When I was four years old I took a tape-measure to the chimney, measured its width, turned to my parents and declared that I no longer believed in Father Christmas. When I was thirty-four I tested my belief in meridians in a similar way and came to the opposite conclusion. This article explores the nature of meridians with a variety of tape-measures. My intention is both to inform and to encourage you to ask questions. I begin with a look at recent scientific research.

Meridians Under the Microscope
Amongst the usual array of arms dealers, crooks and spies that President Nixon took to China were a group of doctors. They were impressed enough by what they saw in the Chinese hospitals to arrange an exchange visit. As a result, the first demonstration of acupuncture anaesthesia in the West took place in California and the western scientists scurried off to their laboratories.

The first wave of experiments sought understandably to explain, or explain away, acupuncture in terms of other known systems. So the needle was at first deemed to work via the nervous system by jamming the action of nerve bundles, or the hormonal system by stimulating the release of endorphins. Meanwhile, the Chinese sought anatomical evidence for meridians. The skin layers were found to be thinner along meridians and the end part of nerves that occur along the route were found to be expanded and connected to a mast cell. Further research showed that meridians have lowered resistance to both electric current and infrasound.

But the search for a definitive structure remained elusive and no new bits of tubing appeared beneath the microscope. A path, however, need not be a structure and meridians have successfully been described as a set of observable and measurable characteristics. Some of the most interesting research comes from China where the phenomenon of PSC ( Propagated Sensation in Channels), the feeling induced in a meridian by the application of electrical stimulus to an acupoint, has been investigated on a huge scale. These are a few of their findings:

- The average speed of PSC is around 20 cm/sec but may vary from a few seconds to an hour to experience the whole course of a meridian. The variation may depend upon obstruction by Phlegm, Cold or tension.
- PSC and the effect of stimulated acupoints can be blocked by the application of perpendicular pressure. This suggests a cellular mechanism for transmitting the action of an acupoint and reminds me of Masunaga’s suggestion that meridians are routes for the movement of protoplasm through the body.
- PSC in the arms and legs corresponds well to the classical maps but there are considerable variations in the trunk and head, suggesting a need for partial redrawing of the map.
-PSC proceeds with natural smooth curves rather than abrupt twists, confirming the experience of Shiatsu practitioners.1

As to where the meridians are, most current research points to the meridians being located in the superficial fascia of the connective tissues. The connective tissues are able to conduct electricity and all parts of the body are connected by fascia. The perineural cells are sometimes postulated as the vehicles of transmission. Nagahama, a Japanese acupuncturist, has coined the term ‘connective tissue therapy’ to describe acupuncture.2

The following extract from Deane Juhan‘s book ‘Job’s Body’ describes the fascia. Try reading it as a definition of the meridian network and draw your own conclusions. The fascia “binds specific cells into tissues, tissues into organs, organs into systems, cements muscle to bones, ties bones into joints, wraps every nerve and every vessel, laces all internal structures firmly into place, and envelops the body as a whole. In all of these wrappings, cables and moorings it is a continuous substance, and every single part of the body is connected to every other part by virtue of its network.”3

Another Japanese acupuncturist, Motoyama, suggests that the flow of Qi in the meridians is best described at the physical level by the flow of electrons. The interstitial fluids of the fascia, which feed in and out of the lymph and capillary systems, may also be seen as part of the flow of Qi through the body. Motoyama suggests that the movement of interstitial fluids is what the medical texts mean by ‘Luo’, the myriad small vessels that branch from the main meridians.

Meridian Evolution
So how do meridians evolve? One answer lies in embryology. In the early stages of embryonic development the ectoderm, endoderm and mesoderm take different routes of development. Masunaga saw these as ‘structural specializations of three basic modes of function which exist in most primitive single-celled organisms’4. He elaborates these functions into the six meridian pairs in his book ‘Zen Shiatsu‘. The meridians become structural expressions of basic life functions e.g. the ectoderm takes on responsibility for exchange, elimination, circulation and protection and is expressed by the Lung, Colon, Heart Protector and Triple Heater respectively.

Another view lies in field theory. Geomagnetic fields have been shown to profoundly influence the developing embryo. As magnetic fields will induce electrical currents, it has been suggested that the meridian network evolved in the womb as a response to the earth’s magnetic field, creating a primitive electrical ordering of the body that predates the nervous system. If we view meridians as electromagnetic in nature, then we can imagine that their circuitry will interact with surrounding fields. This is expressed in the Ling Shu which states that the meridians interact with forces exerted by the earth, stars and planets.

In biology, the information which governs our growth and development is contained within the DNA, the macrocosm within the microcosm. In field theory it’s the other way round. This information is held within the field. The biologist Rupert Sheldrake5 suggests that we grow within a morphogenetic field, an organising principle that provides a kind of template for our growth. The field exists before ‘we’ do. In oriental philosophy Qi is the organizing principle behind form: “The Great Void consists of Qi. Qi condenses to become the myriad things.” The meridians may thus be viewed as being part of the template around which our form develops.

