncture point, LIV3 is one of the four most influential points in the body so it is imperative to find the exact location in our pets. Unfortunately, it too is a transitional point so there has been great debate as to where is is located. After several years of debating, the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society, finalized the debate and instructed practitioners to its location and to unify in treating this point.
I took it upon myself to contact many of my colleagues who practiced acupuncture and asked them where they were treating LIV3. Half of them placed it in one location and the other half placed it in the other location. All of them said they had great success in treating the point. Why? Because it was the focused intention that created the result, not the exact location of the point.
I once had a client that I treated his dog with acupuncture. He told me a wonderful story about his horse. He had an old horse that had severe arthritis of the back and the conventional vet had used all his tools to help the old horse without improvement. A friend told him that he knew of a fellow in upstate Washington that could help. He called the fellow and made arrangements to have the horse treated.
When he got to the location, he found that it was a house in a neighborhood, not a clinic. The fellow came out of the house, introduce himself and asked him to unload the horse. The fellow placed his hands above the horses back and started moving them along the spine from front to back and in reverse order. He did this for several minutes and then stopped. My client asked him what he was doing with his hands. The fellow told him that the hands were for his benefit and not the horse. He explained that the horse was healed and that he did it with his mind and that using his hands would help allow my client to be open to the treatment. My client examined the horse’s back and there was no pain.
Surprised, my client asked him if he was a veterinarian. The fellow told him no, he was an artist but knew how to heal. He did not charge for his service and sent my client back to Idaho with a new attitude about healing.
Be open to energetic healing. It can perform healing that convention medicine cannot offer. If you practice long enough and are open to it, you might learn to do it yourself. It only takes belief and the ability to focus direct intention healing.
