Laser Surgery and Genetic Engineering

Orthodox medicine - despite its use of ultra-modern equipment and extraordinary feats in such areas as laser surgery and genetic engineering - is in many ways still deeply rooted in the mechanical world view.

As the technology of modern medicine becomes more advanced, the treatment of patients has become even more dehumanized. The body is separated increasingly into component parts until we lose sight of the whole.

The feelings and emotions of the patient are seen as having little or no relevance to the functioning of i heir body machine. Inevitably, patients are made to feel 'irrelevant' to their own cure, and are often actively discouraged from taking any part in their treatment other than that of passive receiver.

The Chinese system of medicine refuses to see the body in this mechanical way. If acupuncture's role in Western medicine is reduced to the treatment of local pain, as beneficial to its recipients as this may be, it is 110 longer Chinese medicine.

Only in the context of its ancient philosophy can acupuncture be seen as a vital part in a comprehensive medical system.

Let us hope that our Western world view will soon catch up with the discoveries of modern science, and energy medicine will become more acceptable to the Western mind. Fortunately for us all, however, our bodies seem to be able to understand it quite well.