Luo-collaterals: The Internal Terrain-Emotions, Memory and Blood Flow

This 6-hour course will explore the importance of the Luo-collateral system in preserving the internal terrain of the body. Once an experience has entered the interior, it must be processed, embodied or released. The circulation of Ying Qi and blood is essential to this process. The Luo-collateral system is a Ying Qi system that profoundly affects the circulation of Qi & blood.

This system provides protection for the zangfu against pernicious influence by holding the experience in the blood and creating new blood vessels. If we cannot learn from an experience or reject it as toxic or not useful, then we must create a holding vessel until we can rally ourselves to face the problem.

This is an act of self-preservation that recognizes that sometimes experiences have such an overwhelming emotional imprint that we are unable to let them go. If the emotions are intense enough or if they linger long enough, they will negatively impact organ function and thus survival. The Luo-collaterals create new vessels as far away from the organs as possible in order to limit the effect the pathogen may have on the zangfu. The cost of this act of self-preservation is twofold. One it results in stagnation of qi and blood. Two, it requires qi, blood and often body fluids to maintain this distancing. We are therefore using resources that might otherwise be used for more optimal health.