Acudiversity ...

English: Hua Shou. Expression of the fourteen meridians. (Tokyo, 1716). http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/historicalanatomies/Images/1200_pixels/hua_t08.jpg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have been trying to help foreigners wishing to observe Japanese acupuncture in Japan for at least 15 years. Unfortunately, I must say, Japanese practitioners are not very forthcoming when I ask/ed for their help.
Most (close to 100%) of the people who contacted me in the past already hold some licence(s), whether those are related to acupuncture, herbal medicine or western medicine. Most also had already studied, at least to a certain degree, the kind of Chinese medicine often designated als "TCM" (Traditional Chinese Medicine). It is well known, however, that there is only a limited amount of "traditional medicine" in TCM, since it has been cooked up in the 1960s by Mao as a propaganda tool. So, the people who contacted me, did so, because they were dissatisfied and wanted to learn "something else". This latter one is usually named "Japanese acupuncture".

However, there is a problem with "Japanese acupuncture".
In China EVERYTHING is controlled by the state and only state sanctioned things / concepts are permissible, so that people go there and "learn" (teaching TCM is a commercial product, marketed in a quite capitalistic manner) in a month or so. That's easy, because there is only one state sanctioned TCM, which is not to be questioned or doubted and presented in palatable form for "those foreigners".

Here in Japan things are different. Nobody in a position of power cares enough to even try to regulate oriental medicine. Since the introduction of Chinese medicine to Japan about 1,500 years ago, the Japanese have adapted it to their own particular needs and added quite a number of ingenious inventions (probably most well known: the use of needle tubes) of their own. Over this period of 1,500 years "Chinese medicine" evolved into "Japanese medicine". Anybody claiming that it must today be still the same it has been 1,500 years ago is a little out of touch with reality. The reality of evolution.
As opposed to China, there has been no "cultural revolution", permitting only one "true TCM" and eliminating everything that might pose a threat (?) to the welfare of the state, all the different schools and techniques that have developed in Japan are alive and well. Mildly exaggerated: there are probably as many styles out there as there are practitioners.

To the best of my knowledge, even in the face of all those rather unpleasant efforts at "standardization", there simply is no "THE Japanese acupuncture". No practitioner I know could give a definition of what Japanese acupuncture is.
But precisely THAT is, what makes is interesting: the wondrous variety, where nobody can claim to be right and tell others they are wrong.
With reference to the term "biodiversity", I would like to name this situation:
        acudiversity

The other day, somebody from Germany contacted me, wishing to study "Japanese acpuncture". The person claimed to have already studied "TCM" (4 weeks) in China.
When I told that person, that in the absence of any organized (commercialized) courses in languages other than Japanese the only way getting a taste of Japanese acpuncture would be spending some time here and visit as many practitioners as possible, the person apparently got angry at me ("so there is no way of learning Japanese acpuncture?") and terminated the correspondence. That's fine by me.

However, I would like emphasize (again and again!): the variety of Japanese acupuncture styles is exactly what makes it so attractive.
Attractive in itself AND for the needs of the people of the world at large.
Personally I am convinced, that the "Japanese acupuncture" is much better suited for the world population than "Chinese acupuncture".
I would not volunteer to get a Chinese acupuncture treatment, BUT use moxibustion or acpuncture on myself before I consider anything else.

For people interested: I summarized some of these views in a little ebook: "Acupuncture .. the easy way - or the hard way".
It ***IS*** commercially available through Amazon and Smashwords.com, but since nobody has been buying it, I now offer it as free download from my website:

http://www.einklang.com/Books.htm

ISIS -- "Islamic State"

Dies gehört hier eventuell nicht hin, aber ich habe das Bedürfnis, mich nun doch einmal zum Thema zu äussern.


Well, I DO NOT understand politics with all its paranoid conspiracies and secrecy.
I AM NOT a follower of ANY religion. So I am not entering a discussion pertaining to religion.

BUT ... as long as I have the right to "speak my mind" (theoretically) ... I hereby execute this right and voice my opinion. That's what it is: my opinion. Not more and not less.
Hoping that the time elapsed since their latest atrocities will distance my voice from the sensation hungry media reports etc.

ISIS? - Disgusting!
The news about this particular group of terrorists and other, somehow similar groups that all have in common, that they pretend to "fight in the name of the religion Islam" and therefore doing the work of their good Lord Allah.
Probably I am too stupid to understand these matters, but if their god is as claimed "almighty", I fail to see why an almighty entity with the power to create the universe needs armed killing squads. If this god, call it Allah, God or whatever you want, should wish to punish or even kill one or many people ... there should definitely be no need for any guns!
And these people are often called by the media as "fighters" or "warriors" ...
As with everything else I am probably MUCH too naive to understand this correctly, but to my mind it would seem "appropriate", that anybody who calls him/herself a warrior, should have enough pride to abide by some form of "code of conduct". These "people", seem to consider themselves hired by an almighty but very blood thirsty entity to kill and destroy everybody and everything in their path. No rules, no signs of any form of civilization. Their mental sanity has to be seriously questioned.
Even when they themselves appear on one of their lovely home video shows, hiding in some dark cave, they have to cling to their guns like unloved infants to their pacifiers. A sign of pathological insecurity .. to put it mildly.
Not to mention, they are too afraid to show their faces or "pick on someone their own size", who might fight back.
At other times, they have 10-year old children scream into the video camera, that they (the children!) will burn and kill everything and everybody. They don't use girls for that. Girls and women are used as suicide bombers. And naturally, education of little girls is a mortal sin, so the named blood thirsty god sends heavily armed execution squads to shoot unarmed little girls who do not fight back. Wow, what a glorious, heroic feat. Their beloved almighty MUST be pleased!
It seems almost "natural", that they should be so afraid of education, because education is a thing, that exposes them as barbaric hell hounds. Education/information is also powerful enough to eradicate them without a single bullet!
That is probably also the reason, why they are frantically "burning books", quite literally. Everything after the 13th century, even poetry and literature, is considered evil and ONLY books of a VERY restricted range of topics and by very few authors seem to be considered acceptable.

