LISTENING TO THE SILENCES

One does not have to watch TV for very long before one can observe the results of these asymmetries and imbalances in the speakers in front of one. TV gives a major advantage to the observer of human behaviour in that it allows individuals to be studied when they believe that they are behaving normally, and they can be stared at without embarrassing them or oneself. Many times I turn off the sound so that I can watch posture and expression without the distraction of the actual words. The slant of the shoulders and sometimes of the whole body, the breasts at different levels, the obliquity of the neck, and the tilt of the head are all there to be seen, and I can indulge in my personal guessing game of trying to decide if a person is left or right handed.

At the base of the neck, and where the neck meets the skull at the atlas joint, there are acupuncture points that may be used to treat a number of serious 'mental' and 'nervous' conditions. Among the ailments listed are: hysteria, paralysis, limbs and body not coordinated, 'St. Vitus's Dance', convulsions, epilepsy, neurasthenia, vertigo, 'walks around madly', 'eyes move wildly', suicidal. At the junction between the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae there is a point that may be used to treat - madness, epilepsy, anorexia.

I derive personal benefit from the results of my observations when I want to achieve total relaxation. I lie supine on a firm surface in a posture resembling what Yoga practitioners call 'The Corpse', in which they try to lie symmetrically about a centre line. Instead of trying to be symmetrical, I next arrange my body in a gentle curve from the top of my head to my feet, keeping my coccyx in place as my 'reference' point. Being right-handed, the curve is concave to my right, and my head and feet are approximately 15 cms removed sideways from the original straight posture. The relaxation that I achieve is far superior to that gained when I simply lie symmetrically.

Returning briefly to the rôle and status of acupuncture therapy, it is not something that can be dismissed, treated casually, or 'learned' in a weekend 'workshop'. I have had treatments from two practitioners of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture. I went to them partly for prophylactic purposes and also to be able to experience the practice at first hand. Their training had been full time over three years, and had included half a year in China. In both cases, my first visit lasted well over an hour, and involved the most thorough analysis, testing and assessment that I have experienced in any form of medicine, apart from when my eyes were examined recently. As I recall, and for my own purposes, I went continuously for about ten weeks to each practitioner, and was impressed by the thoroughness of the practice. And contrary to 'Harry's' dire warnings of hepatitis infection, the needles were either brand new from a sealed packet, or direct from the local hospital surgical sterilisation unit. For my own reference I use a book by Dr. Felix Mann - The Treatment of Disease by Acupuncture - his Atlas of Acupuncture, and Acupuncture Therapy by Dr. Mary Austin. The last one came out in paperback, but as it excluded much from the hardback that I considered invaluable, I would not recommend it. The Mann book also has different editions, the 1974 that I have being fully comprehensive. There are undoubtedly later works by different authors, but the ones that I have cited have filled all of my requirements.

"Imagine a perfect skeleton" my physiotherapist friends were instructed during their initial training - and yet many years experience has told them that there is no such thing. "No one has a symmetrical face, and children's faces are the most asymmetrical" - so said my optician. Television, again, offers many opportunities for observing faces, with asymmetries ranging from the slight whimsical twist to the mouth, to the face that resembles a comma. Conversely, I have many opportunities for looking at the heads of animals - sheep, cattle and deer - where the horns and lugs stick out with complete symmetry. There are many reasons why the variations occur in humans, and there are a significant number of acupuncture points affected, points that could used to treat a variety of nervous and 'mind' conditions. I have identified a number of 'thought patterns' that over time can create some of the asymmetries, and in the fullness of my analysis in this book they have a significant place. Hopefully I shall be able to put them into a coherent form and include them later in this chapter.

A persistent pattern of thought that occupies the mind for large parts of the waking life can create both body and facial twists and tensions, and over time can produce a wide variety of diseases. I have already described in an earlier chapter the way in which deep concentration can result in very limited breathing, and how this state can be created and exploited by various intruders into the mind. The very prolonged inner tension that results from personal distress such as occurs during emotional trauma can both be created and exploited by adverse intrusions, although they were not specifically involved in the very recent illness of a close friend, while prolonged emotional stress was. Her malignant breast lump was directly in the site of a significant acupuncture point - significant in that it is classed as a 'Judo knock-out point'. It occurred in the left breast at the point labelled Kidney 23, which is in the sixth intercostal space and about half-way between the sternum and the nipple. Among the ailments that could be treated here are: 'cannot breathe', ulcer of breast, tumour of breast, anorexia, spasm of rectus abdominus. This last muscular 'lock' is something that I have identified in myself during periods when I had been held in deep speculation or concentration by them, and when my breathing had been so shallow as to be virtually still.