yuanqi

i agree i thought it was great deal too. i think i paid 100+ for fundamentals 1 and 2 years ago. only problem i had with them is the video dvd's never worked. LOL i think the sticker he uses on the top is too thick or something as it causes the machine (all machines i have tested) to not spin quick enough i guess. either way, my buddy down here bought them around the same time and his videos were screwed up too. but michael was good enough to say send them back and i will replace. so all is well.

one thing also to consider when taking chinese patent herbs or decoctions is what the actual TCM diagnosis is. alot of the herbs above in the calming mind formula and other are warm in nature, meaning that if the patient has any warm disease, or kidney yin xu (kidney yin deficient) etc it shouldnt be used. alot of the herbs above also tonify in general among other aspects. but few are used for calming the mind. alot of mind calming herbs actually arent herbs that are used in TCM. things like mu li (oyster shell), long gu (fossils), zhen zhu mu(mother of pearl) etc are used quite often. long gu is neutral but the other two are cool or cold in nature and are used to calm the mind, when there is heat disturbing the shen then it has no place to rest and you would use cool or cold herbs but if the person doesnt have heat and has a cold problem then these wouldnt be good for the person unless mixed with warming herbs etc. so it can get complicated this is just a brief overview for you to consider, there are alot of contraindications in chinese herbal medicine. i definitely would get a proper diagnosis so the practioner can prescribe something based on the patients signs and symptoms. whats funny in the above excerpt is that she was eating dried human placenta which has no calming the mind effect but it is used in cases of infertility among other things. LOL it tonifies the liver and kidneys and augments the blood and essence. LOL no wonder she got pregnant!!!!!

i was thinking about what your guide said about that butter. LOL it could be something simple like meaning that your body cant digest that stuff. not that it comes out in excretion but that if you dont throw it up then it will stay in your system. LOL perhaps clogging arteries! i think i read in a book by daniel reid on chinese medicine years ago, that stuff like margarine is one atom away from being plastic, either that or i dreamed it. LOL i think that book was called the complete book on chinese health and healing or chinese medicine, i cant really remember as it was back in the late 80's or early 90's. but it stuck. he also said that the average school kids diet is worse than a beggers in india. not that school kids dont eat, just what they serve in the cafeteria's. i think he also said that when you homogenize and pasteurize things like milk, it makes the calcium in it unabsorbable to the human body, so you really arent getting that much calcium. he had a lot of weird scientific research information in that book. LOL wish i could find it now. i am flattered at what your guide says. i have a question for him though and perhaps he is willing to help me out and let me know. i will get to that some other time i suppose.

well thought i would finally introduce myself, joined last month and finally am getting around to posting the intro. been reading thru some of the post and thought that one day i might add my .02 a little background for you all-martial arts since age of 10 (35 now). oriental medical student here in sunny florida. ending 2nd academic year in April. of course practice most of the time when i am not studying, although most of it goes hand in hand as alot of the qigong you guys post about are mandatory for us to practice, some even included in our ciriculum which is a great thing. look forward to interacting with you all. blesssings of love and qi yuanqi

hah! i cant believe it. you went to FITCM! that was the school i checked out in 1997! i am in sarasota, had to come here. I loved that place when i visited! i believe my school took on their seniors a few years back. yuanqi

well that will take more space to write as i have alot to say, both of us seem to write alot. LOL i type pretty fast as well ( thank you 7th grade ) you can email me if you click on the yuanqi name near the avatar. and i will answer what i can! yuanqi

