AAEMC Asian And European Medical Centre - East Asian Acupuncture and Herbs

10/11/2025

Next week I ll give a lecture and a workshop in Zurich at the ASA- TCM Congress about Immortality. Since part of the audience is German, I have decided to give the lecture in German and it will be simultaneously translated in French.

The topic of the whole congress is Immortality and apparently this theme is fashionable these days in Chinese Medicine circles in the West. Whatever we might understand under this term.

I ll zoom in on some of the historical developments, how ideas about immortality were developed in ancient China and how these ideas have been changed and modified over time , for example under the influence of Buddhism towards more an idea of Enlightenment or Transcendence. In modern times , especially in Republican China and PRC there has been a shift towards emphasis on long life and good health. The birth of modern Qi Gong and other Yangsheng practices, developed out of older practices is a good example.

I will zoom in especially on how some of these ideas about cultivation of immortality and internal alchemy have influenced medical thinking. I ll focus especially on later imperial time physicians like Zhang Jiebin or Li Shizhen, who have been clearly influenced by ideas from Internal Alchemy and brought innovative ideas into medicine like the development of ideas around Ming Men and the Qi Jing Ba Mai.

In the following workshop, I ll especially will zoom in on the ideas of Li Shizhen regarding the Qi Jing Ba Mai and their clinical relevance.

My German is not so good, probably could do it even better in Turkish, but think it’s enough to give a more or less coherent talk. It will be fun.

My personal ideas about immortality don’t matter that much, but I tend to have a more secular view, and have not so much faith in a Daoist heaven and a heavenly bureaucracy with all Deities, where I could take place if I am able to shoot my Yuan Shen out of the Sky Gate.

Having said that, I believe some of the Neidan practices, can be very useful and to study the influence of Neidan on medicine is a very valuable and an under researched topic. In my own research over the last two decades, I have found more and more evidence how currents of thought like Neidan and Neo Confucianism (and they both influenced each other as well) have quite profoundly influenced Chinese medicine in the later imperial times.

And for sure life remains a mystery, who knows? I like to call myself a Skeptical Mystic, down to earth but open to the mystery of the Universe . 😄

14/10/2025

Today I had my first internship of the new season. I have started to ask students in my clinic for a voluntary contribution for a wonderful project. The Learning Center for the Deaf (LCD) in Beirut, run by my lovely friends Hussein and Nadine. My mother used to sponsor this project already long before I ever set a step on Lebanese soil. By chance I was two weeks ago in Beirut again and could hand over some money. Today my first new season internship made a generous offer. This is such a great project, a small NGO doing wonderful work. If you want to know more about them, please contact me.
For more information:
https://www.lcd-lebanon.org/Home

26/09/2025

Couple of days ago I visited my friend Nadine Ismail (her husband Hussein was by chance in Holland at this time) . Hussein and Nadine are dear friends who run an amazing project for deaf children, it’s the most advanced institution in the field in the whole ME. It’s a long story, I ran in to them once by chance via a common friend, when I visited Beirut some odd 17 years ago. Later on I realized my mum sponsored this project already long time ago. I realised that I had a connection and needed to do something with that. I sponsor them from time to time like other small NGO ‘s. By donating to such people you know the money will not get lost. This time the money will go education. I also took up the initiative to ask a voluntary contribution for apprentices in my clinic and donate that money to projects like these. Even if these are small drops, they might contribute to wonderful projects like these. This project has many sides and is directed that Deaf children can grow up and be later be independent, can study at universities and be self supportive, these are great empowering projects. Hope to be soon back with more money.

16/09/2025

Hope you like my talk

Some things can’t be seen—only felt. The texture of presence, the quiet shifts in atmosphere, the way the body speaks before words arrive. In the clinic, it’s not always the protocols or point prescriptions that lead the way, but something quieter. Something more fluid.

10/09/2025

Holiday season , so time to work on my presentations in the Netherlands, Indonesia and Switzerland. This one will be a talk on ideas on Immortality in China in relation to medicine. Like in other cultures there has been always a search for immortality or at least long and healthy life. These ideas had of course influence on medicine. I ll talk a little bit about Daoist lore on herbs, in the Shen Nong Bencao and other older pharmacopeia some herbs are indicated as having the ability to become a “Spiritual Immortal” , a “Transcendent “ or at least grant you a long life. Later physicians like Li Shizhen tempered these expectations in his Bencao Gangmu. Also ideas about immortality have changed over time. From Daoist ideas on Immortality, later on influenced by Buddhism, it turned maybe more in ideas of Enlightenment. In republican and PRC time, a more secular vision developed, and more focus was put on nourishing life (Yangsheng). Though of course there are loads of religious Daoists who believe in a Celestial Bureaucracy and the ability to rise up to the heavens.

But most of my talk and the sequencing workshop will focus mainly on ideas from Neidan (Internal Alchemy), which of course had initially a goal of immortality , which had big impact on Chinese Medicine. Examples are concepts like Ming Men, especially the interpretation of Ming physicians as Zhao Xianke and Zhang Jiebin, and the elaboration on ideas on the Ba Mai, especially physicians like Li Shizhen and Luo D**g Yi were clearly informed by Neidan in developing their ideas and medical strategies.

For more info on the congress : https://asa-tcmkongress.ch/referenten/

10/09/2025

Some odd. 25 years ago with Yanagish*ta Sensei and his daughter. Amsterdam 2000, one of the acupuncture teachers that impressed me deeply and influenced me thoroughly.

31/07/2025

DAOI is delighted to announce a unique opportunity to explore the world of Medieval Dao Yin exercises with Prof. Dolly Yang, Ph.D.Join us for a tuition free ...