At the very core of our body, at the depths of both our physical and our energetic bodies, lies our central channel known as the Chong Mai. In Chinese medical theory we roughly translate this as the thrusting or penetrating vessel but it also goes by many other names. In the Chinese martial arts it is referred to as the Taiji Pole and in Tantric and Yogic traditions it’s known as the Sushumna Nadi. In some Western esoteric traditions it is often equated to the Pillar of light (!) and it is even recognised and utilised as the centre-line in the sport of boxing.

Whilst it may be known by very many different names, the pathway of this channel is largely agreed upon. It runs from the perineum, (Ren 1 in acupuncture) straight up through the middle of the body and up to the crown at top of the head, (Du 20) and even beyond. Along its pathway within the Chinese model sit the three Dan Tian energy centres. These are like energetic transistors which we can work with to transform our inner energetic environment. It is via the Chong Mai that this transformation and transmutation takes place.

Within Chinese medicine the Chong Mai is one of the eight extraordinary vessels. These are the congenital meridians that sit at a deeper level than the regular twelve organ meridians and the Chong Mai is the deepest of the lot. It is therefore regarded with the utmost of importance. It is known as the first channel that comes in to existence at the moment of conception and as such brings with it the genetic blueprint from our parents, along with any generational traits and traumas.

As it is the meridian at the innermost core of our being it is not one that is that easily accessible. The shallower organ meridians are much easier to detect sensation along but to get to the Chong Mai you have to go deeper, both physically and metaphorically. Long-term meditators or practitioners of Taiji may feel it begin to open and eventually it can become like a pole which the rest of the body can hang off of. At this stage the practices become a lot less physically demanding as you no longer need to use the muscles to hold you up.

Within acupuncture we can access the Chong Mai through the use of the points Spleen 4 and Pericardium 6. Another term for the Chong Mai is the Sea of Blood, as it is also seen as a store house for the blood’s energy. If someone has a weakened blood energy, the type you might find in an anaemic vegetarian, then using these points can have dramatic effect on revitalising the blood and therefore the whole of the body. It also runs through the uterus and its location, along with its blood tonification properties, means that opening up the Chong Mai can be very useful for assisting fertility.

Further investigation of the Chong Mai reveals that the central pillar is only just one pathway of its entirety. It also has side branches and off shoots that run down the centre of the arms and legs and up through the spine, so that there is barely any part of the body that it doesn’t reach. Hence one of its translations being the penetrating vessel.

But it doesn’t just stop there. The Chong Mai is not necessarily confined to the boundaries of the physical body. Being our direct connection to the Yin of the Earth and the Yang of the Heavens, it has the capacity to extend outwards both up and down and linking us to the wider cosmos.  And for those who have the energy, skill and dedication to work with opening up the Chong Mai fully, then it’s even possible create a kind of spiritual antennae that can receive divine information from the Dao itself.

The post The Chong Mai –The Central Pillar appeared first on Glastonbury Acupuncture.

So to re-cap from last months story, I had discovered, with the help of the spirit of my deceased friend Narayan, how to configure the ‘Pillar of Light’ acupuncture pattern in the correct fashion. He came to me in a dream and said that as pillars are generally upright, therefore the acupuncture must be done in the same way – with the person receiving the acupuncture having an upright spine. With this correction and the double spiral placement of the needles, this combination results in a much more dynamic and powerful treatment.

Asides from the increased sensations of moving Qi, the other good thing about doing the acupuncture with the recipient in a sitting position is that it can be performed anywhere, without the need of a couch. So I immediately went up to visit my friend ‘Dowser Dave’ at Chalice well. I knew that Dave, being the adventurous of sprit type, would be up for a little experiment and he also knew Narayan well and was used to this kind of hijinks. I explained to Dave about the new way to do the pattern and he proceeded with his rods to dowse a suitable place in the gardens for the session to take place.

Now, Narayan was a devotee of the Indian spiritual guru Babaji and he often used to practice the Hindu agnihotra fire ceremony. This is an ancient Vedic healing ritual performed at sunrise and sunset, with the ritualistic burning of sacred cow dung and is associated with vibuti (sacred ash), mantras and other meditations. It should have come as no surprise to us then that the divining rods led us right up through the gardens, past the well and up into the top field where the fire of Chalice Well is situated. The rods clearly stopped us right in the middle of the fire pit, and not being one to argue with the dowsing, Dave sat cross legged right there in the middle sacred ash and I inserted the eight needles that constitute the Pillar of Light acupuncture configuration.

