the founder of Zhineng Qigong                                     www.daohearts.com/dr-pang/

Dr Pang

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The origins of qigong go back some thousands of years and many styles and forms have emerged through time. What they have in common is that practitioners quieten their mind and turn it inward, whether doing a moving or a static practice. Some qigong focuses more on physical health, some more on spiritual development; some has specific aims and some brings more widespread benefits.

In the 1980s an important new qigong was developed. It was called Zhineng Qigong, meaning Qigong for Wisdom and Abilities, but most people were attracted to it for its health benefits. In 1997 the China State Sports General Administration published a book on 21 different styles of qigong, which rated Zhineng Qigong as the most effective. hen in 1998 the same organisation evaluated eleven qigong styles and again rated Zhineng Qigong the most effective qigong for improving health. Its efficacy drew an estimated 10 million people to practice it.

It is not by chance that Zhineng Qigong is so effective. Zhineng Qigong is the first qigong practice based on a fully developed theory, the work of an extraordinary man. Dr Pang Ming drew on an immense range and depth of knowledge to provide a new understanding of the universe and of human beings, one based both on ancient insights and wisdom, and also on modern scientific knowledge.

Pang Ming was born in 1940 in a remote and poor north China village. He was part of a big extended family that included practitioners of Daoist and folk qigong. There was early recognition that he was not an ordinary child. When he was only three years old a qigong Master recognised the child’s special qualities and used his powers to confer on him some paranormal abilities. This enabled Pang to understand and learn very quickly and deeply, which was important for his studies and later work. Beginning in childhood, Dr Pang learnt from traditional qigong and martial arts Masters and rapidly absorbed the essentials of their teachings. For instance, when he learned taiji he ‘opened his lower back’ in three months, whereas most students took at least eight years to achieve this. He studied under nineteen Masters, some of whom sought him out to pass on their knowledge. Teacher Pang’s studies led him into Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), taught by two great Chinese Masters. He was able to use his paranormal abilities to quickly learn and treat using TCM. By the late 1970s he was one of the best-known TCM doctors in Beijing and was treating senior government officials. In 1978 he was an important participant in the first session organised by the Ministry of Health to bring together TCM and modern medicine, which had a big influence in the medical field in China. He wrote several medical books during the 1970s

In 1973 Dr Pang had begun working alongside a qigong Master, teaching qigong and giving lectures. By the mid 1970s he had come to the conclusion that the medical approach was too limited and that the goal must be not just to heal illness, but to change people so illness did not recur. During the late 1970s he burned the medical books he had written and gave up medicine to research and spread qigong. In 1980 he brought together an important group of qigong Masters to discuss qigong in China. At this time Dr Pang created a modern qigong, based on Daoist and Buddhist practices and thinking, medical knowledge and modern science, folk qigong and martial arts teachings. In 1980 he created and began to teach He Xiang Zhuang (Flying Crane Form). Then in 1981 he started to teach Xing Shen Zhuang (Body Mind Form) as the second level of practice, with He Xiang Zhuang as the first (later replaced by Peng Qi Guan Ding Fa, Lit Qi Up Pour Qi Down). He named his new qigong style Zhineng Qigong.

He taught throughout northern China, but in a revolutionary new way: he invented the use of the qi field for teaching. Using this, he broke with the traditional way of a Master teaching a few disciples and gave lectures to large numbers of people at a time. Many other teachers copied him at a time when numerous modern qigong styles were developed.

In 1988 Dr Pang set up the Shijiazhuang Zhineng Qigong Centre. As more and more people flooded in, another centre was set up in Qinhuangdao in 1991, followed in 1992 by the Hebei Huaxia Zhineng Qigong Research Department and in 1995 by the huge Hebei Fengrun Huaxia Zhineng Qigong Healing Centre.

During this time Dr Pang established a two-year course to provide a higher level of teacher training. This had profound significance for Zhineng Qigong because its students have since worked all over China and throughout the world. The first two classes ran 1992–1994 and 1993–1995. With these classes Dr Pang gave a 2–3 hour lecture most days, which was recorded and used for teacher training in later years. In the early 1990s Teacher Pang published his book on Hunyuan Entirety Theory and he gave many lectures on this subject to the initial two-year classes. He also published another four books for the two-year class, which built a solid theoretical foundation. His earlier lectures had focused on the relationship between body, mind and qi; on how to use the mind for healing, to adjust qi, and so on; on how to be a good person, control one’s emotions and so on. The two-year class was taught more fully developed theory at a deeper level. Eight two-year classes were run, ending in 2001.To build connections between Zhineng Qigong and modern scientific knowledge, Dr Pang set up a series of workshops for scientific experts and doctors. Experts in many fields came together, generally for a two-week period with 50–100 people. As a result some scientists began to research Zhineng Qigong from a modern scientific perspective.

