Discovering True Acupuncture
Wet Behind The Ears
I decided to attend Traditional Chinese Medical school as a result of the positive effects that I received from Chinese herbal therapy. During my first year in school, my practicum instructor was amazed that I always volunteered to be the demonstration model. While most of the students were always afraid that having a needle stuck in them for anything other than their specific conditions would “mess up their qi,” I had no such concern and constantly volunteered without any undue side effects. One day, the instructor asked me why I always volunteered and I responded with, “acupuncture doesn't do anything so why not?” She was shocked and asked why I was even at the school, and I simply responded with, “herbs.” This she understood, for in modern China, herbal therapy dominates over acupuncture. At this time, I was still wet behind the ears and gung-ho over Chinese herbal therapy.
As my studies progressed, however, I became disillusioned with the application of Chinese Medicine in general—I simply wasn't learning what I experienced from the “old time Chinese practitioner” who treated me in Seattle. I was experiencing a much more protocol-based medicine that resembled Western Medicine more than anything else—this may be due to the fact that Modern Acupuncture, or rather “Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM),” is a recent advent that is combined with Western Medicine and was instituted after the Cultural Revolution in China. Nonetheless, I was fortunate enough to have access to people who read classical Chinese and studied more classical forms of Chinese Medicine. It was through these people that I discovered George Soulie de Morant, Nguyen Van Nghi & Tran Viet Dzung, Japanese Meridian Acupuncture, Manaka style acupuncture, and “5-element” acupuncture.
The “ancient” or “classical” theories espoused by these styles interested me greatly since these discussions were much more “energetic” in nature and less based on pure symptomatology. This excited me and I fervently studied all that I could find; however, once I began my clinical internship, I quickly realized what really worked and what did not. The most important lesson that I had learned up until that point was to pay close attention to how the radial pulses responded during treatment. How do the pulses change when an acupoint is needled? Can you tell through the pulses which system is excess and which is deficient? How does each pulse position respond to treatment? Owing to the fact that I've always been highly observant and analytical, such detailed examination fit me like a glove. Unfortunately, I quickly found that if I followed the point location and theoretical size of points as taught to me in TCM, the pulses hardly responded during treatments—actually, it didn't seem to matter which style I used because not much happened and patients received little effect. Nonetheless, by this time I had already delved deeply into Morant's work on acupuncture, which was very specific in ways that no other style of acupuncture that I studied was. First and foremost, Morant insisted that the location of acupoints must be extremely precise, and to be more than 2 mm away from the center of an acupuncture point would often give a null affect.
This was quite different from my current training at the time, which stated that acupoints are rather large and it wasn't as important to specifically locate points as it was to “acquire qi” during the needling. Morant's philosophy was in stark contrast to this, for he believed that locating the center of a true acupoint (1-2 mm in size) was more important than anything else and the “de qi” (acquire qi) response was not what he considered a necessity for True Acupuncture. The locations of the true acupoints according to Morant, however, was amazingly difficult to figure out.
The center of an acupuncture point
At that point, finding the true acupoints became an obsession of mine—how could I put Morant to the test if I couldn't find the points? Thus, I was at a stale mate with his theories.
I began researching and using every trick I could to locate acupoints—electrical stimulation proved to be highly flawed; palpation of the acupoints while feeling for changes in the radial pulses worked, but my finger covered an area 100x that of the acupuncture point; and using probes and different metals both helped a little. Therefore, it became an increasingly frustrating proposition to locate true acupoints according to Morant's theory, but two events occurred that forced me to continue this obsession.
The first was the needling of LI-11, an acupoint located on the lateral surface of the elbow. I had a slightly scratchy throat—the sign of the onset of a cold for me—and I understood the “energetic” mechanism, or rather, the theory of why this particular point would facilitate the “clearing” of this problem.
I used an electrical point locator to scan the area quickly and it indicated a “hot” point that was not where LI-11 is located according to TCM—I have now discovered that this point is, in fact, a point that sits between the large intestine and lung meridians and affects both systems. Nonetheless, this is where the locator went off, so I put a gold plated needle in—it slid in like it was going into butter. I left the needle in for 15 minutes and then headed out to meet a friend.
During the drive, about 45 minutes after needling myself, I began feeling sensations as if water was running through certain parts of my body, both internal and superficial areas. This was the first time I had ever felt “energy” moving after a treatment, and amazingly enough this was not a light sensation. This was a very strong and intense sensation that continued for an hour and the effects were quite amazing as several physical conditions improved very quickly.
This was the first time, I believed, I had truly hit the center of a true acupoint, although I later learned that this point was, in fact, a secondary acupoint. Nonetheless, the lesson was clear—hit the center of an acupoint and things change dramatically; miss the center of an acupoint by just a little and the effect is very minimal.
My search for finding a way to locate true acupoints was renewed and I began experimenting relentlessly on myself to find a way to consistently locate True Acupuncture points.
Finding an acupuncture point
Finally, one day I simply tried to use an electrical point locator to find PC-6 (a major acupoint by all accounts). While dismissing all other previous ideas of where this point was supposedly located, I tried my best to located it according to Morant's description, which was no easy task.
The universe certainly had a lesson waiting for me on this day. I found a point and needled it, but unlike my LI-11 this was a whole new ball game. It didn't painlessly slide in like butter. In fact, I didn't feel a lot where I was needling, but I felt the most intense sensation at another acupoint located downstream of PC-6 on the same channel, PC-7.
The sensation was amazingly intense and like nothing I had ever felt or heard of in any acupuncture treatment. It was as if the sun exploded at this other acupoint. I felt my pulses, and not only did they change, but they changed so dramatically that anyone would be able to feel the difference, novice or professional. This experience exemplified all the characteristics of Morant's true acupoint, and the effects that followed were nothing short of “strange.”