its really no problem and i dont mind you asking especially if i can offer some insight into something that i have loved for a couple decades and now finally am studying. i first checked out tcm schools in 1992 but was married/divorced, married/divorced. LOL and never did it, not til moving to florida for school in 2005. one of my martial arts instructors introduced me to taoism in 1987 and bam that was it. one step after another to finally get here. so i actually enjoy putting my knowledge to good use inside/outside of clinic until i graduate. by no means is this a diagnosis, just information to help you put some things together that you might not have thought of. one thing i have seen in clinic and from all my instructors especially the chinese is that you cant normally throw scenarios to them and expect a response. LOL they always say see the big picture, or you dont have enough information etc. they help me think chinese, which is totally different than our overanalytical western mind. when we diagnose we observe the patient, check the tongue and pulses,palpate, and ask alot of what some consider off the wall questions. LOL but it makes sense to us. i always love to feel someones spleen pulse and ask them if they are having bowel problems, or what did they just eat, or their heart pulse and ask if they have trouble falling asleep etc, its a trip. but since we are just analyzing dreams here there is no harm in that. LOL one book that i read that was a general book in tcm was ted kaptchuk's-the web that has no weaver-it was actually required reading BEFORE i could enter a different school i had checked out, even had to write a paper on it. LOL it was a good book then, its made for laymen from my understanding, or at least that what i was told, although i think some places use it as a textbook but those are in colleges that dont offer masters or PHD's just general course work. i found it a difficult read at the time, especially when he talked about pulse diagnosis and acupuncture on animals. but there is good information in it and gets some basics down. i wish i knew of others that we use in school that were basic and cheap, but they are the exact opposite. LOL detailed and expensive for the most part. but his book should work. there are also books by MIKIO SANKEY that deal with esoteric acupuncture that are of great benefit. the points arent that hard and he even says in his books that you dont have to practice acupuncture to use the books as they are made for many different modalities, its all based on the spiritual use of the points (which is how my girlfriend practices) but goes much more into detail and uses sacred geometry and is based on the channelling sessions of ALICE BAILEY (her books are worth getting) when she channelled DJWHAL KHUL known as The Tibetan, plus alot of other things. its all for someones spiritual benefit, whether they feel anything or not, once the patterns are done the energy is encoded into their cells and when enough "inner plane" work is done they will have the awakenings, siddha's and universal knowledge etc. his stuff isnt concerned with de qi ( the arrival of qi ) when we needle we wait for the qi to come or stimulate the point to get it to come, then once its at the needle we manipulate it depending on whether we want to tonify or sedate someones condition, his stuff is all very superficial as your working with the energies outer levels not the physical. there is alot of info in those books as well, but you will have to get those from his website. use his name i put above and paste it in google as i forgot what the site is ( i have all the books. LOL ) you can also check out someone called terri newlon if the alice bailey stuff interest you, she is one of the channells that brings DJWHAL KHUL in these days. He is the man, well i cant really say that cause he is ascended but you get the idea. LOL

one thing we do is anchor ourselves with the divine light thru our baihui (du-20) point and from there thru the taiji pole to our upper, middle and lower dantien and then thru our kidney 1 point on the soles of the feet deep into the earth. i have got a bunch of meditations and visualization that are mostly taoist, not only for that but for gathering the qi from the sun, moon, stars and 28 constellations, most are from mao shan, wu dang etc in china. also, i use hand mudra's to project the type of qi i want, yin or yang. then you also have tongue postions, not just the fire postition that is normally used, there are also tongue postions according to the organs in 5 element thought. that way you are gathering the qi from the universe and not depleting yourself or your organs. its easier to deplete yourself than most think. a few good meditations to use are the wu zang, tian wu zang, and creating energetic bubble and protective force fields meditations. alot of them are time consuming to do but i have about 30 different types or so. there are several nei guan and shen gong meditations as well that help prepare a person for not only healing, being protected, but also for spiritual enlightenment. gotta have them all to progress! LOL the main thing i try to keep in mind when working with people is not to use my qi or my organs qi otherwise i will get depleted for sure.

