Holistic Concepts of Health and Disease
Philip A.M. Rogers MRCVS1
1982, 1984, updated 1990, 1993, 1995
Postgraduate Course in Veterinary AP, Dublin, 1996
1982, 1984, updated 1990, 1993, 1995
Postgraduate Course in Veterinary AP, Dublin, 1996
SUMMARY
In Western holistic concepts, disease seldom arises from a single cause. Three or more factors in combination may be needed for the dis-ease to become manifest. These factors upset the balance between the external and internal environments and overload the capacity of the adaptive mechanisms.
In Chinese concepts, dis-ease occurs when the balance of the vital energy (Qi) in the acupuncture (AP) Channels2 is disturbed. This arises as a result of external or internal insults overcoming the body's defences. Chinese and unorthodox concepts recognise many more forces which can cause dis-ease (and many more ways of controlling dis-ease) than are recognised by orthodox science.
There is considerable agreement between progressive, holistic Western concepts and ancient Chinese concepts of dis-ease. In both philosophies, any dietary, medical, physical, psychological or other treatment which restores the balance of Qi or the balance between the external and internal environments will automatically restore health. The exception is in cases where irreparable damage has occurred, for instance, death of nerve cells, inoperable malignant cancer, extensive fibrosis of the liver or kidneys etc, or where physical damage renders self-healing impossible (for instance in tuberculous spinal injury, severe dislocation of joints etc).
Theorem: the BODY HEALS ITSELF by its own defence/adaptation mechanisms. Medicines, surgery, acupuncture etc do not cure disease!
Implications:
INTRODUCTION
A dictionary-definition of holism is: "A philosophical theory according to which a fundamental feature of nature is the existence of wholes which are more than the composite assembly of the parts and which always tend to become more highly developed and complex". A transcendant element is inferred, i.e. something greater than the sum of the parts.
A poet's definition of mysticism is: "Man's dialogue with God, Man-in-the-world-and-why" (Brendan Kennelly 1983).
By definition, a holistic concepts involve all possible component parts, how they interact (fit together), how they fit into the larger plan of Nature and (in the end) an artistic-intuitive search for aspects of the transcendant immaterial blueprint which religious people call God or atheistic physicists see as the infinite interchange of matter and energy. Holism and holistic concepts of health, disease and medicine contain elements of scientific medicine, art, poetry and mysticism.
Mechanistic materialistic medicine has blind spots. It tends to label "Man-who-dialogues-with-God" as duped, irrational or mad. It tends to look on "Man-in-the-World" through half-blind eyes. It does not recognise transcendant "Whys".
Ancient Chinese medical philosophy states that "Man stands between Heaven and Earth." In modern concepts, this can be translated as: "The organism is the product of (embodies the characteristics of) Heaven (spirit, mind, non-material forces) and Earth (food, physical environment, material forces)." This can also be translated as: "The organism is influenced by spiritual, psychic arid non-earthly forces (cosmic, solar, lunar forces) as well as forces in its immediate environment (nutrition, climate, electro- magnetic and geophysical forces)".
Other factors which influence the organism include hereditary influences and the internal environment (emotions, neuroendocrine system).
Health in man and animal may be defined as harmony within the internal environment and with the external environment. The organism has adapted successfully to stimuli from its internal and external environment and can carry on its natural functions in a variable (changing) world. Thus, health is not an absolute state. It is a relative state which depends on the environment. For instance, it might not be healthy (normal) for men to have a heart rate of 84 and a PCV of 57 in Holland, but for men living high up in the Andes or in Mexico City these could be normal, healthy values.
Dis-ease arises when there is disharmony or imbalance/maladaptation between the internal and external environment, or within the internal environment. Dis-ease seldom arises from a single cause. A combination of three or more factors may be needed for the dis-ease to become manifest. The combination overloads the body's adaptive (homeostatic) mechanisms. It follows that dis-ease may be treated by removing the causes singly or in combination and/or by enhancing the adaptive/homeostatic mechanisms.
Holistic medicine, including acupuncture (AP) and homoeopathy, must be seen against this holistic (unified) theory of health and dis-ease. AP is only one modality among many which can be used to help the adaptive mechanisms. Other forms of therapy which work in the same direction will usually complement the effects of AP. Whatever can be done to remove the causes or to neutralise them will increase the probability of cure.
The concepts which will be discussed now are based mainly on concepts of human health and dis-ease but many of them apply also to animals.
YIN-YANG, DUALITY, RELATIVITY
Thousands of years before the Bible spoke of Good and Evil, the Chinese developed the concepts of duality and relativity. To them, nothing was absolute, but was a mixture of opposing forces, Yin (the passive or negative force) and Yang (the active or positive force).
"Yin and Yang are the source of creation and the cause of destruction of all things": Chinese concepts of Yin and Yang were essential, fundamental parts of this world view. The Yin-Yang principle referred to opposites. Everything in creation has its opposite. Yin-Yang referred to female-male, below-above, earth-heaven, passive-active, front-back, dark-bright, etc.
The totally balanced system has equal amounts or Yin and Yang. Neither could exist in isolation, (i.e.) there is always some Yin in Yang and some Yang in Yin. Each was necessary for the other (interdependence) yet each opposed the other (inter-opposition). Balance or equilibrium was maintained by the mutual antagonism, yet mutual dependence of opposing forces. For example, for life to exist (as we know it on our planet) we need a balance of sunlight and darkness. If there was perpetual sunlight or perpetual darkness, life on the planet would cease. Similarly, in the family there must be Yin and Yang. If both husband and wife are Yang (active, bossy) there are family arguments, and if both are Yin (passive, inactive the marriage will be dull, apathetic and uncreative. Either way, the lack of balance (antagonism between Yin and Yang) leads to poor family life.
On the other hand, the male (Yang) may have some Yin characteristics (gentleness, laziness) and the female (Yin) may have some Yang characteristics (strong-mindedness, creativity). If the Yin-Yang balance is maintained, the marriage (unity) can be very stable.
This concept of Yin-Yang was applied to everything in Chinese life - art, politics, philosophy, medicine, architecture, etc. In medicine, Yin-Yang referred to hypo-hyper states, solid organs-hollow organs, female genitalia-male genitalia etc. Chronic dis-eases were Yin, acute dis-eases were Yang, etc. Table 1 shows some other examples of Yin-Yang.
In Western holistic concepts, disease seldom arises from a single cause. Three or more factors in combination may be needed for the dis-ease to become manifest. These factors upset the balance between the external and internal environments and overload the capacity of the adaptive mechanisms.
In Chinese concepts, dis-ease occurs when the balance of the vital energy (Qi) in the acupuncture (AP) Channels2 is disturbed. This arises as a result of external or internal insults overcoming the body's defences. Chinese and unorthodox concepts recognise many more forces which can cause dis-ease (and many more ways of controlling dis-ease) than are recognised by orthodox science.
There is considerable agreement between progressive, holistic Western concepts and ancient Chinese concepts of dis-ease. In both philosophies, any dietary, medical, physical, psychological or other treatment which restores the balance of Qi or the balance between the external and internal environments will automatically restore health. The exception is in cases where irreparable damage has occurred, for instance, death of nerve cells, inoperable malignant cancer, extensive fibrosis of the liver or kidneys etc, or where physical damage renders self-healing impossible (for instance in tuberculous spinal injury, severe dislocation of joints etc).
Theorem: the BODY HEALS ITSELF by its own defence/adaptation mechanisms. Medicines, surgery, acupuncture etc do not cure disease!
Implications:
- a. Orthodox and unorthodox medicine may help the organism to heal itself and to adapt to its new reality. (This is the best therapy).
b. Orthodox and unorthodox medicine may suppress the symptoms/remove dis-eased organs or functions. (This is inferior therapy).
c. Orthodox and unorthodox medicine may fail to help the patient, due to incorrect understanding of the case or because the defence mechanisms can not be activated sufficiently. (This is useless "therapy").
INTRODUCTION
A dictionary-definition of holism is: "A philosophical theory according to which a fundamental feature of nature is the existence of wholes which are more than the composite assembly of the parts and which always tend to become more highly developed and complex". A transcendant element is inferred, i.e. something greater than the sum of the parts.
A poet's definition of mysticism is: "Man's dialogue with God, Man-in-the-world-and-why" (Brendan Kennelly 1983).
By definition, a holistic concepts involve all possible component parts, how they interact (fit together), how they fit into the larger plan of Nature and (in the end) an artistic-intuitive search for aspects of the transcendant immaterial blueprint which religious people call God or atheistic physicists see as the infinite interchange of matter and energy. Holism and holistic concepts of health, disease and medicine contain elements of scientific medicine, art, poetry and mysticism.
Mechanistic materialistic medicine has blind spots. It tends to label "Man-who-dialogues-with-God" as duped, irrational or mad. It tends to look on "Man-in-the-World" through half-blind eyes. It does not recognise transcendant "Whys".
Ancient Chinese medical philosophy states that "Man stands between Heaven and Earth." In modern concepts, this can be translated as: "The organism is the product of (embodies the characteristics of) Heaven (spirit, mind, non-material forces) and Earth (food, physical environment, material forces)." This can also be translated as: "The organism is influenced by spiritual, psychic arid non-earthly forces (cosmic, solar, lunar forces) as well as forces in its immediate environment (nutrition, climate, electro- magnetic and geophysical forces)".
Other factors which influence the organism include hereditary influences and the internal environment (emotions, neuroendocrine system).
Health in man and animal may be defined as harmony within the internal environment and with the external environment. The organism has adapted successfully to stimuli from its internal and external environment and can carry on its natural functions in a variable (changing) world. Thus, health is not an absolute state. It is a relative state which depends on the environment. For instance, it might not be healthy (normal) for men to have a heart rate of 84 and a PCV of 57 in Holland, but for men living high up in the Andes or in Mexico City these could be normal, healthy values.
Dis-ease arises when there is disharmony or imbalance/maladaptation between the internal and external environment, or within the internal environment. Dis-ease seldom arises from a single cause. A combination of three or more factors may be needed for the dis-ease to become manifest. The combination overloads the body's adaptive (homeostatic) mechanisms. It follows that dis-ease may be treated by removing the causes singly or in combination and/or by enhancing the adaptive/homeostatic mechanisms.
Holistic medicine, including acupuncture (AP) and homoeopathy, must be seen against this holistic (unified) theory of health and dis-ease. AP is only one modality among many which can be used to help the adaptive mechanisms. Other forms of therapy which work in the same direction will usually complement the effects of AP. Whatever can be done to remove the causes or to neutralise them will increase the probability of cure.
The concepts which will be discussed now are based mainly on concepts of human health and dis-ease but many of them apply also to animals.
YIN-YANG, DUALITY, RELATIVITY
Thousands of years before the Bible spoke of Good and Evil, the Chinese developed the concepts of duality and relativity. To them, nothing was absolute, but was a mixture of opposing forces, Yin (the passive or negative force) and Yang (the active or positive force).
"Yin and Yang are the source of creation and the cause of destruction of all things": Chinese concepts of Yin and Yang were essential, fundamental parts of this world view. The Yin-Yang principle referred to opposites. Everything in creation has its opposite. Yin-Yang referred to female-male, below-above, earth-heaven, passive-active, front-back, dark-bright, etc.
The totally balanced system has equal amounts or Yin and Yang. Neither could exist in isolation, (i.e.) there is always some Yin in Yang and some Yang in Yin. Each was necessary for the other (interdependence) yet each opposed the other (inter-opposition). Balance or equilibrium was maintained by the mutual antagonism, yet mutual dependence of opposing forces. For example, for life to exist (as we know it on our planet) we need a balance of sunlight and darkness. If there was perpetual sunlight or perpetual darkness, life on the planet would cease. Similarly, in the family there must be Yin and Yang. If both husband and wife are Yang (active, bossy) there are family arguments, and if both are Yin (passive, inactive the marriage will be dull, apathetic and uncreative. Either way, the lack of balance (antagonism between Yin and Yang) leads to poor family life.
On the other hand, the male (Yang) may have some Yin characteristics (gentleness, laziness) and the female (Yin) may have some Yang characteristics (strong-mindedness, creativity). If the Yin-Yang balance is maintained, the marriage (unity) can be very stable.
This concept of Yin-Yang was applied to everything in Chinese life - art, politics, philosophy, medicine, architecture, etc. In medicine, Yin-Yang referred to hypo-hyper states, solid organs-hollow organs, female genitalia-male genitalia etc. Chronic dis-eases were Yin, acute dis-eases were Yang, etc. Table 1 shows some other examples of Yin-Yang.
Table 1. Examples of Yin and Yang (states of relative opposition)
Yin Water Ice Cold Female Passive Dark Material Solid
Yang Fire Steam Hot Male Active Bright Immaterial Gas
Yin Slow Centripetal Precipitation Winter Night Downwards Inner
Yang Fast Centrifugal Evaporation Summer Day Upwards Outer
Yin Solid organs LU SP HT KI PC LV CV Below waist Dorsal Medial lower
Yang Hollow organs LI ST SI BL TH GB GV Above waist Ventral Lateral upper
Yin Inhibition Relaxation Hypo- (deficient) Chronic Cold Moon
Yang Excitation Contraction Hyper- (excess) Acute Hot Sun
Yin Parasympathetic Diastole Flaccid
Yang Sympathetic Systole Erect
CHANGE, RHYTHMS, CYCLES
The concept of CHANGE is fundamental to Chinese thought. Everything in existence must change in a ceaseless cycle of anabolism (building up) and catabolism (breaking down). Nothing is permanent. All great civilizations were aware of the rhythms and cycles in nature:
We have the activity-rest, the day-night cycles, sunspot cycles, political cycles. Internal (diurnal) cycles include the cardiac cycle (systole-diastole), respiratory cycle, hormone secretion cycle etc. All of life and nature follows cyclic patterns.
Yin-Yang concepts imply continuous transformation, change and movement. Nothing is static. Day must become night. Winter must become Summer, (i.e.) Yin reaches a limit and transforms into Yang. Yang reaches a limit and transforms into Yin. Substance (Yin) transforms into function (Yang) and function transforms into substance.
The Monad or wheel symbolises the cycle: endless and beginningless revolution. Within the Monad, we see the Yin-Yang symbol also. Yin changes to Yang and Yang changes to Yin in a changing, yet changeless cycle. Thus, mountains become flat land and flat land becomes mountains. Rock becomes sand and sand becomes rock. Thus, tears and laughter are opposite yet essential parts of the same whole.
RELATIVITY: Yin and Yang are seen as relative states. Summer is Yang relative to winter (Yin) but a cold, wet summer is Yin relative to a normal summer and a warm, dry winter is Yang relative to a normal winter. The head is Yang relative to the chest (Yin), but the chest is Yang relative to the feet (Yin). In the male (Yang) childhood, adulthood and old age are relatively Yin, Yang and Yin respectively. In the female (Yin) childhood, adulthood and old age are relatively Yang, Yin and Yang respectively.
BALANCE AND TRANSFORMATION: Yin or Yang can not exist in isolation. They need each other and they change into each other. The circle is complete, without beginning, middle or end.
If there is no day, there is no night. If there is no excitation, there is no inhibition. The balance of Yin-Yang is a dynamic, changing state. There is seldom exact balance, with equal amounts of Yin and Yang. For instance in Summer, daylight exceeds darkness (Yang is predominant) but in Winter, darkness exceeds daylight (Yin is predominant). Equal amounts of Yin and Yang (night and day) occurs only at the equinoxes (March 2lst and September 23rd). The limits of Yin and Yang are seen, for example at the Winter solstice (December 2lst) when Yin is maximal (relative to Yang) and Summer solstice (June 2lst) when Yang is maximal. This transformation of Yin to Yang and Yang to Yin is a natural, universal phenomenon. It is natural for Yin to predominate at certain times and Yang to predominate at other times, in dynamic cycles.
WESTERN EXAMPLES OF DUALITY: In modern medical and scientific concepts, the idea of duality and relativity is accepted easily. We know that homeostasis in the body is maintained by mutually antagonistic yet mutually dependent systems. For instance, health requires the balance (harmony) of Yin-Yang : sleep-wakefulness; flexor muscles-extensor muscles; parasympathetic-sympathetic systems; feedback-feedforward systems; inhibitor-activator; relaxation-contraction; sensory-motor systems; corpus luteum-follicle; calcitonin-parathyroid hormone; receptor-ligand etc. We also know that an excess or deficiency of any one of these can lead to imbalance in the system. In time, this may lead to dis-ease.
Thus, the Chinese concept of Yin-Yang is not as incomprehensible as it may seem at first glance. It is similar to western ideas of duality-relativity. But it preceded our concept and use of binary theory (the idea of on-off, as used in modern computers) by thousands of years. Indeed, those who appreciate the beautiful symmetry of Chinese Yin-Yang philosophy have no difficulty in accepting the probability of advanced concepts in physics and astronomy etc such as ; gravity-antigravity; matter-antimatter; expanding space-black holes; time-negative time.
