Home Return Seminars Schedule Teachers Certified by DRS Leon Hammer Bio and books Articles By Leon Hammer Articles By certified teachers Contemporary Chinese Pulse Diagnosis Description Dragon Rises College Graduate Education Contact Us For more info Links To other resources Books by Leon Hammer M.D. Bio | Dragon Rises, Red Bird Flies | Chinese Pulse Diagnosis Dragon Rises, Red Bird Flies (Chapter Seven: excerpts from "Developmental Stages in the Evolution of Being") It is my intention to expand upon the traditional theory of the Law of the Five Phases as an expression of the "evolution of being." The developmental stages of human life chronicle a growing capacity for "self" and "self expression," for introspection, and for interpersonal communication. Attachments to one's "self" and contact with other beings occur at all levels, involving a wide range of touch and powerful channels of energy. Few people are aware of the substantial but invisible energy links that exist within themselves and between others. Examined through the illuminating energy concepts of Chinese medicine, these connections tell us something of the contributions to human development made by the natural functions of the Five Phases. "Contact" through these bonding avenues of the life force is the essential issue for human survival. People instinctively put their creative capacities in the service of preserving the integrity of these energy threads. This is true even when their tactics are detrimental to development of "self" in a broader sense. We call these tactics disharmonious when they are maladaptive. I shall discuss and catalogue, in energy terms, these complex restitutive maneuvers both physical and emotional, which constitute a response to any inhibition of appropriate, controlled growth and development of "being" from conception to death. The conceptual system that I am about to explore view the Five Phases as developmental stages in the "evolution of being." In anticipation of the detailed statements to follow, I wish to outline briefly the natural functions and disharmonies of the energies of the Five Organ Systems or spheres of influence: 1. The Water Phase energies supervise the genetic and intrauterine developmental phases of evolution. A faltering of these energies is associated with both pervasive and subtle neurological disorders and a predisposition to the most severe psychological disturbances (schizophrenia). 2. Water Energies are the repository of all phylogeny as well as ontogeny. These energies encompass the unconscious reservoir of innate and intuitive intelligence, intelligent will, and the life force which drives them to fruition. They are concerned with the identity of people individually and collectively, with the human race and with the transpersonal, with a balance between awe and wonder and the banal and prosaic, with best and worst. In the larger view, Water Energies relate to divine love, power, and spirit and to all that we are potentially capable of as children of the universe. 3. The Wood Phase is responsible for the primeval rebirth, the assertion and direction of "being", the "free and easy" flight of the "Red Bird"". The repression of any of these leads to passive-aggressive personality disturbances. Perplexing life problems hinging on the question of when to advance and when to retreat are Wood Energy issues, the same ones so eloquently addressed by the I Ching. 4. The Fire Phase generates and controls, protects and integrates, sorts and harmonizes energies for the joyful and loving expression of being. The Deficiency or repression these functions leads to problems of creativity, both of the right brain (Yin) and left brain (Yang), and to many of the personal disasters that beset our race. 5. The Earth Phase is responsible for bonding and boundaries, including the first bond with a mothering figure. This bond begins in-utero in the latter part of pregnancy, continues through the early years of childhood and later expands, with the assistance of Metal energies, to include surrogate parents (teacher) and surrogate siblings (friends). Earth energies are more relevant to the quality and maturation of bonds rather than merely to their formation and expansion. Certain schizophrenic, schizoid, borderline, oral dependent, and narcissistic disabilities emanate from a failure of Earth energies during these developmental stages. 6. The Metal Phase jurisdiction is the expansion and transformation of this bond to significant others and to society at large. The tenuous or consuming nature of the bond, both in its making and its keeping, depends on the Excess or Deficiency of these energies. Lung energies afford us our most immediate give and take with the environment and are especially important during pre-adolescence and adolescence, as well as during the initial incorporation of authority into ourselves. 7. Although there are only Five Phases, there is a sixth stage in the cycle of "being" the Water Phase, where this cycle begins, sets also the final scene on this planet. It is responsible for moving the bond beyond society to a oneness with all creation and the Life Force - in Western terms, a union with God. Here we find problems concerning power. 8. The maturation of all these energies in the growing person depends on their integrity in the parent and the quantity and quality of appropriate investment of power in the relationship. The opportunities for abuse are legion. In short, concerning the evolution of the life force or the "Dragon Rising": the power is Water, the direction is Wood, the bonding is Earth, the expression is Fire, and the expansion/transformation is Metal. Purchasing Info