It is a delight to see that there is a return to the original concepts of acupuncture and the movement of energy on a global level, as distinct from the use of points purely for the removal of specific perverse influences.

—Royston H. Low, Ph.D., British Journal of Acupuncture

Extraordinary Vessels gives students and practitioners the knowledge and information they need to add important and powerful treatments to their repertoire. The authors have assembled theoretical explanations and treatment systems based on the use of the eight extraordinary vessels. The information comes from highly successful Japanese, Chinese, and German practitioners. The text describes trajectories, pathways, variant pathways, and branches with eleven full-page body charts, and more than 50 tables. Classical treatments are documented in a fashion that will be useful to the modern practitioner. There are step-by-step presentations covering body zones, the use of bipolar metals, magnets, and electrically pulsed magnets. Sample treatments, illustrations of correspondence and reflex areas, tables, and diagrams provide practical support.

Author Commentary

The authors attempted for the first time in English, a compilation of the major historical literature on the eight extraordinary vessels. The first chapter introduces the basic theoretical model of the extraordinary vessels with some modern extrapolations. The second chapter contains the most comprehensive compilation of all the major historical discussions of the pathways of the extraordinary vessels that can be found in English. The third chapter contains a compilation of the most comprehensive Asian discussions of the indications and treatment targets for the extraordinary vessels from the historical literature in English. The fourth chapter introduces two rather unique modern uses of the extraordinary vessels developed in Japan. The final sections attempt to show parallels between the historical literature and the modern uses, specially TCM. Recently, other texts on the extraordinary vessels have been published, but none have attempted to report in depth from on the historical literature that this text features.

—Stephen Birch

Review Quotes

"It is a delight to see that there is a return to the original concepts of acupuncture and the movement of energy on a global level, as distinct from the use of points purely for the removal of specific perverse influences."

—British Journal of Acupuncture