INTERDEPENDENCE, INTERACTIONS IN THE BODY
There was a story about the relative importance of the organs. They were arguing among themselves: "I am the most important", said the brain. "I do all the thinking, make all the decisions and control the lot of you!". "Not at all", said the heart. "I am more important because I keep you alive by pumping blood, oxygen and glucose up to you and I take away all your waste for disposal!". "Hold on!" said the liver. "I am the most important. I am responsible for glucogenesis and detoxification. Without me, both of you would be in trouble!". "Bull-shit!", growled the stomach. "Without me, you three would starve to death!". The argument grew fierce. The spleen, lungs, gallbladder, bones, muscles et al all had their spake.
Meanwhile, the anus (which had not said a word) got fed up with all the arguing and ballyhoo. Muttering "I'll show them who is boss!", it seized up tight and said nothing (kept its mouth shut). After a few days of severe constipation, colic and toxaemia set in. The stomach lost its appetite, the liver was unable to cope with the toxins, the heart went into failure and the brain began to grow faint. At the last moment, the brain screamed to the anus: "All right, you win!". The anus relaxed and all was well3 .
Although moral of the original joke was: "Don't underestimate an Ass-Hole!", there is an obvious moral for clinicians also. There is interdependence and interaction between the organs, functions, and emotions of the body.
We saw earlier that the Chinese regarded man as a unity of Yin-Yang in body-spirit. Psychosomatic medicine also sees man as a unity of mind (spirit) and soma. Thus, interactions between these components of the organism influence the health (balance) of the organism. Psyche influences Soma and Soma influences Psyche. Those who ignore this reality have a very incomplete view of factors influencing health. In vet medicine, it would appear that the animal psyche plays a less important role in dis-ease than the psyche in human medicine. Nevertheless, the animal psyche is important and can be harnessed in many practical ways, as any experienced animal handler knows. The psyche (and psychic energy) of the therapist can (and should) be focused to help/love and beam compassion into the psyche of the willing patient, animal or human.
The Chinese were aware of the unity of the psyche-soma and of the interdependence of the organs and emotions. Disorders of the heart may influence the kidneys and lungs, and vice-versa. Disorder of the liver-gallbladder may influence the stomach. Chinese medical philosophy developed a complete schema of interdependence between the organs in the Five Phase Cycle. The Five Phase Theory and its uses in medicine are discussed in another paper, to which the reader is referred.
Yang Fire Steam Hot Male Active Bright Immaterial Gas
Yin Slow Centripetal Precipitation Winter Night Downwards Inner
Yang Fast Centrifugal Evaporation Summer Day Upwards Outer
Yin Solid organs LU SP HT KI PC LV CV Below waist Dorsal Medial lower
Yang Hollow organs LI ST SI BL TH GB GV Above waist Ventral Lateral upper
Yin Inhibition Relaxation Hypo- (deficient) Chronic Cold Moon
Yang Excitation Contraction Hyper- (excess) Acute Hot Sun
Yin Parasympathetic Diastole Flaccid
Yang Sympathetic Systole Erect
CHANGE, RHYTHMS, CYCLES
The concept of CHANGE is fundamental to Chinese thought. Everything in existence must change in a ceaseless cycle of anabolism (building up) and catabolism (breaking down). Nothing is permanent. All great civilizations were aware of the rhythms and cycles in nature:
- a. the seasonal cycle
b. the lunar and tidal cycle
c. the mating-birth-growth-death cycle (d) the sexual (menstrual and male) cycles.
We have the activity-rest, the day-night cycles, sunspot cycles, political cycles. Internal (diurnal) cycles include the cardiac cycle (systole-diastole), respiratory cycle, hormone secretion cycle etc. All of life and nature follows cyclic patterns.
Yin-Yang concepts imply continuous transformation, change and movement. Nothing is static. Day must become night. Winter must become Summer, (i.e.) Yin reaches a limit and transforms into Yang. Yang reaches a limit and transforms into Yin. Substance (Yin) transforms into function (Yang) and function transforms into substance.
The Monad or wheel symbolises the cycle: endless and beginningless revolution. Within the Monad, we see the Yin-Yang symbol also. Yin changes to Yang and Yang changes to Yin in a changing, yet changeless cycle. Thus, mountains become flat land and flat land becomes mountains. Rock becomes sand and sand becomes rock. Thus, tears and laughter are opposite yet essential parts of the same whole.
RELATIVITY: Yin and Yang are seen as relative states. Summer is Yang relative to winter (Yin) but a cold, wet summer is Yin relative to a normal summer and a warm, dry winter is Yang relative to a normal winter. The head is Yang relative to the chest (Yin), but the chest is Yang relative to the feet (Yin). In the male (Yang) childhood, adulthood and old age are relatively Yin, Yang and Yin respectively. In the female (Yin) childhood, adulthood and old age are relatively Yang, Yin and Yang respectively.
BALANCE AND TRANSFORMATION: Yin or Yang can not exist in isolation. They need each other and they change into each other. The circle is complete, without beginning, middle or end.
If there is no day, there is no night. If there is no excitation, there is no inhibition. The balance of Yin-Yang is a dynamic, changing state. There is seldom exact balance, with equal amounts of Yin and Yang. For instance in Summer, daylight exceeds darkness (Yang is predominant) but in Winter, darkness exceeds daylight (Yin is predominant). Equal amounts of Yin and Yang (night and day) occurs only at the equinoxes (March 2lst and September 23rd). The limits of Yin and Yang are seen, for example at the Winter solstice (December 2lst) when Yin is maximal (relative to Yang) and Summer solstice (June 2lst) when Yang is maximal. This transformation of Yin to Yang and Yang to Yin is a natural, universal phenomenon. It is natural for Yin to predominate at certain times and Yang to predominate at other times, in dynamic cycles.
WESTERN EXAMPLES OF DUALITY: In modern medical and scientific concepts, the idea of duality and relativity is accepted easily. We know that homeostasis in the body is maintained by mutually antagonistic yet mutually dependent systems. For instance, health requires the balance (harmony) of Yin-Yang : sleep-wakefulness; flexor muscles-extensor muscles; parasympathetic-sympathetic systems; feedback-feedforward systems; inhibitor-activator; relaxation-contraction; sensory-motor systems; corpus luteum-follicle; calcitonin-parathyroid hormone; receptor-ligand etc. We also know that an excess or deficiency of any one of these can lead to imbalance in the system. In time, this may lead to dis-ease.
Thus, the Chinese concept of Yin-Yang is not as incomprehensible as it may seem at first glance. It is similar to western ideas of duality-relativity. But it preceded our concept and use of binary theory (the idea of on-off, as used in modern computers) by thousands of years. Indeed, those who appreciate the beautiful symmetry of Chinese Yin-Yang philosophy have no difficulty in accepting the probability of advanced concepts in physics and astronomy etc such as ; gravity-antigravity; matter-antimatter; expanding space-black holes; time-negative time.
INTERDEPENDENCE, INTERACTIONS IN THE BODY
There was a story about the relative importance of the organs. They were arguing among themselves: "I am the most important", said the brain. "I do all the thinking, make all the decisions and control the lot of you!". "Not at all", said the heart. "I am more important because I keep you alive by pumping blood, oxygen and glucose up to you and I take away all your waste for disposal!". "Hold on!" said the liver. "I am the most important. I am responsible for glucogenesis and detoxification. Without me, both of you would be in trouble!". "Bull-shit!", growled the stomach. "Without me, you three would starve to death!". The argument grew fierce. The spleen, lungs, gallbladder, bones, muscles et al all had their spake.
Meanwhile, the anus (which had not said a word) got fed up with all the arguing and ballyhoo. Muttering "I'll show them who is boss!", it seized up tight and said nothing (kept its mouth shut). After a few days of severe constipation, colic and toxaemia set in. The stomach lost its appetite, the liver was unable to cope with the toxins, the heart went into failure and the brain began to grow faint. At the last moment, the brain screamed to the anus: "All right, you win!". The anus relaxed and all was well3 .
Although moral of the original joke was: "Don't underestimate an Ass-Hole!", there is an obvious moral for clinicians also. There is interdependence and interaction between the organs, functions, and emotions of the body.
We saw earlier that the Chinese regarded man as a unity of Yin-Yang in body-spirit. Psychosomatic medicine also sees man as a unity of mind (spirit) and soma. Thus, interactions between these components of the organism influence the health (balance) of the organism. Psyche influences Soma and Soma influences Psyche. Those who ignore this reality have a very incomplete view of factors influencing health. In vet medicine, it would appear that the animal psyche plays a less important role in dis-ease than the psyche in human medicine. Nevertheless, the animal psyche is important and can be harnessed in many practical ways, as any experienced animal handler knows. The psyche (and psychic energy) of the therapist can (and should) be focused to help/love and beam compassion into the psyche of the willing patient, animal or human.
The Chinese were aware of the unity of the psyche-soma and of the interdependence of the organs and emotions. Disorders of the heart may influence the kidneys and lungs, and vice-versa. Disorder of the liver-gallbladder may influence the stomach. Chinese medical philosophy developed a complete schema of interdependence between the organs in the Five Phase Cycle. The Five Phase Theory and its uses in medicine are discussed in another paper, to which the reader is referred.
INTERACTIONS WITH EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
The organism does not exist in isolation. All living organisms survive by a process of adaptation to their external (and internal) environments. Those who can not adapt successfully must suffer as a result. The organism acts upon and is influenced by natural forces in its external environment. Environmental factors are not often considered but are very important nonetheless. They include Cosmic, Solar and Lunar forces, climatic changes, electromagnetic fields, geographical conditions and geophysical fields. (In a later section, we will examine other external factors).
The effects of cosmic and solar forces on animal health are poorly defined. Effects of the moon on health include a tendency to haemorrhage during new and full moon. Surgical complications are less likely to arise if major surgery is avoided for a few days before and after new and full moon.
Many years ago, Harold Burr, USA, recorded the electrical potentials of trees, day after day for many years. He found a cyclical change in potentials related to moon phase, day v night and sunspot activity. Maximum DC electrical potentials occurred at new and full moon; in daytime; and at peak sunspot activity. Minimum potentials occurred at quarter and three-quarter moon phase; at night and at minimum sunspot activity. He found similar changes in electrical potentials in humans.
Robert Becker (Veterans Administration Hospital, Syracuse, New York) and others have reported that people are more irritable at new and full moon and that violent crimes (rape, murder, assault, suicide) and admissions to psychiatric hospitals are more common at these times. The English word lunatic is derived from the Latin luna (Moon) and tic (fit, convulsion). Epileptic fits, convulsions and hallucinations are more likely to arise at these times also. I am unaware of published work on the effects of the full and new moon on animal dis-ease, but I suspect that neuromuscular disorders such as convulsions in dogs and grass (hypomagnesaemic) tetany in cows may be more common at these times also.
Geophysical forces: For thousands of years, in all civilisations, certain people claimed to be able to find water under the ground, using instruments like Y sticks (divining rods) pendulums, etc. When the diviner passes across underground streams, an involuntary muscular contraction causes the instrument to react. The diviner tries to locate exactly the course of the stream. He then tries to find the place where one or more other streams intersect (usually at different depths). The hole for the well is sunk at this point. Diviners explain this phenomenon by claiming that the water, running in fissures in the underground rocks, creates a distortion in the magnetic field above the fissure. The body of the diviner reacts as a biosensor to this alteration by an involuntary muscular contraction. (See the paper on psychic methods of diagnosis and therapy in AP and homoeopathy).
Diviners in Europe, Australia, Africa and America have reported that many dis-eases in man and animals are associated with strong reactive points over these streams. Insomnia, arthritis rheumatism, asthma and cancer have been associated with these places. Where cattle or other animals are confined to a stall or pen directly over these geophysical reaction points, chronic disorders can arise, such as poor growth, chronic ketosis and infertility. Orthodox treatment is often unsuccessful in these cases. If, however, the animals are moved to a stall/pen which is free of reactive points, the condition usually disappears quickly.
Electromagnetic Fields (EMF): It is known that many species are extremely sensitive to weak EMFs. Some cases of chronic dis-ease may be associated with these EMFs such as those created by high-voltage cables , electric cables underground, electrical equipment (electric blankets, TV and VDU screens etc. Other electro-magnetic and gravitational influences include eclipses, planetary alignments, thunder-storms etc.
Effects of climate: Exposure to cold, damp weather when animals are turned out to pasture in the Spring are often associated with outbreaks of grass tetany and muscular degeneration (white muscle dis-ease, associated with selenium deficiency). There is evidence that cattle can sometimes eat large amounts of ergot (Claviceps purpurea) with no effects if they are warm and dry. If, however, the weather is very cold and the lower limbs are wet or freezing (as in cold, damp cow-sheds in winter) severe outbreaks of ergotism (gangrene of the limbs etc) can follow.
Effects of diet and food-sensitivity/intolerance: The diet is one of most obvious environmental factors affecting animal health. Deficiencies or imbalances in total intake of dry matter, its energy, protein, mineral and vitamin status, are well studied and need no further comment. The diet may also influence health if it contains plant, organic or inorganic poisons. In man, the role of masked (hidden) allergies to common feedstuffs, drugs, contact and inhalant-allergens has been recognised only in recent years. Many chronic dis-eases are associated with a hypersensitivity or intolerance, hidden allergy to common foods etc (Randolph; Mackarness; Coca; Breneman).
Diagnosis of masked allergy is based on systematic elimination of specific items from the diet or the environment of the patient for a period of 8-14 days or so. Then the patient is challenged orally, sublingually or nasally with each suspect food, etc in single tests. If a violent reaction occurs within 0-2 hours after challenge, the food etc is eliminated completely from the diet. Following this, the health of the patient improves dramatically. The role of these masked allergies in animal dis-ease is not yet as well established as in human dis-eases.
INTERACTIONS BETWEEN EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
Signals or stimuli from the external environment are transmitted to the internal environment in many ways. The sensory nervous system transmits stimuli of touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. These signals are transmitted to the spinal cord and, via the ascending tracts, to the brain and higher centres. Sensory input may activate segmental, intersegmental and supraspinal reflexes. It may also activate the autonomic nervous system and the hypothalamus-pituitary etc. The role of the nervous system and the endocrine system in adaptation responses is well discussed by other authors (4, 14).
External stimuli and internal sensory stimuli may reach the internal environment by another route, the PRIMITIVE NERVOUS SYSTEM of Becker and his colleagues in New York. They postulated the existence of two systems which can transmit information in the body : (a) the neuroendocrine system as already described, and (b) a slow acting non-nervous system analogous to the primitive nervous system of plants and lower animals. This Primitive Nervous System acts by sensing alterations in the electrical potentials at the skin5 and in damaged organs and tissues. The DC current of injury is transmitted along planes of low electrical impedance (the AP Channels) and is boosted (amplified) at the AP points. This system switches on when injury grossly alters the normal electrical potential. When healing occurs, the electrical potentials return to normal and switch off the system.
The ancients, mystics and many moderns accept that humans and animals have a psychic (sixth) sense. By Yin-Yang philosophy that sense implies a psychic transmission force also. These are the bases of telepathy, divination, telekinesis, kinaesthesia, prayer-healing, spells, incantations, symbolic healing rituals, magic (black- and white-) etc. In spite of the ridicule of many scientists, telepathy, telepathic diagnosis and telepathic healing or injury (voodoo, black-magic) are realities for many people (see the paper on Psychic Methods of Diagnosis and Treatment in AP and homoeopathy).
The Chinese name for the AP point (Xue) means "hole". The Chinese have claimed for centuries that influences such as heat, damp, cold, dryness, wind and physical injury can gain direct access to the body via the "body holes" (the AP points). Electro-magnetic forces may gain entry through the "leaky holes" in the same way, as the AP points are characterised as zones of high DC potential/low electrical resistance. We know that lightning tends to strike in certain places which have low electrical resistance. (Diviners claim that all lightning strikes at strong geophysical reactive points, low-resistance "holes" in the earth). AP points may attract EMF and external signals in the same way as a lightning conductor attracts lightning. The skin and mucous membranes are the interfaces between the external and internal environment; the AP points are the "leaky places" on the skin, which connect the external and internal environments. The AP system is also said to connect all the organs and body parts with each other, via planes of higher electrical permeability/lower impedance.
CHINESE CONCEPTS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE
The Chinese concept of Qi represents the vital life force. All living things contain Qi. Balance of Qi in the body maintains health. Imbalance of Qi (excess Yin or excess Yang, deficient Yin or deficient Yang) causes ill-health. Absence of Qi occurs at death. Qi is obtained from the lungs (oxygen, air) and the food (nutrients). It circulates to every cell in the body, via the Channel-Organ System (COS) and blood stream.
