Week 6 Physics: Qi and Energy

In the West, sciences attempt to be 'objective', and delineations are drawn in the sciences so that we seem to study things on the very micro scale - we study the parts. We also separate body and mind, a long tradition of that existing at least since the 16th century from the work of Descartes. 

Dictionary.com gives this definition for energy in physics:  "the ability to do work. Objects can have energy by virtue of their motion (kinetic energy), by virtue of their position (potential energy), or by virtue of their mass (see E = mc2)". 

In TCM, Qi is the composite of psycho- and physical energies, of our organs for example. We also differentiate types of 'useful' qi, such as Zong, or Chest Qi, and Wei Qi, or Defensive Qi. 

But whereas in Western medicine a Joule or some other unit of measurement is used to measure this, how do we measure Qi?

For Lung Qi, I suppose we could use a spirometer and get certain values to see the volume of air we breathe in and out and the rate, to see whether that airflow is unobstructed, but we can measure that volume and obstruction/smoothness in other ways too. Lung Qi includes a feeling, the emotion is grief, sadness, and worry. 

When we breathe shallowly we really do get more stressed out, we may have breathed this way as a response to stress, or from bad posture we begin to breath this way and then we become stressed. Or we don't breathe deeply when we get sad. Again, the sadness could have come first, or from our structural imbalances we breathe the wrong way and we can get sad. 

So when we talk about Qi, it's clear that it is equally valuable to talk about the subjective experience of Qi, too. And how is that measured?

Qi is also called 'life force', and from the definition of energy above, it's clear that that is also a type of 'life force'. 

There is a lot of overlap of these terms, but I think basically that with the Chinese Medicine qi we emphasize the psychoemotive as much as the physical and recognize that it's not always an easy things to measure in Western terms. We also don't relate to it so much in terms of measurement, such as how much?, but maybe more like, like what?