on the silk road

following the grand opening of Dr. Aram Akopyan’s new Wellness clinic on June 27, Asbarez’s Allen Yekikan sat down with the traditional healer to talk in more detail about his life, outlook, and the ancient art of traditional medicine.

The Heqim

A.Y.: Tell me about yourself. Where are you from? What is your background?

A.Y.: What’s a Heqim?

A.Y.: Can you tell me about traditional Armenian medicine?

A.Y.: And this predates Western medicine?

A.A.: Yea. This is pre-western medicine. Western Medicine didn’t even exist at the time. Allopathic medicine didn’t even know what a microscope was or what a bacteria was. And at this time we have eastern medicine discovering the progression of the disease from outside to inside the body–the courses it takes, what organs it affects, and how to prevent, cure or heal it, all with natural substances.

A.Y.: What are some of these natural remedies or herbal drugs, which they would produced and use in Ancient Armenia?

What is Qi?

A.Y. Does the concept of qi (pronounced chi), or something similar to it, exist within the Armenian tradition?

A.Y.: But how can stones, or other things or mountains generate it?

A.A.: Because everything is living. Everything is carbon based. What is the difference between organic and inorganic material? Think about it, we live in a Carbon world; everything is made of carbon; everything is organic. But go even further. Break it down to atoms; what’s in the atoms? Electrons, protons, and neutrons; break that down even further and you get quarks.

The smaller the particles get, the more modern science achieves the same fundamental discussion ’sthat no matter exists. Matter is energy that is vibrating at different frequency ranges. As long as you are vibrating, you are in a cyclical and morphing state and thus not a static item. Given that description, everything is living even though it’s not moving or breathing.

I think we are so limited in what we define as living. We consider something living it breathes or thinks. I think therefore I am; so if you don’t breathe or think you aren’t alive? No. Everything is alive and everything is connected. That is the fundamental difference between modern dogmas of a self-contained and physically limiting universes, versus the teachings of true Christianity and true Taoism, which is a philosophy of living. So scientifically I think that is the key point in describing chi.

Now, if we assume that that description describes chi significantly and correctly, then the hypothesis follows that everything that we touch and interact with has chi. Now, because it is also biomorphic, it could be in different states of existence. After all, we have four different states of matter: aolid, liquid, gas, plasma. Look at Plasma. It’s matter in a state of flux–in a state between solid, liquid and gas. So the point being, if matter changes, energy changes. By being biomorphic, it’s constantly and quite regularly changing its state of existence. So given that, your human body, or the plant that you are walking by has chi. And that chi, gives it life, gives it existence, and gives it the ability to think. chi gives you the ability to comprehend, just like it gives a plant the ability to convert oxygen into sugar. The chi in the molecule of a rock will keep the molecules in a shape so that it can be a rock and stay in that solid state. That is a scientific explanation of chi.

Now for a spiritual explanation of chi; if you really think about it chi can be understood from the perspective of intention or intent. Einstein had a really interesting saying. He once said that the concept if you think you exist should be expanded upon at a much greater level. Because If you intent, if you question things, then you exist. The concept of questioning is an important part of the spirit. What separates us from other entities like this rock or this chair is that we have the ability of intent–to question our existence, to participate. That is chi from a spiritual perspective. It’s the intent.

How you use your intent, brings us to today. There are people who use their chi, or their intent, to live a normal, happy, content, and balanced life. But there are people who use their intent for purposes of acquisition, or even destruction. These are different applications of your chi or your intent.

A.Y.: You spoke about spirituality; what about God and religion, is there a connection between God, or the concept of god, and chi?

A.Y.: What’s the connection between the spiritual aspect of chi and the more biomorphic, physical aspect that you described? For example, what I have always thought of as when you are unhealthy physically, you’re outlook is also polluted by that, and vise versa, when you have a polluted outlook it affects the body. So what is the connection between the two, how do you know which is happening?

A.A.: If we go back to our basic definition of what chi is–that it is a biomorphic energy, we realize that everything has power to it. Everything has a measurable energy to it. Even thought has measurable power and energy to it. So it’s safe to say that you will feel how you think.

Emotions have energy. Anger has energy. You can literally measure anger. There was an experiment done in the U.S. where they had a huge stadium where they were collecting electrons from the surrounding air. They had everyone collectively think of one positive idea and one negative idea and it manifested in the way the energy patterns in the air changed. So thought and emotion have a direct correlation on the vibration of that energy. So if you are not thinking pure things, or are not thinking positively, it generates disease and sickness.