This was all happening on a lovely still, sunny day back in May but within a couple of minutes, what can only be describes as a tempest of winds descended upon us. I know I am prone to exaggerate sometimes but it did feel a little bit like when they opened the Ark of the Covenant at the end of Indiana Jones – although I do admit, there were considerably less melting Nazis! The winds swirled around us for a while, and then disappeared as soon as they had came, and we were left somewhat dumbfounded by what had occurred. It felt as though something powerful had been released.

A few days later was May Day and the Chalice Well Beltane fire was built over the exact same spot where we had very recently performed the acupuncture pattern. Hundreds of people gathered around for the ceremony, words were spoken and prayers and intentions were given. Once the fire was lit, almost immediately the flames shot directly upwards, in what could accurately be described as a burning Pillar of Light. Later that day I actually over-heard a few people talking about how surprised they were about how tall, straight and fast the fire burned. Later still I saw many pictures of the Chalice Well Beltane fire and in each one you can clearly see the face of a dancing dragon amongst the flames. It seemed as though the Somerset Dragon which is associated with the Earth’s energy lines, and the Chinese Dragon, which is associated with the uprising of Qi, had come together in one powerful moment for all to see.

The post The Pillar of Light – Part II appeared first on Glastonbury Acupuncture.

About 20 years ago, when I was first studying acupuncture, I came across a book by Dr Mikio Sankey called ‘Esoteric Acupuncture’. This was not your average TCM book for tennis elbow or sciatica, but acupuncture that was designed to elevate the spirit and to raise consciousness. It uses the acupuncture points in a slightly different way as it incorporates elements of sacred geometry, that creates patterns on the energy systems that extend outside of the body. Once I was qualified I took a deep dive in to Sankey’s work and practiced dozens of these acupuncture patterns on many a willing volunteer.

One of these volunteers was an old Glastonbury character known as Narayan. He was an extremely energetically-sensitive individual and amongst other things he was an excellent cranial-sacral therapist. This made him an ideal candidate to explore these esoteric patternings with, as he could clearly sense the movements of Qi inside and outside of the body. He would then explain back to me what was happening.

However there was one particular pattern known as ‘The Pillar of Light’ that we could never get to the bottom of. It uses 8 needles around the head in a very particular configuration, but no matter how many times we tried, we couldn’t quite fully understand what it was designed to do.

Anyway, the years went by, and my wife and I had our daughter, who came into the world via a traumatic (for everyone involved) Caesarean-section. Shortly after we took her to see Narayan for a cranial-sacral therapy session. This can be a very beneficial treatment for babies born in this way, as they are not properly squashed and aligned as they come through the vaginal canal.  Narayan did his thing and our daughter magically slept through the night from that day forward.

A few years later my son was born, also by C-section. One day I was chatting to Narayan in my old tea shop, whilst I was holding my newly-born in my arms. My son somehow managed to leap out of my arms head-first and into Narayan’s hands, who realised that he was requiring a slight adjustment. He held his head for a few moments, did his magic, and my son slept through the night that night for the first time.

The years continued to go by and unfortunately Narayan contracted lung cancer due to working with asbestos back in the 70s. I continued to give him acupuncture during this time, and occasionally we would revisit The Pillar of Light pattern but sadly we never did quite get to the bottom of it before he died a few years ago.

Anyway, a couple of months back, Narayan came to me in a dream, telling me that I had been doing the Pillar of Light wrong all these years. I’d been doing it whilst the client was lying down, whereas obviously a pillar needs to be upright. Since then I have been performing the pattern whilst the client is sitting in a lotus position or at least with the back upright in a chair, and the results have been spectacular. The configuration, with 4 needles going in a clockwise direction around the head, and 4 needles counter-clockwise, means that a kind of energetic double-helix is formed. There is a simultaneous pulling of Qi upwards from the Earth and downwards from the Heavens that creates this ‘Pillar’ of light.

I could sense a little of what was occurring energetically but to truly understand the pattern I had to experience it myself. So with the help of my psychic friend Hannah, who I’d taught how to gently insert the needles, I got to experience the Pillar of Light in its full upright glory. It feels as though there is an energetic stretching out of the spine that occurs due to the up and down movements of Qi. I likened it to a chiropractic, or indeed a cranial-sacral adjustment.

