The Theory of Opposing Processes in Illness and Healing

Maggie and Joe McCarey-Korkin

The Underlying Mechanism of Alternative Healing

Non-traditional healing methodologies, referred to as alternative healing, are now grudgingly acknowledged as providing varying degrees of benefit for a broad spectrum of physical illness. However, the non-invasive and nonvisual nature of these healing techniques gives scoffers the means to debunk their powerful underlying healing mechanisms and modes of therapeutic action.

These challenges are fueled both by religious and medical pedagogies based in tradition and domination rather than in testable explanations and predictions about the universe, or as it is known, science. To begin with, the medieval church gained control of medicine by hanging or burning anyone who practiced medicine outside its control. Using the populace’s archetypal fear of witches and medicine men, the church convinced people that such healing came from the devil, especially if the patient survived. Archetypes never die. To this day, alternative healing has been dismissed, at worst as witchcraft, and at best, as “alternative.”

Consequently, alternative healing modalities are still thought to be ignorant, dangerous, and parochial: hocus locus, based in pagan spirituality, rather than in science. This view is still believed and promoted by the medical community, including insurance companies, and law makers who disallow the efficacy of any healing method outside its control. And for good reason. There is no profit in alternative healing. which is found in the hands of all who accept that human beings are born with an ability to give and receive healing energy from each other. To challenge this innate power is to challenge the texts from which you derive your understanding of God’s nature, but the tightly managed fear of others, keeps the world afraid of gospel medicine.

We hope with this research to refute and debunk the AMA’s tight control over our bodies by providing a general theoretical framework and scientific application to the underlying mechanism of alternative healing.

A List of Alternative Healing Modalities

Yoga* Prayer* reiki* cranial sacral therapy* Singing* Laugh Therapy* meditative music* Deep Breathing* therapeutic touch* positive thinking* laying on of hands* acupuncture* bio-sonic repatterining* crystal healing, chakra* healing* tuning forks* humming bowls* chanting* quantum healing* AMMA therapy* aromatherapy* breema bodywork* dance therapy* Feldenkrais method* Jin Shin Jyutsu* hot rocks therapy* massage* myofascial release* Qi Cong* shiatsui* art therapy* color therapy* eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)* guided imagery* music therapy* neuro-linguistic programing (NLP)* stress management* T’ai Chi* herbal therapy, hydrotherapy* magnetic therapy* acupuncture, and more.

OUR HYPOTHESIS

SCIENCE:
All matter is composed of molecules which, in turn, are composed of atoms. Going further still, one finds that these atoms are composed of members of an ever-growing list of elemental particles. Atoms attain their unique character by virtue of the structural arrangement of their constituent elemental particles. This structural relationship is determined by the energetic interaction between those elemental particles. Similarly, the structure of molecules and their energetic interactions with atoms ensure an ongoing
dynamic present in the body. Let's explore how this concept can scale macroscopically within a biological context and understand why it may be significant.

The human body is composed of many mechanically and electrically inter-connected structures comprised of different types of cells. In this view, biological activity is analogous to our gross description of raw matter above. We know that if large enough quantities of those cellular components are altered from their normal composition the associated structure malfunctions. Profound consequences can result due to the inter-connected nature of those structures resulting in a domino effect of failure or disease.

MEDICAL SCIENCE:
As an example to introduce one of the central underpinnings of our theory, consider one aspect of the human heart: heart rate. The rate at which the heart beats is determined by

the signals it receives from the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. One system instructs the heart to beat faster in one system while the other system receives a slower instruction. The result is a constantly changing activation signal. Researchers disagree whether those activation signals can be strictly classified as chaotic or simply complex as viewed through the analytical lens of nonlinear dynamical systems theory. What is most interesting for our purpose is that if the complexity of the heart activation signal is lost or absent, so that the signal is uniform and periodic, then heart malfunction is imminent[1].

Here we observe two opposing processes such that if one were operating in isolation the destruction of the heart muscle would be rapid and certain. Yet it is the counter balancing effect of one process juxtaposed against the other that sustains the heart. Moreover the normal healthy functioning is one of controlled imbalance; the result is non-uniform. This elaborate dynamic has been identified in many areas of nature, physics and physiology.

ENERGY PHYSICS:

The two important features common to all normal functioning is the presence of simultaneous opposing processes and the resulting chaotic or non-uniform dynamic in which those processes engage each other.

