In preparation for this discussion I did a cursory Google search for "Acupuncture and Energy Medicine" and what I came away with was a fairly long list of businesses and practices under some combo moniker of the two - Acupuncture and Energy Medicine.
I struggle with this conflation. As I start to peel my feelings apart I see conflict arising from two places. One is that I have always had a deep part of my stomach that turns over whenever I identify myself in such woo-woo terms as an "energy worker" or "energy healer". I think this is something that comes from my upbringing, and as a fairly integral part of me it should be looked at, acknowledged, and then ultimately set aside.
The more persuasive reason I struggle with the conflation of Acupuncture and Energy Medicine is that I find it too simple of a parallel to draw. I don't believe that "Energy Medicine", as the term is understood now, can possibly encompass all of the functionality of Acupuncture or TCM.
The mechanisms of our bodies, down to the cellular level, are functioning constantly to produce and exchange energy. I do not think this is the energy that most people think of when they hear a phrase like "Energy Medicine". It is probably correct to assume that most people who embrace the term Energy Medicine are using it to refer to medicine who's concepts and techniques are primarily non-material. But by a scientific definition aren't x-rays, MRIs, and cancer radiation all energy medicine? And when we're working with this energy, called Qi, aren't we doing Energy Medicine?
But then there is also matter; and matter is also governed by physics. Physics governs the movements of energy and matter. And when we are working with Qi we are also working with the matter of a person.
Its true that, inside the human body, neither of these things, energy or matter, is much of anything without the other. Indeed, this duality is what makes life- Life. Like Yin and Yang the two cannot be separated and so to call our work Energy Medicine alone is a 50% misrepresentation. We cannot assume that most people understand this duality of our medicine, and so to refer to Acupuncture as an Energy Medicine without the greater understanding of the context puts us at risk of selling ourselves short.
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