Qi interacts with genetic influences, immunity to infections and non- specific resistance to trauma, poisons and dis-ease, autonomic balance and hormone balance. If the degree of insult disturbs the balance of Qi, dis-ease results. See diagram:
DISEASE (+) HEALTH (-) DISEASE
External insults: Trauma, dietary imbalance, allergies, infection, parasitism, poisons, pollution, stresses, cosmic, solar, lunar, EMF, geophysical- forces, climatic changes.
Internal insults: Genetic susceptibility, uncontrolled emotions; auto-immune diseases, autonomic and hormonal disturbance, reflex effects of injury.
The life energy (Qi) has its Yin and Yang aspects, seen as the typical energy in the Yin and Yang Channels.
Dis-ease arises when the Qi is disturbed by any deficiency, excess or blockage of Yin or Yang energy in the Channel-Organ System (COS). Abnormality is a relative state caused by a poor adaptation to internal or external changes, associated with an abnormal excess or deficiency of energy in one or more Channels. a. Excess Yin will consume (weaken) Yang. Deficient Yang will allow a relative excess of Yin. In both cases, there is a relative net excess of Yin. This causes Yin (Cold) Syndromes. b. Excess Yang will consume (weaken) Yin. Deficient Yin will allow a relative excess of Yang. In both cases there is a relative net excess of Yang. This causes Yang (Hot) Syndromes. c. Excess of Yin or excess of Yang causes conditions known as Shi (excess) Syndromes. d. Deficiency of Yin or deficiency of Yang causes conditions known as Xu (deficiency) Syndromes.
Chinese combinations allow 4 main Syndromes Cold Shi, Cold Xu, Hot Shi and Hot Xu Syndromes.
In Shi (excess) Syndromes, the body resistance (anti-pathogenic defence systems) are relatively normal and the cause of dis-ease is usually external.
In Xu (deficiency) Syndromes, body resistance is relatively weak, and the dis-ease has usually gained the interior and is more serious.
AP therapy is different for Shi and Xu Syndromes. In the Shi (excess) Syndromes, a sedation technique (Xie) is used (In Shi, use Xie). In the Xu (deficiency) Syndromes, a tonification technique (Bu) is used (In Xu, use Bu). These are discussed in other papers (Five Phase Theory and its Use in Medicine and Techniques of Stimulation of the AP Points) to which the reader is referred.
WESTERN CONCEPTS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE
In a given case, the cause of dis-ease (the insult) may appear to be simple. For instance, a herd of cattle may show depigmentation of the coat, enteritis, abortion/stillbirth /neonatal deaths and infertility. Blood tests may show severe copper deficiency. One may be tempted to assume that copper deficiency is the main cause, or the only cause. However, further examination may show that infection and parasitism are involved also and the role of these may not be appreciated fully. If very detailed investigation were done, other factors (for instance excess of iron, molybdenum, lead or zinc and stress factors) may also be present. In practice, herd supplementation with copper salts could restore health and fertility. If, however, the other factors were corrected singly or together, the same good result could be obtained even without copper supplementation.
Similarly, outbreaks of infectious dis-ease in young calves (enteritis, pneumonia, septicaemia, oomphalitis, etc) may suggest very heavy bacterial challenge as the main cause. On further examination, however, it may be found that the herd is deficient in trace-minerals (Cu, Co, Se, Zn) which are essential to herd immunity. Control of the "infectious disease" in these cases may be achieved by adequate supplementation of the calves with the correct trace-elements. Prevention, in subsequent years, is based on supplementation of the pregnant cows, so that the calves are born with adequate trace-mineral status and the dams' colostrum is adequate in antibody. Of course, improvement in the housing and hygiene on the farm will also help.
CONCLUSION
The best chance for healing or cure depends on:
It follows that many conditions respond to a wide variety of treatments, singly or in combination. These treatments include orthodox medical or surgical methods, physiotherapy, desensitisation to allergens, alteration of diet or lifestyle, relaxation therapy, hypnosis, psychiatric care etc. AP is extremely valuable in stimulating the adaptive mechanisms. This will be discussed in another paper (AP for immunomediated disorders).
Unorthodox therapies, such as homeopathy, cytotherapy, chiropractic, osteopathy, "neutralising" geophysical forces, radiaesthesia, laying on of hands etc may also be effective in man and animals but the absence of controlled studies has limited their acceptance and their use.
FURTHER READING MATERIAL
1. Becker, R.O. (Veteran's Administration Hospital, Upstate Medical Centre, Syracuse, New York 13210, USA). Over 100 scientific publications on tissue regeneration, electrical potentials, the primitive nervous system, AP and geo- physical effects on health.
2. Breneman, J.C. (1978) The basics of food allergy. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois.
3. Burr, H.S. (1972) Blueprint for immortality: the electric patterns of life. Neville Spearman Ltd., London. (or) Burr, H.S. (1973). The Fields of Life: our links with the universe. Ballantyne Books Inc., New York.
4. Buxton-Hopkin, D.S, (1976) James Reilly and the autonomic nervous system: a prophet unheeded: Annals of Royal College of Surgeons of England, 60, 108-116.
5. Coca,A.F. (1978). The pulse test: easy allergen detection. Arco Books, c/o Thorson's Books, Wellingborough, Northants, England.
6. Graves,T. (1977) Dowsing techniques and applications. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, UK.
7. Journal of the British Society of Dowsers. Quarterly journal from: The Secretary B.S.D., Sycamore Cottage, Hastingleigh, Ashford, Kent, UK.
8. Mackarness,R. (1976) Not all in the mind. Pan Books, London.
9. Ostrander,S. and Schroeder,L. (1977) Psychic discoveries behind the iron curtain. Abacus Books (Sphere Books), London.
10. Randolph,T.G. (1951) Food allergy. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, U.S.A.
11. Randolph,T.G. (1965) Ecologic orientation in medicine: comprehensive environmental control in diagnosis and therapy. Annals of Allergy, 23, 7-22.
12. Russell,E.W. (1971) Design for destiny. Neville Spearman Ltd., London.
13. Russell, Edward W. (1973) Report on radionics: science of the future. Neville Spearman Ltd., London.
14. Selye,H. (1976) Stress in health and disease. Butterworths, London.
15. Watson,L. (1973) Supernature. Hodder and Stoughton, London.
16. Watson,L. (1979) Lifetide. Hodder and Stoughton, London.
17. Mann,F. (1973) AP Cure of many Diseases. Heinemann Medical Books, London.
18. Austin,M. (1974) AP Therapy. Turnstone Books, London.
19. Connolly,D. (1979) The Law of the Five Elements. Centre for Traditional AP, American City Building, Columbia, Maryland 21044, USA.
HOMOEOPATHY AND AP
AP and homoeopathy make an excellent therapeutic partnership. Homoeopathic remedies may be given orally or by injection into the AP points chosen to fit the case. Austrian, German and French Vets are using this method successfully.The British Vet Homoeopathic Society was founded in the UK in 1987. Contact the British Vet Association, 7 Mansfield St., London W1M 0AT for details.
Further information on U.K. Supply Houses and Homoeopathic Materia Medica (by Allen or Boericke or Boenninghausen or Clarke or Kent) from: Royal Homoeopathic Hospital, Great Ormond St., London; Nelson's Pharmacy, 73, Duke Street, London; Ainsworth's Pharmacy, London
TEXTBOOKS ON HOMOEOPATHIC THEORY AND PRACTICE
McLeod,G. (1978) Treatment of horses by Homoeopathy. Health Science Press, Holsworthy, Devon, UK.
Roberts,H.A. (1976) Principles and Art of Cure by Homoeopathy. Health Science Press, Holsworthy, Devon, UK.
ESSENTIAL READING, EXCELLENT BACKGROUND
Tyler,M.L. (1975) Homoeopathic Drug Pictures. Health Science Press, Holsworthy, Devon, UK.
1 1 Esker Lawns, Lucan, Dublin, IRELAND. Fax: 353-46-25187; Tel: 353-46-25214 (lab); 353-1-6281-222 (home)
2 Throughout this text, the following convention is used for the codes for the Channel-Organ System (COS): LU=Lung; LI=Large Intestine; ST=Stomach; SP=Spleen-Pancreas; HT=Heart; SI=Small Intestine; BL=Bladder, with BL40=WeiZhong; KI=Kidney; PC=Pericardium, Heart Constrictor, or Circulation-Sex; TH=Triple Heater/Endocrine; GB=Gall Bladder; LV=Liver; CV=Conception Vessel (ventral midline); GV=Governor Vessel (dorsal midline). Other authors may use different conventions.
3 Joking aside, the miracle of life outside the womb begins with the first breath and ends with the last. LU function is the most important of all vital Qi functions. All the other organs and functions die within minutes if starved of oxygen (part of the Qi of air). Body energies at their lowest ebb, the Qi cycle ends in LV at 0100-0300h (0300 is known as the dead hour of night). The new Qi cycle begins in LU at 0300-0500h.
4 Swedish research, published in 1992, has suggested a causal link between EMFs from high voltage transmission lines and leukaemia/brain tumours in people.
5 The skin is a more important organ than generally is realised. It is a powerful organ of elimination. It also acts as the terminal for viscerocutaneous and cutaneovisceral reflexes and similar reflexes, which are the basis of AP effects.
The organism does not exist in isolation. All living organisms survive by a process of adaptation to their external (and internal) environments. Those who can not adapt successfully must suffer as a result. The organism acts upon and is influenced by natural forces in its external environment. Environmental factors are not often considered but are very important nonetheless. They include Cosmic, Solar and Lunar forces, climatic changes, electromagnetic fields, geographical conditions and geophysical fields. (In a later section, we will examine other external factors).
The effects of cosmic and solar forces on animal health are poorly defined. Effects of the moon on health include a tendency to haemorrhage during new and full moon. Surgical complications are less likely to arise if major surgery is avoided for a few days before and after new and full moon.
Many years ago, Harold Burr, USA, recorded the electrical potentials of trees, day after day for many years. He found a cyclical change in potentials related to moon phase, day v night and sunspot activity. Maximum DC electrical potentials occurred at new and full moon; in daytime; and at peak sunspot activity. Minimum potentials occurred at quarter and three-quarter moon phase; at night and at minimum sunspot activity. He found similar changes in electrical potentials in humans.
Robert Becker (Veterans Administration Hospital, Syracuse, New York) and others have reported that people are more irritable at new and full moon and that violent crimes (rape, murder, assault, suicide) and admissions to psychiatric hospitals are more common at these times. The English word lunatic is derived from the Latin luna (Moon) and tic (fit, convulsion). Epileptic fits, convulsions and hallucinations are more likely to arise at these times also. I am unaware of published work on the effects of the full and new moon on animal dis-ease, but I suspect that neuromuscular disorders such as convulsions in dogs and grass (hypomagnesaemic) tetany in cows may be more common at these times also.
Geophysical forces: For thousands of years, in all civilisations, certain people claimed to be able to find water under the ground, using instruments like Y sticks (divining rods) pendulums, etc. When the diviner passes across underground streams, an involuntary muscular contraction causes the instrument to react. The diviner tries to locate exactly the course of the stream. He then tries to find the place where one or more other streams intersect (usually at different depths). The hole for the well is sunk at this point. Diviners explain this phenomenon by claiming that the water, running in fissures in the underground rocks, creates a distortion in the magnetic field above the fissure. The body of the diviner reacts as a biosensor to this alteration by an involuntary muscular contraction. (See the paper on psychic methods of diagnosis and therapy in AP and homoeopathy).
Diviners in Europe, Australia, Africa and America have reported that many dis-eases in man and animals are associated with strong reactive points over these streams. Insomnia, arthritis rheumatism, asthma and cancer have been associated with these places. Where cattle or other animals are confined to a stall or pen directly over these geophysical reaction points, chronic disorders can arise, such as poor growth, chronic ketosis and infertility. Orthodox treatment is often unsuccessful in these cases. If, however, the animals are moved to a stall/pen which is free of reactive points, the condition usually disappears quickly.
Electromagnetic Fields (EMF): It is known that many species are extremely sensitive to weak EMFs. Some cases of chronic dis-ease may be associated with these EMFs such as those created by high-voltage cables , electric cables underground, electrical equipment (electric blankets, TV and VDU screens etc. Other electro-magnetic and gravitational influences include eclipses, planetary alignments, thunder-storms etc.
Effects of climate: Exposure to cold, damp weather when animals are turned out to pasture in the Spring are often associated with outbreaks of grass tetany and muscular degeneration (white muscle dis-ease, associated with selenium deficiency). There is evidence that cattle can sometimes eat large amounts of ergot (Claviceps purpurea) with no effects if they are warm and dry. If, however, the weather is very cold and the lower limbs are wet or freezing (as in cold, damp cow-sheds in winter) severe outbreaks of ergotism (gangrene of the limbs etc) can follow.
Effects of diet and food-sensitivity/intolerance: The diet is one of most obvious environmental factors affecting animal health. Deficiencies or imbalances in total intake of dry matter, its energy, protein, mineral and vitamin status, are well studied and need no further comment. The diet may also influence health if it contains plant, organic or inorganic poisons. In man, the role of masked (hidden) allergies to common feedstuffs, drugs, contact and inhalant-allergens has been recognised only in recent years. Many chronic dis-eases are associated with a hypersensitivity or intolerance, hidden allergy to common foods etc (Randolph; Mackarness; Coca; Breneman).
Diagnosis of masked allergy is based on systematic elimination of specific items from the diet or the environment of the patient for a period of 8-14 days or so. Then the patient is challenged orally, sublingually or nasally with each suspect food, etc in single tests. If a violent reaction occurs within 0-2 hours after challenge, the food etc is eliminated completely from the diet. Following this, the health of the patient improves dramatically. The role of these masked allergies in animal dis-ease is not yet as well established as in human dis-eases.
INTERACTIONS BETWEEN EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
Signals or stimuli from the external environment are transmitted to the internal environment in many ways. The sensory nervous system transmits stimuli of touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. These signals are transmitted to the spinal cord and, via the ascending tracts, to the brain and higher centres. Sensory input may activate segmental, intersegmental and supraspinal reflexes. It may also activate the autonomic nervous system and the hypothalamus-pituitary etc. The role of the nervous system and the endocrine system in adaptation responses is well discussed by other authors (4, 14).
External stimuli and internal sensory stimuli may reach the internal environment by another route, the PRIMITIVE NERVOUS SYSTEM of Becker and his colleagues in New York. They postulated the existence of two systems which can transmit information in the body : (a) the neuroendocrine system as already described, and (b) a slow acting non-nervous system analogous to the primitive nervous system of plants and lower animals. This Primitive Nervous System acts by sensing alterations in the electrical potentials at the skin5 and in damaged organs and tissues. The DC current of injury is transmitted along planes of low electrical impedance (the AP Channels) and is boosted (amplified) at the AP points. This system switches on when injury grossly alters the normal electrical potential. When healing occurs, the electrical potentials return to normal and switch off the system.
The ancients, mystics and many moderns accept that humans and animals have a psychic (sixth) sense. By Yin-Yang philosophy that sense implies a psychic transmission force also. These are the bases of telepathy, divination, telekinesis, kinaesthesia, prayer-healing, spells, incantations, symbolic healing rituals, magic (black- and white-) etc. In spite of the ridicule of many scientists, telepathy, telepathic diagnosis and telepathic healing or injury (voodoo, black-magic) are realities for many people (see the paper on Psychic Methods of Diagnosis and Treatment in AP and homoeopathy).
The Chinese name for the AP point (Xue) means "hole". The Chinese have claimed for centuries that influences such as heat, damp, cold, dryness, wind and physical injury can gain direct access to the body via the "body holes" (the AP points). Electro-magnetic forces may gain entry through the "leaky holes" in the same way, as the AP points are characterised as zones of high DC potential/low electrical resistance. We know that lightning tends to strike in certain places which have low electrical resistance. (Diviners claim that all lightning strikes at strong geophysical reactive points, low-resistance "holes" in the earth). AP points may attract EMF and external signals in the same way as a lightning conductor attracts lightning. The skin and mucous membranes are the interfaces between the external and internal environment; the AP points are the "leaky places" on the skin, which connect the external and internal environments. The AP system is also said to connect all the organs and body parts with each other, via planes of higher electrical permeability/lower impedance.
CHINESE CONCEPTS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE
The Chinese concept of Qi represents the vital life force. All living things contain Qi. Balance of Qi in the body maintains health. Imbalance of Qi (excess Yin or excess Yang, deficient Yin or deficient Yang) causes ill-health. Absence of Qi occurs at death. Qi is obtained from the lungs (oxygen, air) and the food (nutrients). It circulates to every cell in the body, via the Channel-Organ System (COS) and blood stream.