How are these observations critical to healing in the context of the human body? The answer may be found within another area of research: energy physics. The property of sonoluminescence is the occurrence of a brief flash of light that is emitted from a collapsing gas bubble embedded in a viscous liquid that has been subjected to continuous sound waves. After the bubble reaches maximum compression and the flash of light is emitted from the core which is now in an extremely high energy state, it begins expanding rapidly. One would expect the bubble to simply expand and disintegrate but instead the resulting vacuum that is creating within the bubble prevents this by creating an internal counterforce to the rapidly accelerating bubble membrane. The bubble reaches a maximum expansion state until the arrival of a next sound wave which restarts the compression phase. Theories place the temperature of the compressed plasma within the bubble at around four times the temperature of our sun[3]. This phenomenon is neither revolutionary nor unique in our universe. “One of the key unsolved problems of physics relates to the motion continuous media and can be formulated as follows: Why is there a general tendency of the off-equilibrium motion of continuous media to be characterized by the formation of structures and the focusing of energy?” [4]

SCIENCE
A large percentage of the human body is continuous media whose off-equilibrium motion either on a macro or micro scale is critical to healthy functioning as we have illustrated with our earlier discussion of heart rate activation signals. If uniformity is imposed on those processes, passed from a healthy system to the sick system, normal function of the second system may be restored by retraining those processes such that its dynamic is once again non periodic or chaotic.

Before the world was round, it was flat. Before the body was understood, it was a stick figure, which after time, was known to have removable and non-removable parts.
A this stage in history, the human race is trying to understand that the body is more than a stick figure with removable and non-removable parts. It is trying to understand that, like planets and solar systems, it is both a macrocosm and microcosm of life. We are beginning to grasp the scientifically based notion that the body perfect synchronizes energetically and vibrationally to the All of Life—plants, trees, waves, sound, light vibration, and other living beings. We are slowly comprehending that the body perfect performs continuous media that looks like the above dominoes illustration in constant motion and in simultaneous overlaying configurations rather than the hours, days, and years we assign to explain existence: nonorganic words like life, death, eternity. The theologian Paul wrote a perfect description of learning to see life in the midst of life. “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (Second Corinthians 4: 17-18. ) It is this principle of the unseen and our dedication “to see beyond the “accepted and approved” world” that holds the key to health in the future.

In the time you have read this paper your body has, ever so quietly, and ever so swiftly, used its intelligence to perform billions of little expansions and contractions. Unfortunately, when this silent process repeatedly misses a signal, it impedes the actions of the original blue print. No problem. Knowledge of missed signals is part of the body’s self-healing protocol. It simply finds a new route in order to sustain life. To the untrained eye, this valiant and creative effort to survive is called disease rather than correction. In truth, it is creative, not failed, and for us who have lipedema and/or lymphedema, the body correcting itself looks like this:

The unseen triumph of the lipese body is that it is determined to keep its malaise from the internal organs needed to sustain life. This view of the body is compatible with a cosmological notion that God knows even when a sparrow falls from the sky. Ever vigilant, concerned with survival, caring and nurturing the whole, it constantly adapts to heal itself.

THE SCIENCE OF ENTRAINMENT:
Some mechanism must first exist, either artificially or in nature, if retraining of a process or energy pattern to another pattern is to occur. Again we can benefit from a historically early exercise in basic scientific observation and method. The phenomenon of entrainment was discovered in 1660 by Christiaan Huygens when he observed that if two separate pendulum clocks are mounted to a board their pendulum swings will become synchronized [5]. This happens because each clock imparts a very small amount of energy to the other clock and a type of feedback loop is created the forces the clocks to synchronize. Entrainment of mutually coupled systems has been observed and studied in biological, physical, electrical, social and financial systems.

The synchronization of two separate pendulum clocks lead us to the “HOW” alternative healing works. Our research argues that this entrainment event is the core mechanism to the success of alternative healing.

We have shown results from energy physics that off-equilibrium motion within a continuous media results in the formation of structures and that the focusing of energy is ubiquitous in nature. We believe that an individual with a consciously maintained healthy energy structures resulting from off-equilibrium motion within there cellular media should be to focus the resulting energy field onto the energy field of a less healthy individual. Entrainment would then cause the less healthy field to lock to the healthy one.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND HOW WE HEAL EACH OTHER:

Over time the associated underlying structures of the less healthy individual would also improve. It is critical to note that it is unlikely the healthy energy pattern would lock or entrain to the unhealthy one. The reason is that the unhealthy energy pattern is the result of passive entrainment to uniformity through the mechanisms of culture, diet and substances, whereas the healthy energy pattern is consciously cultivated and maintained and therefore more resilient.

Alternative healing then is analogous to a healthy person rewriting and rebooting the cellular memory of a person who is ill as defined in the phenomena of entrainment. His or her health state restores the unhealthy state back to healthy.
 

