Hand Acupuncture Practice

Another shot of Mark this time with Pericardium 8 needled. Incidentally his black eye still hasn't healed up yet. Thanks for the pic Close up of Pericardium 8 point-OUCH! Thanks Genevieve for the pic

Our class on acupuncture continues. We had a couple of painful points today-well a few actually. The highlights being Heart 1 which is in the centre of the armpit-actually a 2 out of 10 for pain, but it did feel very unusual. Sorry wasn't quick enough to get a shot of that one. Then we had the one pictured-Pericardium 8. The point is pretty much the centre of the palm of the hand. That has been the most painful point for me so far. Much like a bee sting, and we practiced on both hands. What does it do you may ask? It "cools the heart". In TCM Heart heat/fire is associated with insanity to irritability and variations in between. Therefore cooling Heart fire with this point is said to help with these Heart fire signs and symptoms. How does that work? Well PC8 is the fire point of the PC channel and sedation of this point will cool the Qi in the Pericardium and therefore Heart, as they are so closely related. Welcome to the logic of TCM. Basically TCM logic is another story but suffice to say observations came first and grouping of information came second. Therefore a rather strange logic develops to justify results for academic reasons. Somehow it makes sense. Basically if you get a result it works..! How did I feel afterwards? Well pretty much the same. The other aspect of TCM is the intent of the person needling. Which is a meditative idea of focused attention on one point. As this was a practice session the intent is not as powerful because we didn't draw the reasons to mind. Interesting stuff innit.