Acupuncture
Needles inserted at nerve points lacerate the very tissue they target, accumulating scar tissue with each session and producing progressive desensitization. Gentle acupressure achieves the intended neurological stimulation without damage; needles are warranted only when medication is the sole alternative.
Acupuncture is the application of needles inserted into and through the skin at specific nerve points on the body that have been found to directly affect glands, organs, and nerve centers, with the intent to stimulate healing of malfunctioning or pained glands, organs, and nerve centers. Aajonus understood the underlying theory of acupuncture as pointing toward something real: the nervous system can and should be stimulated through precise contact with the body's surface. He demonstrated this by asking workshop participants to barely touch the hairs on a neighbor's arm, producing a tingle that excited the whole system. That quality of stimulation, he said, is exactly what acupuncture is supposed to accomplish. The problem, in his view, is that needles are entirely the wrong instrument for achieving it.
Aajonus held mixed conclusions about acupuncture throughout his work, but those conclusions hardened considerably over time. In his book "We Want To Live," he wrote that acupuncture is often effective and that he would favor it over Western medical methods. In later Q&A correspondence and workshop sessions, his position became more unambiguous: acupuncture should never be used unless the only alternative is pharmaceutical medication. The core reason remained consistent across all sources. Needles lacerate skin and nerve cells, and lacerations leave tissue susceptible to scarring. That scarring accumulates with each treatment session, and over time it leads to desensitization, diminishing sensitivity to both pleasure and pain.
The Mechanism of Damage
Aajonus described the damage caused by acupuncture needles in neurological terms. The needles do not gently stimulate the nervous system the way a feather-light touch does. Instead, they lacerate the very tissue they are meant to activate. He used the language of dry, hardened connective tissue to explain why any physically invasive approach to nerve stimulation causes harm. When tissue is dried out, hardened, cracked, and brittle, and you insert something solid into it, you are breaking that tissue. You are creating bruised areas and introducing additional toxicity into an already compromised system.
He made clear that acupuncture does not achieve what it theoretically aims to achieve. In his phrasing from the workshop transcripts: acupuncture "is supposed to" stimulate the nervous system, "and it doesn't, but it causes neurological damage." The result is that each session compounds the scarring, and the long-term trajectory of regular acupuncture treatment is progressive desensitization rather than restored neurological sensitivity.
Acupuncture: A Trigger, Not Cause
One nuance Aajonus introduced in a Q&A response was the distinction between acupuncture creating a disease and acupuncture bringing a latent disease to fruition. Writing to a patient who had developed severe neurological symptoms after using a topical salve, he noted that just as a salve might trigger a detoxification of systemically poisoned nerve endings, "acupuncture does not create a disease but may bring disease to fruition." He added that nerve and bone detoxifications are the most prolonged and debilitating cleanses because nerves and bones contain concentrations of metals. This framing means that a person who undergoes acupuncture and subsequently develops worsening symptoms may be experiencing a detoxification event that was already pending, accelerated into visibility by the neurological disruption the needles produced.
Acupuncture As Temporary Relief
In direct correspondence responding to a request for statistics on various alternative therapies, Aajonus stated plainly that acupuncture does not cure; it is a temporary fix. He did not provide a specific reversal-rate statistic for acupuncture the way he did for homeopathy (approximately 27%) and herbalism (approximately 22%). His explanation for why people report improvement from acupuncture, homeopathy, and herbalism was consistent across these modalities: in most cases, those therapies create toxic and/or traumatic conditions that cause a previous detoxification and its symptoms to either stop or diminish. The apparent improvement, in other words, is not the body healing but the body suppressing an active cleansing process in response to a new stressor.
The Historical Case For Acupuncture
When asked why the Chinese have been using acupuncture and herbalism for thousands of years, Aajonus offered a direct and historically specific answer. He said that only the peasants and aesthetes, who were all poor, could not afford meats and dairy. They had to do whatever seemed to cause distraction, whether actual or conceived. This framing treated the longevity of the practice as a function of limited options rather than as evidence of efficacy. People without access to adequate animal protein and fat had little recourse, and acupuncture and herbs were what remained available to them. The persistence of the practice across millennia, in his view, reflects economic necessity and the absence of alternatives rather than confirmed therapeutic value.
Teeth And Acupuncture Anesthesia
In one workshop exchange touching on dental procedures, Aajonus acknowledged that some acupuncturists can perform acupuncture anesthesia, making specific reference to cultural familiarity with the technique. He also noted that acupuncture exposes the teeth in relation to parts of the body, specifically mentioning the nose and the back of the neck, and that symptoms following dental or acupuncture work would be shaped by which nerve centers are involved and the degree to which related brain areas are damaged or active. He did not endorse acupuncture anesthesia as a preferred option, and the mention was framed around a question from an attendee rather than as a protocol recommendation.
The Preferred Alternative
Aajonus consistently directed people toward acupressure rather than acupuncture, and specifically toward the gentlest possible form of acupressure. He described the correct form of stimulation as touching the skin so lightly it almost tickles, which produces genuine neuro-stimulation between the brain and the whole body. He demonstrated this in workshops and said that acupressure points, when touched in this light manner, will work even better than needles do, without bruising, without damage, and without the resulting toxicity. He explicitly contrasted this with deep acupressure or any technique that digs in to break what practitioners call crystals or deposits, which he said causes internal lacerations, fluid leakages, and a quantity of released toxins that create damage locally and throughout the body, including the heart.
His formal guidance, stated in Q&A correspondence, was: "Never, unless it is the choice between medication or needles. Acupressure, when done gently, is very effective."
Dietary Support For Bodywork
In his discussion of acupressure, Aajonus established a dietary protocol applicable to any bodywork treatment intended to address blockages. He recommended eating a raw diet high in raw fat for five days before and ten days after having treatments. The rationale was that when raw fats are suspended in the blood, a certain amount of released toxins will be arrested and eliminated properly. This same principle, while stated specifically in relation to acupressure, applies by extension to any scenario in which a person chooses acupuncture as the lesser of available options, since the mechanism of toxin release would be comparable. Treatments intended to gradually remove blockages with gentle pressure were said to promote healing and allow cleansing to occur more easily.