VITALISM

ANSWERING A QUESTION about Acupuncture Machines

Q: can I use a TENS device or Electro Massage device like an Acupuncture machine?

VITALISM

The only thing an acupuncture machine has in common with TENS is electricity. TENS has far more milliamperes and can actually make muscles contract. It pulses much like an electric fence. The acupuncture machine is more of a frequency generator with more selectable waveforms at smaller milliamperes about like a small 9v battery. People who do not know acupuncture think of it as neurological, and if they have shallow acupuncture knowledge try to apply it like that. It is really trying to balance the subtle metaphysical energy of the life force called CHI in Chinese.

Conventional science and medicine sees the body as a simple biological machine with neurological impulses and nothing more. Conventional medicine opposed most Alternative medicine because virtually all of them are based on VITALISM..a belief in a vital energy force that maintains life and must be treated together with the physical body. Some conventional MDs believe this and incorporate it it in their treatment which they call HOLISTIC. Most conventional medicine and science says this is 'unscientific' and labels it 'pseudo-science'.. even superstition. It is this concept and not Allopathy vs. Homeopathy that is the root of dissension.

Acupuncture tries to promote healing by influencing this invisible Vital Force that flows through designated channels much like the lymphatic system. These channels are called Meridians. Acupuncture tries to stimulate and 'trigger' these points of force mechanically like Homeopathy tries to do chemically.

It is this idea of 'energy' that is antithetical to conventional medicine rather than treating through similars or by contraries.

Because Alternative medicine gives Vitalism so much consideration,, I will have to write about it soon. It is often confused with 'superstition' or even religion, which is really isn't, but it is there just the same. It is labeled unscientific because science has no means of measuring it yet. Albert Einstein was not very religious, but he accepted Vitalism because it is energy, and energy can never be destroyed or used up, only changed from one form to another.