Master Hong Liu - The Healing Art of Qi Gong

Copyright 1997 by Dr. Hong Liu, Alice Liu, and Paul Perry

All rights reserved.

Warner Books

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue,

New York, NY 10017

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First eBook Edition: December 2008

Warner Books and the W logo are trademarks of Time Warner Inc. or an affiliated company. Used under license by Hachette Book Group, which is not affiliated with Time Warner Inc.

ISBN: 978-0-446-55510-4

Book design and composition by L&G McRee

Qi Gong will revolutionize Western medicine in the twenty-first century.

Peg Jordan, R.N., M.A., editor and founder, American Fitness magazine

DISCOVER THE MIRACLES THAT CAN TOUCH US ALL IN

THE HEALING ART OF QI GONG

Applies the mysteries of the Orient to the modern science of medicine. Engagingly written, this fascinating book shows how to use the power to heal that resides in us all.

Raymond A. Moody, M.D., Ph.D., author of Life after Life

In this book, Master Liu not only shows that it is possible to combine both Qi Gong and Western medicine but gives us a step-by-step guide. A great book for good health as we head into the twenty-first century.

Dannion Brinkley, author of Saved by the Light and At Peace in the Light

I had incredible healing experiences after one treatment with him. Master Liu is a truly remarkable healer and a gift to this earth from God. The world needs this book.

Phoebe Snow, rock musician

As reports of the favorable results obtained by Master Liu and others continue to accumulate, the established medical profession will begin to seriously consider the evidence.

Thomas Kay, author of Dear Amy and When the Comet Runs

I am thrilled to see this book. It is about time that East and West merge with each other. I highly recommend this book.

Le Ly Hayslip, author of When Heaven and Earth Changed Places

ValuableI would recommend this informative book to anyone interested in expanding his or her knowledge of Qi Gong.

Robert Roalfe, M.D., editor in chief, Medical Acupuncture

This is an adventure story and at the same time a medical breakthrougha dietary guide and the first steps to Qi Gong training.

William George Roll, Ph.D., parapsychologist

Master Liu presents a convincing case for the claim that [Qi Gong treatments] do appear to help the ill, and therefore warrant more serious exploration and study.

Palos Verdes Peninsula News

FIVE STARS!Liu's book delivers what it promises. It is a home guide to curing and strengthening one's mind, body, and spirit. His book also proves he is an adept writerclear, concise, engrossing.

UCLA Daily Bruin

I would like to express my deep thanks:

To my Master, Master Kwan, for all he imparted to me.

To my co-author, Paul Perry, and my wife, Alice Liu, who made this book happen.

To my U.S. apprenticesJason Chen, Kevin Chen, Kenny Wong, John Yu, Lee Waddell, Wes Graham, Basil Shehady, Lynn Thomas, Jessica Chung, Julie Ko, Bo Barkhordar, Sam Hoony, and Sammy Phanfor their assistance with translation, review, and other tasks.

To Alisa Kao, with the assistance of Grace Kao, for illustrations true to the forms.

To my attorney and apprentice, Arthur Azdair.

To all the others, past and present, who have made this book possible.

Qi[chee]: The fundamental life force that permeates all things. Qi connects and animates everything in the universe. When the flow of Qi is impaired, we have disease. When it flows easily, we have perfect health.

Qi Gong: The art and science of using breath, movement, mind, and meditation to cleanse, strengthen, and circulate the blood and vital life energy.

It is important to note that I was sitting down when I first met Dr. Hong Liu, master of Qi Gong.

I was at a conference on alternative therapies when word began to spread about this Chinese doctor who could diagnose physical problems just by looking at a person. The testimonies were hard for me to believe:

You just sit there and he doesn't say a word, said one woman. He looks at you and then puts marks on the outline of a person that is drawn on paper. Without question he marked areas where I have pain.

He did the same thing to me, said a Los Angeles businessman. I couldn't believe it. I brought several friends to see Dr. Liu and he did the same thing with them.

I watched him do it with about a dozen people, said Dannion Brinkley, whose story I wrote about in Saved by the Light, a New York Times bestseller for almost a year. One after another he diagnosed people he had never seen before. You have to try it. This is the future of alternative medicine.

Why not? There was literally no time like the present for me. Four months earlier I had torn a ligament in my left knee. Now I had a painful right ankle that was tight and swollen because I had been overcompensating for my knee injury. In addition my neck was sore from writing in an awkward position on the computer. On top of that, deadlines, stress, and too much coffee had left me with a stomachache. All of these were pretty typical American complaints. None of them, I might add, was obvious to the naked eye.

Just for fun, I decided to go see Dr. Liu.

The room in which he was seeing patients was empty. I sat down and waited. Soon Dr. Liu breezed in and sat down in front of me. He said a few words of greeting in Chinese and never asked what was wrong with me. In a moment he was scanning my body and making notes on a generic outline of a man that was held in his clipboard. He put an X over my left knee, one by my right ankle, another on my neck, and a big one across my stomach.

When he finished, one of his students sat next to him to interpret the results.

Your knee is very bad and may require structural surgery, he said, almost apologetically. Your ankle is no big deal. You are stepping on it wrong and you just need to make it limber. Your neck, too. Get some massage and move your head more during the day or you will get headaches.

Dr. Liu called to one of his students in Chinese and soon a steaming cup of green tea was brought to him. He held his hand above the cup and concentrated on it. Then he handed it to me and spoke to his assistant.

He says he has charged it with Qi, he told me. You are to drink it as fast as possible and concentrate on how it feels and where the heat goes. That'll help cure your stomachache. Oh, yes, take it easy, too. Stress will then go away. That always helps stomach problems.

And so it did.

If there is one concept that comes up in all forms of Chinese medicine it is that of Qi, or vital energy. Qi is the very backbone of the Chinese healing arts. It refers to the energy of the universe that is channeled from nature and runs through all of us. To have Qi is to be alive, while to have none is to be dead.

Although Western physicians consider Qi an abstraction, for the Chinese it is a reality on which many treatments are based. Acupuncturists, for instance, refer to hundreds of points on the human body where they can insert needles and manipulate Qi to treat illness. The effectiveness of that ancient healing art was brought home to the American public in the 1970s, when, on a trip to China, newspaper columnist Stewart Alsop had an emergency appendectomy using only acupuncture as an anesthetic. After he wrote a column about the experience, interest in acupuncture surged and has been on the rise ever since.