Mainly for the initiated or the speculative!
It is easy to say that bioresonance is entirely concerned with the detection and treatment of stresses in the acupuncture meridian system, and that we measure and treat via acupuncture points. But the relationship is much deeper than this, - far more complex and far more profound. To understand how the principles and practice of acupuncture can be applied to this very modern therapy, it is necessary to have some appreciation of those ancient principles. I do not pretend to be an expert in this field, but I hopewhat follows may give a helpful introduction to at least one way in which all those point measurements can be used.
Acupuncture and bioresonance: a modern application of an ancient science.
(Gui Yu Ku replied)
" Wood, fire, metal, earth and water represent the yin and the yang of the earth. They correspond to the changes of the universe”.
from The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine.
" The skin is not separate from the emotions, or the emotions separate from the back, or the back separate from the kidneys,or the kidneys separate from will or ambition, or will and ambition separate from the spleen, or the spleen separate from sexual confidence".
(Diane Connelly)
Underlying all is the Tao. This is what we might in current parlance call the Source, or the One Pulsation. In more traditional terms, perhaps, the equivalent of the Godhead (Christian), the Ain Soph Aur (Cabalistic), Brahman (Hindu), and so forth. This is the hidden and invisible source from which bubbles forth the whole of creation, as a spring bubbles from the earth.
Tao is also translated as the Way, the Path, the Road; in other words as the correct way of being in existence. This seems at first a strange dichotomy, (or more correctly, perhaps, strange yoking together of dichotomous qualities), to Westerners. Yet it closely parallels an ancient strand in Christian thought -- ' I am the Way the Truth and the Life '.
Once the Tao is manifest, all existence, in Chinese thought, is a product of two qualities: Heaven (or Air), which expresses the creative, and Earth (or Food), which expresses the receptive. The Tao, in the sense of the Path fof living humans, can also be seen as a balanced and harmonious reconciliation of Heaven and Earth.
I am not clear whether these are considered to precede or to be implicated in the existence of the Tao, or to derive from it. If the former is the case, it could be, perhaps, analogous to the relationship between God and Godhead; or I believe there is in Cabalism a differentiation of Ain, Ain Soph, and Ain Soph Aur.
At all events, the interplay of Tao through Heaven and Earth is realised in creation through the interplay of Yin and Yang. I take Yin and Yang to denote the realisation in the physical world of the Tao/Heaven/Earth "supernal triangle "; and in creation that realisation is through polarity. Our universe, our nature, are expressed through and founded on the interplay of polar opposites. Yin and Yang denote a fundamental mode of expression of the creative and the receptive. The Chinese were keenly aware of the interplay of Yin and Yang and minutely analysed and classified phenomena through the gradations of these qualities. Waxing/waning, black/white, day/night, positive/negative, are the simple dichotomies that we recognise in Western thought. But the expression of Yin and Yang in the body demonstrates the flexibility and subtlety of Chinese awareness. In the body, upper/back/exterior are considered yang; lower/front/interior are yin. However, just as the yin/yang symbol, the Tai Chi, shows that each contains the seeds of the other, so in the body they can be yin in yin, yin in yang, yang in yang, or yang in yin; there are lesser, greater, or supreme focalisations of yin and yang; and what, for example, is yang in itself may be (relatively) yin in relation to a greater yang.
We should not find it surprising that this simple binary system can give rise to such fertile complexity: we are children of the computer age, and we more than any previous generation have cause to realise the fecundity of the interplay of 0 and 1. But 0 and 1 could just as well have been A and B, or + and -, or point and line. Digital processing is so powerful precisely because it is a simple and abstract expression of the polarity which is a fundamental mode of expression of Source in creation:-
"The Tao begot one,
One begot two,
Two begot three.
And three begot the ten thousand things."
