The International Subtle Energies Research Center nourishes a great interest for the Traditional Chinese Medicine, or TCM as it is normally shortened. This is because the theory of the TCM contemplates a great deal about subtle energies. We will now give a short introduction to the Chinese medical system.

TCM was born in a culture completely different from the Western one; it is therefore completely logical that its philosophy be so radically different from it. It is the most ancient medical system among all the human cultures, in constant growth since more than 2500 years; not having the technology available today, the Chinese doctor has developed to its fullest the sensibility of which the human body is capable. On this and on thousands of years of experience and of clinical proof is based the efficacy of the TCM.

In general, the Chinese medical system can be seen as a completely different approach to the human health than the Western one. In many aspects, it complements it. Differently than its Western colleague, the Chinese doctor can be much better described if compared to an artist: he considers a person under all his aspects, he examines all the particular symptomes of a sickness, but never loses the look on the entire landscape, i.e. the person in front of him. The Western medicine concentrates on the detail, the Chinese one cannot separate from the entireness. This basic difference makes the two approaches radically different.

Of particular interest for us is the concept of "life energy", known as "qi" in the Chinese literature. Although the TCM can be seen as just a different model of the human body, the concept of "qi" can be a significant contribute even for the scientific and analytical Western mentality. For example, let's take a look to the idea of the meridians; in the Chinese medicine, these are the pathways through which the life energy flows (although it is also present everywhere else inside and outside of us). From a merely anatomical point of view, they don't correspond to any particular type of substrate. Nonetheless, different experiments have highlighted some peculiar characteristics of these pathways, thus demonstrating their existance; for example, one can see a difference in the electrical conductivity of the skin, comparing two points of a particular meridian and comparing them with two other points of the skin.

Acupuncture is one of the main therapies used by the traditional Chinese medicine. It acts directly on the meridians, stimulating or dissipating the energy present as needed.

In the Chinese culture prevention has always had a primary role; an ancient proverb states: "To go to the doctor when the sickness is already present, is as to dig a well when one is already thirsty, or to forge the weapons when the battle has already begun". For this reason, a visit to the doctor was always planned at the beginning of each season. One of the best ways to remain healthy, at that time as nowadays, was phisical exercise. In particular, the Chinese tradition developed the so-called Qigong (read "cheegong", with the first "g" somewhat like a "k"), which literally means "to work with the qi"; Qigong teaches to enhance the sensitivity for this kind of energy, to learn how to move it along specific meridians and to detect energetic unbalances, which create illness. A particular form of active qigong, today very popular, is taijiquan.