Qi interacts with genetic influences, immunity to infections and non- specific resistance to trauma, poisons and dis-ease, autonomic balance and hormone balance. If the degree of insult disturbs the balance of Qi, dis-ease results. See diagram:
DISEASE (+) HEALTH (-) DISEASE
External insults: Trauma, dietary imbalance, allergies, infection, parasitism, poisons, pollution, stresses, cosmic, solar, lunar, EMF, geophysical- forces, climatic changes.
Internal insults: Genetic susceptibility, uncontrolled emotions; auto-immune diseases, autonomic and hormonal disturbance, reflex effects of injury.
The life energy (Qi) has its Yin and Yang aspects, seen as the typical energy in the Yin and Yang Channels.
Dis-ease arises when the Qi is disturbed by any deficiency, excess or blockage of Yin or Yang energy in the Channel-Organ System (COS). Abnormality is a relative state caused by a poor adaptation to internal or external changes, associated with an abnormal excess or deficiency of energy in one or more Channels. a. Excess Yin will consume (weaken) Yang. Deficient Yang will allow a relative excess of Yin. In both cases, there is a relative net excess of Yin. This causes Yin (Cold) Syndromes. b. Excess Yang will consume (weaken) Yin. Deficient Yin will allow a relative excess of Yang. In both cases there is a relative net excess of Yang. This causes Yang (Hot) Syndromes. c. Excess of Yin or excess of Yang causes conditions known as Shi (excess) Syndromes. d. Deficiency of Yin or deficiency of Yang causes conditions known as Xu (deficiency) Syndromes.
Chinese combinations allow 4 main Syndromes Cold Shi, Cold Xu, Hot Shi and Hot Xu Syndromes.
In Shi (excess) Syndromes, the body resistance (anti-pathogenic defence systems) are relatively normal and the cause of dis-ease is usually external.
In Xu (deficiency) Syndromes, body resistance is relatively weak, and the dis-ease has usually gained the interior and is more serious.
AP therapy is different for Shi and Xu Syndromes. In the Shi (excess) Syndromes, a sedation technique (Xie) is used (In Shi, use Xie). In the Xu (deficiency) Syndromes, a tonification technique (Bu) is used (In Xu, use Bu). These are discussed in other papers (Five Phase Theory and its Use in Medicine and Techniques of Stimulation of the AP Points) to which the reader is referred.
WESTERN CONCEPTS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE
In a given case, the cause of dis-ease (the insult) may appear to be simple. For instance, a herd of cattle may show depigmentation of the coat, enteritis, abortion/stillbirth /neonatal deaths and infertility. Blood tests may show severe copper deficiency. One may be tempted to assume that copper deficiency is the main cause, or the only cause. However, further examination may show that infection and parasitism are involved also and the role of these may not be appreciated fully. If very detailed investigation were done, other factors (for instance excess of iron, molybdenum, lead or zinc and stress factors) may also be present. In practice, herd supplementation with copper salts could restore health and fertility. If, however, the other factors were corrected singly or together, the same good result could be obtained even without copper supplementation.
Similarly, outbreaks of infectious dis-ease in young calves (enteritis, pneumonia, septicaemia, oomphalitis, etc) may suggest very heavy bacterial challenge as the main cause. On further examination, however, it may be found that the herd is deficient in trace-minerals (Cu, Co, Se, Zn) which are essential to herd immunity. Control of the "infectious disease" in these cases may be achieved by adequate supplementation of the calves with the correct trace-elements. Prevention, in subsequent years, is based on supplementation of the pregnant cows, so that the calves are born with adequate trace-mineral status and the dams' colostrum is adequate in antibody. Of course, improvement in the housing and hygiene on the farm will also help.
CONCLUSION
The best chance for healing or cure depends on:
- a. recognition that the organism is influenced by many more forces than orthodox concepts consider;
- b. removing or alleviating as many causal factors as possible and/or
- c. stimulating the defence systems or homeostatic- adaptive systems of the body.
It follows that many conditions respond to a wide variety of treatments, singly or in combination. These treatments include orthodox medical or surgical methods, physiotherapy, desensitisation to allergens, alteration of diet or lifestyle, relaxation therapy, hypnosis, psychiatric care etc. AP is extremely valuable in stimulating the adaptive mechanisms. This will be discussed in another paper (AP for immunomediated disorders).
Unorthodox therapies, such as homeopathy, cytotherapy, chiropractic, osteopathy, "neutralising" geophysical forces, radiaesthesia, laying on of hands etc may also be effective in man and animals but the absence of controlled studies has limited their acceptance and their use.
FURTHER READING MATERIAL
1. Becker, R.O. (Veteran's Administration Hospital, Upstate Medical Centre, Syracuse, New York 13210, USA). Over 100 scientific publications on tissue regeneration, electrical potentials, the primitive nervous system, AP and geo- physical effects on health.
2. Breneman, J.C. (1978) The basics of food allergy. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois.
3. Burr, H.S. (1972) Blueprint for immortality: the electric patterns of life. Neville Spearman Ltd., London. (or) Burr, H.S. (1973). The Fields of Life: our links with the universe. Ballantyne Books Inc., New York.
4. Buxton-Hopkin, D.S, (1976) James Reilly and the autonomic nervous system: a prophet unheeded: Annals of Royal College of Surgeons of England, 60, 108-116.
5. Coca,A.F. (1978). The pulse test: easy allergen detection. Arco Books, c/o Thorson's Books, Wellingborough, Northants, England.
6. Graves,T. (1977) Dowsing techniques and applications. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, UK.
7. Journal of the British Society of Dowsers. Quarterly journal from: The Secretary B.S.D., Sycamore Cottage, Hastingleigh, Ashford, Kent, UK.
8. Mackarness,R. (1976) Not all in the mind. Pan Books, London.
9. Ostrander,S. and Schroeder,L. (1977) Psychic discoveries behind the iron curtain. Abacus Books (Sphere Books), London.
10. Randolph,T.G. (1951) Food allergy. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, U.S.A.
11. Randolph,T.G. (1965) Ecologic orientation in medicine: comprehensive environmental control in diagnosis and therapy. Annals of Allergy, 23, 7-22.
12. Russell,E.W. (1971) Design for destiny. Neville Spearman Ltd., London.
13. Russell, Edward W. (1973) Report on radionics: science of the future. Neville Spearman Ltd., London.
14. Selye,H. (1976) Stress in health and disease. Butterworths, London.
15. Watson,L. (1973) Supernature. Hodder and Stoughton, London.
16. Watson,L. (1979) Lifetide. Hodder and Stoughton, London.
17. Mann,F. (1973) AP Cure of many Diseases. Heinemann Medical Books, London.
18. Austin,M. (1974) AP Therapy. Turnstone Books, London.
19. Connolly,D. (1979) The Law of the Five Elements. Centre for Traditional AP, American City Building, Columbia, Maryland 21044, USA.
HOMOEOPATHY AND AP
AP and homoeopathy make an excellent therapeutic partnership. Homoeopathic remedies may be given orally or by injection into the AP points chosen to fit the case. Austrian, German and French Vets are using this method successfully.The British Vet Homoeopathic Society was founded in the UK in 1987. Contact the British Vet Association, 7 Mansfield St., London W1M 0AT for details.
Further information on U.K. Supply Houses and Homoeopathic Materia Medica (by Allen or Boericke or Boenninghausen or Clarke or Kent) from: Royal Homoeopathic Hospital, Great Ormond St., London; Nelson's Pharmacy, 73, Duke Street, London; Ainsworth's Pharmacy, London
TEXTBOOKS ON HOMOEOPATHIC THEORY AND PRACTICE
McLeod,G. (1978) Treatment of horses by Homoeopathy. Health Science Press, Holsworthy, Devon, UK.
Roberts,H.A. (1976) Principles and Art of Cure by Homoeopathy. Health Science Press, Holsworthy, Devon, UK.
ESSENTIAL READING, EXCELLENT BACKGROUND
Tyler,M.L. (1975) Homoeopathic Drug Pictures. Health Science Press, Holsworthy, Devon, UK.
1 1 Esker Lawns, Lucan, Dublin, IRELAND. Fax: 353-46-25187; Tel: 353-46-25214 (lab); 353-1-6281-222 (home)
2 Throughout this text, the following convention is used for the codes for the Channel-Organ System (COS): LU=Lung; LI=Large Intestine; ST=Stomach; SP=Spleen-Pancreas; HT=Heart; SI=Small Intestine; BL=Bladder, with BL40=WeiZhong; KI=Kidney; PC=Pericardium, Heart Constrictor, or Circulation-Sex; TH=Triple Heater/Endocrine; GB=Gall Bladder; LV=Liver; CV=Conception Vessel (ventral midline); GV=Governor Vessel (dorsal midline). Other authors may use different conventions.
3 Joking aside, the miracle of life outside the womb begins with the first breath and ends with the last. LU function is the most important of all vital Qi functions. All the other organs and functions die within minutes if starved of oxygen (part of the Qi of air). Body energies at their lowest ebb, the Qi cycle ends in LV at 0100-0300h (0300 is known as the dead hour of night). The new Qi cycle begins in LU at 0300-0500h.
4 Swedish research, published in 1992, has suggested a causal link between EMFs from high voltage transmission lines and leukaemia/brain tumours in people.
5 The skin is a more important organ than generally is realised. It is a powerful organ of elimination. It also acts as the terminal for viscerocutaneous and cutaneovisceral reflexes and similar reflexes, which are the basis of AP effects.
APPENDIX
Holistic concepts integrate those of advanced physics with traditions of the shaman/ witchdoctor/ priest-priestess healer of many ancient cultures. They involve a belief that everything in creation is linked in a universal, if intangible, energy field (E = mc2); that each cell of the body has an electromagnetic field which reflects the state of the cell; that the healthy organism is a bioelectric entity, with a balanced, integrated set of fields; that a very wide range of stimuli (external, internal and genetic) can modulate (beneficially or adversely) the bioelectric fields in the organism; that focused thought can interact with the universal and personal energy field; that there is no past and no future, merely a continuous present; that field effects interact with cellular metabolism etc.
In the definition of the dictionary, many aspects of Holistic Concepts of Health and Disease are arcane or occult (something which is restricted to the fraternity/sorority; secret, hidden). Holistic (transcendent) medicine recognises many more causes and therapies of dis-ease than does mechanistic (scientific) medicine.
Many scientifically-trained professionals have a religious belief, in which the healing arts (medical or veterinary) are human expressions of a divine vocation, similar to priesthood or humanitarian service. In human frailty, they attempt to realise the "will of God" (as revealed by the Christ, the founders of other great religions and the mystics) "to love one another" and "to heal the sick". They believe that the mind/soul is often involved in dis-ease and that healing of the disturbed mind/soul can often be more important than mechanical correction of physical lesions. They believe that the mind of the patient (and of those who know the patient) can influence the outcome of psycho-somatic disease.
An inherent part of holistic medicine is the desire to understand when, where, how and why the patient is ill (diagnosis) and what to do about it i.e. what methods of therapy may help the patient most.
When diagnosing, many holistic practitioners positively seek the help of our Creator. They also seek the patient's help by an internal (mental) dialogue: if I am to help you most effectively, you must please show me where and what is your main problem! When treating, they will/visualise/ project healing to the patient as a routine part of what they do: I open myself to the healing energy of the Creator, who heals all pain and suffering. I transmit to you the healing energies with my love and with the love of our Creator.
Many holistic practitioners believe that a drug administered with love and compassion is of more benefit to a patient that the same drug administered mechanically or dispassionately. Great healers (believing that they act as channels for a benevolent Creator/Universal Life Force) can dispense with the drug altogether.
Fragments of my unpublished prose and verse follow. They may give some slants on this student's impressions of some of these concepts.
PATRICK KAVANAGH'S WORLDS: MINE AND NOT MINE
(Extracts from an unpublished work by P.A.M. Rogers).
Patrick Kavanagh (K) was a great poet, one of the greatest in the English language since W.B. Yeats. You may wonder what on earth a dead Irish poet has to do with Holistic Concepts of Health and Disease! I choose to discuss K's life and work, as they illustrate the paradoxical (Yin-Yang, positive and negative) nature of humanity, the power of mind to be creative or destructive, the struggle between rationalism and blind belief. Most of all, they allow discussion of materialistic-atheistic versus mystical-transcendent values. For poets and many holistic practitioners mysticism is the foundation of their work and their search for "why".
K was born on a small farm in Inniskeen, on the borders of Monaghan, Armagh and Louth (Ireland) on October 21, 1904. He died in a Dublin Nursing Home on November 30, 1967 after suffering years of cancer and alcoholism.
Though his body, bones and brain are long since dead and decomposed, K's warrior-spirit is alive and thriving! In his poetry, he is a warrior, a Christ-like champion of the poor and oppressed. His verses scream out human dis-ease (loneliness, pain, injustice, poverty and ignorance). They also sing out one recipe for optimal human health, the desire of the human soul to transcend the weakness and imperfection of this life. They acknowledge the joy and beauty of life (the only life that we really know) and the fearful wondering if there can be anything waiting on the other side of the Veil.
My comments on Kavanagh and his worlds are my impressions of his work. References and page numbers are shown as (CP5), where 5 is the page number in his COMPLETE POEMS. References from his novel the GREEN FOOL are coded (GF). LAPPED FURROWS and SACRED KEEPER (by his brother, Peter) are coded (LF) and (SK) respectively.
He was aware of the human condition: frailty, loneliness, frustration, the isolation of the artist and the need for love, the false friendship of the bottle, the transience of life and the battle to survive.
K was a paradox, an Irish version of a Zen riddle:... some said a great artist, others, ambiguously, a fiddle... (CP300). He was:... the representative of those/ clay-faced sucklers of spade handles,/ bleak peasants for whom Apollo blows... (CP30).
KAVANAGH THE POET : K wanted to find his own truths. Mysticism, Man's dialogue with God, Man-in-the-world-and-why was the foundation stone of his work: At the foot of a Cross is the Utterness/ of humanity/ every atom of clay,/ every worn stone/ becomes your wish for beauty/ the world cannot own... (SK8).
K had held fast to reason as the guiding principles for most of his life. But human actions and their expression are a mixture of reason and instinct (unreason). Alcoholism is "unreasonable", as is faith. In the end of his life, he wrote: The day I walked out on reason- that old plodder/ (but you didn't)/ was the best day of my life... (CP351)
K was a beggar but rich in spirituality, a dour loner and a black comedian. He was said to have been a plagiarist but he was also a creative genius. He meditated constantly on the place of humanity in nature and on the conflict and similarities between the pagan and Christian ways. He was a visionary/mystic, a Catholic/pagan.
The paradoxical riddles in K's life and work, his dualism (love/hate, joy/despair) and his undoubted consciousness of these suggest leanings towards the spirit of Zen Buddhism. He throws out a mighty challenge and no challenge: "my purpose in life is to have no purpose". Again, he said: Philosophy's graveyard- only dead men analyse/ the reason for existence./... The world began this morning, God-dreamt and full of birds.../ O come all ye youthful poets and try to be more human (CP225)
Humanity is a mixture of good and evil, gentleness and brutality. The conflict and tension between opposites has always been part of poetry and of life.
K was a very astute observer of nature- light, wind, landscape, animal- and human- behaviour. His readers, especially those from rural backgrounds, can feel the textures, see the pictures, hear the sounds of his ideas: A dog lying on a torn jacket under a heeled-up cart,/ a horse nosing along the posied headland, trailing/ a rusty plough..../ October playing a symphony on a slack wire paling (CP80)
SELF-EXAMINATION: I go from you as a snail/ into my twisted habitation./... I know the shallow ways/ of self (CP63).
If it is to be of universal import, poetry must contain a high degree of self-examination. It must examine and question accepted conventions and all the so-called basic dogmas and truths: birth/death, growth/senility, immaturity/maturity. It must also address human reaction to more abstract values and emotions- love/hate, God/Devil, good/evil, subjective/objective realities randomness/meaning of existence, etc.
Am I merely an amalgamation of things, bits and pieces strung together? Am I my profession, an ethical reality? Am I my feet, my penis, hands, one hand clapping in a Zen temple, the other severed in the surgeon's bin? Am I the sin of my ancestors, the mind-creation of my children, wife? Shall I pay the price for them? (Rogers).
