

When you practice and learn a qigong exercise movement, there are both external movements and internal movements. These internal movements or flows in China are called neigong or “internal power”. These internal neigong movements make qigong a superior health and wellness practice.


China’s 3,000-Year-Old System of Self-Healing

The effectiveness of qigong has been proven in China by its beneﬁcial impact on the health of millions of people over thousands of years. Developing the life force, or chi, is the focus of Taoism, China’s original religion/philosophy. The Taoists are the same people who brought acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, bone setting, and the yin/yang concept to the world.



Qigong Gives Mental Clarity


Taoism’s Three Spiritual Treasures


According to Taoism, every human being contains “the three treasures”—jing (sperm/ovary energy, or the essence of the physical body), chi (energy, including the thoughts and emotions), and shen (spirit or spiritual power). Wu (emptiness) gives birth to and integrates the three treasures.

The Taoists use the all-pervasive life energy as the basis of spiritual investigation. The ultimate goal, becoming one with the Tao, has been called many things, such as ‘enlightenment’, ‘meeting with the Father in Heaven’, ‘reaching Nirvana’, and ‘ultimate understanding’. Taoists feel that it is best for one to begin with the energy of the body, then progress through emotions and thoughts to spiritual power, before going for the ultimate.

Popular opinion has it that once you have reached a state of emptiness, you stay there, but this idea is false. You merely become increasingly familiar with this state and learn how to spend more and more time there. As long as you live in a physical body, physical needs continue to exert demands, and dwelling completely in emptiness is not possible. Taoism has developed advanced techniques to work with the energy of Wu.


Clearing Energy Blocks


Many monks from different Buddhist sects in China have had to seek out Taoist masters to repair the damage to their systems caused by overly forceful meditation techniques. That is why qigong is only a preparatory practice for Taoist meditation. qigong can help calm an agitated mind and your negative emotions, strengthen the nerves, clear energy blocks and make you healthy.

However, qigong alone is normally insufﬁcient to resolve and clear serious and traumatic emotional and spiritual blockages within the deeper layers of your consciousness. This more encompassing skill primarily belongs in the realm of Taoist meditation.

Qigong & Personal Development


Qigong Can Be Practiced by People of Any Religion


Qigong is Not a Cult

For ﬁve thousand years, Taoists have practiced techniques for developing chi. Most modern Taoists are reluctant to publicly declare that they do qigong and other energy work, preferring to quietly practice in private.

The United States and Europe are presently besieged by cults. Generally speaking, people involved in qigong do their best to avoid cult-ish identification. Qigong is something you do, something that beneﬁts your life. It is not you, you are not it. However, qigong can have potent effects and some cult groups have incorporated chi gung techniques into their practices to draw in adherents. The phenomenon of cults is something China has seen many times and has deemed to be nonessential in terms of human evolution and the development of consciousness.

The Taoists used chi gung to make the body healthier, the mind more clear and balanced, the emotions calmer and to increase spiritual capacities. They did not believe in making the practice of qigong yet another wedge to divide people into groups of those who do and those who do not.

The Mind Directs the Chi

The science of qigong is based on the axiom that the mind has the ability to direct chi, which this book can teach you how to accomplish. You can qigong can begin to feel their nerves, and this ability increases with time. You can literally learn to go inside your body with your mind, feel what is there, and direct your chi where it needs to go. This is not a mysterious process, but a natural one that can be acquired with time and effort.

It is possible to get 50 to 60 percent of the potential health beneﬁts of tai chi just by doing these exercises, which are probably only one-tenth as difﬁcult to learn as tai chi. In addition, there are higher level techniques in tai chi, which are accessible only after mastering all the internal material of these qigong exercises.

Relationship of Qigong to Tai Chi

In the West, most systems of tai chi or other internal martial arts are taught from the viewpoint of movement, with principles such as softness, relaxation, and body alignment thrown in. However, most of the internal components of tai chi that bring about health are commonly overlooked. Whether this lack of information is due to the reticence of teachers or the language and cultural barriers between China and the West, a large vacuum of knowledge does exist for Westerners.

The traditional and complete internal martial arts of tai chi, hsing-i, and bagua are extremely subtle and advanced forms of qigong. Authentic material on these arts is rarely found in the West and, where it is found, the transmissions tend to be clouded.

The qigong sets my instructors and I teach form the foundation for the health and power aspects of the Taoist warrior and the qigong healer traditions. By learning and practicing qigong, you will take the most important first steps toward genuine lifelong health and vibrancy, and awakening to your true essence.   Bruce Frantzis

Click here to find out more about learning Qigong, or to learn more about our first qigong exercise set: Dragon and Tiger Medical Qigong

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