Then I saw an intern of Ed Neal’s at NCNM. Ed collaborated closely with her in treatment. I was pain free within 3 sessions. The pain has never returned. That’s simply one, personal, example of the excellent results I have seen in person and heard about second-hand when a deeply Classical approach is used.

Eric

To be a little more direct, it’s fine and well to say that the Classics have their place and need to be combined with modern “discoveries”. However, this forces me as an advocate of the Classical approach to ask “Ok, so have you learned de facto Classical acupuncture? What were your results? Where did it succeed? Where did you have trouble? How long did you study it? Whom did you learn from? How long did you use it?”

No 0ffense intended Stéphane, but I’ve yet to meet someone who had actually learned Classical acupuncture (rather than stating an off-the-cuff opinion) who then felt they needed to augment it with something else because of a lack of efficacy.

The best person I could possibly direct you to (because I am NOT trained in Classical acupuncture and only have a tiny amount of it under my belt, much to my shame) is Edward Neal. Have a look at his site here: http://www.neijingacupuncture.com/

#1 – I too had my share of health challenges and I find it helpful when relating to patients. I looked at my health issues and dug deep. This exercise helped me see deeper in my patients and their pathologies.
#3 – now, the treatment of pain (be it acute of chronic) is my favourite topic. In my (brief) experience, what is taught in acupuncture schools regarding the treatment of pain is not very effective. I use the more modern concept of trigger points (which is related to, but different from Ashi points). Using modern medical science discoveries along with ancient meridian theories is the way to go if we want to be effective. I’ve treated chronic pain that was resistant to medication, osteopathy, chiro and physio for several years, in one or 2 treatments (and I’m talking 95% to 100% success that lasted). I believe that it is essential to study the Classics and keep them in mind, but we also have to learn from what is good in modern bio-medicine. This is what I saw in China, and they come up with new techniques that are impressively effective.
Patrick, you are right! I was in China in 2005 and when I went back in 2010, I met an old friend still apparently in the same position, following the same doctor… my first thought was to consider it a failure to still be in the same subordinate position after 5 years. But what you say is right. He’s probably becoming a great doctor.

Even within the universities you can find good clinicians – unfortunately when you do, they still aren’t allowed to teach ‘off the book’. So formal education is a bland, dead, flawed system. However, talk to them after class about their real interests, and you’ll find a different medicine. Because the residency is informal, you don’t learn “TCM” with your teacher, you learn their art of medicine.

I don’t see what makes this hard to do in America. Find an experienced doctor you respect, who practices the medicine how you’d like to practice, and work along side them (not across town, but side by side, every day) for a number of years. If they’re good, they probably have more patients than they can handle anyway. Do we need to wait for it to become institutionalized?

Now, if there were a couple inpatient facilities practicing one of the genuinely effective forms of CM (CCM being my preference of course) then we’d be in business. But that may be a ways off yet.

Honestly, it’s a difficult medicine, and good philosophy isn’t always (or perhaps even often) enough. There’s a certain meat of experience that fills and transforms the same ideas you know into ideas you really understand.

In China, though the state of education in school is poor, good doctors continue their real education with teachers well after graduation. Residencies can stretch years, even decades. It takes different forms, some doctors work under their seniors in hospitals, some with their teacher in the same clinic. Of course American schools have clinic rounds, though from what I hear, they are too short and often with many different teachers. Nice to get a taste of different styles, but if that’s all you get, just appetizers then out the door, well…

It takes time to learn a style, even more time to develop your own. Theory plus practice equals wisdom and good teachers are catalysts. Though it’s a synthesis never really ends, there are discrete stages. Without a residency system, I fear many may spend a lifetime without getting over the first hurdle. Stages, wisdom, understanding – it’s all vertical. Cultivators unable to build up high enough, or dig down deep enough, reach out horizontally.

Get mad, the horizontal sprawl mentality is gas for the fire of our yin deficient day-and-age.

Seriously, I think this falls under Divine Providence/happens for a reason.