Positive Health Online

Introduction

As a practitioner of energy therapies for over 15 years, I've worked with many approaches, including Reiki, kinesiology, homeopathy, acupuncture, therapeutic movement, bodywork, flower essences, light and sound therapy, etc. However, the Chinese Energetic Method (CEM) is unique in that it has provided me with a way to understand how all of these therapies are, in fact, working with consciousness. Using CEM gives us a way both to describe where energy is in or out of balance, and also to change that energy with conscious awareness. But comprehending how CEM works requires first knowing its roots - where it comes from.

The Origins of CEM

CEM's revolutionary quality in the realm of energy medicine lies in its bringing together both Eastern practices and Western thinking into a creative synthesis. It grows out of several concepts and disciplines, all brought together originally by Dr Kam Yuen as an approach he calls Yuen Energetics. To get to CEM, we need first to journey through medical chi gong, kinesiology and quantum theory, as well as Dr Yuen's own background. Then, referring to his work as the technique, we can continue on to the practice as it is being performed by myself and others today.

Chi Gong and the Chinese Meridian System

A place to start is medical chi gong, which is based on the Chinese meridian System. Of the 12 meridians identified in this concept of energy movement within the body, the most important is the primary circuit, also known as the microcosmic orbit. This circuit is an energy channel that goes down the front of the body and all the way up the back. A distinct and major channel within this energetic orbit is the governing vessel, which is the back part of the circuit, including the spinal cord and spinal column, going all the way up to the top of the head. Besides the vertebral column, it includes the nerves running out from the spinal cord to the organs, and this is considered the 'whole brain' in the meridian system.

This circuit also includes the reticular formation and activating system, located in the brainstem. This is a particularly interesting and significant part of the brain, because it is one of those many points where different systems of cultural belief and practice so often come together in agreement. This is the area identified in Western science as 'the dawn of consciousness'. In Indian anatomy this same place is called 'the mouth of God'. Called Yu-Chen by the Chinese, it holds a similar meaning for them as one of the main points along the orbit affecting our evolving consciousness. One of the most significant themes I have found running through all of my own work and research is that there are parallels among systems of thought throughout the world, both ancient and modern. Recognizing these universal patterns and beliefs as shared across the boundaries of our own cultural expressions is fundamental to understanding CEM, providing its cosmological underpinning.

For our immediate purpose, the primary meridian circuit becomes an especially important bridge between chi gong and CEM, because it's actually an energetic model of consciousness moving through the body. Using the meridians as the focus, medical chi gong is a system that describes movement of energy, or chi, within the body and applies conscious awareness to moving that energy. It's the same process of moving energy internally that practitioners of the martial arts, Pa Kua and tai chi use. We become directors of chi: "Wherever the mind goes, chi flows". In a very active and conscious way, practitioners perform hands-off healing treatments in chi gong hospitals in China.

Psychotherapy

From the Western perspective, Chinese medicine may be seen as mystical and mysterious, yet it does have an important parallel in one Western model of medicine - psychotherapy. Psychoanalysts will tell you that their approach is, in fact, all about moving an inner force with the mind. Whether it's Freudian, Jungian, Gestalt, etc., psychoanalysis is geared towards moving consciousness to change a patient's perception of reality. It's about altering the mind with conscious awareness, although, unlike medical chi gong, psychoanalysts put the onus of moving consciousness on the patient.

Another interesting aspect to the whole idea of mental health and conscious change is that there are many Western doctors who now accept that changing the mind can affect physical as well as emotional health. That becomes another significant correlation between Western medicine and energy medicine in general, and it helps to validate the principles behind CEM.

Quantum Theory

But what's missing from all of this, Chinese and Western approaches alike, is a model for seeing chi as moving outside our bodies, as well as inside them. The leap to that concept comes with quantum theory, which provides a relatively new way of perceiving how the universe works. The premise underlying quantum physics is 'energy affects matter'. Its technology has brought us CD players, lasers and micro-computer chips. Its theory shows consciousness as operating through sub-micro polarity - an exchange of energy that forms the bonds of the material world. This polarity unites all matter in an energetic interconnectivity and can be consciously affected.

In this view, we can shift reality when we alter our perception of that reality, and this is a change that occurs from a sub-micro level all the way up to the macro, tangible levels that we are used to relating to. In real practice, we can apply our consciousness to move energy freely, beyond the constraints of working in a model like the Chinese meridian system, if we can find a way to read the energy.

