Peaceful Fight Reviewed

Books/Video : Medicine

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This book was in the "bargain bin" at my local Wilkinson's store so I didn't hold out too much hope for its usefulness. Although a bit bland and only touching the surface of much of TCM theory, it has a very useful section of dietary control measures to improve health. Turned out to be £3 well spent for that section alone.

This book gives translations and explanations of the Chinese concepts behind naming of human acupuncture points. This can in some instances help to understand and remember the effects and location of points but sadly many points are not listed within the text. Within the UK this is an expensive book and although useful to read and to have as reference, there are better books available to achieve the same goals (eg the Erle Montaigue Dim Mak Encyclopaedias listed below).

This is a must have book for all you students who want accurate information on acupressure and healing systems. I'll warn you now that you'll have to guard your copy well : mine has a tendency to go walkabout for long periods if I lend it out. It really is so good, I would recommend getting two copies! Covers nearly all the basic theory you'll ever need but a bit of Chinese concepts of healing needs to be known before getting started. Identifies the ear, eye, foot, hand, head and body pressure points and lists a large number of common ailments and methods for treatment. Maybe buy two copies. Best place to get this book is at www.kunzhi.com : mention Peaceful Fight when you talk to Anthony at the site and you should get a friendly welcome.

A lot of the injuries which I encounter in students can be significantly relieved by careful and correct stretching of the affected area. This book gives a range of simple but effective stretching exercises designed to build a strong but supple body. Only real problem is that the book is now out of print. However, keep an eye out for it.

The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine is one of the true classics of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It details discussions from the Yellow Emperor (Huang Ti) as to why medicine works and why people become ill. This particular version has a rather rambling foreword so half the book is a bit of a let down. However, if you skip straight to the sections on Su Wen (Simple Questions) then this book really comes into its own. Should be as widely read as the I Ching in my opinion but generally isn't as it is thought to be "difficult". Trust me, this part is a lot easier than people say : give it a go. Again, this can be obtained from Anthony at www.kunzhi.com : mention Peaceful Fight when you get in touch with him.

A series of these books came out and this one at least is surprisingly good. It gives good advise on the different types of headache pains which are commonly encountered and suitable and appropriate treatment for each type. I took one of the remedies and it did take my (stomach heat based) headache away. Cheap and effective source book for a very common ailment.

This book was ordered "at risk" from Amazon. I'd never seen nor heard of it so it could have been £20 wasted. There was also a bit of a nagging doubt that it would be at too high a level for me and be written in very medical terms. I needn't have worried as it turned out to be a bit of a gem. The first part of the book (150 pages) covers the history of Chinese medicine and is a bit repetitive but after this weak start the following 300 pages are great for a Westerner trying to get an understanding of the concepts and philosophies involved in TCM. Definitely recommend buying this book and don't get put off by the "advanced" label in the title (or the weight of the book when it arrives !). Only possible problem is that this book is the first of 4 and it is difficult to buy the other 3 separately. The set costs ~ £100 and, although a lot of money, would be worth it if they were of similar quality to the first volume. I'm still trying to negotiate for the final three volumes but will update this review if / when I get them.

Another big expense from the kunzhi website but possibly one of the most detailed books to help locate pressure points on the human body. Originally used as a study aid to train Acupuncturists in Australia, the book covers the main meridians and the action and function of each pressure point. For martial applications, it might be a bit academic as striking against the body will normally use a weapon which is so large that it cannot fail to hit the pressure point if its approximate location is known. However, for acupressure and especially acupuncture work this book is essential.

Always worth having an anatomy book handy to help show patients what you are hoping to achieve on a physical level before explaining TCM concepts. Clemente is artistic in its approach which is better than showing patients gory, (however accurate), real life pictures of their insides !

This book was a real revelation and another one of those books which does not do itself justice by its title. This book, although covering much of Shiatsu theory and practice, gives one of the best explanations of Chinese medicine theory and philosophy that I have read in a "main stream" book. The diagrams of pressure point location are also extremely fine and are at an almost medical standard. Understanding the health issues related to the female body is much more of a challenge to the healing practitioner due to the affects caused by the menstrual cycle which can complicate apparent symptoms of illness. This book gives a very good introduction to the subject and is great value for its very low price.

