The ghost points, also known as phantom points or Gui points are points that treat severe problems of the Shen, of the psyche.
- GV-26. Guigong, The Palace of the Ghost
- LU-11. Guixin, The Faith of the Ghost.
- SP-1. Guilei, The Fortress of the Ghost.
- PC-7. Guixin, The Heart of the Ghost.
- BL-62. Guilu, The Path of the Ghost.
- GV-16. Guizhen, The Pillow of the Ghost.
- ST-6. Guichuang, The Bed of the Ghost.
- CV-24. Guishi, The Market of the Ghost.
- PC-5. Guicu, The Cave of the Ghost.
- GV-23. Guitang, The Hall of the Ghost.
- CV-1. Guicang, The Storehouse of the Ghost.
- LI-11. Guitui, The Leg of the Ghost.
- Jin Yu Ye. Frenulum of the tongue, bled.
A couple of centuries later, Sun Si Miao added:
Use of the Gui points
The thirteen ghost points should be needled in order without leaving the needles in place. Needle, stimulate and remove the needle, point by point.
Many times it is not necessary to use them all. Select some.
- We treat differently according to gender: if the patient is male, in bilateral points we first needle the left side. If the patient is female, those on the right side of the body first. The points of Du Mai and Ren Mai are repeated.
- We also treat differently according to the day: if the patient comes on an odd day we tonify, on an even day we disperse.
See Tonification and dispersion techniques.
History of the Gui points
Bian Que was a renowned physician who lived between the 5th and 4th centuries BCE. Although there is no document from the era to support it, it is generally assumed that Bian was the first to employ and recommend the use of thirteen points for the treatment of patients who presented with episodes or suffered from what tradition called Dian Zheng or "quiet madness" and Kuang Zheng or "manic agitation".
Some of the various names given to each of the thirteen points employed by Bian Que began with the term "Gui", which favored the coining of denominations such as "demonic points" and "ghost points" as a consequence of their translation. This, together with the often incomplete understanding of traditional Chinese medical thought and the intimate sense that the word "demon" had in ancient China, has led more than a few Western authors to interpret that in classical Chinese medicine, psychotic-level disorders were attributed to the influence or penetration of ghosts or demons into the organism.
For classical Chinese medical thought, what has been interpreted as ghost or demon alluded, in this specific case, to the imaginary, to the non-existent.
For his part, Huang Fu Mi, an eminent physician who lived between the years 215 and 282, in the first chapter of the 7th book of his work Jia Ji Jing, dedicated to "Cold Injuries and Febrile Diseases from ailments of the Six levels", refers to the charm, spell or fascination that may present in states of psychotic excitation of these ailments using the phrase "with apparitions of ghosts or specters".
In classical texts from the Su Wen, whenever severe mental disorders, madness or other similar designations are mentioned, among their causes neither ghosts nor demons are included. External pathogenic factors, endogenous factors, emotional alterations are invoked.
The references to ghosts in TCM when dealing with mental disorders, indicate the presence of hallucinations, hallucinosis and illusions in the clinical picture.
Some authors attribute to Sun Si Miao (581-682) the description and use of these thirteen points. However, although they have reached us thanks to a work of this author called Bei Ji Qian Jin Yao Fang, Sun Si Miao confesses to doing nothing more than transcribing what is attributed to the authorship of Bian Que in this regard.
Additional ghost points
Additional phantom points, both with the Gui prefix and without it, that treat psychiatric disorders.