Artwork by Jara

The basis of acupuncture theory is that the body is covered with a network of interconnected energy channels between the skin and the muscles that connect the internal organs with each other, but also act as an interface between the surface of the body and the environment.

This network of channels or meridians is known in Chinese as the Jing Luo.

The energy or Qi which flows within this network is described in TCM as moving the blood. In other words Qi controls blood circulation. This can be felt in our pulses, the electrical impulses that originate in our hearts sending waves of smooth muscle contractions through our arterial system moving the blood around our bodies.

Acupuncture points are foci on the skin where the channels come close to the surface and the flow of Qi can be manipulated with the insertion of metal needles.

Depending on the type of technique of needle manipulation can be used to increase (tonify or stimulate) decrease (sedate) or just regulate the flow of Qi in a particular channel and organ.

Different acupuncture points affect the flow of Qi in different ways and in different areas of the body.

In health the flow of Qi (energy) in the body is strong and unobstructed. If the flow becomes weakened, obstructed or imbalanced, then disease occurs. The aim of acupuncture is to identify the cause and then remove obstructions, harmonise and strengthen the organ energy flows.

It has been suggested that as the classical descriptions of the physical location of the channels describe them as being situated between the skin and muscles that anatomically they correspond to the fascial layer.

Fascial networks

The fascia, a connective tissue membrane which not only covers every muscle and organ in the body, but are all interconnected, and link the inside of the body with its surface. Fascial tissue has been shown to have semi-conductor properties and has been suggested as a medium through which acupuncture transmits its effects on the body.

Neuro-glial complexes

Scientists recently discovered neuro-glial complexes in the skin. Glial cells are connective tissue cells which traditionally had been thought only to carry out a purely structural function in the body forming the architecture of the skin, nervous system and brain holding structures neurological structures in place. However it has now been demonstrated that they actually have an active modulatory function on nerve receptors in the skin where they can either activate or deactivate sensory nerves. In fact the nervous system and connective tissues of the body appear to interactively behave like a single system and should be considered as such and not as isolated tissues/organs.

The existence of neuroglial complexes in the skin may, as such, also offer another explanation of how acupuncture exerts its effects on the body.

Plasma streams and electromagnetic fields

Recent advances in plasma physics estimate that 99.9% of the universe is composed of plasma, a fourth state of matter (solid, liquid and gas are the traditional states of matter) and that what was traditionally thought to be empty space is in fact full of plasma which is invisible to the naked eye. Whereas 19th & 20th century science believed space was an empty vacuum, this discovery actually is a return to the pre-Enlightenment concept that ancient peoples had of an invisible fifth element or ether.

Plasma is a soup of ionised subatomic particles as opposed to atoms or molecules.
The Earth may actually be unique being made of material atoms as these may only represent 0.1% of the universe. Atoms form as dust within plasma in space.

Lightning is plasma, as is the Sun, stars, galaxies, nebulae, probably the large gas planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus & Neptune) and possibly the other planets including the Moon.

Plasma is invisible and immaterial and can pass through solid material objects unchanged. It is quite possible that within our physical bodies we have a plasma body which in traditional occult literature would have been referred to as an etheric body.

Plasma is extremely sensitive to electromagnetic energy and is highly charged. The solar wind is vast streams or rivers of electromagnetically charged plasma that flows outwards in a double helix form and connects it to the Earth, planets and even other galaxies.

The Earth, planets, stars and galaxies are bathed in an ocean of plasma. Everything in the universe is interconnected via a matrix of electromagnetically charged plasma streams and fields.

In Chinese medicine Man is connected to both Heaven (above) & Earth (below) in a continuum of energy flow referred to as the Tao or Way.

The acupuncture channels may
actually be streams of plasma within the etheric body of humans interacting with the electromagnetic fields of therefore the material substance of the physical body.

I think plasma physics offers the best explanation so far of how acupuncture works at a deep level, but the other mechanisms – fascial semiconduction and neuroglial complexes probably
represent intermediary physical mechanisms for the manifestation of plasma phenomena in the human body.

Conclusion

Plasma physics appears to validate the philosophical energetic medical beliefs of ancient civilisations, in particular traditional Chinese, Tibetan, Ayurvedic and Ancient Greek medicine. Interestingly all these ancient systems linked astrology with medicine. Considering we now know the Earth is connected to the Sun, Moon, planets and stars through plasma streams and therefore must influence each other this perhaps doesn’t seem so irrational a belief.

The empty, isolated, meaningless material universe of classical physics is dead. Hope is restored in the vibrant living ocean of plasma in which we find ourselves.