In fact this was exactly what was happening as Hannah realised that Narayana had entered the room and he was really happy that I had finally managed to get the Pillar of Light right after all these years. He had also come back, in whatever form he could, to perform the energetic realignment that I had needed….for I was also born by C-section nearly 50 years ago and I had never been readjusted at the time.

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Back in December 2018, our Oracle-in-chief, Mike Jones, asked me if I’d write a few articles on Chinese medicine for this publication. Over the 100 months and 100 articles that have occurred since then the world has seemingly gone completely mad, or maybe that was just me! I started off writing about ancient Chinese medicine and cosmology, took us through the insanity of the Covid years and digressed into all manner of medicines, theories and general Glastonbury psychic weirdness. I hope I have managed to convey just a little of the breadth and depth of this ancient form of medicine that I hold dear to my heart.  The following is the gist of each one of those 100 articles.

1. There is one consciousness that pervades through the entire Universe
2. This consciousness divides itself into two – Yin and Yang
3. Yin and Yang and the interplay between the two creates the physical reality
4. Aside from the physical body, we also have energetic and spiritual bodies
5. There are 5 elements which are essentially 5 energetic directions
6. Our true spirit resides in the Heart
7. Life is spiral-like in nature. We come back round from a new perspective
8. Qi is not a metaphor. It is a real and tangible substance
9. Pain is caused by Qi not flowing properly
10. The Liver’s job is to move Qi smoothly throughout the body
11. The Spleen makes Qi from the food we eat
12. Besides breathing our Lungs help us to process grief
13. The Large Intestine is all about letting go – of crap
14. The Small intestine is all about sorting shit out
15. The Heart has an energetic protective shield called the pericardium
16. The energy of the Gall Bladder helps us to make decisions
17. The Kidneys hate the cold and back pain is worse in winter
18. People tend to get ill at the changing of the seasons
19. The Stomach is a like a cauldron and needs a good fire underneath it
20. Ghosts were seen as a very real phenomenon in ancient China
21. Cannabis has been a part of Chinese medicine for thousands of years
22. Cannabis can be an effective treatment for cancer
23. The modern idea of seeking the ‘flow state’ is in fact ancient
24. The government doesn’t care about you
25. Touch is the oldest form of healing
26. The difference between a conspiracy theory and a fact is about 6 months
27. Loneliness is far more damaging than a jumped-up flu virus
28. At least when the world is collapsing better music is made
29. The secret of the Divine Immortals was a numinous mushroom
30. Ancient medicines cure modern diseases
31. There are many things that science still cannot explain
32. The government really doesn’t care about you!
33. We are moving from an age of Yin Qi to one of Yang Qi
34. Yin Qi is magnetic in nature whilst Yang Qi is electrical
35. There are two Matthew Fellows’s who live in Glastonbury!!!!
36. Your immune system is on your side. Let it do its work
37. Humans are the worst breathers in the animal kingdom
38. Our diaphragms are often sadly neglected
39. The Sun is Yang and the moon is Yin. Women follow the moon’s cycles
40. A person’s energy field extends outward from the physical body.
41. The Bladder meridian is like the body’s energetic shell.
42. Yi Dao Qi Dao. Energy follows attention.
43. Don’t trust Google to give you impartial information
44. High doses of Vitamin C are highly effective at supporting the immune system
45. As does Vitamin D
46. The Earth speaks to us through psilocybin mushrooms
47. The acupuncture point LI 21 is very effective at returning a lost sense of smell
48. Telling people to ‘follow the science’ goes against what science stands for
49. All drugs have an energetic effect as well as a chemical one
50. MDMA opens up the Heart….but can deplete the Kidneys
51. LSD allows you to see the world afresh, as if for the first time again
52. LSD can shatter the layers of the acquired mind
53. LSD led me to seek out the Tao and ultimately to become an acupuncturist
54. There is consciousness and then there is the physical expression of it
55. Blood has an energetic quality to it that is fortified by eating meat
56. Comfort is the enemy of ambition. Sometimes we need a bit of friction
57. Sacred geometry is fundamental to understanding the physical realm
58. Within the Great Pyramid there is much encoded information
59. Adaptability is the greatest attribute that Human Beings possess
60. Glastonbury is a hub of weirdness and wonder
61. Synchronicity is an ever-present reality for those who have eyes to see it
62. San Pedro is the cactus at the gates of heaven
63. We are not alone in the Universe, but we are stronger in it together
64. Mama Coca is seeking total world domination
65. If Glastonbury is the Heart Chakra of the planet, are we all fucked?
66. Sometimes we stumble upon or even dance along the path of devotion
67. There is a mind beyond words. Telepathy is a real phenomenon
68. Acupuncture can have a profound effect on the sprit and its life path
69. It doesn’t matter what path you’re on as long as it is a path with heart
70. You can find psychedelic wavy-cap mushrooms at Aldi
71. The Human body is the most complex chemical factory on Earth
72. Dragons are our friends. Or not. Depends on the dragon
73. Our thoughts are not our own. Don’t identify with them
74. The lesser-known Chinese art of Dao Yin, expels pathogens from the body
75. Different emotions reside in different parts of the body
76. The Navajo word for the sickness of the human spirit that predominates
77. Nei Gong is a process that leads towards mastery of the fine energy systems
78. The pharmaceutical industry does not want you to be healthy
79. Artificial sweetener is toxic and far worse for the body than actual sugar
80. There are many ways to be intelligent and many forms of intelligence
81. The education system does not want you to be educated
82. Understand acupuncture by listening to those who invented it
83. The body is designed to move.  Move it move it
84. If we are aware the Universe will speak to us through signs and symbols
85. Mugwort is magic
86. Each 2-hour section of the clock pertains to a different organ
87. Glastonbury Abbey equates to the Lower Dan Tian
88. Chalice Well equates to the Middle Dan Tian
89. Glastonbury Tor equates to the Upper Dan Tian
90. Ley-lines can be seen as the Earth’s meridian system
91. The Kogi are a tribe from Colombia who psychically commune with water
92. The Telepathy Tapes is catching on
93. I am guided into a Telepathic world by a young non-verbal man – Sonny
94. There is a whole other psychic realm that most of us have no clue about
95. Acupuncture can make you more telepathic
96. Plants are living, intelligent and conscious beings
97. And so are animals
98. Follow your dreams, otherwise they won’t have the chance to come true
99. Follow the magpie as birds see all
100. Welcome to the meandering mind of a Glastonbury acupuncturist

