Keeping Cool this Summer with Chinese Medicine

By John Voigt

Keeping Cool

Here are some techniques from Traditional Chinese medicine to help beat the summer heat.  (If you have a fever, or other health problems see a professional medical practitioner.)

First some common sense suggestions: drink a lot of water, keep cool.  Do your body a favor and stay in the shade. Nothing beats a pleasant stroll in a forest (just have the bug repellant on). If you must be in the sun cover yourself as much as you can. Watch non-human animals for cues on what you should be doing.


Photo by Casey Horner on Unsplash

Food. 

Never put icy cold things in your mouth.  Avoid lamb, fatty red meat, alcohol, tobacco, garlic, onion, scallion, and coffee as these are warming in Chinese Medicine.  Eat less food and drink, drink lots of room temperature fluids--except never any sugared juice drinks, or sodas.   Replace any lost salt … lost from heavy sweating.

To reinforce yin, and clear heat: Watermelon,  Mung beans.


Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

Also: Apple, Banana, Crab,  Mango, Pears, Pineapple, Tofu.

Try drinking mint, chamomile, chrysanthemum teas; and also a weak green tea with a touch of lemon and honey. These are cooling to the body and build yin.


Photo by Anda Ambrosini on Unsplash

Chinese Herbs

American Ginseng. 


This image from ernestherbal.com

Check with a health professional knowledgeable about Chinese herbs if you have health issues.  Dosage: Usually American Ginseng extract is about 200 mg per day containing at least 4 to 7% ginsenosides. 0.5 to 2 g of dry root per day on a short-term basis, with the ginseng taken in tea form or chewed. Capsule formulas are generally prescribed in a dosage of 100 to 600 mg per day, usually in divided doses.  [from] <http://www.online-health-care.com/herbal-medicines>.

Internal Qigong.   

In the cycle of Seasons, this is the time to prepare for winter.  Sit in meditation and visualize it is winter all around you. Take the hot yang energy on the surface of your body and with your mind and breath direct and guide this heat into the energy storage battery in your lower abdomen, the Dantian.  Do from five to fifteen minutes.

Self Acupressure.

  • Kidney 1 (Yong-quan)
  • Kidney 2 (Ran-gu)
  • Bladder 40 (Weizhong)

Kidney 1 is one of the most powerful points in the body and is located between the balls of the foot in the depression. It is a very strong point, so be gentle. It is excellent for building yin and cooling the body as well as being a powerful tonification point for the entire body.
Photo by Cristian Newman on Unsplash 

Kidney 2 is located on the inside (medial) aspect of the foot along the border of the red and white skin (where the skin transitions from the soft part on the top of your foot to the tougher type of skin you have on the bottom of your foot.)
Image from wanderingdawn.com

This point is located behind the knees at the midpoint of the crease. It is very sensitive, so always be gentle.

Gently press and massage the  Kidney 1, and 2 points, then the Bladder-40 points for about three to five minutes (or longer). 

Putting ice on the Bladder 40 wěizhōng points works to cool you down too.

External Qigong.

With fingers pointed down and knuckles facing each other almost touching, raise hands up center front -- go above head and open palms up to the heavens. With palms facing downward,  fingertips pointed at each other,  bring hands down the center line,. Repeat six times. Softly sound “Sheee.” (Or just hear it in your head.)  This harmonizes the body’s organ functions, the “Triple Burner".

John Voigt
john.voigt@comcast.net

 

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Tapping and Slapping Qigong

By John Voigt

The Exercise

This qigong may be done when standing, seated, or walking. It is a delight to do in the morning, especially with others in a park as the morning sun rises. But it may be done at any time, and it’s especially helpful if you haven’t moved for a while. As with any exercise, and especially if you have or may have an illness, first check with a health professional before adding it to your daily practice. And stop doing it if anything hurts when doing it or afterwards “No pain no gain” is a western malapropism.

This Qigong is done with penetrating percussive fingertip tapping, open hand slaps, and softly clasped fists. Hit gently but forcefully, imagining you are penetrating all the way into the marrow of the bones. Never should the skin appear bruised, instead the skin should feel tingly and radiantly alive. Underneath the skin, especially in the fascia, should feel strengthened and full of warm thick qi. Also, your acupuncture points may begin to feel opened and cleansed.  All these positive sensations may last for twelve to twenty-four hours, or possibly longer.

The number of taps and slaps for each individual body part—usually of nine in a “bundle”—is for the beginner. Once you have grown accustomed to the exercise, the number of taps or slaps on any body part may be increased to up to one hundred or more in what I am calling a “bundle,” and the number of bundles may be increased from one to five or more. Yet even only a few taps, slaps, or hits with soft fists can prove beneficial and enjoyable. However it is important not to omit any section of the exercise; in other words, work on all the suggested parts of the body in the order that they are given, and try to do the entire practice every day.

The Warm Up

To build up the Qi (Life Force Energy): Rub your hands together, then stretch and wiggle your fingers. Feel the blood, qi and warmth flow into your hands. Tap your fingertips together. Wiggle your fingers again.

