Abstract: As Western Culture mounts a meet and greet with the rest of the civilized world via their many wars and predatory business methods, the resulting culture clash many of the typical Western mental illnesses have begun to make marked increases in frequency of affliction and in severity in Eastern and Southern Hemisphere cultures. Treating Western illness of culture from a Chinese Medicine perspective requires an understanding of the pathogenic culture and how it affects indigenous systems of Belief.
In one if it’s initial excursions into the western hemisphere, Europeans nearly decimated aboriginal peoples by not only war but in a misunderstanding and ignorance of the individual temperament of those people. The introduction of alcohol into Native American culture has done as much damage to those people and their society in the subsequent years as any of the brutal battles they fought. Temperament and cultural disposition affects the individual in unseen ways that require the objective understanding offered by a practitioner of Chinese Medicine as that quality lacks in the literal methods of the West's’ Medical Industrial Complex. This paper serves as an argument for an understanding of culture as a means of perceiving from the heart and how belief is an integral part of speaking that language of the heart.
Shen Disturbance Manifestation in Western Culture
“Believing begins the adventure.”-Disney’s The Never Girls
When Disney first instructed young men and women to wish upon a star in the 1940 film Pinocchio, Westerners unknowingly put themselves at risk of losing the biological materials that once sent mankind to the moon. At the heart of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) lies the refined stuff of imagination and myth; the material of the inmaterial, otherwise known as Shen in the East and Spirit in the West. This material of belief is a production of the heart and requisite in our ability to perceive divine communication or what we would call in the West, inspiration and creativity. This paper sets to explain how the monetization of belief and the adaptation of ritual into secular ideas and conglomerates have contributed to a cultural disturbance in human spirit. The acknowledgement of this immaterial substance by material skeptic science is needed to help free the millions of people who have unknowingly sold the essence of their spiritual power to sporting corporations and myth factories in Florida.
While proclamations of this type may seem like a Faustian concept of selling one’s soul to a devilish character, in the medical systems of TCM the soul is a combination of two other factor, po and hun. Po and hun are two types of essence that contribute to the production of Shen and the overall well being and stability of the individual. Po and hun are created in the lungs and liver respectively and act in tandem to create what the ancient Greek philosophers called the eros or more commonly today, the soul. While the alchemical process is more complex than this paper has stated for now understanding that the spirit is not the soul will suffice.
What is lost to the monetary model of faith is the very vitality that animates the human being throughout their lives. Healthy shen manifest in the eyes, it is a glow and shine that beams from the heart of the individual or as Audrey Hepburn put it; “The beauty (of a woman) must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.” While again we return to the idea of seeing the soul through the eyes we cannot hold it against Ms. Hepburn for her ignorance of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Spirit shines through the eyes. It gives the individual a sense of joy and benevolence. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine when one's shen is residing in balance with the rest of the body's systems, it is believed that individual is connected to their divine purpose in life.. Although we may not always understand what that purpose might be for ourselves we understand when we feel connected to something greater than ourselves.
Conversely, a disturbance in shen manifest as something dastardly and unfortunately it is quite common in today's Western culture and more common every day in other cultures as they interact with the West in the expanding global community. This maladjustment of shen is commonly known in TCM as a shen disturbance. (4) A disturbance in shen relates to a complex set of issues that must be whittled down to a few key points for the sake of brevity. In Traditional Chinese Medicine; and many if not all of the other Oriental Medical Arts, the status of the blood is one of the main components of understanding the health and well being of the individual.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine blood and it’s vessels are also viewed as connective tissue similar to skin, sinew and fascia. Blood is called Xue and serves as one of four stages of the immune system. The other three factors in a healthy immune system in Traditional Chinese Medicine are; Wei Qi, which serves as a defensive energy against external pathogenic factors such as heat, wind and dampness. One feels their Wei Qi in the fall as the weather changes and they battle off an impending illness or cold, Qi along with Ying which serves as a nourishing energetic aspect of the blood and the systems of the heart. These four refining aspects of energetic and the circulatory system are the human beings divine spark that assist the organism throughout their lifetime.
