Is traditional Chinese medicine theory based on supernatural ideas?
Sunday, February 21st, 2010 at
2:41 am
Are things like qi-gong and acupuncture considered supernatural?
Filed under: Traditional Chinese Medicine
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no
It is hard for me to explain. For example, did you have a massage before? If you are very tired, you will feel the pain in your body when the therapist presses you. I am not a doctor, so there are some medical terms I don’t know how to express.
Nowadays, we will still use traditional Chinese medicine.
To put it simply, yes. The TCM explanations for how these methods work are basically supernatural, demanding nonexistant forms of amorphously defined ‘energy’.
However, some of the plants used in TCM are genuinely biologically active, including some that are quite poisonous.
yes and no.
Like all premodern systems of therapy, early practitioners had no basis and often little desire to distinguish natural and “supernatural” phenomena. All Chinese medicine refers to supernatural agencies to some degree in describing medical doctrine, however much of the practice is based on naturalistic observation and trial. Yet, even a naturalistic approach does not guarantee that any given therapeutic strategy is inherently effective.
To further complicate things, concepts like “qi” straddle the naturalistic/supernatural division. Compared to other medical ideas a few hundred years ago, “qi” is comparatively naturalistic as it calls attention to the various kinds of subtle movement that support biological life. However, in the modern scientific context, it is unlikely that “qi” will ever be discovered as a discreet energy. Many people hold beliefs about qi that definitely fall into the supernatural category whether they admit it or not. It might be more useful to regard it as a subjective experience of many different kinds of biological activity such as neuromuscular activity and the action of certain chemicals such as endorphins.
Still, there has been little success in completely “scientizing” Chinese Medicine, and good practitioners of the medicine aren’t always the most “rational” thinkers who eschew all supernatural thinking–they’re just good clinicians with both broad knowledge and good instincts (the same thing that makes any kind of doctor good).
“Qigong” is a trickier issue and many schools of qigong practice are highly “superstitious” or “spiritual”–take your pick on the term. Often martial arts traditions of qigong practice are more “naturalistic” but it varies greatly with the school.
hope that helps