East Meets East: Acupuncture Polarity Interface

By David Cushing Fuess

Polarity therapy and acupuncture are extremely compatible. Together their effectiveness is greater than the sum of their parts. Combining the two may lead to a happier practitioner and a healthier, more involved patient.

Polarity therapy emerged from the mind of Dr. Randolph Stone (1890-1981) and the ancient art of Ayurveda, the "mother of all sciences," reputed to be more than 5,000 years old. Stone was an osteopath, chiropractor and naturopath in Chicago for more than 60 years. He was a deeply spiritual man who immersed himself in metaphysics. He wrote The New Energy Concept of the Healing Art in l948, followed soon after by The Wireless Anatomy of Man . He will be remembered as one of the great masters of internal energy medicine.

Stone applied to the human constitution the concept that energy has to move from a positive to a negative pole through a neutral field. This scientific law is fundamental to the movement of energy throughout the universe and it manifests in our physical body as energetic currents, which Stone referred to as the Wireless Anatomy of Man. He developed his system of polarity therapy after a breakthrough in August 1945 when he stayed up all night reading Mysticism: the Spiritual Path, Volume II by Lekh Raj Puri and through his studies of many ancient traditions of natural healing, Ayurvedic, yogic, cabalistic, hermetic and alchemic among them.

Stone was looking for the common denominator to all the healing arts through his work on polarity therapy. The word "polarity" refers to the idea of positive, neutral and negative energy. Much as the Chinese came upon the fundamental principle of yin and yang by observing the shady and sunny side of the mountain, Stone observed the proton, neutron and electron, the equator and the North and South Poles and the same principles that are reflected in the cosmos.

Stone could feel the subtle energy currents much as a Qigong master can. Using his sensitivity and the feedback from his patients, he observed, noted and codified the remarkable system of polarity therapy, which has now been preserved in Polarity Therapy: The Complete Collected Works, Volume I and II .

Ted Kaptchuk, in his pivotal work The Web That Has No Weaver , delineated the acupuncture meridians and saw them much as a weaver would, using the concept of a warp and woof. The warp refers to the strong longitudinal threads and the woof refers to the horizontal threads that are shuttled back and forth to form a fabric. The long meridian system may be seen as the warp and the horizontal currents of the Dai Mai, the belt channel, may be seen as the woof.

Jerry Alan Johnson in his excellent Chinese Medical Qigong Therapy refers to the Dai Mai, which included Gall Bladder 26 ( dai mai ), 27 ( wu shu ) and 28 ( wei dao ), bilaterally: "The Belt Vessel is the only horizontal vessel in the body . It binds, joins, and controls all the channels of the body, exerting an influence on the energetic circulation of the body's Governing and Conception vessels" (166).

As we examine the parallels between acupuncture and polarity we will not try to force a square peg into a round hole. Instead we will think of how the earthy square of the Chinese coin has fit so neatly into the cosmic circle for thousands of years. The circuitry of polarity therapy has many parallels but also some specific differences. Stone began with longitudinal currents that traverse the length of the body from raised fingers to distant toes in five parallel lines. These run on each side referring from the thumb outward to the elements Ether, Air, Fire, Water and Earth. Each set of five currents rotates in opposite orbits around the body. The long currents on the left go up and over the head and down the back. The long currents on the right go down the front and up the back. This would seem to create a balanced gyroscopic effect.

Much as the yin and yang symbol is revered and packed with meaning, Stone saw the Caduceus (the Staff of Hermes and the very symbol of the medical profession) as worthy of reverence and filled with meaning. The center staff represents the spinal column, the carrier of both the governing vessel and the conception vessel. The two wings represent the two hemispheres of the brain. The ball at the top of the staff symbolizes the pineal gland or third eye consciousness. The intertwining snakes represent positive and negative energy winding about a neutrally charged staff. The right snake begins at the right nostril (yang-male-sun-gold-positive) and the left snake begins at the left nostril (yin-female-moon-silver-negative).

As the snakes descend and cross, the energy-prana-qi polarizes and repolarizes. The Indians referred to where the snakes cross as a "chakra" or a whirling disk of energy.

The chakras descend in frequency exactly as reflected in the fingers and toes: Ether, Air, Fire, Water and Earth. The enclosed chart can help illustrate this. In other words, the long currents interact directly with the chakras.

So what we have before us is an alternating current of positive and negative, of yin and yang. We see a directly similar pattern as we contemplate the wheel of alternating meridians beginning with yin lungs followed by yang large intestine followed by yin spleen followed by yang stomach and so forth.

