How Chi Kung works

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How Chi Kung works
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How Chi Kung Overcomes So Called

Incurable Illness
What is Chi Kung?

Chi Kung (or Qigong as it is also spelt) is the art of deliberately managing your
vital energy. Vital energy is the force that enables you and everyone else to
be alive. It is easier to learn than Tai Chi and less strenuous than Yoga. Chi
Kung usually combines simple external body movements with gentle
breathing methods and is performed in a meditative state of mind. It is the
oldest of the 5 branches of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), practiced by
millions of people daily worldwide and has a written record going back 5000
years. It requires zero athleticism or investment in equipment. If you can
spare 10-15 minutes a day, you can practice this art. In case you were
wondering Chi Kung and Qigong are different spellings of the same thing.

There is Only 1 Illness!

In order to easily understand how Chi Kung overcomes pain and illness we
first need to look at 2 very important concepts of TCM. Before we begin it is
vital to keep in mind that TCM is a very different approach to health and well
being than western medical philosophy.

Yin Yang Theory - I’m sure you recognise this symbol and
have heard of Yin and Yang. You cannot go to the shops
and buy a bag of Yin or a kilo of Yang. They are just
symbols and it is important to know right from the start that
nothing is completely Yin or completely Yang. Yin Yang theory is a theory of
relativity. At its simplest something is either Yin or Yang when in relationship
to something else. For example in a relationship between a boy and a girl, the
boy is more Yang (male) compared with the girl who more is Yin (female). But
if we take a different relationship say between a boy and a man the boy is
more Yin compared with the man who is more Yang. Yin and Yang can be
used in all relationships. For example: Front/back, night/day, slow/fast,
chronic/acute etc. So remember:

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Something is only Yin or Yang in relationship to something else.

In TCM, we use Yin and Yang to describe contrasting characteristics that are
relative to each other.

When we look at health we use Yin to represent our body’s natural ability to
respond to our constantly changing environment and Yang to represent all the
factors that may cause illness.

In TCM there is only one illness and that is Yin Yang disharmony. Or put
another way it means our body has failed in its natural ability to respond
appropriately to disease causing agents. Fortunately Good Health Is Your
Birthright and Yin Yang disharmony is unnatural. The great news is that:

From the TCM view of medicine there is no such thing as an incurable

disease!

If we can restore the balance between Yin and Yang we will restore health.
However if an illness has been left untreated for too long it may not be
possible to fully restore Yin Yang Harmony.

Meridians – Chi/Qi (or energy) flows throughout the body along streams
called meridians. Like a stream the flow may be just a trickle or it may be a
strong river.

There are 12 primary and 8 secondary meridians. The primary meridians flow
through internal organs and the secondary ones do not. When your energy
(or Chi or Qi) flows harmoniously through the meridians you have good health
(or Yin Yang harmony). When blockages to the flow occur they reduce the
flow of energy. These blockages can lead to pain, disease or illness. If the
blockage is severe enough to stop the flow of energy completely death quickly
follows.

Blockages to energy flow can occur in 4 different ways:

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1) Physical – if you accidentally cut yourself or fall over this may

cause a physical blockage to the flow of energy around your body.
Neither of these examples will be too severe, unlike a car crash that
may cause severe physical blockage to the flow of energy through
the meridians.
2) Emotional – if you have been suffering from a lot of stress over a
sustained period of time this will cause emotional blockages, other
emotional factors to consider include regular and prolonged
exposure to fear, anxiety and worry.
3) Mental – I remember when I first learnt this one. I simply couldn’t
believe it, but from my own experience I have discovered it to be
true. The number one cause of mental blockages is: Thinking too
much! That’s right; thinking too much is bad for your health.
4) Spiritual – the most obvious example of a spiritual blockage is
depression. Depression crushes the human spirit and affects you
physically, emotionally and mentally.

In practice, blockages do not occur in isolation. I.e. an event occurs and

causes an emotional blockage only. More common is that an event will affect
you in a number of different ways and have an effect on one or more of the
four aspects listed above. This happens because they are all interdependent.
The four definitions are given in isolation to aid our understanding of how Chi
Kung works.

The forte of Chi Kung is two fold:

1) It removes blockages to the harmonious flow of energy through

the meridians of your body thus restoring Yin Yang Harmony.
Whether these blockages are physical, emotional, mental or
spiritual in origin makes little difference to the effectiveness of Chi
Kung.
2) Once energy blockages are removed, Chi Kung can then
increase the flow of energy through the meridians promoting
vitality and longevity.

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I would like to mention at this point that it is vital you start removing any
blockages before increasing the flow of energy. It is a very common
misconception that increasing energy flow is the key to overcoming pain and
illness and promoting health and well being. But this is rarely the case.

