‘Qi’ or ‘Chi’ means air, breath of life or vital energy of the body. Other names for Qi are Prana (India), Orgon (Wilhelm Reich), Num (Africa´s Kalahari desert), Pneuma (Greek), Nafas (Koran), or Ha (Huna). Qi is the subtle power that flows through all living things. The Qi level of a healthy person is high, clear and flows smoothly like a stream, without blockages. “Gong” or “Kung” means “skill of working with, or cultivating, self-discipline and achievement”.
Qi Gong, Qi Gung or Qi Kung, is a 5,000 year old holistic Chinese self-healing and meditation system evolving practice that includes healing postures, breathing techniques and self-massage. Qi Gong is suitable for everyone, every age and all physical conditions. The Qi Gong practitioner learns to control the Qi flow and use his/her mind to guide the Qi to all parts of his/her body to achieve a complete energetic balance. In dynamic, exercising Qi Gong, the entire body moves from one posture to another. In passive, meditative Qi Gong, the body is still and Qi is controlled by concentration, visualization and breathing.
The roots of Qi Gong
The roots of Qi Gong are very old and the principles can be found in native tribes’ philosophies and practices around the world. The oldest signs of cultivating life energy as a key to healing and spiritual power come from the Australian aborigines, around sixty thousand years ago. They concentrated life energy on a zone located four inches below the navel.
This same area is called the Dantien in Qi Gong and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Another example of ancient Qi Gong practices comes from Hawaii. The powerful Hawaiian healers were known as “Masters of the Breath”. They used movements like a dance and deep breathing exercises to accumulate Qi and project it through their hands to other persons. The most important roots and closest parallels for Qi Gong we know today come from India. There are actual remarkable parallelisms between Yoga and the Chinese Yin-Yang theory .
Different sources show that Yoga is older than Qi Gong and Buddhist monks from India have influenced some Qi Gong styles. However, informations have probably traveled in both directions, Taoist’s ancient tales and Indian yogis learned from each other and influenced their teachings until the present day.