Matsumoto and Birch see meridians as essentially a medium of adaptation to all environmental changes. The environment may be seen to include the emotional and spiritual dimension. The meridians receive information from the environment ( I suggest that this includes emotional input from relationships as well as the whole range of input to the senses), close it out if harmful and incorporate it if useful. The Su Wen describes this at the physical level: ‘Evil always attacks first at at the skin and hair and then comes into the area between the skin and the flesh. It comes in and stays at the Luo vessels. If it doesn’t leave it transmits to and enters the meridians. If it does not leave it transmits to and enters the Fu’. The Ling Shu quoted earlier widens this to include more subtle environmental stimuli. The meridians thus tune us into and help us adapt to the immediate and cosmic environment. They have further functions of distribution, maintenance and repair.

Esoteric systems recognize the existence of our etheric body which both surrounds and inhabits the physical body. We may equate this with the Po of Chinese medicine. The etheric body is indissolubly linked to the physical body, dissolving with it at death. From this perspective we may define meridians as part of the structure of the etheric body, a link with the higher bodies which govern our karma and life purpose. Spiritual dis-ease can be said to ‘transmit to and enter’ the etheric/meridian structure before lodging in the body.

Meridian as Metaphor
It is the idea of the meridian as living metaphor, however, which excites me most. Masunaga attempted to explain meridian location as related to function e.g. the Stomach and Spleen are located on the front as they express our ability to go forward to meet our needs. He correlated each meridian with a set of emotional characteristics. This work has been picked up by kineisiologists such as John Diamond, acupuncturists such as Mark Seem and in the Shiatsu world by Bill Palmer. We see the origin of these ideas in Masunaga’s doodle below.

Mark Seem sees meridian imbalance as related to patterns of muscular holding in the body known as ‘Kori’, a result of the body armouring process that is our reaction to unresolved stress6. Similarly, Bill Palmer’s work explores the inhibition of meridian development as the personality develops in early childhood, leading to the chronic patterns of meridian imbalance of adulthood. When we hold this vision we are better able to see our clients as whole people and to see treatment as resonating through the whole of their lives.

So we have explored views of the meridians as merely analagous to familiar systems such as the nerve network or fascia. We have considered them as part of the structure of the field, whether geomagnetic, morphogenetic or auric. We have looked at them too as developing in response to the patterning of the self, and as metaphors of our biological and psychological functioning. We can look at them from several places, but what are they and does it matter anyway?

So What is a Meridian?
How we see the meridians reflects both the strengths and limitations of our practice. The plumber, seeing the meridians as pipes, will better be able to understand the distributive function of the meridians as they carry nutritive Qi to feed the body. The electrician, seeing the meridians as wires, will better understand their communicative function as they carry impulses. The engineer, seeing the meridians as framework, will understand their role in supporting the bodystructure.

The plumber is skilled with clients whose pipes are furred or leaking, the electrician with those whose wires are crossed and so on. But if I’ve got bad air blowing through my meridians I’m going to the ventilation expert, and if my meridians just aren’t picking up my higher frequencies well enough then I’m off to the radio whizzkid. Anyway, you get the picture. Our perspective will determine the kind of clients we can work with and who is drawn to work with us.

To grow in our work we can choose either to specialize (plumbers go on advanced plumbing courses) or to expand (electricians learn plumbing too). What image do you have for the meridian network? And does it help or limit your practice? I will finish with my own view that has evolved and will continue to evolve through my own practice.

First, a distinction. The meridian permeates its associated organ along its pathway and we may consider the physical organ to be part of the meridian. The meridian/organ is an aspect of Organ, which in Chinese medicine is a set of related functions. So the meridian may be defined as a structural aspect of Organ function. It exists to integrate the function of the Organ with the physical body and is the means by which the Organ is made flesh and translated into movement.

I see the meridian network as the primal, original carrier of intention, of the core impulses of our being, as the means by which impulse becomes action, idea becomes manifestation. It could be described as the pathway for Mind in the body.

I think we can never overestimate the depth of subtle anatomy work. The journey we go on in Shiatsu is a journey into our original nature, into a deeper level of our being. To work with the meridians is to open the way to rediscovery of our original nature and through that perhaps to our relationship with the cosmos.

Notes
1) National Symposium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion and Acupuncture Anaesthesia, Beijing 1979.
2) Hara Diagnosis - Reflections on the Sea, Kiiko Matsumoto and Stephen Birch, Paradigm Press 1988.
3) Life Energy, John Diamond, Paragon House 1985
4) Zen Imagery, Shizuto Masunaga, Japan Publications Inc..
5) A New Science of Life, Rupert Sheldrake
6) Acupuncture Imaging, Mark Seem, Healing Arts Press 1990