5X5 Episode 45

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SGU Transcript for 5X5 #45 - November 11th, 2008

Chi and other forms of vitalism

Steven Novella: "This is the SGU 5 by 5, and tonight we're talking about 'Qi'. Qi, which is alternatively spelled 'Chi' or 'Qi', the English approximation of a Chinese word which means 'Life Energy'. It is the core of traditional Chinese medicine philosophy that understands wellness and illness as the flow and balance of this mystical life-force or life energy called 'Qi'."

Bob Novella: "The belief isn't limited to China either. It's called 'Prana' in India. It's 'Ki' in Japan, and Franz Anton Mesmer called it 'Animal Magnetism'. You might have heard of that one. And, also... philosopher Henri Bergson also referred to it as 'Elan Vital' - 'Vital Force'."

Jay Novella: "The only proof that people put forward that Qi exists would be more of a demonstration than it is something that can be proven with science or disproven with science. A good example would be a video that we talked about on the SGU where the guy was cutting his own arm with a sharpened, very sharpened, sword that he took out, and the guy literally cut his arm all the way down to the bone, because, you know, he thought he was protected by the power of Qi that he'd focused on that spot. Another place where Qi or Qi-like energy is thought to exist would be like an acupuncturist (that) thinks they are un-blocking Qi; that's one place where they do it. There's other places they do it, as Bob mentioned, like a Reiki therapist. Therapeutic touch is involved with Qi."

Steven Novella: "These are all forms of 'Vitalism'; the notion that there's a life-energy that seperates living things from non-living things, and as you said Jay, acupuncture is that one of the modalities of traditional Chinese medicine that's based on the concept of Qi is sticking needles into various specific points of the body are meant to manipulate the Qi, again, either to restore the flow, or to restore the balance of Qi. And Qi, it should be mentioned, comes in two flavors, 'Yin' and "Yang'. So, and if you have your Yin, they have different characters, and you have an excess of Yin or a paucity of Yang, then there are different herbs you could take or maneuvers you could do or acupuncture or whatever to balance those. And this all has to do also in traditional Chinese medicine with the notion that living things are 'one with nature'. It's a very natural philosophy, and Qi is ... while it is a supernatural or metaphysical thing; a spiritual force; it is also part of the greater, you know, order of the natural world, of the universe."

Evan Bernstein: "The harmony."

Steven Novella: "Yeah, a harmony; it is very much a 'harmony of nature', but of course, there isn't a lick of evidence for any of this. These are all pre-scientific notions. The attempts of primitive societies to understand what they could not understand... the nature of health and illness for example... life and non life, and modern science has not verified any of these concepts of life energy or life force. In fact, this fight was fought within the scientific world about one hundred years ago, and the 'vitalists'; those that thought there was some kind of vital force lost. The evidence clearly showed, and the logic clearly lead to the conclusion that vitalism is unneccessary, and that nothing like Qi or like a life force exists. It's not neccessary to explain any biological process."

Bob Novella: "And that's pretty much the key. Even if we didn't have the evidence it would still be obvious. Even without evidence I think it would still be obvious if biological systems required an unknown force or energy to exist this would be such a Grand Canyon, gaping hole in our understanding, that biochemists would probably talk about little else. It would be like evolution to this day not having genetics and DNA as a foundation. It would be obvious that there is something missing from our theories of biology."

Steven Novella: "It is simply unneccessary, which is the harshest criticism you could level (on) any idea in science."

Jay Novella: "And let us not forget what a very very wise man once said. - "Qi spelled backwards is Crap"