Now the reverse of that; how does disease and sickness affect the mind? Well, the body is a system. It is an integral, fully functional machine, designed with different parts, doing different functions. But it goes a little bit deeper than that because each organ has its own energetic blueprint if you will. It can pollute the overall flow of the energy if its not functioning properly. Take for example the car. If your carburetor is dirty, your engine isn’t going to perform well because it is not filtering fuel properly. So from a comparative perspective, sickness somewhat induces, if you will, toxicity or pollutants into your spiritual wellbeing.

A.Y.: So being healthy is basically a combination of getting physically back in tune with your energy, while also having a positive spiritual intent?

Qi Gong for health

A.Y.: What is Qi Gong (Chi Gong)? Can you explain it to me?

A.Y.: Are there health benefits associated with chi gong?

A.Y.: What are some of the affects of practicing chi gong that you have witnessed in your students or other people in general?

A.A.: I have seen many instances. When I was in China I saw people that would basically live with terminal cancer, with the help of chi gong. As women approach menopause, interesting things happen. Women have more estrogen by nature; because they are feminine they are a Yin energy. Men have more testosterone and less estrogen, by nature. As both men and women hit “menopause,” it shifts. Women tend to lose estrogen and gain an imbalance of testosterone, while men tend to develop more estrogen and lose testosterone. This usually occurs around the age of 40-50. With chi gong, there have been numerous studies where it literally reverses that trend.

A.Y.: But how does the same exercise, practiced by a male and a female, produce the opposite results.

A.Y: So is chi gong considered a part of Eastern Medicine? or is it a Martial Art?

A.A.: The root of chi gong, was an exercise that was developed by the Taoist monks. As they practiced Buddhism and Taoism in ancient China, they discovered that mind exercises alone, and mental meditations alone, were not sufficient to keep their bodies in physical health. So they developed exercise routines to cultivate physical energy and to cultivate their physical chi in addition to the mental chi. Chi gong was born from those exercises. All martial arts were actually derivatives of these efforts by these monks, because ultimately they realized that these exercises can be converted into fighting form–to defend, to protect.

Back in those years, when clans and tribes were constantly feuding, there were a lot of cross border attacks, with one or another conqueror always coming in. So these temples needed to defend themselves. They therefore developed many techniques to defend themselves.

One in particular, medical chi gong was developed by the monks in healing the sick and the injured because they discovered that as you cultivate your own chi, you can use that chi to heal yourself, and as you develop more and more power with it, as you develop your mastery of your chi, you can then project that energy, project that chi and offer healing to other people. So that’s why chi gong, in today’s traditional medicine, especially in the oriental medicine, is used extensively as an adjunct to treatment protocols, such as acupuncture, herbal medicine. These are just tools that are available to your average practitioner of traditional medicine.

The secrets of acupuncture

A.Y.: Can you talk about acupuncture? What is acupuncture? How does it work?

A.Y.: But why take that approach? Aren’t the symptoms a direct consequence of the diseases? When you go to a regular physician with a sickness or an infection, they tell you to take X or Y pill to treat the symptoms and make them go away. Doesn’t that heal you?

A.A.: No. The body knows how to heal itself. We are the ones that screw it up by breathing in toxic fumes or drinking too much, eating too much, staying up too late, or engaging in warfare–whatever it is that we are doing, polluting our environments and our bodies.

We sometimes get in our body’s way of fixing itself. With acupuncture and Chinese medicine, what we try to do is nudge the body and help it get back into its norm. That’s why I will tell every patient that comes and sees me that “If they are just here looking for an instant fix, go down next door and ask the western doctor to give you a pill, because it will fix your problem and you can go home and consider yourself happy.” I’m not here to fix your problem right now instantly. I’m here to put your body back in a state where it can: A) prevent further diseases; and B) fix your diseases the proper way–not by covering up symptoms.

When you have a headache and go to the doctor, what does he do? He gives you a pill. You take the pill and the headache goes away. No! The headache didn’t go away, you just don’t feel the headache, it’s still there.

The root cause of the headache is still there. The prostaglandins that are generating nerve attenuation that give you a signal that there is pain in the body is still working in your body. You just don’t feel it anymore, and consider yourself lucky. After you take the pills you think to yourself, “boom, I’m done.” No! It festers and festers until it develops into a more severe problems and more chronic conditions. This is why it is very important to integrate this traditional way of living–this traditional medicine–into your life.

A.Y.: How do you do this in your own practice?

A.Y.: Going back to Chi meridians for a minute. If you can’t see them, how do you know they exist?

