Benefit #3: It increases awareness of the tip of the needle.
Somewhat related to the last post, the more you handle the whole length of the needle, the better your kinesthetic awareness will be, and the better you will be at feeling exactly where the tip of the needle is. That is to say, where you think the tip is will be the actual location of the tip, and not a few millimeters away.
Aside from the benefit of not poking yourself with the pointy end, there are a great many acupuncture techniques that require you to focus on the tip of the needle while it is inserted in your client. The more accurate you are in your sense of where the needle tip is, the better you will be able to sense and manipulate Qi at the acupuncture point. This means that your techniques will work better, and you will be able to get a more complete release in opening up the acupuncture point for treatment.
