Acupuncture is a technique found within Traditional Chinese Medicine and consists of inserting needles at specific points on the body to cure the most diverse diseases that afflict human beings.

The Beginnings - Barefoot Doctors

It is said that thousands of years ago, long before the great civilizations, in the territory known today as the Orient, there lived nomadic shamans known as "the barefoot ones". Men and women who spent their lives healing the sick as they traveled. Medicine as such was not yet spoken of; it was rather a tradition in the sense of the transmission of knowledge. Such knowledge was inherited from parents to children or from masters to disciples and was based on practices of life preservation. They sought to maintain a balanced life in harmony with nature and its constant changes.

From this bond with nature emerges the conception of living at the midpoint between heaven and earth. The BEING begins to have a "consciousness" that is experienced in the material world. The conception of mind-nature-body is the gateway to seeing the Human Being as a microcosm that represents in its entirety the macrocosm in which our planet is immersed and of which we are a part. The body is composed of the same elements as planet earth and in this way it is possible that the "barefoot doctors" made analogies about rivers, seas, mountains, metal, wood, fire, seasons of the year, including a heaven and an earth, as well as a very long etcetera that dwells within this microcosm called the human body.

The knowledge that emerged from these remote times evolved hand in hand with each of the human beings through whom it passed; the way of conceiving life and the different forms of being and existing in the universe were transmitted by word of mouth until the appearance of writing.

Ancient Texts

• I-Ching or The Book of Changes, written by Emperor Fu Xi. It is believed to be one of the oldest books and speaks of the constant change in nature. It is based on the first division of Yin Yang and combines them to form sixty-four Hexagrams that encompass any natural process that may exist in life. It has been used as an oracle since its early appearance.
• Tao Te King by Lao Tze. It is the most emblematic book on Taoist philosophy and speaks to us about what the presence of man should be in the universe or the correct ways of living.
• Bencao Jing, written by Shen Nong, who is considered the precursor of Chinese Agriculture and Herbalism.
• The Huan Di Nei Jing the canon of the Yellow Emperor or Huang Di. It is divided into two parts, the Su Wen and the Ling Shu. It is considered the first text in which the medical concepts on which Traditional Chinese Medicine is based are developed, including Acupuncture. It is written in the form of a dialogue between Emperor Huang Di and his physician, but according to archaeological data it is considered to be a compilation of writings from many people over several centuries.

Traditional Chinese Medicine

Acupuncture is part of what is called Traditional Chinese Medicine. This accumulates the knowledge existing in Asian peoples from antiquity to the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966), at which point what exists is compiled and synthesized and what we know today by that name is developed. The theory of Yin Yang is the foundation of this knowledge and for the first time there is a record of it in the I-Ching. The school that develops this system of thought is the School of Yin Yang during the period of the Warring States, at which time this theory is applied to medicine. Later the Theory of the five elements emerges, becoming very popular during the period of the Warring States and being applied not only to medicine, but also to astrology, natural sciences, calendars and even politics.

In recent centuries it has been followed by theories such as those of the Zang Fu and the theory of vital substances. Chinese Medicine has traveled to the West and adapted to different countries and cultures, becoming increasingly enriched.

Contemporary Acupuncture

Acupuncture is based on all this knowledge compiled from the nomadic shamans to the Warring States and has reached our times. However, the human being has not changed so much, societies are equally pernicious, human relationships sicken the bodies involved in them and food impoverishes along with the quality of the air we breathe.

It becomes indispensable to speak of the primary bond with nature: it is when this is broken that an organ - flavor - emotion dominates over others and, in this way, the relationship of cooperation necessary for life is broken and disease appears. The balance that is spoken of in the mutations or the correct ways of living that Lao Tze indicates to us, open a multidimensionality in the human being that we cannot overlook when we speak of symptoms or syndromes.

For us acupuncture is an art, it seeks balance and harmony, beauty is expressed in the thousands of ways of living and learning to live. The balance that the organs build with their emotions can be expressed in constant movement, in that one flavor does not predominate in the diet, in that we do not allow one emotion to take over the body or in that we see more than one or two colors in life. In short, the acupuncturist needs to learn to live through this practice, that is a principle of ethics that sustains the practice, restoring one's own bond with nature is vital to establish a dialogue with the interior, only thus will it be possible to approach another human being and have a clear sight to see beyond a symptom.