The formation of red blood cells within bone was known to the ancient Chinese centuries before the West understood how bone marrow contributed to the construction of blood. Understanding the formation of blood requires a bit more information on the etheric aspects of Traditional Chinese Medicine. As one of the cornerstones of Traditional Chinese Medicine the Qi ( Ki in Japan) is one of the three essential energies that create the foundation for human life and works in tandem with Shen and the base acidic/mineral fluid, Jing. We already have an understanding of what shen is and how it might be better understood as the same spirit that high school pep rallies and the National Football League (NFL) hold in such high regard. Qi is a type of universal energy. Qi is all pervasive and assist the manifestation of the most dense matter such as rocks and steel to the finest forms of energy such as light and wifi for our computers. Qi is the background static, the animating principle that the Greco-Roman’s called the anima mundi, the World Soul.
Qi and blood share an intimate relationship and are intrinsically related. Per Traditional Chinese Medicine and twenty-five hundred years of research; blood is a denser form of qi and is inseparable from each other except upon death and or in the case of blood deficiencies or other other blood borne illnesses that result in a lack of energy or general feeling of malaise for the individual experiencing the aliment. That lack of energy could be the translation of the qi deficiency in the blood, in this way we are able to see how someone experiences qi in a common less mystical way. Qi is also the animating principle in blood, it moves the blood and in turn the blood both nourishes and births the qi. Qi moves blood through the bodily systems and helps to nourish the body’s organs which in turn produces more qi. Blood and qi also help to moisturize the body and skin helping to create a watertight seal to protect against external pathogens and to protect from injury. While the body's system are completely collaborative in their production and maintenance of cells and tissues other factors contribute to the production of qi and blood and have an integrated relationship with the heart and shen.
The kidneys are the storehouse for what is called in Traditional Chinese Medicine, prenatal qi. This prenatal qi in the kidneys is more commonly referred to as Kidney Essence or Jing and is bequeathed to us from our parents upon conception. Kidney Essence is limited in its stores and once depleted cannot be replenished unlike the qi we receive from eating and drinking and breathing. This prenatal qi is used with and by the heart as it helps the other body systems to produce blood.
Briefly, the kidney essence is the central foundation of physical and mental health in the human being. The prenatal essence decides the constitution of an individual. In childhood kidney essence dictates the growth of bones, hair, teeth and plays a major governing role in childhood maturity into and through adolescence. During puberty kidney essence controls sexual function and reproduction. In Traditional Chinese Medicine impotence, infertility, and sequential miscarriages would be investigated for weak or deficit kidney essence (qi). A natural decline in kidney essence is the etiology for the symptoms of aging. Kidney Jing (essence) is responsible for the production of marrow within the bones and the central nervous system. The brain itself is named, the Sea of Marrow in TCM and a decline in neurocognitive function often finds some correlation to kidney function and kidney jing quality and quantity.
Each of the five organs central to Traditional Chinese Medicine; of which the Kidneys and Heart are two, have their own temperaments and personalities. These temperaments and personalities are useful to the practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine in helping guide their diagnosis and treatment of the/to the appropriate pathology. Fear plays a role in the personality of the kidneys in both Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Astrological science, as Scorpio is issued governance over the kidneys. Fear plays an important function in sensory input for an individual, but wild unchecked fear or relentless fear can cripple the individual and affect their spirit as well as the product of other organs besides just the heart. As the kidneys and the heart work together to build blood a balanced relationship is required for their relationship to be productive. This is important to counter an excess of fear that might be adversely affecting the kidney and therein the production of red blood cells and marrow. The individual must work diligently towards opening their hearts and cultivating love to act as a solvent for the buildup of waste material that the kidneys should be naturally filtering out. Love is the prescription for fear based pathology.
The heart is called the Emperor in Traditional Chinese Medicine, it governs the body and dictates emotional stability. The hearts governing of the Mind is at the core of many Oriental philosophies and beliefs. The heart is thought of elementally as fire and therein is the foundation material basis for belief and belief structures. The ancient book of definitions (Neijing (5) refers to the heart as the ruler of the human body, the seat of consciousness and intelligence. In this way the heart rules over the airy qualities of the mind, just as heated air lifts a hot air balloon the heart lifts and moves the mind. An unsettled and wild fire in the heart, left open to the stings and burns of unchecked passion sends the mind flying and racing without benefit to the individual.
