Flaming Liniment

     Prestigious acupuncture text author and lecturer Alex Tiberi tells a very funny story about the flaming liniment he uses as a therapeutic treatment for muscle aches and pains, and besides its coolness melds very well with our shamanic tradition. In one hotel seminar, he had a (skittish) volunteer try dipping her hand into the flaming liquid with less than stellar results; she did try it and violated the cardinal rule of not being tenetive about plunging her hand in and decisively clenching it to extinguish the flames, thereby resulting in flinging the burning stuff on the carpet.

     And while he was looking for something to smother the bits of smoldering carpet, a brave attendee had taken his tee shirt off to use it as a cover for the kettle ‘o fire and managed to flip the whole burning container onto the carpet, which moved the event from a relatively contained mishap to one that required professional fire fighting assistance, carpet replacement, and limiting that particular public activity in the future.

Good times abound!

6,000/160

We are put here on this earth to help others, what on earth the others are here for, I haven’t a clue. – W.H. Auden

Things We Are

It would be best if I could think of something that consisted of five things all mixed and blended together, maybe like some sort of fruit salad or like a concrete or like a recipe of five colors of clay thoroughly mixed together.

In this Five Element Acupuncture perspective, we are just that, a well-blended mixture of the ten thousand things, or at least the five things we can conceptualize. When we are very well in balance, these five energies come together seamlessly and it’s difficult to separate out which one predominates. When one thing dominates our mind, when we’re really angry or grieving or fearful, then we are in the throes of that energy.

7,000/160

And if the earthly no longer knows your name, whisper to the silent earth: I’m flowing. to the flashing water, say: I am.- Rainer Maria Rilke

So Many Questions

How many needles do you use in a treatment? Maybe about a dozen.

How long is it? About 75 minutes.

Do I take off my clothes? Probably, except for your underwear

Do I have to believe in it for it to work? No more than believing in electricity.

Will it hurt? Much less than a heartbreak of any kind.

How do you know what to treat? I listen so intently to what you say and how you say it, and to what your pulses tell me.

Do you treat outside of the office? I do home visits as well as treat people in the local rest homes and rehab facilities.

Any side effects? The most common side effect is falling asleep and I get a gold star if you go to sleep, and two gold stars if you snore.

Do you take insurance? Yup, if your insurance pays for it, I’ll accept it.

7,000/161

Your work is to discover you work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it. - Buddha

Acupuncture Datebook

     I’ve always been fascinated with time keeping from clock making to timed burning candles; calendars have always played a big part. Back in 1980, I think I had two dozen calendars in my office and page turning on the first of the month was a group effort!

     The Chinese calendar has become a source of interest for me as well. So much so that I’ve created a coffee table publication for use in the office waiting area. It goes from January to December with a page for each day; and on that page it includes a acupuncture point appropriate to that season, the point name in English, and in pinyin as well as in Chinese characters, the point’s location, something about the spirit of the point and some bit of daily wisdom.

6,000/161

The dream was always running ahead of me. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it, that was the miracle. - Anais Nin

My Father's Dragon

After the recent office re equipage, I brought in a cloth sculpture my older brother made in the late 70s. It’s a map on canvas over cardboard with a fabric frame around it from the frontispiece of a childhood book called My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett from 1948. It was one of the favorites from my childhood. We still talk about the rhino brushing his horn with toothpaste. The map labels the places where the character and his dragon had their adventures on Wild Island and the Island of Tangerina.


It’s nice to have something of my brother’s in the treatment room with me.

5,500/160.5

The beauty of the Way is that there is no Way.-  Loy Ching-Yuen

Remodeled Website

I’d like to invite you into my shop, at least the virtual rendition. Please come on down to www.ling-tai-acupunture.com to see what the new place looks like. It’s has a lot less emphasis on what the office (and I look like) looks like and more detail on acupuncture and how it can serve you.

It’s very well and creatively done by the talented and gracious Lisa Murphy (lisamurphywebdesign.com) out of Peoria, IL. I’d recommend her for your future website needs.

6,000/161

Everything is everything. – BJ James

A Wellness University?

     There was a big article about the Tai Sophia Institute, my acupuncture school in the local county paper this past week. Tai is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year and maybe moving toward status as a “wellness” university in 5 or 6 years if all goes well.
     That’s pretty good for an organization that almost landed the founders in jail for breaking the skin like surgeons without a license.

5,500/159

     May all beings everywhere with whom we are inseparably interconnected, be fulfilled, awakened, liberated and free. May there be peace in this world and throughout out the entire universe, and may we all together complete the spiritual journey. - Mahayana Buddhist Prayer