Energy Medicine East and West: A Natural History of Qi provides a unique, comprehensive overview of Qi or bioenergy for students and practitioners of energy medicines, Chinese and Oriental Medicine, and all disciplines of Complementary and Integrative Medicine. Mayor and Micozzi start with a comparative historical account of the ancient concepts of Qi and vital energy before covering theories of Qi, a discussion of the organized therapeutic modalities based upon Qi and its applications to specific health and medical conditions. Contributions are included from international experts in the field.
The book moves from anatomical and bioenergetic complementarity of Western vital energy and Eastern Qi, through convergence of perspectives and models to demonstrations of how the traditional therapies are being melded together in a new, original and creative synthesis.
David Mayor and Marc Micozzi are experienced medical practitioners, authors and editors. David Mayor has been actively involved in bioenergy research, practice and publishing for over 30 years, and is author/editor of Electroacupuncture: A practical manual and resource (2007), as well as other acupuncture texts and studies. Marc Micozzi is Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC. As author/editor of Fundamentals of Complementary & Alternative Medicine, 4E (2011), and 25 other books, he has been writing, editing and teaching on bioenergy, Qi and related topics for 20 years.
Endorsements
"This wonderful book has assembled some 25 authors expressing well a view of qi which entirely does justice to its nature. Meticulously referenced, it is a milestone to set beside Maciocias Foundations of Chinese Medicine and Deadmans Manual of Acupuncture. Here at last are the beginnings of a true science of qi...There is truly nothing like it in contemporary literature. Alone, it lays the foundation for the beginnings of a modern science of qi."Richard Bertschinger, Acupuncturist and translator, Somerset, UK.
"This book offers a timely and thorough examination of the experience and nature of qi, including a series of fascinating philosophical discussions with a direct application to our patients. Required reading for acupuncture practitioners seeking to justify and clarify their clinical reasoning."Val Hopwood PhD FCSP, Physiotherapist, acupuncturist, researcher and educator; Course director, MSc Acupuncture, Coventry University, UK.
"Over the last decade most books on Asian medicine paid tribute to the aura of evidence-based medicine - experience counted little, RCTs were convincing. This book, at last, returns to an old tradition of debate, opening up quite a few new horizons. Reading it, my striving for knowledge was married with enjoyment and happiness. This book made me happy " Thomas Ots MD PhD, Medical acupuncturist specialising in psychiatry, Graz, Austria; Editor-in-Chief, Deutsche Zeitschrift f r Akupunktur.
"To simply review the chapter headings is to know the truly remarkable expanse of this book...a wonderful bridge between the mysteries of the East and the sciences of the West...well documented, well written, and enlarging both. Enlightening...nicely depicts outstanding advances in energy psychotherapeutics, thus ultimately helping to move forward the human condition."Maurie D Pressman MD, Emeritus Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA; Emeritus Chairman of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia PA; past President, International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine, Lafayette, CO, USA.
"...a major advance in the study of qi and related forms of 'energy medicine, ' both in and beyond the East Asian cultural context...bringing together such a wide range of scholars and practitioners, providing much the most serious and thorough overview of the area yet available in English."Professor Geoffrey Samuel, Director, Research Group on the Body, Health and Religion (BAHAR), Cardiff University, UK.
Industry Reviews
"The book also includes insightful chapters on qigong,craniosacral biodynamics, TaiJi, Shiatsu, all extensively referenced."
Donkey Press, Spring 2011
"Mayor and Micozzi's Energy Medicine East and West provides us with some wonderfully diverse writings on qi from multiple perspectives and from some fine thinkers. I am not aware of any other text that fills this fascinating and much-needed niche."
Charles Buck, Journal of Chinese Medicine (2011) 97: 30-1
"Energy Medicine East and West is a very comprehensive overview of all standard modern forms of energy healing. Its six sections contains clear explanations of these techniques, as well as attempts to clarify and explain them. The contributors are from a variety of backgrounds, ranging from Qigong experts through physiologists, physical therapists and complementary medicine researchers to acupuncturists, and all are eminent in their field.
Energy Medicine East and West.is a comprehensive and up-to-date discussion of its subject. I would recommend it both as interesting and informative reading, and also as a useful reference book for anyone working in this field."
Melanie Hunter, Journal of the Acupuncture Association of Chartered Physiotherapists (2012) Spring:125-6
"In Asian medicine, no concept holds a more central or more enigmatic position than that of "qi."
The purpose of the text, in the best tradition of the liberal arts, is to engage the reader in the millennia-old conversation about qi without being apologetic and without shying away from the controversies stemming from the philosophical dissonance that often rattles with our modern biomedical paradigm. This text presents essays, some of which tackle qi from the viewpoint of hard science, theoretical physics, and bioelectrics, and some of which look at cross-cultural anthropology, human development, and comparative esoteric physiology. For the reader interested in the process of the conversation, this is a full buffet of ideas over which to linger.
Overall, Energy Medicine East and West offers the reader an intellectually stimulating, poly-cultural, open-minded, philosophical, and scientific exploration of qi from antiquity to the present. ... This is neither a training manual nor a technical guide to practice but rather an effort to raise the level of conversation about qi to one that takes into account a very broad context and multiple viewpoints. It is a collection to chew on over time rather than read in a single sitting, and it can be read in the order it is arranged or with some spontaneity."
David W. Miller, The American Acupuncturist (2012) 59: 30-31
"Energy Medicine East and West is a very comprehensive overview of all standard modern forms of energy healings. Its six sections contains clear explanation of thse techniques, as well as attempts to clarify and explain them. The contributors are from a variety of backgrounds, ranging from Qigong experts through physiologists, physical therapists and complementary medicine researchers to acupuncturists, and all are eminent in their field....Energy Medicine East and West is fascinating in parts and frustrating in others, but overall, the book is a comprehensive and up-to-date discussion of it's subject. I would recommend it both as interesting and informative reading, and also as a useful reference book for anyone working in this field."
Journal of the Acupuncture Assoication of Chartered Physiotherapists, Spring 2012