At first glance, this book looks like its going to be a very brief scanning of Chinese medicine, possibly driven by the present vogue for "alternative" medicine (Please note, TCM is only an alternative in this country but continues to be part of the main stream in China and has been the mainstay of Chinese health practise for 1000s of years. As such it should not be viewed in the same way as many truly alternative medicines. If anything, maybe some parts of Western medicine are the "young pretender" which should be labelled alternative !). However, this book gives both good depth and width of knowledge on all of the relevant subjects associated with TCM and for its price (~£20) is a very good starting point for any person thinking to start study into TCM practise and function.

Tui Na is a vigorous system of Chinese massage. At its simplest it combines acupressure techniques with the gentle "push and press" of shiatsu and the more energetic massage found within Thai systems. Maria Mercati is recognised as one of the experts within this field but Wally Simpson (a TCM based compatriot of Erle Montaigue) is also well respected. The Mercati book and video set were very much a "yin and yang" of satisfaction. The book is excellent with very accurate and easy to follow diagrams and explanations of the basis of the system and I'd recommend this to anyone who was interested in understanding and stimulating Qi flow by massage techniques. The video on the other hand was disappointing and really only of interest to assess the speed / action of the massage techniques described in the book. Buy the book but leave the video on the shelf !

A useful reference book for transliteration of Chinese, English, Japanese,French, Korean and Vietnamese nomenclature of pressure points. Of lesser use for point location unless you know your anatomy well (no diagrams are shown).

This book is a classic for giving a "Western" view of TCM and should be read by all "novices" in the field. Having read it later in my TCM training, I wished I'd read it easier. It well deserves its position as a classic although it's not all of equal quality / interest. Some of the text is rather academic and not directly related to the application of TCM (eg the bits on proofing of TCM against Western medicine doesn't appear to fit with the main text) but the items relating to diagnosis and TCM theory are extremely good. I took this text as the basis for a patient diagnosis sheet and there's very little which has been missed from the possible symptoms listed. Although giving this wide (and deep) understanding of the art, the book allows the reader to understand the concepts and application of the art without making it seem inaccessible. That said though, there are some very detailed areas (eg cross relation of pulse diagnosis) which must be at the most extreme end of the scale of understanding of these theories. As such, the book has something for everyone and for ~ £10 its is a real "must have".

Don't really know why but this book took me ages to get through. For some reason, the text seemed sluggish and difficult to digest from the page even though it was clear enough once having been read a few times. The book gives an overview of the methods and concepts of the Usui School of Reiki so helped me to see where Reiki fits in the TCM view of things. Seems a very good system of healing (as opposed to a medicine system) and should be considered by anyone interested in trying to help friends and family (especially if you have limited time to devote to the basis and interpretation of TCM). One thing that the author does mention is that some people are against the payment system for achieving mastery and I fall into that category. All of these type of energy / life balancing based healing systems show that all of humanity are equal (ie anyone can do it if they have the will) and, as such, the healing art is not "owned" by any specific person. The payment (originally 10000 of the local currency but the author suggests that this has now "increased due to inflation") is supposed to highlight that money is energy and, if a practitioner wants to see that they can affect the World by their application of Reiki principles, that generating this money shows that Reiki works. Seems a bit of a tenuous argument to me and, for me, sort of "taints" the natural nature of Reiki healing with the commercialisation and civilisation of the World. One gives freedom, the other restraint so it seems strange to measure the effectiveness of one against the other. Why not have a system where mastery is measured by the positive effects achieved by the practitioner within the wider World ? More tenuous to measure but surely that is the real objective of Reiki. Maybe this payment scheme has developed as part of the Western way of thinking is that something is only worth anything if it costs a lot of money so counters the "if Reiki is free it can't be much good" type of absurdity that is sometimes voiced. Whatever the reason, decide for yourself whether the money make a difference to you or not. If you can heal and can do it well, do you really need to have a title (in this case, Master) or a certificate to make you "better" at it ? However, even with my personal aversion to the payment system, this book is well worth reading.

