The other day, my friend Conrad Zero  asked a loaded question:  “How’s Qigong going?”

     I said, “It’s complicated.”

     My friend and fellow Kung Fu-er, Blake, who understands my aversion to mystical frufery, chimed in something along the lines of:

     “Yeah, are you getting all your channels cleared out, and those blockages eliminated?”

     I said, “Shut Up.”

     See, I really believe that there is something to the whole Qigong thing.  I’m with Han Solo in believing that “There’s no mystical energy field that controls MY destiny.”  On the other hand, though I’ve not “flown from one end of the galaxy to the other”…I HAVE seen some “strange stuff”…so I’m willing to give most things a chance.

     I DO believe that the mind can cure any problem the mind creates or can improve any condition it contributes to, and that seems to be a LOT of stuff.  I think that time spent focusing, and disciplining the mind, listening to your subconscious, taking time to listen to your intuition and reconnect to your senses is useful and important.  Certainly, the active meditation exercises contribute to flexibility, physical relaxation, and coordination much the way that yoga does.

     So, yeah, I think Qigong can lower your blood pressure, mitigate your anxiety disorder, or reduce your dependence on an inhaler for stress-induced asthma.  It’s not beyond my imagining that it can help with sleep disorders or stress disorders, or ADD or any one of a number of other conditions.

     After all, I was trained in bio-feedback at our local hospital to control panic attacks, and Qigong is no that different.  It just uses different language to describe what's going on.  I used those techniques to lower my heart rate, lower my blood pressure, manage panic attacks, and strangely enough, a chronic skin disorder that I’d had for ten years cleared up during that time (No kidding, the Dermatologist called it a “stress rash”.)

     Do I think it can cure infections, or fix a faulty heart valve, or cure a brain tumor?  No.  Do I think I’ll gain super natural powers?  Nope.  I don't want 'em.  I've got enough power right here in this ordinary human sack of skin as it is, thank you.  I'll find it a triumph of a worthy life just to learn to master what I have effectivly and ethically.  Do I think I’ll be able to heal other people?  Not really.

     I do the healing meditations though because I think that it is a natural and healthy human function to spend time thinking about others, wishing them well, and dedicating our thoughts to their well-being.  Do I really think that if I do a healing meditation for another human being that they will directly benefit from “energy” beaming from the universe, through me, to them?

     I have no reason to believe that, any more than I have any reason to believe that it is helpful for me to “wish someone well” or say “sorry to hear that” when I hear of someone else’s misfortune.

     It might do them no good, but I do it anyway.  Why?  Because I’m human and not a socio-path.  For me to wish someone ill does them no harm, but it is bad for me.  To wish someone well does them no good, but it is a good thing in and of itself.  It exercises the part of you that can reach beyond yourself and invest in something other than yourself even when it doesn’t directly affect you.  In short, the part that makes us social creatures.  The part that makes us capable of altruism, or at least enlightened self-interest.

     To spend an hour focused on wishing another well, to invest time and energy and focus on their well-being exercises that part of my nature, and grows it.  Does it mean they will be healed or get better as a result?  Probably not.  But what it might possibly do is put me into deeper contact with my natural human ability to appreciate another’s condition, to connect with them in such a way that I see opportunities to actually help them that I would normally miss while wrapped up in my own head and my own world.

     The teachings of Qigong are to cultivate an open, generous, forgiving and giving nature.  They teach a soft, focused, loving approach to life, and produce a strong, relaxed, resilient physical existence.

     The language of Qigong is mystical, but I don’t believe that it’s results are “mystical” at all….so I use the mystical terminology, and I say things using that mystical, metaphorical language – because that’s what is there to work with.

     Much of the discipline of Qigong is representational.  You visualize things, make mental representations of them, and then use your mind to manipulate those representations.  This is a valuable skill that many people just simply don’t have naturally.  Developing it can help with abstract reasoning across the board.  Ask any Martial Artist who has “practiced” their martial art mentally while injured.  They can sit in a chair and “do” the forms in their head, and then go back and perform those forms flawlessly after their recovery.  Many athletes “picture” themselves doing the techniques of their sport perfectly in order to mentally pattern themselves for the real thing.

     Yes, it’s sold as a kind of sympathetic “magic” through the power of some universal “force”.  Well, if that’s how you talk about it, then that’s how you talk about it.  The language to me is representational and poetic, not mystical.

     So yeah, I do Qigong.  I do it because I believe it is good for me, and I find it personally useful.  Do I think there is anything “mystical” about it?  No.  But that doesn’t mean some freaky weird shit doesn’t go down during the meditations.  Which, should surprise no-one when you realize that you are opening up the big can of worms that is the human mind, which is housed inside a human brain, which is connected to a human body…all of which have been evolving endlessly through a constant fight for survival, and to which each generation adds it’s own small amount of baggage.

     No big revelation there.  We make meaning in very, very complex ways, and some of them we may never understand.  And venturing into that jungle isn’t for the faint of heart, but there’s no reason to believe that there’s anyone or anything in there but what we bring ourselves.

     But I realize that I’ve gone off on a tear, and haven’t actually addressed Conrad Zero’s question.  So I’ll have to do that tomorrow.  Until then, I’m off to help with the kid’s Kung Fu class.