Acupuncture as Qi Gong

In a recent post, Steven writes

Acupuncture would be the thing to try last, if nothing else seemed to work. Acupuncture can obviously be very helpful, but it greatly depends on the skill level of the acupuncturist as to whether you are helped (some are excellent) or it ends up being a big expense with little benefit.

.As someone who has had only a little acupuncture training and feels their acupuncture is often not very effective, I relate to this remark!

Recently, I came across an article by Damo Mitchell entitled Acupuncture as Qi Gong – a brief introduction that captures much of what I think acupuncture should be about. Mitchell writes

I begun studying acupuncture alongside Taijiquan in my teens and in those days my first lessons involved learning how to hold the needle and integrate it into my own energy system. Acupuncture was a form of Qi Gong for me and for two or three years I never learnt any points or did any direct work on a patient; I simply held onto the needle and carried out some simple Qi Gong movements aiming to extend my Yi to the tip of the needle. Though I only did this for around ten minutes a day (martial arts were much more fun) it only took a couple of years before I felt my mind hit the needle tip. When this happens you are able to feel physical contact with the needle as if it is an extension of your own finger. When the needle is touched you feel it, not in your own body, but rather in the needle itself as if your nervous system extended out of your hand into the needle. These sensations can range from feelings of hot and cold, through to tickling and even pain if you bend the needle in half. This happens because your own Qi is now reaching the end of the needle meaning that the energetic feedback between your own mind and the needle is as strong as the feedback between your mind and your body.

He continues

The first time I inserted a needle into a patients body (it was the HeGu point) I was able to feel the needle sliding gradually through the layers of the patients flesh as if I was inserting my own finger into their body. At the point when my needle hit the meridian I could feel the vibration of the flow of Qi passing over the end of the needle. If I went too deep then the tip went beyond this point and the vibrating feeling stopped; instead I was back to pushing through flesh instead. To this day I have never really understood exactly how practitioners of acupuncture accurately find the correct depth of the body to find the meridian pathway without this level of sensitivity. I believe that they are often inserting the needle too deeply or too shallowly meaning that they will affect the muscles and tissues instead of the meridian. Whilst it is still possible to treat these lines of tissue (Jing Jin) the effects are greatly reduced.

Re qigong, he says

Interestingly the extension of the Yi along the length of the needle is the same as along the length of the Jian (straight sword) in Taijiquan. It took me two years to reach the end of the needle in acupuncture training but nearly ten years of Jian training and Jian Qi Gong to get my mind to reach the end of the sword. It is no wonder that many images of doctors in Chinese paintings also show them carrying swords as the practices are the same.

In order to develop this skill simply hold an acupuncture needle between your index finger and thumb. Begin any simple Qi Gong practice which would normally use a ‘sword-fingers’ position such as the last of the Ji Ben Qi Gong and instead replace this Mudra with the needle. Work on extending your Yi into the distance and breathe to the end of the needle. Over time you will experience the same in the needle but do not be surprised if it takes a little time. Obviously the more internal work you have already carried out, the faster this process will be. Particularly useful is waking up the lower Dan Tien and the development of internal forces as you would commonly use in practices such as Taijiquan pushing hands.

So I’ve been wondering what Healing Tao forms one might use to develop this needle technique?