Recap

All previous episodes have looked into specific medical practices that have come about in history from Traditional Chinese Medicine. By no means did I cover everything, since local villages in the most obscure places make up their own nonsense that becomes mainstream practice, from poo tea to ___.

I decided to tackle the core elements of the philosophy behind it all (since it's clearly not science), first looking into the Meridian Pathways that mysteriously line almost every inch of our bodies and minds, and though are undetectable, were detected by a North Korean some decades ago and then never replicated. The North Korean mysteriously vanished shortly after and that was the end of that until a recent scientist decided to commit to more non-replicable science with a paper so complex and convoluted that it seems to contradict itself and prove nothing more than putting dye in ones system makes the dye colour present in the system.

Every 'proof' of concept seems to arise from the same South Korean author/researcher, so it's fairly fair to say we can dismiss it. But we get the idea, these pathways are meant to be highways for mysterious life energy that pumps through us, and we all need a yin-yang balance in order to stay healthy. But what is that energy?

In China, they call it Qi. in HInduism it's called Prana, and other parts of the world have similar ideas and names. I call it Bullshit but let's look into my personal claim.

Traditional Chinese Character Qi Public Domain

Qi

History

Confucius - Public Domain

Around 2,500 years ago, the philosopher Confucius Released a book of ideas and idioms called The Analects. Inside this collection of ideas presumably brought together by his followers, was what many considered later to be little more than a commentary on the Five Classics, a collection of books of poetry, speeches, songs, historical records and more.

The earliest written concept within the Analects that seems to be ascribed to the development of qi is as follows:

The [morally] noble man guards himself against 3 things. When he is young, his xue–qi has not yet stabilized, so he guards himself against sexual passion. When he reaches his prime, his xue–qi is not easily subdued, so he guards himself against combativeness. When he reaches old age, his xue–qi is already depleted, so he guards himself against acquisitiveness.

Much like qi, this is speaking of balance in one's body, but it was Mencius a generation or so later that associated the word Qi with energy. He was looking for a physiological explanation for why people can go through moral failure. His theory stated that the failure to develop 'heart-mind' - or xin - was the reason, as a result of some kind of 'vital energy' that was kind of vapourey, fluidy stuff found within your body and throughout the universe. To Mencius, this Aether-type substance regulates your cognitive and physical wellbeing. He went on to conclude that if you do right, and you do work, your xi and your xin will make you attractive and healthy.

If you're wondering what evidence made him conclude this, you're looking at it. Besides, evidence wasn't necessary 2,400 years ago.

Now

Which is why it's stunning that, based on some philosophers whimsical daydream solutions, people thousands of years later insist it's legit.

When it comes to Chinese medicine, whenever a person is sick, a rebalancing of Qi is all that's needed to find a cure, apparently. In practice, this means a Chinese doctor will typically address the balance of Qi as the core of the illness, and dismisses real medicine as only treating the symptoms. As stated before, if you are suffering heartburn, you might try something red like a strawberry because the colour red is associated with the heart which is a Yin organ. There's too much Yin making things off-balance, so bringing it back will cure your heartburn.

It's often more complicated than that - People wouldn't believe it this long if it was too simple - -but that's the general gist. Let's stick with the Fire Heart example.

I came across a paper on SciencDirect of all places that discusses this concept, the symptoms and treatments. I strongly suggest you read at least a little bit, it's short and simplistically written, and any paragraph just sounds like the imagination of an adult who never grew up.

This Beijing University published paper for the journal of traditional Chinese medicine states that the heart governs the blood and vessels - ok sure... - but it also governs shen which governs mental activities according to 'modern psychology', and thus the heart is directly connected to cognitive function.

The kidney is directly connected to the heart through meridian pathways and together have a yin-yang balance. But that balance can be skewed in three different ways:

Looks painful. (Pixabay)

• Heart Fire Hyperactivity. This apparently causes insomnia, palpitations, bad dreams and vexation.
• Kidney Yin Deficiency. This causes dizziness, weakness in the knees, tinnitus and other stuff
• Kidney Yang Deficiency. This causes cold pain, numbness, tingling and impotence among others.

These three manifestations go a long way to explain, for example, anxiety disorder and menopausal syndrome. The treatment for such imbalance? I thought you'd never ask. Read this fully... it's bizarre:

Based on the causes and pathogenesis of this pattern mentioned above, the guiding treatment principle should be clearing hyperactive heart fire and supplementing kidney yin/yang so as to restore harmonious coordination between the heart and kidney.8 Specifically, for the sub-pattern with hyperactive heart fire and deficient kidney yin, the treatment principle should be nourishing kidney yin and clearing heart fire; for the sub-pattern with hyperactive heart fire and deficient kidney yang, the treatment principle should be clearing heart fire and directing heart yang downward to warm the kidney yang or directly supplementing kidney yang. Clinically, when treating these two sub-patterns with Chinese medicines, Coptis and Donkey-Hide Gelatin Decoction (Huánglián Ējiāo Tāng) and Grand Communication Pill (Jiāotài Wán) are often chosen and used with modifications according to the actual conditions._Source

For the curious of you, the Grand Communication Pill consists of Saigon Cinnamon and a generic chinese plant coptis rhizome. Funny how Asian plants are perfectly evolved to cure global ailments when mixed with jelly made from donkey skin.