One must realize that what is generally seen with acupuncture is that the major effects are seen close to the time of treatment with decreased effects over time. However, the opposite took place for me after needling myself, and I have now proven this to be consistent with true acupoints. Somehow the true acupoints are triggering a cascade of effects that increase over time instead of lessening, and after a week's time since needling myself, I had experienced effects that no other treatment had ever come close to yielding for me.
Furthermore, my pulses had a significant positive shift and that shift was maintained and, in fact, increased with time, showing a true physiological change taking place—all this from one single needle! In TCM, we are taught to use many needles, but Morant was opposed to that philosophy and insisted that the information content of a few points is preferred since it doesn't “muddy up” the information signals that your body is receiving.
Simply put, I must confer with Morant. Since my self-needling experiences, I have spent countless hours researching the locations of true acupoints in an attempt to elucidate ways to locate them precisely and needle them correctly. It took years, but with the help of Fuyiu Yip, we accomplished it. We have learned to locate these points rather accurately, thus when we apply True Acupuncture, very few needles are generally needed.
Fewer acupuncture needles are more effective
The number of needles required was also learned the hard way through self experimentation. We have found that the pulses tell us when enough points have been needled for a given individual and going beyond that causes adverse effects to the energetic system. We have seen with 100% consistency that a True Acupuncture point responds in the pulses exactly as Morant described and gives longer lasting effects that produce true physiological changes that can be affirmed in the pulses. As a result, the need for more frequent treatments, as is commonly thought in many “schools” of acupuncture theory, is reduced.
We have also seen that the overuse of the same points leads to null or adverse effects. If an acupoint is needled before it has had time to “rebuild” its energetic nature, then the point often responds in an opposite or adverse manner. This knowledge is of paramount importance, as many “schools of thought” about acupuncture promote frequent treatments (3x per week or more) and needle the same set of points in each successive treatment. Although most of these same schools of thought give little attention to the location of acupoints and are not actually needling the center of a true acupoint repeatedly, Morant still discouraged this type of practice. With the proper location and needling of one or a few points resulting in lasting benefits beyond a week, numerous needles inserted several times a week is not necessary.
Unfortunately I learned these lessons the hard way. During experimentation one day, Fuyiu and I had needled several true acupoints on me. The following day I decided to try finding a few more and I re-needled a point dead center that we had needled the day before. Within an hour of needling this point for the second time within two days, I went through extreme projectile vomiting and diarrhea that left me feeling as though I had a severe heat stroke. Luckily, we had learned enough at this stage to counteract the effects and quickly placed in appropriate needles, and the symptoms subsided shortly leaving me “clean” but intact. Another instance occurred when we needle four true acupoints on me at one time; this resulted in, well lets just say, a very poor feeling with nausea, dizziness, and the general desire to vomit.
These were very important lessons that made the both of us understand why, historically, the Master Acupuncturist in China did not share their information and secrets. Simply put, the right information in the wrong hands can be very dangerous! Since these experiences that I mentioned above, I have remained very respectful of the power True Acupuncture possesses.
Acupuncture Energetic relationships
After our discoveries, we set out to find if Morant's “energetic” relationships were valid or not. Within a short period it was clear that Morant was a true Master of acupuncture as well as pulse diagnosis.
We have consistently seen the physiological responses that Morant described with each true acupoint. For these reasons, I chose to focus on True Acupuncture without exception, as I have seen no other style give such clinical accuracy. I've found Morant's research to be clinically applicable, while other styles that I have studied prove heavy handed on theory with little clinically applicable knowledge, thus a reliance on placebo.
Applying it to all levels of acupuncture
Even though there are many styles of acupuncture, the reality that acupoints are real and are not easily found means that all acupuncturist must be stringent with their point location in order to benefit the patient, regardless if they practice a style that is what Morant considers the first two levels or True Acupuncturee. Furthermore, we must be rigorous in our observations of the pulse to ensure proper treatment.
We owe this to our patients—to be stringent with our technique and require that we constantly put our medicine to the test to ensure that we truly benefit the patient through our medicine and not just rely on the placebo effect.
My Thanks to George Soulié de Morant
Discovering True Acupuncture has been a journey in which I believe the universe guided me toward. I have put it to the test and have yet to disprove it, thus I continue to research it with due diligence and constant inquiry to ensure that it is beyond the placebo effect and to provide it to my patients as best as I possibly can. I have seen the amazing benefits to patients, friends, and myself and believe that Morant possessed a high level of understanding. It is our duty to pursue it with tenacity and to avoid falling back into simple protocol-based treatments.
Morant stood against protocol-based acupuncture, the misuse of the first two levels of acupuncture, and the prejudice of Western Medicine against acupuncture, and he paid dearly for this. He knew each person brought before him had his/her own unique energetic disharmony that needed to be unraveled, and that practitioners must compassionately treat each person as the unique being they are, without labeling or placing the patient into a box with the insistence that everyone be within the “same numbers.”
He gave 30 years of his life and stood against great criticism with little reward during his life. Although he was awarded the Corral Reef Award by the Chinese government, thus recognizing him as a True Chinese Physician, and nominated for the Nobel Prize for his work in acupuncture, his wisdom has been largely overlooked in the United Stated.
This is a result of TCM's educational dominance over all other acupuncture styles, as TCM became the primary style taught during the inception of the first Oriental Medical schools in the United States. This is unfortunate, for Morant's voluminous work has much to offer every acupuncturist, regardless of style practiced, and although it may be difficult to grasp his knowledge, it is worth the effort. I am humbly thankful for his efforts, for it is upon his shoulders that I stand when I practice True Acupuncture.
