Psychology – The Five Spirits
A tremendously powerful and important part of the Five Elements are what’s known as the Five Spirits. Most students of Chinese medicine come into contact with the Five Spirits along the way in their studies but very few seem to use them in their work and even fewer employ their efficacious power through movement based healing. Meridian Touch does. The Five Spirits can be looked upon as an Eastern form of psychology, where the issues of mind are completely interwoven with the issues of the body and that they are completely one phenomenal display without any separation whatsoever. The Chinese way of medicine is so beautifully and thoroughly nurturing as it seeks to keep the totality of the person together and doesn’t ignore or throw anything out if it doesn’t fit a “formula” or schema. All is honored and respected about a person without question or judgment in the healing process, whether it’s a “mind” issue or “body” issue.
According to the Five Spirits, they are one and the same it is often a matter of degree. Succinctly the Five Sprits are the Shen, the Hun, the Yi, the Po, and the Zhi.
And these five relate to the Five Elements of Fire, Wood, Earth, Metal, and Water respectively. It is said that the spirit of Fire is the Shen, the spirit of Wood is the Hun, and so forth. The balancing or ease of flow from one spirit into the next determines our psycho-emotional and physical well-being. Emotions are most certainly an energetic reality within our bodies, and when they get stuck or stagnate within, it’s just like any other substance in the universe that needs to flow to maintain balance; trouble ensues with dysfunction and illness soon to follow the longer the blockages remain. This is an inescapable fact. Never kid yourself about “controlling” or hiding away your emotions. They are a very powerful form of energy that feeds and nourishes our soul just as food feeds our bodies. Conversely, they can become corrosive and destructive to the mind and body when they are ignored or suppressed. Meridian Touch offers a comfortable way to enhance “psychological movement” of emotions in the body and thus keep emotional energy moving and balanced throughout your being. Students learn about and experience in their own bodies the functions and effects of the Five Spirits through the Five Elements, thus it enables them to have a direct tool for dealing with stressful emotional issues that may and will arise in their lives.
One of the best sources to read up on this subject, for those of you with inquiring minds, is at www.fivespirirts.com. I also highly recommend the book Five Spirits by Lorie Eve Dechar, M.Ac. Even for the lay person without knowledge of Chinese medicine, this is a fascinating read when one realizes that there is a system of healing emotional-psychological pain that allows you to be fully yourself and embraces out of necessity your negative, broken, shadow or “bad” parts as a path to making you whole. This book is one of the required texts for students seeking certification in Meridian Touch, and is a superior aid to self and universal understanding.