FIERCE HONESTY AND LOVE OF TRUTH: K knew that nothing can be known fully and that people who assume that it can commit a crime against wonder: ...The poet wrote it down as best he knew/ as integral and completed as the emotion/ of men and women cloaking a burning emotion/ in the rags of the commonplace, will permit him (CP124)
Science, psychology and literary assessment rely on analysis, the breaking down and tearing apart of complex things and ideas into their components in an attempt to understand how they all fit together in the complete picture. This attempt, unless done with sensitivity and wonder, is of itself an act of destruction, a desecration:... we shall not ask for reason's payment/... nor analyse God's breath in common statement (CP125)
The dissected flower, butterfly, mind (or writer's work!) is a sad sight. K's comic vision sensed the vulgarity of such analysis. He was also sceptical of "objective" science. K was convinced that rational thought and scientific exploration are but one aspect of human search for subjective truth: Now I have to sit down and think/ a world into existence; you cannot borrow/ anyone else's... (CP296)
Objective truth depends on at least one observer. The more observers who agree, the more objective the truth is for them, in other words objective truth is arrived at by a consensus of subjective truth and ... Truth's insanity/ is a spell that all men must hold to; when they wake/ not even dust is left for all their striving (CP182)
TRUTH VERSUS FANTASY: ... If truth is certainty and our world uncertain, our world is fantasy. The main certainty for us is death, the main uncertainty what then?
My truth/reality may be your fantasy/nightmare. Our interpretation of the world is imperfect and subjective. It depends on our senses, our training and, to some extent, on instinct/intuition to fill in missing pieces of the image. Reason can be defective, a fact well known to those who work with psychiatric patients.
Dream-trance/hypnosis: In occult traditions thought (dream, conception, will) precedes action (foundation, construction, reality). The Spirit(s) breathe(s) the dream/idea, which may strike a number of people at the same time. Nothing is more powerful than an idea which has reached its time. If enough people want something to be (to happen), it will, at least for them. The dream precedes the blueprint, which precedes the Taj Mahal. Directed or controlled visualisation (daydream) is a powerful tool.
Truth/reality is primarily opposite in trend to dream/fantasy but the seeds of one lie in the other and the opposites of each lie in each. One can lead to the other. Dreams or fantasy can have a basis in truth/reality and can develop into it, as in precognitive dreams or medical diagnosis/healing using the inner (sixth) sense. Truth/reality can have a basis in dream/ fantasy and can develop into it, as in human endeavour in the First World to solve the problems of the Third World. One fingerless hand claps, as in most aspects of nature.
TRAGI-COMEDY: "tragedy is underdeveloped comedy" (SK106) and "some crucial/ documents of sad evil... may yet/... fuel the fires of comedy" (CP296)
PAGANISM, NATURE WORSHIP AND ATHEISM: New life, new day./ A half-pilgrim saw it as a rabbiter/ poaching in wood sees/ primeval magic among the trees (CP113). Prayer, worship and meditation were directed towards the spirits, or towards the material manifestation of their power- hence sun and moon worship; sacrifices to the sea and the forest; festivals of spring, summer, harvest etc: And you who have not prayed/ the blackbird's evening prayer/ will kneel all night dismayed/ upon a frozen stair (CP64)
Many of the places of Christian pilgrimage were originally sacred, or "places of power", in earlier pagan cultures. Many Irish "Holy Wells" flowed healing water long before the Christian era.
As is the case with all thinkers, K often questioned if life had any meaning which can be discerned by human mind: Mind is a poor scholar/ O blind mind/ when is spun your chilly firmament/ souls nothing find (CP12)
The occult is based on dualism (white- black, good- evil). Adepts choose the left or right path, both of which are powerful. They pray/meditate in the belief that concentrated thought is concentra-ted energy and can cause the desired effect to happen, if only by bolster-ing their own self-confidence and resolve. Benevolent or malign human thought can be potentiated by calling in the heavies- benevolent or malign entities.
Apart from powers vested in the spirit world, occult traditions recognised special powers in certain natural phenomena. These forces could be harnessed by people for good or evil. One could draw healing power from a tree, an underground stream, the wind etc: It is there! Earth force! Life force!... Feel it flow: pins and needles tingling, Kundalini spreading. Scalp, neck, back, arms, trunk, loins, legs electric. Feel the Power and hold it within! (Rogers)
"They who live by the sword shall die by the sword". "As you sow, so shall you reap". Occult traditions teach, as does the Judaeo-Christian:... Thought and Word are straining hounds./ Once unleashed, they track and course/ the distance of the universe./ They nurture life or inflict savage wounds./ By day they turn their master's chosen game./ At night fall, they return/ (often matted in dried mud, torn,/ bloody, thorned, panting, lame)/ home to their lair. They paw and gnaw/ on parboiled heads and other gory chow./ They gorge as hungry hounds know how,/ then circle down to rest in the tangled straw/ synapses of their slipper's demon mind/ or wag their tails and nose his godly hand (Rogers)
Positive thoughts produce positive effects, as in healing prayer/Lourdes, telepathic healing. Negative thoughts produce negative effects, hence the use of curses, spells, voodoo etc in occult, pagan and satanic rituals. But the thoughts, or their clones, return to the sender.
ORIENTAL CONCEPTS AND ZEN: loser of the self to others is, through others, finder of the self.
Oriental philosophy is based on duality, the interplay of opposite forces. It holds that all created things depend on interplay of Yin-Yang energies or Qi- the vital or life force: Chained by a leathery navel cord to sweet-and-sour earth and pulled towards the celestial by fierce magnetic force, must our soft centres rip apart on that cosmic rack? Between the foolish and the wise, man lies. Between the glowing stars and groaning ice, man lies. Between laughter and tears, man lies. God-Satan fights in him. Hope-despair lurches his heart. Love-hatred savages his mind. Nun-Harlots turn his head and in a vital world many living souls are dead (Rogers).
The symbol of Yin-Yang Qi is the Monad, a circle divided in halves by a wavy line, so that it resembles two fish, head to tail. How many city-dwellers have seen the sharp line of demarcation between the north- and south- faces of a Toblerone of milled peat on a frosty January morning? The north face (Yin) is white with frost and the south face (Yang) is brown and the dividing line between the two runs along the top of the Toblerone. It is an amazing sight when seen for the first time but is shrugged at, as something absolutely natural, by those who know the bogs. It is one of the best examples of the oriental concept of Yin-Yang for visual display.
K was aware of nature's laws. In describing the North-facing side of hills, he wrote: My hills hoard the bright shillings of March/ while the sun searches in every pocket (CP13)
Yin (material, solid) and Yang (immaterial, ethereal) are merely different forms or states of energy. These realities, depend for their definition on each other. Yin (passive) and Yang (active) can not exist without each other. Yin and Yang transform (change) into each other and return to the original state (Yin to Yin, passivity to activity to passivity). Good and evil, antagonistic yet complementary fundamental energies must find expression.
Night and day, winter and summer, ice and fire, death and birth are common realities. In Zen they are neither evil nor good. They just are. Good and evil are only words. It is the personal choice and direction of action or inaction which matters to the Zen Master.
The concept of natural rhythms and change is central to Yin-Yang theory: See Master Sun, sail in at dawn, dip away at dusk. See Mistress Moon, slip in at dusk, pale away at dawn. But in the night the sun is there and in the day the moon, there and not there at the same time, like Santa Claus and God (Rogers)
Conception, birth, puberty, parenthood, menopause, death (reincarnation?) are all part of the seasons of life. There is a time for activity and a time for rest. All action/interaction involves input or output of energy, creation and destruction, and transformation, i.e. involves dynamic, inevitable change. Yet, the whole system stays in balance, with nothing added and nothing taken away. All of nature consists of change and no change. Yin-Yang theory predated Einstein's relativity theory by over 5000 years: The Newgrange sign is clear and penetrates the soul.... The whorls and spirals,... deeply etched in granite cry aloud: "The reality of life and death is change! The reality of change is death and life! Listen and act if you dare!". The eagle understood. He saw his death and rebirth, found great inner peace (Rogers)
Zen Buddhism is rooted in concepts of Tao (the Way), the paradox, the way of change and no change, the way of Yin to Yin and Yang to Yang. It is the way of reason and unreason (intuition).
An exercise of Zen meditation is to wrestle with a riddle to which there can be no reasonable answer- the paradoxical KOAN. A typical piece of Zen verse depicts a crag (Yang), valley (Yin), each merging into the other (change).
K was a great, if unwitting, poet of the oriental Zen Yin-Yang tradition:
... the boortree that has a curse but also a blessing (CP155). "Suddenly I remember something that makes me sad and, curiously enough, I am happy then" (SK122). "... people are hated because they are loved" (SK320). But now I will hate till my hate/ comes out the other side of the world as love,/ love in Australia (CP218). K's statements that "to be willing to be nothing is one of the best ways of being something" (SK222), that "his purpose was to have no purpose", that "tragedy is underdeveloped comedy" in the most profound sense (SK106) and that "the right way is wrong" (CP347) are characteristic of the Zen KOAN.
The comic poet and the Zen Master have a lot in common. Evil does not faze the Zen Master. He/she accepts evil with the same serene detachment as good. Both are equally valid realities:... praise, praise praise/ the way it happened and the way it is (CP322). Evil does not subdue or even arrest the comic poet because his/hers is the superb sanity of knowing what really matters (Kennelly).
In typical Zen riddles, K confounds thinkers and poets who take themselves too seriously in seeking to explore the unexplorable:... There are no answers/ to any real question (CP237, 238)/... no answer, no message from experience won,/ advice forever explores the banal/ so let us walk along the banks of the canal... (CP279)
or to those writers who try to explain the unexplainable: The only true teaching/ subsists in watching/ things moving or just colour/ without comment from the scholar (CP287)
CHRISTIAN FAITH: The way I see it, all that went before is gone, work, rest, good, sin, but sparrows still find grain. Today is incarnation, birth, death and resurrection, wheel, spoke and axle, hub and rim of universe (Rogers). Child there is light somewhere/ under a star,/ sometime it will be for you/ a window that looks inward to God (CP7). I saw Christ today/ at a street corner stand,/ in the rags of a beggar he stood/ he held ballads in his hand (CP27)
For faith to have value, believers must wrestle constantly with unbelief. K had many doubts. Talking to himself, he said: you... take up religion bitterly/ which you laughed at in your youth,/ well not actually laughed/ but it wasn't your kind of truth (CP223) but he wanted to accept the idea of a personal God: Only God thinks of the dying sparrow/ in the middle of a war (CP115). But the concept posed problems for him in later life, as it does to many who want to say (and believe) "Amen!". If the personal Ear of God listens to the millions who pray for specific, selfish, intentions, poor God must be weary, if not downright confused. K touches on this: A secret lover/ is saying Three Hail Marys.../ that... will bring/ Cathleen O'Hara... home to him./... Cathleen herself is saying/ (three more)... to bring/ somebody else home to her.../ What is the Virgin Mary now to do? (CP176)
K's idea of prayer was one of worship, praise and wonder at the beauty of creation (nature), a sense of oneness with the Creator and all things created, rather than a plea to supernatural beings for special treatment of the self: ... You plough, you sow, you reap, you buy and sell/ and sing and eat and sleep. All is well/ done/ in the name of the Holy One (CP181).
For him, the search for truth and its expression in poetry was real prayer, the praise and worship of the Spirit in mortal flesh, the childlike affirmation of the utter dependence of humanity on the benevolence of the Energy behind nature.
The Circle is the Father/ Diameter His Son/ Spirit the mathematical centre/ thus truth is known/ in all turning wheels/ in all tumbling clowns/ as in the firmament deep/ where the Prophet drowns (CP67)
But, as in other things, K was paradoxical: The poet's task is not to solve the riddle/ of Man and God but buckleap on a door/ and grab his screeching female by the middle/ to the music of a melodeon (preferably), roar/... up lads and thrash the beetles (CP248)
HUMANISM, ATHEISM, SCIENCE: (Knowledge said... ): This is the only way/ of truth ./ And the fool in me/ buried God's lantern in dark clay/ that an angel might not see (CP41)
K had difficulty in resolving the conflict between intelligence/rationality and blind or reluctant obedience to religious dogma and practice. The self-reliance and pride of atheistic humanism is exemplified in the "scientific" search for truth.
Many scienti-sts and thinkers believe that natural phenomena can be reduced ultimately to physical/chemical reactions governed by a complex set of equations. By reducing nature to equations, they remove all the wonder and mystery. Analysis may quantify the elements in the beetle's iridescent wing but can it reconstruct the beetle's ash to fly again? Can Science weigh the human soul or take the pulse of God? Atheistic scientists would not be:... afraid when the sun opened a flower,/... never astonished/ at a stick carried down a stream/ or at the undying difference in the corner of a field (CP180)
No scientist has seen a quark but the reality of quarks is inferred from effects which can be explained by their existence. No scientist has yet seen God through his/her telescope. Ergo, God does not exist- God is not given the status of the quark: Way out among the distant stars, or hidden in a quark,/ or in the pure song of the lark, or in the deeds of dark,/ or in the thunder and the rain, or in the desert dry,/ or in the fission of the bomb, or in the human cry,/ or in the slowly rotting leaf that births a giant tree,/ or in the plastic micro-chip, or in the depths of me,/ mc squared equals E! I kneel and adore THE E:/ at one with the Universe! (Rogers)
Einstein's Law of Relativity states that energy is neither created nor destroyed; it merely changes form. Mass and energy are interchangeable. Yet, the whole system stays in balance, with nothing added and nothing taken away. All of nature consists of change and no change. Ancient Yin/Yang and Zen theory predated these concepts by over 5000 years.
K saw science as a game for creatures of limited consciousness. FOR EMINENT PHYSICISTS is one of his best religious poems, in which he implies that faith in God wins him rather than reliance on science. The poem is so good that it said it all in less words that this commentary: God must be glad to see them play/ like kittens in the sun/ delighted with the wisps of hay/ blown from His haggard on a breezy day.../ Time's kittens, have your fun (CP147)
REPENTANCE: We have sinned.../ Let us lie down again/ deep in anonymous humility and God/ may find us worthy material for His hand (CP256)
Sin, guilt and repentance mean different things to different people. The human reality is that we are human. To be human is to err. Some belief systems call this sin and demand a personal and social expression of guilt (confession) and sorrow for it (repentance). Where possible, recompense is expected.
Honest people admit to having made some serious mistakes, or having failed to hit the desired ethical target. This recognition of human frailty, with a sense of praise, worship and total dependence on God/Nature is the basis for all healing of mind and body.
O divine Baby in the cradle/ all that is joy in me/ is that I have saved from the ruin/ of my soul your Infancy (CP71)
K admitted failure in the end and threw himself in God's hands, even though doubts about the existence of life after death had recurred again (1965): ... heaven if there is such/ a place which I doubt very much (CP344). One wonders if those lines flashed through his mind at his last conscious moment, or if he died composing some new and violently beautiful poem to the Creator or a poem simply praising human ability to defy poverty, pain, darkness and silence.
CONCLUSIONS: We are all conditioned in our beliefs, morality and behaviour by family, school and immediate society. Most parents try to pass on their sense of values to their children. Parents would resent the charge that they try to "condition the children to the same taboos and fears which make a mess of their own emotional, mental, spiritual and sexual lives" but, in many cases, this is what the system (home + school + church + society) really does: She held the strings of her children's Punch and Judy,/ and when a mouth opened/ it was her truth that the dolls would have spoken/ if they hadn't been made of wood and tin (CP99)
Professionals are conditioned by teachers, drug companies, peer-pressure and our own clinical experience. While much of our conditioning is very useful, much is unhelpful- it does not solve our clinical problems. It is possible to delete obsolete or faulty software/ideas from our brains' storage area/memory and to reprogramme with worthwhile or experimental software/ideas by interfacing with holistic practitioners, artists, mystics and poets. I urge you to try it. If the new software is unhelpful, that can be scrubbed also!
Life is for loving and living, for growth and decay, for experimentation and failure. It is not for futile talk or unfelt prayer: He saw the sunlight and begrudged no man/ his share of what the miserly soil and soul/ gives in season to the ploughman (CP96)
Teaching depends on the knowledge, instinct and communication skills of the teacher and on the ability and willingness of the student to learn. The great teacher may have many students or only one. But one is enough because that one may teach many.
K believed that the great poets... never teach us anything... they... provide us with an orgy of sensation and nothing else or more (SK220). I believe that K was wrong. He undervalued the priesthood of the great poets and the sermons on love, hate, hope and despair in his own life and work. In 1957 he said that malice is only another name for mediocrity. People need not be mediocrities if they accept themselves as God made them. God only makes geniuses (SK326). What a teaching if there are students to listen!
