Fifth Qi-gong Conference is a Truckload of Fun

By Brian Kluepfel
Special to AsianWeek

“Come on! We’re going to see a man pull a truck with his penis!” One doesn’t turn down an invitation like that, and I quickly exited the lobby of the Golden Gate Holiday Inn on Saturday and followed the rest of the crowd to watch wushu Master Tu of Taiwan hook up his, um, apparatus to a minivan (loaded with 10 passengers, no less) and drag it about 10 feet across a rental agency’s garage.

Of course, qi-gong is not necessarily about producing amazing feats like Master Tu’s, but rather focuses on establishing a balance between body, mind and spirit. This fifth annual Congress on Qigong, sponsored by San Francisco’s East West Academy of Healing Arts, concentrated its annual message on qi-gong’s use in the medical field. AsianWeek had the chance to speak with several panelists, including the auteur of the Iron Crotch video himself, and talk about what qi-gong meant in their professions.

Dennis Lewis of San Francisco was at the conference to promote his “authentic breathing” theory. He is the author of Boundless Breathing and a teacher at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur.

“Breathing is the one activity that connects all the sides of us, physically, spiritually, mentally and socially,” he said. “[Yet] a lot of breathing work that people do is often very aggressive and controlled,” said Lewis. “It’s very important not to impose some sort of structure of breathing that doesn’t take all those into account. My emphasis is on how the body really wants to breathe if it was unencumbered by stress.”

Lewis, a former public relations professional, sees the stress of the modern world affect his clients, as it did him.

“If you look at any major city, you’ll see people who are being led by their heads and their necks and breathing in their upper chest, a lot faster than they need to,” said Lewis. “The average person breaths at 12-15 times per minute. Once you start practicing qi-gong seriously, your breath rate starts slowing down, being more efficient.”

Phyllis Parun came to the conference from New Orleans, where she has been focused on the role of diet in personal health for over twenty years. Parun, who is also a poet and painter, spoke on “The Healing Power of Food.”

“The thing is not to create more acids in the body by taking in foods that are creating acids, and have an alkaline diet,” said Parun. All proteins (animal and vegetable), all oils and fats and all refined foods, she said, are acid-producing foods. Many of her recipes are from China and Japan. She said her teaching is based on the American macrobiotic diet, which has its origins in Japan. Parun is an adherent of the late Herman Ahara’s “four wheel balance” macrobiotic theory, which seeks a balance between yin and yang, acid and alkaline.

The Women’s Qigong Alliance (WQA) was founded three years ago in Oakland to integrate the female experience into a sometimes male-dominated field, said Marcia Wexler Kerwit, a WQA founder. “In the subculture of qi-gong, there’s still a lot of sexism,” said Kerwit, who has been a qi-gong teacher since 1983. “There are forms [of qi-gong] that have been adapted, or created specifically for women’s bodies, and special practices for women.” WQA offers a bibliography on topics like breast cancer, women’s sexual practice, and other gender-specific topics.

Kerwit spoke of her experience living in China, where Eastern and Western medicines were “totally integrated. If I went into a clinic with a sore throat, I got herbs,” she said.

Other panelists spoke to different disciplines, for example, former Olympic long jumper Phillip Shinnick talked about qi-gong and sports performance, as did Peter Andraes of Thailand (author of Tiger Woods: The Secret of the Inner Golf Swing). James Tsai talked about its effect on brain power, while Dr. Wang Yan traveled from the Netherlands to discuss how obesity, smoking and skin conditions could be treated effectively with qi-gong.

It would seem that Western and U.S. medicine are beginning to acknowledge the solutions and wisdom that qi-gong and other longstanding practices can offer. The founder of East West Academy, Dr. Effie Chow, was part of President Clinton’s Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine in 2000.

“In the last couple of years, it’s really changing. Alta Bates hospital is allowing acupuncturists to work on patients in their beds. Harvard has had a pain clinic using acupuncture for a long time,” said Kerwit.

According to Chow, “The East began with the human instrument and with modernization is turning to the medical sciences. The West began with the medical sciences, and is turning to the human instrument. Perhaps the East and West will meet midway, so the best of their concepts can be synthesized to better serve humanity.”