386 Nei Jing Acupuncture, Encountering the Empty Spaces • David White
Ever think about how much of what we do as healers is more about what we don’t do? Sometimes, it’s in the subtle pauses, the empty spaces, where the real magic happens. What if the art of doing less is actually the key to unlocking profound change in the body?
In this conversation with David White we immerse ourselves into the world of Nei Jing acupuncture. With decades of experience and a passion for classical Chinese texts, David has honed a unique approach to acupuncture, one that’s rooted in precision, intention, and an unshakeable respect for the unseen forces at play in the body.
Listen into this discussion as we explore acupuncture as a tool of communication, the hidden power of empty spaces, the art of needling with precise intention, and why sometimes the most effective treatments are the simplest. Along with how the Nei Jing can guide us, both practically and philosophically.
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366 Pursuing Opportunity and Balancing With the Seasons • Ilan Migdali
Understanding and acknowledging how things are is a terrific starting point. It’s what led Ilan Migdali to not just understand how health insurance worked in California, but opened up a path for him to create an insurance network that specifically aimed at helping acupuncturists to thrive.
Beyond the creative and practical work Ilan has done with insurance, he’s also a student of the Balance Method and in particular looking at the yi jing and how the transformations of the gua can be stimulated within the body using particular acupuncture points.
I always hope that when I speak with people Ilan a bit of their broad perspective might wear off me. Maybe it will broaden your perspective as well…. We’ll find out right after a word from the people you can thank for making Qiological possible
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365 Far Out Man, I Need to Know More About That • John McDonald
There are folks like John McDonald who when he first caught wind of acupuncture thought… “Far out man, I want to know more about that.”
That enthusiasm has followed him through his time as a practitioner and even through doing a Ph.D.
In this conversation we’ll discuss trickster shamans, the ethics of using the controlling cycle of the Five Phases to influence your patients emotions, why people with stanch beliefs are most easily brainwashed, and the curiosity of how the body “makes decisions.”
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364 Tinkering, Electronics and Measuring Meridians • Adrian Larsen
Tinkering and creating, I suspect that anyone who's been lucky enough to have grown up in an environment that encouraged exploration, risk taking and curiosity— they've got a perspective that has them asking “why not” instead of “why.” Figuring out...
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363 Acupuncture’s Journey to the West • Zoe Coldham
I had the delightful surprise of Zoe Coldham reaching out to me to tell me about the documentary she’d created that goes into the early days of acupuncture finding its way into the mainstream of British culture.
As you probably know, Qiological has been doing a little mini-series on acupuncture’s journey to the west as well. So I was keen to have her on to hear her perspective and what she’s discovered.
Listen in for this documentarian’s perspective on acupuncture’s Journey to the West.
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362 History Series: The Art of Finding What’s Needed • Randall Barolet
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.
In the words of Grateful Dead lyricist, Robert Hunter, what a long strange trip it’s been.
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361 Evil Bone Water • Mark Brinson
It’s fun to solve problems. Especially when you’re not quite sure what to do, so you have to pay attention and learn what’s important. You must develop the capacity to learn from both your failures and success.
Mark Brinson wanted a liniment for patients and was not happy with what was on the market. So he thought he’d just mix up his own. That turned into a process of learning a lot about everything from the quality of the herbs, to the nature of the water, to distilling his own alcohol.
Listen into this conversation on herbal alchemy, marketing with a sense of humor and how to have fun as a mad scientist.
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360 Battlefield Acupuncture • John Howard
The Chinese are right, the brain is a curious organ. The way the nerves entangle their way into every aspect of our body, and how their gentle electric hum gives us awareness of this container we call ourself.
Pain is how our nervous system lets us know there is a problem. Acupuncture has rightfully been seen and used as a way to intervene, and strangely enough the ear is a way to powerful work with the brain and nervous system.
In this conversation with John Howard we take a look at Battlefield Acupuncture, it origin, its unique place in the military and how it works with the curious organ of the brain.
