Qigong - Chi Kung
by Roger Jahnke, OMD
Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine

THE VARIOUS WAYS OR PATHS OF QIGONG
In the myriad of approaches to the the practice of Qigong there are a
number of practice and practitioner profiles that help to show the broad
application of this personal development art:

*The healthy individual seeking peak performance
*The unwell individual seeking health
*The martial artist seeking ultimate power
*The doctor seeking healing methods for service to others
*The extraordinary individual seeking the maintenance of mysterious abilities
*The spiritual student seeking enlightenment

There are others as well as combinations of these. One might, as we noted
above start as a health seeker and progress to a spiritual seeker or start
as a health seeker and just perfect the ability to remain well. Many Qigong
practitioners bring a bit of each of these profiles to their practice.


* QIGONG IN THE HEALTHY: PEAK PERFORMANCE
Qigong practice activates a number of the body's self regulating systems
which are responsible for the balanced function of the tissues, organs and
glands. The uptake of oxygen, as well as, oxygen metabolism is tremendously
enhanced by Qigong practice. The positive impact of oxygen metabolism alone
has powerful implications for both physical and brain activity. In the area
of sports, peak levels of performance can be cultivated through Qigong in
addition to normal training. 

In the work of individuals who have physically demanding jobs the
refinement of function that comes with Qigong practice adds to strength,
stamina and endurance. Executives, whose work is more mental, derive not
only more endurance, but concentration, creativity and intuition, as well.
The tremendous health risk factors of tension and stress are profoundly
neutralized by the common effects of Qigong: enhanced oxygen metabolism,
balancing of the autonomic nervous system, pumping of the lymph,
enhancement of the bio-electrical field, etc.

Qigong is the medicine for the healer. When the directive is "physician
heal thyself". The perscription, in China, is Qigong. Qigong is referred to
as acupuncture without needles. Elmer Green, PhD, author of "Beyond
Biofeedback" and one of the great researcher/thinkers of the western world
has said "We have concluded from our work with hundreds of patients that
anything you can accomplish with an acupucture needle you can do with your
mind". The Qi Gong tradition in China is the discipline through which "heal
thy self" (healthy self) is accomplished. Breath, motion, intention and
visualization when activated together through the Qigong system are the
great preventive medicine that lies within.  


* QIGONG IN THE UNWELL: PROFOUND MEDICINE
In oriental medicine it is said that disease is the physiological
expression of a disharmony of the energy system of the body. Acupuncture
and herbal formulas, among other modalities, are administered to
rehabilitate the individual back to a state of balance and health. In a
similar fashion to western medicine, these are procedures that are "done
to" the patient. While these modalities are more natural and health
enhancing than surgery and medications they are still done to the patient
who is often a passive recipient of services. This dynamic is a betrayal of
the essence of oriental medicine as revealed in one of the the great laws
of oriental medicine, "teach rather than treat".  In the Nei Ching it says,
"The inferior physician treats diseases, the superior physician teaches the
well to remain well". We can see clearly the consequences of not honoring
this law in the modern world: people dependent on experts outside
themselves to "cure" them and a resulting health costs crisis.

Qigong captures the essence of oriental medicine in a personal practice
which includes all the necessary tools for self healing. Qigong is profound
medicine, it is easily learned, it is medicine that is always with the
person, it has no cost, requires no memberships or special equipment, the
individual does not need a doctor's order, permission, diagnosis or
prescription, it is not necessary to go to an clinic, hospital or pharmacy
to get it. This is a medicine so completely simple that the average person,
addicted to complexity, probably won't use it. The medicine is in the
person and needs only to be turned on.

In the 1950's in China it was a government mandate to explore the treasure
of traditional medicine as well as the technological medicine of the west
for the most efficient combination of clinical stratagies. A group of
gastro-intestinal cancer patients was divided into several experimental
groups. One group recieved radiological and chemo-therapeutic modlities,
one group recieved radiological, chemo-therapeutic and breath
physio-therapy (Qigong) and one group recieved radiological, chemotherapy,
Qigong and Fu Zheng (immune enhancing tonic herbs). The results showed
significantly longer survival rates for the groups that had treatments from
both Western medicine and Chinese medicine together. Unfortunately, the
Chinese were so enraptured with the Western techniques that they did not
have a group that used just Qigong and herbal formulas so we can only
speculate that such a group would have had better survival rates as well.

