The late 60s and early 70s were a time of openness and experimentation. It was the beginning of the civil rights movement, more equality for women, and the recognition that sexuality included more than love between men and women.
Cultural norms were questioned and that included dietary practices, the healing arts and the relationship between humans and the planet. It was in this rich milieu of change that acupuncture started to take root in the imagination and then practice of those who were willing to follow a path with heart.
We are going to hear more about those early days with Randall Barolet. Some of you might recognize his name on the first Formula and Strategies book from Eastland Press. Randall did not set out to be a translator, that was something that organically showed up as he followed his interest with Chinese medicine.
In the words of Grateful Dead lyricist, Robert Hunter, what a long strange trip it’s been.
In This Conversation We Discuss:
- Field trips with maternal grandmother
- An interest in science, math, music and poetry, it was the poetry that lead towards Chinese medicine
- An encounter with qi in a shiatsu workshop
- The cross continent trip to see if this “Acupuncture School” was a real thing
- The practicality of Dr. So and what could be done with a few needles and some knowledge
- Being able to read into the Chinese library is priceless
- More than acupuncture, wanted to know the diagnostic system
- A stop in Taiwan to study Chinese on the way to the Mainland
- An adventurous entry into Mainland China
- Losing the bag that had everything and the opportunity it opened
- Innocently enjoying a cappuccino on a sunny San Francisco day when Dan Bensky comes walking by
- Translating from Chinese to English– not so simple
- The wild ride to work out a bond so NESA would not be closed down by the Dept of Vocational Education
- The transformative energy course that was like waking to up qi and spirit on another level
- The Art of Finding What’s Needed
Listen carefully. Follow the life story with kind, nonjudgmental attention.
Randal Barolet. L.Ac
I’m a graduate of Cornell University in Environmental Engineering, 1972. The New England School of Acupuncture,1978, And Nanjing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Advanced International Acupuncture Certificate Course in Nanjing, China, 1983. I also studied Chinese language for some years, at the University of Oregon and in Taiwan and China, where I worked as an acupuncturist in a hospital in Nanjing. I’ve been a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist since 1978.
My experience includes studying methods of combining homeopathy, flower essences, and dowsing — ways of healing and medical practice with vibrational remedies, to find optimum understanding and the most beneficial non-harming therapies, by ‘resonance’ methods, using pendulum dowsing.
More recently, I continue my research and healing practice, including professional vedic astrological counseling (jyotishi), which I offer as a form of life navigation. I’m also happy to be the co-author and translator, with three other co-authors, of the Eastland Press contemporary classic textbook, Chinese Herbal Medicine: Formulas & Strategies 1st and 2nd editions..
Throughout these developments I continued in private practice of medicine, healing and vedic astrology. As of 2012 I continue to travel and consult internationally as a vedic astrologer, with no fixed abode. ☮
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