Qiological Podcast

What is our universe made of? How does it work, and more importantly– what are we doing here and how do we make sense of it? Eternal questions, unanswerable, but maybe the questions are not for answering, perhaps they are for focusing attention.

In this conversation with Rory Hiltbrand we take a look at our peculiar situation as Beings in between the circle of heaven and square of earth. We dip into mathematics, Donghan Daoist numerology, metaphysics and others head scratching ideas about medicine that practitioners have puzzled over for centuries.  

Listen into this discussion of sacred geometry, alchemy, Quantum mechanics and perception. It gets a bit Alice in Wonderland like, but I think you’ll enjoy the trip down this rabbit hole.

While many are keen on looking to “science up” acupuncture and squeeze it into the thinking and theories of conventional medicine, others are quite content with the weirdness of it. And enjoy playing around in the territory that’s off the radar of Western science.

Julian Scott is one of those pioneering acupuncturists whose background in theoretical physics primed him for the strangeness of the world of acupuncture.

In this conversation we explore how healing and science don’t always go together. His surprising introduction to treating children, and the weirdness that is inherent to both physics and healing.

Listen into this discussion on root causes, developmental stages, the influence of vaccines, along with the role of mind-to-mind connection and emanation in healing.

As anyone who has started an acupuncture practice and tried explaining it to potential patients knows, it’s not easy taking the terminology and thinking of East Asian medicine into English speaking Western culture.

The guest of this conversation, John Rybak, has thought long and hard about this. He is keen on helping our profession bridge how we think and work with the constraints and opportunities of the conventional medicine world.

Listen into this conversation on the importance of effective communication, concerns with our scope of practice losses, need for advocacy, and how expanding our vocabulary can help us to engage the broader medical community.

Brenda Hood often reminds me “Chinese concepts, especially classical Chinese concepts, are big and multidimensional. They are extremely dependent on context and while shades of meaning often cross over, they can be quite different and be more or less encompassing of ideas depending on actual context.”

Which is why I’m always questioning myself when wrestling ancient Chinese ideas. What’s more, it will seem culture itself is constantly rewriting history to fit the current zeitgeist. So words and ideas, they shape-shift through time.

In this episode we discuss 意 Yi, commonly translated as Meaning or Significance, and also as Intention.

Intention gets talked about a lot in our trade, but for me over the course of time, I feel less and less clear just what Intention is, and how it relates to my clinical work. I’ve got some questions about it, and was delighted to sit down with Stephen Boyington, Leslie de Vries and Volker Scheid to see if they could thrown some light on what for me has increasingly become a murky term.

Listen into this both scholarly and practical discussion on 意, Yi as it relations to medicine and how the doctors, poets and calligraphers over the centuries have puzzled over this as well.

Saam acupuncture with its unique channel pairings, perspective on psycho-emotional dynamics, and capacity to interweave the Five Phase with the Six Qi is a powerful tool for understanding the interplay of yin and yang along with body and mind.

In this conversation Joshua Park joins us to explore how Saam acupuncture gives us a holistic view and allows practitioners to approach diagnosis and treatment from multiple perspectives.

Listen into this discussion of how using multiple lenses gives a more dimensional understanding to your patient's condition. Along with how the Zi Wu “Chinese Clock” helps us to discern the interconnections between Heaven, Earth and Person, and how the flows of dissatisfaction and satiation are built into being human.

In the late 60’s and early 70’s of the last century East Asian medicine began to emerge into mainstream culture. The Reston NY Times article is often cited as a catalytic moment that put the idea of Chinese acupuncture into the minds of Americans. But other streams of medicine from Japan and Korea were also finding their way into the imagination of those who would be a conduit that would help these methods to flourish in the mainstream of Western culture.

Peter Eckman has been a unique bridging influence. His acupuncture came from the currents of Korea, as well as Japan and Taiwan via the Worsley tradition of England.

Listen into this conversation on inquisitiveness, constitution, and how saying “yes” in pivotal moments opens up a world of possibility.

The Middle East has a long history of war and unrest. Whatever phase of history you’d like to zoom the timeframe, you’ll likely see conflict. In Episode 72 of Everyday Acupuncture Podcast I spoke with an Israeli practitioner on what it is like to live in a place where you’re frequently hearing air raid sirens and headed to a bomb shelter. In this conversation we hear reflections of two practitioners who share their experience in the aftermath of the attacks of October 7th.

In this conversation with Keren Assouline and Guy Sedan, we hear from experienced practitioners who share with us what it's like living and working amidst the ongoing conflict in Israel. They have seen first hand how the trauma of war infiltrates the body, disorders the qi and leaves an effect on the mind, spirit and society.

Listen into this discussion that provides a window into using the tools of Chinese medicine to help a society cope with the deep impacts of living through war, fear and violence.

Here’s a question that I find difficult to answer. How does acupuncture work? 

Beyond the East Asian medicine phrasing that makes zero sense to your average citizen. Just what is going on in the body in response to a sliver thin needle being placed in the flesh? And once you have an answer for that, explain how a “needle” that does not pierce the skin can accomplish the same thing?

It’s an annoying question isn’t it? Which makes it a very good question, and the motivation for inviting Gary Klepper, Thomas Sørensen, and Erhart Truitt to this conversation on teishin needles.

Listen into this discussion on the paradox between intention and attention,  perspectives on gently interacting with the qi, and how the teishin is a forgiving tool for beginners and an instrument of advanced technique for experienced practitioners.

Women develop through the cycles of seven. Men through the rhythms of eight. Women, more resonate with Blood. Men, with qi. Being human, there is a lot we share in common. Looking at our classic books on medicine, from the point of view of physiology and health, there are differences. And from the perspective of development, going from child to adult, and from adult to elder, we walk paths that orbit around one another. 

Damo MItchell recently commented on social media about his concern that men, younger men in particular, are not thriving. They are depleted in Jing and Kidney qi. Which is a curious and unusual condition given their relative youth. I too have had concerns about younger men and so invited Damo to this conversation. 

Listen into this discussion on how men and women process emotion differently, why men need to feel useful, the importance of manners and why man who does not take risks will deplete his Kidneys for sure.

East Asian medicine recognizes the central role that food can play in our health and wellbeing. We have various models for understanding the fluctuations and trajectories a human body can travel as we navigate the time we have between Heaven and Earth.

In this conversation with Jaguang Sunim we explore the Korean Sa Sang constitutional perspective as it relates to our physiology, along with the strengths and deficiencies that we can mitigate with the foods we choose to eat on a regular basis. Additionally we’ll explore how the influences bestowed on us as viewed through the Ba Zi chart can help us to better understand how our unique mix of the Five Phases gives us insight into our constitution.

Listen into this conversation on constitution, food as medicine and how understanding our constitution through the Sa Sang and Five Phases can quickly reveal our super powers and our kryptonite.