I wouldn't want to be in the position of having to stick a needle into someone's spinal cord for all of the rice in China.

My parents are anesthesiologists though, and apparently it isn't that big a deal. You do it by feel. One crunch and you're in the subarachnoid space (or whatever), two and you're in the epidural space.

Very interesting video. I always like these surgery videos, but it kind of takes the magic out of it. When it comes down to it, they're just cutting and sewing and chopping and scraping and shoving. Knee replacements are the worst. Then they're doing a good deal of hammering too.

traditional (non-cut-and-sew) medicine in terms of bio-mimicry could be a resourceful tool, as we are all part of a larger biological scope. However, I don't know what this "slight of hand" has anything to do with a good "shaman" unless they were working off of pure placebo.

This actually reminds me of "Man on the Moon" which is an excellent movie.