Acupuncturists in Hawaii
The Tao of Acupuncture:
How Balancing the Individual
Takes the Focus Off Disease
by Shereen Saiki, L.Ac. of
I believe I finally
have the answer to the number one question that people ask me as an
acupuncturist: Does acupuncture work?
Are you ready? Here it is. The question does not apply.
The question 'Does
acupuncture work?' does not apply when you consider that to question the
validity of acupuncture is to at least acknowledge the perspective that acupuncture
does work; in actuality, it is to question the conviction that acupuncture does not work. I would like to
think that human nature has even the most hardened skeptics secretly hoping
that one day someone will come along and revolutionize the way we think with a
new perspective. I see myself in those
skeptics as I struggled in my early years of study to accept the healing that I
witnessed, even as I could not explain how it worked. With every new inquisitor I meet, I am
reminded that perhaps what most people are really asking of me, is the
opportunity to try on a new perspective, and be excited again about their
decision one way or the other.
Further FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) such as "how
does acupuncture work?" and "what does it treat?" continue to challenge my
understanding of the practice and, indeed, my own definitions. I blush at the thought, however, of trying to
sum it up for you - something that continues to defy the speed of my keystrokes
by inspiring me to stretch the boundaries of my reality and truth. I would rather start by sharing with you what
I love about the practice of acupuncture and invite you to explore the subject
with me in the weeks to come.
Before I begin, I
would like to properly introduce you to acupuncture. Up until now, you have only known acupuncture
by it's first name, as a stand-alone therapy with a vague association to
The belief that
disease and disharmony are a reflection of relationship imbalances between man
and nature is a larger perspective of the Taoist philosophy that pervades the
theory and practice of acupuncture and, indeed, Traditional Chinese Medicine,
(TCM) the system of health care to which acupuncture belongs. These relationship dynamics are the basis for
the TCM approach to understanding the human anatomy and physiology. Without identification as an essentially
Taoist exercise, acupuncture becomes nothing more than an accidental discovery
from a puncture wound by stone or wood that gave man an awareness of the nervous
system a long, long time ago. In my
experience as both a practitioner and patient, I have come to one absolute
conclusion: that the breadth and depth
of this healing art is infinite and inexhaustible.
What I love about
acupuncture as a practice of the Tao is that it has helped me to keep sight of
the central focus of my practice. After
an eleven-year preoccupation with disease- disease patterns, disease pathways,
disease treatments and disease targeting medicines- I opened up to a decidedly
more appealing fascination: the power of
the individual to heal from within. In
place of the seriousness of the charge that I was given to solve my patients
problems was a sense of awe. I became
more and more reluctant to answer questions about the number of treatments, or how long it would take, as my educated guesses continually overestimated the
real time frame. I saw the hero in the
everyday people who engaged in self-discovery and looked forward to the quiet
blooming of their activated potential.
As my needles and herbs dealt with ailments from the outside, I delved
within by gently dispelling fears and invalidating limiting beliefs that
obstructed the view of their own glory.
The answer to the
question of how acupuncture works came after I shed the limitations of my own
beliefs and opened up to the spectrum of colors and concepts that had been
presented to me all along: the human
being works along with
acupuncture. The human being works- even in the midst of disease.
How often had I heard my techniques professor tell me, insert the needle
without stimulation (neutral) and the body
will decide what to do with it. If
given the right assistance rather than being controlled and dominated, the
human being by default will strive to achieve a balanced state or homeostasis.
This new viewpoint
was like being in a space shuttle and looking down at earth with an
overwhelming sense of awe and realizing that along the way I had forgotten that
feeling. How refreshing it was to once
again be small in the shadow of something so great- the greatest healer of all. For too long, this title had been reserved
for the best and brightest minds of intelligentsia and academia. I now understood how alone my patients must
have felt in their diseased states surrendering their judgment, reasoning, and
faith to those whose language they could neither speak nor understand. I was dismayed by how dulled their
sensibilities became to the messages of pain, dysfunction, and dis-ease that
was spoken in their body's own language- the symptoms that only they could describe
and that defied mechanistic detection.