A.A.: Actually there is research currently being done to isolate these meridians and there are some promising discoveries that are being made. But before I can go there, I will ask you this question: less than a 100 years ago we didn’t know the lymphatic system existed. Less than a 150 years ago, no one knew that electricity existed, or that you could take a copper wire and have things travel through it that could turn light bulbs on or off. Is it presumptuous of us to think that just because we can’t see it that it doesn’t exist. Wrong. That’s a very boxed in way of thinking. If people thought that way, we wouldn’t be where we are today in terms of achievements as a culture, and as a species. If we thought that way we would still be living in caves because we would have just left well enough alone. I believe the discovery of chi meridians will come and once it does it’s going to revolutionize the way people think about life and living.

A.Y.: Are there any instances where researchers have been able to see these meridians, or run experiments on them?

A.Y.: But do you even need one. Aren’t radio frequencies free flowing?

A.A.: Very good point. No you don’t. You are right. I believe, again, that the more we see into the quantum world and understand how things work, the more we will understand our universe and the energy that makes it up. Quantum physics will unlock the secrets of chi and show us just how it flows in the body, from point A to point B, and how it functions that way.

A.Y.: What is the purpose of the acupuncture needle, how does it work and help you treat people?

A.A.: Visualize the radio station and antenna, which you mentioned earlier. Imagine, me intersecting a flow with my needle. A good practitioner knows where these points are. There are over 760 acupuncture points in the body, each one with a specific function with a specific usage. The chi meridian is like a river of energy. I can enter that river with a needle and stimulate or direct the flow of energy by manipulating the needle and by injecting chi through the needle. At that point, I as a practitioner can become synchronized with your chi flow and do things with it. I can remove it by moving the needle at a certain angle or in a certain direction. In that way, i can backflow it and create a sort of siphon to drain some of that excess energy. I can also nudge it to take a left or a right, or speed the flow to stimulate and accelerate the chi in your body. I can block it too.

We also use acupuncture for anesthesia in dental work for example. I can put needles in when you are getting your tooth drilled and you wont feel the pain because the needle basically blocks the meridian flow, or the energy flow from the teeth to the brain. The practitioner thus uses the needles to interact with that flow of energy through the meridian.

The journey to happiness

A.Y.: So you practice Chi Gong, you are an acupuncturist, and a traditional medicine doctor. How did you come to this point in your life? What did you do before you became a Traditional Medicine practitioner?

A.A.: My life can be analyzed as an example of what we talked about throughout our conversation. I mentioned to you earlier that I lived in a family with a traditional medicine background. But as we immigrated form Armenia to America, as most people do, I fell into the trap of the glitz and glamour of America. So I started a career in computers. I actually went to school here, received a Bachelors in computers and a Masters in business development and decided that acquisition of wealth was going to drive my purpose in life. So I went and started working for major corporations here. I started as an engineer and moved up to running US operations at one point. Were talking about billion dollar companies.

And in this process of shuffling from remedial management jobs or climbing the “proverbial ladder,” which I believe eventually gets you nowhere, I discovered that I was losing who I was as an individual. I was dying as an individual. I was generating wealth, and wealth for others, but my spirit was discontent. I was not happy as an individual–as a spirit. So I had a spiritual and emotional burnout.

I dropped everything. I literally left a six figure salary and decided to go into a deep soul searching. As a result of that I returned back to my grandfather’s teachings, which was: “be in harmony with nature, and you’ll live longer and happier, much more contempt and enjoyable as a person.” So when I did that I decided that I would take up his teachings and practice his lessons.

I went to medical school at a mid life crisis and completed medical school here. Then I went to study in Tibet and China. I actually made a visit to Armenia and studied Armenian traditional medicine a little bit at the Matenadaran and dug up some of my grandfather’s old teachings, though most were lost.

So here I am today. It’s a complete turn around for me. I will tell you this, I have never been happier with myself and my role in life than I am now. I used to close multimillion-dollar deals and come home and crash. I treat a patient right now, and get 5 or 10 or 20 dollars and it doesn’t matter, because to me that patient’s smile or treatment is my reward. There is no amount of money that you can take with you when you are ready to depart from this world. The feelings of thankfulness gratitude are what you are going to take with you when you go.

A.Y.: So what do you say to people who find happiness, or the fa?ade of happiness, through consumption and materialism?

A.A.: I can’t blame them–for two reasons: 1) It’s what’s available to them right now, and its very easy for them; 2) They are seeking. Everyone is aware of this, and everyone is hungry, thirst. They just haven’t found their path, or whatever that is. I’m not saying come and join chi gong, but find that thing, whatever it is, that you are seeking.