1. Wu GQ, Arzeno NM, Shen LL, Tang DK, Zheng DA, et al. (2009) Chaotic signatures of heart rate variability and its power spectrum in health, aging and heart failure. PLoS One

2. Vinita Rangroo Thrane, Alexander S. Thrane, Benjamin A. Plog, Meenakshisundaram Thiyagarajan, Jeffrey J. Iliff, Rashid Deane, Erlend A. Nagelhus, Maiken Nedergaard (2013).

"Paravascular microcirculation facilitates rapid lipid transport and astrocyte signaling in the brain". Scientific Reports 3 (2582). doi:10.1038/srep02582. Retrieved 9 December 2013.3. Putterman, Seth (1995). “Sonoluminescence: Sound into Light”. Scientific American(32), February 1995.

4. Seth Putterman, Professor UCLA. Sonoluminescence research website at ucla.edu

5. Birch, Thomas, "The History of the Royal Society of London, for Improving of Natural Knowledge, in which the most considerable of those papers...as a supplement to the Philosophical Transactions," vol 2, (1756) p 19.

Traditional Chinese medicine and lipedema – Part 2

By Tatjana van der Krabben

A while back I wrote about my new attempts to work on my fatigue and winter circulation issues through Chinese medicine. In my case that includes acupuncture. Note: acupuncture is NOT recommended in lymphedema and this advice has been extrapolated to lipedema. I can only speak for myself and I personally do not experience adverse effects. Other elements of traditional Chinese medicine will also be addressed.

Of course I jumped the gun and tried to figure out my symptoms myself. I already figured out that spleen deficiency wasn’t all there was too it*. I was thinking adrenal fatigue. Or, as put in this context: kidney deficiency. Traditional Chinese medicine doesn’t differentiate between kidneys and adrenal glands as such. I thought I had it pegged: it explained fatigue, comes with symptoms like dizziness, tinnitus and back problems. With the body functions relying on heat from kidney qi, I figured there was my answer.

Although my present therapist being willing to look at other options than the ever blamed spleen, she rightfully did stick to her own path to diagnosis. It was a close call. She was almost inclined to go with kidney deficiency, but the truth is, I have more liver deficiency symptoms as it is. Turns out, even the hours of the day you are struck with fatigue and the exact location of your headaches are indicators of the source of the problem.

With more than 50% of the estrogen metabolism taking place in in the liver and with its other major job of processing toxins in mind, that’s not a crazy place to look for clues. Although…it’s technically not correct to copy and paste our Western idea of the liver onto the traditional Chinese one. When pointing at an organ’s name in this context, one best looks at the description: the whole of the described functions, thus labeled with an organ’s name, is telling you what it’s actually pointing at. I took the Wikipedia definition, because it’s quite readable and helps you see it in terms of functions, more conceptual: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liver_(Chinese_medicine).

The liver:
• governs 'unclogging and deflation' of qi and emotions. The free flow of qi in turn will ensure the free flow of blood, digestion, and water.
o the free flow of qi and blood is particular significant since traditional Chinese medicine stipulates that stagnation of that flow will cause pain.
o by association via its respective element each zàng organ is embracing a certain emotion. The free flow of these five (and other) emotions is thus linked to the unrestrained circulation of the qi of the zàng organs.
• 'stores' blood
• opens into the eyes
• governs the tendons
• reflects in the nails
• governs anger
• houses the hun (魂, "Ethereal Soul")

What is this ‘storing of blood’? In quite plain English, it’s to be understood as follows:

The liver stores the blood. The liver is considered a storage area for blood when blood is not being used for physical activity. These periods of rest contribute to the body's restorative processes. During exercise, the blood is released to nourish the tendons and muscles.

This function is also intimately associated with the menstrual cycle; the liver maintains an adequate blood supply and regulates the timing and comfort of menstruation. Any dysfunctions in the menstrual cycle are almost always treated through the regulation of liver blood, qi, or yin.

When liver qi is stagnant (a very common condition), a person experiences irritability, tightness in the chest, and, in a woman, symptoms of premenstrual syndrome. When liver blood is deficient, symptoms such as dry eyes and skin, pallor, and lack of menstruation can occur. (Source: http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/natural-medicine/chinese/yin-organs4.htm)

So, what rings bells? Circulation, reference to digestion and water circulation, mood swings, dry skin, bad nails and paleness and my dry eyes driving my MAD. I was prescribed artificial teardrops and was about to max out on my daily recommended dose when I turned to my therapist – that dry.

