Over the past few decades some Western scientists have attempted to scientifically and rationally explain the efficacy of “alternative” healing methods, particularly that of traditional Chinese medicine. However, the majority of these studies, conducted during the 1960’s through 1970’s, incorporated a biased point of view, in that the authors wrote their reports from a Westernized perspective. Instead of evaluating traditional Chinese medicine from an epistemological and cultural standpoint, these skeptics noted inconsistencies in the scientific methodology practiced by Chinese physicians and researchers vis-à-vis traditional Western scientific thought. These writings were polemic in nature, and primarily appeared at a detrimental time of social upheaval within the country of China (Scheid, 2002). The Chinese Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1977) greatly limited the field of traditional Chinese medicine. Journals that would serve to elucidate, enrich, and promote traditional Chinese medicine were suppressed, and academic practitioners were discouraged through lack of governmental funding and overall support. The Chinese government refused to sponsor traditiona

In understanding how YinYang theory and Qi work together, ancient Chinese physicians applied this duality to the inner-workings of the body and mind. This concept, combined with the physiological aspects of body and health, constitutes the core of traditional Chinese medicine. The concepts of YinYang and Qi in a medical context completely differentiate Chinese medicine from that of biomedicine. Kaptchuk asserts, “The all-pervasive global sense of Qi tends to confound discussion.” Presently, Western science does not recognize the existence of Qi or YinYang theory (Burgess, 2000). However, in order to accept traditional Chinese medicine it is essential to include the functions of Qi as it pertains to clinical practice.

More recently, especially since the Chinese adaptation of Western scientific investigation, researchers have begun to study traditional Chinese medicine through the eyes of its practitioners as it should be seen; not just mystical phenomena, but rather an artful expression of ideas and study generated over the course of 2000 years of development. Kaptchuk explains, “The essential ideas of Chinese medicine are not elaborate. … many of these ideas exist in the deep cultural orientation and root intuitions of a unique civilization” (Kaptchuk, 2000). Chinese healing methods, in contrast to biomedicine, almost completely rely upon the tenets of holism, in conjunction with a philosophical belief in the metaphysical essences of Qi (pronounced as chee), and of Yin and Yang. According to Kaptchuk, “the notion of Qi is … fundamental to Chinese culture and medical thought.” Qi is the corporeal and incorporeal, the microcosmic and macrocosmic essence that defines and delimits all functions throughout the universe.

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