I sincerely hope some of you have enjoyed reading these articles as much as I have enjoyed writing them. I’m hopefully not finished yet and I may well have another hundred in me. It’s possible I might even get back to writing about Chinese medicine at some point, but then again, I haven’t even got started on aliens yet!

The post The Centenary Edition appeared first on Glastonbury Acupuncture.

Thirty odd years ago I studied Anthropology at the University of Wales in Swansea. For those of you who don’t know, Wales is stereotypically famous for its rain, grassy mountains and sheep. These three important things have led it to becoming the undisputed capital for finding  psilocybe semilanceata, or the liberty cap magic mushroom. Gram for gram this is one of the strongest psychedelic mushrooms in the world, so it is not surprising that it has become a Mecca for those seeking out this famous fungi. 

And 18-year-old me was no different. My friends and I would walk out of the back of the student village and up into the green hills searching for this sometimes-elusive mushroom. If we weren’t having much luck, as often was the case, I would ask a magpie to show me where they were, and invariably they would. As time went on, I learnt how to call the magpies, who would appear as if by magic, then fly off and circle around a field or area where the mushrooms were growing. This wasn’t a call as in a croak or a whistle or, but more of an energetic beckoning. It felt like a kind of shiver that came up the spine and would seemingly emanate out of the body to seek out a magpie, who would answer its call. I managed to achieve this many times and I became certain that this animal-human communication was a very real phenomenon. Without really knowing what I was doing, I had somehow stumbled into a realm of shamanism. 

This relationship between humans, animals and psychoactive plants is as old as history itself. There are cave paintings throughout the ancient world that depict men and women with mushrooms coming out of their heads seemingly connecting with jaguars, snakes, birds and other creatures. This form of communication is probably older than speech itself and we can still see it being practiced in many of the tribes and shamanic cultures that still exist today. 

But what of us modern day western humans? How can we explain away such phenomena? We don’t really have a cultural or theoretical framework any more from which we can understand such things. Our ancient Celtic knowledge has been forgotten about or systematically destroyed. Science tells us that plants and animals are not truly conscious in the way that we are, so inter-species communication should be impossible. Any beliefs to the contrary are due to the ‘delusion’ of some mind-altering drug.  

