Qi Gong has a 3000-5000 year history in China. Wu Dang Taoist Qi Gong for health dates from the Tsung Dynasty – around 700 years ago. (24 generations). The term Qi Gong came into use around 1980 bringing together diverse but related practices: Dao Yin is the first form of Qi Gong which is physical exercise, stretching and self-massage; Jing Zhuo is sitting in tranquility or meditation; Nei Guan is to look inside; and Tu Na is to breathe in and breathe out. Together these are included in Qi Gong. Qi is vital or mystical energy. Gong is practice or training of the energy.

There are three sets or levels. The first level of Qi Gong practice is for self-healing, the second is for intuited healing of others and the third is for internal alchemy transformation. We each need to heal 3600 others in order to progress. When we achieve ultimate health, we become immortal. There are over 360 different styles of Qi Gong: Taoist, Buddhist, Traditional Chinese Medical, Martial Arts, Confucian, and more.

There are three Qi in the body: Wei Qi – defensive Qi, Yin Qi – nourishment Qi, and Zhong Qi – which protects the heart and lungs.

As I mentioned in last week’s blog, there are the three regulations of the body: mind, breath and body. The levels of breath regulation include: natural or abdominal breath, reverse breathing which massages the organs, Womb breath or auto reverse, and immortal breath. Regulation of the body has many styles but with the same principle – to relax the body. The regulation of the mind is to go beyond reality and go beyond learning and perception of the five senses.

The primary Qi Gong traditions of Wu Dang are Shen Dian and Zhong He. A third key tradition is Wu Xing (Five Element).

The first movement of Shen Dian is to collect Qi. You see yourself as inside an eggshell. Go beyond your imagination and beyond the ordinary five senses of sensing, knowing, seeing and feeling. Try to see you internal body, go to the ethereal body. Clean out toxins in the ethereal body by washing out the body with fresh Qi – put the “dirty” energy into the earth. The Aura or “Chang” or field is the ethereal body. The Qi Chang + me is Qi is Tao.

To let go of the self you must first feel and become aware and heal the self. Then you lose the self, extend the self, the field becomes the self. Intuition, or the 6th sense becomes activated and sound, color, vision and other experiences manifest. Once you can intuit and move into the field self on a regular basis you are at the intermediate level.

To heal you create a better internal environment. Bring in fresh energy, fresh “water” to cleanse and push toxic cells or energy. Refined oxygen is the killer of bad cells, it makes order in the cells. Increasing oxygen in the blood improves the immune system.

The Chong channel is the most important channel of the body. It regulates people’s pre-heaven energy. The channel begins to shrink around menopause. It is in charge of the aging process. Qi Gong helps to regulate the flow of energy in the channels and to reverse the aging process.