Many Westerners are learning about a centuries-old Chinese philosophy
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Let's say you awaken on
a bright morning and you feel like the entire world has conspired
against you. Your limbs feel deadened. Your feet move slowly.
Your fingers and hands are like clubs. Your eyes see a haze covering
your life. In the past, you've accepted the ailments,
dragged your body off to work and endured the day. But on this
occasion you decide to seek a change. Before the week is over,
you could have the opportunity to participate in a variety of
unconventional medical treatments - everything from acupuncture
to massage and ancient Chinese spiritual paths. One alternative could be Qi Gong (pronounced
chee gong), a centuries-old philosophy that combines meditation
and movement to promote the flow of natural energy through the
body. The purpose of Qi Gong is simple, to move Qi (vital energy)
to the most needy areas of your body and therefore to bring natural
healing. One of the foremost teachers of Qi Gong
in the Twin Cities is Dr. Russell DesMarais, who has traveled
to China twice to study the ancient philosophy. He offers classes
on Qi Gong at his Turtle Island Health Center in St. Paul. "Qi Gong is perhaps the last of the
hidden information about healing that has been released to the
world," DesMarais said during an interview. "If you
look at the Chinese system of care, their use of diets, herbs,
acupuncture, bone-setting work and massage, the umbrella of that
lifestyle is meditation or working with quieting the mind. Essentially
if you saw a physician in China, all of those practices would
be used. So the word holistic is redundant to the Chinese because
they see all medicine as whole." DesMarais said the use of Qi Gong dates
back at least five centuries but has been reintroduced in China
during the past decade as Falun Gong. As adherents to Falun Gong
rapidly increased in the 1990s, the communist government initiated
steps to slow the growth. Eventually thousands of Falun Gong practitioners
were detained and imprisoned, some people were beaten, and the
ancient practice of meditation and movement became world news. But during that same time, because of international
news accounts, students of natural healing discovered Qi Gong,
and many people traveled to China to study the process. DesMarais
was trained in 1993 and again in 1997. "My belief is this will be the next
largest healing movement in the United States," DesMarais
said. Evening classes at the Turtle Island Health Center run about
two hours. The cost is $150 to $200 for a six-week session. "Eighty percent of the people in the
classes know nothing about Qi Gong before they begin," DesMarais
said. "And it's rare that there is a person in the class
who has not had some improvement. It delivers easily to people.
The movements are not difficult, but the meditations can be complex. "We're talking about vibration and
how sounds resonate. It's a cadence, a beat - that's what we look
at in healing. It's like ultrasound. So we're revving up those
vibrations. It's like going to a concert at church; we feel better
because the body, mind and spirit have been vibrating." Jo Reyes, 56, a computer programmer and
analyst, has spent more than two years studying Qi Gong and now
practices the movement and meditation in her home once a day. "It has done wonders," Reyes said.
"It helps relieve my stress and frustration. It brings me
peace. It can help with medical problems. In fact, I've lowered
my blood pressure by practicing Qi Gong. I sometimes have a tendency
to get my blood pressure a little high, but now it's back to normal. "It's an entire approach to life and
wellness and included in this is chiropractic, acupuncture and
nutrition," said Reyes. "And as a result of Qi Gong,
I started eating a bit more properly and nutritiously." Barb Craven, 30, said she was dealing with
stress issues and decided Qi Gong might have some answers for
her. "A lot of health benefits came out
of my first Qi Gong class," Craven said. "If I got up
early and did my meditation, I had so much energy. I was more
level, balanced and not so stressed." Craven, who attends a Protestant church,
said the meditation DesMarais taught her was a natural healing
technique that brings earthly and heavenly energy into a person's
body. "We would visualize a good place outside
like a favorite vacation place or a special place when you were
growing up," Craven said. "I did it yesterday for 20
minutes and it was great. I pictured an outside place, and I let
the energy come up through my feet and then it goes through your
body and out the top of your head. Then you bring in the heaven
energy and you wash your body with that energy. Then you place
the energy into certain spots and it heals your organs and your
muscles." DesMarais said China is such a vast country
that many groups of people rely on ancient Chinese medical practices
and never have contact with Western medicine. "How do they take care of themselves?"
DesMarais asked. "It's a matter of diet and herbs. They dance
and sing. They have shamans, and they use acupuncture. If you're
a few thousand miles from nowhere, the local doctor better know
what he's doing or he needs to throw the practice out." John Healy, director of communications for
Northwestern Health Sciences University in Bloomington, said,
for more than 20 years, DesMarais has been ahead of the curve
in offering natural healing techniques. "In terms of natural care, we don't
believe it's an alternative," Healy said. But when DesMarais was trained at Northwestern
University, the school only trained chiropractors. Now, according to Healy, the school has
embraced most of the popular healing techniques. While only a
few traditional, Western doctors fully accept these kinds of alternative
methods of healing, more and more hospitals and doctors are becoming
open to the idea. For instance, the University of Minnesota recently
opened the Spirituality and Healing Center, dedicated to exploring
these techniques. As for DesMarais, he's been a believer in
the idea for 22 years. "The initial reaction in St. Paul was
really positive," DesMarais said. "I had a community
presence, and many people came into my practice. They had a sense
that what I taught was interesting and worth pursuing. And then we began to see results. And now
this Qi Gong thing, it's so popular because it's a self-help tool."
Clark D. Morphew
Posted For April 15, 2000