Qigong (pronounced as 'chee gung') is a household name in China associated with a broad range of mental and physical exercises generally regarded as beneficial to health maintenance and health improvement and practiced by over 100 million people. It is related to martial arts, Chinese tradition medicine and Chinese culture in general. Qigong was recently introduced to the American public in Bill Moyers's PBS TV series "Healing and The Mind". Among the many forms of Qigong, Yan Xin Qigong, which Dr. Yan Xin (pronounced as 'Yan Shin', with Yan as the family name) practices and teaches, is recognized by the Chinese public as the most powerful and the most effective. In fact, due, largely, to Dr. Yan Xin's tremendous efforts in the last fifteen years, the power of Qigong has been shown to the society, especially in China, where over 100 million people are now practicing Qigong in various forms. Because of the importance of Yan Xin Qigong (YXQ) to the maintenance and improvement of health (a great societal concern especially now), to the development and elevation of modern sciences, and to all other aspects of humanity, this introduction is written to bring to your attention this extraordinary human achievement and wonderful human power.
2.1 Dr. Yan Xin's Healing Power
Dr. Yan Xin (pronounced as Yan Shin, with Yan as the family name) is best known in China as "the miracle doctor" who has cured thousands of patients with difficult and often terminal diseases, including comminuted fracture, diabetes, paralysis, coronary heart disease, cancers, and AIDS. (Please click here for a brief biography of Dr. Yan Xin). Dr. Yan Xin is a doctor by training in both western medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine. On top of his formal medical education, Dr. Yan has received over 40 years of extensive training in Chinese Traditional Qigong (pronounced as chee gung) from about 30 high-level Qigong masters since he was less than four years old. As his reputation of miraculous Qigong healing grew widely, patients from all over the country have come to him by the thousands. To satisfy this great demand Dr. Yan invented a way of teaching and healing called the Qi-emitting lecture. During such a lecture, with an audience ranging from thousands to tens of thousands, Dr. Yan emits the external Qi to induce and excite the latent functions and energies and to affect unimaginable changes in human bodies while he teaches the general principles and practice methods of Qigong to the audience. As a result of attending these Qi-emitting lectures, a large number of patients with serious illness were either cured or significantly improved. Many of these cases have been well documented in over 70 published books, numerous newspaper accounts, and television interviews about Dr. Yan. Dr. Yan has given hundreds of Qi- emitting lectures in China, Japan, Thailand, U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico. The direct audience numbers over millions of people. Tens of millions have read books about him, heard him on audio tapes or watched him on the video tapes because millions of copies of books about Dr. Yan, and millions of copies of the audio and video tapes of his Qi-emitting lectures have been sold.
2.2 Dr. Yan Xin's Contribution to the Scientific Understanding of Qigong
Besides his tremendous amount of work in Qigong healing for the people, Dr. Yan, through his continuing Qigong scientific research, has also contributed the most to the better understanding of Qigong in our modern society. Over twenty scientific papers describing some of the Qigong experiments Dr. Yan has performed have been published. These experiments have provided certain underlying reasons for the success of Qigong healing and are beginning to remove certain mysterious or mystical clouds surrounding Qigong healing. In fact, due, in large part, to Dr. Yan's scientific experiments, Qigong healing is now an officially accepted medical treatment in China, and Qigong itself is starting to get the attention of the modern scientific community.
Dr. Yan came forward in the early 1980s and collaborated with scientists from some of China's foremost scientific institutions such as Qinghua University, Beijing University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other research institutions. He has shown, as other Qigong masters did, that Qi has certain physical properties that are easily detectable using modern instruments. He has demonstrated that the external Qi of Qigong can change the molecular structure of water, which constitutes over 65% percent of the body fluid of a human being, as well as the molecular structures of saline and glucose solution, which are critical to the physiological functions of a human body. He has also shown that the external Qi of Qigong can also change the structures of DNA and RNA which are the basis of the genetic code. On a more fundamental level that is still detectable by modern sciences, Dr. Yan has further demonstrated that the external Qi of Qigong can significantly change the decay rate of a radioactive element as well as the rotation angle of the polarization plane of a laser beam. All these were accomplished either at close distances or at ultra-long distances from 2000 km to 10,000 km. These incredible experimental results suggest that perhaps Qigong is associated with certain fundamental force of this universe. Therefore it may not be too hard to imagine using Qigong for practical applications. For example, Dr. Yan has already successfully applied Qigong to improving large scale agricultural and industrial production. Dr. Yan is currently conducting a variety of Qigong experiments in collaboration with a number of scientific institutions, including the National Institute of Health in the United States.
