Magic in Medicine and the 13 Ghost Points

I am no scholar of the history of medicine or the anthropological etymology of traditional healing practices around the world, but I can guess that the medicine of early human was a split between the heroics of emergency care and the magical battle against the demons of disease. It was Antonie van Leeuwenhoek's improvements on the microscope and his subsequent studies of microbiology that lead to germ theory and immunology that faltered these supernatural conclusions. Now we use words like bacteria and virus, autoimmune disorder to describe the monsters that, seasonally or otherwise, usurp our body and mind. Most of us cannot see demons or devils or ghosts so we dismiss the notion as superstition and therefore not of physical importance. But we can at various magnifications witness, study and categorize the germs representing these superstitions. No longer do we count on the shaman's communion with the Spirits and our ancestors to intervene to exorcise the pernicious influence out from our body. It is pharmaceutical science we believe in, it is pharmaceutical science that works. But was the treatment by the shaman or the priest any less effective than our modern science? Was the non-scientific understanding of the clinical nature of the devil-for-pathogen any less accurate than the science of how a pathogenic enzyme weakens a cell wall thus allowing a virus, say, to hijack the cell in order to industrialize its "evil" genetic material? A devil by another name doesn't sound so sweet; but, really, were our ancient brothers and sisters of the healing arts off the mark when they considered our spiritual and mental delinquencies a correlation--if not a direct cause--of the ghosts and devils that ravaged our well being?

Let's consider the human form. It is a sack of ghastly viscera held between an armature of cartilage and bone; it is a machine of complicated circulatory pumps and muscular devices able to manipulate matter and do work; it is a material construct of a spiritual consciousness; it is a biological super-bug; it is alive. Regardless of how we approach the object of us and its function, we understand it as comprised of three elements: the body, the mind and the spirit and as a result of the balance between the communion of these three, susceptible to illness.

Chinese Medicine is one of many medical traditions that embrace this natural trinity when considering the health of each patient. Of course it is not without its history of demonized conditions exorcised through ancestor worship and prayer, repentance, etc. Illness within the body was understood early on as consequences of the patient whose actions were out of sink with the movements of nature and reflected in the body through various patterns of the 8 principles: hot, cold, damp, dry,internal, external, yin & yang. What about mental/brain disorders and emotional disturbances? Particularly mania and epilepsy was thought to be the work of ghosts. Ah... But these ghosts or devils could be tamed and led outside and away from the body by a physician utilizing, through acupressure or acupuncture, a prescribed pattern from the thirteen ghost points developed over 2000 years ago.

See below:
13 Ghost Points *

GV26 --Gui Gong--Ghost Palace LU 11

LU 11--Gui Xin--Ghost Convincing SP 1

SP1--Gui Lei--Ghost Fortress PC 7

PC7--Gui Xin--Ghost Heart BL 62

BL62--Gui Lu--Ghost Road (Fire needle 3-7 times)

GV16--Gui Zhen--Ghost Pillow

ST6--Gui Chuang--Ghost Bed (Fire needle)

CV24--Gui Shi--Ghost Market

PC8--Gui Ku--Ghost Cave

GV23--Gui Tang--Ghost Hall CV 1

CV1--Gui Cang--Ghost Hidden (Moxa only)

LI11--Gui Chen--Ghost Official (Fire needle 3-7 times)

Hai Cuan--Gui Feng--Ghost Seal (Needle or Prick)

*Source: www.tcmstudent.com/study_tools/Ghost Points.html which sourced the information from "Sun Si-Miao's Ode to 13 Ghost Acupoints for the Treatment of Mental Disorders". American Journal of Acupuncture. Vol 20, No 3, 1992, p267-268.


No longer are these points used to exorcise a patient of their demon but, interestingly, to help treat various onsets of psychological illness such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression, mania, epilepsy, etc. But how often do Western practitioners of Chinese Medicine use these points to treat a patient's mental illness? Would they even describe these points as "ghost points" to their Western patients? Are these practices still used in the People's Republic of China? In his March 1979 article Mental Illness in China: A 'Contradiction among the People', Joel Greenberg reports about two groups of American psychiatrists who visited the People's Republic of China to study the treatment practices of Chinese psychiatric doctors on a growing patient population of mentally ill. Oddly enough, the subject of ghost points was never addressed in the article. Of course the common practices of herbal prescriptions, acupressure, acupuncture and moxabustion were used in conjunction with Western pharmaceuticals ("antischizophrenic drugs") and a dose of communist idealism: "'The doctors believe that patients have arrived at wrong conclusions because they have not made thorough investigations' into their illness. In-hospital classes are held, where the patients study Chairman Mao's philosophical works and articles on how to handle 'the contradictions among the people,' or interpersonal difficulties."

The points that were needled--"in front of each ear canal for phobias; at the temples for ruminative states and at the mandibular joints and vortex for schizophrenia"--do not appear to match any of the 13 points listed above. But this is Chairman Mao's China. Traditional Chinese Medicine has publicly replaced Classical Chinese Medicine practices. "Superstition" in Chinese medicine has all but been completely rid of and the integration of Western science and biomedical theories and practices is the mainstream in Chinese hospitals and with the government trained "barefoot doctors" administering aide and health education to rural China.

