Whole Health (12 page)

The keyword for this exercise is
clear
. Clearing the Mortal Haze is designed to shut down your brain's production of beta brain waves (stress brain waves), shifting it over to an alpha brain wave state (relaxation). This will assist you in transforming your mortal mind.

2.
Climbing the Sacred Stairway
—This balances the second sea and clears obsessive tendencies. Begin by placing both hands over
the area between your navel and your heart. Once again, focus all your attention there and once again envision streams of sunlight running down your arms and hands to fill up this area of your attention. Don't forget to spin the sunlight energy counterclockwise. The keyword for this exercise is
elevate
. Climbing the Sacred Stairway is designed to align your body and mind with your intention to begin elevating your energy to the highest possible vibration. Remember, your intention is to elevate your energy so as to open up your mystical self. This will enable you to gain access to your highest sixth-sensory potential.

3.
Bathing in the Heart Fountain
—This exercise balances the third sea and clears emotional distortions. To begin Bathing in the Heart Fountain, place both hands over your heart, and as you do, visualize healing sunlight energy moving down both arms and hands, filling up your heart. Once again, spin the energy counterclockwise. The keyword for this exercise is
compassion
. As you fill up your heart center with healing energy, feel that energy beginning to generate a fountainhead and imagine yourself bathing in a radiant light of love. It is very important here to focus your intention on attaining your deepest level of compassion. Compassion in service is the most vivifying energy that inspires and potentiates our sixth-sensory potential.

4.
Releasing the Tiger
—This balances the fourth sea of ch'i. Releasing the Tiger requires that you place both hands over the area just beneath your throat. This will open up the mystical voice of the spirit and enable one to express their higher truth. Again visualize healing sunlight being drawn down the arms and hands into that area. Now spin the sunlight in counterclockwise spirals. The keyword for this exercise is
will
. One must strive to merge their compassion with gamma brain waves at this point. Gamma brain waves may be thought of as waves generated by great undisturbed focus and powerful intention. So, when
Releasing the Tiger, one empowers their compassion with a focus and a determined intention.

5.
Opening the Eyes of the Hawk
—This balances the fifth sea and opens up the stream of higher consciousness. The keyword for this exercise is
transcend
. Place both hands over the area between your eyebrows, and once again picture streams of healing energy flowing into that area. Next, spin the energy counterclockwise and, as you do this, remember that this exercise represents the final step of your effort to elevate your body, mind, and spirit energies to a place far beyond your everyday self.

For those developing sixth-sensory consciousness, these developmental exercises should be practiced routinely. Once your sixth sense is better developed, you'll be ready to master assessing, balancing, and preserving your mutable constitution through Whole Health Energy Diagnosis.

WHOLE HEALTH ENERGY DIAGNOSIS

THE SYSTEM'S ROOTS

In chapter 2, I discussed how to establish your fixed constitution. Chapter 3 helped you connect with your sixth-sense self. Now you are ready to begin learning how to diagnose and balance your mutable constitution. There are a myriad of changing energies that continuously affect our vital glands and organs each day. Climate, weather, diet, relationships, and other shifting events are all representative of catalysts for change. The fluidity of life is forever bringing its influences to bear on our vital glands and organs, and thus our overall health. This variability is particularly challenging to anyone espousing a lifestyle of disease prevention.

Whole Health Body Energy Diagnosis is an electromagnetic muscle-testing system specifically designed to monitor the body's energy fluctuations. Before detailing this further, I must first familiarize you with some basic fundamentals of classical Chinese
medicine. In the following Yin-Yang list, the first organ is governed by yin, the second by yang.

The Five Elements Organ System

Yin-Yang

1. Liver–gallbladder
   
2. Heart–small intestine
   
3. Spleen–stomach
   
4. Lung–large intestine
   
5. Kidney–bladder
   

The ancient Chinese embraced the philosophy of “mutual compatibility of opposites.” This was the first constitutional distinction made between all things. Everything between heaven and earth was seen as having either a yin or a yang nature. Yin is a metaphor for the female principle: passive, dark, cold, inner, winter, descending, hollow, and so on. Yang represents the male principle: active, light, hot, summer, ascending, solid, and so on. Thus, the vital organs are classified as either yin or yang.

