Cognitive Science of Acupuncture & Qi (3) The Significance of This Research Project
The purposes of this research project are to investigate the mechanism of intuition and thought processes of experienced acupuncture doctors and establish a methodology for building intuition and thinking skills.
Because many people are not very familiar with both the NDM theories in cognitive psychology and Hokushinkai-style acupuncture in Japan, some people still ask me why I conduct my research and what my intention of research is.
One thing is sure that I can expect big discoveries in the field of cognitive pscyhology if I carry out this research project. Of course, my research project will contribute to education for the next generation of acupuncture doctors of Hokushinkai and other Japanese acupuncture organizations.
Moreover, I hope my findings will be applicable to other fields. In fact, Gary Klein, the founder of the NDM movement, studied how fire commanders made their right judgments and decisions in life-threatening environment.
Later, his research methodologies and findings were applied to other fields such as military, aviation, emergency medicine, petrochemical industry, information technology, sports, business management, and even politics.
We, NDM researchers, already recogntize the fact that the basic mechanism of human intuiton is almost the same regardless of the situation --when we have to solve the problem under the imminent situation.
Besides these points, I have already realized that there are many similarities between the NDM theories and Hokushinkai-style of acupuncture. Rather, I should state that the concetps of these two are almost the same. Therefore, it can be said that the Holushinkai-style of acupucnture is scientifically and psychologically reasonable.
Compare to other styles, Holushinkai-style of acupuncture is surely unique --four types of diagnosis (especially abdominal diagnosis), visual examination of body surface, hammer acupuncture, using one or a few needles, etc.
However, the essence of Hokushinkai-style acupuncture lies in intuition and logical thinking for disease identification and treatment.
Hense, it will be very meaningful to investigate how Hilushinkai acupuncture doctors think intuitively and logically while they are treating their patients. Also, it is worth studying how they manage huge information about the patient and diseases through examinations and make a right decision to insert one needle.
People who don't know my research aske me, 'How can I build intuition?' While other NDM researhers and I are trying to develop the method, the best answer is simple: To study how the expert make their intuitive judgments and decisions in imminent situation. This is the first step. Then, we should learn the mechanism of intuition and thought processes of the expert.
Once again, I would like to make sure the purposes of my research projects.