( Tao te Ching)
To return to more mundane matters, health will be the result of the harmonious interplay of Yin and Yang in the body. Daily experience, however, is that harmony is frequently disrupted. The Tao, as a path in life, seems to be something of a mountain ridge-walk; it is only too easy to fall from the point of perfection. The Chinese were just as inclined as we to look to a Golden Age as a (more or less!) mythological repository of what is ideal, and accordingly Enlightened Ones, Sages, and ancestors are credited with varying degrees of knowledge of how to live successfully in accord with the Tao. They first understood the basic ways in which homoeostasis might be be disrupted, and disharmony displaced. These became encoded as the Eight Principles: -- Yin/Yang, Interior/Exterior, Deficiency/Excess, Cold/Heat. Medicine, including acupuncture, could be, was, and still is guided by the observation of the physical expression of these Eight Principles. Perhaps we could usefully use the word "pattern" today to replace "principle".
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Nonetheless, the Eight Principles were in turn governed by greater forces -- or patternings -- denoted by the Five Elements. Our familiarity with, on the one hand, the elements of inorganic chemistry, and on the other the four elements of mediaeval thought, means that to translate Wu/Xing as Five Elements is possibly not very helpful. Five Phases may be a more useful terminology.
Interestingly, in Vedantic thought, only that which is unchanging is considered real. As the whole of creation is subject to change, it is seen as only "relatively real". However there is, so far as I know, no Indian equivalent of the Five Elements. In my own thinking I have come to think of the Five Elements as the " laws, or patterns, of impermanence".
That they are described in terms of wood, fire, etc, is at first a barrier to our understanding -- they remind us of the mediaeval Earth/Air/Fire/Water. But as all created phenomena are subject to these laws it was natural and necessary that the ancient Chinese should first observe their operation in the world of Nature. Their names for the phases or elements are the natural result of their observation. Gaia, just as much as men, is subject to the inexorable progression of the five phases. Woods, plants, animals, empire, companies, and nations must grow and decline according to these patterns of impermanence.
Gradually, the Chinese built, or observed, an elaborate system of ' correspondences '; of ways in which the Five Phases were realised and expressed in different spheres of creation and of our lives. Thus in the sphere of embodiment, and of health, each of the five phases is operative primarily through the functioning of two organs and their associated meridians (four "organs" in the case of fire); in each case Zang and Fu, Yin and Yang. (We tend to think of the Zang organs" being "yin, and the Fu organs "being" yang, but really what is expressed in these terms is that ' yin-ness ' in organs is expressed in ' Zangness ' or solidity, whilst ' yangness ' is expressed in hollowness (Fu). I wonder too, if this is not because Yin is hidden, interior, and Yang exterior and superficial.
The changing of phenomena through the flux of the Five Phases also follows laws -- or displays regularities, perhaps. The way in which one Phase emerges or evolves from another is one of creation, and is expressed to the Shen cycle and the law of Mother/Son. The way in which one phase limits another is one of control, and is expressed in the Ko cycle.
So far as embodiment is concerned, the diurnal temporal cycling of the Phases, and hence of the dominance/restriction of the associated organs and meridians is expressed in the Midday/Midnight law. The Five Phases can also be seen as five qualities in the make-up of a created being -- qualities of which each being will partake unequally, and uniquely. In each person, will be a unique combination of strength and weakness in the different phases.
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We have seen that the Tao is realised through the interplay of Earth and Heaven at an abstract level, and that these give rise to the universal phenomenon of polarity; of the interplay of Yin and Yang. We have in the sense jumped ahead in identifying the Five Elements and their cycles and laws as “patterns of impermanence” in the manifold embodiment(s) of the Tao, because embodiment has by definition to be into some substance and we have discussed only principles and qualities.
The ancient Chinese did, of course, identify substances too. Their Five Basic Substances are very different from the Earth, Air, Fire, and Water of our ancestors. They identify (in the body) Blood (Xue), Body Fluids (Jin-Ye) and the Three Treasures, Jing (Essence), Chi (Energy and/or Breath), and Shen (Spirit).
" The Three Treasures of the body are essence (Jing), breath and energy (Chi), and Shen (Spirit). Illuminated and clear-sighted intention is Shen; that which penetrates and moves in circles is Chi; the humours and liquids which impregnate the body are Jing. Shen governs and controls, Chi presides over the application of orders, and Jing presides over transformation and generation."
