On entering into a philosophical morass: Chinese medicine and Western science
Let’s get something straight. I’m very confused about the role of Western scientific research as it is currently practiced in verifying the claims of practitioners of Chinese medicine. Various studies, including the famous “sham acupuncture” study seem to challenge the premise that the theoretical bases of Chinese medicine are an accurate description of reality and our interactions with it. For instance, concerning the study referenced above, if any old needle through the skin will cure migraines - what of channel theory? What of our highly developed ideas about acupuncture techniques? Similar doubt is cast on Chinese herbalism by placebo controlled double blind studies showing no significant improvement in patient outcomes with the administration of various herbal extracts or even, in some cases, whole herbal formulas. What gives? Why spend all this money to learn a highly nuanced medical system if that system can’t stand on its own two feet? (Yes, I know, there are plenty of studies that verify CM’s efficacy, but that’s beside my specific point here).
I’ve talked in various articles on this site about my basic opinion about the relationship between Western science and Chinese medicine. At my school, NCNM, we talk about these things quite a bit in classes, in the hallways, in subversive meetings around Portland, Oregon. But, to be totally frank, the conversations don’t often delve deeply. This isn’t because we don’t want to go beyond the surface. Sometimes it feels like these concepts are coated with Teflon - the mind so readily slips off. It’s such work just to get through the program, I think most of us just don’t have the mental energy to work through this kind of analysis. Further, most of us weren’t attracted to the medicine because of analytical research indicating that it is effective. To some extent, it’s a gut level reaction. Or you could say that it’s a spiritual attraction - whatever you like.
I find, though, with my dual background in Western philosophy and Western science, I simply can’t let the matter lie. Believe me, I’d rather it be any other way. So, I’m going to attempt to unpack this issue - it’s going to take some time. It’s going to take a lot of reading and a lot of thinking and I’m not even sure what kind of result I can expect. I want to make it abundantly clear that I fully believe that Classical Chinese Medicine *does* stand on its own two feet, that it is deeply rooted in a science that needs no independent verification. I simply want to understand, for myself, what that means. In a sense, for me, this (long) journey will be an intellectual exercise. Perhaps an important one. We’ll see.
In a preliminary way, I can imagine that my exploration is going to have to go over some of the following terrain:
1. What is the nature of Western science as it is currently practiced? Essentially, what assumptions does Western science take for granted and how are they being challenged? My sense is that I’ll have to look pretty deep into the gaping maw of materialism in this part of my journey.
2. How do modern research standards grow out of the above assumptions? How are they independent from them? How have modern research standards evolved and how are they currently evolving?
3. How can the ideas of a non-material essence to the human being come back into acceptance by science? Is that desirable or necessary? What would that mean and what are the philosophical and practical implications?
4. Is there merit to the assertion that the scientific system that grows out of one world view cannot be adequately assessed or criticized by the scientific system that grows out of another? If so - what does this mean for an increasingly globalized world where many different worldviews are forced to interact?
5. What produces the most favorable patient outcomes and how would we measure those outcomes?
I’m going to have to look into a lot of disciplines in which I don’t have much expertise. That’s okay with me. I’ve come to accept that in any endeavor, there’s probably someone who knows more than me. That’s the benefit of this kind of public dialogue - lots of folks can contribute.
I’m interested to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Eric
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Tags: Acupuncture, chinese-herb, classical-chinese-medicine, integrative-medicine, philosophy, philosophy of science, Theory, western research, western-scienceRelated posts
What do my personal finances have to do with Classical Chinese herbal formulas?
As part of my February Year of Sagely Living commitment, I am listening to Steven Covey’s Principle Centred Leadership
As I prepare for launching my professional career, I’ve been trying to clean up my personal finances. I have plenty of debt (mostly from school) and I haven’t always attended to my financial health. I’ve tried in the past to keep to a budget, to clean up my credit and to live frugally, but I haven’t always been particularly successful. It seems in this year of the Rat, full of energy for cutting away old habits and launching new ones, I have been given new life for this part of my life. Within the last month, I was introduced to the financial philosophy of Dave Ramsey and his Total Money Makeover
Dave Ramsey offers old time advice. Save money for a rainy day. Don’t rely on others to take care of you! Look out for your future. Small sacrifices now reap huge benefits in the future. A penny saved is a penny earned (and then some, in certain cases!) Often simple thoughts are dismissed as sound in a time OTHER than the one we are living in. They are thought to be interesting, but antiquated. In the financial world, it seems that savvy modern people use credit to their advantage. They game the market. Sometimes it seems that there’s a latent idea that savvy, hip, and especially young people don’t worry about tomorrow - or at best, they employ some misunderstood principle of the “Law of Attraction” to bring them what they will need when their gambles don’t pay off. Dave Ramsey, with lots of huffing and puffing, brings a timely and easily understood message to all of the above - don’t be stupid. Take care of yourself.