This type of unsettled mid results in many of the more deceptively acceptable and commonplace mental ailments that haunt the mind as a by product of modern urban living. Mental affliction like depression, anxiety, obsession, or sadness leave the individual open to external and internal disharmony and pathology. While Westerns are encouraged and often misled about the risks and benefits of using prescription medication to treat these seemingly innocuous diseases of the mind it is a much more complex, but accessible problem to address. The disease in this instance is entwined with the cure.
A disturbance in Shen disturbs many aspects of the body. A shen disturbance can lead to a litany of ailments including but not limited to; heat stroke, toothaches, delirium, schizotypal symptoms and even coma. It is of the utmost importance to remember that within Traditional Chinese Medicine the body and its systems are interconnected and reliant on the proper function of one another. To simply disregard any illness as a disruption in one aspect of the beings supporting systems is to misunderstand the basic philosophy of Traditional Chinese Medicine and it’s requisite as a complementary system. Excess in one area leads to a deficit in another Traditional Chinese Medicine seeks the balance between the two points to induce harmony and therein well being. For the sake of this discourse we’ll examine how pathologies manifest from a shen (spirit) disturbance; schizotypal/schizophrenia, mania, depression, and psychosis.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) (DSM -V)(6) defines schizophrenia as being; “...characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and behavior, and other symptoms that cause social or occupational dysfunction….symptoms must have been present for six months and include at least one month of active symptoms” Schizophrenia has within it five subtypes of schizotypal behavior and cognition. Schizophrenia is a spectrum disorder similar in coding to autism as there is no hard and fast definition of the illness but rather a collection of symptoms that fall under the umbrella of the illness.
One of the defining characteristics of schizophrenia is the lack of, or corruption of, ritual in the afflicted individuals daily life. In a recent research study in Europe, researchers found that; “Families with a schizophrenic member were less ritualizing than were "normal" families” (7) While the use of the term normal is indeed troubling, stigma aside the research has illustrated that there was a correlation between ritual and the mental illness.
Furthering the argument that schizotypal behavior bears a relation to ritual and holds a bearing within religious context. a work was published collecting the research of eleven authors that built upon Charles Darwin's ideas of; effective psychology needing to reconnect to proto-man’s religious and cultural experiences if the art (psychology) has any hope of truly understanding the mind of mankind. In the chapter titled Evolution and Schizophrenia the author had this to say about the mental illness in early humans; “...schizophrenia is a vestigial phenotype that possess several adaptive features for hunting and gathering societies.” The theory of the author is that the inmaterial view of reality that schizophrenia offers would place the individual into a place of prestige amongst the tribal community. Findings like this are readily available through the global communities as every culture had a place for those who were able to perceive the immaterial for those bound to the mundane.
Supporting the theory the author had this to say about the shaman or shaman type figurehead in proto-human culture/communities; “ ...primary function of the shaman would be to spearhead magico- religious rituals. The adaptive function of the spiritual ritual would be to homogenize tribal opinion around enigmatic events and foster group cohesion.” Homogenizing the mundane around seemingly fantastic events and giving the group a common goal while programming belief has worked well throughout history and is still a popular means of hacking belief via media and art and television.
When considering schizophrenic and schizotypical mental illness and disharmony we must consider the beliefs and rituals practiced by the individual suffering under the heat of the affliction. The patients belief paradigms are programmed by culture and have for the majority of human history been confined to, local culture. A recent Stanford study stated; “(Stanford anthropologist) Tanya Luhrmann found that voice-hearing experiences of people with serious psychotic disorders are shaped by local culture – in the United States, the voices are harsh and threatening; in Africa and India, they are more benign and playful. This may have clinical implications for how to treat people with schizophrenia…” The findings of this study show that culture has a massive influence on the inner workings of mental health and must be considered when treating a patient suffering from a shen disturbance.
