Hello Alex here! This week we're going to
be doing something a little bit
different. Instead of doing a serious
medical topic, I'm gonna be talking about
something that's more relaxing, yet it is
still related to Chinese medicine. But
first of all, let me ask you a question.
Is the shape of the Earth 'round' or
'flat'? What do you think? Well I believe
most people would say the Earth is round
because that is what it's been taught in
school. However there are also a group of
people that think that the world is flat.
And they're usually called the 'Flat
Earthers'. First of all let me talk about
my own opinion. I think that the Earth is
round. But for those of you who have
never heard of Flat Earth, let me explain
it a little bit.
Flat Earth theory it says that the Earth is
a flat plane and in the center it
is the North Pole, while the South Pole
is in the circumference, which are high
ice walls. And the reason why it's so
high is because so that it can block
any seawater from flowing outside
of the earth. And on top of the earth
there is a Sun and a moon, which is
exactly on the same plane. And it rotates
so that there is night and day. And
another important theory about the Flat
Earth is that they don't believe in
gravity. So when we ask them why do we
jump, we drop down? And they say no, it's
not because of we are dropping down, it's
because the earth, the plane is
accelerating upwards, so that it seems
that we're dropping down. Basically
that's a simple introduction of what the
Flat Earth is. And there's a lot of
resources like websites, online videos
about this and if you like you can check
more about it. Now let's go back to the
round version of the Earth. Well back in
2,000 years ago a Chinese Medicine
classic called 'The Yellow Emperor's
Classic of Medicine', which is often
regarded as the Bible of Chinese
medicine, states that the earth is
floating in the cosmos and the great Qi
is lifting it up. Although it didn't
specify the specific shape of Earth but
I'm super amazed by 2,000 years ago they
know that earth is floating in the
cosmos. And another scientist back in
ancient China Mr. Zhang Heng, he
is actually often regarded as the Nikola Tesla of his
times.
He stated that Earth is round and he
used an analogy. He stated that the Earth
is like an egg yolk which is inside an
eggshell and it is floating in the egg
white. In the West there are a lot of
scientists and philosophers also
discovered that earth is round
since a long time ago. From Pythagoras to
Aristotle, all the way to Magellan. And
there are a lot of videos and articles
about how to prove the earth is round
scientifically. So I am not going to be
repeating all those. But there's one
thing that I would like to specific
mention because that is related to
acupuncture and that is called the
'Coriolis force'. The Coriolis force means
that when something is traveling
straight, because of the earth is
rotating, that is the reason why it seems
that it is a curve. And let's do a little
hands-on experiment of the Coriolis
force. Here is a little box, which don't
worry about it, but this is a plane which
we resemble it as the Earth. And this
point on top is the North Pole and we
are looking at it above the Earth
looking down to the North Pole because
from that point of the view the Earth is
rotating anti-clockwise so what we're
gonna do is we're gonna do a little
experiment. First of all we're gonna draw
a straight line and as you see it is
straight, because the earth is still.
However if the earth is rotating and we
draw the same straight line at the
same time, you can tell that it is
actually a curve and that is called the
Coriolis effect. And put a little bit
imagination on to it. If you are looking from
below the South Pole and you're looking
upwards, then the plane will be
turning clockwise, and then which means
it will turn to the other side. So the
conclusion is in Northern Hemisphere it
deflects to the right, in Southern
Hemisphere it deflects to this left. And
that affects a lot of natural
phenomenons from air to ocean currents
in the world. And that is why in Northern
Hemisphere and Southern hemisphere the
rotation of the hurricanes are different.
One is clockwise and one is anti-clockwise.
Now let me show you a little experiment
from that it's done in Uganda and the
place where it is near the equator. There
is a water bucket on the Northern
Hemisphere and one in the Southern
Hemisphere. And they found out that in
Northern Hemisphere when you put water
and try to drain it, it turns clockwise
and when you put it in Southern
Hemisphere it turns anti-clockwise. Now I
know that a lot of people, especially
scientists may think that this
experiment is not valid because the
Coriolis force is too small in this
setting, because this setting or this
system is too small compared to the
whole Earth. I understand that. But
don't worry about it because my point is
to relate that to acupuncture. In
acupuncture there are many techniques
and one of the technique is called
'Reinforcing and Reducing'. Reinforcing
means that you are bringing up the vital-qi
or in other words you are pumping
energy to that pressure point or to that
body. And reducing is you are releasing
energy and removing it from the body.
Usually we do it when there is external
pathogens in your body, so when we reduce
it, the external pathogens are being get
rid out of. And of course as acupuncturists,
we have to be really careful and use the
techniques at the right timing because
when a person especially a patient that
is too weak, do not have not enough
energy and do not have external
pathogens attacking, if you reduce it
then the energy will go out of the body
and they will become even less in energy
and will become weaker. So there are many
ways to reduce and reinforce but one of
the most common way is to rotate the
needle. As you see in the Uganda
experiment, in the Northern Hemisphere
when the water is draining it is turning
clockwise and that is reinforcing, so
which means here in Canada (in the
Northern Hemisphere) when I'm doing
needles when I'm doing reinforcements
then what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna turn
the needle clockwise. And if I'm doing
reducing then I will do it
anti-clockwise. And of course in the
Southern Hemisphere I would have to do
the opposite. I am fascinated by how
people, how the ancient people discovered
that the
energy in the Universe could affect our
body. And in Chinese medicine there is a
specific topic about what we call
'Medical Astrology', which studies how the
planets, how the energy of the planets
such as Mars, Mercury, Jupiter affects us
on our body and we can calculate the
individual body type, so that we can
understand the patient, understand
ourselves so we can prevent any diseases
from happening. And I will do more about
this topic in the future. Humans are
really small,
not only to mention comparing to Earth
but comparing to the whole Universe, so
that is the reason why in Chinese
Medicine we focus a lot about 'living in
harmony with nature', instead of going
against it. Thank you for watching today.
If you have any questions, leave in the
comment section below. Stay healthy and I
will see you in the next video.