However, more and more people are beginning to reject this mechanistic, scientific paradigm in which they were raised. The use of plant medicines and other mind-altering practices are on the rise. Many of the people who partake in such things are saying the same thing as the ancients- plants are conscious and alive and animals can communicate with us. Mother Earth is a living conscious being and imparts information to us through signs, symbols and feelings. We are all one big living organism separated only through illusion. 

But these realisations may not come easy. We have been brought up to believe that essentially the planet is an inanimate dead rock floating in space. That the plants and animals are unintelligent and are there for our use and disposal. When this belief is challenged through the use of psychedelics or other similar means, then it can be quite literally world shattering.  

How many people have been treated as mentally ill because they thought the voices in their heads were coming from a bird? How many people have been institutionalised because their beliefs were seriously at odds with the narrow Western rational thought paradigm. How many more people are going to encounter seemingly impossible experiences without any one to guide them or to help them understand? 

I was one of the lucky experimenters who was strong-willed and bloody-minded enough to disregard what I was being taught by the education system and sought out other ancient ways and knowledge. But not everyone was so fortunate, and sadly we have lost many along the way.  

As we collectively move toward a new yang age, phenomena such as telepathy, clairsentience, precognition and inter-species communication will become more common place and accepted. It will certainly help us through this transition more smoothly if we pay heed to what the ancients have said, as they have done it all before and with humility and reverence. It is just us that have forgotten.  

The post On Magpies, Mushrooms and Messages appeared first on Glastonbury Acupuncture.

Have you ever had a dream that has come true? Have you somehow managed to glimpse into the future whilst you were asleep? If so, you are not alone. Studies suggest that about 1 in 4 people have had a precognitive dream at some point in their lives, with a recent survey suggesting that figure could be as high as 60%. Although premonition in dreams is notoriously hard to prove, if you have had it happen to you, then you are clearly going to be more convinced by the phenomenon.   

I’ve had it happen to me several time in my life and once recently I was even able to produce proof that it can happen with the help of a betting slip! It was May last year and as a long-suffering Tottenham fan I was quite excited when my team managed to get to a European final for the first time in over forty years. The night before the match I had a very clear dream that Tottenham were going to win 1-0 and Brennon Johnson was going to be our scorer. When I awoke, the dream was still very clear in my mind and although I’m not normally a betting man I thought I’d check the odds and at 40 to 1, I thought it was worth a flutter. At some point during the first half, it looked as though our opponents Man Utd had scored an own goal but as the camera zoomed in it showed the ball just grazing the toe of Brennon Johnson and he was awarded the goal. Against all odds (well 40 to 1) Tottenham managed to hold on for the 1-0 win and I was a winner at the bookies. 

I’m not sure how a sceptic would try and explain this, but they’d probably pass it off as just a coincidence. I however I feel that there must be more to it than that. The chances of this scoreline and scorer were slim but clearly possible at 40 to 1. But what must have the chances been of me having that dream the night before? I have had a million dreams in the past, but I’ve never had one about a football match, let alone one which gave such specific and accurate details. The actual probabilities must have been astronomical. So, what is going on here? 

The modern Western perspective of dreams is heavily influenced by psychologists such as Freud and Jung, and dreams are largely seen as a kind of night-time therapy. It is thought that when we are asleep the mind is able process daily stresses, integrate memories and shine a light on our sub-conscious feelings. But that doesn’t explain how we might dream of the future. 

The Chinese medical view on dreams is slightly more complex as our soul is seen to be fragmented and spread throughout the various organs. Dreams are seen as a way that our organs can communicate with our higher soul and are largely split into two types, Po dreams and Hun dreams. The Po are the aspect of our consciousness that resides in our Lungs and are known as the Earthly spirits. They are very much of this dimension and are involved with the tangible day to day living of life. Po dreams therefore are generally of this ilk, organising and making sense of daily experiences, in a way probably not too dissimilar to the Freudian theories. The Hun on the other hand reside in our Liver and they are known as the Heavenly spirits. They are the aspect of our consciousness that communicates with the realms of ‘heaven’ or the finer frequencies. The Hun are particularly active at night and Hun dreams communicate to us divine information through imagery and symbolism.  