REFERENCES TO KAVANAGH'S LIFE AND WORK
Kavanagh, Patrick. Ploughman and other Poems. 1936. Macmillan, London. Kavanagh, Patrick. The Green Fool. 1938, 1987. Penguin Modern Classics. Kavanagh, Patrick. Tarry Flynn. 1948, 1975. Penguin Modern Classics. Kavanagh, Patrick. The Complete Poems (Collected, arranged and edited by Peter Kavanagh). 1972, 1984, 1987. Goldsmith Press, Newbridge, Ireland. Kavanagh, Peter. Lapped Furrows. 1969. The Peter Kavanagh Hand Press, New York. Kavanagh, Peter. Sacred Keeper. A biography of Patrick Kavanagh. 1979. The Goldsmith Press, The Curragh, Ireland. Kennelly, B. Irish Poets in English. 1973. Editor Sean Lucy, The Mercier Press, Cork and Dublin. O'Brien, D. Patrick Kavanagh. Bucknell University Press, U.S.A. O'Loughlin, M. After Kavanagh. 1985. The Raven Arts Press, Finglas, Dublin. Warner, A. Clay is the Word. 1973. Dolmen Press. Warner, A. A Guide to Anglo-Irish Literature. 1981. Chapter 9: Patrick Kavanagh. Gill and Macmillan, New York.
Holistic concepts integrate those of advanced physics with traditions of the shaman/ witchdoctor/ priest-priestess healer of many ancient cultures. They involve a belief that everything in creation is linked in a universal, if intangible, energy field (E = mc2); that each cell of the body has an electromagnetic field which reflects the state of the cell; that the healthy organism is a bioelectric entity, with a balanced, integrated set of fields; that a very wide range of stimuli (external, internal and genetic) can modulate (beneficially or adversely) the bioelectric fields in the organism; that focused thought can interact with the universal and personal energy field; that there is no past and no future, merely a continuous present; that field effects interact with cellular metabolism etc.
In the definition of the dictionary, many aspects of Holistic Concepts of Health and Disease are arcane or occult (something which is restricted to the fraternity/sorority; secret, hidden). Holistic (transcendent) medicine recognises many more causes and therapies of dis-ease than does mechanistic (scientific) medicine.
Many scientifically-trained professionals have a religious belief, in which the healing arts (medical or veterinary) are human expressions of a divine vocation, similar to priesthood or humanitarian service. In human frailty, they attempt to realise the "will of God" (as revealed by the Christ, the founders of other great religions and the mystics) "to love one another" and "to heal the sick". They believe that the mind/soul is often involved in dis-ease and that healing of the disturbed mind/soul can often be more important than mechanical correction of physical lesions. They believe that the mind of the patient (and of those who know the patient) can influence the outcome of psycho-somatic disease.
An inherent part of holistic medicine is the desire to understand when, where, how and why the patient is ill (diagnosis) and what to do about it i.e. what methods of therapy may help the patient most.
When diagnosing, many holistic practitioners positively seek the help of our Creator. They also seek the patient's help by an internal (mental) dialogue: if I am to help you most effectively, you must please show me where and what is your main problem! When treating, they will/visualise/ project healing to the patient as a routine part of what they do: I open myself to the healing energy of the Creator, who heals all pain and suffering. I transmit to you the healing energies with my love and with the love of our Creator.
Many holistic practitioners believe that a drug administered with love and compassion is of more benefit to a patient that the same drug administered mechanically or dispassionately. Great healers (believing that they act as channels for a benevolent Creator/Universal Life Force) can dispense with the drug altogether.
Fragments of my unpublished prose and verse follow. They may give some slants on this student's impressions of some of these concepts.
PATRICK KAVANAGH'S WORLDS: MINE AND NOT MINE
(Extracts from an unpublished work by P.A.M. Rogers).
Patrick Kavanagh (K) was a great poet, one of the greatest in the English language since W.B. Yeats. You may wonder what on earth a dead Irish poet has to do with Holistic Concepts of Health and Disease! I choose to discuss K's life and work, as they illustrate the paradoxical (Yin-Yang, positive and negative) nature of humanity, the power of mind to be creative or destructive, the struggle between rationalism and blind belief. Most of all, they allow discussion of materialistic-atheistic versus mystical-transcendent values. For poets and many holistic practitioners mysticism is the foundation of their work and their search for "why".
K was born on a small farm in Inniskeen, on the borders of Monaghan, Armagh and Louth (Ireland) on October 21, 1904. He died in a Dublin Nursing Home on November 30, 1967 after suffering years of cancer and alcoholism.
Though his body, bones and brain are long since dead and decomposed, K's warrior-spirit is alive and thriving! In his poetry, he is a warrior, a Christ-like champion of the poor and oppressed. His verses scream out human dis-ease (loneliness, pain, injustice, poverty and ignorance). They also sing out one recipe for optimal human health, the desire of the human soul to transcend the weakness and imperfection of this life. They acknowledge the joy and beauty of life (the only life that we really know) and the fearful wondering if there can be anything waiting on the other side of the Veil.
My comments on Kavanagh and his worlds are my impressions of his work. References and page numbers are shown as (CP5), where 5 is the page number in his COMPLETE POEMS. References from his novel the GREEN FOOL are coded (GF). LAPPED FURROWS and SACRED KEEPER (by his brother, Peter) are coded (LF) and (SK) respectively.
He was aware of the human condition: frailty, loneliness, frustration, the isolation of the artist and the need for love, the false friendship of the bottle, the transience of life and the battle to survive.
K was a paradox, an Irish version of a Zen riddle:... some said a great artist, others, ambiguously, a fiddle... (CP300). He was:... the representative of those/ clay-faced sucklers of spade handles,/ bleak peasants for whom Apollo blows... (CP30).
KAVANAGH THE POET : K wanted to find his own truths. Mysticism, Man's dialogue with God, Man-in-the-world-and-why was the foundation stone of his work: At the foot of a Cross is the Utterness/ of humanity/ every atom of clay,/ every worn stone/ becomes your wish for beauty/ the world cannot own... (SK8).
K had held fast to reason as the guiding principles for most of his life. But human actions and their expression are a mixture of reason and instinct (unreason). Alcoholism is "unreasonable", as is faith. In the end of his life, he wrote: The day I walked out on reason- that old plodder/ (but you didn't)/ was the best day of my life... (CP351)
K was a beggar but rich in spirituality, a dour loner and a black comedian. He was said to have been a plagiarist but he was also a creative genius. He meditated constantly on the place of humanity in nature and on the conflict and similarities between the pagan and Christian ways. He was a visionary/mystic, a Catholic/pagan.
The paradoxical riddles in K's life and work, his dualism (love/hate, joy/despair) and his undoubted consciousness of these suggest leanings towards the spirit of Zen Buddhism. He throws out a mighty challenge and no challenge: "my purpose in life is to have no purpose". Again, he said: Philosophy's graveyard- only dead men analyse/ the reason for existence./... The world began this morning, God-dreamt and full of birds.../ O come all ye youthful poets and try to be more human (CP225)
Humanity is a mixture of good and evil, gentleness and brutality. The conflict and tension between opposites has always been part of poetry and of life.
K was a very astute observer of nature- light, wind, landscape, animal- and human- behaviour. His readers, especially those from rural backgrounds, can feel the textures, see the pictures, hear the sounds of his ideas: A dog lying on a torn jacket under a heeled-up cart,/ a horse nosing along the posied headland, trailing/ a rusty plough..../ October playing a symphony on a slack wire paling (CP80)
SELF-EXAMINATION: I go from you as a snail/ into my twisted habitation./... I know the shallow ways/ of self (CP63).
If it is to be of universal import, poetry must contain a high degree of self-examination. It must examine and question accepted conventions and all the so-called basic dogmas and truths: birth/death, growth/senility, immaturity/maturity. It must also address human reaction to more abstract values and emotions- love/hate, God/Devil, good/evil, subjective/objective realities randomness/meaning of existence, etc.
Am I merely an amalgamation of things, bits and pieces strung together? Am I my profession, an ethical reality? Am I my feet, my penis, hands, one hand clapping in a Zen temple, the other severed in the surgeon's bin? Am I the sin of my ancestors, the mind-creation of my children, wife? Shall I pay the price for them? (Rogers).
FIERCE HONESTY AND LOVE OF TRUTH: K knew that nothing can be known fully and that people who assume that it can commit a crime against wonder: ...The poet wrote it down as best he knew/ as integral and completed as the emotion/ of men and women cloaking a burning emotion/ in the rags of the commonplace, will permit him (CP124)
Science, psychology and literary assessment rely on analysis, the breaking down and tearing apart of complex things and ideas into their components in an attempt to understand how they all fit together in the complete picture. This attempt, unless done with sensitivity and wonder, is of itself an act of destruction, a desecration:... we shall not ask for reason's payment/... nor analyse God's breath in common statement (CP125)
The dissected flower, butterfly, mind (or writer's work!) is a sad sight. K's comic vision sensed the vulgarity of such analysis. He was also sceptical of "objective" science. K was convinced that rational thought and scientific exploration are but one aspect of human search for subjective truth: Now I have to sit down and think/ a world into existence; you cannot borrow/ anyone else's... (CP296)
Objective truth depends on at least one observer. The more observers who agree, the more objective the truth is for them, in other words objective truth is arrived at by a consensus of subjective truth and ... Truth's insanity/ is a spell that all men must hold to; when they wake/ not even dust is left for all their striving (CP182)
TRUTH VERSUS FANTASY: ... If truth is certainty and our world uncertain, our world is fantasy. The main certainty for us is death, the main uncertainty what then?
My truth/reality may be your fantasy/nightmare. Our interpretation of the world is imperfect and subjective. It depends on our senses, our training and, to some extent, on instinct/intuition to fill in missing pieces of the image. Reason can be defective, a fact well known to those who work with psychiatric patients.
Dream-trance/hypnosis: In occult traditions thought (dream, conception, will) precedes action (foundation, construction, reality). The Spirit(s) breathe(s) the dream/idea, which may strike a number of people at the same time. Nothing is more powerful than an idea which has reached its time. If enough people want something to be (to happen), it will, at least for them. The dream precedes the blueprint, which precedes the Taj Mahal. Directed or controlled visualisation (daydream) is a powerful tool.
Truth/reality is primarily opposite in trend to dream/fantasy but the seeds of one lie in the other and the opposites of each lie in each. One can lead to the other. Dreams or fantasy can have a basis in truth/reality and can develop into it, as in precognitive dreams or medical diagnosis/healing using the inner (sixth) sense. Truth/reality can have a basis in dream/ fantasy and can develop into it, as in human endeavour in the First World to solve the problems of the Third World. One fingerless hand claps, as in most aspects of nature.
TRAGI-COMEDY: "tragedy is underdeveloped comedy" (SK106) and "some crucial/ documents of sad evil... may yet/... fuel the fires of comedy" (CP296)
PAGANISM, NATURE WORSHIP AND ATHEISM: New life, new day./ A half-pilgrim saw it as a rabbiter/ poaching in wood sees/ primeval magic among the trees (CP113). Prayer, worship and meditation were directed towards the spirits, or towards the material manifestation of their power- hence sun and moon worship; sacrifices to the sea and the forest; festivals of spring, summer, harvest etc: And you who have not prayed/ the blackbird's evening prayer/ will kneel all night dismayed/ upon a frozen stair (CP64)
Many of the places of Christian pilgrimage were originally sacred, or "places of power", in earlier pagan cultures. Many Irish "Holy Wells" flowed healing water long before the Christian era.
As is the case with all thinkers, K often questioned if life had any meaning which can be discerned by human mind: Mind is a poor scholar/ O blind mind/ when is spun your chilly firmament/ souls nothing find (CP12)
The occult is based on dualism (white- black, good- evil). Adepts choose the left or right path, both of which are powerful. They pray/meditate in the belief that concentrated thought is concentra-ted energy and can cause the desired effect to happen, if only by bolster-ing their own self-confidence and resolve. Benevolent or malign human thought can be potentiated by calling in the heavies- benevolent or malign entities.
Apart from powers vested in the spirit world, occult traditions recognised special powers in certain natural phenomena. These forces could be harnessed by people for good or evil. One could draw healing power from a tree, an underground stream, the wind etc: It is there! Earth force! Life force!... Feel it flow: pins and needles tingling, Kundalini spreading. Scalp, neck, back, arms, trunk, loins, legs electric. Feel the Power and hold it within! (Rogers)
"They who live by the sword shall die by the sword". "As you sow, so shall you reap". Occult traditions teach, as does the Judaeo-Christian:... Thought and Word are straining hounds./ Once unleashed, they track and course/ the distance of the universe./ They nurture life or inflict savage wounds./ By day they turn their master's chosen game./ At night fall, they return/ (often matted in dried mud, torn,/ bloody, thorned, panting, lame)/ home to their lair. They paw and gnaw/ on parboiled heads and other gory chow./ They gorge as hungry hounds know how,/ then circle down to rest in the tangled straw/ synapses of their slipper's demon mind/ or wag their tails and nose his godly hand (Rogers)
Positive thoughts produce positive effects, as in healing prayer/Lourdes, telepathic healing. Negative thoughts produce negative effects, hence the use of curses, spells, voodoo etc in occult, pagan and satanic rituals. But the thoughts, or their clones, return to the sender.
ORIENTAL CONCEPTS AND ZEN: loser of the self to others is, through others, finder of the self.
Oriental philosophy is based on duality, the interplay of opposite forces. It holds that all created things depend on interplay of Yin-Yang energies or Qi- the vital or life force: Chained by a leathery navel cord to sweet-and-sour earth and pulled towards the celestial by fierce magnetic force, must our soft centres rip apart on that cosmic rack? Between the foolish and the wise, man lies. Between the glowing stars and groaning ice, man lies. Between laughter and tears, man lies. God-Satan fights in him. Hope-despair lurches his heart. Love-hatred savages his mind. Nun-Harlots turn his head and in a vital world many living souls are dead (Rogers).
The symbol of Yin-Yang Qi is the Monad, a circle divided in halves by a wavy line, so that it resembles two fish, head to tail. How many city-dwellers have seen the sharp line of demarcation between the north- and south- faces of a Toblerone of milled peat on a frosty January morning? The north face (Yin) is white with frost and the south face (Yang) is brown and the dividing line between the two runs along the top of the Toblerone. It is an amazing sight when seen for the first time but is shrugged at, as something absolutely natural, by those who know the bogs. It is one of the best examples of the oriental concept of Yin-Yang for visual display.
K was aware of nature's laws. In describing the North-facing side of hills, he wrote: My hills hoard the bright shillings of March/ while the sun searches in every pocket (CP13)
Yin (material, solid) and Yang (immaterial, ethereal) are merely different forms or states of energy. These realities, depend for their definition on each other. Yin (passive) and Yang (active) can not exist without each other. Yin and Yang transform (change) into each other and return to the original state (Yin to Yin, passivity to activity to passivity). Good and evil, antagonistic yet complementary fundamental energies must find expression.
Night and day, winter and summer, ice and fire, death and birth are common realities. In Zen they are neither evil nor good. They just are. Good and evil are only words. It is the personal choice and direction of action or inaction which matters to the Zen Master.
The concept of natural rhythms and change is central to Yin-Yang theory: See Master Sun, sail in at dawn, dip away at dusk. See Mistress Moon, slip in at dusk, pale away at dawn. But in the night the sun is there and in the day the moon, there and not there at the same time, like Santa Claus and God (Rogers)
Conception, birth, puberty, parenthood, menopause, death (reincarnation?) are all part of the seasons of life. There is a time for activity and a time for rest. All action/interaction involves input or output of energy, creation and destruction, and transformation, i.e. involves dynamic, inevitable change. Yet, the whole system stays in balance, with nothing added and nothing taken away. All of nature consists of change and no change. Yin-Yang theory predated Einstein's relativity theory by over 5000 years: The Newgrange sign is clear and penetrates the soul.... The whorls and spirals,... deeply etched in granite cry aloud: "The reality of life and death is change! The reality of change is death and life! Listen and act if you dare!". The eagle understood. He saw his death and rebirth, found great inner peace (Rogers)
Zen Buddhism is rooted in concepts of Tao (the Way), the paradox, the way of change and no change, the way of Yin to Yin and Yang to Yang. It is the way of reason and unreason (intuition).
An exercise of Zen meditation is to wrestle with a riddle to which there can be no reasonable answer- the paradoxical KOAN. A typical piece of Zen verse depicts a crag (Yang), valley (Yin), each merging into the other (change).
K was a great, if unwitting, poet of the oriental Zen Yin-Yang tradition:
... the boortree that has a curse but also a blessing (CP155). "Suddenly I remember something that makes me sad and, curiously enough, I am happy then" (SK122). "... people are hated because they are loved" (SK320). But now I will hate till my hate/ comes out the other side of the world as love,/ love in Australia (CP218). K's statements that "to be willing to be nothing is one of the best ways of being something" (SK222), that "his purpose was to have no purpose", that "tragedy is underdeveloped comedy" in the most profound sense (SK106) and that "the right way is wrong" (CP347) are characteristic of the Zen KOAN.
