How To Identify Ear Reflex Points

Auriculotherapy a/k/a ear reflex points was introduced to Europe after 1957, when French neurologist Paul Nogier proposed a more systemic and standardized approach to auriculotherapy in the “Treatise of Auriculotherapy” (1957).  Auriculotherapy has since then been introduced to the international scientific community as Nogier’s article has been read by Russian, Japanese, and Chinese acupuncturists, and been translated into Chinese in 1958.

The ear reflex points developments were made by clinical trials based upon a phrenological method of projection of a fetal Homunculus on the ear, for reference of physical complaints and points for medical treatment. Nogier soon presented his discovery of ear reflex points to the public, where members of the Chinese Army picked up the map and took it to the barefoot doctors of China, farmers with minimal training in basic medical and in paramedical skills, and so provide medical services in rural China.

Moreover, Nogier then published what he called the “Vascular Autonomic Signal”, a distinct change in the amplitude of the pulse, easily felt with the tip of the thumb at the radial artery. That mechanism would only produce a signal upon the introduction of new information to the electromagnetic field of the patient. Nogier then was working with the principle of matching resonance, and said that he could use the vascular autonomic signal to detect the active points of the auricular microsystem.

Auricular acupuncture has progressed since then in China, and several national programs are being developed.