So, what of my prophetic football dream then? Surely there can be nothing more mundane, more of this earth than a football match. This would indicate the involvement of the Po. But the fact that I accurately dreamt of the future meant that the Hun were also involved, as their very nature is to transcend space and time. It’s intriguing that they bothered to concern themselves with something so trivial as a Tottenham match – or maybe they were just trying to get me to write this article so that you too might take a punt on your dreams.  

The post Follow Your Dreams appeared first on Glastonbury Acupuncture.

When I was growing up my Mum volunteered for the local RSPCA for many years. She would often be going out at all hours to rescue some animal or other that was in need. Quite often that animal would end up back at our house for a while and sometimes, if no one else wanted them they would stay on in our menagerie of waifs and strays. My Mum was, and still is, a true animal lover and because of this the animals clearly love her back. But there always seemed to me to be more to this story than meets the eye, because often many animals would have the uncanny knack of seeking her out when they needed help. I’ve seen many an injured creature calling out to her to be rescued, from a sheep stuck upside down in a farmer’s field to an electrocuted stork in Florida – I’ve even seen a lost parakeet land on top of her head in a swimming pool. No matter what the animal was, they all seemed to know that they could trust this human, and that this one, out of all the others that were around, would be the one that could help them. And they were right. 

Some of this affinity with animals has certainly rubbed off on me and possibly because of this when I was younger, I had a strong pull to follow a shamanic path. The first time I went to university I studied social anthropology and I was fascinated by the fact that shamans throughout history and throughout the world have always had the ability to communicate with nature. They would often seek out certain animals to receive messages and guidance from the spirit world. This idea appealed to me, so I would try and experiment and I practiced sending out telepathic messages to animals to see what would happen. It turned out that over time certain birds would often answer the call and crows and especially magpies would seemingly appear out of nowhere and share messages and information with me. One time, I swear a few of us even managed to call a humpback whale who came to say hello off the coast of Ecuador. 

This may sound fantastical to some, but I don’t think that is actually anything special. I’m sure anyone can do it if they put their ‘mind’ to it and truly believe that it is possible. Many people who have had a close relationship with a pet or even a wild animal would have had experiences that could lead them to believe that inter-species telepathy is truly possible. It seems obvious when you see a murmuration of starlings moving as one, or a pack of lions on the hunt that there is some kind of non-verbal communication occurring between these animals. We humans have only relatively recently set ourselves apart from the animal kingdom. A lot of this separation was achieved through the development of language and the subsequent growth of the frontal lobe brain. However, this may have been to the detriment of our other senses, including telepathy, and our ability to communicate with animals directly. 

Obviously, this is all something that is quite hard to prove with the Western scientific method, but not impossible. There is much anecdotal evidence that suggests dogs know when a particular member of the household is about to come home, but one pioneering researcher Rupert Sheldrake has scientifically proven that this is the case. He set up cameras in a house and showed beyond doubt that many dogs have the ability to know when their owners are about to come home, even when they return at random times or in different cars. Sometimes even just the owner just thinking about coming home is enough to elicit a noticeable response in the dog. 

Many of you reading this will be highly sceptical that telepathic communication with an animal is possible and I’m also sure that there are many of you who practice it successfully every day. Either way, getting to know and trying to understand our feathered and furry friends can only be a good thing for all involved. 

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In the latest series of the Telepathy Tapes podcast we encounter a young non-verbal autistic girl called Nina Meehan. Nina was born in Fairfield Connecticut and for sixteen years she was trapped inside her body unable to speak. Doctors told her parents that Nina lacked the cognitive ability to properly communicate and her mother, Raquel, had given up hope on ever being able to connect fully with her daughter. However, when new tools and technologies became available, Nina learnt how to ‘spell’ out what she was thinking on an iPad. The first thing that she spelled was, “I am Psychic” and the second thing was “I communicate with plants.” 

As Nina became more competent at spelling, she began to explain to her parents that she also had the ability to diagnose people’s health by reading their etheric energy fields. She would recommend a particular plant that would then help heal that person. A good example of this came early on when her sister Natalia became ill with a compromised immune system. Nina advised her to start taking the herb astragalus to help rebuild her immunity. Obviously, Nina had had no formal education about herbs and no one in her family had either, so it is very interesting to note that astragalus has been used for thousands of years within Chinese medicine as a lung tonic specifically used to boost immunity. When asked how she knew which plant to administer she would reply ‘the plants tell me.’ 

