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Can acupuncture treat inherited conditions? (or: The myth of genetics)

When a condition has been inherited, people often assume it is “genetic” and therefore they are destined to suffer it and it cannot be treated. But with many conditions, this is certainly not the case. Practitioners of Chinese acupuncture frequently treat conditions that the patient has clearly inherited from their parents. Common examples are asthma, hay fever, menstrual irregularities and related symptoms, such as migraines; and other conditions related to the malfunction of any of our main organs, including related behavioural patterns. Even where your parents, and possibly also their parents or siblings, suffered such conditions, this does not in any way mean that the conditions cannot be treated.

So, how does acupuncture treat inherited conditions? And what is the mechanism that passes on these conditions, if not genetic?

There are several ways a condition can be inherited from our parents, the most common of which does not appear to be related to our parents’ genetic makeup; rather, it involves the energetic influence that the functioning of the parents’ organs has on the developing foetus.

In all of us, it is clear that energy radiates beyond us, is picked up by other people, and affects their organ functions; they, to one degree or another, tend to mirror any anomalies in the organ functions of the person whom the energy radiated from. Most of us have felt this phenomenon; it is the mechanism that enables us to sense when a nearby person is upset, angry or moody; and we can often sense their state before we even become aware of their presence.

In my book, Secrets of the Hidden Vessels, I give many very specific examples of this interchange happening in myself, where I experience pains and sensations in my own body which mirror the patient’s organ malfunctions and also the resultant symptoms. In other words, the symptoms transfer from the patient to the practitioner via the energy that is emitted from the patient. In myself this phenomenon is heightened due to my unusual sensitivity; and in the book I describe the transfer of other sensations (as well as general symptoms such as aches and pains), including the activation of acupoints (the localized tingling the patient feels when a needle is inserted in an acupoint) and also the occasional sensation that radiates a short distance along the meridian; these sensations only tend to be transferred to me when the patient is vividly aware of them in their own body.

When I treat partners who have a particularly close relationship, I notice that they often have the same pattern of organ malfunctions, and also often identical pulses, so that it is clear that this energy (originating from our organ functions) flows between the couple and causes each of their organ functions to mirror those in their partner.

People in a close relationship will be aware of this phenomenon; you will become immediately aware when your partner is thinking about something, is uneasy, troubled, or even in physical discomfort. It is the above mechanism that enables this communication to take place. Because you are focused on your partner, the energy that radiates from them (produced by their organ functions) is superimposed on your own energy, and your own organ functions adopt the same malfunctions that are currently present in your partner’s organs, though much more weakly; it is like a ghost of the malfunction, which is why the sensation is subtle1.

When this mechanism can produce such effects in other people, who might even be several meters away from us, the effect that this same energy in a mother has on the developing foetus must be considerably stronger. The organ functions of the foetus would tend to adopt the same malfunctions present in the mother’s organs. And if the parents have a close relationship, the mother’s organ functions would tend to mirror any such patterns in her partner’s organs, which is where this factor in the father’s makeup would be passed on to the child—though clearly the biggest influence on the child would be the patterns of organ malfunctions in the mother. It might be that if a person’s general sensitivity is innate (is perhaps genetically determined) then this would determine the degree to which the foetus tends to mirror their mother’s organ malfunctions. The more sensitive the person, the more this would be likely to happen, which could explain the different tendencies (in this respect) between different children of the same mother.

To take asthma or hay fever as a common example. The underlying cause of this is usually poor kidney function2. In this case, the mother would have had poor kidney function while pregnant (perhaps due to age, or having had several pregnancies before, or being generally run down through “running on adrenaline” for many years—or a combination of these causes); and the foetus also adopted poor kidney function, simply due to the fact that it was constantly bathed in its mother’s energy, so that its own organs tended to mirror the functioning of its mother’s. When the child was born, their kidney function would be poor, and during early childhood this would cause them to develop asthma (where it was hard to breathe in—rather than out, which type of asthma is due to poor lung function), or hay fever, and possibly other conditions, such as poor hearing, frequent urination, badly formed bones or teeth, a tendency to be fearful, and so on.

Conditions related to the other main organs, such as the liver, lungs, heart and pancreas, can also be inherited in this same way; and with each of the organs, there are also related behavioural patterns, which would also be considered as having been inherited due to this same mechanism. For example, when the mother has stagnated liver function, this would tend to cause her to be too controlling; to be quickly irritated when other people do not behave exactly as she would like them to, or when rules appear to be broken or apparent injustices committed; to be excessively organized, and so on3. And the child, particularly a sensitive child, would tend to be born with stagnated liver function and would therefore tend to adopt the same behavioural patterns.

Chinese acupuncture routinely treats all such conditions. The treatment works by normalizing the function of our main organs, which then tends to also correct any related behavioural tendencies.

Such patterns can be adopted during our life, in which case, the treatment will often permanently clear the condition, but when such conditions have been present from birth, there is often the tendency for the particular organ malfunction to start to return—perhaps several weeks after the course of treatments has finished. This seems to imply that such malfunctions in a mother’s organs may impede the full and proper development of the same organ in the foetus, such that there will always be a tendency in that organ to adopt the same malfunction.

This is very often the case where a person inherited poor kidney function. I’ve found that treatment of the related conditions is often very successful (such as with hay fever, asthma or migraines), but that the person tends to remain susceptible to poor kidney function, so must either make appropriate lifestyle adjustments to compensate, or, if they wished to remain symptom free, they would need to have a single maintenance treatment every few weeks or so, depending on how stressful their life was.

 

24 March 2016

If you’ve found this article helpful or interesting, do please leave feedback by emailing fletcher AT curiouspages DOT com. Many thanks, Fletcher.

 

Other Chinese Medicine articles.

 

Footnotes
1. See Chapter 5 of Secrets of the Hidden Vessels.
2. See Chapter 11 of Secrets of the Hidden Vessels.
3. See Chapters 9 and 15 of Secrets of the Hidden Vessels.

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