ENERGY MEDICINE IN THERAPEUTICS AND HUMAN PERFORMANCE

Energy has been a concept in Western medicine since Einthoven recorded the first electrocardiogram in 1906. However, besides a few exceptions, energy has not made it into treatment, and is still mostly used as a diagnostic tool. As many of our members are aware, a new paradigm is evolving where energy is not only a way of measuring the body or the brain, but a way of actually treating patients. One of the leading figures in Energy Medicine(EM) today is James Oschman. I reviewed his first book, Energy Medicine - the scientific basis, in the April issue of Network 2003. His second book on the subject is now out and it is a fascinating one. James sees his search for a convincing explanation for EM as a detective story, where there are lots of clues out there, but we have to put them together into a coherent whole. James has got the courage to do that. He is not only a detective; he is also a bridge builder between mainstream science, CAM, TCM and other related methods. He emphasises more than once that the old and the new paradigms in medicine are complementary and not so much in conflict with each other. A position I feel comfortable with; it is more the personalities involved rather than the knowledge involved, territorial borders rather than data, which is the problem today. As a bridge builder he is, in a Kuhnian sense, creating a new paradigm together with all practitioners he meets outside mainstream medicine as well as dancers, athletes and martial masters. He listens carefully to them and then as a scientist he tries to answer questions not normally asked by mainstream medicine. The clues come from both sides of the bridge. The result is fascinating. In short, James is an interesting scientist from whom we clinicians can learn a lot. It is obvious that when we see the human organism as a whole, we see other things than when we see the patient as a collection of parts. One or two parts of the patient are mine; the other parts belong to other clinics. It is equally obvious, that when we take a new perspective we find new questions and therefore new answers to both old and new questions. Yet, in spite of all obviousness, mainstream medicine has a long way to go. This is one of the reasons why EM and James' work is so important. One hypothesis he puts forward for example, coming from this integrated-whole perspective of the human being, is that the degenerative diseases are a loss of "systemic co-operation"(p. 317). There are no 'causes' in the usual sense. If he is right, reductionism may never find the solution to many of the major diseases of our time. If the hypothesis proves to be true, we have to change our way of thinking about the patient, and also how we organise health care. No wonder many representatives from the mainstream have such resistance to seeing the new perspective. Energy Medicine is not an easy book to review; so many different perspectives can be interpreted and reflected upon. In the prologue James gives the reader some suggestions about how to read the book. One suggestion, which is a good one, is to start with the Afterword where the reader gets an overview of the picture James has gathered writing the book. But, to make a very brief summary from my position, he follows a number of threads throughout the book like systems theory, biology, cell biology, physics and cognitive sciences. For example; the integrated whole organism in action is one thread. A total physiological integration of the organism as an integrated functional whole implies very rapid communication with every single cell, not only with the parts of the body served by the neurological network. Another thread is evolution. Evolutionarily older parts of the body are still working even if we have forgotten about them or ignore them. He advocates that mechanisms that worked very well for bacteria, for example, were never abandoned and are retained in mammalian cells. Brain research has shown how the same idea is valid for the brain. The evolutionary early fright reaction through the thalamus and amygdala complex, for example, is fully alive in modern man and causes stress as well as fulfilling life-saving functions when needed. The cortex is not in charge of that information process. Indeed, evolution does not waste good work. To give another example: he discusses consciousness very briefly a couple of times. One interesting idea he puts forward is "…the various regulatory messages travelling about within the living matrix comprise what we refer to as consciousness". (p. 158) I think that this idea has many implications. Personally, I have never believed that for example telepathy can be explained from a brain-to-brain perspective. I believe that telepathy is evolutionarily earlier than the verbal language and to see the phenomenon as a body-to-body experience seems much more logical. James hypothesis gives strong support for further investigation in that direction. A third thread is the "living matrix", a central theme in both books. It is a continuum of connective tissue and the cytoskeletal system of the cell, which works as a semiconductor and can spread information all over the organism much faster than the neurological or hormonal system. Connective tissue is here so much more than a 'bag' in which more important stuff can