As fantastical as this may sound this is clearly not a new phenomenon. Tribal elders, shamans and medicine women from around the globe have always said that they had the ability to commune with plants. Often, they would go off into a trance, sometimes with the help of a psychedelic plant, to discover the cure for someone’s particular ailment. It’s quite possible, probable in fact, that this is how humans originally discovered which plants had certain curative and healing properties. It is often presumed that medicinal knowledge was gained through trial and error over the millennia but our ancestors, shamans and people like Nina would argue that it is through our lost ability to communicate directly with plants that we have been given this invaluable information. 

A quick google search on the Western scientific view on plant consciousness, gives the impression that there is no evidence to suggest that plants are in any way conscious. However, if you start to dig a little deeper you discover that this may not actually be the case. Back in 1966, a CIA interrogation specialist Cleeve Backster, was training policemen in New York how to operate a polygraph or lie detector. The instrument usually measures the electrical resistance of the human skin, however one morning, on some strange hunch, he decided to attach the electrodes to the office potted rubber plant. What he discovered was nothing short of revolutionary. 

Backster decided to try what he calls ‘the threat to well-being principle, a well-established method of triggering emotionality in humans.’ In other words, he decided to torture the plant. He had the idea of getting a match to burn one of the leaves and to his astonishment, the moment he had this thought, the pen on the polygraph machine began to spike. Just the mere thought of intending to harm the plant was enough to produce a dramatic change in the machines tracing pattern. Backster went on to perform many more experiments including one where he was dropping live shrimps into boiling water (typical bloody scientist!) and each time he did so, a stress response was recorded by the plants polygraph read out. 

Apparently experiments like these have been replicated many times over, so it would appear that there is at least some evidence to show that plants do have a kind of awareness that we can’t explain within the western scientific model. However, consciousness itself is something that is very difficult to define, let alone measure and we may have to broaden our definition of it drastically if we are to begin to understand the true nature of nature. In the meantime, as ever, I shall defer to the Taoists who believe that there is consciousness first and then there is the physical expression of it. Under this model all things are possible.  

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 As a practitioner of an ancient medicine that believes there are mysterious pathways of conscious information that flow undetected throughout the body, it is not much of a jump in reasoning for me to believe that there are pathways of conscious information that flow outside of the body as well. In fact, this idea is the very basis of much of ancient Taoist philosophy, and it is known as Qi. 

Qi can be translated in many different ways but one that I often find useful is ‘vibrational waves of information’. If we use this as our definition, then we are clearly awash in a sea of Qi. Everything that we experience comes to us in the form of some come kind of vibration, be it light hitting our retinas or sound waves being detected by our ears. We are continually interpreting the world around us by deciphering and making sense of these different vibrations. However, the human experience of reality occurs in quite a narrow bandwidth of the full scale of frequencies that exist out there. For example, the human ear can pick up vibrations typically ranging from 20Htz to 20,000Htz but there are many sounds outside of that range that we can’t hear.  And the same applies to our vision and other senses. Could it be that those who have so-called telepathic or psychic abilities are just picking up a slightly different bandwidth? 

The non-verbal and autistic children and young adults from the podcast ‘The Telepathy Tapes’ that I have written about recently would certainly think so. They have demonstrated uncanny abilities to communicate in ways that still defy scientific reason, but nonetheless it is still happening and on a daily basis.  Since these non-verbals have begun to be able to tell us what is going on for them, it is apparent that they very rarely talk about their brains, but much more frequently about the heart. More often than not it is the person that they are closest to that they are able to communicate telepathically with most effectively and love seems to be the key for them. It is via the heart that these phenomena take place. 

This is somewhat similar to Chinese medical theory in that the brain is rarely talked about, and the Heart is all-important. The Heart, not the brain is seen to be where the spirit resides, and it is known as the emperor of the body. So important is the Heart that it has two acupuncture meridians through which it can be treated, whereas the brain doesn’t really have one of its own at all. The brain therefore is often just seen as some kind of radio receiver (or possible transmitter), whereas it is the Heart that tunes us in to our desired station. Another theory of Taoism that fits in with this is that there are seen to be two ‘minds’ that exist within the Heart. The first is the congenital mind, the one that we are born with, and the second, the acquired mind, is the result of every experience and interaction we have throughout our lives. We continually build these layers of the acquired mind around our congenital mind which forms our sense of self. 