( From commentary on the Heart Seal Sutra, by Lee Qian Xu).
However, for our purposes we can focus on Chi, with which we are primarily concerned in daily practice. This "life energy "is (probably) equivalent to Prana in the Hindu tradition, Mana in the Huna, the Etheric in the Theosophic or Anthroposophic. Krippner and White identified over 150 equivalents for this intangible life force in almost all cultures across the world and over the centuries. Recent scientific investigation has tended to assume it is equivalent to a biological electromagnetism, because this and chemical energy are all that science can detect. However, electromagnetism tallies with only some of the qualities that Chinese described to Chi, and it might be wise to assume that electromagnetism is simply the grossest form what may be a nested hierarchy of subtle energies, of which the most subtle are the most powerful.
Chi is the fundamental energy which gives rise to all life; but as we might by now expect, it is not simple in character and can be seen to have a wider variety of different forms and qualities; e.g.Original (Jing or Yuan) Chi; protective (Wei) Chi; nutritive (Ying) Chi.
I find it intriguing to wonder whether ' that which penetrates, and moves in circles ' is not perhaps the earliest reference to the vortex-like movement of energy which has been recognised in the 20th century as characteristic of the life energy. (See also Appendix 2 for what is possibly another cross-cultural perception of this fundamental law.)
The Substances, energised by Chi, are maintained in dynamic and, ideally, harmonious expression in man and all creatures, through the Zang and Fu organs. The organs in turn are integrated by the meridians (Jing Luo, or 'Essence network ').
Whilst 12 meridians are commonly identified running across the body surface, as well as the two primary and meridians (Ren Mai and Du Mai), there are in fact several different types of meridian both on and within the body -- Branch, Indirect, Tendino-muscular, Divergent, Connecting, and Extraordinary meridians. They form an intricate and complex network, 59 in all, sustaining every part of the body, and reaching into every cell.
Disease results from improper energy flow (compare Dr Weichl's dictum: “Pain is the cry of the mesenchyme for a free flow of energy”), and a number of causes of such disruption were identified, including:-
| Congenital defects | Parasites | Sexual excess | Exercise | Climate |
| Poisons | Accidents | Diet | Lifestyle | Emotions |
These appear to be just as relevant today as thousands of years ago!
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In the body the Chinese, whose fondness for analogy with the healthy functioning of the state (the Body Politic) can also be seen, for example, in many passages in the I Ching, saw the operation of the Five Elements, the shifting patterns of impermanence, as being mediated through the organs and meridians. Accordingly these can be seen as the 'Officials' in charge of certain functions, -- or perhaps as the civil servants of the Body Physical.
In daily practice the acupuncturist, or Mora practitioner, is concerned with the governing influences of the Elements, and the health and function of their Officials. It is to the laws which govern the cycles of chi in the body, and their practical usage, that we now turn.
The five elements, and their respective meridians, are traditionally represented by the familiar circular glyph.
Each element, or impermanent phase, is generated by that preceding it in a clockwise progression. This generative, or creative, relationship and movement is designated by the term "Shen cycle " (Cycle of Creation). However, a pattern of unfettered growth would soon cause destruction, and to maintain balance, or negentropy, a complementary process of limitation is required, and this is named the ' Ko Cycle ' (Cycle of Destruction or Control). The control of an element is performed, not by its immediate predecessor, but by the element before that. We might also think of this as a special example of a thesis/antithesis/synthesis relationship between the three. Hegel in China! I find this quite a helpful way to see the overall and ever-changing generativity of the five elements cycle. (See figure 2).
The balanced operation of these two cycles creates harmony in nature, and health in men. Their interaction governs the flow of energy in the superficial meridians, just as the Mother-Son Law governs that of the deep meridians.
