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Integrating Ancient Chinese Healing
for the 21st Century
Education of Chi Kung and Energy Medicine
via Research and Practice in New Mexico, USA
Integrative Chi Kung is the comprehensive integration of millenary Chi Kung techniques dating to over 5,000 years, and current science. Combining ancient intuition and new knowledge creates a solid foundation for a healing art to take us into the future in health and joy.
Ancient masters came to the understanding that everything is composed of the same energetic substance, which they called Chi (Qi). Traditional Chinese Medicine is primarily based on the understanding of the transformation of Chi throughout the human body. Today quantum physics proposes that all matter is composed of energy that is constantly vibrating at different frequencies. Underlying all of this motion is a ubiquitous force that quantum physics has called zero point energy (ZPE)―energy undetected by our human senses but present in every centimeter of air and space. The Institute of Integrative Chi Kung understands that Qi is equal to ZPE.
Although the existence of this underlying force has been intuited since ancient times, science has recently measured and scientifically proven its existence. Currently scientists are beginning to understand that DNA acts as a conduit for this all-pervasive energy field. It has been proven that DNA acts as a superconductor, transporting electrons down the length of its double helix. Furthermore, recent research has shown that DNA is affected by energy fields generated by the human body itself. Evidence of the influence of human being’s electromagnetic field is found in scientific studies showing that energy emitted by human hands can directly affect wound healing, tissue growth, and protein formation.
DNA emits energy in form of biophotons, which have been measured and scientifically documented. Based on this data, it has been postulated that DNA’s base pairs, and their specific positions and shapes, may act as antennae for specific electromagnetic frequencies, which may determine what proteins or enzymes are produced. Some believe that these emitted biophotons may actually be the energetic blueprint that directs the physical machinery of DNA to accomplish its task within our 100 trillion cells.
The word Chi Kung (Qigong or Chi Gong) is made up of two Chinese words. Chi is pronounced Chee and is usually translated to mean the Life Force or quantum vital-energy that flows through all things in the universe. The second word Kung means skill that is cultivated through steady practice―mastering. Together, Chi Kung means cultivating energy or mastering human energy, it is a system practiced for health maintenance, healing and increasing life vitality―the skillful practice of applying Life Force energy.
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The Motive Force: Chi
That which animates life is called Chi. The concept of Chi is absolutely at the heart of Chinese medicine. Life is defined by Chi even though it is impossible to grasp, measure, quantify, see, or isolate. Immaterial yet essential, the material world is formed by it. An invisible force known only by its effects, Chi is recognized indirectly by what it fosters, generates, and protects.
Matter is Chi taking shape. Mountains forming, forests growing, rivers streaming, and creatures proliferating are all manifestations of Chi. In the human being, all functions of the body and mind are manifestations of Chi: sensing, cogitating, feeling, digesting, stirring, and propagating. Chi begets movement and heat. It is the fundamental mystery and miracle.
Life cannot be separated from the way it manifests. When the heart beats and the breath is warm, it is understood that life exists within the body. When the heart stops beating and the body becomes cold, the life force, or Chi, is no longer present. Life force and Chi are one. Like fresh air, healthy Chi moves freely; like stale air, stagnant Chi is heavy, oppressive, constrictive, and congestive.
Like air, Chi has its own movement and also activates the movement of things other than itself. Just as the wind moves the trees, grasses, and water, so Chi moves the chest, causing inhalation and exhalation. People do not inhale Chi. Rather, Chi is the motive force that establishes respiration. In this way, Chi is the cause and also the effect.
The essence of food is also a form of Chi. This highly refined essence is the source from which the material form of the body is constructed. When the Chi of food and the Chi of air enter the body, they become one entity known as "pure" or "righteous" Chi. Air Chi represents the immaterial motivating aspect of Chi and Food Chi the material or constructing aspect. Chi is both the foundation of structure and the catalyst of transformation and movement.
Scholar Nathan Sivin relates that by the year 350 in Chinese writings about nature, the word Chi meant "basic stuff." He comments that in Chinese thought there was a tendency
to think of stuff and its transformations in a unitary way .... [Chi is] simultaneously "what makes things happen in stuff" and (depending on context)""stuff that makes things happen" or "stuff in which things happen." ... Chi is often the material basis of activity, but the activity itself is often also described as Chi .... This is not an easy idea for modems, with their clear distinction between substance and function, to grasp. The ambiguity is impossible to overlook, but discourse was adapted to it, and the readers for whom it was intended did not complain that it is confusing. By the time a medical literature developed, its authors tended to use Chi predominantly in the functional sense.
Medical understanding was generated from ideas about nature. According to the ancient Chinese art of practical ecology, known as Feng Shui ("Wind Water"), the earth has veins of energy that course through it, hold it together, and act as a grid from which all life derives its power. The movement of wind and water reflects the activity of Chi.
The forces of Chi can work to our advantage or disadvantage. By closely observing the formation of mountains, growth of trees, flow of water, movement of wind, and patterns of light and shadow, the practitioner of Feng Shui places us in a favorable relationship to these forces, to derive maximum benefit from the environment. The object is to align human dwellings, objects, and activities with the current of Chi. The point of focus is the relationship between the person and the patterns of Chi. This protects and enhances our power and good fortune. The doctor as gardener practices Feng Shui in that he seeks to place human beings in a beneficial relationship to Chi.
Chi Kung Practice
Through the study and practice of Chi Kung, one can cultivate an awareness of Chi and its individual pathways, learning to influence and control, in a conscientious and focus manner, its energy power. Chi Kung practitioners use these skills to alter the energy of organs and pathways creating an environment where the body can reestablish balance and heal itself.
The goal of Chi Kung is to correct bio-energetic imbalances and blockages in the body that accumulate throughout our lifetime. These imbalances derive from poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, injuries, surgery, toxic influences, suppression of emotions, and aging. Medical Chi Kung therapy and Chi Kung self-treatment, both enable the body to return to its natural state of health and harmony, relieving pain and stress and regulating hormones. Deep-seated emotions, which are considered a major root cause of illness within Chinese medicine, may be purged and released. This strengthens the body and regulates the internal organs, the nervous system and the immune system.
As preventive healthcare, Chi Kung may be utilized as part of our regular regime to protect the practitioner from both acute diseases as well as chronic degenerative conditions by strengthening immunity and resistance, regulating vital functions, enhancing vitality, and keeping the human energy system in perfect balance. After several centuries of working to conquer disease with chemicals, drugs, radiation, radical surgery and other technological solutions, and attempting to prevent disease with vaccinations, synthetic additives to fortify food, and all-out chemical warfare against germs, medical science is beginning to realize that ‘the best offense  is a good defense’, and that the best defense is a strong, well-balanced energy system.
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