According to Chinese medicinal theories, when a person is
healthy, life energy is stored by the spleen and extracted from the
blood in such large quantities that it cannot be used inside the body.
Therefore, the life energy radiates outward through the pores of
the skin in straight lines, drives out poisonous gases, inimical bac-
teria and viruses and assists in preserving a healthy condition of
the physical organism. It also prevents armies of disease germs
which swarm about in the atmosphere from entering the dense
vehicle.
According to the Taoist system, after eating, the vital solar force
attracted by the spleen is consumed by the body in great quanti-
ties. When the meal is heavy, the outflow of the vital fluid from the
body is perceptibly diminished and does not then cleanse the dense
vehicle as thoroughly as it does when the food has been digested,
nor is it as potent in keeping out inimical germs.
Therefore, overeating renders a person more likely to catch cold
or succumb to disease. During ill health the spleen furnishes the
vital body with very little solar energy, and at this time the dense
body seems to feed on the vital body. In the Taoist system it is said
that we have to repair the vital body, which can then help the dense
body to get stronger.
In Taoist Esoterica, the “solar plexus” is regarded as the largest
cauldron of the vital body which can alchemically mix or harmo-
nize the generative force with the life energy from the energy cen-
ter corresponding to the pituitary gland, during the practice of Greater
Enlightenment of the Kan and Li. The spleen, as mentioned be-
fore, corresponds to a part of the “solar plexus.”
Thymus Gland
This is the gland of child development. It is situated in the chest
between the lungs and behind the upper part of the sternum (breast
bone). It descends and covers the upper portion of the heart, over-
lapping the great vessels at the top of the latter. It reaches its great-
est size at the beginning of puberty, gradually disappearing there-
after at which time it is marked by a loss of glandular structure. It
does persist, however, and some of the secreting cells remain
throughout life.