Body Electric version 5.0
I’ve been riding the dual waves of technology and alternative healthcare almost my whole life and find it interesting how intertwined they have become.
In my first ‘real job’ as a 15-year old, I worked for my older brother, Dan, troubleshooting and repairing electrical appliances. The first thing I learned was how to test for continuity in electrical circuits. Whenever I found a break or a short in a circuit, I fixed it. Repairing appliances is a thing of the past as they are now, unfortunately, mostly, disposable. Rather than repairing, they are simply thrown away and replaced. Fortunately, I retained my abilities to troubleshoot and repair circuits.
My main testing tool for checking continuity back then was crude but powerful. It consisted of two bare wires connected to 110 volts with a light bulb in the circuit. When the two wires were touched to different ends of a circuit, the light bulb would light if there was continuity. When the circuit was broken, it would not light.
Don’t try the following at home! As a teenager, I got bored if there was nothing to fix. During these times, I would sometimes hold both ends of the electrical wires to see if I could complete the circuit and make the light shine (without electrocuting myself)! I could do it. As a result, I learned not only about circuits and continuity, but that the body has circuits that conduct and breakers that prevent overloads in the circuits. And, when there is continuity in these circuits, it makes the light glow and shine! Today, we use the little ‘Energy Ball’ to demonstrate this using only micro-volts which is much safer! And, by restoring continuity in people’s circuits we help them energetically glow and shine.
Years later, my wife, Gail, and I were introduced to Touch for Health and the body’s circuits of energy. After studying electrical diagrams and circuits, the meridians made perfect sense to me. Being able to use the muscle test (rather than bare wires) to test for continuity was fun and satisfying. We bought Dr. Thie’s book, Touch for Health, and often used ‘The Book’ over the years.
Throughout my life and computer career, there have been experiences in technology that have helped me better understand the body and Touch for Health. In the later 1970’s, I read a blurb about the microprocessor. It was described as “the computer for the common man” and, being in the group of ‘the common man’, it resonated with me and I learned how to build, troubleshoot and then program these new and powerful tools.
During this time, I learned about the Bernoulli Effect and feedback loops in hard drives. These powerful feedback loops were used to control the flight of the read/write heads to keep them in balance as they flew. I became very interested in feedback loops in technology and then later learned how the body uses feedback loops to maintain balance and homeostasis. I am especially interested in the biofeedback tool that we use… the muscle test. This has been an interesting crossover mentally for me between technology and the body.
Gail and I were largely self-taught in Touch for Health for 26 years. We had a 30-minute introduction to TFH in 1976 and then we had our first class in 2002 with John, Carrie and Matthew Thie. We literally wore out four books we used them so often over that 26- year period. In 1988 I decided to start programming a solution that we would help us learn TFH more easily, track results and show personal patterns that were evident from our testing and balancing. Our eTouch for Health software started out as a personal project. However, it became clear to me that if it could help us, it could help others also.
I love books. I love their smell, their feel, the way that you can flip to a page and read what you want. I have favorite books that I will pick up and leaf through them to find favorite passages. My inspiration when programming eTouch was to preserve as many of those attributes as possible while adding the power of the computer to the total package.
As a computer consultant/troubleshooter, I used to be called into emergencies, and once again, I see similarities between working with technology and Touch for Health. Often, my clients would say to me, “I’ve lost all my work for a very important project! It’s gone. My job is gone, my career! All gone!” I realized that I must first address the client’s stress before solving the problem. I would say, “Don’t worry. I can fix it. Relax. Take a walk and I’ll have it going when you return.” With them calm and taking a walk, I could relax and get on with troubleshooting and fixing the problem. I asked Dr. Thie one day in his office, “Why do we start with the Stomach Meridian?” Dr. Thie replied, “We could start with any of the meridians after Central and Governing however, by starting with Stomach we address the client’s stress and anxiety first so that we can get on with balancing the body.”
Personally, I realized that if I had a clinic, I could help 7-8 people a day. As an instructor, I can teach dozens of students who will then go out and help many thousands of people. And, I realized that if we used the powerful technological tools available to us, we have the potential to help millions of people around the world live healthier and happier lives with less pain and stress.
