Movement and Empty Space

Dear Patient,

Today is my last Note of 2021, and I thought it would be fun to end the year with a little science talk.

The practice of acupuncture is sometimes accused of being “unscientific,” when what people really mean is that it’s difficult to measure. We can’t see qi, acupuncturists disagree about where the points are located, and our diagnostic methods like pulse-taking are highly subjective. But acupuncture and modern science really just use different language to describe the same phenomena.

Your body contains organs, which are made of tissues, which are made of cells, which contain tiny microscopic organs called organelles, which are made of atoms, which are made of subatomic particles (which could be made of something even smaller waiting to be discovered). But the thing that these subatomic particles do is…they move. Electrons whirl around a nucleus. One atom bangs into another, an electron or two is exchanged, and something new is created—a different set of atoms, or a molecule of combined atoms.

But at our core, everything within us is movement. You might call that energy, or electrical charges, or qi. Labels don’t really matter.

And these atoms that are spinning around and slamming into one another and joining together and breaking apart…within these atoms is mostly just empty space. In fact, if you compressed all the empty space out of every human on this planet, the mass of all 7.6 billion of us would be about the size of a sugar cube.

You, my dear, are movement, and you are empty space.

Like the atoms, we bump into one another, form bonds, and build something together. And all that empty space allows us to be filled—with experiences, memories, connection, love.

All of humanity. Movement, and empty space.

Contained within you is an unfathomable vastness of potential. And vibrating within you is the unending resonance of the universe. Everything and nothing is inside of you, and in all of us.

Love and gratitude,

Your Acupuncturist

P.S. I’ll be on hiatus for the next week to enjoy some time off with family. See you in the new year!