Appendix II
How Taoist Yoga affects your
Hormonal System
Endocrine Glands and
Taoist Energy Centers
The hormones are chemical messengers produced by the endo-
crine glands in minute quantities but eventually affecting every single
cell of your body. The secretions of the endocrine glands empty
directly into the blood where they find their way to various organs,
stimulating or suppressing them, or in some way influencing their
activity.
In the Taoist Esoteric System the energy centers do not belong
to the physical body at all but are regarded as adjuncts of the “vital
body”, which are set apart and crystallized to the necessary den-
sity in order that it may perform certain special manifestations of
this vital body. Each gland has a specific work to perform. When in
good health they all work together in perfect harmony. The endo-
crine glands are of special interest to the students of Taoism in
relation to the circulation of the Microcosmic Orbit. In order to ex-
plain some of the energy centers in terms of modern anatomy, one
has to look to the endocrine glands for correlation. The correla-
tions may or may not be right, but that is the best that one can
hypothesize at this stage of the art.
Adrenals
The adrenals are a pair of glands capping the upper ends of the
kidneys. When they are removed, death ensues rapidly. The gland
is composed of a cortex (outer portion) and a medulla (inner por-
tion). The outer portion produces the sex steroids, the glucocorti-
coids (corticosterone, hydrocortisone) which are involved in the
control of carbohydrate, lipid and protein metabolism and the min-
eralocorticoids (aldosterone, deoxycorti-kidney tubules), affecting