Holographic theory was “discovered” 1000+ years later than its application in Chinese Medicine and Tai Chi theory.
The holographic principle is a principle of string theories and a supposed property of quantum gravity that states that the description of a volume of space can be thought of as encoded on a lower-dimensional boundary to the region. Don’t be scared by these elusive scientific terms. One of the central principles of the universe, as well as Chinese Medicine, can be simply put: each part is contained within the whole, and the image of the whole is reflected within the confines of each part.
Holographic theory is indeed a fundamental principle existing in the universe. This theory can be applied to various practices, and can especially help Western researchers with micro-level thinking and training understand Chinese medicine and holistic medicine in general.
Concepts of the body and of disease used in Chinese medicine (a.k.a. TCM) reflect its emphasis on dynamic processes including time and space over material structure (which is identical between a live human and a corpse, between fresh foods and frozen ones), with a little similarity to European humoral theory. Seeing and treating the body as a hologram, the well-known micro-systems within the human body allow doctors to treat the whole of the body through holographic mapping at the eyes, ears, tongue, face, hands, feet, etc. If one appreciates that a human body is evolved from a single cell, and a saliva sample contains all your genetic information, one can understand the holographic nature of reality utilized in TCM.
The atmosphere of heaven and earth, gathered in one place, can become a creature, with very strong energy, information and other elements. The atmosphere of heaven and earth, scattered into the universe, information, energy, etc. are scattered, and become difficult to perceive.
Therefore, from the change of an object, one can observe the change of the universe. From the change of a person, one can see the change of a society. The pulse is only within inches, but it can change the air volume of the whole body. I have personally met a Chinese medical doctor who is a national top expert in pulse diagnosis, and was amazed how much information (and unknown information that becomes known via medical devices only years later) he can tell from carefully feeling layers of the pulse.
Besides pulse, the ear can also be used as a basis for diagnosing the disease.
The eye, the tongue coating, hands and feet can also be used as a basis for diagnosing the disease. The whole body can be seen in any part of the body.
Outside of medicine, the same principle applies. One person’s personal characteristics can contain his or her entire family’s information. From this person alone, you can tell some background information of the parents, the family of origin, and you can see the quality of the growth or living environment of this person, and so on.
The so-called “holographic theory” was there one thousand years later than Tai Chi theory. This kind of No Chi (in Chinese: Wuji) and Tai Chi thinking is actually a difference between abstract and concrete. It implies a one-to-many relationship. According to a metaphor, “there is a wave in the sea, and there is a whole sea in one wave”. In other words, a sea can be filled with countless waves, and each wave contains all of the key information of the sea. This is easy to understand even for Western trained folks since most of us have done blood draw for health exams to figure out our entire physical information.
This concept has played a very important role in the development of Chinese medicine, because before the Song Dynasty, the basic diagnostic techniques were scattered, only the pulse diagnosis method was systematic, and the rest of the diagnosis approaches were not systematic.
For example, some people use a year, month, and day to see the development of the whole event. In statistics and data science, we do predictions using limited information. And that confirms what Tai Chi and No Chi theory are doing, using Chinese “mathematics” (in Chinese: 数术).
The atmosphere of heaven and earth, gathered in one place, can become a living creature, with strong energy, information and other elements. When the same amount of atmosphere gets scattered into the universe, information and energy are then scattered, and become difficult to perceive.
Tai Chi is a unit that combines time and space, so according to Tai Chi, it is possible to judge what happened in the past time, what will happen in the future, and also determine the location. However, because space is multidimensional, in many cases, space prediction is the most difficult, and time is one-way, the simplest, so we are used to using time to represent space and simplify all human bodies.
Space is often simplified, it does not mean that space is invalid, but space is too important. So when we encounter many methods that are ineffective, it is likely that there is a problem with space. This is also the case that many countries have regarded space issues as their core focus, but no one can break through those issues.
Within a space, time is simple and monotonous; but within a time frame, space is unpredictable and full of changes. Tai Chi and No Chi is a concept that includes time and space, including the later “Tai Chi creates Yin and Yang”, but also contains the concept of time and space, just that during the later development process, the focus shifted to time, ignoring the role that space plays. The 5 Motions and 6 Qi in our “Yellow Emperor’s Canon of Medicine” emphasized the time elements, and ignore the space elements.
The beauty of the Chinese medical view of the body only becomes truly apparent when you focus on the interconnections including holographic views, time and space, and no system is complete without seeing its relationship to the rest. This can be super valuable to study the development of diseases, and greatly aid treatment and prevention, e.g., understanding where cancer cells would spread to next and take measures in advance.
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References:
- Hologram Theory in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine:
<https://www.yourhealthandlongevity.com/blog/hologram-theory-acupuncture-chinese-medicine/>
2. Hologram: Where Microcosm Meets Macrocosm:
<https://triangleacupunctureclinic.com/blog/hologram-where-microcosm-meets-macrocosm>
3. Wikipedia. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_principle>
