Tom Tam has brought into this world a novel and successful healing technique, which fuses Eastern and Western notions of human health and illness. Central is his concept of Chi in the body (in Tom Tam healing system is called bioelectricity), the life force that animates all living cells and all life itself. His notion of illness is that illness occurs when Chi or bioelectricity is blocked, leaving cells vulnerable to decay and pathological transformations, like cancer.
Healing centers around removing blocks to Chi so that health can be restored at a cellular level. These blocks can be anatomical -- for example spinal muscular tension or spasm -- or energetic -- a failure of flow thru the energy channels of the body. In the case of anatomical blockage, his Tui Na massage relieves the tension, opening the spinal pathways. In the case of energy blockage, he uses acupuncture, opening the energetic pathways according the meridian map familiar to Oriental practitioners.
In addition, Tom has begun an array of Tong Ren groups, which have expanded access to his healing philosophy. In these groups, which Tom called the Guinea Pig class; a healer strikes the acupuncture points on a plastic doll, simulating the needle placements Tom has developed for each condition. These groups work according to his theories of the collective consciousness -- the shared energy of the participants in any particular group -- and the collective unconscious, the pooled consciousness of the thousands of participants in all these groups. When this pooled consciousness is focused on the points struck on the doll, it multiplies to focus of the healer, vastly increasing the effectiveness of the healer’s intervention. Tong Ren groups now exist all over the United States and in many foreign countries.
Although unfamiliar to most medical practitioners, these groups have flourished because they work. Hundreds of testimonials list cures of ailments from cancer on to migraine headaches. A recent study From the Virginia Commonwealth School of Medicine and the Dana Farber Cancer Center of these groups found that 89 % of participants reported being helped by these groups, and nearly half found Tong Ren more helpful than conventional Western Medicine. Reports abound of improvement or cure of such ailments as cancer, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis etc.
My own person experience is with my prostate cancer. I have used both Western medicine and Tong Ren, and currently remain asymptomatic after three years of cohabiting with this illness. In my Tong Ren group the most amazing result is one man, blind in his right eye from macular degeneration who attained 20/25 vision within 6 months of beginning Tong Ren therapy. In the Western tradition, this condition is incurable. In my Tuesday morning visits to Tom Tam, I share a time with a 30-year-old friend with rectal cancer who refused a major bowel resection and a colostomy bag, and came to Tom Tam instead. A year later, his biopsies are negative, and his surgeon pronounced him cured. He reports that all four of his fellow patients with the same diagnosis, all seeing Tom Tam, are also cured.
Tom Tam affirms both Western and his own approaches to illness. In my opinion, his methods are totally safe, and remarkably effective. As a person I find Tom compassionate, cheerful, inspiring and surprisingly humble. And as his Tong Ren groups continue to multiply, I believe that their power will increase and that so many more of us will have access to this unique and wondrous modality.
Sincerely,
Jack Weltner, MD
Harvard Med School ‘60
