Treating the Life Force with Classical Chinese Herbalism

Course overview

When you are dead, you are cold. I often say this to my patients because it reveals that their life force is warm. We know this because, when it is gone, our bodies are very cold. Everyone can easily relate to this. Classical Chinese herbal medicine can be seen as a medicine that is helping you receive, store and circulate this warm life force. I can explain to them how their situation is a reflection of a blockage of the fire of life or of a failure to receive or hold onto it. My diagnosis of them is about determining in which way your body is having a hard time doing these things. In this weekend course, we will be looking at Chinese herbal medicine through the lens of this warm life force. We will look at the physiology of the Shang Han Lun as all about the Yang, the warm life-force. We will see how the Yang conformations, Tai Yang, Yang Ming and Shao Yang, relating to hollow organs, each in their own way work to help receive and circulate the warm life force. We will then see how the Yin conformations, which relate to Zang, storage organs, help us absorb and store the warm life force. Seeing through the framework of the warm life force, sheds clarifying light onto the structure of the Shang Han Lun, the deep meaning of the clauses and the focused use of the classic formulas from the text. - How do the conformations each function to help us receive, store and circulate the warm life-force? - How do we recognize the way in which the conformations are not functioning properly to do this? - What does it look like, clinically, for the warm life-force to not be received, to not be stored and to not be circulated properly? - How are all of the classic formulas each working to restore reception, storage and/or circulation of the warm life-force? - What is the Ministerial Fire and what happens when it loses its Position? How do you get it back to its correct place? - How do we think about Immune vs. Autoimmune and stay true to the principles of Chinese medicine?