As a software developer, I always ask my clients what their goals are for the software I am about to write for them? One day, I asked Dr. Thie what was the most important attribute of Touch for Health? He replied, “If we can help people make meaningful goals for themselves and help them take that next step in becoming who they are, then we are truly helping people!” I smile when I think how many people we’ve been able to help by writing software and using TFH to help people define and realize their goals for a fuller and happier life.
Early in my computer career when building advanced computer systems, I also discovered that my testing computer was very sensitive. We all know about static electricity and we practiced safe practices but this sensitivity was different. One day, no changes had been made to the system but it failed one morning when I was very angry over something. This happened once more and I became convinced that I needed to remain calm around these advanced computers. After I remained calm, the problem never reappeared. With this experience, I became aware of the subtle forces and how we can project our energy, either positively or negatively.
When looking at the electronic computer and the body electric, I realize there is a connection. I find it interesting that the early computers had functional areas that were described as parts of the body… the microprocessor was described as the ‘brains’, etc. and now we use computer terms to describe the functions of the body… i.e., ‘the body’s bio-computer’.
I am glad that we no longer have CRT displays and have flat panel displays. Most computers are well-shielded these days so that electromagnetic waves (EMF) can not escape. I prefer wired network connections where the EMF remains contained within the shielded cables. I try to use wireless only when there is no other choice. I try not to use my cell phone without a headset, when possible.
With the use of eTouch, I have not determined any bad effects of using a laptop or iPad during a session. Touch for Health still works! However, I purposely programmed a feature into eTouch for those that might not want to use a computer during a balancing session. In eTouch, you can create a new session for a client and then immediately go to Reports without entering any results and print a blank test form for the client. Then, the paper form can be used to record results during the session with the client and the results entered later to keep in the records.
The benefits of eTouch, due to technology, are many and outweigh other detriments, in my opinion. I have chosen to use technology for its information management and knowledge communication capabilities rather than as an electronic tool. James Oschman, PhD, author of Energy Medicine – the scientific basis, stated at the TFHKA conference in Sacramento, California, “The hand is infinitely more sensitive and adaptive than any electronic device that he had tested.” The power of information and knowledge was made evident to me a project early in my career. Apple Computer asked me to do a presentation a group of information managers from the CDC that were responsible for communicating information about the AIDS epidemic at a time when no one knew what caused it.
As a result, this group eventually used information and knowledge in what was the world’s largest preventive health information campaign in history. The CDC then communicated in every way possible to warn of the causes and how to prevent AIDS. I saw the power of information and communication in this preventive health effort, which saved 10’s of millions of lives.
The power and number of tools that are available to us keeps growing! I was asked to speak in Kyoto, Japan back in 2010. Kenichi Ishimaru, my host, asked if eTouch would run on an iPad? It would run but it needed a new batch of layouts. Importantly, the digital movies of the muscle tests would not run like they did on a laptop or desktop! As a matter of necessity, I learned about ‘The Cloud’ and put the movies into the Cloud so that they were accessible from anywhere in world.
As a result of this new technology capability, I began developing an advanced App, ‘Bubbles and the Five Elements’, which mostly resides in the Cloud. It is an advanced lightweight reference and session tool. It’s almost complete! Whereas, eTouch is almost one gigabyte in size, Bubbles is just a little over 10 megabytes! Digital video and the Cloud are also allowing us to introduce our four levels of eTouch for Health workshops with video-on-demand (VOD) where students can learn at their own pace, 365/24/7.
After all these years, I’m still riding the incredible waves of technology and applying them to our alternative healthcare model every chance I get. Amazingly, we have more advanced tools for learning, teaching and recordkeeping that many healthcare models. Just think, we can deliver the knowledge of Touch for Health to almost anywhere in the world in approximately five minutes.
I hope you enjoy! There is healing in information and knowledge via continuity, however it occurs.
Body Electric Issue : Spring 2017
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