Using The Force, Chinese-Style -- Ancient Art Of Qi Gong Builds The `Energy Of Life'

Freezing his face into a mask of concentration, Master Michael Tse claws and pulls at the air between him and a woman standing 15 feet away. He twists his arms with underwater-like motions, smoothly sweeping them around an imaginary sphere floating in front of his body.

After five minutes, he slowly lowers his arms and asks if the audience saw anything unusual.

"I saw it," a woman says after a few seconds. "A white, grayish haze all around you." Several others nod in agreement. "The air around you got kind of blurry," another man chimes in. A young woman exclaims, "It was almost like steam rising from your hands."

As a qi gong master, the force is literally with Tse. In a classroom at Seattle Central Community College on a Sunday, he's channeling qi, which means "vital energy" or "life force" in Chinese.

Qi gong (pronounced chee goong and sometimes spelled chi kung) refers to a millennia-old Chinese healing exercise that is now making its way into the U.S. Literally translated as "working with the energy of life," qi gong builds energy using a combination of fluid movements, breathing exercises and visualization. Practitioners say it strengthens organs against disease and illness while also reducing stress.

If it sounds as if it requires a leap of faith, consider that qi gong has been widely accepted in China for thousands of years. An estimated 90 million people practice it there, according to the American National Qi Gong Association. Rock paintings of people doing qi gong have been discovered dating back 4,000 years. At clinics in China, qi gong masters use energy to treat patients. Hundreds of styles have been developed. A recent protest in China was organized by 10,000 followers of falun gong, a specific style of qi gong that has incorporated religious beliefs. (The largest demonstration since Tiananmen Square, the April incident alarmed the Chinese government enough to issue warnings to practitioners of falun gong.) The majority of people, however, use qi gong solely to cultivate physical health.

Locally, Xue-Zhi Wang estimates he's taught 3,000 students. The former professor of traditional Chinese medicine at Beijing University has seen his tri-weekly qi gong classes grow from 10 to 50 students since he started teaching in Seattle five years ago.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes a vital energy, qi, circulates through certain channels in our body like blood, as well as between our bodies and our surroundings. During childhood, energy circulates freely, but it slows down and clogs up with age, stress or injury. And that causes illness and disease.

Tse, who has written two books on qi gong and publishes the bimonthly magazine, "Qi," explains, "Qi is like water. If water is blocked and stops flowing, it becomes rotten."

The movements of qi gong harvest energy and stimulate its flow through the body, improving energy and flexibility. The exercises are similar to tai chi, although much simpler. Unlike tai chi, however, qi gong is not a martial art.

Julio Ferrer, a marketing manager from Renton, has been practicing qi gong for eight years. "Qi is something you can actually feel," Ferrer says. "It's not some cerebral thing you take by blind faith. He claims, "I've had the beginnings of a cold and all I did was concentrate on my qi gong, put a little extra time into it, and I could make the colds go away."

Dr. Hui-Ying LeSage, a family practitioner in the Eastside, started taking a qi gong class and practicing at home last month. For years, she suffered from chronic gastro-intestinal problems. Since starting qi gong she says she's already felt a slight improvement.

Although practitioners of qi gong have faith in its restorative powers, Western medicine has yet to find incontrovertible proof of its effectiveness. Dr. Rubin Maidan, director of cardiologist services at Evergreen Hospital Medical Center in Kirkland, edits an alternative medicine newsletter and co-chairs the hospital's Integrative Medical Task Force, which educates physicians on alternative therapies. Maidan has reviewed about 30 studies on qi gong, and says the results are encouraging.

"There's not enough data yet to say qi gong is definitely effective on a specific condition," he says, but he hopes doctors would encourage patients to try qi gong based on the studies he's read.

Tse has never doubted the power of qi gong. He practices a style called dayan qi gong, or wild goose qi gong, which imitates the graceful movements of geese. The style was developed by a Taoist monk in the Kunlun mountains and passed down through 26 generations.

For 1,800 years, dayan qi gong remained a tightly guarded secret. Each student took an oath to keep the form a secret until they were 70, when they could choose one individual as a student. Tse's master, Yang Meijun, decided to open up her teachings to the public when she turned 80.

Tse and his wife moved to Kirkland three months ago from Manchester, England, where he taught for 11 years. He spent most of his youth learning kung fu and later trained with the son of Bruce Lee's master, but he eventually turned to qi gong, deciding that health was more important than learning how to fight. Tse studied at Wuhan University with the now 103-year-old Yang, who is highly venerated in China. Tse is one of only three masters Yang has authorized to teach dayan qi gong in the U.S. and Europe.

At a recent class, Tse walks among students practicing "Beautiful Woman Turns the Waist," which loosens the hips and directs qi to the kidneys. They rotate their hips with their hands bracing their lower backs, like pregnant women swinging invisible hula hoops in slow motion. "Some people think qi gong should be very dramatic, but it's not," he says.

"How many repetitions should I do?" one student asks. Tse laughs. "That's like asking, `How a big a breakfast should you eat?"' he says. "Listen to your body. When it's full, you stop. Counting disturbs relaxation."

As the voices of the students die down, Tse begins to channel his qi again, this time using his hands to fling air from his body as he walks around the room. He stops short. "Now, did anyone smell anything?" ------------------------------- What is qi?

Like glasnost and doppelganger, qi is one of those words that has no equivalent in the English language. In Japanese, it's called ki. Literally translated, qi means "breath" or "air," but there's more to it than that.

Originating in Taoist philosophy, qi is an invisible life force that flows through all living things. The concept of qi encompasses the physical and the metaphysical, tying together health, attitude, spirit, energy and aura.

The idea of qi permeates Chinese culture. A healthy individual possesses good qi. What Western culture would call a sixth sense is attributed to an individual's sensitivity to qi. The science of feng shui, Chinese rules of design and architecture that maximize good fortune, is dictated by the flow of qi around and through a building.

As qi gong master Michael Tse puts it, "When the qi's good, everything's good."

Qi resources

The National Qi Gong Association makes referrals. Call 888-218-7788. Web site: www.nqa.org

A sampling of local classes: -- Seattle's Discover U, 206-443-0447. Web site: www.discoveru.org

-- Embrace the Moon School for Tai Chi and Qi Gong, in Seattle and on Whidbey Island. 206-789-0993.

-- Tse Qi Gong Center, in Bellevue and Seattle. 425-823-0199. Web site: www.qimagazine.com

-- University Heights Center for the Community, in Seattle. 206-547-2435.