hey there, ok, lets see. they said you need metal and that they were working on your lungs. well the lungs are the metal element in tcm/5element acupuncture. they control alot that i wont get into here but one main aspect is they are in charge of dispersing your wei qi (your qi protection field) its the superficial qi that is on the outside of your body but particulary under the skin (cou li)- (means between skin and muscle). it protects you from pathogenic invasion. they do a whole lot more in tcm (traditional chinese medicine) but that is something to think about, if you have weak wei qi, then you easily catch xie qi ( evil qi. i.e. pathogenic invasions ) not just colds/flu or whatever but anything if you are healing people for a living! the lungs relate to different organs as well and are paired with the large intestine. metal controls wood which is liver/gallbladder. got a problem with metal then you could have a problem with wood and vice versa, gets kinda complicated, especially if you look at the fact that fire controls metal meaning heart/small intestine controlling lungs/large intestine. LOL it goes back and forth. they generate each other, control each other, counter control each other and insult each other etc and on and on. but it makes since from what you wrote. i have already mentioned the pericardum in my last post along with liver. i dont know what they meant when they said you should have two and not three. i have to think about that. they did mention that you had too much blood though, to us in tcm we call that blood stasis/stagnation. since qi is the commander of blood, and blood is the mother of qi, if one stops the other will stop as well. it could mean that you have a channel block. could mean alot of things. LOL one thing i know it means is that when qi and blood stop, you have pain. general qi stagnation will cause dull pain and move from place to place, blood stagnation will cause sharp pain and remain in a fixed location. qi is more yang but causes dull pain, blood is more yin and causes sharp pain. figure that one out. LOL you would think it would be the other way around! but its not. as far as the thigh area goes, my gut said spleen channel but could be stomach or gall bladder depending on where its at. spleen makes blood from the food that comes into the stomach which its paired with like those above. everyone i have ever palpated had a sore spleen 6. that is 3 cun (basically the width of your hand) above the medial malleolus (inside ankle bone) that goes to show that although thats not what you were referring to the spleen channel is that important,and the western diet sux! thats why its sore, doesnt matter if your a vegan either, most vegan's are what we call spleen qi xu (deficient) just like the rest of us. LOL but the spleen is important especially when speaking of blood. it can get easily overworked by too much thinking or improper diet among other things, the one thing it cant stand is being damp. that is the primary pathogenic factor that affects the spleen. dampness comes from greasy,spicy foods, alcohol, tobacco, coffee etc. then you have fatigue among other symptoms. you thigh area is around spleen 9 or 10 i would think, spleen 9 is called the sea of blood ( xuehai ) and is used in clinic to invigorate the blood and dispel stasis/stagnation. isnt that a coincidence. LOL also cools the blood, harmonises menstration and benefits the skin as well. mostly things to do with menses and uterus. the uterus is also one of the extraordinary fu ( organ ) so its important as well. all this sounds like a connection i would say........how bout you. LOL well thats all i can think of at the moment off the top of my head but i will reread again and post if anything else comes to mind, i could go on and on about the connections but from a tcm standpoint it makes since to me.

well let see, i cant address it all at the moment as i am about to leave to go to one of my clinic shifts but i will try to answer some. the big toe, if its on the inside towards the 2nd toe then it is liver 1. the jingwell point and wood on wood in 5 element. its good to regulate qi, alleviates pain, good for the genitals and regulates the liver qi among others like calming the spirit and revive consciousness. jingwell points are all to revive consciousness specifically. it is interesting that your middle finger started vibrating when over your solar plexus as that is the last point on the pericardium channel in most text books. its pc-9 (at finger tip) also a jingwell point good to clear heat, revive consciousness and clears the heart. interesting in the fact that both points have to do with "consciousness" LOL they are probably raising it in you i suppose. dont really know. i will get back later in the evening and reread your post and address the other things! take care! YUANQI

you may want to try cranial release technique, its takes about 3 min and does alot of what cranio sacral does in an hour or whatever. plus gives you a great stretch thru your neck and downward. not alot of practioners incorporating that yet but they are out there. developed by chiro's.