be found. Neither is it just a support material. James deals with it as any other organ of the body and explains in depth why, in a very convincing way. The cytoskeleton can be seen as the musculoskeletal system of the cell. A fourth thread is the soliton wave or solitary wave, a highly interesting phenomenon, which can be used for information transport throughout the whole body. A typical example of a soliton is the huge wave at sea created by an earthquake, which travels as one single wave for great distances. The living matrix can create solitary waves. Reich concept of the orgasm reflex and other bodily waves which sometimes precedes emotional and cognitive insights can be seen as a soliton and can be felt by the therapist as a wave, as I see it. Clients and practitioners in Reiki, Rolfing and other somatic approaches can describe similar experiences. Now, when he has got the coherent organism working as a network, he comes to memory. Most if not all body workers, somatic or psychotherapeutic, have experienced how our clients or patients start to remember things from long ago when we work hands-on with their bodies. They can even remember what I call preverbal concepts, memories from the first two years of life before a verbal language was created, or even from the womb. James' hypothesis is that memory is stored all over the body and that the cytoskeleton can play an important part in storing memory and can be considered as the cells' nervous system. When we work hands-on with the client we interact energetically and memories can be released and if necessary, verbalised and integrated. Healing can take place. The book is dedicated to the Nobel Laureate Albert Szent-Györgyi, 'Prof' which he is called throughout the book, and the country doctor John McDearmon Moor. They have inspired James from both sides of the bridge. The book can also be seen as a tribute to the work of Szent-Györgyi, Frölich and others, whereas the former is the biggest source of inspiration. Prof found the way and James explores it.

The first part of the book, 30 pp, contains foreword, preface, acknowledgements, prologue and an introduction to EM today. Then we see the list of contents. Twenty-five chapters follow with an afterword and three appendices. The first seven chapters discuss EM, Szent-Györgi's ideas and questions and James' elaborations on that inspiration. In the next two chapters we are introduced to the living matrix and, as I see it, the concept of connective tissue as an organ – a complexity of functions and its determining factor for the whole is developed. After that he focuses on acupuncture for two chapters. Here he discusses why the meridian system has not been found by Western medicine, because we look for separate anatomical structures. Instead, he proposes that it is made up of connective tissue and cytoskeletal elements. From an energy point of view I guess most TCM practitioners will feel very much at home here at the same time as they get inspiration to their own work. Over all, he has succeeded in giving practitioners new ideas and inspiration around issues of how and why their different methods work. The next chapters contain a longer discussion about the continuum and coherence in natural systems, which of course is a must for his ideas regarding the living matrix and the integrated whole. Then he goes to point out the limitations of the neuron doctrine, or the walking-head-theory, as I prefer to call it. The following chapters concentrate on movement, sensation and muscle contraction. Here the discussion about the synaptic delay, which delays the neuronal message, is important. In the following chapters James reflects on the soliton wave, its characteristics and importance. In Chapters 22 to24 he deepens the discussion of somatic recall or body memory, the continuum communication and soft tissue memory. James proposes that it is worthwhile to look into Karl Pribram's idea about holographic memory from the 1960s. He concludes this part of the book with a biophysics of energy therapies. The last chapter discusses quantum coherence in the living matrix. It is not always an easy book to read for a non natural scientist or a clinically oriented person. On the other hand, James is very much aware of his broad audience and he defines most of the concepts used when the reader needs it. Just as in his first book, he has an educational structure and it is not difficult to follow the logical train of thought, even when one does not understand the details in bio-physics, biology or chemistry. For those who do understand the details and want to go deeper into the different perspectives presented, there is an extensive reference list. However, his style of writing is easy even for a non-English reader like myself. I also find it rather easy to translate his theorising into my own clinical work as a body psychotherapist. Many ideas arise from reading the book. It is obvious that he is familiar with the practitioners' point of view. That is a great advantage of the book. Clinical or practical observations from many different fields, which hardly can be understood by traditional neuron hypothesis, must be investigated further. James does exactly that. I am convinced that his two books on EM together will become a classic in the field. They are both very important books. Read them!