The Acupuncture Emotional System (AES)

The Acupuncture Emotional System (AES) is a research tool which among other functions enables us to assess and evaluate the effects of all stimuli, internal and external, on the individual. This in turn enables us to arrive at a new understanding and synthesis of the integrative action of the body energy system. The testing technique offers an assessment of the degree of stress under which an individual is functioning and a total assessment of his physical and psychological well-being. It facilitates a holistic, non-manipulative approach to health in which the doctor teaches the individual techniques for identifying sources of stress and correcting them.

AES arose out of my many years of practice in psychiatry, preventive medicine, psychosomatic medicine, and my association with Dr. George Goodheart's work in Applied Kinesiology. As well, AES arose out of my deep and long-standing interest in the humanities, particularly in the role of artistic expression and creative impulses in the therapeutic situation. AES leads to new concep¬tualizations and understandings of Life Energy and the life process and therefore aids the individual in developing his goals and direction. It allows for a clearer conscious communi¬cation between the mind and the body

The stimuli examined in the AES program affect what the Greeks called our thymos, or Life Energy. Through their identification and the study of their effects, the individual is in a position to make choices for positive health. AES allows for the assessment of the Life Energy, the Healing Power, the Eternal Eros, the spirit within every sufferer who comes to me—to precisely determine the impediments to Its full and free manifestation. And then to encourage the enhancement of the spirit so as to overcome these impediments.

Having delineated the problems, the person is able to overcome them by using music or other modalities to raise his Life Energy. Once that happens, his innate healing power is free to do its work. I call this part of my work The Acupuncture Emotional System (AES):

A major topic I introduced in my first book Your Body Doesn't Lie is that everything outside and inside us, at both a conscious and an unconscious level, is impinging, influencing, and affecting our acupuncture system and therefore our emotional state, our organs, muscles and tissues. When one or more energy pathways are blocked in the body, which can come from a physical, emotional or spiritual problem, an organ is deprived of the energy it needs. If the energy depletion is sufficiently severe or protracted, cells begin to deform and the organ may eventually become diseased.

Thus a facial expression, a note of music, a thought, a symphony, a relationship, a performer, a food, a color, a shape: everything has its effect - however subtle - on us. Once you realize this, a whole world of research opens up before you. That is why I have spent so many years researching, among other things, art, photography, music, dance, musicology, anthropology, etymology, and philosophy. Every thought, every desire, every word - each and every stimulus that we encounter in our lives - has its effect on us. And each either raises our Life Energy through a specific enhancement of meridian emotional states, or does the opposite. My book, Life Energy: Unlocking the Hidden Power of Your Emotions, was the first book to accurately define the emotions associated with each organ and provided an understanding of how to overcome the imbalances.