In the second century, the Greek physician Claudius Galenus who was the court physician of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, discovered that blood flows in the arteries.
Today, we accept this as an obvious fact, but at the time, Galenus’ discovery completely changed the accepted worldview of how the human body works.
Before Galenus, it was widely believed and accepted that air — or pneuma, “life spirit,” – flowed through the arteries.
Galenus’ discovery formed the basis of Western medical science until the 17th century. The only problem was that some of his theories were wrong. He didn’t quite understand how blood flows through the body.
It wasn’t until the 17th century that new discoveries disproved much of what had been accepted as “fact” since Galnus’ time.
Ironically, the original prevailing belief — which forms the basis of modalities like Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture, and energy healing — is now considered “fringe.”
This is a potent example of how cultural beliefs form and become embedded. Often, what is taken as fact is merely what someone has studied and “proved” with science — even if it’s not the full story.
It’s important to remember that science is a lagging indicator. Just because something isn’t yet “proven” doesn’t mean it’s wrong. It may means only that it hasn’t been studied enough.
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