Early eastern view

In the East, the worldview was also phenomenological and based on observation, with a tendency to see the
world from a more intuitive, holistic perspective. Like their western counterparts, the earliest eastern views
saw Man surrounded by mysterious forces that control people’s lives, and as in the West, these forces were
usually raised to the mythical status of gods. With the rise of an integrated Chinese society, the emperor was
now seen as divine, an earthly representative of a higher force with power over all people. However, this was
not so much a monotheistic belief, as in the West, but a unified cosmology in which Man is an important part
but not separate from the world; rather, he reflects this world. This is clearly stated in the ancient Chinese
adage ‘In the macrocosm is the microcosm, and in the microcosm is the macrocosm.’
In the eastern view, the world was seen as being filled with energy, but this energy extends into mankind
himself, and in fact it is these flows of energy coursing throughout his physical body that maintain his physical
structure and function. And like the early western view, it is these energy flows that maintain health and need
to be balanced when sickness invades. Sickness in this model was seen as resulting from a disturbance of the
energy flows caused by unknown forces but ascribed to perverse energies and demons.
There were two great eastern traditions—the yogic system, based on flows of pranic energy through the
chakra–nadi system, and the ch’i flows through the acupuncture meridian system—which together control
what we now call in the West physiological homeostasis. In the eastern view, the world of the five senses was not
considered primary, as in the West, but rather only an illusion created by our senses, while the primary world
was represented by the flows of energy that became manifest as the physical matter we see and feel and the
physiology of living organisms.
Therefore, when the physiology becomes disturbed, as evidenced by patterns of disharmony, the proper
thing to do was find where the energy underlying these patterns is blocked. Then techniques from the use of
foods and herbs to more direct energetic techniques such as needle acupuncture would be employed to release
these blockages. Once the energetic block is gone, the energy flows sustaining normal harmonious function
are quickly re-established by the natural order, as in the Hippocratic model!
Therefore, the basis of both the eastern view and the early western view of Man and the universe was that
the physical world of our senses becomes manifest from unseen energies of the universe, and once manifest as
matter they follow natural laws with respect to its structure and function. The human body follows these
natural laws that control the manifestation of matter from these underlying energetic systems. Disease results
where these manifesting energies are blocked, and healing in these models results from removal of these
blocks, allowing the energies to flow according to the natural laws that ‘though untaught and uninstructed, do
what is proper to preserve a perfect equilibrium’.
The primary differences between the eastern and early western views of Man in the universe were the
different perspectives of Man in relationship to the universe, and Man’s role in the universe based on the place
of Man in relationship to theology and cosmology. In the East, the interpretation of phenomenological
observations was based on inductive reasoning from patterns of harmony and symmetry in which Man is
firmly embedded in the structure of the universe. But Man also reflects the structure of the universe and is
controlled by the natural laws governing the universe. This eastern view, although not analytical, was no less
logical than the western view, as it was very rule-based and internally consistent.
From the cosmological perspective of the East, Man was seen as an integrated unit comprising immaterial
spirit and mind together with its material manifestation, the physical body, which are linked by the continual
flows of energy into body−mind−spirit. Disease was thus perceived as distortions or blocks in the flows of the
energies linking the body to its mind and spirit, therefore healing is best accomplished by restoring these flows
of energy to their former harmonious patterns.

Development of the modern western view

In contrast, from the time of the Greeks to the present day, in the West the original phenomenological
observations of our universe were evaluated from a deductive reasoning to understand how these natural laws
might work to produce the world and universe we see. So the dominant view of the universe and how our
world contained within it worked was based on logic. From this deductive linear perspective, the world
follows mathematical rules and laws that can explain not only how it works but also make predictions about
that which is not yet observed or known.
At the same time, the immaterial mind was considered separate from the material, physical body,
permitting the body to be taken apart and understood from the deductive perspective of ever smaller pieces
making up the whole. Disease was increasingly seen as being caused by specific identifiable disease entities

30