In 1997 and 1998 Dr Pang gave a series of lectures on building a harmonious world culture. The spread of Zhineng Qigong internationally can help bring this about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Luke Chan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Huaxia Zhineng Qigong Clinic & Training Center*, simply known as the Center, normally has more than four thousand people living there, including doctors, patients, ChiLel teachers, trainees, and supporting personnel. The Center was established in 1988 in the city of Zigachong and later, in 1992, relocated to the city of Qinhuangdao. In 1995, it again expanded to its present address, an old army hospital in the city of Fengrun, two hours by train from Beijing. It is directed by its founder, Dr. Pang Ming, a Qigong grandmaster and physician trained in both Western and Chinese traditional medicine. This hospital is the largest of its kind in China and probably in the world. The Center avoids medicines and special diets in favor of exercise, love, and life energy. It is a non-profit organization and is recognized by the Chinese government as a legitimate clinic. Over the years, the Center has treated more than one hundred and eighty diseases, the overall success rate being more than 95%.

I spent the entire month of May living in the Center, observing first hand how the hospital operates and interviewing more than one hundred people who have miraculously recovered from incurable diseases such as cancer, diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, severe depression, paralysis, and systemic lupus. Many times I was moved to tears while listening to these accounts of heroic struggle against disease. One mother told me that she was so weak that she couldn't even pick up a kitchen knife to kill herself and so attempted to end her life by not eating. But when her six-year-old son tried to spoon feed her a bowl of milk while her eleven-year-old held a towel to wipe any spills, she decided to live at any cost. Since doctors couldn't help her, she turned to ChiLel and, against all odds, recovered. She is now a teacher at the Center.

The Power of ChiLel 
ChiLel, the method employed in the Center, was developed by Dr. Pang. The method is based on the 5,000-year-old concept of qigong (chigong, chi kung) as well as modern medical knowledge. Dr. Pang, reverently known as Lao-shi, the Teacher, has written more than nine books on ChiLel.

ChiLel consists of four parts...

 

 

• Strong belief (Shan Shin): a belief that chi or life energy, can heal all ailments, including one's own. Students build belief by listening to testimonials of recovered patients and learning about chi and its healing effects.

• Group Healing (Chu Chong): before a group of students begins ChiLel, the teacher verbally synchronizes the thinking of the group to obtain chi from the universe and bring it down into a healing energy field, shrouding everyone including the teacher himself or herself. The healing effect is enhanced because the group is acting as one.

• Chi Healing (Fa Chi): Facilitating chi healing by teachers teachers bring healing energy from the universe to each individual to facilitate healing.

• Practice (Lan Gong): Students learn easy-to-follow ChiLel movements and practice them over and over again. The methods, parts of Zhineng qigong, are called:

• Lift Chi Up and Pour Chi Down Method.

• Three Centers Merge Standing Method.

 

Patient Treatment 
When a patient enters the hospital, he is diagnosed by a doctor, and then assigned to a class of fifty or so people for a 24-day treatment period. He spends most of his time practicing ChiLel, eight hours a day without television, newspapers or telephone. Those who can stand up practice standing; those who can sit practice in their chairs; and those who can't move practice in their beds. I was moved by the dedication of these students.

Despite its amazing success at healing, the Center is little known even in China because of its policy of not advertising in newspapers or magazines. However, the Center is well known among its estimated eight million ChiLel practitioners. Through word of mouth, thousands of people from all over China are coming to the Center every month. Indeed, ChiLel has a great number of followers and the Center is the brain of this vast organization. New techniques for treating diseases are developed daily.