For me, the philosophy resonates very strongly with what I’m learning about Chinese herbal formulas. Funny, right? The philosophy is, in essence - don’t try to get savvy and creative with things until you are absolutely certain you understand the principles. This is such an unpopular idea that it’s probably hard for many people to comprehend.
But, please, learn the principles! Learn them so thoroughly that you’re loathe to leave their stead. With Dave Ramsey you learn simple principles - no credit, pay cash, focus on debt payoff and preparation for the future first, delay gratification, focus on a simple and principle focused life. He teaches a program and that program, when lived, drives the principles very deep indeed. Eventually you will run into situations that the program didn’t give you specific practices to implement - and that’s ok. Because you know the principles so well that the creativity you spontaneously exhibit is absolutely in line with the wisdom you’ve received.
The same is true of formulas, at least how I am learning them from Dr. Versluys. For the next ten or fifteen years, I will have one focus with regards to Chinese herbalism. Learn, use and seek to understand the classical formulas. This does include original modifications, modification formulas, and the basic formula combination principles that are apparent within Zhang Zhong Jing’s writing. Sometimes these formulas will be applied to situations that aren’t exactly spelled out and that’s ok. As the formulas and their language become utterly embedded in my psyche - creativity will naturally emerge. That creativity will be absolutely rooted in undeniable wisdom, it will have grown naturally, with no attempt to rush, with no worry that the basics won’t suffice.
Eric
Tags: chinese-herb, commitment, habits, Leadership, Learning, money, philosophy, versluys, Year of Sagely LivingRelated posts
Tradition and innovation in Chinese medicine
As I was working on one of my upcoming reviews, MORE books came to review - one of these being the masterful volume on Pulse Diagnosis by Dr. Leon Hammer
In Dr. Hammer’s book, he discusses the Mai Jing
Last night I was in a meeting of a group I am privileged to be part of called the Presidential Ambassador Leadership Society or PALS. It is currently based at NCNM but has a larger vision of being replicated at other natural medicine schools. The purpose of PALS is manyfold, but last night it was most definitely focused on developing our own capacities in various areas of personal development including leadership, vision and most importantly - openness to new ideas. While listening to the talk, I wondered about Chinese medicine and the tension that seems to be there between the need to adhere to tradition and the inevitable human urge to innovate. My school and particularly certain professors in the school tend to privilege tradition over innovation, though several professors are extremely innovative and I consider them to be on the bleeding edge of Chinese medicine development. So this tension, so present at the AAAOM conference, so present in academic journals, so present in online interactions between practitioners is fully displayed in the hallowed halls of NCNM as well.
I am not, by nature, a conservative person. I thrive in an environment of near constant change, particularly internal change. I have always been the first in my peer group and my family to try new things, to reach towards new vistas and to adapt to new technology. In my undergraduate studies in both biology and philosophy and later in my graduate studies in ethics, I sought out new theories and methodologies and looked to the future as the answer to many of our most perplexing questions in the present. But my study of Chinese medicine has changed me a little. In some ways, I see moving back towards the Classics and the Classical way of perceiving the world as the most significant advance we can make today. I find myself EXCEEDINGLY reluctant to adopt new systems of diagnosis and treatment, even if they are purported to be clinically viable.
But these last few weeks have found me discovering a middle ground between the futurism and love of innovation of my past and the canonical conservatism of recent years. For every branch and leaf you see on a tree there is a long root and many rootlets to support it. The tree doesn’t ignore its roots, and there is no favoring of upward growth over deep nourishment from the Earth for a healthy specimen. My roots lie in the Classical texts and in the methods of reasoning and understanding that I can extract from them. But my leaves and branches rise to the sun. I think this is a healthy approach. But I would like to talk more about what it means.
What kind of balance are you striking between adherence to tradition and respect for innovation? Where do your tensions lie?
