Acupuncture and Dreams

What does acupuncture have to do with dreams?  Helping form a diagnosis is what. When it comes to Traditional Chinese Medical (TCM) theory for acupuncture many things are taken into account before a diagnosis for treatment is made. For instance, how someone smells, sounds, talks and walks. Plus tongue and facial observation along with pulse taking are essential to forming a proper diagnosis. That’s half the battle; the other half of forming a diagnosis comes from the actual talking and intake before a treatment.

During the intake process it is good for a practitioner to question the patient’s dreams in order to look for a clue in finding something pathological or excessive.  Excessive dreaming for instance may be due to an imbalance in the body, which could mean an internal organ has a deficiency of some sort and the body is trying to tell you, through dreams, that something is wrong.

Each organ in the body has a mental and physical job to undertake, for instance the stomach not only takes in food and breaks it down for the body to make blood and have energy. The Stomach takes in life and allows an individual to digest the things that come their way.  If some one is having stomach related issues like acid reflux and is also dreaming of eating really big meals, it adds another check mark on the list to mean that the individual is having a stomach deficiency.

The dream is a clue to the imbalance; it helps the practitioner pinpoint a diagnosis. The dream also adds a general viewpoint on the patients view on reality. In this case the person may be having stomach issues because physical life is really becoming to much for them to handle. TCM does not separate the body from the mind, all acupuncture points on the body not only pierce the body, but affect the mental and emotional aspects of the being as well. Strengthening the stomach with the help of acupuncture can help some one-digest life, in general, more easily.

Each organ has its own mental/emotional aspect and when in excess or deficiency it may manifest in dreams. The following is a short list of organs and their corresponding pathologies and how they may appear in dreams.

Liver/gallbladder= Anger, indecision, seeing trees, forest

Heart/small intestine= Laughing, Joy, seeing fire

Lungs/large intestine= Sadness, grief- flying, being constipated

Kidneys/bladder= Fear, drowning, swimming

Spleen/ Stomach= Worry, eating, building a house

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s article, if you have any comments please let me know!