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359 Wu Yun Liu Qi and The Shape of Reality • Rory Hiltbrand
What is our universe made of? How does it work, and more importantly– what are we doing here and how do we make sense of it? Eternal questions, unanswerable, but maybe the questions are not for answering, perhaps they are for focusing attention.
In this conversation with Rory Hiltbrand we take a look at our peculiar situation as Beings in between the circle of heaven and square of earth. We dip into mathematics, Donghan Daoist numerology, metaphysics and others head scratching ideas about medicine that practitioners have puzzled over for centuries.
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358 History Series: Remember, Acupuncture is Fantastic • Julian Scott
While many are keen on looking to “science up” acupuncture and squeeze it into the thinking and theories of conventional medicine, others are quite content with the weirdness of it. And enjoy playing around in the territory that’s off the radar of Western science.
Julian Scott is one of those pioneering acupuncturists whose background in theoretical physics primed him for the strangeness of the world of acupuncture.
Listen into this discussion on root causes, developmental stages, the influence of vaccines, along with the role of mind-to-mind connection and emanation in healing.
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357 Eastern and Western Perspectives on Acupuncture • John Rybak
As anyone who has started an acupuncture practice and tried explaining it to potential patients knows, it’s not easy taking the terminology and thinking of East Asian medicine into English speaking Western culture.
The guest of this conversation, John Rybak, has thought long and hard about this. He is keen on helping our profession bridge how we think and work with the constraints and opportunities of the conventional medicine world.
Listen into this conversation on the importance of effective communication, concerns with our scope of practice losses, need for advocacy, and how expanding our vocabulary can help us to engage the broader medical community.
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356 Considering Yi- Meaning, Significance and Conception • S. Boyanton, L. de Vries, V. Scheid
In this episode we discuss 意 Yi, commonly translated as Meaning or Significance, and also as Intention.
Intention gets talked about a lot in our trade, but for me over the course of time, I feel less and less clear just what Intention is, and how it relates to my clinical work. I’ve got some questions about it, and was delighted to sit down with Stephen Boyington, Leslie de Vries and Volker Scheid to see if they could thrown some light on what for me has increasingly become a murky term.
Listen into this both scholarly and practical discussion on 意, Yi as it relations to medicine and how the doctors, poets and calligraphers over the centuries have puzzled over this as well.
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355 The Circuitry of Saam Acupuncture • Joshua Park
Saam acupuncture with its unique channel pairings, perspective on psycho-emotional dynamics, and capacity to interweave the Five Phase with the Six Qi is a powerful tool for understanding the interplay of yin and yang along with body and mind.
In this conversation Joshua Park joins us to explore how Saam acupuncture gives us a holistic view that allows practitioners to approach diagnosis and treatment from multiple perspectives.
Listen into this discussion of how using multiple lenses gives a more dimensional understanding to your patient's condition.
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354 History Series: In the Footsteps of a Compleat Acupuncturist • Peter Eckman
In the late 60’s and early 70’s of the last century East Asian medicine began to emerge into mainstream culture. The Reston NY Times article is often cited as a catalytic moment that put the idea of Chinese acupuncture into the minds of Americans. But other streams of medicine from Japan and Korea were also finding their way into the imagination of those who would be a conduit that would help these methods to flourish in the mainstream of Western culture.
Peter Eckman has been a unique bridging influence. His acupuncture came from the currents of Korea, as well as Japan and Taiwan via the Worsley tradition of England.
Listen into this conversation on inquisitiveness, constitution, and how saying “yes” in pivotal moments opens up a world of possibility.
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353 Points for Peace • Keren Assouline & Guy Sedan
The Middle East has a long history of war and unrest. Whatever phase of history you’d like to zoom the timeframe, you’ll likely see conflict. In Episode 72 of Everyday Acupuncture Podcast I spoke with an Israeli practitioner on what it is like to live in a place where you’re frequently hearing air raid sirens and headed to a bomb shelter. In this conversation we hear reflections of two practitioners who share their experience in the aftermath of the attacks of October 7th.