It is very important to keep in mind that yin and yang are not static states. Yin and yang are fluid, dynamic states that are forever flowing into each other. Yin may be the opposite of yang, but it is always in the active process of becoming yang, and vice versa. Every great fire burns intensely (yang), but is destined to swiftly burn itself out (yin). Even the hardest monsoon rains (yin) are in the process of eventually giving way to the hot tropical sun (yang). Even the newborn baby (yang) is aging, and thus part of the slow, gradual process of surrendering its material existence (yin). This dichotomy is true for organ system relationships as well. Each yin organ, such as the liver, performs yang tasks, such as managing the body's energy. By the same token, each yang organ, like the gallbladder, has an important yin influence, such as the secretion of
bile, which is extremely alkaline (yin). Our task is to manage the balance between our yin and yang influences.

These organ systems represent human energy conduits that determine and reflect one's degree of wellness-balance, or
harmony
. Any energy imbalances in these organ systems represent a
disharmony
. For example, to communicate harshly with a patient, using verbiage that generates dis-ease, may result in negative mental and emotional energy that further damages their spirit and lessens their prospect for recovery. All patterns of dis-ease are the result of imbalances and referred to as
disharmonies
.

One of the most important diagnostic points is to establish whether a patient's organ disharmonies are internally or externally rooted.

1. External disharmony
   —physical, cellular, material origin (yang)
   
2. Internal disharmony
   —mental, emotional, spiritual origin (yin)
   

Before any effective treatment protocol can be established, both practitioner and patient must know where the energy disharmony is rooted. External disharmonies will require greater cellular support like nutrition. Internal disharmonies will require more energetic support, like homeopathy, Qigong, or T'ai Chi.

Once again, practitioners should be reminded that when it comes to energy diagnosis, there are only three possible energies:

1. Excess (disharmony)
   
2. Deficiency (disharmony)
   
3. Balance (harmony)
   

When the energy of an organ is diagnosed as
excess,
it suggests that there is too much energy in that organ. This may be thought of as
inflammatory
. When an organ is
deficient,
it means there is not enough energy in that organ. This may be thought of as
degenerative
.
The goal of this energy work is to
balance
all the vital organ airs and bring the subject to optimal health. Before we actually go on to describe the diagnostic evaluation, there are three fundamental questions that we need to look at:

FIGURE 4.1
Baihui

1.
“Where does ch'i come from?”

Powerful yang ch'i descends into the body from the heavens and enters the body through Governing Vessel 20 (GV 20). This point, located dead center on top of the head and directly up from both ears, is also called
Baihui
(See Figure 4.1). In the Chinese tradition,
Baihui
is where our highest spiritual energies converge. This point correlates with the Thousand Petal Lotus, or Sacred Crown Chakra, common to Eastern Indian thought. Many other religions and spiritual traditions have depicted the sacred energy of this crown region with an aura, or halo.
Baihui
marks the yang ch'i entry point.

Conception Vessel 1 (CV 1), or
Hui-Yin
point (located in the perineum between the genitals and the anus), is where the earthly yin energies enter the body. It is also referred to as the meeting place of yin.

Baihui
delivers the flow of heavenly yang ch'i down the back of
the body, and
Hui-Yin
draws the flow of turbid, earthly energy up the front of the body. This two-way flow between the gates of life and death creates what is called the Microcosmic Orbit. Only when the two gates are vivified and balanced can there be abundant life force. To both regulate and balance these vital gates, one need only meditate on the Microcosmic Orbit of their own ch'i. Relaxed and with eyes closed, take a breath and visualize the radiant flow of these respective energies. Continue to envision the orbiting energy cycling down the back and up the front of your body for five to seven minutes. Perform this exercise as often as possible. This is a foundational and powerful meditation technique to have in your repertoire.

The heavens are considered the source of cosmic and prenatal energy. Cosmic energy in the form of light is believed to enter into the body through the top of the head, eyes, and skin. Prenatal essence (like DNA) is passed on from the parents into the womb. There is also a cosmic prenatal force believed to be carried over from past lives. Therefore, we are told that when a child is born, he or she brings a certain degree of life-force energy from previous incarnations.

Ch'i also ascends up into the body from the earth, in the form of energies transferred to us from the earth's food, water, and herbs. Ch'i is also provided by the human processes of respiration (oxygen), digestion (food), circulation (blood), and detoxification. Oxygen and food are at the top of the life-force energy list. Keep in mind that 75 percent of the human body is water, and 90 percent of water is oxygen. When food is digested, it is distilled by the spleen and then transformed into blood.

