The Spark in the Machine, Daniel Keown
The Spark in the Machine, Daniel Keown
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The Spark in the Machine
How the Science of Acupuncture Explains the Mysteries of Western Medicine

Author: Daniel Keown

Narrator: Gavin Osborn

Unabridged: 8 hr 41 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: John Murray

Published: 07/04/2019

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

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 finger tips, 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 mistress than with their wife), 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 reading for anyone who has ever wanted to know how the body really works.

About Daniel Keown

Dr Daniel Keown has worked as a registered doctor since graduating with a medical degree from Manchester University in 1998. In 2008, he completed a degree in Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture from Kingston University, and he has studied alongside the renowned Dr Wang Ju-Yi at the Institute of Channel Diagnosis in Beijing. He lives and practises in Tunbridge Wells, UK.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Michael on March 31, 2016

"TAI CHI can be treated as the driving force of the universe, which generates two poles (Yang, Yin), then evolving the four phases (sky, earth, men and matter), which then produce the eight sections (sky, earth, men and matter, time, space, material and spirit) - They give rise to all kinds of activ......more

Goodreads review by Lorelei on September 27, 2016

Right up until the end he managed to stay objective. Right up until the end. *sigh* I might give it another star when the bad taste has left my mouth, but then again... It is an important book in that he looks at connections between Western and Eastern medicine in places lay people such as myself wou......more

Goodreads review by Melanie on June 25, 2014

I was pleasantly surprised at how engaging and fascinating this book was. The author, a practicing doctor, brilliantly shows us that although very different, Eastern and Western medicine are very similar. The connection of chi and fascia and how our bodies electricity runs through this "space" has neve......more

Goodreads review by Aimee on May 09, 2016

Simple but insightful ties between western and eastern medicine and useful if looking for a more holistic, while body view of health that can broaden out the western view many of us have been raised within......more

Goodreads review by Karen on January 02, 2021

I came across this book after a review from my friend, Sarah [URL not allowed] and decided to pick it up desiring to learn more about acupuncture. It ended up being much different then I expected and traces the similarities between the formation of an embryo and acupuncture. T......more