The reason for his extraordinary healing powers and scientific achievements lies in the fact that Dr. Yan personifies the Chinese Traditional Qigong. Yan Xin Qigong (YXQ), which Dr. Yan Xin practices and teaches, represents Chinese Traditional Qigong.
Several types of Qigong are being practiced extensively in China. One type is the contemporary Qigong which are now regularly practiced by a huge number of people in China as seen in Bill Moyer's PBS series "Healing and Mind". These Qigong methods, created by contemporary Qigong practitioners, are popular, easy to learn, and generally beneficial to health. These popular forms of Qigong helped the spread of Qigong practice in the modern society. Another type is the sectarian Qigong. It includes Taoist Qigong, Buddhist Qigong, Confucian Qigong, Medical Qigong, Martial Arts Qigong, and Folk Qigong. In fact, various Martial Art forms, such Tai Chi Chuan, Kung Fu, etc are developed based on Martial Arts Qigong. Many of the highly acclaimed contemporary Qigong masters come from this tradition. Yet another type is the Chinese Traditional Qigong. Chinese Traditional Qigong is preserved and perfected by long-living high level Qigong masters, and is represented by Yan Xin Qigong in the contemporary society. It does not subscribe to any sectarianism because it holds that all Qigong methods are aimed at tapping the same source of the unlimited universal power even though they may be of different froms or levels.
3.2 Characteristics of Chinese Traditional Qigong
Chinese Traditional Qigong can be described, in terms of its functions and capabilities, as an ideal technique for health maintenance, health improvement, self-beatification, disease prevention, illness diagnosis, illness self-adjustment and self- treatment, illness treatment, longevity, pre-natal education, entertainment, martial arts, crime investigation, human body special function inducement and cultivation, latent energy stimulation, wisdom elevation, and work efficiency improvement. Furthermore, contemporary experience including scientific experiments has shown that Chinese Traditional Qigong is also a multi-disciplinary science connected with modern natural sciences and social sciences. The results from high level Qigong experiments far exceed the expectations and capacities of modern sciences, illustrating that Chinese Traditional Qigong is a high technology on top of modern high technologies.
On a more fundamental level, aside from its functionality, Chinese Traditional Qigong is a technique for the cultivation of mind and body and for the betterment of character and destiny. Chinese Traditional Qigong, through its effective and powerful training methods preserved and perfected over thousands of years, physically reveals the essence of life and its underlying relationship with the whole universe. Based on this relationship between life and universe Chinese Traditional Qigong unequivocally elucidates the ideal way of living which includes upholding moral values, treating everyone and everything as one's teacher and relative, and cultivating one's mind and body. By cultivating one's mind and body, one can change one's innate character for the better, gain a clear perspective of one's life in relation to this world, and realize a purpose in life. Cultivating one's mind and body also provides one with the ability and energy to actively and productively engage in one's current work and future work associated with that purpose. Generally speaking, practicing Chinese Traditional Qigong enables one to live a healthy, purposeful, and productive life, in that sense, one's destiny has already been changed for the better. More specifically, through practicing Chinese Traditional Qigong one may fully develop one's wisdom and latent potentials such that one's life span can be significantly extended and one may be able to better understand and possibly affect the future. In short, Chinese Traditional Qigong is a comprehensive scholarship towards the understanding of ourselves and the universe, a scholarship that is highly merged with the ideal epistemology, methodology, and the outlook of life, the outlook of the world, and the outlook of the universe.
Many existing forms of Qigong are related to Chinese Traditional Qigong. Qigong as an art for healing and preserving health, is at least about 7000 years old, with written materials about 3500 years old, and relics about 7000 years old. In ancient times, Qigong was a scholarship of the correspondence and union between the universe and a human being. In modern times, Qigong is generally regarded as a scholarship that, through special means and special training methods, enables one to obtain information and substances from within and from the universe, to condense these high-energy substances inside the human body, and to release them under certain Qigong states thereby achieving high-level special functions. The development of Chinese Qigong, which is a part of world Qigong, can be divided into three periods.