Just as the Earth experiences its five seasons, its patterns of Chi flow, so do we. Many of us may find one season particularly good, or especially difficult. (Chi Po answered... ' through careful observation of the time of the season and the arrival of the appropriate weather cyclic patterns, we can understand and apply the knowledge of transformation of the Five Elements. Thus, a doctor who does not understand or has misinterpreted peaks and valleys of cycles of nature will not understand the mechanism by which people get sick."
There is also a diurnal flow through the meridians, in which each comes to its peak for two hours at a certain point of the day, and correspondingly is at its lowest 12 hours later (Law of Midday/Midnight). During those periods, Chi is successively energising and resting the organs, or Officials, associated with each meridian. As always in nature, a pattern of polarity and pulsation.
Though we use the term ' organ ', it is often better to consider them as officials, or functionaries, or better still as body processes. The Chinese, having a distaste for dissection, saw these ' organs ' more as functions which were ' smeared ' throughout the body -- entirely appropriate for a medicine based on fields and flows of energy, and a perception which we are only now, with the advent of devices which enable us to detect the body's biofields, beginning to share.
Nonetheless, however complex the organism -- and only today, perhaps, are we becoming aware how staggeringly complex it is -- each person, each self, is a unitary whole. 'The skin is not separate from the emotions, or emotions from the back, or the back from the kidneys'. (Connelly, page 15).
An elaborate system of correspondences was built up, presumably by centuries of experience, acute observation, and intuition in which colours, sounds, body smells, emotions, times of day, seasons, numbers, flavours, planets, moon phases, musical sounds, etc, were associated with particular elements. In other words, these varied phenomena were identified as characteristic of those particular phases or transition. Of special importance for our purposes are the associations of the energy paths of the body.
Since an Element is rarely, if ever, observed in a pure form, all this amounted to a system of splendid richness and complexity.
As explained above, the Shen cycle, or Cycle of Creation, proceeds clockwise around the diagram, with each Element giving rise to its successor. I like to think of this pattern, which relates to the superficial meridians, as a kind of ' superficial ' Mother-Son Law. The actual Mother-Son Law relates to the deep paths of the meridians (not those depicted in most charts and acupuncture models), and just as in life, the basic generative and nurturing relationship between mother and son lies on the surface, for all to see. Yet this may conceal from public view stubborn, even profound, difficulties which lie at a deeper level.
In the same way, the Ko Cycle, or Cycle of Control, in which each element limits and controls the next element but one in the cycle, might be compared to a Father-Son Law by which, just as in traditional patriarchal families, the father is principally responsible for containing and limiting his son’s sometimes wilful behaviour. At times this may lead to friction and difficulty at superficial levels, whilst below the surface it may lead to growing respect, understanding and affection.
The operation of the two cycles together, when unimpaired, produces a balance in which she flows evenly and all obstructed through the system. When this occurs, the individual will be healthy and energetic, both psychologically and physically, and will resist toxins encountered in the environment. The object of all treatment using the five element principles is progressively to restore the balance,and then to maintain it.
In Mora therapy we achieve this by measuring the conductivity at the acupuncture points. Although we shall not do all of these at every session, we aim to be aware of, and progressively balance the endpoints (Ting points), the CMP's (the Control Points in the Voll system), and the Source Points. If there is a disturbance which is energetically masked, it may give no sign in one, or even two of these. But it is unlikely that all three series will appear normal. Once the causative factor is identified, and we feel confident which Official is dysfunctional and have started treatment, we may also involve in treatment some of the command points of that Official, as well as the appropriate element points on other meridians. So Associated Effect points, Entry and Exit points, Windows of the Sky, etc, may be called in to use in special need, and where patterns are reluctant to shift. Below in a hypothetical example, we can see this process in operation.
Broadly, the procedure is to balance progressively yin and yang as and where measurement figures indicate the need. First we look to see if the overall imbalance in one or more large areas of the body -- top and bottom, then side to side. Where all three yin or yang meridians in hand or foot are in excess of those of the opposite quality, this will be rectified by treating the upper or lower Meeting Points. Where the channels within an element are unbalanced, this may be rectified with transfers of energy between Source and Junction points.
