Ancient tradition says these balls can truly be beneficial, and here is why...

Years ago, knowing nothing about Tones or Vibrations, I developed an enchantment about them, and, bent on breaking my accustomed way of hearing, I went to the extent of getting different lengths of different kinds of metal pipes with different wall thicknesses and densities, and I cut them into lengths randomly, drilled a small hole at one end of each and hung them up. Then I would delight myself by striking each with wooden strikers and listening, feeling the tonal vibrations, and how they managed the density and length of the various pipes. Aluminum was really wonderful sounding, I remember - we took the pole which extended the spinnaker of the sailboat to first experiment with, and to our surprise it gave out a deep resonate sound of fairly short duration, unlike the longer sound of, say, copper. I knew there had to be something to what I was doing, but had no idea what. That was before I began to study Things Chinese.

This month I want to talk about Chinese Health Balls or "Therapy Balls," because although they are found in a variety of places, there has remained a mystery as to their use and benefit. The balls that come in sets of two, enclosed in their own beautiful brocade padded box.

In ancient times, the Chinese would use round, green walnuts, as a famous and successful way of treating what we call today Alzheimer's Disease. Perhaps it was because when walnuts are handled, one's hands get a purplish black dye on them - who's to know - but during the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) the walnut gave birth to the creation of very carefully made "iron balls" of basically the same size, which were so successful in treatment that they were acclaimed as one of the Three Treasures of Baoding, China, where they were created. At first the balls were solid, but later craftsmen began designing them to be hollow, with sounding plates in each ball which produced a combination of tones.

According to the Chinese traditional medical theory of Jingluo (this term refers to various channels in the human body through which vital energy travels and where important acupuncture points are located) a person's fingers are connected by a variety of channels to vital organs of the human body, including the brain, heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys, gallbladder, stomach, intestine and so forth. Over a period of time and use the manipulation of these balls builds up strength of body and mind. When used, the weight coupled with the physical manipulation of the of the Therapy Balls themselves massage the acupuncture points in one's hands, which stimulates the circulation of Chi.

Another of the benefits these balls offer is that through use, it treats the specific organ area vibrationally through tone. Now there are 5 tones in the Chinese system of tonal vibrational healing, and evidently each set of balls is tuned to these special tones. Further, according to Chinese medicinal healing music, each tone resonates vibrationally with a specific organ in the body as a means of treatment, which bring the corresponding organs into alignment.

Elemental Affiliations chart
Element	Note	Organ	Season	Direction	Color
Earth	kung ( C )	spleen	late summer	center	yellow
Metal	shang ( D )	lung	autumn	West	white
Wood	chueh ( E )	liver	spring	East	green
Fire	Jyy ( G )	heart	Summer	South	red
Water	Yu ( A )	kidney	Winter	North	black

It thus can cause the jingluo to become unblocked, so that the vital energy and blood can function in harmony. It also "improves muscle tone, promotes stronger bones, helps the mind think more clearly, increase blood circulation, and can prevent and cure hypertension and various chronic diseases." If you keep on taking exercise with the Health Balls everyday for months and years it is said that you "can get the fine results of keeping your brain in good health with high intelligence and good memory as well as relieve fatigue, forget your worries and, moreover, prolonging your life."


Directions:

The way to use them is to put the two balls on your palm and crook and stretch one's fingers in sequence to cause the balls to rotate and revolve either clockwise or counter-clockwise. In so doing all the joints of the hand are always in motion, and with the crooking and stretching of the fingers the forearm muscles are contracted and relaxed harmonically. At first you may select balls of small size for exercise, though when skilled you can select balls larger and larger in size. Do this daily, or several time a day, and the benefits will become apparent over a period of time.



Also of Interest:

• Where to purchase Therapy Balls.
• More articles at the Feng Shui Directory.