Chinese Medicine Notes

The Heiner Experience- part 3

Posted on April 17, 2008 by Yael

Yes, it’s time for part 3 of the “magical mystery tour” aka The Heiner Experience.
It is almost a month since Heiner visited Israel and his lectures and the whole vibe still echos in my heart and brain. I came to the point of frustration (will bring you up-to-date about that in a later post), knowing that the person I want to study from is, well, a bit *too* far from where I am.
Nuts.

I asked Heiner to send me his answers to my questions again, and he graciously did so, so now I can share it with you.
Just so you’ll know, as this was an interview for the ICCM congress here in Israel, it is more about Heiner and CM in general, we did not go into specifics.
Maybe next time.
Still, I think it’s an interesting interview and I am happy to share it with you, as part of the whole Heiner Experience.
Enjoy!

CMNotes: I read on your website that you come from a family of healers in different modalities, but not Chinese Medicine. How did you come to choose Sinology when you have Homeopathy in your family? Why did you choose to study the philosophy first, and not the practice of the Chinese Medicine?
Heiner Fruehauf (H.F): I am the oldest son of the oldest son in a large family where everyone is a doctor. I wanted to do something different, so I chose to study philosophy, comparative literature and sinology, and went to China at age 21 (Fudan University, Shanghai). Right after receiving my Ph.D. in the field of Chinese literature (University of Chicago) I was diagnosed with cancer, and decided not to consider teaching positions at Harvard and Cambridge. I had such a terrible experience in the hospital that I felt I needed to be able to take care of my own health needs from here on. Therefore, I returned to China, primarily to study Chinese medicine and Qigong (Chengdu University of TCM). Soon it became clear to me that this was my true life path, and I have been on it ever since.

CMNotes: You studied Sinology and then Chinese Medicine. Most people I know who decide to study Sinology did the opposite- first studied Chinese Medicine and then Sinology. As I can see how it helped them understand CM a lot better, I wonder how it helped you. Does the clinical part add to your theoretical knowledge, does it complete it? If so how? Why not stay on the theoretical side of things?
H.F: My health crisis seemed to me a disaster at first. Academia, sinology included, is a very competitive endeavor that requires plenty of training, publishing, and political maneuvering. And here I was, at 27, at the top of my game, and decided to let all of this go. However, it did not take long to realize that I was not changing fields at all, but that my previous studies had created a perfect foundation for my Chinese medicine research and practice. Chinese medicine is a field that holds vast possibilities. Many of its secrets have been forgotten or are deeply misunderstood. To unlock them, knowledge of the classical Chinese language, as well as an understanding of the cultural and historical background of the medicine are a major asset. I began to see my illness as a symptom of