Rob Long - Feeling the Way: Touch, Qi Gong healing, and the Daoist tradition

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FEELING

the WAY

TOUCH, QI GONG HEALING, AND
THE DAOIST TRADITION

ROB LONG

LONDON AND PHILADELPHIA

First published in 2017

by Singing Dragon

an imprint of Jessica Kingsley Publishers

73 Collier Street

London N1 9BE, UK

and

400 Market Street, Suite 400

Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA

www.singingdragon.com

Copyright Rob Long 2017

Front cover image source: Cassie Corby.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Applications for the copyright owners written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher.

Warning: The doing of an unauthorised act in relation to a copyright work may result in both a civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Names: Long, Rob, 1962- author.

Title: Feeling the way : touch, qigong healing, and the Daoist tradition /

Rob Long.

Description: London ; Philadelphia : Singing Dragon, 2017. | Includes

bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016016276 | ISBN 9781848192980 (alk. paper)

Subjects: | MESH: Therapeutic Touch--methods | Qi | Qigong--methods |

Religion and Medicine

Classification: LCC RA781.8 | NLM WB 890 | DDC 613.7/1489--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/201601627

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 84819 298 0

eISBN 978 0 85701 248 7

This book is dedicated to my daughter, Sally.
Whatever the Way may be, make it yours.

Contents

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has played a part in the creation of this book. In particular Id like to acknowledge the contribution of Cassie Corby for her photography and patient encouragement throughout. Ann Burger, who graciously agreed to pose for some of the photographs, has also been a boundless source of support and enthusiasm, as has my dear friend and colleague, Shelagh Brady. Thanks are due too to Eilidh Moir for helping me initiate the project, and to Elaine Parsons for her meticulousness in proofreading the manuscript. Finally, I extend my endless gratitude to every single one of my patients over the last 20 years. Your kindness, fortitude and trust in indulging my exploration of the healing arts have been incalculable!

Disclaimer

The author and publisher of this material are not responsible in any way whatsoever for any distress or injury that may occur through reading or practising the exercises in this book.

Any healing art is safe only to the degree that it is practised safely. The author has gone to great lengths in this book to provide the reader with appropriate guidelines to ensure the wellbeing and safety of those in their care. If in individual cases there should be the slightest doubt as to whether or not to proceed, the authors recommendation at all times is to approach the patients doctor first.

Note that none of the techniques outlined in this book are in any way a substitute for conventional health practices, medicines or any form of psychotherapy.

Preface

I live and work in the UK, part of a Western technological world remote in both time and culture from the sensibilities of ancient China. So distant are we, in fact, that it is sometimes hard to believe there could ever be any common ground between those two worlds. And yet, in the last 30 years or so, the influence of old China, and most particularly the teachings of those remarkable scholars, philosophers and proto-scientists the Daoists is making itself increasingly felt even here. Acupuncture, Qi Gong, Tai Chi, Chinese herbal medicine, Feng Shui and a whole host of other Daoist inspirations have become, if not exactly part of the warp and woof of everyday life for the majority of todays Westerners, then at least not utterly alien and therefore negligible phenomena. As the world becomes more and more magnetized by the irresistible pull of technology and commerce, so, too, does the ancient wisdom of the Dao begin increasingly to speak to us again, quietly, yet insistently. This should not surprise us there can be no Yang without an answering Yin.

Why should this be so? Why is the gentle directness of the Daoist worldview so compelling to so many of us? The answer is simple. Any values with the power to strike a chord regardless of epoch, geography or culture do so because fundamentally they are human values, at which point all differences between us begin to fall away.

It was in the spirit of trying to capture the shared human values of Daoism and the modern world that I began to put together this book. Its subject is a new, distinctly unusual hands-on healing system that I have called Qi Sensitivity Healing, or QSH for short. It is very different from the more familiar style of healing practised in China today External Qi Healing (EQH), a side-branch of Qi Gong.

QSH is mine only in so far as I have taken the time to develop an entire range of healing techniques that I use in the clinic simultaneously with Acupuncture, Tui Na (Traditional Chinese Massage) and Qi Gong. It is designed to meld effortlessly with just about any complementary medicine modality, providing simple yet powerful tools for enhancing whatever therapy it is that one currently practises. There is no contradiction. And if you are not a therapist? The diligent practice of QSH will substantially increase your understanding of Qi, and therefore of all Daoist arts, in a very real, embodied way.

Whilst the specific techniques of QSH may be largely of my own invention, the rigorous medical discipline that underpins them is not. This belongs entirely to the Daoists and to the great body of theoretical knowledge that gave the world Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). What follows throughout the rest of this book is therefore, on the one hand, a detailed instruction manual and, on the other, a practical, kinetically based exploration of Daoist philosophy and science, in which your own body will be your laboratory. Potentially, we are all healers. I hope very much that this book will help you to embody that fundamental truth.

INTRODUCTION

It has been a challenging few weeks for this particular patient. Very little of what happens in her life seems within her control, or at least thats how she always depicts herself at our sessions. Today she is tired, anxious and on the threshold of becoming overwhelmed by her issues. She is, to use her own words, desperate for me to help her to just keep going.