Hype or Hope?Is qigong a miracle medicine? The meditational equivalent of acupuncture? Is it just another New-Age rage that puts the practitioner in a mellow state, making qigong a sort of over-hyped, oriental stress management tool that may involve more self-delusion than hard science? Or is qigong in reality a powerful, mind-over-matter tool that not only can heal its practitioners and strengthen their immune systems, but, in the hands of a master, can also heal others? The skeptical Westerner is tempted to write off qigong as more hype than hope, but then that same skeptical type also wrote off acupuncture when it made its debut in the West. One thing is obvious: qigong generally has an undeniably beneficial effect on its practictioners, and for that reason alone it is being embraced by the government of China as a supplementary health-care tool to relieve suffering and ward off illness.
What is Qigong (Chi Kung)?
On a very elemental level, qigong is a form of meditation. The most disciplined masters of qigong stress its meditational aspect more than the exercise and breathing components that are usually associated with it. As a form of meditation, qigong is focused on harnessing the primordial force of qi (chi), which, it is claimed, every normally-functioning human being is capable of communicating with. "Qigong" is composed of two characters: "qi" (sometimes written as "chi" as an aid to pronunciation, but think instead of "chee" as in "cheese") and "gong" (sometimes written as "kung" as an aid to pronunciation, but "gung" so it rhymes with "jung" – as in Carl Jung the psychiatrist and contemporary of Sigmund Freud – i.e., with more of a "g" sound than a "k" sound, is probably easier for Westerners to get their sound pipes around). "Qi" means air, or breath, but it is more like the breath that God "breathed" into Adam than the air one draws in and exhales, i.e., a life-giving force, or "energy". "Gong" means effort applied in a disciplined manner, or "work", so "qigong" means "energy work".
As it is practiced by the large majority of people today, including over 80 million in China alone, qigong is a system of meditation that combines breathing exercises with Yoga-like movement. It is usually performed in large groups as a way to limber up the body at various times of the day, especially in the morning. The purpose of the combined meditation/ breathing/ movement is to harness the force of qi, directing it through one's body in order to restore the healthy functioning of the organs as well as muscle, bone, and other tissue, thus relieving aches and pains and eliminating stress.