On the February 15th, 2007 episode of the Oprah show, Dr. Mehmet Oz, a noted NY surgeon and healthcare advocate, sited energy medicine as the medicine of the future. Quoting from Dr. Oz, “The reason I’m so excited and passionate about alternative medicine is the globalization of medicine.” According to Dr. Oz, alternative medicines deal with the body’s energy, something that traditional Western medicine generally does not recognize.

Qigong

According to Jerry Alan Johnson, author of Chinese Medical Qigong Therapy, Qigong is a combination of two ideas: “Qi” (pronounced chee), which means air, breath
of life, or vital energy that flows through all things in the universe, and
“Gong (pronounced gung, as in lung), which means the skill of working with,
or cultivating, self-discipline and achievement. Together Qigong means the skill of cultivating vital energy, or the ability to work with the electromagnetic energy of the body. The body is enveloped by Qi (electromagnetic currents), which sustains life; it is present in every cell of the body and affects both internal and external organ functions.

Medical Qigong

Jerry Alan Johnson sites Medical Qigong as one of the four main branches of
Chinese medicine; the others are acupuncture, herbal medicine, and medical
massage. Medical Qigong is the study of the energetic map of the body based on classical and alchemical Chinese medicine as well as more traditional Chinese medicine. Medical Qigong techniques can be practiced on oneself for self-cultivation or on others as healing protocols. Prescription exercises, meditations, and healing protocols enhance body, mind, and spirit, but they can also address the energetics of specific disease patterns. Healing occurs through balancing Qi and treating the client as a whole system.

Disease is caused by stagnation or blockage (energy not moving) and/or deficiency (not enough energy). The bottom line is that the client must remove the stagnation and take steps to ensure that stagnation does not return to the physical body, or any of the subtle bodies, where there are inherent weaknesses. The time needed to remove such blockages depends on how deep the pattern is, particularly if any form of disease has infiltrated the physical body and if the condition has existed for any length of time. The same line of reasoning applies to deficiency, where any deficient areas must be strengthened. Often times a deficiency and blockage occur at the same time. Therefore, the goal of all healing is not to just treat symptoms but to determine each client’s particular imbalances and find the root cause(s).

Self-practice is an important part of a client taking responsibility for their own healing process, and it speeds up the work performed by outside sources. Self-practice includes the following:

Meditation and spiritual practices in whatever spiritual path the client feels most inspired by. This assists clients in connecting to something larger than themselves and understanding their condition from a greater perspective of wholeness.
Dietary changes to assist in removing stagnation and giving support to any deficiencies.
Medical qigong exercises performed daily for particular conditions. These exercises combine the use of breath with individual physical movements, creative visualization, and intention. The primary goal is to purge toxic emotions from within the body’s tissues, eliminate energetic stagnation, as well as strengthen and balance the internal organs and energetic fields.

When working with outside sources:

Medical Qigong healing strives to balance the physical and subtle bodies and create new imprints. Healing can initiate changes at all levels: physical, energetic, emotional/mental, and spiritual. The experienced healer understands the relationship between the physical body and the subtle bodies as well as the interrelationship between elements, organs, meridians, chakras, and disease patterns.
In addition, Medical Qigong uses Personal Process Therapy to address psychological issues and clear the emotional/mental bodies. For example, physical illness can be the result of long-standing emotional suppression. It is also equally important to challenge limited or false belief systems and to have support for necessary lifestyle changes. In theory, body, mind, and spirit can be separated, but in experience, body-mind-spirit are different dimensions of the same human consciousness. Medical Qigong exercises, such as dry crying and beating the bag, are just two of the many ways that Medical Qigong practitioners work to resolve emotional issues.

Although miracles can and do happen, healing and transformation are generally hard work. When dis-ease is present, major changes are usually required at all levels (physical, energetic, emotional/mental, and spiritual), and each of these levels, other than the physical, can be considered as a subtle body or field that surrounds and penetrates the physical body. Medical Qigong provides one energetic healing modality for each one of us to reach our full potential.

Source: “Chinese Medical Qigong Therapy: A Comprehensive Clinical Text” by Dr. Jerry Alan Johnson

Lisa Van Ostrand is Doctor of Medical Qigong (China), Dean of Psychology at the International Institute of Medical Qigong, former dean of Advanced Studies at Barbara Brennan School of Healing, and a core energetic therapist. She teaches classes in Medical Qigong at various locations in the US. Contact: www.3treasureshealing.com