It is startling that this simple therapeutic tool should be so available
and not have created a revolution in health care. In 1896 in the United
States a small book was written on the powerful potential of breath
practice, "Nature's Cure For Chronic Diseases: The Greatest Health
Discovery of the Age", by H. C. Borger. This book, with no reference to any
oriental sources discribes healing through breathing exercises. It's
rationale is focused primarily on oxygen metabolism and circulation. It is
clear that experts, not only in the mysterious orient but also in the
western world, have found the cultivation of the breath to be a profound
therapeutic agent. Why then is breath practice not a common therapeutic
tool?

One especially important characteristic of this type of therapeutic
stratagy is that it can be done by elders and patients restricted to
wheelchairs and bed rest. In fact, this is an exercise that can be done by
individuals suffering from paralysis. The lying down Qigong that seems as
if nothing is happening is a perfect exercise for people with paralysis. In
Illinois a martial arts instructor named Cha Kyo Han uses Qigong-like
breathing exercises with progeressive resistance iso-metric exercises to
help people with multiple sclerosis, stroke, degenerative disease and
handicaps to improve their health. One of his MS patients has had dramatic
improvement and is walking and teaching the method to others. The potential
in Qigong for healing as well as health cost containment is very timely and
needed.


* QIGONG DOCTOR: QI PROJECTION
Patient empowerment and self care, as well as, medical cost reduction
possibilities have a special potential to transform medicine as it is
practiced in the western world. However, the aspect of Qigong that has
greatest potential to restructure medicine, as we know it, is the amazing
technique of "external" Qigong. In external Qigong the practitioner or
Qigong doctor does non-touch energy assessment of the patient and actually
projects or conducts Qi, in a treatment mode, to the patient. 

In assessment, rather than asking questions, taking pulses, observing the
tongue, palpating reflexes and ordering lab tests, the practitioner uses
concentration, intuition, and reading of the Qi with off the body
diagnostic scanning.  In treatment, the practitioner actually projects the
Qi to another to have a clinical effect. Both of these techniques seem
impossible and fantastic. However, research is revealing that there may be
authentic, explainable and demonstrable natural laws and mechanisms in
operation during these events. Therapeutic Touch, an assessing and healing
technique which uses an "off the body" technique called "unruffling the
field" has experienced a tremendous swell of interest in the nursing
community. The research of developer Delores Krieger, RN, demonstrated that
in-vivo hemoglobin values were significantly effected by the administration
of this energy based technique.

A unique aspect of the work of China's Qigong doctors is that a number of
them have developed the ability to manipulate the limbs of patients and
research participants from a distance, effect changes in the physical or
chemical properties of research materials with intention and cause
anesthesia by pointing at certain acupuncture points. ( Dr. Zhang Yu of the
Beijing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Xi Yuan Hospital has
amazed groups of American observers with his external conductance ability.
It seems that participants may be hypnotized or faking, however, studies
with animal subjects show similar reactions.  An October 1986 article in
the LA Times tells the story of  the Bejing practice of Master Xun Yunkun
who treats medical cases including terminal cancer and paralysis following
stroke with Qi projection. Another article describes "harnessing electrical
energy and projecting it across a distance to assist patients with
parkinsons disease, arthritis and other crippling diseases.

There is a tremendous wave of interest in this aspect of Qigong in the
western world and a number of very respectable research organizations are
currently expending substantial budgets on Qigong related projects. There
is a tremendous amount of research attempting to explain these phenomenon.
The American Foundation of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Dr. Zheng, Rong
Rong and Stanford physicist Professor William Tiller are doing a
collaborative research project on Bio-luminescence and Qigong with a focus
on satisfying the rational research model. One hundred and twenty eight
research papers were presented at the First World Conference for the
Academic Exchange of Medical Qigong in 1988 which was sponsored by the
China Medicial Association, Chinese Ministry of Health, China Qigong
Research Institutes and the Beijing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine
and attended by representatives from 17 countries.   