The Research

So let's jump to more in-depth research into this matter. Can we actually detect qi? Even if the theories from Chinese history are way off, and donkey skin just doesn't cut it no matter how long you keep it refrigerated in a mold, perhaps there is something to the actual core element of the belief that we can refine.

pxhere

Putting aside that Qi is inherently unverifiable and unfalsifiable, like God, Fairies and @trumpman's dignity, researchers went ahead anyway. For example, in 2000, a group of Japanese researchers - You can already guess their results - looked at 'phagocytic activity of human polymorphonuclear leukocytes' when using saline 'buffered' with phosphates and 'treated' with Qi energy.

In translation, they were to observe the activity of some immune cells when treated with an electrolyte drink when treated with Qi energy.

To be clear:

Qi treatment was externally applied under monitoring to newly purchased unopened 100 ml bottles of PBS_Source

What they found was that the bottles treated by Qi masters were more effective than those treated by Qi trainees under heavily controlled environments, and this was highly reproducible.

To make it seem more legit, they also point out that microwave or infrared laser pulse treatment mimics the effect of Qi energy... So what is Qi treatment that is so effective by the Qi masters?

The preliminary methodology seemed somewhat legit. They incubated this and centrifuged that, washed everything twice and double checked precise measurements and so forth. Then the Qi master comes in.

Ironically, the 60 year old master simply known as M. M. seems to suffer from a whole plethora of sickness, presumably because he can't apply his own virtuoso prowess to himself:

He gradually lost his sight after secondary glaucoma due to repeated operations following a traffic accident. He suffered myocardial infarction in 1994 and has diabetes mellitus, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, and impaired renal function

Even so, his brain waves were slower than normal after a 30 minute electroencephalogram, as was one of the trainees. The Qi doctors got to work:

The Qi-gong master (M.M.) and/or each trainee (S.M., Y.C. and M.K.) sat down on tatami-mats and concentrated
their minds but didn’t meditate or sleep.

At 10am (time itself is also relative to Yin & Yang), the master took a glass test tube in one hand, and an aluminium rod specifically designed for qi-transduction in the other hand. The master then pointed his metal stick at the bottle filled with Phosphate Buffered Saline (PBS) - the electrolyte drink - without touching it. The master then unified his conscious and subconscious mind, which is different from meditation and a self-description (no electroencephalogram required, apparently). Two hours of 'concentrating' later, the deed was done.

Interestingly, the paper ends with its positive results, without any discussion or acknowledgement of potential flaws to the data or methodology, which can only mean is was the perfect experiment. Our of 10 experiments, only 2 failed giving the Qi master and its correlation with the trainees an accuracy and success rate of 80%!

This is what passes as real science in the new millenium.

Admittedly this paper is 18 years old. But doctors are usually 3-4 times that age and swear by what they learnt in school over 18 years ago. And this was the cutting edge research in Japan, a country famously known for how perfect and futuristic and technologically advanced it is, leaving us westerners in the dust... with their metal rods and focussed, elderly, blind men.

But let's push to more recent times anyway.

On the Epoch Times, a website that looks like this:

They point out as recently as 2017 that Qi has once again been proven, only under the 'tongue-tying, scientific jargon' term: bioelectromagnetism.

Ahh, it's almost like Creationists hiding under their new disguise 'Intelligent Design'.

Bioelectromagnetism seems to magnetically raise my biological eyebrow - wasn't Qi present in all things across the Universe? Is everything thus biological in nature? Hmm.

Chrisitopher Dow, the guy who came up with this brilliant revelation, states:

Chi itself does not flow down the nerve … but instead surrounds the electrical flow with an intangible field that can be manipulated to some degree.

Makes sense.

Most of their sources come from 'heartmath.org', a website that, in its about me section states:

The mission of the HeartMath Institute is to help people bring their physical, mental and emotional systems into balanced alignment with their heart’s intuitive guidance. This unfolds the path for becoming heart-empowered individuals who choose the way of love

Yet it's made to sound proudly legit:

Researchers, including Stanford University Professor Emeritus Dr. William Tiller and Dr. Rollin McCraty at the HeartMath Institute...

The rest of their claims come from real scientists talking about things outside of the context of Qi energy, but similar enough to sound relevant, such as the mystery of phantom limb pain.

It's hard to actually read without cringing, but the source is below if you want.

The reason I added this modern 'research' at the end is to emphasise that it's still going on. There are 'Scientific' journals dedicated to 'alternative medicine' and 'Chinese tradition' chock full of bizarre spiritual gibberish written in a way that makes it hard for people to question and boring enough to prevent people from trying.

Then the media sources with their dedicated audience can freely spin those results however they please and it can spread to the audience which then preaches the word that their beliefs have been proven by SCIENCE. If in doubt, the doubters can be forwarded to 'heartmath', where stanford professors can back your claim right up the arse.

So no, there is no evidence of Qi energy. But don't let that stop the 3-4 billion people who believe in it (counting the equivalents in other countries around the world).

References:

Mencius | The Analects | The History of Qi | Pattern of disharmony between the heart and kidney: Theoretical basis, identification and treatment | Evidence of Qi-gong energy and its biological effect on the enhancement of the phagocytic activity of human polymorphonuclear leukocytes. | TheEpochTimes