c. 2007 Religion News Service

LOS ANGELES _ Clad in matching blue and white warm-ups and worn black tennis shoes, 62-year-old Shin Lin teaches his weekly qigong class on a grassy lawn at a community center here. In gently sweeping movements, his students follow his lead, shifting in slow motion from one pose to another, arms out, palms down, knees bent.

“Breathe in. Breathe out,” Lin instructs. “Remember, it’s important for respiratory sinus arrhythmia.”

Lin has been practicing qigong (pronounced chee-kung), the ancient Chinese healing art, since he was a 15-year-old growing up in Hong Kong. Now, as director of the Mind/Body Signaling and Energy Research Laboratory at the University of California, Irvine, Lin says he has the data to prove scientifically what he’s known for a lifetime to be true.

“People have been practicing qigong for their own health for thousands of years,” Lin said. “I’m using science to prove these health benefits.”

Lin says his “science-based Qigong” has been tested and proven effective in his lab, and that his version of qigong is based purely on science, leaving out all spiritual elements and ancient Chinese superstition found in the practice.

“First and foremost, I am firmly grounded in Western medicine,” said Lin, who was recently appointed to the 12-member National Advisory Council on Complementary and Alternative Medicine for the National Institutes of Health. “I have to suppress my personal background to be objective.”

With scientists touting the widespread physical and mental benefits of yoga and meditation, these practices that were once rooted in spirituality no longer appeal exclusively to spiritual seekers. In the same way, qigong is following suit, taking out any elements that hint of religion or spirituality in hopes of attracting a greater number of participants.

Rooted in Taoist and Buddhist tradition, qigong was believed by ancient Chinese monks to be a way to harness the powers of the mind, body and universe through body movement, meditation and deep concentration.

The word qi literally means “energy cultivation,” and is based on the traditional Chinese concept that qi is a vital life force that flows through the body. When qi becomes blocked (through emotional pain or physical illness, for example), you may heal yourself by following qigong’s method of specific breathing patterns, movement, visualization and meditation. Some even believe that enough qi can be harnessed to heal someone else through touch or close proximity.

Lin said he never uses the word “qi” in research, since it is not acknowledged in the Western world as a verifiable concept.

“Qi was first used thousands of years ago when the ancient Chinese didn’t know about things like electricity.” Lin said. “This is modern-day science … we measure what can be measured.“

By using state-of-the-art technology, Lin says, he measures the amounts of tangible energies, such as light, heat and electricity, emitted from the body when practicing qigong.

“The human body puts out electrical signals all the time,” Lin said. “The crucial question is whether the amount of energy can heal someone.“

According to Lin’s research, this may be possible.

Using the lab’s highly sensitive equipment on cell cultures grown in a petri dish, Lin said, damaged cells can be healed with a zap of electromagnetic energy placed on or near the petri dish.

Lin says the body’s natural electromagnetic energy can be harnassed to do the same thing. When a body is wounded _ such as bleeding from a cut _ Lin found that the body’s electromagnetic output increases tenfold.

“It means if someone could mentally turn on some pathways to act like a wound was healing _ then we’re talking,” he said. “You may be able to heal someone.”

What was once thought of as the spiritual harnessing of qi can now, according to Lin, be physiologically explained.

“The goal is to increase blood flow. I know when it’s better to move the hand instead of the foot,” Lin said. “I tell my students, `Do it like this or you don’t get the benefits, and I can prove it in my lab.”’

But not all practitioners advocate stripping qigong of its spiritual roots. Renowned qigong master Chunyi Lin, who has taught the practice all over the world and sold thousands of instruction books, tapes and DVDs, said he once suffered from debilitating arthritis in his knees, and it was the spiritual component of a single qigong class that healed him.

He teaches that the source of healing is not based in biology, but in love, forgiveness and kindness.

“Physical healing is one side, but spiritual healing is another,” he said. “If you separate these two, the healing is not complete.“

With close to 40 percent of American adults participating in some form of alternative healing _ including meditation, yoga, qigong and forms of prayer _ many doctors of Chinese medicine feel the pressure to legitimize ancient practices and techniques through science in order to make them more acceptable forms of treatment.

(BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

“It’s a way of trying to say these practices can be cleaned up of superstitious elements or of elements that we can’t document physiologically,” said Dr. Linda Barnes, a medical anthropologist from the Boston University School of Medicine.

Barnes, who has researched the social history of Western responses to Chinese healing traditions, said what fascinates her most about qigong is its appeal to both scientists and spiritual seekers.

“The move to scientize stuff has cut across a lot of the health-related practices that have originated in China,” Barnes said. “At the same time, it makes it legitimate for a large contingent of people.”

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

Dr. Ka-Kit Hui, who directs UCLA’s Center for East-West Medicine, said his goal for the center is to spread the positive effects of Chinese medicine to as many people as possible. When the center opened in 1993, there were only about 20 patients. Now, there are about 13,000, the majority of whom have no interest in the spirituality behind Chinese medicine.

“We have to be very flexible and practical,” Hui said. “As a physician, the important thing is for the masses to benefit from this ancient treasure, not necessarily to understand the ancient spiritual theories behind it.”

Hui said people can benefit from qigong without “getting into the spiritual aspect,” and said it would be interesting to study whether people are able to reach higher levels by including spirituality.

For his part, Lin said he wouldn’t be interested in performing that study.

“Spirituality cannot be measured,” said Lin. “I’m a scientist, I need to see it to believe it.”

KRE/RB END LOUIE1,150 words, with optional trim to 1,000

A photo of Shin Lin is available via https://religionnews.com.

Categories: c,l