4.1 First Period of Chinese Qigong
The first period is from ancient times to the period before the establishment of religions in China-about 2500 years ago. From their long-time struggle with nature, people gradually realized that body movement, sound making, mental concentration, and various ways of breathing could help them adjust certain functions of their bodies. Because of the simple social structure and the simplicity of life style, people's minds were much less clouded, and they could get into a mental state to communicate with the driving force, Tao, of the universe much more easily than contemporary human beings. This mental state is the Qigong state. Great masters emerged who achieved an extraordinarily high level of Qigong including longevity. They understand the nature of Tao and its physical manifestation Qi. They understand the rules of the change and transformation of Qi and its effect on the physical world-past, present, and future. They are the keepers of Chinese Traditional Qigong. In this period, Qigong was widely used in the society in all aspects of human life. It was used for health preservation, disease prevention, and illness treatment. It was also used for the development of special human body functions, such as the prediction of events (I Ching is one example), politics, warfare, and the communication with nature. It was the basis for culture formation including the creation of the written language, the discovery of herbal medicine, and the emergence of various forms of arts. Qigong also laid down the foundation upon which religions were later created.
4.2 Second Period of Chinese Qigong
The second period is from 2500 years ago to modern times. In this period, due to various other reasons, Qigong in its pure form largely retreated from the society and the great Qigong masters went into seclusion in the mountains. New forms of Qigong were created and passed down through Taoist Qigong, Buddhist Qigong, Confucian Qigong, Medical Qigong, Martial Arts Qigong, and folk Qigong. As a consequence, the essential elements of Chinese culture can be traced back to Qigong while at the same time Chinese Qigong from this period has distinct cultural imprints, including certain amounts of religious and superstitious vocabularies. During this period of time, many high-level Qigong masters emerged and many schools of Qigong formed. For example, there are 3,600 Taoist Qigong methods, each has 10,000 sub-divisions, and there are also 84,000 Buddhist Qigong methods. Although some of these Qigong masters and their achievements have been well documented in the history books, the total number of Qigong practitioners was still very small because even these Qigong masters, under pressure from all sides, paid much attention to keeping that knowledge secret.
4.3 Third Period of Chinese Qigong
The third period is the contemporary period. After over two thousand years of official suppression of Qigong practice, Qigong reemerged in the modern society first in the form of human body special functions in the late 1970's in China. After much debate and public demonstrations, the human body special functions became recognized in the Chinese society. Later a number of accomplished Qigong practitioners came public. These contemporary Qigong masters started treating patients and teaching Qigong on a scale unprecedented in the history of mankind. They also started to collaborate with scientists to provide a scientific foundation for Qigong to survive and flourish in modern society. The results are spectacular: over 200 popular Qigong practice methods are available to the society, over 100 million people are practicing Qigong in one form or another, and Qigong healing is now an officially recognized medical treatment in China. In all of this, Dr. Yan Xin stands out as the most famous Qigong master in contemporary China for his miraculous Qigong healing power and incredible scientific achievements and Yan Xin Qigong has become a national phenomenon.
Yan Xin Qigong is not the creation of contemporary masters rather it inherits directly from ancient masters considered to have achieved the highest level in Qigong practice. Selected and trained by about thirty such masters starting at the age of four, Dr. Yan has been well endowed in Chinese Traditional Qigong. This tremondous endowment along with his own Qigong practice of over forty years enables Dr. Yan to perform numerous miraculous healing, to conduct large scale, effective healing lectures without creating chaos, and to produce incredible Qigong scientific results illustrating the power of Qigong. The basic practice method in Yan Xin Qigong is the "Children Longevity Nine Step Method", or "Nine Step Method" for short. The Nine Step Method involves mental concentration and breathing exercise. It can be learned from an instruction audio tape or written manual. A practitioner of the Nine Step Method can maintain one's health and adjust one's illness. Some may even achieve a high level of Qigong accomplishment such as mental power improvement, diagnostic and healing power, and even other unimaginable special functions. The Nine Step Method is itself an advanced Qigong method and is also the basis for all other advanced Yan Xin Qigong methods. Dr. Yan Xin also taught the advanced Chinese Traditional Qigong methods in over nineteen YXQ training workshops using the words-by-mouth and teaching-by-mind technique. The workshops were held in a number of cities in the U.S. and Canada, including Champaign, IL, San Diego, CA, New Haven, CT, Chicago, IL, Vancouver, BC., New York, NY, Washington, DC., Seattle, WA, Houston, TX, Honolulu, HI, Los Angles, CA, Toronto, ONT, with students from various parts of the North America and Asia. Through these workshops students are enabled to attain a very high level of Qigong accomplishment although they are usually unaware of that in the beginning.
In short, Yan Xin Qigong represents the great Chinese Traditional Qigong, symbolizes the extraordinary human achievement and exemplifies the wonderful human power. Practicing Yan Xin Qigong is beneficial to people of all ages, people from all walks of life, and people of different persuasions. You should try it out for your own benefits. (Please click here for an overview for beginners.)