Liver and spleen detox meditation with Master Charles Thackaberry.

The following are notes taken from a 2006 Seminar Session on Liver & Spleen detox with Charles Thackaberry.

The liver is one of the physical organs and is positioned under your right hand side ribs. It is about 1 and a half kilos in weight, is sort of v-shaped and is brown in colour. The spleen is fist sized on the left hand side of the body and is purple. The liver purifies the blood of toxins and alcohol etc. The spleen detoxes the lymphatic system.

There are no pumps of any sort on the lymph system so it gets sluggish and you have to rely on muscle power and massage to stop it becoming like a stagnant pool.

The stomach is much more efficient. It has different layers. There is the physical level which deals with the processing of nutrients but it also deals with the more subtle levels of dealing with the waste from emotional levels etc.

You have to learn to listen to your body and its requirements:

Sit up in a chair and using the tips of your fingers run around the bottom rib on your right side. Feel under the rib for the liver. Does it feel hard/soft/springy? Springy is good, hard and soft require work to be done.

Put your right hand on your ribs and “listen” to your body. Move the hand in a clockwise and then an anti-clockwise direction. Choose which one felt better thereby “listening” to your body.

Now place your left hand on top of your right hand and repeat the process and “listen”.

“Feel” the difference and then try to connect energy from the centre of your palm to the liver.

Charles recounted a story of a lady he knows who had surgery and had a breast and lymph node removed. Her arm became swollen and the doctors were unable to help her. Charles applied his knowledge of plumbing and literally got her to hold her arm up above her head and let gravity solve the problem.

If you raise your arm above your head and rotate it back and forth you can see the different parts of your torso that are affected thereby demonstrating to us how the tai chi form can work on different physical elements simply by how your arms are positioned.

Your right hand is “yang” (strength) and the left is “yin” (pacifies). There are slightly different electrical charges on either side of your body as although we are fairly symmetrical on the outside, inside the internal organs are not and even though we may have two of some even these are not positioned symmetrically. So hands connected to difference organs will have radically different effects.

(Question from participant) Why am I feeling nauseous?

Answer: because of the toxins being released into system.

All the organs of your body should pulse and in an ideal state they should pulse in time with each other. There is no “one exercise” for curing all things.

Exercise: Raise one arm up and back. Twist arm to open up ribs. The further away from the body that the elbow is the more you notice. Your movements in tai chi are determined by your body's needs. Listen to your body and do what feels right.

There are three states: yin, yang and balance.

Examples of yin and yang words:

Yang	Yin
Strength	Subtle
Determination	Relax
Mountain	River
Sun	Moon
Sky	Sun

Note how Sun has changed in relation to Moon and Sky. Nothing is definite (“There's always a bigger fish”)

The liver in general tends to be overworked and 100% or even 70% intake of toxins is too much for it . This is due to external influence, quite often what you choose to ingest!

There is also a genetic strength or weakness in relation to the liver. There was mention of “hot” livers being a family trait. Organs should adapt to the season. The liver is the body's generator and produces 85% of the body's heat.

So it may be necessary to “Yinify” or “Yangify” your system as organs are not static and go from yin to yang relative to outside influences; a bit like a pendulum going from one state to the other.

A question was asked about hot flushes and the menopause – a topic Charles freely admitted he knew little about! To the same extent that “Women just don't understand the male menopause!” The reason for this is that over the millennia the Chinese have got a bit hung up about tradition. It was male orientated before and so it is now. Very little has been done for women in relation to the their specific needs and it is only in recent times that women are being catered to in Western tai chi.

 

(Question from participant): When moving the hands in clockwise and anticlockwise direction why is there a difference? Why do two hands?

Yin and Yang cerate balance. Left hand clockwise (gather), right hand anticlockwise (pacify)

If you need to create shades of change either to strengthen or soften:

Yin and yin = soft

Yang and yang = yang

So using left or right hand in one direction or another can increase yin and yang effect.

Try this on your heart and other organs as same treatment applies to all. You are learning a “System” of treatment which can be applied to your whole body.

Trust your “true feeling” let your mind and body listen to what's right.

Do not add intention unless you know your “true feeling”. Listen for a word from whichever organ you work on. Be sure word comes from your body and not your mind. Listening to your body is the most important thing. Doing nothing may even be the right choice. When you alter one thing it has a knock on effect.

Place your hand of your liver.

What colour do you feel?

Breathe in a colour (whatever feels right)

Breathe out a colour

What word do you hear?

What colour(s) do you see in and out?

 

“Your mind is great but it doesn't do anything; it shows everything”.

If you think of a computer screen minus a hard drive. It has to be linked up. Your mind has to be linked to hard drive as it wanders off on its own a lot. Your mind has all different parts, imagination, maths, language, worries, hopes etc. So when you come to a seminar or go to a quiet place you can ignore everyday thoughts and you can listen to the your liver etc. and have a chat. One lady referred to it as “google liver”.

The liver relates to the stomach and the spleen. If the stomach is stressed it affects others.

Breathe colour into each organ as follows and see what colours you get:

In to liver

Out from stomach

In to liver

Out from spleen

In to stomach

Out from liver

In to spleen

Out from liver

 

What colours did you get?

One lady got a “vortex” inside her and Charles thought that she had connected not just physically but also energetically.

 

The liver can scar from too many toxins and so cannot pulse easily.

Practical things to do for your liver:

Take hot water and lemon

Grapefruit juice

Celery

Rhubarb

Green Grapes

Milk Thistle

Parsley Tea

(Any detoxing food or drink)

 

The pancreas is in front of the other three organs.

Thymus gland

Use knuckles to stimulate thymus gland

Tap or rub

Beat whole breastbone from throat to breastbone. Rub to calm.