Kinesiology

How we get to that point is through kinesiology, another established practice, but one that was developed in Western medicine. Briefly, kinesiology is a way to diagnose where energy is in or out of balance. It's a system that teaches us how to access our intuition. In bypassing the cognitive chatter that usually overtakes our awareness, it opens us to that un/subconscious part of ourselves that knows what we want. That knowingness is based on energy polarity at a subtle level. We are drawn to or away from something, or we are neutral to it. But in our left-brained perspective, we cannot easily read that information. In learning how to read the energy within ourselves, over time and with practice, we can progress from overt diagnostic kinesiology where one person diagnoses another, to eventually experiencing our own energy on a truly intuitive level.

Dr Kam Yuen and Yuen Energetics

What brought all of these ideas - chi gong, kinesiology, and quantum theory - together were the observations of Dr Kam Yuen, a 35th generation Shaolin grandmaster who was one of the inspirations for the TV show Kung Fu. He is also a chiropractor, a discipline from which he learned kinesiology, and an engineer, a vocation in which he studied quantum physics. He brought together these Western concepts with the self-cultivation techniques he practices as a martial arts master, creating an integrated therapeutic approach that connects kinesiology and chi gong through quantum theory. The result is a subtle energy technique in which we can read, or experience, energy and, in so doing, in a conscious way, effect a change in what we are experiencing. Yuen Energetics is a healing technique that works with consciousness very effectively on subtle levels.

Essential Elements of CEM Correction Self-cultivation

CEM takes that technique and evolves it into a practice based on conscious self-awareness. More than a theory or an approach, it has, for myself and for its other practitioners, become a lifestyle choice centring on self-cultivation. I experience and work with consciousness through multiple approaches and levels. These practices range across cultures and sensibilities, and include homeopathy, merkaba, meridian work, Pa Kua, tai chi, mind-mapping, whole-brain integration, multi-dimensional explorations, Vision Quest, etc. It's a very inclusive and expansive practice, working with the emotions, the physical, the spiritual, the mental and the psyche. Like a mirror, self-cultivation acts as a reflective process. In working with myself, I become more able to understand consciousness and navigate its pathways, moving through all these levels. This self-knowledge re-cycles, increasing my ability to follow energy and correct imbalances on multiple levels in my clients, with whom I also use these various techniques.

Another aspect of self-cultivation is that, as a practitioner, I need to experience energy from a state of neutrality, where my mind is not in the way, blocking or interpreting what I am finding. Achieving neutrality is a part of kinesiology, but in CEM it is also necessary to do corrections successfully - to change the energy imbalances that kinesiology helps us to find. Self-cultivation gives me the ability to be aware of where my mind is at, to know if it's in the way of the work of finding and correcting imbalances. I know if I am open, or, to put it another way, if the switches are 'on'.

The On/Off Switches

These 'switches' are also a part of doing CEM corrections. The energetic corrections we do in CEM are based on the quantum model, in which the universe is seen as binary. Just as we understand it in computers, everything in nature is based on being 'on/again, off/again' - on or off switches. All biological processes can be understood in binary terms. And most conditions with our health, with our mental, emotional, physical or spiritual well-being, have to do with either something being on or off, or too much on or too much off. With energetic medicine, I've ascertained that these 'switches' are found because, simply, we know where to look. The beauty of CEM is that if you can find a way to describe what's on or what's off, or in between, you then also have a way of affecting the consciousness of that thing, that switch. And you can regulate it, bringing the energy back into balance.

The CEM Technique

The best way of understanding this is through concrete examples. But to have a better sense of what is to come, first a brief word on the CEM technique. Part of this technique is an acknowledgement of whatever imbalance you are finding or energetic correction you are making. There's an accompanying action with your hands that's tied to the acknowledgment. But your hands aren't doing the correction; they move afterwards. The mind wants a confirmation that something has happened, and that's what the hands are doing: consciousness acknowledging consciousness. As for the therapeutic dialogue, that's an article in itself. Suffice it to say that in both form and content it plays an integral role in the process.