good topic. i can only tell you from my personal experience and that of my girlfriends with whom i live. years ago, although i was open to the idea but didnt really go either way, i would have wondered if it were true. today i know i have at least 3 guides, two of which were kind enough to come to me in my minds eye during my 3rd reiki attunement. the last came thru during meditation several months later. i had been doing alot of spiritual work and having a lot done so i was extremely open to it i suppose. i know they are there at all times, i call on them often ( not as much as i should ) i even ask for their assistance during exams and particularly finals. i have even started noting that when i do call on them and pray for assistance from them and some of my favorite ascended masters, i always am calmer, the information flows extremely smooth and i always do great on my finals. now i dont ask for the answers. LOL i ask that the information i studied come to me uninterrupted and smoothly. it does. unlike other times, when i forget or i stay nervous or whatever. i might still do well but not as well and have to spend more time reading over the questions etc. that is just one example. my guides help in all sorts of ways, so do the ascended masters that privilege me with their presence when i ask them to help me. they are always there, they are always everywhere and want to see all of us do well and continue on the path we chose before we incarnated. this life is just a spiritual journey, to bring us all closer to THE ONE by learning the lessons we need to learn. it would be much more difficult in my opinion if we didnt have higher beings helping us, even when we dont know it, or choose not to acknowledge them, they are there. my girlfriend on the other hand practices shamanism and works with her power animals, ascended masters, spirit guides and others on a daily basis, almost 24/7, even in her dreams alot of the time. do to her practicing acupuncture and dealing with patients and wanting to make them better, her treatments look like acupuncture but the energetic and spiritual work she does during the normal treatment takes it to a whole new level. her guides and others are always there, she unlike me can see them alot of the time at will and even paints pictures of them that we put up around the house.(gifted artist i guess. LOL) we both listen to our guides when treating people as well, and take measures as not to absorb the xie qi ( evil qi, pathogenic factor etc ) i have seen others that dont pay attention to this or not even think about it come out after treating someone with say low back pain or a migraine etc and end up having low back pain or a migraine LOL although the patient feels better. so for me i like my spirit guides etc and am thankful for their assistance.

the meridian slapping or rubbing like that is good thing to do. we do that before doing Yi Jin Jing, qigong or tai chi although her meridians she was naming off where all off track. LOL but the purpose is good. one thing we do when muscle testing or checking the hemispheres of the brain and the person is "switched" is pinch or put a needle in the master oscillating point, or point 0 (both ear points that can be pressed without needles)or do the kidney 27 rub while the person is breathing in and then tap with one hand on both sides of the brain at the same time with our fingers while they are breathing out, do that about two or three times ( takes like 15 seconds for the whole thing ) and that will unswitch the hemispheres and brings balance back to the body.

first of all welcome! its good to read your post as what you write is exactly what my life consist of as well as my girlfriends! first let me say that there is alot of information in your post and i will probably only address a couple things until i reread it a few times and post more. in regards to your shamanic work. if that is what you feel you are doing some of then i would pursue that and do research in that area along with the others. my girlfriend for instance trained for several years with a shaman in the northwest and now does soul retrievals, power animal work, house blessings etc. she also is a acupuncture physician, and also does alot of work with Ganesh and Shiva in her healing work. although she trained at one of the best traditional chinese medicine universities here in the US, she was an apprentice to a 5 element acupuncturist for years during her schooling and now primarily does that in her practice along with some TCM when the patients needs just that. so as all this is a good mix for her, it sounds like it will be a great mix for you as well. as for me, i am currently an oriental medicine studnet, have been involved in martial arts for years, along with qigong, and medical qigong, and Reiki. i know after my attunements the whole universe seemed to open up. so i can understand what you are saying! as for the 5th element i wouldnt necessarily concentrate on the word "5th" as much as "5". i knew alot about 5 E before enrolling in school and currently am taking a semester dedicated to that type of training. of course the medical side has some differences as its focus is different as say what Michael Winn speaks of ( i have been practicing his stuff for years as well ) but the root is the same. If you really want to get involved in learning about 5 elements i would take a look at the Taoist concepts of yin and yang expressing the 4 phases of Universal energy and manifesting through the Pre and Post natal Bagua Trigrams, its actually a pre 5 element theory but goes back to India. the chinese borrowed the concept of wu xing ( 5 phases ) from India thru the ancient Vedas so it makes since that you are coming to learn what you are as the vedas predated the reign of the yellow emperor huang di by 2500 years or so. as a matter of fact the term wu xing wasnt really being used in china 2200-2500 years ago, then it was known as wu ren ( 5 virtues or creative cycle ) and wu sheng ( 5 conquerors or destructive cycle ). so you can see a little chinese, a little Indian etc! its all good. for your fibromyalgia i know we use one particular point in all of our treatments for that and that is Spleen 21 which is called the Great Luo connecting point of the Spleen as it is THE point for pain of the whole body. check out some acupuncture or even use your skills to focus your intention on that point. if you google it i am sure there will be a picture of where its located, its on the mid axillary line in the 7th intercostal space but its probably easier to view 1st and then find, although its sore on alot of people if palpated. that will help. glad to have you here! yuanqi

thanks trunk look forward to engaging in some deep conversations! or not!