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Medicine Man

East meets West in his healing hands

An acupuncturist and Eastern-medicine healer, Ethan Borg ’94 says his “goal is to put myself out of business.”

To that end, he has invented a revolutionary form of what he calls “intuitive” medicine. Ordinary people can use it, he says, to treat hundreds of health complaints with just a few
minutes of training, which he offers for free.

His approach, called “EM,” is a type of “energy medicine” that combines ancient Chinese systems, including feng shui, with modern knowledge of anatomy and physics. According to Borg, EM allows practitioners to
diagnose and treat people over long distances, using “nontouch healing techniques.”

His journey began at Swarthmore when Western treatments failed to relieve his chronic fatigue syndrome. 

“Eastern medicine was the one approach that had a truly beneficial impact on my well-being when I was sick,” he says. 

After graduation, he worked in the tech industry, but couldn’t resist exploring his passion. Borg went to a top acupuncture school and, for the past 13 years, has run a thriving alternative-medicine practice, currently located in Rochester, N.Y.  

In addition to seeing patients in person, he can also deliver what he calls “broadcast energy treatments” to people anywhere in the world. 

If you’re skeptical, Borg understands. 

“From a Western perspective,” he says, “it is a huge leap of faith to try alternative medicine.” 

Even so, he has gained the confidence of Western practitioners. He gets many referrals of patients with Lyme disease, and earlier in his career he helped scores of couples overcome fertility problems that resisted conventional treatment.

His own father, a radiologist, sees the benefit of Borg’s work. “Both my parents would prefer I were a Western-medicine doctor,” he says, but they have made their peace with his choice—both come to him as acupuncture patients.