SHIATZU
From: Exposing Spiritualistic Practices in Healing by Edwin A. Noyes M.D., MPH
Shiatzu finger pressure is another form of mind/body energy balancing therapy in the massage group. It is considered diagnostic as well as therapeutic. Skilled fingers are said to be able to detect energy imbalances and in turn, correct such. It claims to be able to stimulate the immune system, thereby benefiting the whole body.
A large variety of Shiatzu therapy disciplines exists in Japan and throughout the world. It has similar basis in the meridian concept as acupressure and acupuncture. This massage is gentle and is done close to the diseased organ. 1) Bergson, Anika, Tuchak, Vladimir, Shiatzu, Pinnacle books, (1976), p. 13. It, too, is a treatment based on the correspondence or sympathies of the body to the cosmos—man as the microcosm of the macrocosm. It has its origin from Japan. 2) Ibid.
Shiatzu claims to be able to treat the following without needles:
Ankle sprains, appetite, asthma, bedwetting, blood pressure, chills, constipation, diarrhea, eyestrain, fevers, hangovers, headaches, heart pain, hemorrhoids, hiccups, indigestion, insomnia, knee pains, leg cramps, nervousness, neuralgia, nosebleed, numbness, menopause, menstrual cramps, morning sickness, nausea, motion sickness, nasal congestion, common cold, neck cramps, nervousness, neuralgia, rheumatism, sciatica, sexual problems, sinusitis, swelling, toothache, whiplash, and much more. 3) Ibid., face cover back side.
Acupuncture uses needles, zone therapy (reflexology) concentrates principally on applying pressure to the hands and feet, and Shiatzu employs its own type of pressure. It does not matter much that the key points might be called by different names— reflexes, acupuncture points, or Shiatzu points. The seed of thought, basic to all, is the same. The history of Shiatzu then goes back to this deeper understanding of its essential nature. Thus we owe our thanks not only to Namikoshi but to the ancient Chinese and to the American pioneers of zone therapy as well. 4) Ibid., p.2.
The difference among the various treatments seems to lie in the kind of pressure treatment recommended by each method; yet, in all methods, results are obtained. To this day, no one quite knows why…. 5) Ibid.
POLARITY THERAPY
Polarity therapy is a combination of ancient Eastern and Western holistic health care ideas, adhering to the energy field hypothesis, and formed by Randolph Stone in the 1940’s. Universal energy is described as becoming unbalanced when unequal distribution occurs to the poles of the body’s energy field, divided into the body’s right and left side. The right side is charged with positive sun heat energy, and the left with cooling moon receptive energy. Balancing techniques used are 1) touch (massage or acupuncture), 2) stretching and exercise, 3) diet, and 4) mental-emotional process. They correct the disturbance of balance of the etheric electric.
There is no scientific basis for this belief, nor any reproducible measurements of this system. Stone referred to the unproven energy as Breath of life, ki, chi, prana, and or life force.