Case Example

Onward then to an especially interesting example - my work with a horse. While on an outing, I was doing corrections in the environment in general when I noticed that, in doing certain corrections, the horses there would react. One horse was particularly interested and focused his attention on me. So I started doing corrections for that horse. Left to right. Right to left. Top to bottom. Bottom to top. Inside to outside. Outside to inside. Scanning his body with my mind, I went from the hind legs all the way up the back: "Correct that. Infinity to the power of infinity." I literally saw the spine, nerves and muscles - as much as I could with my imagination. With this technique, imagination is a very strong component. I was using my skills of imagination to visualize, and I was also using kinesiology to test for weaknesses, or breaks, in what I was seeing. While doing that with this horse, in scanning up his back, there were places all the way up the spine that I was finding weak, and so I did corrections. I would acknowledge, then move to the next area, acknowledge, and move to the next area. In that way, systematically, I kept moving up the body, redirecting and re-channelling energy for him.

Then I came to one area of the body, right at the medulla oblongata, where the first cervical vertebra fits right onto the skull, where there was a lot of weakness. The intuition that came to me was that it was like a black hole. It felt deep and dark black, like falling into a hole. I felt this very specific, deep area of weakness, and immediately started doing corrections: "Infinity to the power of infinity. Correct that. Eliminate, set free, make independent. Release and protect, forgive and forget. Release and let go." (Based on Yuen Energetics.)

After these corrections, I moved on, following the direction of the energy, which flowed up the hindbrain, and then into both sides of the brain. This next dark place was more inflamed. The intuition was of burning: "Infinity to the power of infinity." I continued corrections, locating areas on the right side of the head, where there was a lot of inflammation. With deeper and deeper corrections, I got to the point where I knew that the inflammation was in the inner cochlea of the ear.

How did I get to the fact that there was inflammation without using conventional medical diagnosis? The answer is, by being able to go through a checklist of mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, psychic, and psychological states or levels of conscious being. Working with this horse, I was sensing and visualizing energetic weakness, using kinesiology, and also correcting, or changing, the physical level. This, I believe, is where energetic medicine meets quantum dynamics, because I believe that consciousness can affect matter.

The owner of the stable was shocked to find me working with her horse, because this animal had been fighting off the vet and his assistants so much that they couldn't even diagnose the problem, which was, however, confirmed later by their conventional diagnostics. Yet, as I worked with this horse, I could tell that he was feeling better, just after a few corrections.

Further Examples

I used CEM with a fellow student injured in Pa Kua training. I focused on strengthening and lengthening his leg. He immediately had to stretch out his other, uninjured leg, telling me that he needed to because, after the energetic corrections, he could feel the effect of one leg being so much more stretched out, and I had to do corrections to rebalance the other leg (see illustration).

And I recently, over a period of three days, healed a broken finger. However, the healing was so fast that it healed crooked, so now I have to use CEM to correct that! (smile).

Conclusion

The goal in CEM is to move further and further away from externalized actions, like the O-ring test in kinesiology, or acknowledging with the hands. Over time, through self-cultivation and self-aware practice, we can increase our ability to experience consciousness and move energy effortlessly through its pathways. These pathways are found in systems like chi gong and are also theorized in quantum physics. But we can experience them on an intuitive level. Quantum theory and intuition are integral partners in CEM. As I remarked to quantum physicist Fred Alan Wolf after one of his lectures, "You've got the theory. We've got the practice."

This is a practice that can be available to anyone.

Bibliography

Bohm David. Quantum Theory. Dover. New York. ISBN 0486659690. 1989.
Goswami Maggie et al. The Self-Aware Universe: How Consciousness Creates the Material World. JP Tarcher. New York. ISBN 0874777984. 1995.
Wolf Fred Alan. Body Quantum: The New Physics of Body, Mind and Health.
Macmillan. New York. ISBN 0026308908. 1986.
Wolf Fred Alan. Taking the Quantum Leap: The New Physics for Nonscientists. rev ed. Harper Perennial. New York. ISBN 0060963107. 1989.
Wolf Fred Alan. Mind into Matter. Moment Point. Portsmouth, NH. ISBN 0966132769. 2000.
Wolf Fred Alan. Matter into Feeling. Moment Point. Portsmouth, NH. ISBN 193049100X. 2002.

Further Information

For information on Dr Scott's work, his forthcoming book Walk Like the Egyptians, Tools of Light programme, workshops and seminars visit www.accemscott.com
For information on Dr Kam Yuen's programme of Yuen Energetics visit www.yuenenergetics.com