In this conversation with Keren Assouline and Guy Sedan, we hear from experienced practitioners who share with us what it's like living and working amidst the ongoing conflict in Israel. They have seen first hand how the trauma of war infiltrates the body, disorders the qi and leaves an effect on the mind, spirit and society.
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352 Quiet Presence, The Gentle Power of Teishin • Gary Klepper, Thomas Sørensen & Ehrland Truitt
Here’s a question that I find difficult to answer. How does acupuncture work?
Beyond the East Asian medicine phrasing that makes zero sense to your average citizen. Just what is going on in the body in response to a sliver thin needle being placed in the flesh? And once you have an answer for that, explain how a “needle” that does not pierce the skin can accomplish the same thing?
It’s an annoying question isn’t it? Which makes it a very good question, and the motivation for inviting Gary Klepper, Thomas Sørensen, and Erhart Truitt to this conversation on teishin needles.
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351 The Trouble With Men • Damo Mitchell
Women develop through the cycles of seven. Men through the rhythms of eight. Women, more resonate with Blood. Men, with qi. Being human, there is a lot we share in common. Looking at our classic books on medicine, from the point of view of physiology and health, there are differences. And from the perspective of development, going from child to adult, and from adult to elder, we walk paths that orbit around one another.
Damo MItchell recently commented on social media about his concern that men, younger men in particular, are not thriving. They are depleted in Jing and Kidney qi. Which is a curious and unusual condition given their relative youth. I too have had concerns about younger men and so invited Damo to this conversation.
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350 Sa Sang, Bazi, and Food as Medicine • Jaguang Sunim
East Asian medicine recognizes the central role that food can play in our health and wellbeing. We have various models for understanding the fluctuations and trajectories a human body can travel as we navigate the time we have between Heaven and Earth.
In this conversation with Jaguang Sunim we explore the Korean Sa Sang constitutional perspective as it relates to our physiology, along with the strengths and deficiencies that we can mitigate with the foods we choose to eat on a regular basis. Additionally we’ll explore how the influences bestowed on us as viewed through the Ba Zi chart can help us to better understand how our unique mix of the Five Phases gives us insight into our constitution.
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349 History Series, There's No End to The Study • Stuart Watts
The 1960’s and 70’s saw an explosion of alternative health and lifestyle practices appear at the edges of culture. It was a time ripe with possibility and fraught with peril, after all there was a war going on. The kind where men were drafted.
As with any troubled time, there is also opportunity. Because as things fall apart, they also fall together. The guest of this episode, Stuart Watts, he had a bent for spiritual practice, a curiosity about health beyond the mainstream, and an adventurous and entrepreneurial spirit. The kind of spirit that did not just see opportunities, but created them.
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348 The Strange Flows • Daniel Atchison-Nevel
Change happens through time, it unfolds within the rhythmic inhale and exhale, it expresses through lunar and solar cycles, it follows the arc of development, fruition, and decline. There are recognizable pathways and markers that arise within what is mostly a non-linear experience of life.
Daniel Atchison-Nevel used to skip school and hang out at the library where he found himself in the company of old Russian Jewish mystics, their stories and tattered copies of the Dao De Jing. Not a bad place to begin, if your destiny holds the potential to include the practice of Chinese medicine.
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347 The First Four Palaces of Alchemy • Leta Herman
Alchemy sounds like magic. It sounds like magic because it involves the transmuting of something coarse and without value to something refined and of worth. But really, there is nothing magical about it. It’s the process of finding a corner of the world you want to work on, and applying some elbow grease to make it better.
In this conversation with Leta Herman we explore the first four of the nine palaces of Alchemy. Which is to say, the nuts and bolts of working with the everyday world, because before you can work on the higher levels. You need to build your foundation and capacity by first gaining mastery with everyday life.
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