An example will help show why. Imagine a hose pipe full of knots and
tangles, turn the tap on slightly and a small trickle may come out of the other
end of the pipe, but if you increase the pressure by turning the tap on full, the
water will not be able to flow through the pipe quickly enough and you will get
problems: a burst hose, damage to the tap, water backing up etc. If you
straighten out the hose beforehand, you avoid this problem.

This is not the greatest example because meridians are not like a hose pipe in
that they don’t have a fixed boundary. So you don’t need to worry about them
exploding! But I hope you get the idea.

Remember: Repair then Build!

There’s More Than One Way To Look At It

Now it’s important you realise that I’m not against Western Medicine. TCM
and Western medicine simply look at health using a different model.
Remember a model is just a way of looking at the same things and events. It
is not a set of facts.

Using the Western medical model to look at a person with high blood
pressure, we view him as having too much cholesterol choking his blood
vessels.

Using the TCM model and looking at exactly the same person in exactly the
same situation, we view him as having Yin Yang disharmony.

The question of which paradigm is correct is not very useful, because both are
correct in their own way.

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A better question is which paradigm helps to overcome the immediate

problems? The Shaolin Wahnam Institute has used the TCM model
successfully in helping many people to overcome so called incurable
diseases. But in an immediate situation, like in a car accident, the Western
medical paradigm may be more effective.

Chi Kung healing views a human as being made up of 3 parts:

1. Jing (physical body)

2. Chi (energy)
3. Shen (Spirit).

Depression for example is a Yin Yang disharmony of the Spirit (Shen). A

disorder of the Spirit will also affect energy (Chi) and the physical body (Jing).

There are many different ways to cure illness. Western medicine and Chi
Kung healing are only two of these many ways. Western medicine is usually
thematic whereas Chi Kung healing can be thematic and holistic.

Taking medical drugs to manage blood pressure is a thematic approach. It is

thematic because it does not improve the health of the patient as a whole
person, it addresses his particular problem. If he has a stomach problem
later, he would need a different treatment.

In Chi Kung healing, the approach can be thematic or holistic. By performing

a specific Chi Kung exercises, he can overcome high blood pressure.

But he will need a different exercise to overcome a stomach problem. In such

cases, this approach is thematic. This approach is used when the healer
wants to emphasize a particular purpose in the healing.

But Chi Kung healing can also be holistic in that it doesn’t just treat the
presenting problem, it treats the root cause. In fact Chi Kung healing is
usually holistic.

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An excellent example of holistic healing is self-manifested chi flow (a

wonderful exercise for curing illness). It does not matter what the illness is,
the chi flow will eventually overcome the illness as well as other illnesses the
healer and the patient may not even be aware of.

It is interesting to note that in China the Western paradigm and the TCM
paradigm are used together. It is not unusual for a person who has
undergone an operation to receive acupuncture, be given herbs or Chi Kung
exercises to help them to recover quickly and heal completely.

Remember: It’s not a question of which is best; it’s a question of which

approach addresses the immediate needs.

And There’s More...

Chi Kung has more to offer a regular practitioner than just overcoming pain
and illness and improving health. When we remove blockages to the
harmonious flow of energy in our meridians and then increase that flow of
energy, we now have more vitality to enjoy every aspect of our lives and
increase the pleasure we get from our work and play.

Having a harmonious flow of energy through our internal organs keeps our
organs in peak condition and will allow us to live to a ripe old age. The
practice of Chi Kung also brings with it Spiritual Insights. You can gain
insights into universal reality that confirm there really is more to life than this.

I’d like to emphasise that Spiritual does not mean Religious. A person of
any religious faith can practice and receive the benefits of Chi Kung. Chi
Kung is non-religious. By spiritual I mean being in touch with who you really
are, the deepest part of you. Everyone has a spiritual life, a spiritual journey.
If you are involved with a specific religion then that might be spiritual for you.
If you’re not religious then anything that gets you in touch with your inner self
e.g. quiet time, meditation, listening to music, reading great books, might be
spiritual for you. This part of your life can only be defined by you.

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Our spirituality is so important to our health and wellbeing, but it’s often the
most neglected.

Not All Chi Kung Is The Same!