A lot of times, you have this feeling that you want to eat something but you don’t know what. You stand in front of the refrigerator for minutes trying to figure out what it is you want. We are living like that, many people are. On a much grander scale, we are spiritually hungry. But because we can’t find it, because we don’t know what it is we are seeking, we think that the iPhone or the Mercedes is going to give us happiness. Yea, it will, but it will be momentary. It gives us happiness, but then we are right back at it.

90 % of today’s abuse, whether it be drug abuse, substance abuse, or addictions, can be directly correlated to the fact that these people are trying to quench a fundamentally deep spiritual thirst. But they can’t find it so they keep upping the ante, always going for the next high. It doesn’t have to be drugs; one of the biggest addictions today is the desire to acquire. It’s an addiction! The new TV comes out, “Oh I got to have it,” or swapping out for a new car every six months. Why? It’s another way of being addicted–of seeking but not finding.

I am so fortunate that I was able to find it, and sooner than later. And for most people that doesn’t happen. What I did at midlife was unheard of. I had friends laughing at me. But since I came out of it, it’s given me a sense of rebirth.

_{An Armenian perspective}

A.Y.: It seems as though the problem of humanity not being in tune with nature and its environment is one that is endemic to the world? We see this problem here and many other places, but we also see it in Armenia–a place we all hold dear. Prior to the genocide, our people had, by and large, lived on the land, in harmony with nature. So I would like to know your perspective on where we as a people stand amid all this and where we are going.

A.A.: first of all, I have to tell you. I am very fortunate to have been born in an Armenian culture, and to have the Armenian blood flowing in my veins. Because I think it has given me a very unique perspective. I have a deep-seated belief that the Armenian culture is a much more relevant culture in the world forum than we think. We may be a small insignificant country that most US presidents wouldn’t know the geographic location of, but irrespective of that, I believe Armenian culture, both historically and in the future, has a very prominent role in world affairs and in world affairs of significance; not in insignificant affairs of politics and land ownership, and border disputes and warfare or acquisition. I am talking about revelational stuff–spiritual and evolutionary states. I believe Armenia and our culture will play a very fundamental role in where the world is going.

Why is it that for an Armenian the most important thing is to maintain Armenianhood? Have you ever considered that this transcends even genocide recognition? There is a root cause. We have a genetic programming to maintain that cultural heritage, because one day it is going to come in handy. When? I can’t tell you. How? I don’t know. But it is a deep-seated feeling I have inside me, and I know it is important for our culture to continue to maintain itself and survive. I believe Armenians are much better suited to living in harmony with nature than any other culture.

A.Y.: So then what is the problem, if there is one?

A.A.: I think our problem is that we are stuck as a culture, and as a people. We are stuck in sorrow. We are out of sync with ourselves. I am not advocating that we forget what happened to our people, we have to fight for recognition; it’s a must. What I am saying is that we have to get away from the self induced misery surrounding the Genocide. We need to leave behind thoughts like: “Why us?” “Poor us,” and “Damn the Turks.” We have to get over that because it’s in the past. We have to use that energy, channel it constructively toward getting countries to recognize it. And I believe we are doing much better than we have ever done, I think the new, next generation, will be much more potent in transcending that, especially as we become more in sync with our surroundings.

We need to get out of the shroud of grey that you can see in the faces of the older generations. We are a vibrant culture. We have the intellectual, spiritual, and cultural capacity to blossom and we are poised to do that as a people if we can just collectively get over this wallowing in the past. Never forget, but channel those energies more constructively.

A.Y.: But once the mind’s mental pathways have behaved for that type of thinking for a while, that sort of thinking becomes automatic. You are always looking for excuses. There is always something that is infecting that which is pure, preventing you from realizing that you can purify it at any time just by changing your perception.

A.Y.: Throughout history, we have always had this problem. We can’t come to realize that we are all connected, as Armenians, as people. We say it all the time, but without really understanding it. We never take care of each other. Do you think this problem we have can be addressed with Taoism.

A.Y.: Do you think Armenians are prepared for what lays ahead? The world is changing in a drastic way. Do you think we have what it takes to weather the storm and all the challenges that humanity faces–environmental degradation, the rise in conflicts over dwindling natural resources, etc?

A.Y.: Seems as though we as a people have not yet freed ourselves from the burdens of our past.

For more information on Traditional Medicine, chi gong, or Dr. Akopyan’s practice, visit www.aramakopyan.com or send emails to aram@aramakopyan.com

Dr. Akopyan’s Tai Chi and wellness show can be seen on Horizon Armenian Television Monday through Friday at 8:30 am and 2:30pm.