[3] In diagnosis and treatment, the Hara is partitioned in areas, each of which is considered – on the basis of empirical evidence[citation needed] – to represent one of the (ten, eleven or twelve) vital organs AND their functional energy fields.
It is therefore, if not surprising so in any case educating to observe, that French practice and research in the field of far-eastern or oriental (as some prefer to call it) medicine has often relied on Vietnamese teachings, sources and literature[9] (in colonial times, Vietnam was part of French Indochina), while earlier German and English practitioners and researchers seem to have drawn on pre-modern Chinese sources (European powers were influential in China during the Qing dynasty(1644–1911).
As a result, over the centuries[12] the diagnostic art of the palpation of the whole body and more specifically of acu points,[13] meridians and the abdomen or Hara was developed in Japan to a high standard.
The contemporary Meridian Therapy School of Japanese Acupuncture for example, in which amongst others Shudo Denmei (1932– ) is a leading figure,[14] places much importance on a wide range of palpatory skills in diagnosis and treatment.
[18] However, an ever growing number of body-mind therapies are being introduced to or developed in the West, which seem to be influenced by concepts directly or indirectly derived from or related to Eastern models of abdominal diagnosis and therapy, some using breathing techniques (Buteyko, Yoga), postural alignment and movement education like Postural Integration, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, Qigong and Yoga, or manual manipulation like Osteopathy, Shiatsu and massage.
All aiming, it can be said, to relax, strengthen and support in their function the internal organs and tissues in, above and below the peritoneal cavity – in other words: the abdomen or Hara, with a view on holistic healing.
There are a large number of breathing exercises in traditional Japanese and Chinese martial arts where attention is always kept on the dantian or hara to strengthen the "Sea of Qi".
As mentioned above, language barriers, uncertainty of oral tradition and lack of in-depth training and proper source material as well as the vast variety of schools can easily lead to terminological imprecision, misinterpretation and misunderstanding.
To see why this would be so and why there is such a wide scope of interpretation, it helps to have a look at the discourse arising from the varying description of the starting points and passageways of those vessels in the body, and the variation in terminology used in the respective sources.
Certainly from a classical Eastern point of view, knowledge and regular practice of those disciplines would have been (and is) seen as an essential part of self-development aimed at strengthening the practitioner's own health as well as their understanding of the nature and flow of Qi.
Without such personal and refined experience, it is considered difficult to foster and improve the skill of palpation at a level that allows the practitioner to determine the quality of Qi in his or her patient and influence it accordingly.