Territorial, state and national culture have all developed along with the human egos ability to process complex communication with each other. The pressures of modern urban culture have been somewhat alleviated by our ability to communicate and expand out limitations, disembodied, via the internet, our bridge leading to the birth of the global culture. The Global Culture is now a legislated aspect of reality and with it comes communication and misunderstandings about cultural belief. It is in those misunderstandings that the Shen disturbance develops descending from the cultural level, into the individual causing pathologies to merge.
Globally, obesity is now considered a health epidemic with one in three people suffering from the illness. While obesity is comorbid with a litany of health and mental problems we will focus on depression as an aspect of the illness and view it from the perspective of a shen disturbance. Depression in psychology used to be called melancholia and denotes a significant soma somatic blockage that manifest in degrees building from anxiety and restlessness and if untreated or otherwise unresolved can become a chronic problem. While anxiety is normally associated with the hearts protective sac, the pericardium, the treatment for this illness is still one that the heart and shen are responsible to. The relevance here to a shen disturbance is that obesity has now become an epidemic in cultures that have been traditionally healthy in respect to their diet and exaggerated mental health problems. As food and eating sensibility are imported from Western countries like the United States and countries like Mexico and China have also found themselves on the losing end of the American diet, hence resulting in related mental illnesses. Childhood obesity has had overtaken the adult obesity in many countries and is poised to overtake the adults in countries like China and Mexico as well. Understanding depression as an aspect of shen disturbance, and shen disturbance as an extension of disruption in culture becomes that much more important to the practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine when treating these children who are afflicted with illnesses of the heart and the mind. Without balanced shen these children are deprived the “vision” that will lead humanity into its’ tomorrow amongst the stars as a spacefaring humanity.
Recently a clinical case (11) has baffled MD’s and scientist in the UK. The case involves a patient called “MX” ( to protect his identity) who was a retired building surveyor who employed the use of his “mind’s eye” to great benefit through his long and productive career. MX would use his imagination in great detail every day but he especially loved reviewing the fine details of his work at night just as he was laying down to sleep until one day his ability disappeared. Prior to this unfortunate event of Mx losing this ability MX had a preventive and routine surgical procedure to unblock some arteries when; “ As a cardiologist snaked a tube into the arteries and cleared out the obstructions, MX felt a “reverberation” in his head and a tingling in his left arm. He didn’t think to mention it to his doctors at the time. But four days later he realized that when he closed his eyes, all he saw was darkness.” The sensation in the left arm suggest the involvement of the heart meridian and the tingling sensation in his forehead suggests the positioning of what the Vedic call the third eye. With the ability to create images in his head gone, MX’s ability to envision has been mostly lost. This ability to create using the perception of the heart is central to understanding the seemingly paranormal abilities of the heart, shen and their potential misinterpretation by those suffering from shen related mental illness. Understanding the article from the perspective of a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner, one can see how a shen disturbance could manifest some of the disturbing and nonsensical images and ideas prevalent in schizotypal illnesses. As the individuals suffering from these types of disturbances contribute back into their culture the culture spreads the disorder as an acceptable aspect of social interaction. Culture then becomes the membrane that connects the illness in the same way the World Health Organization would link the spread of a virus, as a web of interaction connecting the globe to each other via human misunderstanding and illness. Culture is based on contributions by everyday people and is moved by the heat of our beliefs. Without an understanding of belief and belief systems we, global humanity are left vulnerable, our hearts are corrupted by the beliefs planted by others who desire to control and manipulate the people and we unknowingly carry these inside us.
Shen Disturbance Manifest in Western Culture
Citation list
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7. Schizophrenia and family rituals: Measuring family rituals among schizophrenics and "normals."
Madianos, M. G.; Economou, M.
European Psychiatry, Vol 9(1), 1994, 45-51.
8. Progress in Schizophrenia Research
edited by Janet E. Pletson
9.http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/july/voices-culture-luhrmann-071614.html
11.http://discovermagazine.com/2010/mar/23-the-brain-look-deep-into-minds-eye
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