the point of acupuncture?

So there I am, lying on the acupuncturist's table with an enormous dilemma...

19 little needles had been carefully - not painfully though - inserted into various parts of my body; yes, I counted them in - and I was damn well going to count them all out again - you never can be too careful!
Now, let's dispel a myth here - it's true - acupuncture DOES NOT HURT. I'm not a great lover of needles, but I don't fear them either - they have a job to do, so as long as I avert my gaze they can pretty well do as they please. These little blighters are tiny. They are more like the width of a human hair than anything you might use to darn a sock with. Yes, you might feel a little prick, but it is hardly that, more of a tickle really - honestly! and once they're in, well, you'd hardly know they were there.
As each needle is inserted the sensation is really quite peculiar. You feel it more in the whole of your body than in the puncture site itself. By this I mean that as each needle hit it's spot, it also seemed to hit the spot - if you know what I mean?? Every time a needle went in I would feel a bodily tingle. Now, don't get excited, we're not talking orgasmic proportions here - but I definitely felt that each one was going to be doing something really good if this was the effect it had just placing it in me.

So, my dilemma... Being a bit of wuss, and not having gone through this particular experience before, my eyes had remained tightly closed through the process so far. But now I had been left to cook - literally: 20 minutes of relaxation under a nicely glowing heat lamp to let the little darlings work their magic - and I was on my own. Just me and the needles.
To look - or not to look?? That was the question.

OK, so I'm generally alright about needles, but this was new territory. This was somehow unnatural and a bit spooky. I had never thought I would be on trial as a human pin-cushion, and I was slightly unnerved.

I carefully opened one eye.
I looked down at my arms and my tummy.
I opened the other eye.
I looked myself up and down.

Hmmm, that's alright, not freaky at all!
Now just lie back and relax....