Science, magic & the space in between

In a former life, I completed degrees in human physiology, learning about the body through a reductionist and biomechanical lens. Our bodies reduced to organ systems, biochemical reactions and feedback loops. 

And as someone with lifelong chronic illness, I have an unavoidable and necessary relationship with the policy machine that is our medical system. It has been lifesaving, yet traumatic and scarring. While I am grateful for the miracles of modern medicine, I also acknowledge and experience its shortcomings, which led me on my current path.  

I tread in a space in between, not unlike the hyphen of my Chinese-Canadian identity. I possess a wide breadth of biomedical acumen while holding equal space and reverence for the electromagnetic forces and millennia-old wisdom of observing the effects of time/climate/season of ALL PARTS, physical, mental, emotional and soul of the human body.

So much of this amazing world seems mysterious, unexplainable and dare I say…magical? From over a decade of needling, touching pulses and darting in and out of energetic fields, I have no doubt that Chinese Medicine provides profound effects that exist in a realm immeasurable by the current parameters of modern science. Incomprehensible, like a foreign language, a liminal space.

I hold both aspects with high regard as they help us understand the world from often opposing perspectives, but sometimes, they compliment one another. Not unlike the relationship of the yin and yang, seemingly opposing forces, but upon closer examination, they in fact transform one another in an infinite cycle (of life). I will always leave space for both of these ways of looking at the world and look forward to the awe and amazement. 

With an open mind and a heart of wonder, I will meet you in that rarified space.

Christina Chan, R.Ac., a curious child of the universe