Eric
Tags: balance, changing-the-world, chinese-medicine, Classical Texts (general), Personal Development, philosophy, professional-development, TheoryRelated posts
In which I resume juggling
Hey everyone,
School starts today (Monday, September 10) and I’m up at 4am, apparently, to mark the occasion. Ever since I can remember, I can’t sleep the day before school. Too excited! As I’ve said various times, this year is fairly pivotal in my education - we take formulas and internal medicine, as well as advancing in our clinical education. I will be working in triplicate with a professor who I have utmost respect for and hope to continue working with for a while - ArnaudVersluys . I’m excited because I have a clinic shift with him as well as taking a Classical texts course he is teaching that is focused on the Shang Han Lun. But the mother-ship is formulas at the end of the week - this is the class I feel like I have been waiting for since I started school.
Anyway - my time to write becomes more cramped and so I hope you will stick with me as I adjust to my new schedule. I still hope to post daily, but I will need to experiment with new kinds of content and new formats to make sure I can get something of quality out but still fulfill my various responsibilities. This summer of researching and writing for four or five hours at a time has been wonderful - I’m hoping it trained my writing muscles well enough to give my readers what they need.
Last night we had an orientation in one of the most beautiful homes I have ever had the privilege to be in. Our CCM orientation is always incredibly special, because all of the doctors introduce themselves. This is a great time for me because so often we don’t get to simply observe these incredible individuals, don’t get to hear them talk about what it is they do. For the past two years, at least, they have simply given us a few words of wisdom along with telling us what their educational philosophy is and what they are passionate about. This time I was paying close attention to what they said and I thought I would share a few observations - a few distilled words of wisdom - to carry all of you into your various endeavors.
1. Enjoy yourself. There is a lot of work required of us in life, perhaps even more so when we are in formal schooling. But it is of paramount importance that you are able to step back, see the awesomeness of your life - and just enjoy it. If you think you’re being too serious - you probably are.
2. Having respect for your teachers isn’t enough - demonstrate it through your attitude and actions. You may think being late for class, failing to study before lecture, checking email and text messages during lecture and chatting with friends during lecture are small things - even possibly necessary to your existence. But they demonstrate a complete lack of dedication to the learning of this material, a lack of respect for the wealth of knowledge and experience your professors bring to you and - perhaps worse - a total lack of respect for your decision to commit yourself to what you are doing.
3. Your particular contingent of students and professors (or co-workers, if you are in a work environment) came together in a special, unique way. In a sense, you are “meant” to be together in this place and time. Honor that by being present fully and taking full advantage of the resources available to you.
4. Look at life with a childlike enthusiasm. It’s easy to get jaded in this world. Some of the people I love the most are so cynical, so “over” so many things - it makes me truly sad. Get excited about things again. Be excited about your education. Be excited about your future. Demonstrate that enthusiasm by being openly ready and willing to receive whatever is coming to you. For students, demonstrate that enthusiasm by allowing the teachers to do their part of the work to transmit this medicine to you. Then do your part by respecting them, by studying hard, by deepening your commitment to your profession and by having a great time doing it.
5. Complain less, problem-solve more. I love the democratic process. I love when people see that something needs to change and actively seek to change it. I despise endless complaining for no reason. Nary a complaint should leave your mouth without being followed by a plan to rectify the deficient situation. For everything you find wrong with the world, there is probably something you need to change about yourself. Aside from this - for everything you find wrong with the world, seek to recommend at least 5 ways that thing could be changed by the people responsible for changing it.
Eric
Tags: academics, Blogging, education, Learning, Personal Development, philosophy, professional-development, scholar, students, study, studyingRelated posts
7 Ways Chinese medicine is changing the world (for the better)
I’m on vacation - soaking in the five elements on the Oregon coast. Here’s something quick to tide my loyal readers over. No pun intended.
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I’ll admit it, I’m concerned about the state of our planet and our people. I’m not a fatalist, I’m not a Doomsday prophecist. I don’t want to recommend that everyone move out into the woods and start tanning hides. I don’t think buying a shirt at Nordstrom rack is the pinnacle of evil. But, I do worry about global warming. I do wonder what kind of natural environment my daughter will be experiencing when she’s my age. I do think commercialization of our society has gone too far. When I decided to get involved in Chinese medicine I did so because I believed and still believe that it is a vital piece of the solution for many of the problems facing our world today. Here’s 7 reasons why I believe this and why you should, too.
