Zusatztext Comprehensive! encyclopedic! and lucid! this book is a must for all practitioners of the healing arts who want to broaden their understanding. Readers interested in the role of herbs and foods in healing will also find much to learn here! as I have. . . . A fine work. Annemarie Colbin! author of Food and Healing Groundbreaking . . . Here at last is a complete and readable guide to Chinese medicine. San Francisco Chronicle Informationen zum Autor Harriet Beinfield; Efrem Korngold Klappentext A worthy and important (Deepak Chopra) guide that demystifies Chinese medicine and explores the benefits of its three-pronged holistic approach Comprehensive, encyclopedic, and lucid, this book is a must for all practitioners of the healing arts.Annemarie Colbin, author of Food and Healing The promise and mystery of Chinese medicine has intrigued and fascinated Westerners ever since the Bamboo Curtain was lifted in the early 1970s. Now, in Between Heaven and Earth, two of the foremost American educators and healers in the Chinese medical profession break down this centuries-old approach to health. Harriet Beinfeld and Efrem Korngold, pioneers in the practice of acupuncture and herbal medicine in the United States for over eighteen years, explain the philosophy behind Chinese medicine, how it works and what it can do. Combining Eastern traditions with Western sensibilities in a unique blend that is relevant today, Between Heaven and Earth addresses three vital areas of Chinese medicinetheory, therapy, and typesto present a comprehensive yet understandable guide to this ancient system. Whether you are a patient with an aggravating complaint or a curious intellectual seeker, Between Heaven and Earth opens the door to a vast storehouse of knowledge that bridges the gap between mind and body, theory and practice, professional and self-care, East and West. Zusammenfassung A worthy and important (Deepak Chopra) guide that demystifies Chinese medicine and explores the benefits of its three-pronged holistic approach Comprehensive, encyclopedic, and lucid, this book is a must for all practitioners of the healing arts.Annemarie Colbin, author of Food and Healing The promise and mystery of Chinese medicine has intrigued and fascinated Westerners ever since the Bamboo Curtain was lifted in the early 1970s. Now, in Between Heaven and Earth, two of the foremost American educators and healers in the Chinese medical profession break down this centuries-old approach to health. Harriet Beinfeld and Efrem Korngold, pioneers in the practice of acupuncture and herbal medicine in the United States for over eighteen years, explain the philosophy behind Chinese medicine, how it works and what it can do. Combining Eastern traditions with Western sensibilities in a unique blend that is relevant today, Between Heaven and Earth addresses three vital areas of Chinese medicinetheory, therapy, and typesto present a comprehensive yet understandable guide to this ancient system. Whether you are a patient with an aggravating complaint or a curious intellectual seeker, Between Heaven and Earth opens the door to a vast storehouse of knowledge that bridges the gap between mind and body, theory and practice, professional and self-care, East and West....

ldquo;Comprehensive, encyclopedic, and lucid, this book is a must for all practitioners of the healing arts who want to broaden their understanding. Readers interested in the role of herbs and foods in healing will also find much to learn here, as I have. . . . A fine work.”**—Annemarie Colbin, author of ***Food and Healing

“Groundbreaking . . . Here at last is a complete and readable guide to Chinese medicine.”—San Francisco Chronicle**

Autorentext

Harriet Beinfield; Efrem Korngold

Klappentext

A “worthy and important” (Deepak Chopra) guide that demystifies Chinese medicine and explores the benefits of its three-pronged holistic approach

“Comprehensive, encyclopedic, and lucid, this book is a must for all practitioners of the healing arts.”—Annemarie Colbin, author of Food and Healing

The promise and mystery of Chinese medicine has intrigued and fascinated Westerners ever since the “Bamboo Curtain” was lifted in the early 1970s. Now, in Between Heaven and Earth, two of the foremost American educators and healers in the Chinese medical profession break down this centuries-old approach to health. Harriet Beinfeld and Efrem Korngold, pioneers in the practice of acupuncture and herbal medicine in the United States for over eighteen years, explain the philosophy behind Chinese medicine, how it works and what it can do.

Combining Eastern traditions with Western sensibilities in a unique blend that is relevant today, Between Heaven and Earth addresses three vital areas of Chinese medicine—theory, therapy, and types—to present a comprehensive yet understandable guide to this ancient system. Whether you are a patient with an aggravating complaint or a curious intellectual seeker, Between Heaven and Earth opens the door to a vast storehouse of knowledge that bridges the gap between mind and body, theory and practice, professional and self-care, East and West.

Leseprobe
CHAPTER ONE
OUR JOURNEY EAST: EXPLORING FOREIGN TERRITORY
 
Lying motionless, gazing at a chart on the wall showing streams of force connecting the little toe with the corner of the eye in a web of continuous loops, I feel my breath soften and my vision sharpen
 
Delicate pins protrude from my elbow, ankle, and knee. My arms and legs are flooded by tiny rivulets of current. It’s not like a hypodermic needle that injects a foreign substance—what I’m feeling is simply more of myself. It’s strange, in the sense of odd and unfamiliar, but as a sensation not unpleasant. In fact, the edges of my mouth are cradling a silly smile.
The skin is stretched less tightly over my bony frame as my pores relax. I sense movement as I lie quiet, aware of impulse within my mind at rest. Thoughts tumble into consciousness, roll over, and shuffle off.
 
With my eyes closed, and perception directed inward, simultaneous layers of activity play like instruments in concert with each other. I am the composer and the composed, the musician and the listener, the instrument and its player.
 
SUBTLE YET PALPABLE, MY INITIAL ENCOUNTER WITH ACUPUNCTURE LEFT me tantalized by mystery and promise. Mystery, in that tiny needles could extend my field of awareness and completely alter the state of my being. Promise, in that by burrowing into the conceptual soil of this system, I could deepen my self-understanding.
 
As the daughter of a surgeon and the granddaughter of two surgeons, my early life was steeped in the cauldron of medicine brewed over several generations. Enthusiasm for healing was contagious, and I became infected. As a child I was impressed by my father’s devotion and satisfaction. He rushed to the hospital day or night to operate on a man lacerated in a motorcycle accident or a child threatened by a ruptured appendix. Lives would have been lost without his heroic intervention.
 
The role of doctor and the appeal of medicine came naturally—but why Chinese medicine? The ideology of Chinese medicine immediately captivated me by its stark contrast to the perspective of Western medical science. I had never been comfortable thinking of myself in my father’s language of electrolytes and blood-gas ratios, a collection of quantities and statistics. The Chinese medical vocabulary contained metaphors from nature like Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water, Heat, Wind, and Cold.* This cosmological description of human process confirmed what I knew intuitively to be so—that what moves the world outside moves within …