The comic poet and the Zen Master have a lot in common. Evil does not faze the Zen Master. He/she accepts evil with the same serene detachment as good. Both are equally valid realities:... praise, praise praise/ the way it happened and the way it is (CP322). Evil does not subdue or even arrest the comic poet because his/hers is the superb sanity of knowing what really matters (Kennelly).
In typical Zen riddles, K confounds thinkers and poets who take themselves too seriously in seeking to explore the unexplorable:... There are no answers/ to any real question (CP237, 238)/... no answer, no message from experience won,/ advice forever explores the banal/ so let us walk along the banks of the canal... (CP279)
or to those writers who try to explain the unexplainable: The only true teaching/ subsists in watching/ things moving or just colour/ without comment from the scholar (CP287)
CHRISTIAN FAITH: The way I see it, all that went before is gone, work, rest, good, sin, but sparrows still find grain. Today is incarnation, birth, death and resurrection, wheel, spoke and axle, hub and rim of universe (Rogers). Child there is light somewhere/ under a star,/ sometime it will be for you/ a window that looks inward to God (CP7). I saw Christ today/ at a street corner stand,/ in the rags of a beggar he stood/ he held ballads in his hand (CP27)
For faith to have value, believers must wrestle constantly with unbelief. K had many doubts. Talking to himself, he said: you... take up religion bitterly/ which you laughed at in your youth,/ well not actually laughed/ but it wasn't your kind of truth (CP223) but he wanted to accept the idea of a personal God: Only God thinks of the dying sparrow/ in the middle of a war (CP115). But the concept posed problems for him in later life, as it does to many who want to say (and believe) "Amen!". If the personal Ear of God listens to the millions who pray for specific, selfish, intentions, poor God must be weary, if not downright confused. K touches on this: A secret lover/ is saying Three Hail Marys.../ that... will bring/ Cathleen O'Hara... home to him./... Cathleen herself is saying/ (three more)... to bring/ somebody else home to her.../ What is the Virgin Mary now to do? (CP176)
K's idea of prayer was one of worship, praise and wonder at the beauty of creation (nature), a sense of oneness with the Creator and all things created, rather than a plea to supernatural beings for special treatment of the self: ... You plough, you sow, you reap, you buy and sell/ and sing and eat and sleep. All is well/ done/ in the name of the Holy One (CP181).
For him, the search for truth and its expression in poetry was real prayer, the praise and worship of the Spirit in mortal flesh, the childlike affirmation of the utter dependence of humanity on the benevolence of the Energy behind nature.
The Circle is the Father/ Diameter His Son/ Spirit the mathematical centre/ thus truth is known/ in all turning wheels/ in all tumbling clowns/ as in the firmament deep/ where the Prophet drowns (CP67)
But, as in other things, K was paradoxical: The poet's task is not to solve the riddle/ of Man and God but buckleap on a door/ and grab his screeching female by the middle/ to the music of a melodeon (preferably), roar/... up lads and thrash the beetles (CP248)
HUMANISM, ATHEISM, SCIENCE: (Knowledge said... ): This is the only way/ of truth ./ And the fool in me/ buried God's lantern in dark clay/ that an angel might not see (CP41)
K had difficulty in resolving the conflict between intelligence/rationality and blind or reluctant obedience to religious dogma and practice. The self-reliance and pride of atheistic humanism is exemplified in the "scientific" search for truth.
Many scienti-sts and thinkers believe that natural phenomena can be reduced ultimately to physical/chemical reactions governed by a complex set of equations. By reducing nature to equations, they remove all the wonder and mystery. Analysis may quantify the elements in the beetle's iridescent wing but can it reconstruct the beetle's ash to fly again? Can Science weigh the human soul or take the pulse of God? Atheistic scientists would not be:... afraid when the sun opened a flower,/... never astonished/ at a stick carried down a stream/ or at the undying difference in the corner of a field (CP180)
No scientist has seen a quark but the reality of quarks is inferred from effects which can be explained by their existence. No scientist has yet seen God through his/her telescope. Ergo, God does not exist- God is not given the status of the quark: Way out among the distant stars, or hidden in a quark,/ or in the pure song of the lark, or in the deeds of dark,/ or in the thunder and the rain, or in the desert dry,/ or in the fission of the bomb, or in the human cry,/ or in the slowly rotting leaf that births a giant tree,/ or in the plastic micro-chip, or in the depths of me,/ mc squared equals E! I kneel and adore THE E:/ at one with the Universe! (Rogers)
Einstein's Law of Relativity states that energy is neither created nor destroyed; it merely changes form. Mass and energy are interchangeable. Yet, the whole system stays in balance, with nothing added and nothing taken away. All of nature consists of change and no change. Ancient Yin/Yang and Zen theory predated these concepts by over 5000 years.
K saw science as a game for creatures of limited consciousness. FOR EMINENT PHYSICISTS is one of his best religious poems, in which he implies that faith in God wins him rather than reliance on science. The poem is so good that it said it all in less words that this commentary: God must be glad to see them play/ like kittens in the sun/ delighted with the wisps of hay/ blown from His haggard on a breezy day.../ Time's kittens, have your fun (CP147)
REPENTANCE: We have sinned.../ Let us lie down again/ deep in anonymous humility and God/ may find us worthy material for His hand (CP256)
Sin, guilt and repentance mean different things to different people. The human reality is that we are human. To be human is to err. Some belief systems call this sin and demand a personal and social expression of guilt (confession) and sorrow for it (repentance). Where possible, recompense is expected.
Honest people admit to having made some serious mistakes, or having failed to hit the desired ethical target. This recognition of human frailty, with a sense of praise, worship and total dependence on God/Nature is the basis for all healing of mind and body.
O divine Baby in the cradle/ all that is joy in me/ is that I have saved from the ruin/ of my soul your Infancy (CP71)
K admitted failure in the end and threw himself in God's hands, even though doubts about the existence of life after death had recurred again (1965): ... heaven if there is such/ a place which I doubt very much (CP344). One wonders if those lines flashed through his mind at his last conscious moment, or if he died composing some new and violently beautiful poem to the Creator or a poem simply praising human ability to defy poverty, pain, darkness and silence.
CONCLUSIONS: We are all conditioned in our beliefs, morality and behaviour by family, school and immediate society. Most parents try to pass on their sense of values to their children. Parents would resent the charge that they try to "condition the children to the same taboos and fears which make a mess of their own emotional, mental, spiritual and sexual lives" but, in many cases, this is what the system (home + school + church + society) really does: She held the strings of her children's Punch and Judy,/ and when a mouth opened/ it was her truth that the dolls would have spoken/ if they hadn't been made of wood and tin (CP99)
Professionals are conditioned by teachers, drug companies, peer-pressure and our own clinical experience. While much of our conditioning is very useful, much is unhelpful- it does not solve our clinical problems. It is possible to delete obsolete or faulty software/ideas from our brains' storage area/memory and to reprogramme with worthwhile or experimental software/ideas by interfacing with holistic practitioners, artists, mystics and poets. I urge you to try it. If the new software is unhelpful, that can be scrubbed also!
Life is for loving and living, for growth and decay, for experimentation and failure. It is not for futile talk or unfelt prayer: He saw the sunlight and begrudged no man/ his share of what the miserly soil and soul/ gives in season to the ploughman (CP96)
Teaching depends on the knowledge, instinct and communication skills of the teacher and on the ability and willingness of the student to learn. The great teacher may have many students or only one. But one is enough because that one may teach many.
K believed that the great poets... never teach us anything... they... provide us with an orgy of sensation and nothing else or more (SK220). I believe that K was wrong. He undervalued the priesthood of the great poets and the sermons on love, hate, hope and despair in his own life and work. In 1957 he said that malice is only another name for mediocrity. People need not be mediocrities if they accept themselves as God made them. God only makes geniuses (SK326). What a teaching if there are students to listen!
REFERENCES TO KAVANAGH'S LIFE AND WORK
Kavanagh, Patrick. Ploughman and other Poems. 1936. Macmillan, London. Kavanagh, Patrick. The Green Fool. 1938, 1987. Penguin Modern Classics. Kavanagh, Patrick. Tarry Flynn. 1948, 1975. Penguin Modern Classics. Kavanagh, Patrick. The Complete Poems (Collected, arranged and edited by Peter Kavanagh). 1972, 1984, 1987. Goldsmith Press, Newbridge, Ireland. Kavanagh, Peter. Lapped Furrows. 1969. The Peter Kavanagh Hand Press, New York. Kavanagh, Peter. Sacred Keeper. A biography of Patrick Kavanagh. 1979. The Goldsmith Press, The Curragh, Ireland. Kennelly, B. Irish Poets in English. 1973. Editor Sean Lucy, The Mercier Press, Cork and Dublin. O'Brien, D. Patrick Kavanagh. Bucknell University Press, U.S.A. O'Loughlin, M. After Kavanagh. 1985. The Raven Arts Press, Finglas, Dublin. Warner, A. Clay is the Word. 1973. Dolmen Press. Warner, A. A Guide to Anglo-Irish Literature. 1981. Chapter 9: Patrick Kavanagh. Gill and Macmillan, New York.
CONCEPTS OF UNITY Unpublished verse by P.A.M. Rogers
MUNDANE ARCANE
Long and slender/ needles of fine steel/ are symbols of another way./ One Master inserts two tips/ through the eye of a third.../ voila, a Chinese dowsing-rod/ to find the leaking point./ Another reads the pulses,/ with sorcerer's intent,/ or reads the tongue/ to find the locus/ of the block. A third simply feels/ above the horse's hooves/ for watery holes. He nods/ when his finger drowns/ in Sandefjord.
In her sanctum/ an adept gazes/ at crystal fire./ The prayer dream/ grows, water-cries/ and claws for birth./ In the next village,/ the cripple, laughing madly,/ walks.
REVOLT AND GOVERNMEN
THE CIRCLE (Yin-Yang)
Two fish fill the circle./ Lovers circle and clinch/ and fall into the circle./ A tireless snake/ swallows its tail./ Where is the rattle, the venom ?/ Hidden away as potential energy/ to please the child or put/ the demented out of misery ?
Atoms and universes show/ the power of revolution/ and Einstein proclaimed/ ex cathedra the dogma/ of the unity of matter and energy./ So to infinity are the Word, the Flesh/ and the Light interchangeable./ Nothing is lost, nothing gained/ in the endless cosmic dance./ Hexagrams from ancient yarrow sticks/ or from random number generators/ point the ultimate reality :/ change is the source and end of all/ change is revolution !/ Wheels roll on ; all is change/ and nothing changes anyway.
THE STAR (THE FIVE PHASES)
The inner calm, the balance/ between atoms and the universe,/ the hidden seabed and the clouded peak,/ the human states, the blues, the joys,/ lie in the circle around the star.
The tips of the Five Point Star/ sow seeds of revolt and government./ As fire begets the ash of earth,/ Earth-mother births her shining/ and so around the clockwise wheel/ the change brings life and growth/ and death. The wheel and pentagram roll on,/ Government and revolution live in harmony./ As water controls fire,/ fear controls desire
but if water overheats,/ fire rebels, attacks,/ turning it to steam/ and desire flares, then flickers out./ So are all the elemental attributes controlled/ in flux. Creation and destruction/ vie as equals in the turning wheel./ Nuclei disintegrate. Nuclei fuse./ Seal-pups clubbed to death ; a V of swans in flight./ Did Einstein get his calculations right ... ?
BRUSH STROKES ON A CANVAS
Jagged crag, what is your need ?/ To lose my stoneness in beauty,/ avalanche, granite-chipped, myriad shaped,/ mica glistened, marble streaked,/ thunder down into the shrouded valley.
Empty valley, what is your need ?/ To be seeded with sound, colour, form,/ swell the senses, mind to consciousness,/ flood my fullness up my fertile slopes,/ overflow to other empty craters.
Crag and valley fuse, explode,/ disintegrate, reform to emptiness and stone again./ The canvas satisfies the painter's eye/ and palette, brushes, paint/ sleep the easel sleep of waiting.
UNIVERSES REFLECTE
FLOW
Two lifeless planets, coldly orbiting,/ attracted and repelled in silent dance/ around two lonely suns, hurtle onward
with their suns through nothingness,/ collide with a sixteen-pointed star,/ cruising too hungrily to enter Eden.
Blueprinted by a thirsty Architect,/ eighteen sparkling planets realign./ We have ignition ! H2O is formed.
The flow is fierce, the tides are strong./ The Artist claps in glee/ as the seething sea pounds puffing holes.
From its heavings, from its froth,/ live erupts unstoppable.
EBB
Sea-sculpted from Easky shale,/ pools at the high-tide mark/ swirl, dart- twisted by stranded fish,/ their water of life break-dancing to elemental rhythms. Salty source/ and final leveller of seer and fool,/ sea-fields grassed with bubble-weed and wrack,/ sliding ruin of the careless foot.
Mines of gold and silver flashes,/ crab and shrimp, joy of urchins/ dangling threads for treasures/ and the treasures released unharmed.
Winkles, algae, plankton/ teem in landlocked space-time./ Birth-grunts of dinosaurs imprint/ on cliffs and human stains dissolve in salt-spray. Water-born lifetimes/ of centuries, years, seconds,/ riff the surface, sink/ like skipping-stones/ but mirrors reflect the user/ and images of glory reappear.
ON THE 37th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Ming Ming and Ping Ping were gone/ but over the well-trimmed Embassy lawn,/ echoed the crunching of bamboo on skulls./ Kaleidoscopes of bamboo-shoots, green and tender/ and dissident shoots, scarlet and brutalised/ floated in the air against a sea of blood/ and righteous bullets./ Feudal lords, sated/ and peasants ground to poverty and blank despair/ whispered from the Ballsbridge trees./ Sweat dripped from heat-struck oxen./ Terrible diseases fought each other/ to be first in the land./ A rapist laughed as he buttoned up/ but his mouth became a giant O/ as his severed head was shown to the crowd./ More warriors clashed among the flowers/ before they petrified. The unlucky ones/ lost their arms in a Dublin hospital/ but the arm of Wu Song-Fook,/ severed by an unguarded band-saw,/ was replanted to his living trunk/ by a macro-team of microsurgeons/ in a Shanghai hospital./
Opium the religion of the people no more./ The opiate receptors, deep in the brain,/ now explain the potency/ of tiny needles in the skin./ Miracles of ancient sciences,/ the needles, moxa, herbs,/ help the hopeless cases./ The soldier, paralysed by a stroke,/ drives again the army truck./ The polio child walks without her braces,/ which recycle endlessly./ The dumb speak./ Miracles of our science/ irrigate the fields, yield four crops/ of living rice. And paddyfields yield/ fish and ducks and not a Paddy poacher to be seen./
We try to understand but fail,/ our superior politeness wearing thin./ Chinese fiddles and strings/ create their weird cacophonies,/ background to the high-pitched and bass/ voices of the Beijing Opera./ The artists move as if on strings themselves./ Are they mindless marionettes/ or experts far beyond our dreams ?/ We strain to catch the meanings/ where there are none for us./ Twirling his fourth glass of wine,/ a shrewd observer mutters/ that it is all above him./ Good on you mate-/ there are others less perceptive!/
The gulf of comprehension narrows/ slightly when we realise/ the discipline and method/ behind the sounds and movements./ Control, control ! A game of mastery/ with different rules and codes from ours./ The dawning as the black eyes smile/ into the puzzled blue :/ THEY are Chinese. They are CHINESE./ This is their way, perfect in its form/ and execution.
More images mirage on the lawn./ Slender women run on unbound feet,/ free and equal with their men ;/ laughing children point at the bearded ones ;/ workers meditating at the factory lathe ;/ Tai Ch'i in the streets,/ control of mind and body,/ bees in the hive where there is no queen ;/ one thousand million on the march to peace ;/ a flawless pearl, sand-itched from the Yellow River -/ love, respect, morality and strength,/ a fearsome combination, backed by boundless hope./
To the next thirty-seven years/ and their kaleidoscopic clones,/ Kampe ! Kampe, Ambassador !/ Between our heres and there 's a bridge is built/ but treat your rebels without guilt !
RIVER SCENE
The ferryman spent his days/ poling people to and fro./ Monks and merchants, poor and rich/ passed their hurried way,/ missing the ferryman's wink/ and the banyan tree.
Content in the banyan shade,/ sat a hardened Buddhist monk/ remembering his debauched youth,/ a youth of silk and softness,/ perfumes, musk and wine./ All his urgent needs were met./ Nothing needed now/ but the river's confidence/ and its womb-like murmuring.