On one hand it is wonderful that there may be Qigong doctors with such
special abilities. It would be a shame, however, if interest in such
phenomena overshadowed the tremendous potential for all health seekers to
move toward freedom from dependence upon health experts outside of
themselves through self applied Qigong techniques.

* QI GONG IN THE MARTIAL ARTS: THE IRON SHIRT AND DRAGON FLYING
The martial arts in China are like baseball in America, a national
passtime. The roots of the martial arts are not particularly martial. Early
systematized exercise  traditions were developed in the monastic
communities as techniques for the cultivation of health and personal
development, often with the goal of longevity or immortality. The great
styles of the movement or exercise arts emmerged from natural philosophy
and spiritual persuit. Pa Qua and Hsing-I are steeped in spirituality and
the animal forms honor and mirror animal gestures as a pathway to harmony
and balance with the forces of nature. All of these styles and forms lend
themselves to martial application and during certain periods of China's
history, especially the Boxer Rebellion, the arts of personal cultivation
tended to become primarily martial.

It is Qigong in the martial arts that supplies the abundance of Qi that
makes the practitioner seem to fly, absorb tremendous blows and knock down
opponents with what look like minor punches. Qigong in the martial arts is
the source of what is called the "soft styles and inner strength". Qigong
in the martial arts engenders the stratagy where-in the great is defeated
by the small.  Qigong in the martial arts suggests that through supreme
development of the Qi the victor is a warrior who overcomes without needing
to strike. This is the greatest, most subtle victory where the opponent's
force is neutralized by a natural, nonviolent resolution that occurs
through an ultimate understanding of the Qi.

Through Qigong practice the martial arts practitioner develops the Wei Qi
protective energy and the surface tissue of the body into an "iron shirt"
which is impenetrable and can absorb the opponent's attack. With a special
understanding of the Qi the practitioner can combine a state of extreme
lightness with extreme flexibiltiy to achieve extraordinary leaping ability
that has earned some of the great practitioners nicknames like "leaping
butterfly master" and "dancing dragon flying".

* QIGONG IN EXTRAORDINARY HUMAN FACULTIES
Tales of extraordinary human feats have always been associated with Qigong.
The phenomenon of "exceptional human function" (EHF) has created quite a
bit of interest in the world's scientific communities.(5,6) It would be
irresponsible to claim that EHF is fully proven to the satisfaction of
western rational research science. Much of the research done in China does
not meet the extreme and rigorous parameters of the scientific method.
However, there are many research institutes in China that are
enthusiastically exploring EHF and Qigong.(5,6)

EHF has manifested in a large number of cases where children have had
unusual and extraordinary abilities. These are the famous psychic children
of China who have been documented as being able to read messages that are
inside of locked vaults and see through objects. In his book, "Encounters
With Qi", David Eisenberg a Harvard trained doctor reveals his experience
of two sisters who live near Beijing with "exceptional human function".
These young girls were able, repeatedly, to tell what a group of
researchers had written on papers that they could not have seen. Dr.
Eisenberg also tells of his experience at the Qigong Research laboratories
of the Shanghai Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine. A Qigong master
named Lin Ho-sheng caused the movement of an object from a distance of
several feet in an environment where no other force could have affected the
object.

It has been found that EHF is maintained and perpetuated by the practice of
Qigong. Qigong has been found to support the development of EHF in certain
practitioners who were not born with the skill. In children whose EHF
abilities were slipping away with age it was found that the abilities could
be regenerated or induced through the use of Qigong exercises.


