Articles

The materials presented in this section seek to foster awareness about the multi-dimensional depth of Chinese medicine, as well as the political mechanisms that seek to homogenize, standardize, and effectively limit these time-honored resources in the TCM model. The intention of these articles is to inspire a reevaluation of the direction and the fundamental convictions that we set for ourselves, both as providers and recipients of Oriental medicine.

The classical model of diagnostic insight can provide keys to treatment approaches for a wide variety of serious and chronic diseases that afflict the world today, including many recalcitrant disorders and “mystery syndromes” that cannot be satisfactorily resolved by modern medicine. This section contains a sampling of articles and case studies that demonstrate the clinical efficacy of the broadly defined classical approach to healing in a modern setting.

There is a rich depository of scientific thought on the interconnection between macrocosm and microcosm remains available in classical Chinese. For Western readers, only a small fraction has been translated into English or other European languages. While it may be impossible to create a complete record even in the original Chinese, this section of the site is designed to participate in the evolving process of translating classical Chinese medicine source materials of the broadest possible variety and flavor. We hope that practitioners, students, and recipients of Chinese medicine will thus gain an additional opportunity to experience the original beauty and sophistication of this medicine.

The materials presented in this section introduce the preliminary results of a research project that was conceived to shed light on these questions. Since 1998, Prof. Heiner Fruehauf has directed a detailed investigation of ancient Chinese medical symbolism in cooperation with the College of Classical Chinese Medicine at National University of Natural Medicine in Portland, Oregon. The focus of this research is to demonstrate how ancient symbols, such as the names of organ networks or acupuncture points, contain very detailed information spanning from the material layer (this is how it looks) to the functional layer (this is what it does) to the macrocosmic layers of space and time (these are the planets and seasons by which it resonates and is influenced). The results reveal a tightly woven system of symbolic references that spell out in detail the multi-layered qualities of macrocosmic and microcosmic reality, including the “how,” “where,” “when,” and “why” of the connection between the Above and the Below.