ResourcesAs qigong is gaining popularity in the West, more information is being sought after by practitioners and individuals looking for alternative health care.
Currently, the majority of research on qigong has been conducted in China and has not made it to the West. However, a few diligent researchers have painstakingly translated some these studies and articles.
In the FAQ, Articles, Research, and Links sections a sample of information regarding qigong is offered. In the future we will add to each of these areas. As our site is in develpment, a few of the links below are not functioning yet... apologies.
FAQMedical QigongMedical Qigong is an ancient form of Chinese energetic medicine, and is one of the four main branches of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), along with acupuncture, herbal medicine, and medical massage. As with the other "Branches" of TCM, healing occurs through balancing qi or electromagnetic energy which surrounds and pervades all living creatures.
Disruptions in the electromagnetic energy of the body occur throughout our lifetime as a result of poor diet, sedentary or excessive lifestyle, injuries, surgery, toxic influences, suppression of emotions, and aging.
The goal of qigong is to correct these bio-energetic imbalances and blockages. This enables the body to strengthen and regulate the internal organs, the nervous system and the immune system, relieve pain, regulate hormones, and strengthen and release deep-seated emotions and stress.
Medical qigong therapy consists of a pre-treatment evaluation dialog between practitioner and client, diagnosis in accord with principles of Chinese medicine, and treatment by a practitioner to regulate the client's qi. After the treatment the client will be given qigong prescriptions to assist in their ongoing healing. Tailored specifically for the client, medical qigong exercises use physical movement, breathing methods and mental intention to correct and restore functions in the body.
Medical qigong is a complete system of health care that recognizes the root causes of symptoms or disease, and treats the client as a whole. Practiced as an excellent adjunct to Western medicine, Chinese medicine may successfully treat people with conditions which Western medicine finds resistant or ambiguous.
In China and more recently in the United States, doctors have applied qigong in hospitals and clinics to treat individuals suffering from a variety of ailments. Medical qigong therapy and prescriptions can be used to treat people with cancer and help reduce or eliminate side effects from radiation and chemotherapy. It may help in the treatment of cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson disease and post-stroke syndrome. It may be especially useful in treating chronic issues generally such as chronic pain, chronic disorders of the digestive, respiratory, cardiovascular and nervous systems, and chronic disorders that have suppressed emotion as a root cause.
Like any other system of health care, qigong is not a panacea but a highly effective health care practice. Many health care professionals recommend qigong as an important form of complementary and alternative medicine.
Medical qigong may be especially useful when combined with quiescent sitting meditation which is used to ground, root, and relax the mind. For many people, just 10 minutes per day of sitting meditation (or 10 minutes morning and evening), may increase mental clarity, warmth, and connectedness to the world around them.
In practicing complementary and alternative medicine, we seek tosupport the care of your existing physician, therapist, or acupuncturist.
Benefits of QigongBecause the body's electromagnetic energy underlies all of the processes and conditions of the body, balancing the body's energy with qigong can potentially enrich and improve anyone's life. Effective qigong does not require beliefs or challenge one's spiritual belief system. Instead, it is is a system of felt and sensed direct experience within exercises and meditations that enable people to feel and perform better and have higher levels of energy and stamina.
For thousands of years qigong has been used to increase healing, prevention, mental clarity and heartfelt warmth, and to increase longevity. It can be especiall useful in the care of chronic conditions that have proven difficult to treat, including illness syndromes having stress and suppressed emotion as underlying root causes. Qigong exercises properly practiced can:
Qigong may reduce or eliminate symptoms for conditions which allopathic medicinefinds resistant or ambiguous.
Types of QigongIn qigong a vocabulary of breath work, movements, stillness, creative visualization, and intention provide a palatte that can be combined (in accord with the client or student's temperament and ability) to focus on a specific purpose. This purpose or goal determines the specific type of exercise or meditation you choose to practice.
Often people find that a form of qigong they are using provides benefits that generalize into other areas of their lives. Practicing martial qigong will benefit your health and enhance your spirituality; medical qigong used for self-healing or for the care of others as a health practitioner may greatly benefit your martial art discipline, your spirituality, or your relationships with others; spiritual qigong practice can certainly enhance both martial skills and health.
The three major qigong disciplines:
Martial or Sports QigongDone correctly, qigong can improve performance in the martial arts or any other activity. Chinese martial artists designed or helped to improve many qigong techniques as they looked for ways to increase speed, stamina, and power, improve balance, flexibility, and coordination, and condition the body against injury. Through synchronizing mind, body and spirity, improving mental clarity, and releasing held emtional baggage, qigong exercises can potentially improve performance in any sport or activity.
Medical QigongMedical qigong therapy and prescriptions combine movement and stillness, increasing sense and felt perception, breath work, and mental intention. The goal of qigong is to correct electromagnetic imbalances, enabling the body to strengthen and regulate the internal organs, the nervous system, and the immune system to relieve pain, regulate hormones, strengthen and purge deep-seated emotions and stress. Medical qigong therapy offers clients a safe and effective way to help rid themselves of many years of held electromagnetic disruptions in their body caused by poor diet, sedentary or excessive lifestyle, injuries, surgery, toxic chemical and environmental influences, suppression of emotion, and aging.
In China and more recently in the United States, doctors have applied qigong in hospitals and clinics to treat individuals suffering from a variety of ailments. Medical Qigong therapy and prescriptions can be used as adjunt therapy in treating people with cancer, and may help reduce or eliminate side effects from radiation and chemotherapy. It may help in treating cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson disease and post-stroke syndrome. It is especially useful in treating chronic disorders generally: chronic pain, chronic disorders of the digestive, respiratory, cardiovascular and nervous systems, and chronic health disorders having suppressed emotion as a root cause.
