It seems Reggie has worked on everyone and everything, from babies a few weeks old to people in their 80s, even on animals.

 

Diagnosing patients, he points out, is much the same process as in any "traditional" Western discipline. "I also use the four methods of assessment:  bo shin, bun shin, mon shin, and setsu shin. Bo shin is looking or listening; bun shin is listening or smelling; mon shin is questioning; and setsu shin, to touch or palpate. That's how I diagnose a client. The resulting therapy would either be shiatsu--or some type of touching modality--or herbology.  To an extent I use what I feel the most comfortable with, but in the end it's what the client would feel the most comfortable with that will make the difference. If I'm comfortable with Swedish massage but the client is comfortable with shiatsu then I realize I'll have to do shiatsu with them.

"It's not simply book learning. Because anyone can read the books and by the videos. There's a certain way the teacher works with the student," he said softly as he makes an imaginary circle in front of them with the sweep of his open hand. "As a teacher, the way that you move around the class, how you address your students, and how they interact with you gives you the essence of shiatsu. That makes all the difference.

"In all cultures we'll see the yang aspects of things--the visible aspect.  You don't realize that within each culture it's the yin aspect, the spirit and the essence, that is really the power for the yang."  Reggie gives an example: "with the Native Americans, the thing that gave them the power to fight back, even against European oppression, was their essence of being connected with the earth. The thing that gave the Africans being brought to America the power to survive and not die on the plantations, and help make them a thriving part of the civilization, was that essence.  It's now so diluted that you can easily forget about it.  The thing that enabled the Jewish people to survive the Holocaust and gave them the power to be a thriving nation, the power simply to go on even though family members were dying around them in concentration camps, was that inner power."

The lessons and principles Reggie Ceaser has learned in shiatsu and in the healing arts have been invaluable to his daily life.  "Find out about yourself, find out where your essences coming from. When you know your center, nothing can shake you because you can always go back to that center and then take your life and move forward."

Our Common Ground:
Portraits of Blacks Changing the Face of America
Bruce Caines
© 1994
Published by Crown Publishers, Inc.

At one of the many conferences held by the AMTA, Reggie expanded his knowledge of herbalism.  At that same conference he met a naturopath, Someone who practices therapeutic methods that do not involve the use of drugs but employ the natural forces of light, air, heat, water, and massage.  This practitioner took Reggie under his wing and taught him about Western herbalism.  Another instructor, home Reggie met later on, taught him about what Reggie likes to call "planetary herbalism": "it was Chinese medicine, but it used herbs from all over the world.  He taught me how to understand and use the origins of each herb in my analyses.  Then I formally studied Chinese herbalism in Philadelphia. So I was studying with different people; working on my patients, friends, and relatives; and reading whenever I had the chance."

 

Reggie explains the premise of the Japanese massage he practices, because it is more than just poking and prodding muscles.  Shiatsu is based on traditional Chinese medicine, with a recognition of muscles, nerves, bones, and Western pathology.  The basic understanding of Chinese medicine involves the understanding of the yin and the yang, and the five phases.  The five phases are fire, earth, metal, water, wood. Each of these phases relates to and tells us about something different.  Each one of these phases relates to different aspects of similar things. The combination of these relationships tells the practitioner about the condition of the patient.  

"What we do in shiatsu," Reggie continues, "is we try to balance the energy, or move the energy if it's stuck. Move it from one place to another using these basic concepts of Oriental medicine." Reggie emphasizes the importance of personal connection and involvement as part of the shiatsu treatment. These things are what make shiatsu and Oriental healing art as opposed to just a mechanical technique.  It's the spirit that you put into your shiatsu and the essence that you get into, which is usually passed down from your teacher, that makes it a healing arts.