Many people worry about scars from a cosmetic point of view, because they feel that they are unsightly, but they can also have a direct and dramatic impact on health, because they can interfere with the subtle energy flow in the body.
Chinese acupuncture and many western complementary therapies use the idea of meridians, non-physical channels that carry the life force or subtle energy of the body. Trained practitioners can feel a slight ‘resistance’ at various places on the skin – these are the acupuncture points that an acupuncturist puts needles into. The correct flow of this acupuncture energy is vital to our health and well-being, and scars can interfere with this.
Scars can affect the meridian energy flow if they cross a meridian. Obviously the larger the scar the more likely it is to run across a meridian, but even a small scar can have an effect if it runs across a meridian, particularly if it crosses an acupuncture point. The scars can be as a result of an accident or operation, from a burn or a vaccination or as a result of acne or other skin problems.
I worked for many years as a Health Kinesiologist. During that time I helped many people with health problems as a result of scars. For example, a 29-year-old woman called Julie consulted me about a spectacular skin rash. It had started with a few spots on her chest and 2 days later she had developed spots all over her body. Eventually the spots had dried and crusty scabs had formed, leaving her skin looking as though she had a bad case of psoriasis. In fact Julie’s younger sister did have psoriasis. Her GP and the skin specialist were mystified and finally attributed the problem to a course of sun bed treatments she had just completed. When I take a case history, I always ask the client about accidents and operations. Julie told me that a mole had been removed from the inside of her right thigh 10 days before the problem had started. The scar was very small and neat but it ran directly across the liver meridian. Through muscle testing I established that the scar was disturbing her liver meridian energy and was causing her physical liver to function less well. This was leading to the body having problems with metabolic by-products that would normally be broken down by the liver. These were being excreted through the skin leading to the severe skin rash. I used health kinesiology techniques to re-balance the energy around the scar and to support her liver. The skin problem disappeared very quickly.
Scar work can sometimes lead to scars disappearing altogether. A teenager came to see me, accompanied by her elder sister, a medical student, who was extremely sceptical about the work we were doing. Sandra wanted help with respiratory problems. During the session I did some work on a scar caused by a scratch from the family’s cat. The scar was fairly superficial but had been there for about two months. It was not the cause of Sandra’s problems, but it was interfering with the flow of energy through the lung meridian and hampering her body’s attempts to rebalance itself. By the time Sandra and her sister reached home (approximately 1 hour after the appointment), the scar had completely disappeared, much to the amazement of my client. The sceptical medical student apparently went very quiet at this point!
Scars do not only affect the physical body they can have profound effects on a person’s sense of emotional well being too. Alice consulted me after she saw the improvement in her son’s hyperactivity as a result of health kinesiology. She found that she frequently allowed small things to overwhelm her. She also said that she was obsessive and constantly checked things. She lacked self-confidence and would often apologise repeatedly even when she knew she was not responsible. The first appointment she had with me was very short, and we only had time to do a little piece of work, which involved rebalancing the energy for a bunion operation scar on her right foot. This was in the area of the spleen meridian.
Shizuto Masunaga and Wataru Ohashi describe the psychological imbalances associated with the spleen meridian as including over-concern for details, restlessness associated with anxiety and a tendency to over eat [Zen Shiatsu: How To Harmonise Yin and Yang For Better Health]. When Alice came for her next appointment a month later she told me that she was not checking things so much and that the difference in her had been noticed both by her husband and her mother.
When I was working as a therapist I used to routinely ask about operations and accidents, not only because these can be traumatic events, but also because the scars can cause lasting imbalances in the energy system unless they are treated.
I wrote an article for a magazine aimed at the general public about this topic, and was amazed at the number of grateful letters I received from people along the lines of “finally my illness makes sense – I’ve been ill ever since I had that operation/accident ..”
