Zoltan Dienes is an experimental
psychologist at Sussex University, with 32 published scientific articles
and co-author of a book reviewing research in his area. He has appeared
on British national television, radio, and newspapers and German national
television about his research. He has also been a statistical consultant
for several years to two drug companies (Wyeth and Cerebrus). He has been
training in karate for 22 years, and teaches Kyusho as part of regular
training at his club, the University of Sussex Shotokan Karate Club.
Mike Flanagan is currently
in his final year of a three-year course in Shiatsu and uses TCM in this
work. Mike is currently a student of Matsumura Shorin Ryu, and has been
studying Kyusho Jitsu for four years.
4 March 1999
INTRODUCTION
Are there general principles specifying the most effective
ways of combining pressure points? According to some there are principles,
those provided by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). According to a common
understanding of this approach, the most effective combinations are often
those that follow the Destructive Cycle of the five elements (wu3 xing2
in Chinese). There are other traditions, like within some styles of Jujitsu,
where there is a rich knowledge of useful pressure point combinations, but
inspiration is not taken from TCM. And there are other approaches where
usefulness of different sequences might be determined purely from the openings
created by the known physiological reflexes created by working different
points, without reference to TCM or five elements. But five element theory
is widely subscribed to among practitioners of Kyusho-Jitsu, and so we decided
it would be fun and informative to test the usefulness of five element theory
to Kyusho-Jitsu.
Whatever five element theory's effectiveness in a therapeutic context, its
relevance to Kyusho-Jitsu is a separate question in need of independent
verification. In the absence of a controlled investigation, it would be
easy for the theory to appear to be useful, even if it were not (or even
if it made precisely the wrong predictions), because it can easily be used
post-hoc to provide rationalizations for effective kyusho and tuite moves
(see Zoltan's study on the TCM-inspired use of 'colours' in tuite). Also,
if observations are not made under controlled conditions, our own beliefs
can strongly determine the outcome. Maybe you have noticed demonstrating
to a class the "wrong" and "right" way of doing a move
- when performing it the right way, maybe you noticed doing all sorts of
other things (like putting in more oomf) to make sure the move worked! The
tendencies of our movements and exertions of muscular force to follow our
beliefs and desires can occur quite unconsciously. Thus, demonstrations
of how activating one point sensitizes another may only work because of
pre-existing beliefs. Alternatively, five element theory may appear useful
precisely because it is!! In both our minds, this was an open question.
Five element sequences
According to five element theory as normally applied to Kyusho-Jitsu
by martial artists, one of the most powerful principles in predicting effective
pressure point combinations is the Destructive Cycle: Fire burns Metal,
Metal cuts Wood, Wood digs into Earth, Earth absorbs Water, and Water extinguishes
Fire. That is, if a point is activated by rubbing or striking, the most
effective type of point to rub or strike next will often be a point associated
with the next element in the Cycle. Something can only be more effective
or most effective compared to something else. One vital question is, what
should the comparison be? If I am to strike a person more than once, what
sequences are SUB-optimal, purely from the point of view of five element
theory? To answer this question, it will be useful to enumerate different
possible sequences of the five elements.
We will, purely for reference purposes, label the destructive cycle as D,
and describe going round it one step at a time D(1). If one follows the
destructive cycle backwards, this is sometimes called the insulting sequence,
and is labelled D(4), because it amounts to going round the destructive
cycle four steps at a time. According to the DSI, one organization that
subscribes to a version of TCM, cycles can be effective in both directions.
(For those partial to mathematical formulations, this TCM principle can
be stated: D(a) and D(b) are similarly effective if (a+b) = 0, modulo 5).
Thus, D(1) and D(4) would be of similar effectiveness.
If one followed the Destructive Cycle from one element to the third one
along, i.e. D(3), one would be following what is called the Creative Cycle.
For example, after attacking Fire, one could attack Earth. Following the
Creative Cycle backwards is D(2), and would be regarded by some as of similar
effectiveness as D(3).
Finally, one could follow each element by itself. This is D(5), or equivalently,
D(0). D(0) covers advice such as to attack the same meridian, or its paired
meridian, repeatedly.
Let us consider the case of two successive strikes. I hit one point and
then another point. Given my first hit, there are exactly five types of
strikes I could make next: i.e. to each of the five elements. It turns out,
rather nicely, that all those five possibilities are covered by the five
D(n) sequences above. This follows from the fact that in the D(n) sequences
above, n can take any value from 1 to 5, corresponding to each of the five
elements. Thus, if five element theory is to offer any useful advice, there
must be a way of specifying which of the D(n) sequences is best (under what
conditions).
According to the DSI, ALL D(n) sequences can be effective, depending on
whether the strikes are sedating or tonifying. That is, a strike to an element
does harm by creating either a deficiency of qi (sedation) or an excess
(tonification). One then needs an account of whether a strike is tonifying
or sedating. According to the DSI, one way of tonifying is to strike with
the qi flow, and one way of sedating is to strike against the qi flow. From
a TCM perspective this is perhaps controversial; another account could be
that any strike or attack with an intent to hurt would be sedating, and
gentle massage with the right intent is tonifying. But either account will
do for our purposes. Based on one line of reasoning inspired by TCM, a succession
of strikes that were all tonifying (or all sedating) would cause maximum
damage by following D(0) or the creative cycle, D(3), or its (near) equivalent
D(2): sedating one element (e.g. metal) sedates the next one along in the
creative cycle (e.g. water), as well as the next element back in the creative
cycle (e.g. earth); a further sedation strike to either metal or water or
earth would aggravate the imbalance. Following D(1) would actually be counter-productive:
Sedating metal would increase the amount of qi in the wood meridians, according
to the destructive cycle; so a sedation strike to wood would help remedy
the imbalance. Conversely, if one attacked with alternating sedation and
tonification strikes, then D(1) and D(4) would be the most effective; using
D(0), D(3), or D(2) would be counter-productive from a martial point of
view. We should emphasize that the above is just one line of reasoning that
could be taken from a TCM perspective, because TCM is not so much a theory
as a set of images, metaphors, and a language for expressing intuition.
However, we believe we have taken what the DSI has told us to a logical
conclusion.
Page 1 - Page 2 - Page 3 - Page 4
Home ¦ Articles ¦ Calendar ¦ Forum ¦ Journal ¦ Chat ¦ Photos ¦ Clubs ¦ Arcade