River, your questions ?/ What sought you of the burning eyes, excited face ?/ To know the unknown./ What sought you of the burnt-out eyes and ashen face ?/ To unknow the known./ What is the time between your coming and your going ?/ A wasted lifetime./ Return to the watery peace from whence you came !
The monk caught the ferryman's wink -/ they knew the river's age and of its wisdom./ What is the answer, river ?/ Monk and ferryman, hear me well !/ You must choose your heaven and hell./ Now is the time to live or die./ Now is the time to laugh or cry,/ fast or eat, wake or sleep./ Now is the time of knowing.
Virgin to the bed of shame,/ foetus on the draining-board,/ soldier in the sights,/ death of a loved child -/ there is no going back./ Unknowing is the dark finality./ Be, my friends ! Just be/ or choose and be done with questions.
VIVE LA DIFFERENCE
US
He wears last-year's baggy pants,/ discordant jacket, any shirt./ She disapproves in her aesthetic agony./ She sees herself a queen in seamless silk./ He sees the price in coolie's sweat.
She sees red flowers, pearled with dew./ He sees the thorns, the horse manure./ She is pricked as she captures her dream./ He ignores the perfume/ as he digs their common grave/ in the shadow of the unseen rose.
She of the spirit, he of the flesh/ at the middle time of life/ live a charade/ unless they understand the wheel/ and compromise.
THEM
"Vive la difference !" some say,/ as if the fact is static./ But I wonder about wheels and rhythms,/ cycles turning.
The adult male is hard,/ his softness locked away/ by the evidence of his witnesses/ until, at sixty-five or so,/ the witnesses withdraw the evidence,/ springing softness from its prison./ The ripe female is soft,/ her hardness camouflaged by egg-stuff/ until the ova yield to menopause./ Hormonal brake released, she grows a beard/ and talks bass tones.
Testosterone and oestrogen, the fighting twins,/ secreted from the same cells in the embryo,/ compete for sexual expression/ in body and in mind./ The different responses are statistically significant,/ programmed parts of our humanity./ Brutality responds to nature's nudge/ but all things pass in time./ C'est la vie !
JACK AND MARY SPRATT
For fifty years they shared a home/ whose solid walls absorbed/ the joy and hate, laughter/ and the sound of grinding teeth./ Their bioclocks were three hours out of phase -/ best times for both were rare./ Although they died three years apart,/ their coffins touch.
Her life was spotless,/ regulated by strict rules./ Her dream was changelessness,/ defying seething tides of change./ He lived undisciplined,/ driven by escapist dreams/ to change the world,/ yet sure that nothing changes./ She was rooted in the earth and things,/ but sometimes soared./ He hawked the air on flimsy wings/ and plummeted to earth for meat./ They orbited between the earth and stars/ and nodded in greeting/ when their orbits crossed.
Neighbours heard their squabbles/ frequently./ The travelling woman called on Saturdays/ religiously./ They ate the bread of life together/ occasionally,/ made calm-eyed children/ accidentally/ and nurtured them/ instinctively./ At night, together but apart/ they dreamed and sighed. When clay was thrown down on them/ and the old priest intoned for them/ great crowds wept for them/ knowing/ how much they loved each other/unknowingly.
LET THE STUDENT BEWARE
TRUTH
I show you nature through my eyes/ but you must cast away my truths,/ unless your own experience/ should drift with mine/ as grappled boats, lost/ in the ghostly fog/ which scientists call truth.
You must reach and trap the fog/ in baby's hands. Call it your truth./ But, if you dare to chink your hands,/ be quick to look ! Some truths/ can last no longer than the dew at noon/ nor than the lightning bolt/ that streaks to earth in June.
The thought of truth as absolute/ provokes me to irate invective !/ The nearest thing to objective truth/ is the death of the unconceived./ The fool who knows she is a fool is not./ The sage who thinks he is a sage is not.
BEWARE
Like digging moles, your eager minds/ probed for slugs of knowledge hidden/ in the humus of half truths./ Your search is tonic to our jaded souls./ You drank my rehashed notes/ as if your thirst could not be slaked/ and bolted my cliched words,/ then licked with relish from my fingertips/ small crumbs of my truths./ You stomached them in your spring-bound books,/ to ruminate on, quietly/ pelleting your truth.
I loved you then for I'm a student too !/ Beware !
THEN WHAT?
MUNDANE ARCANE
Long and slender/ needles of fine steel/ are symbols of another way./ One Master inserts two tips/ through the eye of a third.../ voila, a Chinese dowsing-rod/ to find the leaking point./ Another reads the pulses,/ with sorcerer's intent,/ or reads the tongue/ to find the locus/ of the block. A third simply feels/ above the horse's hooves/ for watery holes. He nods/ when his finger drowns/ in Sandefjord.
In her sanctum/ an adept gazes/ at crystal fire./ The prayer dream/ grows, water-cries/ and claws for birth./ In the next village,/ the cripple, laughing madly,/ walks.
REVOLT AND GOVERNMEN
THE CIRCLE (Yin-Yang)
Two fish fill the circle./ Lovers circle and clinch/ and fall into the circle./ A tireless snake/ swallows its tail./ Where is the rattle, the venom ?/ Hidden away as potential energy/ to please the child or put/ the demented out of misery ?
Atoms and universes show/ the power of revolution/ and Einstein proclaimed/ ex cathedra the dogma/ of the unity of matter and energy./ So to infinity are the Word, the Flesh/ and the Light interchangeable./ Nothing is lost, nothing gained/ in the endless cosmic dance./ Hexagrams from ancient yarrow sticks/ or from random number generators/ point the ultimate reality :/ change is the source and end of all/ change is revolution !/ Wheels roll on ; all is change/ and nothing changes anyway.
THE STAR (THE FIVE PHASES)
The inner calm, the balance/ between atoms and the universe,/ the hidden seabed and the clouded peak,/ the human states, the blues, the joys,/ lie in the circle around the star.
The tips of the Five Point Star/ sow seeds of revolt and government./ As fire begets the ash of earth,/ Earth-mother births her shining/ and so around the clockwise wheel/ the change brings life and growth/ and death. The wheel and pentagram roll on,/ Government and revolution live in harmony./ As water controls fire,/ fear controls desire
but if water overheats,/ fire rebels, attacks,/ turning it to steam/ and desire flares, then flickers out./ So are all the elemental attributes controlled/ in flux. Creation and destruction/ vie as equals in the turning wheel./ Nuclei disintegrate. Nuclei fuse./ Seal-pups clubbed to death ; a V of swans in flight./ Did Einstein get his calculations right ... ?
BRUSH STROKES ON A CANVAS
Jagged crag, what is your need ?/ To lose my stoneness in beauty,/ avalanche, granite-chipped, myriad shaped,/ mica glistened, marble streaked,/ thunder down into the shrouded valley.
Empty valley, what is your need ?/ To be seeded with sound, colour, form,/ swell the senses, mind to consciousness,/ flood my fullness up my fertile slopes,/ overflow to other empty craters.
Crag and valley fuse, explode,/ disintegrate, reform to emptiness and stone again./ The canvas satisfies the painter's eye/ and palette, brushes, paint/ sleep the easel sleep of waiting.
UNIVERSES REFLECTE
FLOW
Two lifeless planets, coldly orbiting,/ attracted and repelled in silent dance/ around two lonely suns, hurtle onward
with their suns through nothingness,/ collide with a sixteen-pointed star,/ cruising too hungrily to enter Eden.
Blueprinted by a thirsty Architect,/ eighteen sparkling planets realign./ We have ignition ! H2O is formed.
The flow is fierce, the tides are strong./ The Artist claps in glee/ as the seething sea pounds puffing holes.
From its heavings, from its froth,/ live erupts unstoppable.
EBB
Sea-sculpted from Easky shale,/ pools at the high-tide mark/ swirl, dart- twisted by stranded fish,/ their water of life break-dancing to elemental rhythms. Salty source/ and final leveller of seer and fool,/ sea-fields grassed with bubble-weed and wrack,/ sliding ruin of the careless foot.
Mines of gold and silver flashes,/ crab and shrimp, joy of urchins/ dangling threads for treasures/ and the treasures released unharmed.
Winkles, algae, plankton/ teem in landlocked space-time./ Birth-grunts of dinosaurs imprint/ on cliffs and human stains dissolve in salt-spray. Water-born lifetimes/ of centuries, years, seconds,/ riff the surface, sink/ like skipping-stones/ but mirrors reflect the user/ and images of glory reappear.
ON THE 37th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Ming Ming and Ping Ping were gone/ but over the well-trimmed Embassy lawn,/ echoed the crunching of bamboo on skulls./ Kaleidoscopes of bamboo-shoots, green and tender/ and dissident shoots, scarlet and brutalised/ floated in the air against a sea of blood/ and righteous bullets./ Feudal lords, sated/ and peasants ground to poverty and blank despair/ whispered from the Ballsbridge trees./ Sweat dripped from heat-struck oxen./ Terrible diseases fought each other/ to be first in the land./ A rapist laughed as he buttoned up/ but his mouth became a giant O/ as his severed head was shown to the crowd./ More warriors clashed among the flowers/ before they petrified. The unlucky ones/ lost their arms in a Dublin hospital/ but the arm of Wu Song-Fook,/ severed by an unguarded band-saw,/ was replanted to his living trunk/ by a macro-team of microsurgeons/ in a Shanghai hospital./
Opium the religion of the people no more./ The opiate receptors, deep in the brain,/ now explain the potency/ of tiny needles in the skin./ Miracles of ancient sciences,/ the needles, moxa, herbs,/ help the hopeless cases./ The soldier, paralysed by a stroke,/ drives again the army truck./ The polio child walks without her braces,/ which recycle endlessly./ The dumb speak./ Miracles of our science/ irrigate the fields, yield four crops/ of living rice. And paddyfields yield/ fish and ducks and not a Paddy poacher to be seen./
We try to understand but fail,/ our superior politeness wearing thin./ Chinese fiddles and strings/ create their weird cacophonies,/ background to the high-pitched and bass/ voices of the Beijing Opera./ The artists move as if on strings themselves./ Are they mindless marionettes/ or experts far beyond our dreams ?/ We strain to catch the meanings/ where there are none for us./ Twirling his fourth glass of wine,/ a shrewd observer mutters/ that it is all above him./ Good on you mate-/ there are others less perceptive!/
The gulf of comprehension narrows/ slightly when we realise/ the discipline and method/ behind the sounds and movements./ Control, control ! A game of mastery/ with different rules and codes from ours./ The dawning as the black eyes smile/ into the puzzled blue :/ THEY are Chinese. They are CHINESE./ This is their way, perfect in its form/ and execution.
More images mirage on the lawn./ Slender women run on unbound feet,/ free and equal with their men ;/ laughing children point at the bearded ones ;/ workers meditating at the factory lathe ;/ Tai Ch'i in the streets,/ control of mind and body,/ bees in the hive where there is no queen ;/ one thousand million on the march to peace ;/ a flawless pearl, sand-itched from the Yellow River -/ love, respect, morality and strength,/ a fearsome combination, backed by boundless hope./
To the next thirty-seven years/ and their kaleidoscopic clones,/ Kampe ! Kampe, Ambassador !/ Between our heres and there 's a bridge is built/ but treat your rebels without guilt !
RIVER SCENE
The ferryman spent his days/ poling people to and fro./ Monks and merchants, poor and rich/ passed their hurried way,/ missing the ferryman's wink/ and the banyan tree.
Content in the banyan shade,/ sat a hardened Buddhist monk/ remembering his debauched youth,/ a youth of silk and softness,/ perfumes, musk and wine./ All his urgent needs were met./ Nothing needed now/ but the river's confidence/ and its womb-like murmuring.
River, your questions ?/ What sought you of the burning eyes, excited face ?/ To know the unknown./ What sought you of the burnt-out eyes and ashen face ?/ To unknow the known./ What is the time between your coming and your going ?/ A wasted lifetime./ Return to the watery peace from whence you came !
The monk caught the ferryman's wink -/ they knew the river's age and of its wisdom./ What is the answer, river ?/ Monk and ferryman, hear me well !/ You must choose your heaven and hell./ Now is the time to live or die./ Now is the time to laugh or cry,/ fast or eat, wake or sleep./ Now is the time of knowing.
Virgin to the bed of shame,/ foetus on the draining-board,/ soldier in the sights,/ death of a loved child -/ there is no going back./ Unknowing is the dark finality./ Be, my friends ! Just be/ or choose and be done with questions.
VIVE LA DIFFERENCE
US
He wears last-year's baggy pants,/ discordant jacket, any shirt./ She disapproves in her aesthetic agony./ She sees herself a queen in seamless silk./ He sees the price in coolie's sweat.
She sees red flowers, pearled with dew./ He sees the thorns, the horse manure./ She is pricked as she captures her dream./ He ignores the perfume/ as he digs their common grave/ in the shadow of the unseen rose.
She of the spirit, he of the flesh/ at the middle time of life/ live a charade/ unless they understand the wheel/ and compromise.
THEM
"Vive la difference !" some say,/ as if the fact is static./ But I wonder about wheels and rhythms,/ cycles turning.
The adult male is hard,/ his softness locked away/ by the evidence of his witnesses/ until, at sixty-five or so,/ the witnesses withdraw the evidence,/ springing softness from its prison./ The ripe female is soft,/ her hardness camouflaged by egg-stuff/ until the ova yield to menopause./ Hormonal brake released, she grows a beard/ and talks bass tones.
Testosterone and oestrogen, the fighting twins,/ secreted from the same cells in the embryo,/ compete for sexual expression/ in body and in mind./ The different responses are statistically significant,/ programmed parts of our humanity./ Brutality responds to nature's nudge/ but all things pass in time./ C'est la vie !
JACK AND MARY SPRATT
For fifty years they shared a home/ whose solid walls absorbed/ the joy and hate, laughter/ and the sound of grinding teeth./ Their bioclocks were three hours out of phase -/ best times for both were rare./ Although they died three years apart,/ their coffins touch.
Her life was spotless,/ regulated by strict rules./ Her dream was changelessness,/ defying seething tides of change./ He lived undisciplined,/ driven by escapist dreams/ to change the world,/ yet sure that nothing changes./ She was rooted in the earth and things,/ but sometimes soared./ He hawked the air on flimsy wings/ and plummeted to earth for meat./ They orbited between the earth and stars/ and nodded in greeting/ when their orbits crossed.
Neighbours heard their squabbles/ frequently./ The travelling woman called on Saturdays/ religiously./ They ate the bread of life together/ occasionally,/ made calm-eyed children/ accidentally/ and nurtured them/ instinctively./ At night, together but apart/ they dreamed and sighed. When clay was thrown down on them/ and the old priest intoned for them/ great crowds wept for them/ knowing/ how much they loved each other/unknowingly.
LET THE STUDENT BEWARE
TRUTH
I show you nature through my eyes/ but you must cast away my truths,/ unless your own experience/ should drift with mine/ as grappled boats, lost/ in the ghostly fog/ which scientists call truth.
You must reach and trap the fog/ in baby's hands. Call it your truth./ But, if you dare to chink your hands,/ be quick to look ! Some truths/ can last no longer than the dew at noon/ nor than the lightning bolt/ that streaks to earth in June.
The thought of truth as absolute/ provokes me to irate invective !/ The nearest thing to objective truth/ is the death of the unconceived./ The fool who knows she is a fool is not./ The sage who thinks he is a sage is not.
BEWARE
Like digging moles, your eager minds/ probed for slugs of knowledge hidden/ in the humus of half truths./ Your search is tonic to our jaded souls./ You drank my rehashed notes/ as if your thirst could not be slaked/ and bolted my cliched words,/ then licked with relish from my fingertips/ small crumbs of my truths./ You stomached them in your spring-bound books,/ to ruminate on, quietly/ pelleting your truth.
I loved you then for I'm a student too !/ Beware !
THEN WHAT?
It
starts
in the heart,
seeps to the groin,
the awful need to be one-
one with wife, with friends,
with life, the simple need to be
just one, a unity,
completeness,
the opposite
of lonely zero.
In
the head
the cynic jeers,
at the idiot's need.
Soul-lost in a lover's core,
at the precious moment of surrender,
or the farewells of a party,
or the climax of hard work,
he whispers the devil's anthem:
Is that all?
I must return
to my dark now,
to myself.
Then what?
starts
in the heart,
seeps to the groin,
the awful need to be one-
one with wife, with friends,
with life, the simple need to be
just one, a unity,
completeness,
the opposite
of lonely zero.
In
the head
the cynic jeers,
at the idiot's need.
Soul-lost in a lover's core,
at the precious moment of surrender,
or the farewells of a party,
or the climax of hard work,
he whispers the devil's anthem:
Is that all?
I must return
to my dark now,
to myself.
Then what?
All material © New York Complementary & Alternative Veterinary Medical Association 2026.