Heather Fraser
Humans have known for a long time about the deceptively simple power of poking, pressing or tapping on key body points to achieve changes in the body energy systems.
Over 3,000 years ago Chinese practitioners learned that meridians, invisible pathways of energy through the body could be changed, unblocked or stimulated by inserting needles or applying heat. But positive changes could also be achieved simply pressing or tapping with hands and fingers.
But knowledge of this innate body system is even older. The discovery of Otzi the Iceman, a 5,300 year old man found preserved in ice in the Swiss Alps, revealed fascinating information about ancient health practices. Otzi has 61 tattoos (lines and marks) organized in 19 different groups in areas where he suffered from joint degeneration in his ankles, wrists, spine. Authors of a study on the tattoos observed that there must have been an extensive process of trial and error to determine the effects of addressing these particular points. [1]
By the 20th century, we find the intersection of eastern practices with western technologies in the use of electro-acupressure. Using the system of Chinese acupuncture, German physician and engineer, Reinhold Voll focused on the points of the hands and feet to measure and stimulate the flow of energy.
Like other pioneers in applied kinesiology, American psychologist Dr. Jimmy Scott explored biofeedback/responses in muscle testing – approaches to which can be complex. In the late 1970s, Dr. Scott followed this work with tapping protocols to achieve homeostasis. Called Health Kinesiology in the UK, his work became known as Natural BioEnergetics in the US and Canada.
In the late 1980s, German doctors Peter Schumacher and Jurgen Hennecke drew on the work of Voll and Scott in the use of a Bicom device. Schumacher’s study of patients published in The Biophysical Therapy of Allergies (1998) offers some data and information on the complex relationship of the body and energy systems.
Although scientific evidence of this network of channels is still lacking, clinical experience suggests that this bio-circuitry is a powerful and important part of the human body, and that kinesiology can be used to access and intervene in this human operating system. It is an exciting field of exploration.
Case in point, from quantum mechanics has emerged the study of quantum biology – which takes concepts of “spooky” body energy systems and frames them in a new language perhaps more receptive to western scientific thinking.
A new and exciting question is how and where do meridians and tapping on them to affect physical change intersect with the accepted notion of entanglement?
[1] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-otzi-icemans-tattoos-reveal-about-copper-age-medical-practices-180970244/