Treatment

Through acupuncture mostly energy enhancing points where selected to help boost my liver and counteract the fatigue. My circulation issues were addressed with a moxa lamp pointed at the abdomen. Nifty thing. Does more than make you feel all warm and toasty. It is said to alleviate pains, reduce inflammation, improve blood circulation and metabolism. Not a needle in sight for that one. The moxa lamp is also referred to as TDP lamp. It’s challenging to find information that is objective; most online information is linked to a site that is also selling them. This one is at least not linked to a web shop: http://www.livingwellpdx.com/TDP_Lamp.html. I still need to self-test a little, but I can say it goes beyond warming yourself in the moment. The effects tend to last. Also, with connective tissue massage (a whole other story) I get from my edema therapist, my abdomen where the lamp is pointed is the softest and suddenly requires the least attention. That’s interesting. So, I’ve ordered my own lamp and will use that for further self-testing. Hopefully it can also alleviate lipedema pain, or at least joint pains, but that’s a question mark at this point!

When my toes get that purplish-grey look, like death not quite warmed over, additional needles are used to make the circulation take that extra jump all the way towards the toes. I also went from 1000mg of cayenne pepper to 500mg, because although cayenne is warming, too much could have the opposite effect according to traditional Chinese medicine. Funny thing is, it’s working.

Last but not least two tiny magnets are taped to the top of the instep of my feet. That’s a type of acupressure – skin is not punctured – to boost circulation all the way down to my feet. They usually last a couple of days. They either fall off or begin to irritate a little. The little magnets prolong the effect of the treatment.

In the past, when focusing on circulation and the spleen, I would experience a brief pick me up after each treatment. Its fleeting effect kept me dangling in the same spot, not bringing me definitive improvement. The shift of focus to the liver has brought progress, possibly supported by a mild fall and winter so far. Although I feel it’s safe to say this is going somewhere. Any and all temperatures below about 15o C (59o F) affect me and not in a good way. We’ve had plenty of that already, including my worst combo: cold dampness. Yikes!

Currently, we’re looking at a way to take things up a notch and aim for further improvement, but also to enable the body into self-support. For that, my therapist again gave me her copy of Healing with Whole Foods – Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition by Paul Pitchford (2002). I found the following, paraphrased:

To address insufficient yin of the liver, mung beans, mung sprouts, chlorophyll-rich foods, cucumber, tofu and millet are recommended, as well as fresh cold-pressed flax oil and extracted oils of borage, evening primrose and black currant seeds. In this context seaweed, watercress and plum improve water metabolism. Also, taking sufficient liquids in general is helpful. Improving the kidney yin function is always beneficial in cases of liver yin deficiency; aloe vera gel is among the best kidney yin herbal tonics for building liver yin.

When the liver blood is deficient, this is a yin aspect that needs to be addressed separately. It can be built up with blood tonics such as spirulina and other chlorophyll-rich foods, dark grapes, blackberries, huckleberries, raspberries and blackstrap molasses. Helpful herbs include dang gui root (Angelica sinensis), prepared rehmannia root (Rehmannia glutinosa), peony root and yellow dock root (Rumex crispus). The three Chinese herbs dang gui, rehmannia and peony can be used singly, but are more effective when taken together in equal parts.

Frankly, I’ve only started looking into these additional remedies. Berries like raspberries are currently out of season in these parts and I tend to watch my fruit sugar intake these days, although I love them. I want to look into cold-pressed flax oil, since that comes recommended for numerous things. I started out with a chlorophyll-rich supplement: chlorella. Why chlorella? For a very simple reason: when checking out spirulina, I saw chlorella too and it was much cheaper. When going through supplements and herbs like I do, all coming out of pocket, I do watch that aspect, too! The other thing I intend to do is have a seaweed salad more often. I finally found dried seaweed without green dye to make chuka wakame, so I can happily indulge myself. Yum!

At the same time I stopped taking Rhodiola, that was initially recommended to me to help defy the fatigue. After I started taking that, I found it was more so recommended for adrenal fatigue. It did little for me; only more confirmation for me I need to go with the liver issues as pointed out by my therapist**. The chlorella started working within days. All in all I now experience less headaches, slightly less dry eyes, I sleep like a baby and feel slightly less drained. My toe nails are also less brittle, but that already followed from the initial acupuncture treatments. Best part: it’s end of December and my feet DON’T kill me for a change, despite the cold. All baby steps, but greatly welcomed.
It’s a long road. The dry eyes have been bothering me for about 15 years and this bad, where medication is required, for about 2 years now. That should give a clue how long this has been undermining my health and how much we do on will power and not much else. Sounds familiar, ladies?

* http://blog.lipese.com/2013/09/traditional-chinese-medicine-and.html
** This blog describes a part of my personal journey towards improved health. I don’t endorse acupuncture or unsupervised administering of herbs and/or supplements. Liver deficiency was a diagnosis based on my individual symptoms. Deficiency and fatigue are generally linked to lipedema, but causes are individual.