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The Spark in the Machine

How the Science of Acupuncture Explains the Mysteries of Western Medicine

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The Spark in the Machine

By: Daniel Keown
Narrated by: Gavin Osborn
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About this listen

Ground-breaking book showing how the theories of western and Chinese medicine support each other. Full of good stories and surprising details.

Why can salamanders grow new legs, and young children grow new fingertips, but adult humans can't regenerate? What is the electricity that flows through the human body? Is it the same thing that the Chinese call Qi? If so, what does Chinese medicine know that Western medicine ignores?

Dan Keown's highly accessible, witty, and original book shows how Western medicine validates the theories of Chinese medicine and how Chinese medicine explains the mysteries of the body that Western medicine largely ignores. He explains the generative force of embryology, how the hearts of two people in love (or in scientific terms 'quantum entanglement') truly beat as one, how a cheating heart is also an ill heart (which is why men are twice as likely to die of a sudden heart attack with their mistresses than with their wives), how neural crest cells determine our lifespan, and why Proust's madeleines evoked the memories they did.

The book shows how the theories of Western and Chinese medicine support each other and how the integrated theory enlarges our understanding of how bodies work on every level. Full of good stories and surprising details, Dan Keown's book is essential listening for anyone who has ever wanted to know how the body really works.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio on our desktop site.

©2014 Daniel Keown (P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Limited Alternative & Complementary Medicine Career Success Motivation & Self-Improvement Sociology China Alternative Medicine Medicine Witty Heartfelt Acupuncture Chinese Medicine

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All stars
Most relevant  
A well written work giving credence to subtle fields and pathways which Western "science" all-too-often dismisses to the realms of witchcraft or quackery. Thank you

Fascia of TCM and Western medicine interlace

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I LOVED this book! And I’ve recommended it to family, friends, and all my students and graduates too! BRIlLIANT!

Brilliant!

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As a manual therapist of ancient Japanese tradition (Amatsu), I found this book fascinatingly educating. Really well read and full of in depth expert content. This book will certainly be of use to anyone with an interest in fascia and acupuncture.

Excellent

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The whole concept of this book is fascinating, and should be much more widely read by western healthcare practitioners. Dr Keown’s synthesis of eastern and western medicinal theories is groundbreaking and badly needed. He explains Chinese concepts such as “Qi”, “dampness”, and “excessive Liver Yin” in scientific terms that anyone trained in a western model will be able to grasp. He acknowledges points where he is making a leap or reading between the lines of established knowledge, but still manages to make the whole model coherent and practical.

My main complaint would be that it could use an editor - at times he repeats himself, and some topics could have been covered more succinctly. However I found this less noticeable than colleagues of mine who read the book - the narration is excellent and complements the conversational informal tone of his writing. In fairness the narrator does mispronounce medical terms, and uses a somewhat jarring and unnecessary Italian accent when reading them. However the rest of the performance is excellent and more than makes up for this

Excellent material and concepts, but could use an editor

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I am not great at absorbing anything vaguely scientific but this was so incredibly accessible and utterly fascinating, I would recommend to anyone with any interest in TCM.

A brilliant, enlightening book

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Well written and beautiful narrated a refreshing read.
The science is well explained and can be understood by all, should you have the genuine interest to absorb.
Having always wondered why the west has remained so ignorant to the studies of the east considering they have thousands more years of working on and studying the human body, finally Dr Daniel Keown eloquently creates a bridge between the east and west’s understanding, something that should be taught to all medics in the west, ignorance to the facia within the body is practically dangerous and incomprehensible.

Having worked holistically with massage, lymphatic drainage, acupressure and many eastern methods for over 30 years, often achieving very successful results, but also discovering that the one place people achieve the least help for back problems has been from their own GP. It is certainly not the that the fact that each GP lacks the knowledge, but understanding western methods are restrictive, and sadly dominated by providing pain blocking medication, continue this and pain is no longer the issue, but pharmacy drug addiction is… and then the only winner is the pharmaceutical manufacturer, not the person still suffering with pain, but also drug addiction.
Change in the western medical methodology is essential.
Having enjoyed Studing medical history, I realised all to quickly the western people will often only believe many facts delivered by a medical professional, therefore we need to re educate and open the minds of our medical practitioners.
Hopefully this and other similar books are just the begging,

Enlightening all medical professionals would benefit from reading

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In-depth Chinese Medicine is explained in a fun and yet intelligent way. It is full of knowledgable comparisons and correspondence with Western Medicine.

Thank you , Dr. I will trust any Western Doctor with respect as well as knowledge of Chinese Medicine.

Intelligent and fun reading !

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an excellent listen. I found this audible book so enlightening as I am studying acupressure. hou everything comes together. brilliant.

the spark machine

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Wow. I need to listen to this all over again and thrust it on all doctor and medical friends. This is nothing short of paradigm-shifting. I was a little apprehensive that this might be full of pseudoscience and nonsense conjecture, but Dr Keown certainly knows his stuff - and when he does stray into conjecture and hypothesis, which he does a fair bit, he makes this very clear (i.e. he doesn't present it as incontrovertible fact). I love this book. Compelling, convincing and surprisingly entertaining. Excellent narration. *****

Utterly fascinating and persuasive

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This book has been well written, and is very interesting, full of great information and has inspired me to learn more.

Brilliant!

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