Abstract
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The implications of this simple statement are profound—after 50 years of trying to explain acupuncture by using Western medical principles and tools that range from neurophysiology and cortical plasticity to neurotransmitters and neuroimaging, we might have gone as far as the allopathic paradigm can take us. And the signpost that now forces us to look in another direction was discussed by Dr. Niemtzow in that editorial 1 —a recent reconsideration of the “fringe” science phenomenon known as the phantom-leaf effect (PLE). 2
The PLE story started in 1940s Russia, when engineer Semyon Davidovich Kirlian invented corona discharge photography, a technique that captured images of the electrical fields surrounding living organisms. Research interest in Kirlian photography peaked in the 1970s, but waned because of difficulties with reliability and replicability (although interest surged more recently when the popular TV science-fiction series The X-Files featured a Kirlian image in its weekly introductory montage).
Much of the early Kirlian photography research was focused on the electrical field surrounding leaves, because leaves are thin enough to fit between the photograph film and the electrical discharge plates used in Kirlian photography. Some Kirlian images showed that leaves from a plant that had been treated with an energy therapy such as Reiki or Therapeutic Touch, or that had been grown organically, had larger coronas than untreated leaves and were thus presumed to be healthier. In addition, leaves exposed to microwaves or pesticides had smaller Kirlian auras and were thus felt to be lower in vitality.
Perhaps the most intriguing set of Kirlian photography images from that era involved the PLE—after cutting off the tip of a leaf, the electrostatic field surrounding the perimeter of the leaf was unchanged and even persisted in the region where the amputated leaf section no longer existed. 3 The PLE seemed to show that an electromagnetic template existed that was not generated by the leaf's tissue or biochemical activity, as scientists had assumed. Rather, the template existed in space independently of, and perhaps even prior to, the physical structure of the leaf. Marcelli's theory of morphologic development as it relates to acupuncture channels 4 is congruent with this model. However, the PLE was dismissed without full consideration of its true implications because it had proven so difficult to replicate until Hubacher's recent refinement of Kirlian's imaging technique. 2
The PLE was so named because of its apparent similarity to phantom-limb pain, a clinical syndrome in which pain sensations are felt by amputees in the region of space previously occupied by their amputated limb. Modern neuroscience explains this phenomenon as a perceptual illusion created by a brain that is undergoing neuroplastic changes in response to bodily injury. 5 Yet, how do we explain the ability of patients who have undergone amputations to perceive physical objects with their phantom limbs? Examples include the patient mentioned by Dr. Niemtzow who felt a needle “stuck” into his phantom limb, 1 or the stunning online video demonstration of accurate tactile perception by a phantom hand. *
English philosopher John Stuart Mill once noted that the observation of a single black swan refutes the assertion that all swans are white. 6 Hubacher's phantom leaf images are “black swans” with respect to medicine's assumption that all clinical phenomena can be explained by the “nuts and bolts” of material physiology, and that all thoughts and perceptions are created by the brain. Perhaps TCM, Ayurveda, shamanic healing, and the like are all black swans, showing that invisible healing energies are at the root of such processes as pain perception, illness or health, and consciousness itself.
Consider how various integrative medical treatments affect phantom pain. Acupuncture therapy for phantom-limb pain stimulates mirror points on the intact contralateral limb, but laser acutherapy aimed at invisible phantom acupuncture points on the missing limb has also been effective, despite the unsettling scenario of aiming therapeutic light beams at apparently empty space. Furthermore, several novel energy-based therapies, including Therapeutic Touch (a noncontact form of energy transfer similar to TCM's exernal Qigong) 7 and Energy Psychology (a blend of self-acupressure and psychological exposure/desensitization), 8 have been shown to alleviate phantom-limb pain within minutes to hours. This is too rapid a response for synaptic regrowth to be the likely mechanism of action, suggesting that energetic shifts may be the key factor.
Along these lines, I have elsewhere proposed an energy/trauma model elsewhere of phantom-limb pain 9 that is essentially an outgrowth of a classic TCM dictum: “The Mind directs the Qi and the blood follows the Qi.” The patients whose phantom-limb pain I treated successfully had never dealt with the psychologic trauma of their amputations, and I believe this emotional suffering distorted their biomagnetic energy fields. In other words, their minds (the cognitions and beliefs and emotions generated by the traumas) redirected their Qi into flow patterns that were imbalanced by this stress-induced “friction” and that were now influencing their brains and nervous system in a way that generated the sensation of pain (i.e., the neurophysiology—“the Blood”—was following the Qi).
By healing the amputation-related emotional trauma and correcting the accompanying maladaptive thought patterns, the newly restored balanced energy flow allows the pain to dissipate. This energy model also predicts that detectable changes should occur in the electromagnetic field of the phantom limb. Unfortunately, the human hand is too thick to fit between the photographic plates of a Kirlian device, so a human phantom limb has never been photographed successfully. It is hoped that future researchers will discover a way to visualize phantom limbs reliably, much as Hubacher has done with phantom leaves. 2 Such an image—a no-longer-invisible phantom limb staring us right in the face—would be the ultimate black swan, one that could lead to the complete integration of both Western medicine and TCM into an even larger whole—a complete, multidimensional, energy-based model of health and illness that would truly “unleash the power.”