Subject: Re: Mixers vs. Straights, was Re: Qi again

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 22 Jan 1995 13:59:36 -0500

On January 18th Paul Iannone stated:

: where is the
historical precedence for considering alcohol appropriate as a carrier in
general?

The traditionalist would have to address that question before submitting
their patients en masse to such experimentation. The mixer is free to believe
their own logic and ignore the question of tradition. Ignore it as they will,
the proponents of this practice still bear the burden of proof in my mind. :

I submit that one of the chief differences between the eclectics (Western
herbalists) besides using single herbs instead of formulations and using
different formulations of alcohol and other extractors to remove specific
constituents of herbs for use (in the typical western fashion of breaking
things down instead of building toward balance) , was that they saw alcohol
as a carrier and little more unless indicated, while the chinese see it as a
herb in itself, and thus it has the ability to change the essence of the
formulation. This is why alcohol mixtures did occur, but herbs were mostly
used as decoctions, since water is essentially neutral. 
It does remain true that to rely on tradition can provide the relative safety
of possibly finding the missing link in the causual chain of imbalances
easier because of being able to find where similar occurances have happened
previously. However, it may also be true that to observe carefully what is
being expressed by the person in their imbalance can lead to the answer in
even the most complicated (by means of previous treatment or perhaps
mistreatment) cases, if there wasn't a deep seated poisoning, which I have
seen only with conventional medication. 
The most important thing in working with a variety of the tools is to have a
single outlook that is flexible enough to encompass all forms of medicine
unjudgementally and empirically. This is true science, and that is why I use
ETH ( the first three letters in ethnobotony, interestingly enough) as the
pragmatically philosophical background from which I look at and describe
everything else in medicine. 
David Molony

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 95 00:28:43 EST

[email-masked] (Paul Iannone, P.O.B. 66843, L.A., CA 90066):
>I, Paul Iannone, said in a previous post:
>
>:> why not practice every system of healing at
>:> once? You will be master of none.
>
>To which David Molony Acuman replied (on 1/16/95):
>
>: This is a famous idiom that continues to be used to segregate mixers
>: from straights, which has never gotten anyone anywhere.
>
>The burden of proof remains on the mixer, then. As I have stated, the worst
>misbehavior and unconscionable experimentation that I have seen has been from
>the mixers. All those who try to be traditional, true to the tradition at
>least in scope, may eventually find out their errors. But synthesists cannot
>find their way so easily.

If I am following the correctly, I agree with Paul. I think two things are
getting confused here, which is leading to this difference.

First, TCM is a *system*, just as Western Medicine and any other form of
healing is a system. The manfestation of TCM is in the herbal formulae,
accupuncture, manipulation (massage), and so forth. The manifestation of
Western Medicine is in pharmaceuticals and such. The system is the framework
for understanding how elements which affect our health work; the manifestation
is the implementation of the system in practical matters.

It may be fine to use substances which are used in the manifestation of one
system of health care in another,  but those substance need to be understoof
within the context of a single system itself. Otherwise, it will not be
possible (or at least it will be very difficult) to predict the effect of
the substance in combination with the rest of the treatment a patient is
receiving. A single system is required to maintain a coherent understanding
of the patient's health, and of how the course of treatment will affect 
him or her.

				-- Chris. [email-masked]