A Synthesis of Spiritual Healing and Qi Gong

Here is a way to practice self healing, distant healing, and healing for the world that combines elements of spiritual healing and qi gong. The purpose of the exercise is to develop the ability to bring healing energy through you for healing for yourself and others, and also to develop the ability to feel the healing energy. Before doing this exercise you should read my web page on Spiritual Healing. For more information on qi gong you may read Spiritual Healing Development with Qi Gong,
Sensing the Qualities of Qi, and
Sensing the Qualities of Qi (part 2).

The "Sending Out" and "Bringing In" Positions

• Stand comfortably in a natural posture with your arms at your sides. Your weight should be balanced between the balls of your feet and your heels. Your weight should not be too far forward toward your toes or too far backward on your heels. Don't worry getting it exactly right but it should be balanced so you require the least effort in the muscles of your ankles to remain upright. Your feet can be approximately shoulder width apart. A little less is okay but they should not be too close together. The knees may be slightly bent or straight. Keeping the knees straight will put less strain on them. Bending them slightly will help loosen and straighten the spine.
  

• Bend your elbows so that the back of your hands come up to your shoulders. Then move your hands away from you and down by relaxing your elbows to about 45 degrees (or whatever feels comfortable) with your palms turned away from you. Your fingers should be straight but you don't have to strain to make them perfectly straight. The fingers should spread naturally, don't force them apart or together. This is the "sending out" position.
  

• Turn your hands so that the palms are facing toward you. This is the "bringing in" position.
  

• As you do the exercise below, you may feel your posture improving. If you tend to slump your shoulders, you may find your back straightening. This is nothing to be concerned about, let it happen naturally. Don't force it or strain or maintain an unnatural or uncomfortable posture.
  

• This exercise can also be done sitting down, moving the arms and hands as described for the standing posture.
  

The stick figure below depicts both the "sending out" and "bringing in" positions.

The Exercise

1. Stand in the "bringing in" position (with palms facing you), and pray silently, "Oh God, please may I have healing energy to give me healing for the highest good". Say this two or three times so it is clearly impressed in your mind as you say it. While you are doing that, imagine healing energy coming down into you from above into your head and hands.
   

2. Next, bring your hands in front of your chest so that the palms are facing each other. Slowly move your palms together until they are as close as you can get them without them touching. Your finger tips might be as close as one millimeter apart. Then, slowly move your right hand away while leaving the left hand stationary. When you have moved your right hand about eight inches, pause. Then slowly return the right hand to where it was so it is close to the left hand, palms facing each other. Pause. Repeat this a few times noticing any sensations in your finger tips or the palms of your hands. Repeat this moving the left hand and keeping the right hand stationary. Pay close attention to the sensation in the stationary hand.
   

3. Cup both hands as if you were holding a ball approximately four inches in diameter or whatever size feels comfortable. If you have large hands it might be bigger, if you have small hands it might be smaller. Now turn your hands, still "holding the ball" so one is on top and the other is on the bottom. Notice any sensations in the bottom hand. Turn your hands so the other is on top and the other is on the bottom and notice any sensations in the bottom hand. You can do this once or twice or more if you want to.
   

4. Throughout the following steps, hold your hands an inch or two or slightly more away from your body without actually touching it. Notice any sensations in your hands or your body where you move your hands near it. In particular, pay attention to these sensations as your hands pass over the top of the head, the forehead, the face, temples, the nape of the neck, the shoulders, the front of the throat, the heart, the solar plexus, the abdomen below the navel, and the root chakra.
   

5. Move your hands to the top of your head with the palms facing the top of your head. Notice any sensations in your hands or the top of your head. This step and the following steps can all be done in one continuous flowing motion, there is no need to stop in between steps.
   

6. Slowly move your hands down in front of your face, noticing any sensations.
   

7. Move your hands to the sides of your head so your palms are facing your ears.
   

8. Move your hands back so your palms are facing the back of your neck where the neck and shoulders meet. As you notice any sensations, also imagine energy flowing from your hands down your spine to the base of the spine.
   

9. Move your hands outward along your shoulders with your palms facing downward (horizontally).
   

10. Move your hands with the palms facing toward you vertically so they are in front of your throat. As in the other steps in the exercise, notice any sensation in your hands or the part of the body the hands are facing.
    

11. Move your hands downward so that the palms pass over your breasts, and continue down past the solar plexus and the lower abdomen.
    