This book started off really well. Lots of detail about how internal Kung fu came about and how Kung Fu as an art developed. The book is a reprint (with very subtle changes) of an earlier text from the turn of the 19th century which is why it interested me. Always worth seeing the "original" ideas for a concept both to understand the changes which have occurred and to give an option to recovering the "old" wisdom. However, the good start slowly tailed off during the text and eventually I sort of wanted it to end. A bit repetitive and although there are some detailed explanation of postures / stances is given, many of the explanations leave big gaps in understanding such that there inclusion has very little value (unless you have knowledge from other sources) . Main thing I took from it was a simple method of clearing wind / damp which I hadn't come across before. Worth reading for that (as clearing this type of symptom is generally difficult without specialised herbs).

When I found this book in the local library I though it might extend my understanding of QiGong healing as, flicking through, Therapeutic Touch appeared to cover much of the same ground. Dr Krieger has taught 30,000 + health care professionals Therapeutic Touch and so I though might give more detail of the process from a Western perspective. If she couldn't detail her experiences from a medical perspective then it would be unlikely that anyone could. For me, I don't really mind that much about how it works, just as long as it does. However, if someone does give me an explanation then it might help my studies along. Sadly, although there are some interesting medical observations between brain / body activity in the healees and the interaction with Therapeutic Touch it does not really give any greater insight into the art. There is a some discussion about the relationship between Therapeutic Touch and Indian healing techniques but the Chinese derivative is pretty much ignored. The book is a bit repetitive with a lot of case studies to show that the system works but after a while these seem to be more to do with self promotion or filling out the book rather than passing on the knowledge of how to heal (which at the end of the day, is quite a simple thing to discuss and remains powerful in its true simplicity). That said though, the exercises given appear very good for attuning the body with feedback from the healee but could have easily have been put more succinctly into a book half this size. Maybe this is an unfair complaint as never let it be said that I don't use two words when one will do ! Overall, I'd suggest that Therapeutic Touch was just a subset of TCM and so limited itself by not expanding on its potential use (eg into other types of medicine utilising Qi). Hopefully the 30000+ students of this will have developed their expertise further to increase their capacity to improve other people's lives. Dr Krieger does say that she has learned pulse diagnosis to aid her in the pursuit of objective affects and hopefully this will inspire other of her students to do the same.

Herbal cuisine is one of the easiest areas of TCM to prescribe once some understanding of patient diagnosis has been achieved. It's safe (ie very little chance of doing serious damage to the patient) and most of the cuisine is easy to find. Most importantly, the patient is quite likely to keep on with the prescription if it tastes nice ! So much herbal medicine tastes bad that keeping going on the prescription for a week can be hard work and a bit of a disincentive to continue (however good the effects are). This book is very small (58 pages) and at £10 a bit pricey per page but I use it a lot.

One of the great problems within "alternative" healing systems is that is very difficult to isolate why some of them work. (As an aside, I don't see TCM as being an alternative medicine, more a complete system which can run parallel (and sometimes across) Western medicine). This book gives a very good review of many healers and healing practises (some of which I'd never come across before) and also gives scientific critique of experiments and effects. It's a very balanced view of the various arts but difficult to read. My only other criticism (which, to his credit, Benor also highlights) is that looking at holistic medicine in this way is somehow inappropriate. For example, science likes statistics. Let's say a treatment only has a 1 in 1000 chance of working; statistics says that's not any good. However, if you are the "1" it helps, then you don't care ! You feel better and that is all that matters. Overall though, a great reference book if you feel compelled to answer questions from sceptical corners.

One of the problems of being a martial artist is that people assume that means I never get "spooked" by situations that "normal" people find frightening. Well, the bad news for me is that certain things in life cause me to have panic attacks (of the strong heartbeat, adrenalin overdose, trembling kind). The good news is that developing and practising Peaceful Fight has helped me deal with them. This book is very informative about strategies for dealing with attacks and the possible consequences of them (ie generally nothing). Flying back from Norway last month it was interesting to see a passenger going through many of the symptoms of panic but obviously oblivious to what was happening. A classic case of where ignorance is a greater enemy than reality. If he'd read this book. I'm sure he would have been "happier" with the situation. On the martial side, I took great heart from Geoff Thompson's work. Even he acknowledges that fear comes to him in some situations ( eg before the fists start flying). If it happens to him with all of his real life experience, I'm not that flustered about it happening to me once in a while (eg during the "expectation" phase).

