Customer Reviews

Between Heaven and Earth

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I must first admit my bias: I seek to write a better intro to Chinese medicine than this, or the Web that has No Weaver...

This book talks only about "5 Phase" Chinese medicine- this is only one school of thought in Chinese medicine, and most acupuncturists don't practice it to the degree that you find described in this book.

Most acupuncturists and Chinese herbalists practice TCM, or some variation of it. There are many acupuncture styles (I mean Japanese, Korean, Tong, etc.), and herbal medicine is based on organ-system pattern diagnosis... you'll find none of that in this book.

What is in this book is good and interesting, and perhaps an ok intro to Chinese medicine, but please remember there is much much more to even getting acquainted with Chinese medicine. "The Web..." is much too philosophical and scholarly for more readers. The danger there is that no one will read the whole thing.

The danger with "Between..." is that readers will misunderstand the breadth and variation within Chinese medicine and be confused when they visit an acupuncturist who does not practice 5 phase style.

I found this book to be very very full of information on TCM. Being a beginner in this area, I was amazed at the amount of material combined in this one book. However, as I read this book I tend to skip parts because of how wordy they can be. Also sometimes the discussions got a bit too involved and maybe a bit repetitive. So it is a bit on the difficult side of reading, but still an excellent addition to my library and an excellent reference guide!

I have read a lot of books about how the universe works but this one also tells us how to live in it. This book shifts our view of medicine, providing a how-to guide for self-awareness that includes both body and mind. It is an owner's manual for our everyday lives as well as a great introduction to Chinese medicine that is well written and easy to read.

The nature of the content is fine for the lay reader, but hardly worth the time and money for the serious. This is book is like reading the chinese "zodiac" found in chinese restaurants and coming away thinking like you have any insight at all into chinese cosmology theory. Clearly meant for the uninitiated western reader.

This book only rates a 3 with me. While some of the information is good, I must agree with an earlier reviewer that the extreme focus on the five elements is over-done to the detrement of other topics. It is taken to such an extreme that the authors try to blend it with western 'new-age' thinking and creating "elemental personality types". Thereby, segmenting the mind from the body which they themselves state in earlier chapters is contrary to the TCM thought process. So again, 3 stars as I felt only half the book was worth wild.

In the first glance I couldn't get the idea of information contained in this book but after spending few minutes on the contents I decided to purchase it. It doesn't not give you all the details you need yet it is one of the best introductions on chinese medicine one can have. It stirs up the interest for the further studies and itself could be one of a good reference books. Even those who read books for fun would enjoy reading it. The diagrams and the expression absorbs you in.

I read this book and used it as a reference in acupuncture school. I highly recommend it to everyone, including my patients.

It gives you a basic understanding of how the organs are viewed in Chinese medicine.

For example, the heart is affected by all emotions. Thus, if you experience extreme emotions for an extended period of time, you can develop a heart Qi (energy) deficiency. This would cause insomnia, palpitations and fatigue. This can be cured with acupuncture and herbs.

If you have too much stress, your liver energy becomes stagnant, or stuck. This causes you to be even more stressed with each added stressor. Chinese medicine can fix that.

Fear affects the kidneys. Have you ever noticed how often you have to go to the bathroom when you go to the dentist? :) Your kidneys become weak and can't control your bladder.

Chinese medicine treats the root of your health issues. Your symptoms will go away once you address the underlying problems.

For a beginning student of of TCM like myself, this book is invaluable. Its language is clear and accessible. If you have Ted Kaptchuk's "The Web That has no Weaver" on your shelf, this one should be right next to it. This would also be the text that I would chose to give to patients or potential patients (if you are a practitioner)if they want to read up on the TCM modality.

This is an excellent book for the person beginning to learn about chinese medicine. Very informative and easy to read.

What a great book...If I had to be marooned on a desert island, etc., etc., with just one book on acupuncture, helpful for understanding the human condition, this would be the book, and there isn't even a close second that comes to mind. The authors were **the** people who brought an understanding of Chinese medicine to the U.S. in the 1970s, and this book is a heroic attempt to educate us and interest us at the same time with what they had found. It's hard to tell whether they're classic five element practitioners (I've heard differing points of view on this) but they do a FABULOUS job on breaking down what's involved with that unique, and very hard to find out about, form of acupuncture. Although practitioners will say that they can only figure out your type from actually diagnosing you in person, I found that when I put my husband and me through the written "tests" in the book, very comprehensive, we actually came out ahead: and figured out "what" we were, 1.5 years ahead of the acupuncturist so doing. That gave me even more confidence in the book. Not to mention, reading and thinking about what the test revealed about us HUGELY promoted our understanding of ourselves and each other, and made for a fun adjunct to a vacation weekend. This is a great book, and I find myself referring to it again and again, though I've also read--and own--many of the other now classic books in the field. Simple enough for a lay reader, but definitely able to communicate the elegance of the practice. Go authors! :-)