The first objective in treatment is always to locate and identify the Element which is the Causative Factor underlying the superficial symptoms. Once found, this is likely to be the focus of our treatment thenceforward. Indeed, it may prove to be that individual's permanent 'constitutional weakness', for we are all born with one area (Element) which is our lasting Achilles' heel. Presumably this is due both to in utero conditions and to external factors during gestation, ranging from family dynamics and finances to sidereal, planetary, and lunar forces at the time.
So, using both the evidence of our measurements, and the principles of the Mother/Son Law, and Shen and Ko cycles, we identify first the Element or Causative Factor involved; then we must distinguish the dysfunctional Official in the dyad of meridians belonging to the element (two dyads, of course, in the case of Fire). Along with Mora data, we will use such evidence as we can obtain from traditional diagnostic methods - emotions, colour, smell, seasonal affinities, etc. The complex subtleties of pulse diagnosis will be replaced by the Mora measurements, just as in the event Mora treatment will replace needling and Moxa.
In using point treatment or transfers, we shall be concerned to restore balance, first in individual points, and then between right and left sides, and later between pairs of meridians within each element. Probably the readings for the Source Points will be our guide in this process, and gradually as the surface froth clears - the superficial chaos caused by daily living -- we may begin to see one particular Source Points standing out. Often, there will be more than one possibility, and we need to consider other, traditional, diagnostic criteria, and test our conclusions on the Source Point which we suspect belongs to the distressed Official. If successful, all points will be favourably affected; and if the other Source Points then normalise, we can stabilise the critical point until it is resistant to a challenge. If the results are not so satisfactory, it may help to try the same procedure with its partner meridian, even if the latter at first appears normal. Failing success, it will be necessary to reconsider the alternative possibilities using Shen and Ko cycles, or the Mother/Son Law as the guide.
The Mother/Son Law delineates some of the causal patterns operating in the meridian system, and refers specifically to the pattern of energy flow in the deep paths of the meridians. It is at this level that the roots of chronic problems tend to lie, so this law can be extremely helpful with persistent problems. As in Five Element acupuncture generally, it describes the subtle process in the microcosm (body) by an analogy with more overt patterns seen in the macrocosm; in this case, the human family.
In daily experience, we can observe at both the physical and psychological levels, a healthy mother tends to produce a healthy child. If the mother's well-being is compromised, signs are likely to be observed in the child, in the form of physical weakness or distress, or in emotional or psychological distress. Yet despite the child's distress signals, its mother may appear to the world at large, to be without problems -- calm, stable, and normal. Adults are likely to appear so in relation to children, of course; but mothers in particular are able to preserve the appearance of normality while sacrificing the fulfilment of their own needs to maintain, as far as possible, the well-being of their children.
When we see a distressed child, our instinct is to comfort and soothe it, but the Mother-Son Law shows us that this will be of temporary and limited use if the underlying cause of weakness belongs to its mother. To give true and lasting relief, which will permit solid reconstruction, we must support the mother who will then naturally succour the child and keep it healthy.
This is not, however, a one-way system. As in life, it can also occur that a parent can be stressed by their child, so the child may be the source of problems appearing in the mother. And the grandmother may be distressed and functioning poorly because of the plight of either or both of the others. The chain might extend further, and ultimately we recognise that if one Element is imbalanced, all the others may be affected. The Mother-Son Law helps us to recognise the fundamentally causative in what can be a very complex and rich pattern of interactions.
A hypothetical example of this law in everyday life may serve to make this clearer:-
Mrs J's son Mark is exhibiting delinquent behaviour patterns, partly because his mother is relentlessly pursuing her career, and has little time for him; he feels she has no love for him either. In fact, she was doing this because she is brokenhearted over the tragic death of her husband when Mark was four. Mark strongly reminds her of her husband, and she cannot show him affection because the restimulated memory causes her intolerable grief. Meanwhile her own mother, aware of her daughter's seemingly unresolvable pain is deeply worried by her grandson's deteriorating behaviour, and is beginning to experience heart problems. It is all too easy to see how this situation can spiral out of control, producing further anger, despair, and ill consequences of many kinds. The solution may require some support and remedial action for son and grandmother, but the key to the whole complex will lie in helping the mother express, release, and abate her grief, so that she can once more become maternal towards her own son.