12. Move your hands downward across the pelvis, and down the thighs until your hands are in front of your thighs and your elbows are straight. As your hands pass down your thighs point the palms toward your knees and feet and imagine healing energy flowing from your hands down your legs and to your knees and feet.
    

13. Bend your elbows to bring your hands up to the "sending out" position. Imagine healing energy coming down into your head and hand and pray silently, "Oh God, please move healing energy through me to where it's needed for the highest good." If there are any people you would like to send healing to, continue praying, "And please move healing energy to [name the people you would like to receive distant healing] to give them healing for their highest good."
    

14. Turn your palms back toward yourself in the "bringing in" position and repeat the entire exercise as many times as you like. Continuing for ten minutes is a suggestion.
    

When you do this exercise you may feel a lot of energy coming into you when you are in the "bringing in" position. You might also feel warmth coming from your hands as you move them close to your skin, particularly when they are in front of your face and in back of your neck. As your hands pass over some of the chakras you may feel sensations in the chakras.

If you are interested in psychic development, after doing this exercise you can do Exercise 3 or Exercise 4 on my web page A Natural Method for Learning To Communicate with Spirits. Substitute this exercise for the meditation portions of those exercises. After you finish this exercise, lie down and try to go into the hypnogogic state as described in those exercises. You should read the entire page, if you haven't already done so, before you start exercise 3 or 4.

When you are in the beginning stages of learning this technique, you may spend more time on steps 1, 2, and 3 in order to concentrate on learning to feel the healing energy.

You can customize this technique for self healing, by eliminating step 13 or by doing only step 1 for the entire session.

Another form of mental healing involves visualizing your immune cells winning a fight against harmful viruses, bacteria, or cancer cells. One way to do this is to visualize your immune cells engulfing and destroying, for example, any harmful virus particles in your body. You can combine this with the self-healing techniques described above, for example, in step 1. You can even visualize the healing energy adding power to your immune cells to help them in their fight.

There is quite a lot of similarity between qi gong and spiritual healing. Qi gong is usually done standing up as is spiritual healing. The sending out position is similar to a qi gong posture and is also similar to the way spiritual healing is given where the hands placed on the shoulders of the recipient.

Copyright © 2013 by ncu9nc All rights reserved. Texts quoted from other sources are Copyright © by their owners.

Spiritual Healing Development with Qi Gong

This is the third post in my series on spiritual healing and the psi wheel. In the first post, I discussed how everyone can measure the energy field surrounding their body with a psi wheel and how to use a psi wheel to measure this energy as you bring it into and through your body when you practice spiritual healing. In the second post, I discussed how the psi wheel shows that the energy in the field surrounding the body is the same as the energy that flows through you when you give spiritual healing to another person. This post is about using qi gong to increase the flow of healing energy (qi) through your body to help develop your abilities as a spiritual healer.

You don't have take my word for it when I write these different statements about this energy. You can verify them for yourself using a psi wheel. You can measure the effects of qi gong on your energy field and your ability to move the energy through your body during spiritual healing by using a psi wheel before and after you do qi gong and during spiritual healing.

Qi gong is a part of traditional Chinese medicine. It includes exercises that enhance the energy field that surrounds your body and it improves the flow of that energy through your body. Since spiritual healing works by moving this energy through your body and into another person, doing qi gong will help you to develop your healing abilities and it is also a good way to prepare for a spiritual healing session.

From wikipedia:

Qigong, chi kung, or chi gung (literally "Life Energy Cultivation") is a practice of aligning breath, movement, and awareness for exercise, healing, and meditation.[1] With roots in Chinese medicine, martial arts, and philosophy, qigong is traditionally viewed as a practice to cultivate and balance qi (chi) or what has been translated as "intrinsic life energy".[2] Typically a qigong practice involves rhythmic breathing coordinated with slow stylized repetition of fluid movement, a calm mindful state, and visualization of guiding qi through the body.[3]

Below are instructions for a few qi gong exercises. I suggest doing eight repetitions of the moving exercises and holding the stationary positions for at least twenty breaths. There is no harm in doing more and you can do as much as you like. But for some people who are very busy, if they try to do too much it will become burdensome and they may give it up. It is better to do just a little bit than to do none at all.