You need to know what to look out for when choosing a Chi Kung class
because there are three levels of Chi Kung taught today:

• Low level Chi Kung. This is where only the form is practiced. Strictly
speaking this is not even Chi Kung, it is Chi Kung form. Unfortunately it is
the level at which the vast majority of Chi Kung in the world is practiced
today. The benefits you get are minimal and less effective than traditional
Western exercises like swimming, running or working out in the gym. This
level of Chi Kung will not help you to overcome pain and illness, it will not
improve your health, increase your vitality, promote longevity, enhance
mental clarity or give you glimpses of cosmic reality.
• Middle level Chi Kung is where a practitioner actively seeks to influence
his energy flow, by removing energy blockages and increasing energy
flow. This is the minimum level you want to be practicing Chi Kung at if
you wish to gain all of the benefits I mentioned earlier.
• High level Chi Kung is where the mind is used and has always been very
rare. Here a practitioner enters into a higher state of conscious-ness
called a “Chi Kung State of Mind” and is able to directly manipulate energy
the way they want, such as tapping energy from the cosmos, channelling
energy to various parts of their body or being able to transmit energy to
people in other countries to speed up their healing!

Different Types Of Chi Kung

Any attempt to classify the different types of Chi Kung is going to fall short of
the mark. There are literally hundreds of different types of Chi Kung and I
could write a big, thick book on this subject alone.

For the purpose of this report I have stuck to some of the more common types
of Chi Kung you are likely to encounter.

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It is useful to bear in mind that regardless of the different types of Chi Kung –
they all aim to promote physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health.

• Self-Manifested Chi Flow – sometimes known as medicinal Chi Kung

and one of the lowest forms of Chi Kung. But don’t make the mistake
of thinking that this means it is not worth your consideration. If you
suffer from pain and illness this type of Chi Kung will be of great
interest and value to you.

SMCF uses external movements to generate energy flow and usually

consists of three or more different Chi Kung patterns performed at a
much greater speed than normal. The breathing is spontaneous and
definitely not co-ordinate with the movements! But the exercises are
still performed in a meditative state of mind.

Because more than one pattern is involved more of the bodies

meridians are stimulated and the resulting chi flow is characteristically
quite vigorous. This vigorous chi flow is excellent for overcoming
illness.

• Dynamic Chi Kung – This type of Chi Kung is characterised by

external movements, co-ordinated with the breathing performed in a
meditative state of mind.

It is very safe and very powerful.

Safe because it consists of more than one “move” so if you perform

one part of the form wrong, all is not lost. In fact I remember once
seeing a student performing what I think was Lifting the Sky so badly
(from the form perspective) that I couldn’t be sure what pattern was she
was performing - but she still managed to have a very good Chi flow
afterwards!

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Powerful because depending on your state of development it can be

used to overcome pain and illness, increase vitality, promote mental
clarity, develop internal force for martial arts and for those who are
ready it can be used for spiritual cultivation.

This type of Chi Kung uses the breath to generate a gentler, deeper
“induced chi flow” – but it is not the art of breathing!

• Zhan Zhuang – also known as stance practice. This type of Chi Kung
is excellent for building internal force and developing mental clarity. A
practitioner of Zhan Zhuang remains in one pattern for “some time”.
Some time can range from one minute to one hour depending on their
development.

It is the crystallisation of generations of past masters. They have

concentrated the form down to just one static pattern. The downside of
this is that if you get the pattern wrong, you get it all wrong! And unlike
practicing a dynamic Chi Kung pattern, you will get no results.

Many students who practice this type of Chi Kung do not realise that
Zhan Zhuang is an exercise in relaxation – not endurance! In fact one
of the most common causes of deviation in this exercise is being tense.
Performing Zhan Zhuang incorrectly can result in very harmful side
effects and therefore it is important to learn this type of Chi Kung from a
master or competent instructor and not from a book!

Some famous patterns commonly used in Zhan Zhuang are Horse

Riding Stance, Golden Bridge, Three Circle Stance, Embracing the
Cosmos and Three Treasure Stance.

• Advanced Chi Kung – This type of Chi Kung commonly uses the mind
to move energy around the body.

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I consider it impossible to learn from a book, or from a video or DVD.

This type of Chi Kung must be learned directly from a master.

Key Message

My aim with this article has been to help you understand how and why Chi
Kung works, the benefits that it brings, what to look out for when choosing a
Chi Kung class and to give you a snapshot of the most common types of chi
kung your likely to encounter. What I would really like you to remember from
this article is this:

You CAN take back the responsibility for:

• Your Health
• Your Vitality
• Your Happiness
• Your Longevity
• Your Spirituality

Through the practice of high level Chi Kung.

Sifu Marcus Santer is 4th Generation Shaolin Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit's most
senior student in the United Kingdom and chief instructor of the Shaolin Wahnam
Institute - UK. He teaches Shaolin Kung Fu and Shaolin Cosmos Chi Kung under the
guidance of Grandmaster Wong and is Author of Shaolin Chi Kung – 18 Exercises
To Help You Live A Longer Healthier And Happier Life. You can download the first 20
pages for free at: www.shaolinchikungbook.com

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