For example, a new way of demonstrating the effectiveness of chi for treating cancer has been developed. I witnessed a cancer patient being treated by four ChiLel teachers while the patient's bladder cancer was viewed on a screen via an ultra-sound machine, and monitored by two doctors. The cancer literally disappeared in front of my eyes in less than a minute as the teachers emitted chi into the patient, dissolving the cancer! In fact, I videotaped this incredible act. Ten days later, I requested the doctors to double check if the patient's tumor was gone. Kindly enough the doctors put the same patient's bladder again on screen and we saw no trace of cancer. Later I was told that a major German TV station crew, visiting the Center a week before, had successfully videotaped the same process with other cancer patients.

The Center has over six hundred staff members, including twenty-six Western-trained doctors. Since no medicine is prescribed, there aren't any pharmacists. Doctors, who prefer to be called teachers, play only a minor role in this special hospital. Occasionally, they are called upon to attend emergency cases. Their main function is to diagnose patients when they come in to register and again after each 24-day training period.

Their diagnoses are classified into four categories for statistical purposes.

• Cured: Symptoms disappear and appropriate instruments ( e.g. EKG, ultra-sound, X-ray, CT and so on) register normal.

• Very Effective: Symptoms almost disappear and instruments show great improvement.

• Effective: Noticeable improvements, and student can eat, sleep, and feel good.

• Non-effective: No change or even worse.

According to "Summary of Zhineng Qigong's Healing Effects on Chronic Diseases", published by the Center in 1991, data of 7,936 patients showed an overall effective healing rate of 94.96%. (15.20% cured; 37.68% very effective; 42.09% effective.)

In the Center, no matter how sick a person is, he is still addressed as a "student" never "patient". Why? Because he is learning an art the goal of which is to heal oneself, not to rely on doctors. Therefore no doctor-patient relationships exist.

Students are enrolled in a 24-days treatment program. The tuition fee is only one hundred yuan (about twelve dollars). Students can spend as little as six hundred yuan (about seventy dollars) per month! The Center is probably the most inexpensive hospital in the world and is truly a non-profit organization. Yet the Center is an independent, self-sufficient organization, without any help from government or private foundations.

How do they operate so efficiently? Because many of the doctors, ChiLel teachers, and supporting personnel are former students who have recovered from serious illnesses themselves and have now returned voluntarily to "serve the sick", with very little pay. Teachers play the roles of doctor, nurse, social worker, cheerleader, parent, friend, brother, and sister. Their effectiveness is measured by the healing rate of their students.

Another reason for the Center's effective but low-budget operation is that it uses group therapy. Students live in groups of four, eight or sixteen persons per room. By living in groups, students develop in a cooperative spirit of caring and love toward each other. Many of those I interviewed had been rejected by their former hospitals as "incurable," and, therefore, had regarded the Center as their last hope. As though sailing on the same boat in the ocean, students bond together against their common enemy's disease.

Trained to Heal 
Just as hospitals associate with medical schools to train young people to enter into the medical profession, the Center also has ChiLel schools to train ChiLel professionals. There is a Zhineng Qigong Academy and one-month and three-month instructor training schools. The Academy, established in 1992, has a two-year training program for young men and women under the age of thirty who have the minimum of a high-school education. The one-month and three-months instructor-training programs are for anyone interested in ChiLel. I was told that there are typically more than a thousand students in both programs in school.

In addition, just as prestigious hospitals have research programs, the Center has many on-going research projects both on site and at different university campuses around the country. When I requested the person in charge, a retired college professor, to show me some published papers, he gave me two volumes of experiment data, as thick as a telephone book!

Besides doctors, teachers, and students, there are hundreds of supporting personnel, working in the office, cafeteria, bookstore, and so on. All of them are ChiLel practitioners and they practice ChiLel together in the morning and in the evening, about three hours a day. As they say, it is not just a job, it is a ChiLel job.

The Center is open only ten months a year because of lack of heating in the rooms during winter. The Center is currently building a home for itself, a "ChiLel City" in a place near Beijing, with better facilities to accommodate the ever-increasing number of students, including Americans and others coming from abroad.

I asked the founder, Lao-shi, why didn't he promote ChiLel to the world sooner. He replied that many people need proof whether chi works or not. So instead of arguing with others, he preferred to work solidly by treating patients and collecting valuable data. As a result, tens of thousands of documented cases over a period of eight years have been collected and, "Now we are ready. Please tell the world that we exist and ChiLel can benefit mankind."

* Due to political reasons, the Center was closed in 2001.