Medical qigong can be divided into two methods of application: 1) internal qigong self-treatment and 2) external qigong qi emission for others.
Spiritual QigongSpiritual qigong includes movement and stillness. Qigong calisthenics, tendon changing, stretching, and spiritual dao yin (exercises) clear the body of stagnations and open the dantians, channels, and meridians. Breath training deepens the synchronization of body, mind, and spirit. Meditation is training in resting in stillness, which of course includes taming and training discursiveness and one's incessant addiction to "me". Loving kindness for oneself and compassion for others are both a cause and a result of learning, contemplation, meditation, and body/mind/spirit synchronization. Spiritual qigong develops clarity, warmth, and non-duality, or the felt-sense of non-separation and joy. Spiritual Qigong under the guidance of a genuine teacher expresses the essence of both Buddhism and Daoism.
ArticlesIIMQ and Henan University of TCM Sign Historic AgreementJerry Alan Johnson, Ph.D., DMQ and Dr. Bernard Shannon, DMQ
In late in 1999 due to the political repercussions of the Falun Gong Qigong Schools, the Central Government of the Peoples Republic of China (China) placed extreme sanctions on Medical Qigong instruction and clinical application within universities and hospitals. During this time period, the government put a sudden halt to any and all group qigong practices. As well, in the middle of the night, armed guards entered the various Medical Qigong colleges, laboratories, and clinics removing all research material and scientific equipment. Several qigong doctors and instructors were held for interrogation, and sadly, several Medical Qigong hospitals and clinics were closed.
Medical Qigong: Therapy and SurgeryJerry Alan Johnson, Ph.D., DMQ
Medical qigong therapy is useful for treating patients before, during and after surgery. Qi emission can be used in order to reduce the patient's bleeding, enhance the immune system, minimize the risk of infection, strengthen the body, and accelerate the recovery rate. Medical qigong modalities are involved in the following aspects of operative therapy: preoperative therapy, surgery, postoperative therapy, follow-up therapies and remedial prescriptions.
Causes of Arthritis from Chinese Medical PerspectiveJwing-Ming Yang
Although we understand how some forms of arthritis start, we are still in the dark about other forms. This article summarizes the known possible causes, and also contributes some ideas from Chinese medicine and qigong.
Effects of Qigong on the Nervous SystemRoger Jahnke, O.M.D
This article discusses the effects of qigong on the nervous system. He states that balance is the state between rest and action called dynamic equilibrium. This is the state that training in taiji (taichi) and qigong seeks to refine.
ResearchMedical Applications of QigongKenneth M. Sancier, Ph.D.
This article reviews selected scientific studies of medical applications of Chinese qigong. The intention of the review is to outline research on qigong and its potential for improving health care in Western countries. The review centers on clinical and experimental studies to show that qigong exercise can beneficially affect many functions of the body and improve health. The studies were selected to illustrate the following points: medical applications of qigong are diverse, some studies were conducted in depth, and many applications hold promise to improve western health care.
Therapeutic Benefits of Qigong Exercises in Combination with DrugsKenneth M. Sancier, Ph.D.
The therapeutic role of qigong exercises combined with drugs is reported for three medical conditions that require drug therapy for health maintenance: hypertension, respiratory disease, and cancer. In these studies, drugs were administered to all patients who were divided into two groups, a group that practiced qigong exercises and a control group that did not. Taken together, these studies suggest that practicing qigong exercises may favorably affect many functions of the body, permit reduction of the dosage of drugs required for health maintenance, and provide greater health benefits than use of drug therapy alone.
Qigong ResearchKenneth Cohen
The author reviews selected scientific studies of medical applications of Chinese qigong. The experiments cited in these studies may be broadly divided into two categories:
How Chi Gong Works on CancerPaul Dong
This article discusses the effect of many different forms of qigong (chi gong) on cancer and various other diseases. I disagree with the author's statement, "the use of qigong cancer treatment in China originated with Ms. Guo Lin." Although she may have helped popularize the use of qigong in the general population, qigong has been used for centuries for many ailments including cancer.
An experiment that demonstrates the effectiveness of qigong: Test tubes filled respectively with coliform bacillus and dysentery bacteria, golden and white staphylococcus, and virus were handed over one by one to a qigong master, who held each of the tubes firmly in his hand for a minute to release external energy (qi) at it. A projector displayed the image of each experimental sample on a screen. Under an electronic microscope, the bacteria were shown to be expanding, cracking, and dissolving, being killed by qigong.
Measuring QiChiExplorer.com
This site references a group, most of which were physicians, chiropractors, massage therapists, or researchers who went to China to discover whether qi is real. In the experiments they used Kirlian photography, EEG, and an infrasonic microphone to measure qi.
Therapeutic Touch Can Change the Human Energy FieldRichard H. Lee
This study shows that healing methods similar to Therapeutic Touch can change the Human Energy Field.
In its April 1, 1998 issue, JAMA published a fourth grade science project which was claimed that Therapeutic Touch was ineffective because practitioners could not accurately determine whether a nine-year-old girl's hand was close to theirs. A far more accurate test of effectiveness of Therapeutic touch (External Qigong) involves measuring, not the ability to sense a human energy field, but rather, to change a human energy field.
Links
Coming soon
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Revised, Copyright E.W.Shaffer