Common steps and sub-activities
Calligari Method
Professor Guiseppe Calligaris' method in essence rediscovered the system of meridians and trigger points. By scientific study, he managed to map much the same system as was used in Traditional Chinese medicine.
Plaques
He called trigger points plaques.
Professor Calligaris noticed that the area of the skin could be divided up ‘spiritually’ into a form of grid - a sort of template - that could be represented as a pattern that provided a stimulation point or not.
Furthermore, the various trigger points could themselves be divided up – meaning that it is possible that the functional aspects may be far more complex than we think now. His system was thus in many ways more complex than either the TCM or Indian approach.
The diagram on the left comes from a book by Tarozzi and Fiorentino (see references). It shows their perception of the various geometric shapes to be found on just one small central square of the skin surface of the body. They surmised from Calligari’s work that each point probably affects some “somato-psychic and psycho-somatic function”, and that there are rules by which the triggering works. All these collections of geometric shapes cover the skin surface and can be ‘seen’ by healers as a large framework of grid based function points aligned with the body shape, corresponding in a mirror fashion to the body shape, but not actually ‘on’ the body as such. All these shapes formed associations that affected functional activity.
Trigger points and functions
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In general trigger points are associated with organs and thus the specific functions of organs. However Professor Calligaris started to map other functions to the points. He found a very intricate network existed on the hands and feet – a fact that is exploited in many other systems – and documented this in more detailed diagrams. He found lines starting at the tip of each finger and toe, and also in the webs between fingers and toes. |
General Plaques
Some of these plaques are included because they are of general interest and others because they are easy to find and sensitize for beginners. The following compilation gives first the identification number of the plaque as shown in the figure above, then the name or main effect of the plaque, its size in millimeters (which is also the diameter of the cylinder needed for its stimulation), and the provoked reflexes to watch for (usually three).
1. Compassion 11 mm; tapping in the back; sore chewing muscles (especially when opening and closing the mouth); feeling cold
2. Happiness 12 mm; psychological weakness; sore upper back; tendency to move the mouth
3. Anger 12 mm; anxiety; tendency to frown; feeling sick in the stomach
4. Skin vision 15 mm; sore hand; cold neck and mid-back; impulse to bite or lick the lips. During sensitizing, the tested person looks at a picture, not more than 1 m away. After sensitizing cover the eyes and put a simple drawing on the back, facing the skin. Rule out telepathy by selecting one of several drawings without anyone seeing which one it is
6. Telepathy (sending) 12 mm; moist eyes; burning feeling, especially in the lower abdomen. Works over distances up to 50 km
7. Aura vision I 12 mm; tickling in the nose; sore inner sides of the feet, right shoulder and left clavicle. A third person sits up to 5 m opposite the tested person
8. Aura vision II 10 mm; soreness on a line from the left nipple to the groin, in two regions in front of the lower arm and along the right side of the face. Third person sits 1-10 m in front of tested person
9. Reducing hunger or appetite 12 mm; sore right biceps and right buttock; dislike of color purple
10. Reducing thirst 12 mm; same reflexes as for hunger
11. Pain relief 10 mm; view turns towards the right; pain in ear; euphoria. Pain is reduced in a third person opposite the tested person or in an absent person on which the tested person concentrates
12. Seeing in darkness 12 mm; coolness in eyes and mouth; seeing profiles of many faces; pain in feet and upper teeth or gum. After sensitizing the plaque, lead the tested person with covered eyes into a totally dark room. Remove eye cover. Blind people may see as well
Autoscopic Plaques
With these, the tested person sees his or her own organs or problems. Cover the eyes with a black cloth. The examiner must sit sideways from the tested person. Paraesthesia, as mentioned occasionally, is a feeling as if a leg goes to sleep.
