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Another important use of Energy Medicine can be found in the ancient Chinese practice of Qi Gong (or Chi Gong), the foundation of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) that combines movement, meditation, and regulation of breathing to enhance the flow of chi in the body, improve blood circulation, and enhance immune function.

The principles of Qi Gong date back 3,000 years and begin with the concepts of yin (feminine) and yang (masculine) energies. The balance between yin and yang is essential for health, it is maintained, as imbalance creates disease. As in yogic practice, breathing and meditation have always been important components of Qi Gong. Specific breathing techniques are used to concentrate chi. When chi was incorporated into Qi Gong (ca. 500 when it was a martial art), it was observed to improve health, increase physical strength, as well as improve fighting ability.

Philosophically speaking, there are five forms of Qi Gong:

• Confucianist seeks to attain the highest moral character and intelligence.

• Buddhist seeks to liberate the mind.

• Daoist Qi Gong emphasizes preserving the physical body and higher levels of spiritual cultivation.

• Martial arts emphasizes self-defense.

• Medical focuses on healing of self and others.

Qi Gong employs meditation, mental concentration, and visualization combined with very slow, specified movements and sensory awareness of the flow of chi in the body. The starting point, as with pranayama, is quieting of the mind.

Qi Gong has many similarities to Tai Chi. Some fifteen plus years ago, Roger Jahnke, a Tai Chi Master, and I were talking, and I suggested that I would take up Tai Chi when I was seventy-five, as I figured it would take a full year to learn this complex system. His response was, “Norm, Tai Chi is simply movement meditation. You know how to meditate and you know how to move.” Thus, I began doing what I call free-form Tai Chi which I have done daily to some extent for the past thirty-five years. Basically it consists of my “listening” to, which means feeling, every aspect of my body, sensing areas that need to be relaxed or stretched, and moving into and through those areas. Some years later, I was talking with a Qi Gong master in Minneapolis and discussed what I was doing. He said, “Ah, that is free-form Qi Gong.” So that gives us some indication of how similar the movements are in Qi Gong and Tai Chi. Roger Jahnke said that there are at least “sixty masters” of Tai Chi who have their own specific recommendations, but those are primarily to attract you to study their particular approach.

Qi Gong is widely used throughout China, where there have been reports of cures for many diseases, including cancer. I cannot be certain, other than some of its particular rituals, that it is significantly different from Pranic Healing or any other form of spiritual healing. Obviously the martial arts component of the meditative aspects of Qi Gong are somewhat unique to this particular practice.