Classical Five-Element Acupuncture

An increasing number of patients find Classical Five-Element Acupuncture extraordinarily effective in overcoming physical illness as well as for regaining an overall sense of well-being. Many of them turn to this ancient system of healing after various western medicines and therapies, while sometimes necessary and helpful, fall short in helping them feel well again.

Classical Five-Element Acupuncture really works, both to alleviate symptoms and to confer a direct experience of health. Patients experience improvement, often enormous improvement, in well-being, clarity of mind, openness of heart, and in ease of being. Anything that can be said about how and why Classical Five-Element Acupuncture works is insufficient to capture the experience that it works.

Disease does not exist outside of the human being who has it. The experience of disease, the suffering, the misery, this is the real experience of being sick. Alleviation of symptoms without the correction of this inner and often extreme discomfort is of little avail. Classical Five-Element Acupuncture reaches in to where the actual experience of suffering occurs. It is a system of medicine that can help to heal at this deep level, thoroughly and precisely.

It is self evident that a human being is much more than his or her physicality. We think, we have emotions, we have vitality that is life itself. The human spirit transcends materiality. The human spirit is what has driven the progress of all civilizations and is in fact what propels us to better well-being. Spirit gives us joy, love, exuberance, and all that is transcendent. For a system of medicine to utilize the enormous strength of the human spirit, it must operate at a level deeper than physicality alone. Yet it must also influence the physical body in a very positive way. Classical Five-Element Acupuncture does, in fact, do all this.

Traditionally, to explain how acupuncture can benefit body, mind, and spirit we speak about the influence of the Vital Ch’i Energy. For those trained in Classical Five-Element Acupuncture, the Ch’i is perceivable, palpable, and visible even though it may not be discernible to the untrained or inexperienced. This Ch’i which is common to all living things is the stuff of life. It is Ch’i that empowers or motorizes our physical bodies. It is also Ch’i which drives and enables our minds to function properly throughout our lives. Acupuncture works by making adjustments in the Vital Ch’i Energy. The Ch’i flows in the body through the vessels and twelve paired meridian pathways. These meridian pathways relate to the twelve officials which in turn relate to the Five Elements - Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water.

Classical Five-Element Acupuncture refers to these Five Elements which underlie all creation. The Five Elements are studied and utilized in the practice of Chinese Medicine as outlined in the classic, The Yellow Emperors Book of Internal Medicine, written thousands of years ago. The Five Elements are therefore rooted in ancient wisdom and timeless understanding. They do not refer to physical elements alone, but to the flow of life giving energy throughout the creation. The restoration of balance in the flow of this energy within a patient can help them overcome any disease, even those apparently fixed in disturbances of physical matter.