6. Circulation system 12 mm; paraesthesia over the neck and shoulders; feeling of a digestive problem; feeling of a light brain concussion
7. Digestive system 10 mm; paraesthesia inside the lower part of the right thigh and of the front part of the tongue; neck cramp
8. Intestines 10 mm; a strip of paraesthesia from the left eye to the left corner of the mouth, tightness in the head, left hand feels cold
9. Kidneys 10 mm; paraesthesia of the lips, cold around the head, pain in the right shoulder
10. Liver 10 mm; strip of paraesthesia along the left hand; feeling of spasms in left forearm and at right forehead
11. Nervous system (brain, spinal cord) 10 mm; paraesthesia in the middle of the groin and at the inter-digital spaces of the left hand; feeling of a foreign body under the left upper eyelid
12. Pancreas 10 mm; paraesthesia under the right foot; pain in the right kneecap, elbow and neck
13. Respiratory system 10 mm; feeling of emptiness in the brain and of a hole in the middle of the forehead; spasms of the lips
14. Sexual organs 10 mm; paraesthesia at the right back; stomach cramps; feeling of suffocation
15. Spleen 9 mm; pain in the ribs and lower right back; difficulty in moving the head to the side; difficulty keeping eyes closed or open
16. Sympathetic nerve 12 mm; hardness of the right gum; swelling of pharynx; feeling of missing right foot and paraesthesia across the upper forehead
24. Infectious diseases I 8 mm; reinforces the secondary effects of a disease, for example, pain, pressure
25. Infectious diseases II 10 mm; reinforces the feeling of sickness or infection itself
26. Microbe vision I 11 mm; pain in the back and middle fingers; paraesthesia in the legs, left face and front of the neck. If successful, the tested person sees a picture of the infection causing microbes. A negative result of all three plaques 24-26, if properly done, indicates the disease process is not infectious
27. Microbe vision II 10 mm; pain in the left-side top of the head; warm streaming inside the limbs; tic of the lips
Heteroscopic Plaques
The tester or a trained assistant sits exactly opposite the tested person, eyes covered with a black cloth. First the heteroscopic master plaque is sensitized in the person sitting opposite the patient. After the corresponding reflexes have been observed, the other plaques may be stimulated and the tester or assistant sees the diseased organs or systems.
24. Heteroscopic master plaque 11 mm; vision of a violet color; pain between fingers; paraesthesia of all body scars
25. Circulation 10 mm; tremor of the chin; pain along midline of the body; feeling of diagonal cuts over the body
26. Digestive system 10 mm; pain in the right wrist; lower right cheek cold; paraesthesia of lower abdomen
27. Kidneys 10 mm; dislike of metals; desire for darkness; feeling of drumming in the intestines
28. Liver 10 mm; warmth in the right ear; pain in the back of the right foot and front of the left foot, also in the upper cervical vertebrae; 'ants crawling' in the fingertips
29. Nervous system 12 mm; paraesthesia under the eyes; body feels smaller; body feels as though it is being bitten
30. Pancreas 12 mm; pain in the left little toe; 'heavy weight' on the right skull with a feeling of falling to the side; general indifference
31. Respiration 10 mm; trembling in the stomach; desire to bite; tendency to vandalism
32. Sexual system 12 mm; pain in the right front of the body; paraesthesia in left arm and inner arm; left side of nose cold
33. Spleen 12 mm; feeling of electric shock through the body; dry throat; pain in right thorax
34. Organ infections 13 mm; trembling in the left shoulder; burning of the esophagus; vision of a rose color. The first part of the vision shows the diseased organ, and the second part shows the infectious agent or microbe
Microbes and residues 12 mm; slight hoarseness; slight pain at the right side of the top of the head; warm streaming along the upper part of the throat and neck; slight paraesthesia of the forehead, neck and outside of the right leg. Microbes, uric-acid crystals and other disease-causing residues may be seen.
What should strike you as you look at these pictures is that the number of lines of function is apparently far less than occurs in the system of Chinese medicine or in the Indian nadi system, but that his points – plaques are very precisely documented and in fact more numerous. He eventually discovered thousands of plaques each with different functions
References
There is not much in English on the Calligari method. If you are lucky enough to speak Italian [or be Italian!] the following may be helpful
- L'anima svelata. Metodologia ed applicazioni pratiche della medicina di Giuseppe Calligaris by Samantha Fumagalli and Flavio Gandini (May 2006)
- THE CALLIGARIS METHOD - Walter Last – is an article I found on the Internet that is quite helpful
- Le catene lineari del corpo e dello spirito by Giuseppe Calligaris (Aug 2009) – a book by Calligaris himself describing the lines of spirit
- La Catene del corpo e dello spirito. Le meraviglie della metapsichica. I fenomeni mentali by Giuseppe Calligaris (1940) – which roughly translated means The chains of the body and spirit. The wonders of metapsychics and Mental phenomena
- Calligaris, a precursor of a new Era / Calligaris-Precursore di una Nuova Era – [my translation of the title] by Maria Pia Tarozzi and G. Fiorentino, was published by MEB in 1975.