I would argue that our congenital mind is one that is already telepathic. It is the part of ourselves that is closest to the oneness of the Tao and is yet to be encumbered by structures and limitations. It is yet to have belief systems imposed upon it that restrict its limitless potential. We were all at one point born non-verbal and it was only after years of people speaking around us that most of us learned how to do it. It would seem that many of those who never learned how to speak have never lost this telepathic ability. 

So what of acupuncture then? Well in one sense the meridian system can be seen as a set of gutters that draw unwanted energetic detritus away from the Heart-mind. Emotions, traumas and strong experiences need to be kept away from the Spirit to keep it safe, so they are funnelled out through the channels. In a way opening and clearing the meridians with acupuncture can be seen as shedding unwanted layers of the acquired mind so that the original, congenital, closer to the Tao mind can be revealed. Acupuncture therefore has the ability to help us reconnect with our true and higher selves. So in answer to the question ‘How can acupuncture make you more telepathic?’, one might answer – ‘How can it not?’ 

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So, to recap from last month’s story, Sonny is a physically disabled young man who is
non-verbal and unable to move pretty much from the eyes down. His Mum, Andrea
brought him to see me for some acupuncture, which led us to believe that he may be
able to communicate somewhat telepathically. Having recently been a convert to the
podcast known as ‘The Telepathy Tapes’, this seemed to me to be well within the
bounds of possibility. In the Telepathy Tapes we meet many young people who are in a
similar situation to Sonny, and they have been showing extraordinary psychic and
telepathic abilities. Andrea was also a convert to the podcast, and she asked me if
there was any way that acupuncture could help open up her own psychic channels, so
that she could communicate with Sonny more readily. So that is what we set out to do.
Now, there is the acupuncture that most people know about, the type that works well
on the physical body and can cure a myriad of ailments ranging from headaches to
sciatica, but there is also the type that works at the level of the Spirit. This form of
acupuncture can stimulate higher levels of consciousness and the ancient names of
some of the acupuncture points themselves give us an indication of what they can be
used for. Names such as ‘Celestial Hearing’, ‘Heavenly connection’ and ‘Spirit Path’ all
indicate that we are working with an energy that is at a much finer frequency than the
dense physical body. It is to this form of acupuncture that we must turn to if we are
seeking to open ourselves up psychically.
So, I got Sonny and Andrea into a treatment room together and explained to Sonny what
we were trying to do – to open his Mum up to being more receptive to his telepathic
communication. Despite being severely disabled Sonny does have the ability to move
his eyebrows, with raised eyebrows meaning ‘yes’ and a frown meaning ‘no’. Sonny
confirmed that he knew what we were up to. I then got out a large book of ‘Esoteric
Acupuncture’ patterns by Dr Mikio Sankey, that are specifically designed to work with
the higher aspects of the Heart and the Spirit and slowly showed them to Sonny to see
which one he thought would be most suitable for his Mum. We went through dozens of
patterns which were all met with a frown until we reached one called ‘The Esoteric
Heart Window Pattern’. Sonny raised his eyebrows with gusto to this one.
I found it very interesting that Sonny should choose this pattern as I have long been a
fan and student of Dr Sankey’s work and it was this pattern that he encouraged me to
perform as often as possible in Glastonbury as it is seen as the ‘heart window’ of the
planet. The pattern itself consists of 21 needles laid out in an intricate geometrical
formation, utilising many strong Spirit related points. These patterns have a very
expansive energetic feeling to them, which can be enhanced further by the energy of the
place that the treatment takes place in. Fortunately, my treatment room is nestled right
up next to the Abbey wall, which is right in the middle of it all.
Once the needles were all in place I asked Sonny if there was anything else that I
needed to do and he raised his eyebrows in affirmation. I had a strong sense that he
wanted me to needle the third eye point between his eyebrows known as Yin Tang,
which he confirmed with another raise. Yin Tang is a very interesting point in of itself as
in ancient acupuncture it is said to be able to expand the bandwidth of the mind. And as
Sonny sat looking down on Andrea, he wiggled that needle between his eyebrows like
he was wielding a tiny magic wand, as if casting spells down on to his Mum from his
third eye. Which may well have been what was happening because at one point during
the treatment, Andrea heard a voice clearly in her head saying, “I love you, Mum!”

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