We can relate this analogically to the Five Element concept: -
Fire, for example fed by Wood, creates and fertilises Earth through its ash. If we observe a problem with Earth, therefore, it may be due to a dysfunction in Fire. For example, the fire may burn too hot or too cool, because of a problem with the wood that fed it. Perhaps it was built of blackthorn or birch instead of good solid ash. The blackthorn burns too slow and cool (Yin excess), and birch burns away too fast (Yang excess), so they may leave much cinder and charcoal, but little nutritive ash. As a result, the broad beans fertilised with the ash develop Chocolate Spot! We can apply a chemical spray to change the balance in the plants, but this is merely symptomatic treatment. The true remedy lies in properly nourishing and maintaining the fire, whose ash will ensure that in future the soil can support many healthy crops.
Even if successful, it is best to take care not to do too much at a time: getting a significant shift in the right direction is far more important than forcing a complete balance, which could overstretch the body's capacity for adjustment, and then collapse into disarray. We are, after all, dealing with complex, intelligent living entity, not a machine; and we are using bio resonance, not surgery. Given the repeated administration of the right signals, the body will progressively move in the right direction. With patients, I sometimes use the analogy of an orchestra preparing for a performance; gradually the players enter, and each one twiddles around, warming up and practising awkward passages. Then the oboist enters, gives an A, and the whole orchestra moves into harmony ready to give a performance. This, it seems to me, is a very good analogy of the process we are using when we apply bioresonance using the principles and patterns of traditional acupuncture.
There are other techniques we may wish to apply after this process. For example, we may wish to treat relevant element points of other meridians, to sedate or stimulate them, to deal with blockages within or between meridians, to offer horologically appropriate treatment using the Midday/Midnight Law, to deal with aggressive energy, energy deficits, etc etc.
As we deal with these, subsequent treatment is likely to become more straightforward and it may be helpful, while maintaining the basic energy structure through continued application of the laws of acupuncture, to divert into the specialised treatment techniques developed in recent years by Reinhold Voll, or Schimmel’s Vega Test, or others of the many modern methods available. All of these measures, however important, are essentially adjuncts, albeit important adjuncts to the foundational treatment, which remains the normalisation, support, and ongoing monitoring of the dysfunctional Official -- the Causative Factor, whose weakness ripples out to cause imbalance and distortion potentially in all the Elements. Restoration of health to this official will result in lasting benefits to all functions of body and mind, and a firm foundation on which to base all of the treatment. The resulting unimpeded flow of energy through the system, and balanced functioning of the Five Elements, and the twelve Officials, should enable the body to resist disease -- even to resist environmental toxins to a greater extent -- and to respond harmoniously to the diurnal flow of energy in the horary cycle, and between the external forces which affect us all -- Earth, Moon, planets, and stars.
If treatment has been excellent, harmony and balance has been restored within the human microcosm, and between the microcosm and the macrocosm. Lieh-tzu shows us the ultimate state of true harmony and balance. A gold standard to aim for!
"My body is in accord with my mind, my mind with my energies, my energies with my spirit, my spirit with Nothing. Whenever the minutest existing thing or the faintest sound affects me, whether it is far away beyond the eight borderlands, or close at hand between my eyebrows and eyelashes, I am bound to know it. However, I do not knowwhether I perceived it with the seven holes in my head and my four limbs, or knew it through my heart and belly, and internal organs...when I had come to the end of everything inside and outside me, my eyes became like my ears, my ears like my nose, my nose like my mouth... My mind concentrated and my body relaxed, bones and flesh fused completely.
I did not notice what my body leaned against, and my feet trod, I drifted with the wind East and West, like a leaf from a tree or a dry husk, and never knew whether it was the wind that rode me, or I that rode the wind.
(Book of Lieh-tzu)