• Three Jiaos: HTML PDF
  

• Lower Ball Rotation: Stand as in the Three Jiaos. Hold your hands at the level of your lower abdomen as if you were holding a ball about six or eight inches in diameter between your hands. Then rotate the "ball" clockwise so your left had is above your right hand. Then rotate the ball the other way so the right hand is above the left hand. Repeat this for several repetitions and synchronize the movement with your breathing. Notice the sensations in your hands.
  

• The Full Circle: The web page says to do each position in The Full Circle for five minutes but I suggest in your first session you hold each position for twenty breaths and gradually increase that number if you want to in subsequent sessions. Twenty breaths is approximately one minute, you can time your breathing before you start if you want to be more precise. These exercises are similar to the qi gong exercises described in the book 15-minute Tai Chi (below).
  

• Pulling Down the Heavens: There are several exercises similar to this one that you can do. Instead of raising you arms above your head, bring them to the forehead for several repetitions, then to the heart for several repetitions and then to the abdomen just below the navel for several repetitions. Then do the exercise shown at the link raising your arms straight above your head.
  

When you do qi gong exercises, notice the sensations you feel in your hands and your body. Try to feel your own energy field from within the body and also feel it from without your body with your hands. For example, if your hands pass across the area of your chest, notice sensations in your chest and the sensations in your hands as they pass through the energy field around your chest. Practicing in this way may allow you, in time, to develop the sensitivity needed to feel your own energy field and the energy fields surrounding other living things.

These exercises are just suggestions to introduce you to qi gong. A complete qi gong workout that will provide the maximum benefit to your energy field and flow of energy through you should include warm-up stretches to loosen the muscles and movements to loosen the joints, tone the muscles, and align the vertebrae. If you want to try a more complete workout that includes all of these components I would suggest one of these DVDs:

• Chi Energy Workouts for Beginners by David Carradine
  

• David Carradine's AM & PM Tai Chi Workout for Beginners by David Carradine
  

  Tai Chi Focus Relax Rejuvenate on youtube.
  

Chi is the same word as qi but spelled differently. Some of the advanced movements on the DVDs are complicated and may be difficult to learn but it is not necessary to do everything on a DVD (this is also true of the books below). The AM workout in the AM & PM DVD is very simple but is a complete workout.

Some books on qi gong I recommend are:

• 15-Minute Tai Chi by John Ding and Alan Ding. This book includes several 15 minute workouts that include qi gong and tai chi. I combine all the qi gong exercise together and do those as part of my qi gong workout. They are very similar to the full circle linked to above.
  
• Becoming One with Nature: Restore Yourself with Tai Chi by Martin Lee, Ph.D., Emily Lee, TC Master, Melinda & Joyce Lee
  
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to T'ai Chi and QiGong Third Edition by Bill Douglas. See Part 3 which is about QiGong.
  

You can measure the effects of qi gong on your energy field by using the psi wheel. Notice if the psi wheel spins faster after you do qi gong than it spins before you do qi gong. Also notice if the psi wheel spins faster during spiritual healing practice if you do qi gong immediately before the spiritual healing practice.

Copyright © 2012, 2015, 2016 by ncu9nc All rights reserved. Texts quoted from other sources are Copyright © by their owners.

Restore Yourself with Tai Chi

I got this book from the library today and I highly recommend it:

Becoming One with Nature: Restore Yourself with Tai Chi
by Martin Lee, Ph.D., Emily Lee, TC Master, Melinda & Joyce Lee

It covers energy healing, self healing, and meditation. It includes an exercise to help you learn to feel the energy (chi), as well as a 64 sequence of forms (tai chi movements).

It's only 144 pages but contains photgraphs and written text of how to do the forms.

My only criticism is that the author tries to give a scientific explanations of why it works. Martin Lee is a physicist who worked on particle accelerators and he is trying to get technical, analytical, scientific, minded westerners to believe in it long enough to try it and prove it for themselves. I can understand his motivation but in my opinion the explanations are not compelling. He does give short case histories of people who have been helped by the techniques including himself and I find that much more convincing - except much of what he is writing about I already know and accept from my experieces with spiritual healing.

I was looking for a book that gave the qigong/tai chi/chi kung perspective on healing because I was interested in expanding my understanding beyond what I have learned in Spritiualist churches and this book satisfies that interest. What surprised me was how similar the two forms of healing are.

Copyright © 2012 by ncu9nc All rights reserved. Texts quoted from other sources are Copyright © by their owners.