The literal ghosts of illness and disease were replaced by figurative ones which still let us consider the mind-body disturbance that elicited the imbalance that fostered the pernicious influence to ravage the body and the mind. Then those figurative ghosts were busted and now remains the symptoms of disease to be managed. More and more, though, through the integration of Western and Eastern medical practices into mainstream medicine and the health care reform's focus on wellness and prevention, we're learning that managed disease care doesn't have to be the singular work of modern medicine. Health care professionals can actually promote health and wellness in the communities by educating the public of the curative magical practices of our bodies. The act of someone fostering wellness in another may be without its magical paradigms, but there is something sacred to the act, the ritual of giving of oneself to help heal a stranger in need. Modern healers may no longer be our village shamans or country priests but they can be guides to help us see the invisible that afflicts us, to understand the intentions of that heated influence and to educate us to know our bodies, our lifestyle (without judgment) and our environment so that we may avoid future altercations with the Devil pathogen that's keeping us from enjoying the full life we all deserve.

Like most people born and raised under the western health care umbrella, I grew up having no familiarity with the life style of natural medicine or preventive medicine, much less the holistic-health care model of Oriental Medicine--classical or otherwise. My idea of prevention comes from my childhood experiences of painful vaccinations and an ear infection every Fall until I was six. There was nothing sacred about medicine; it was a job which allowed our single mother, a Registered Nurse, to pay the rent and keep the cupboards half full. Its pattern was simple: it was the doctor's cold invasion, the white-walled office, hands that smelled rubbed with alcohol, the pallid eyes, the otoscope pushed too far into the canal of my raging ear; the ear infection confirmed, antibiotics, then feeling better in a day or two. It's difficult to differentiate your body from yourself at such an early age. How do you not misinterpret each illness as a personal attack on your character? Why should I endure these pains alone, I would think, when my sister--my twin, no less--had the privilege of sleeping through every October undisturbed. Why was there no devil's finger digging in her ear? What made my body's relationship with this evil bacterium so different from hers? By the sixth year my eustachian tubes had made their natural course downward, forward, medially and the seasonal infections were gone. Our visits with the doctor also disappeared and I stopped with my jealous introspections. For the next seven years we would not visit a doctor unless we really had to, that is if what ailed us could not be fixed at home--but what could not a mother cure? Between the chamomile teas and ibuprofen we came to understand that the body would just take care of itself. Our mother never got sick. All her years helping the sick and dying in nursing homes, emergency rooms and eventually neonatal intensive care units the one thing she "contracted" and then communicated to my sister and me was that the body is a very capable machine.

Three years ago, however, I learned that my capable machine had been confronted by the stresses on my inconsistent lifestyle of a young man in graduate art school. Suddenly one afternoon I began to suffer from a dry, burning that affected the middle of my back, my right arm (including the axillary) and right pectoral. A week later when this burning progressed into painful blisters, and while my wife and I were traveling to Arlington, Texas for a wedding, the diagnosed was made clear: I had shingles. I asked the tending physician how this could have happened. My hygiene was very important to me, I told her, and I didn't eat greasy foods. My ignorance was showing. It is not impossible but it is rare for some one in their late twenties to suffer the effects of the herpes zoster virus. My immune system had been compromised and stress was the most likely culprit. The diagnosis came too late for the antiviral to have been effective, so it was not prescribed. My body would have to carry on as before for the next four to six weeks with no outside assistance except moderate doses of a prescribed painkiller "when needed" which only made me nauseous. I mention this occurrence in my life not because it then introduced me to the powers of Oriental Medicine or to my current OM practitioner, but because it was then that I realized I had been neglecting that trinity of mind, body and spirit and that there were consequences to this delinquency. This machine is only capable as long as we work with it towards its wellness. Since the shingles outbreak I've been exercising regularly, trying to eat seasonally, engaging in talk therapy once a week and visiting with my OM practitioner when ever I can and reading all I can get my hands on regarding the theory, the science and practice of OM and bioscience. Technology and the Western medical model can guarantee a longer life, but if we do not come to understand the body's fluid relationship with the mind and spirit and the relationship we share with our environment (for better or worse), and if we do not practice and regulate these teachings, how can we expect to maintain balance thereby ensuring a richer quality of life to accompany that longevity?

On Reading the Huang Di Nei Jing (Ilza Veith translation)

There are many treasures shared from reading through the Nei Jing--if not an infinite number of gems; for it's like opening a book to read from the gestures of the cosmos and each bit of light needles the heart by way of the brain, by way of the eyes . In a practical sense, the Nei Jing is an understanding of the circular, multilayered philosophy of Yin and Yang and the 5-Elements principle. But I say one reads "through" the text because my experience is you can't just read it once or twice and then impress your friends for having kept such company as the Huang Di and Qi'Po. Depending on your state of mind, your development spiritually, philosophically, professionally as you read each chapter, you will be drawn as a wandering satellite to orbit a certain philosophical gem, a poetic gesture, a technical inquiry, an historical curiosity that reflects your current position with yourself in the world. The theory of Yin and Yang is simple and complex and I would love to understand it further and live by the 5-elements, but what moves me most right now as I read through it again is the relationship between Huang Di and his court physician Qi'Po. I think as students of body and medicine (though my studies so far are only amaturish) we all want that communion with our teachers: our childish enthusiasm to understand this theory and practice with question after question after question, trying to delve further and deeper so that we can be the best healers we can be and the teacher's unflinching patience to keep our head above water. It's a lot of information to try to ingest and keep put as if it had always been in us and/or accessible anytime (is it?). Qi'Po and Huang Di's relationship is about pacing and deep breathing with The Tao; otherwise you will learn nothing and never recognize the truth right before your eyes because you're struggling so hard to reach the bottom where the goal, the "truth", lies as fallen treasure to be had. I don't mean to say that the Nei Jing is a cautionary tale of the fallen student, Iquaris in the middle of an ocean metaphor, but I do mean to say that the magic of the body is a bottomless abyss and from reading through the Nei Jing I've begun to think that the best way to understand that bottomless abyss (ocean metaphor alert!) is to recognize our own bouancy in it. Once we learn how to be in the knowledge, then can we begin to mark distance in it.