How about the "foreign fighters" who join the ranks of the beasts? What exactly are they fighting for? Religion??? I cannot see ANYTHING religious about murder. And I take the liberty of assuming, that the VAST MAJORITY of all believers in Islam DO NOT sanction indiscriminate killing.
Freedom??? I don't know, as I said above, about all the political games, but APPARENTLY these people, the so-called warriors, are oppressing AND killing even their own kind = Arabic people.
Business??? Sure. They kidnap and kill people for millions of dollars ransom. Most likely considered to be a "divine business".

So, I ask YOU --- the ISIL warriors joining ranks from any "developed" country: Would YOU like to raise your daughter in total ignorance, so she can be used as human cattle? Probably sold to some well-off "husband" like a goat. Would you like to destroy every form of culture/civilization (which you actually ARE doing already) and live in a world, where there is only ONE VERY RESTRICTED way of thinking / behaving. And go about killing whenever you feel like it, because your "god" has told you so and backs you???
Now THAT must be real utopia ... a goal to strive for!

Some years back there was a "religions cult" here in Japan, that also started killing people, first individuals then families and finally large groups indiscriminately with Sarin, a poisonous gas (chemical weapon), classified as a weapon of mass destruction. Even highly intelligent and educated people followed their "religious leader", who claimed to be capable of "astral projections" (flying through space and other dimensions) and told his "followers", that killing is for a higher purpose. That person himself AND his followers also considered him some sort of "prophet".
I and MANY other people could/can not understand, why those highly educated people were following that guy. Similarly I am incapable of understanding, why anybody might want to join the ISIL henchmen.

Or let's ask you this.
What exactly has your wonderful "Islamic state" every produced or created ... I mean except death and destruction? The clothes you wear are probably "Made in China". Your guns are likely "Made in Russia" or even "Made in USA". How about your cell phones? Maybe Korea? Not to mention the internet you use to make your threats. Or the energy = electricity you use … I doubt very much, it is "Made in Islamic State". The cars you drive madly through dusty streets, flashing your beloved guns ... are "Made in Japan". Probably the FOOD you eat too, comes from somewhere else. And if you kill everybody else, who would then buy "your" oil to keep you alive???
Where does that leave YOU???
You live and thrive on the products of the labor of other people, producing nothing yourself in return and in this process might even kill the host. THAT is the definition of parasite. Maybe, if you have not yet burned all available dictionaries, you could even look it up in one of those evil books. That is what the ISIL "warriors" are: parasites. Question. What would the ISIL guys do, if they themselves were infected by parasites? I think the answer is rather obvious.

The one and only contribution to the world, civilization, mankind ... etc. YOU make, is your "divine death and destruction". For everybody else on this planet, this makes YOU a very evil pest. As such, for the common good of the world, you should be sent back to foul underworld hence you came.

Now that I have spoken MY mind (a little portion of it), it is probably time and "appropriate" to send one of your holy execution squads over here and to kill and old and unarmed man. Wouldn't that be another glorious achievement in the name of your wonderful religion?

"Acupuncture: The easy way - or the hard way"

Ich habe kürzlich einige meiner ganz privaten Vorstellungen im Zusammenhang mit "japanischer Akupunktur" zusammengeschrieben (diesmal auf Englisch). Ganz persönlich bin ich der Ansicht, dass die Art, wie viele japanische Kollegen behandeln - eben "japanische Akupunktur" - für viele "Ausländer" (die meisten nicht-Chinesen) besser geeignet ist, als die "authentische" chinesische Akupunktur.

Da ich weder Akademiker, noch gelehrter noch sonstwie Intellektueller bin, kann es sehr wohl sein, dass meine Ansichten völlig falsch sind. Aber solange wir noch (theoretisch) Redefreiheit haben, dachte ich aber, dass ich vielleicht ja auch das Recht habe, falsche Meinungen kund zu tun.

Abgesehen von den Textabschnitten, die ich von anderen Leuten geborgt habe, handelt es sich um Ansichten, die nicht auf wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten, sondern nur 30 Jahren klinischer Erfahrung beruhen.
Ich könnte mir vorstellen, dass der eine oder andere Hinw

Mein Büchlein ist seit gestern als Ebook bei Amazon erhältlich:
Acupuncture: The easy way - or the hard way

Falls Interesse besteht ...

Leuten, die keinen solchen ebook reader haben, wie mich zum Beispiel, biete ich eine PDF Datei direkt an.

eis Leuten, die eventuell orientalische Behandlungsmethoden in Erwägung ziehen, ein wenig behilflich sein kann.