Sensing the Qualities of Qi (part 2)

Yesterday's post, Sensing the Qualities of Qi part 1, described a qigong healer's ability to sense the qualities of the qi of cells growing in laboratory cultures. He was able to detect that a culture contained abnormal cells even though he was told the cells were healthy. As a spiritual healer myself, I wondered what qigong training methods are used to develop this ability.

I was able to find out the name of this form of qigong at the Healing Ways web site. The form is called External Qi Healing (Wai Qi Zhi Liao)

External Qi Healing (Wai Qi Zhi Liao): Qigong includes a sophisticated system of health assessment and non-contact treatment called External Qi Healing (EQH). The healer learns to tap into a well of healing energy in nature and "funnel" it through his or her body. Unlike some purely intuitive systems, EQH includes exercises that increase sensitivity to energy fields and efficacy of treatment. The more you practice External Qi Healing exercises and meditations, the more effective your healing treatment.

The way to learn External Qi Healing is described in External Qi Healing A Primer... (pdf) by Rich Mooney at the National Qigong Association web site:

Extra exercise #1: From Posture Three, that is the palms facing each other at chest height, slowly and gently exhale, (not harshly like when you do a tension exercise), and bring the palms close to each other, but not allowing them to touch. On the inhale, let the hands expand away from each other for the duration of the inhale, or until they are spread about 2 feet away from each other.

It seems the way you develop sensitivity to the qi field is to do a type of meditation where you hold your hands with the palms facing each other, moving them together and apart slowly in synchrony with breathing. This makes perfect sense. As you move your palms together and apart you move them through your own energy field so you develop sensitivity by observing your own field.

This exercise is similar to exercises that are taught in other forms of energy healing. Most commonly this is used to help people recognize that energy healing is something that you can perceive very easily. Beginners are often told to bring their hands close together and notice if they can feel anything. Most people do. So it makes perfect sense that repeating this exercise will, over time, make one more sensitive to the energy field around living things.

If you have any doubts about the effectiveness of spiritual healing try reading "The Effect of the Laying On of Hands on Transplanted Breast Cancer in Mice", (pdf) by William F. Bengston, David Krinsley, Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 353-364, 2000.

The method of spiritual healing I use is described on my web site.

Copyright © 2009 by ncu9nc All rights reserved. Texts quoted from other sources are Copyright © by their owners.

Sensing the Qualities of Qi

There is evidence that qigong healers can sense the qualities of the energy field of cell cultures. In her book "Extraordinary Knowing", Elizabeth Mayer quotes from the article "The Qi Question: Is It More Than a Beautiful Form of Hypnosis?" by Garret G. Yount, Ph.D., (Spirituality and Health, summer 2001, 36-38). The quote describes an incident that took place during an experiment designed to measure the effects of qigong healing on cells in culture. Qigong healers were able to correctly sense that the cells in a culture were unhealthy despite being told otherwise.

We deal with all this so routinely in the lab, I didn't think to mention it to the qigong master in our first experiment. We simply handed him a dish with cells growing in it, and said, "There are normal cells in the dish. Please give them a healing treatment. We hope to see them grow well, even more than untreated control cells." That was the procedure. Seems straightforward, right? This qigong master had agreed to the task and I figured we'd let him take his time and do his thing with the dish. But after treating the cells he came out of the treatment room shaking his head. "Those cells are not normal," he said. "They are very abnormal, so I didn't try to make them grow. I tried to eliminate them."

I was feeling skeptical about the whole experiment and my first reaction was one of sheer irritation. I tried to be polite but I told the man he was frankly wrong. There was no question. These were normal brain cells. He came right back, just as confident as I'd been. He defied me outright. "No," he said, "they are not normal. I sensed an abnormal qi."

Well, at that point, it hit me. I realized there were in fact only one hundred normal healthy brain cells in that dish, and they were growing on top of ten thousand tumor cells in the process of committing cell suicide. So, if this healer could in fact perceive anything about the cell culture as a whole, we might perfectly well expect he'd take notice of the dying tumor cells, not just the much smaller percentage of healthy cells. At that point, I backed up and explained the nature of the culture to him. He nodded and let me know that now everything made sense.

That episode intrigued me. Maybe this man really was able to perceive something quite unknown to me. Our experiments have unfolded from there.

A reprint of the article can be found at National Qigong Association web site.

In "Extraordinary Knowing", Elizabeth Mayer Ph.D., describes some of the scientific evidence from parapsychology as well as personal experiences of psychic phenomena. I highly recommend it.