* QI GONG AND TRANSCENDENCE: REFINING THE LIGHT BODY OF PURE ENERGY
In the spiritual traditions of China, Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism,
practices and disciplines for refinement of the spirit are common. Qigong
is a primary system for spiritual attainment. The practice of Qigong, in
this context, is aimed at the evolution and development of the inner being.
The body is seen as a local representative of the entire universe. As in
the hologram of modern science, the individual is, in a special sort of
way, the whole cosmos. 

One description of Qigong is as a discipline to "refine the body of pure
energy". The acupuncture centers on the front and back primary channels of
the "microcosmic orbit" are like energy gates. When the gates are open the
Qi developes and circulates. It spills out into all of the channels and
circuits. This is called the circulation of the light. When the light is
circulating to all of the organs, glands, limbs, tissues and cells the
practitioner is filled with, acknowledges and celebrates the light. As the
practitioner's attention is fixed on the body of light the dense body of
substance becomes secondary. Rather than a physical body with a resonating
energy field the individual, from this perspective, is an energy field that
has a small dense body of flesh at its center.

Thousands of years ago Chuang Tzu asked, "Is it Chuang Tzu asleep dreaming
he is a butterfly? Or is it the butterfly dreaming he is Chuang Tzu." In
the Qigong of transcendence it is asked, "Is the practitioner in the deep
Qigong state a person in a moment of transcendent energetic experience, or
is manifestation in a physical body actually a brief exploration into
substance by an entity whose normal state is one of highly refined,
resonating light energy". The post Einsteinian physics of the unified field
has revealed that our world is composed of dynamic relationships of energy.
Therefore, it is not that strange that the practice of transcendence should
be as much a part of the Qigong tradition as calesthenics and breathing
exercises that lower blood pressure. 

Richard Wilhelm's translation of "The Secret of the Golden Flower" is a
translation of a beautiful chinese classic of transcendence that focuses on
the "circulation of the the light and the backward flowing breath".
"Compared to the great Way, heaven and earth are like a bubble and a
shadow. Only the primal spirit and the true nature overcome time and space.
The energy of the seed, like heaven and earth, is transitory, but the
primal spirit is beyond polar differences. Here is the place where heaven
and earth derive their being. When students understand how to grasp to the
primal spirit they overcome the polar opposites of light and darkness and
tarry no longer in the three worlds. Only the seeker who has envisioned
human nature's original face is able to do this."(21)

QI GONG AS REMEMBERANCE
We can't yet say that Qigong has caused a revolution in Western science and
medicine. It is, however, a very primary player in a far reaching, cross
disciplinary transformation that is taking place. Western rational science
and the culture that it has created is perhaps the only cultural system
that has completely forgotten its energy cultivation tradition. As we begin
to remember our birthright to simplicity and limit ourselves to appropriate
levels of technology we can return to those "tried and true"  systems of
ancient cultures and recover the daily practice of profound self medication
from the energetic source that is contained within our being. Cultivating
one's own life force has no cost, it requires no perscription, it is always
with you, you need no membership, special equipment or particular attire,
it is extremely low impact but can be completely aerobic, you do not need a
diagnosis and doing it for fun during health is preferable to doing it
after one is sick to cure a heal

th problem. 

We, in the United States, spent nearly one trillion dollars on medical
products and services in 1994. It is startling that we could have the most
profound medicine with us, in us, and somehow forget to use it. As we begin
to turn to Qigong,  or some western style, "newly discovered" Qigong
analog, there promises to be a dramatic cut our in medical costs. More
welcome, even than this, is the potential that lies within remembering the
delicate balance of forces and elements that holds a system, any system, in
harmony and optimal function. With this rememberance we may also recall
that our families, communities and our planetary neighborhood require the
careful cultivation of a delicate balance. Through the exploration of
Qigong in the west we may coincidentally absorb some of the ancient Chinese
qualities from Taoist thought that so vigorously honor nature, the
environment and peace of mind.  


Roger Jahnke, OMD
Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
Director, Health Action

243 Pebble Beach
Santa Barbara, CA 93117
805-685-4670

Frequent study trips to China, 
Qigong * Chi Kung practice video available

76545.1556@compuserve.com