From the outset, this text appears to have an unwelcome US bias (eg litigation and acupuncture legality is covered in great detail) but as it progresses you find that it is a very good text. Dr Wensel has done an excellent job in providing detailed Western medical review (sometimes too detailed for me : where's that medical dictionary when you need it !) of the phenomenon of acupuncture. the sections on the function of the brain and the interaction of the needles is especially enlightening. A useful text to determine what procedures are likely to be deemed "low risk" and so can act as a good basis for choice of points for a lower skilled practitioner. Strangely, the text seems to rely on the needles themselves doing the work (ie in the "stick them in and they'll do their stuff" kind of acupuncture) or the use of electoacupuncture rather than the practitioner using their own energy system to encourage rebalancing. probably easier to teach it this way but maybe loses part of the human interaction part of acupuncture ? I'm indebted to one of my patients for giving me this text as a "thank you" present.

It's very difficult to explain what the nature of beauty is. You'll be walking down the street and see it everyday but to explain why one thing has beauty and another hasn't is very difficult. It's all down to the feeling it gives and those feeling are notoriously difficult to explain. This is the case with this book which has a number of photographs of what can only be described as beautiful. This beauty comes from the nature of the human body and both the demonstrators (one male, one female) who show the benefits of being fit and "stretchy". This book acts as a great archive of stretching and toning methods and the value to the human body thereof.

With the exception of the very poor examples given for each section (no explanation for an amateur to see the relevance of disharmony indicators and also no direct link to the text), this book is a very useful "all in one" text on herbal medicine. The explanations of TCM were very useful and approached TCM in quite a different way from my previous training. Helped to fill in or clarify a few points which I'd never realised were unclear until I read this ! Very useful contact details for relevant TCM associations around the world. This was another "thank you" gift and I'm impressed by my patient's expertise in choosing quality books !

When I read Erle Montaigue's work on Dim Mak etc, I never really thought that any book would equal them . However, Tedeschi's truly beautiful book does this and in some instances (ie from a healing perspective) surpasses them. Montaigue's work is biassed more towards fantastic details of the the dim mak areas of the art with the healing parts being a bit of a "list" in comparison. The quality of the diagrams and text in Tedeschi's work is a credit to his work within Hapkido and in some ways more easily handled than his 1100 page master work on his art. As he explains within the text, this isn't an "easy" book as many o the concepts of TCM and Dim Mak are not that easy. However, he explains them in a very straightforward way and does a very good job of relating Western and Chinese concepts of medicine and fighting strategies. Possibly the only book of its type which deserves to be in both the healing and martial sections of this site review. If you are at all serious about martial arts (in their entirety from martial art to healing) buy this book to go alongside the work of Erle Montaigue.

A friend of mine lent me this video as I was interested in how yoga breathing exercises might relate to Peaceful Fight. Sadly. the tape doesn't deal much with the breathing aspect of the art being more angled towards toning "bums and tums". That said though, it was well worth seeing the exercises in order to understand the postures and their objectives. If you want to learn about the value of yoga as a spiritual exercise this tape is not for you (but I now have a pretty good tum if anyone feels the urge to look !).

Strange book this one as it would probably fail to hit either of its target audiences. It's aimed at those who already practise Yoga or as a "starting" primer of Chakra theory for interested novices. It's too simple for the one audience and too "woolly" for the other to have anything to hang on to or think about.

Published at a time when acupuncture was still new within the West, this book must have been a Godsend when it first came out (1982). Not only does it help to explain the nature of the meridian nomenclature used with the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine (ie Great Yang, Absolute yin etc) which had confused me for some time but also gives most of the classical methods used for selection of the "correct" acupuncture points. Interestingly, by having all of these methods available (rather than just 5 phase or specific disease point location that I had up to this time) it highlights the greater range of holistic potential within the acupuncture system. When applied as a whole, it reads like using any point will potentially work ! However, this overlaps with the Chinese view that all things are important and affect everything else as we all wander along within the Tao. The real choice for acupuncture is then not if needling will have an effect but more whether the effect you cause will be the most effective possible. Its a great book and I learned loads from it.