1. Low-tech medicine reduces the impact on the planet. Chinese medicine requires few machines in most of its forms. It uses only simple medicines gleaned from the bounty of the Earth, stainless steel needles and the body of the practitioner. No elaborate high-tech production facilities dumping chemical laden sludge into the rivers and streams. No radioactive materials used in diagnostics. This is important given the rapidly deteriorating nature of our planet’s vital life-support systems. To be sure, there are also environmental challenges in the medicine - mostly related to the harvesting and processing of sensitive plants and animals. Further, the increasing popularity of our medicine has created a “race to the bottom” when it comes to the production of all herbs. This is beginning to be addressed and all practitioners must do everything in their power to put pressure on producers to create an ethical commercial environment.
2. Heals the whole person. Because CM theory regards the person as an integrated whole it inevitably treats the whole. So even though you may be coming in with a complaint of stomach pain, your doctor is likely to be treating a diverse range of imbalances with the aim of relieving your acute symptoms but also preventing their eventual return. If you maintain a relationship with your practitioner, you will inevitably uncover symptoms that you had forgotten about or simply learned to live with - these will be compassionately revealed and dealt with. Eventually, you will emerge as a healthy being on all levels - body, mind and spirit. A whole person interacts with the world in an integral way - and we need integral beings interacting with one another authentically if we hope to continue our evolution as a species.
3. Not involved in a race for progress. Classical Chinese medicine is rooted in ancient soil. It grows and thrives in this soil. To a large extent, progress in our medicine only means delving as far back as we can - absorbing all the wisdom from those amazing human beings who, for whatever reason, had a unique and incredibly accurate understanding of people and their ailments. We do learn from what is going on today, and various practitioners have learned to integrate the understandings of modern medical traditions into the body of the medicine. But there is no obsession with the Next Big Thing. There is no delving too quickly and with too little information into areas of understanding that have potentially disastrous consequences. I count this as a good thing, I believe you can see why.
4. Lends itself well to service for disadvantaged people. The gap between rich and poor is as large now as it has ever been. In the United States, many people live without insurance. The working poor have no recourse either from government programs that won’t help them because they are working or from the world of commerce that won’t help them because they are not affluent enough. People all over the Earth suffer in numbers that cry out in urgent need of assistance. Because Chinese medicine is highly portable and doesn’t require inordinate amounts of time for basic treatment - programs like Acupuncturists Without Borders and Working Class Acupuncture find fertile ground from which to grow. My school, National College of Natural Medicine runs clinics for disadvantaged people and many other schools do the same. I believe this is a field that will only grow as time goes on.
5. As an integral part of the healing process - patient as active participant. Many people have complained that contemporary Western medicine leaves them feeling disenfranchised in their own healing process. People who do not feel in control of their bodies and their fates are inevitably going to act like victims. People who act like victims are unlikely to be working for change, even if they believe it is important for things to change. Chinese medicine creates a space in which people can get to know their bodies and their bodies’ reactions to the environment. A good CM practitioner will encourage the person to be an active participant in their own healing process, extending the therapy at home and simply becoming more aware of their whole self.
6. The philosophical underpinnings of the medicine are what the world needs today. If I had to boil Chinese medical philosophy down to one word it would be “respect.” Respect for your body and mind, respect for balance, respect for nature, respect for other people. As a student, as I delve deeper into the Confucian, Buddhist and Daoist roots of my medicine my feeling of deep gratitude for others and the Universe at large grows exponentially. I believe I pass this on to others as I teach them about the medicine. Given what I said in #5 about patients being, essentially, students as they walk their healing path - each patient is going to learn something about the deep philosophical roots of the medicine they are using. So, practitioners and patients will both be impacted and hopefully deeply affected by the tradition of respect and balance that lies behind everything we do. Hopefully this will have a fractal effect throughout the world.
7. Increased international awareness an important by-product of its dissemination into the West. Particularly in the United States, awareness of other people is not a strong point of the culture. I’m sure you’ve all heard of the terrible studies where US citizens, young and old, couldn’t even say where some of the largest countries in the world are located. This isolationism and lack of interest in places outside of the US is having a range of negative effects on our culture. It’s hard to have compassion for people you don’t even know exist. When a person has a positive treatment from a CM doctor, they tend to have an interest in the philosophy behind the medicine. Sometimes this leads to a broader interest in Chinese culture in general. I know it did for me. I think just this simple process can have a profound impact on people - opening their eyes to the diversity of cultures on our planet. Surely a good thing.
Eric
Tags: Acupuncture, changing-the-world, lists, philosophy, revolution, Theory
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