As an aside it is interesting to note that in the evolution of electrical power Thomas Edison advocated direct current and Nicola Tesla advocated alternating current. Edison tried to destroy Tesla, but Tesla's theory won out because with alternating current there was little waste of energy as it traveled over distance and Edison's system needed boosting stations every few hundred miles. Now our world relies on alternating current, as has our nervous system, as positive charges jump across a neutral sheath to exchange places with a negative charge and propel the impulse.

In acupuncture the governing vessel is yang and the conception vessel is yin. In polarity practice the central channel represents ether element, the highest spiritual vibration from which all the other energies emanate. It is interesting to note that in Kiiko Matsumoto's and Stephen Birch's brilliant Hara Diagnosis: Reflections on the Sea they refer to Tohaku Ishi's premise that the governing vessel enters the posterior pituitary and the conception vessel emerges from the anterior pituitary. This would represent the perfect merging of yang and yin in the highest reaches of the body and brain.

Stone's strong concept of horizontal currents in combination with the woof shuttle metaphor can join this picture together. He saw these currents as traveling from east to west and enveloping the entire body. This is truly a way that the interior and exterior communicate. Therapeutically, if there is a problem in the torso one could look for a solution in the arms directly horizontal to the problem area. For example, the sacral-pelvic area problem could be resolved in the wrists hanging horizontally. Also in this way (similar to the Dai Mai) the woof binds the long currents and long meridians together, facilitating communication.

The diagonal currents of the Caduceus represent one more thread of this energy-fabric of the human body. There are strong currents that run from hip to shoulder. The beauty of the polarity system is that it is applied using both hands, an activating right hand and a sedating left hand. The polarity contacts are simple and natural and have light, medium and strong aspects. Each time you place your hands on the body you are connecting into the original blueprint or divine weaving of the body's energy currents.

The last energy thread to be woven into this matrix is a spiral current that emanates from the umbilicus, Conception Vessel 8 ( shen que /spirit gate), and eventually envelopes the entire body. The use of spiral currents can be readily seen in Qigong practices where the hands are rotated in a circular motion over various parts of the body and the direction is reversed, seemingly tapping into the classical yin and yang rotation.

As we return to the original long currents we contemplate the idea of outgoing currents and returning currents. If it is to be a cohesive pattern, energy must return to its source. The outgoing currents are centrifugal, motor, yang, electric. The ingoing currents are centripetal, sensory, yin, magnetic. This might be seen as an outgoing yang stomach meridian and a returning spleen yin meridian. Polarity therapy sees energy as diminishing in strength as it travels over distance or encounters resistance. The resistance we might see as stuck or stagnant qi, or in polarity it might be precipitate matter in the feet and toes. In the overall polarity of the body the head is positive and yang, the umbilicus is neutral and the feet represent the negative pole. The polarity therapist first releases the feet and toes so the return current is stronger and unimpeded. This will also reinforce work on the upper body allowing it to hold and last longer. The same concept applies to chiropractic adjustments - when the polarity is set properly the adjustment holds. Bad for business but good for reputation, and as the Taoists say, "reputation is everything!"

As a polarity therapist for 30 years and with 22 years of acupuncture experience, I have found that polarity therapy strongly enhances and integrates all acupuncture treatments. Another dramatic aspect is that the patient almost always feels the qi coursing through their body, and they realize they are truly an electro-magnetic weaving of the highest order. It is their divine right to realize that they can go inside their bodies and enhance their own healing. This realization creates a strong bond with your patient and makes healing a truly energetic dance.

References:

Burger, B. (1998) Esoteric Anatomy: The body as consciousness . North Atlantic Books, Berkeley , California .

Frawley, D. (1999) Secrets of Marma . International Academy of Ayurveda, Pune , India .

Johnson, J.A. (2000) Chinese Medical Qigong Therapy: A comprehensive clinical text . The International Institute of Medical Qigong, Pacific Grove , California .

Kaptchuk, T. (1983) The Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese medicine . Congdon & Weed, Inc., New York .

Matsumoto, K., Birch, S. (1988) Hara Diagnosis: Reflections on the sea . Paradigm Publications, Brookline , Massachusetts .

Reischauer, E., Fairbank, J. (1958) East Asia : The great tradition . Houghton Mifflin, Boston .

Stone, R. (1986) Polarity Therapy: The complete collected works, Vols I,II . CRCS Publications, Sebastopol , California .