Archive for July 2007
Chi Kung Assists Those Suffering From Cancer
Posted on Friday, July 06, 2007 at 6:20 AM by Sifu TW Smith the site author">Sifu TW Smith
Cancer is a diagnosis of symptoms that is often considered an affliction that comes out from air and attacks us. We must first know that cancerous cells are in us most of our adult lives. On a molecular level a cancer cell typically is nothing more than a damaged specialized cell that turns rogue and creates inappropriate growth in a specialized region (such as an organ). The immune system failed to recognize and/or remove a bad cell. Simply, the weeds take over an area of the garden.
We have 100 trillion cells, everyday our body replenishes 300 billion cells due to damage or age. If only one of these cells gets by our internal policeman, it can grab hold. We need to open our mind to the world and history when considering our approach to this diagnosis.
We are all familiar with the US treatment of cancer, it has evolved, but is still extremely expensive, barbaric, and less successful than other approaches around the world. Worse, the diagnosis of this pathogenic condition is considered a death sentence for many, and they die because they believe they are supposed to. Have we ever considered what about the rest of the world? Do we assume that cancer doesn't exist in China or India or is our back-yard as far as we see?
Over 20 years ago, my father died with a diagnosis of cancer. I was
confident at the time that it wasn't an affliction that came from the
outside and took over. He had several things eating on him from the
inside out, like termites on the oak. He was out jogging 5 miles one
day, dead 30 days after.
In China, the term 'cancer' is seldom found in their hospitals and clinics in treating the same type of patient. First, they would consider it to create unneccessary fear and worry that feeds the degenerative process, rather than promote healing. Second, they follow what the father of allopathic medicine promoted, but seems to be forgotten here in the US, look for the causes. Thirdly, the Chinese physician has an understanding of chi, which gives them a much deeper view at the cancer conditions.
In 1979, the US became formally aware that Chinese physicians were curing people using chikung that had a diagnosis we called 'cancer'. The Harvard Medical School felt strongly enough about the results to send physicians there to learn the techniques, however the approach that chinese medicine takes is almost 180 degrees from the Harvard trained physician that it nearly impossible for them to embrace it, much less simulate it. However, they did monitor thousands of cases where people who would be diagnosed with 'cancer', recover, and continue with healthy lives. Without chemo, radiation, expensive prescriptions, and other awful interventions. Have we wondered why? In a capitalist country the good can sometimes get outweighed by the greed. We can't patent chikung, there isn't much money in it, no prescription is required to get a refill, you don't even have to come into the clinic. Hmmm....
Mr. Paul Dong wrote in his book: "The use of chi gong cancer treatment in China originated with Ms. Guo Lin, a Chinese traditional painter, mentioned above. In 1949, she was afflicted with uterine cancer and had it removed by surgery in Shanghai. The cancer recurred in 1960. This time it had metastasized to the bladder, and she had another operation in Beijing to remove part of the bladder that was cancerous. When she had another relapse, the doctors gave her six months to live. However, she did not give up hope, and in her struggle against cancer, she remembered that her grandfather, a Taoist priest, had taught her as a child to practice chi gong. She determinedly began to research and practice chi gong, hoping to recover her health in this way. After initial practice with no effect, she turned to the ancient chi gong texts willed to her by her grandfather and created her own exercise schedule. She practiced diligently for two hours every day, and in half a year her cancer subsided. She was strongly convinced of chi gong's ability to cure diseases, and in 1970 started giving lessons in what she called New Chi Gong Therapy. According to Cyrus Lee, Master Guo's therapy is not based on the external energy (wei chi) of others, but upon the inner energy (nei chi) of the patient (for these distinctions, review chapter 1, "Special Section on Chi"). Her therapy combines "active and passive exercises in three stages: relaxation (sung jing), concentration (yi lian), and breathing (tiao hsi)."2
By 1977 Master Guo had achieved spectacular results and proclaimed publicly that chi gong can cure cancer. Cancer victims from all over immediately streamed into Beijing to take part in the chi gong cancer therapy class she had organized. Each day three hundred to four hundred people studied chi gong techniques for cancer treatment with her. Until her death in 1984 she worked tirelessly, curing hundreds of cancer patients, while easing the pain and prolonging the lives of thousands more. Mrs. Wong Chung-siu, a student of Guo Lin's currently living in Fremont, California, told Paul Dong that Guo Lin's pinnacle of success came in 1982. Aided by nine assistants she had trained, Guo Lin held nine cancer classes of seventy students each, meeting three times a day. With her nine assistants to help her, she was able over the next two years to travel all over China to twenty provincial capitals to teach and lecture at the request of many local health care and medical departments, and she became a national celebrity before her death in 1984 (twenty years after her life had been given up by Western medicine). "
If someone you care about is faced with this energetic problem we call cancer, then it is wise to consider all options, and results in making a decision on the path to take.
Edited on: Thursday, July 03, 2014 12:39 PMPosted in Style: QiGong
Kungfu Utilized on the NFL Gridiron
Posted on Tuesday, July 03, 2007 at 5:05 AM by Sifu TW Smith the site author">Sifu TW Smith
Chike Okeafor, Defensive End for the NFL Seattle Seahawks, was attracted to kungfu by the ability to overcome greater size with focus, balance, and full-body technique. Being an undersized lineman at 265 lbs (small by NFL standards), he has utilized kungfu to become a force on the line of the NFL grid-iron.
"It's perfect because I'm not as strong as my opponent," says Okeafor, raised in West Lafayette, Ind. "The way to get around the size difference is efficiency of movement, straight lines and quickness -- I need to beat him to the punch." Here's how he trains to do just that:
1. MERIDIAN STRETCHES (WARMING UP) Before practice and games Okeafor does poses that stretch what he calls his "meridians" or "energy lines." Says Oram, "On a surface level he's stretching the underneath of the forearm and getting his hands, arms and wrists loose and relaxed. On an internal level he's stretching the lung, pericardium and heart and increasing circulation."
2. TAO FORM (REACTION TIME) "The purpose of the exercise is to focus your mind, body and internal energy at the same place at the same time with minimum conscious awareness," says Okeafor. "Ultimately, the subconscious is the realm of the reflexes." The exercise is, in essence, a moving meditation.
3. GUARD POSITION (BALANCE) In this breathing and centering exercise, says Okeafor, "his conscious awareness is in the dan tien, the literal center of the body, about an inch and a half below the navel. That's where the center of your energy and your physical center of gravity are." Assuming this combat-ready stance, Okeafor guards his center while sparring with a fellow kung fu student
Edited on: Friday, November 20, 2015 8:38 AMPosted in Athletic Performance