2.
“How does excess ch'i come to accumulate in an organ?”

First, there is the issue of fixed, prenatal constitution. Someone may simply be born with a tendency to specific imbalances. It is also important to keep in mind that excess energy may be the result
of a blockage that builds up from mutable, postnatal constitutional influences, such as lifestyle or diet. For example, too much fatty food in the diet may be obstructing the movement of bile in the liver, creating an external hepatic excess. Another example might be if someone is repressing sadness—this can create an internal disharmony in the lung, or generate an excess of pulmonary energy.

3.
“How does deficient ch'i come to manifest in an organ?”

Again we must consider pre- and postnatal constitution influences. We must also remember that day-to-day influences like an excess of stress (internal disharmony), insufficient sleep, or inadequate nutrition can create deficiencies in virtually all organs.

THE EXTERNAL CAUSES OF DISEASE

When it comes to fully understanding the rooting of disharmony/ch'i imbalances, the most important considerations are the Six Pernicious Influences, the Five Flavors, and the Five Emotions. These influences represent those common energies most inclined to imbalance vital organ systems.

The Six Pernicious Influences

1. Wind
   —Injures the liver—Protect yourself from strong wind, sudden changes, and impulsive angers.
   
2. Heat
   (mild heat)—Injures the heart—Eat cool foods in summer and remain relaxed at all times.
   
3. Fire
   (severe heat)—Injures the heart—Don't overexert the body in summer, and avoid emotional mania and intense frustration.
   
4. Dampness
   —Injures the spleen—Eat dry food when the weather is damp, and warm yourself with your own compassion.
   
5. Dryness
   —Injures the lungs—Hydrate when it's dry and balance your release of tears.
   
6. Cold
   —Injures the kidneys—Dress warmly, eat warm foods in
   the cold, and don't let your fear deep-freeze you! (See the Five Emotions, below.)
   

The Five Flavors

1. Sour
   (for example, lemons)—Imbalances may cause external liver–gallbladder disharmony.
   
2. Bitter
   (for example, escarole greens)—Imbalances may cause disharmony in the external heart–small intestine.
   
3. Sweet
   (for example, bananas)—Imbalances may cause external spleen–stomach disharmony.
   
4. Pungent
   (for example, onions)—Imbalances may cause external lung–large intestine disharmony.
   
5. Salty
   (for example, celery)—Imbalances may cause external kidney–bladder disharmony.
   

The Five Emotions

1. Anger
   —Imbalances may cause internal liver–gallbladder disharmony.
   
2. Joy
   —Imbalances may cause internal heart–small intestine disharmony.
   
3. Anxiety
   —Imbalances may cause internal spleen–stomach disharmony.
   
4. Grief
   —Imbalances may cause internal lung–large intestine disharmony.
   
5. Fear
   —Imbalances may cause internal kidney–bladder disharmony.
   

ASSESS, BALANCE, AND PRESERVE CH'I

The primary goal of the Whole Health Healing System is to assess, balance, and preserve ch'i through energy diagnostics, diet, lifestyle, mind management, and Qigong (energy exercises). When the
vital organs are energetically imbalanced in any way, everything will be out of balance.

Our vital organs are like energy generators that transmit and receive ch'i reciprocally to and from our cells, blood, tissues, emotions, thoughts, spirits, and souls (mortal and immortal). Each of us is an interconnected microuniverse of energy that is regulated by and through our vital organs. Each organ system is like a separate galaxy in charge of regulating the gravitational movements of its star systems and, in so doing, it contributes to the wholeness of a universe of energy. For example, if our diet contains an overabundance of fat, the liver–gallbladder can suffer from an excess of ch'i, which can then trigger extreme fits of anger and exhaust our nervous system. If we fail to balance our excess worry, our spleen–stomach will tend to generate an uncontrollable desire for sugar, and our digestive tract will become inflamed. Energetically speaking, every aspect of our total being is interrelated, interdependent, and overseen by our vital organs. The heart is not only in charge of our circulation; it also works closely with the small intestines, and manages our mental willpower. Besides regulating our respiration, the lungs also help us to maintain moisture in the large intestine, enhance our intuition, and enable us to overcome our grief.