Pretend you are holding a beach ball. Inhale and feel this imaginary ball expand. As you exhale squeeze it back to its original size.  Do this for a few minutes or until you feel your palms and fingertips grow warm—or even better, hot. This is to increase the quantity and quality of your qi as your taps and slaps are sending this healing vitality into the body.

1. The Upper Part of the Head. Lightly pat from the front to back with the fingertips. For the left side do 9 taps; then for the right side do 9 taps. Then repeat this. Avoid hitting the Baihui point, GV-20, at the crown (top) of the head.

2. The Arms. Tap with a soft fist 9 times down each of the four sides of the left arm (inside, outside, upper, lower). Stop when you reach the hand and never tap on or over the fingers. Do the same on the right arm.

3. The Shoulders. With either fingertips, soft fists, or cupped palms, strike the left shoulder with the right hand. Then the right shoulder with the left hand.  Do each side 9 times.

Note: Hit on and around the general vicinity of the GB-21 point. This is said to “disperse liver qi stagnation,” and “dredge excess qi from all the yang channels.” [Professor Jerry Alan Johnson. “Point Tapping Therapy.”]

4. The Upper Back. Tap the upper left back with a right-hand soft fist. Then the upper right back with a left-hand soft fist. Do each side 9 times.  If easier to do, use the right hand on the right side, left hand on the left side.

Note 1: Aim on striking on and around the Bl-15 acupressure point.

This point opens directly to the heart. Here a slapping or soft fist tapping is more easily done by someone else. It may help in reducing emotional problems—here I speak from personal experience, although it wasn't necessarily an instant fix.

Note 2: Because the upper back can be hard to reach, it may be convenient for you to substitute a tree for your fists by being like a bear in the woods and rubbing, banging and scratching your back up against a tree.  Be careful; wear a thick shirt or a coat, and as with any qigong: use common sense.

5. The Chest. Alternately using the hands, pat the chest downward and upward for a total of 18 times.

6.  The Abdomen and Small of the Back. Strike the left lower side of the abdomen with the right palm as you with a soft left-hand fist strike the small of the back. Do the left side 9 times; the right side 9 times.

7. The Buttocks. Tap or slap the left buttock with the left hand’s fingertips or soft fists or open cupped palm 9 times. Strike on and around the GV-30 point at the dimple on the buttocks. Do the same for the right side.

8. The Legs. Do not do this when standing on both feet. That would bring too much blood (and qi) to the head and also you might fall over. So do this exercise when you seated, or if standing prop your heel up on a support (chair, bench,  low wall, etc.). It’s a good idea to hold onto something with your non-striking hand to maintain your balance. Begin with fingertip tapping down from the thigh to the ankle (never hit the foot) 9 times for each of the four sides of the left leg (inner, back, upper, outer). Then do the same on the right leg.

To Finish

Rub your hands together and brush yourself off—(think “air wash”). Then shake yourself to further rid yourself of any remaining stagnation or bad qi [xie qi].  Then if convenient take a short walk.

Additional Comments. When tapping, slapping or hitting don’t just brutishly bash away on yourself. Use a light but penetration touch sending arrowheads of qi into the body, and then by instantaneously withdrawing your hand the acupoint (or whatever you are working on) seems to open by itself like a flower blooming in the spring. This Tonifies (strengthens by gathering in good qi), and Sedates (disperses bad qi).

Sources

Hu Bin. Keep Fit The Chinese Way. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1991. https://www.amazon.com/Keep-Fit-Chinese-Way-Traditional/dp/7119009087

Professor Jerry Alan Johnson. “Point Tapping Therapy.’ Qi Journal, vol. 274; Winter 2017-2018. http://www.qi-journal.com/store.asp?-token.S=qi&ID=3639

Mantak Chia. Bone Marrow Nei Kung. Destiny Books, 2006. https://books.google.com/books?id=Sl0oDwAAQBAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The author, may be contacted at john.voigt@comcast.net

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The beautiful featured image photo by Manja Benic on Unsplash

by Emma

The Strangest Energy Healing Ever Reported - Part Three

By John Voigt

In Parts One and Two the curious and apparently true story of a healing aboard a UFO sixty miles from Beijing was summarized. Extraterrestrials showed a school principle how to send superconducting healing qi-energy into a sick girl; in minutes she was healed. In Part Three our analysis continues.

Note: Given the negative excesses of skeptics who would attack their professional careers, the names of the people who personally helped the author, or sent him their insights into this case, are not given. Many skeptics claiming that science is on their side, most curiously reject the reality of all things paranormal without giving any serious investigations of the known facts; they “just know” that such things are too weird to be.  This of course is the height of unscientific ignorance. We also see this in the way the establishment often rejects aspects of TCM that have proven themselves for thousands of years. Check out Wikipedia, the mega-encyclopedia of our times. In their “Traditional Chinese Medicine” entry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Chinese_medicine the term “pseudoscience” is found thirteen times. In the beginning of their “Acupuncture” entry we read,  “TCM theory and practice are not based upon scientific knowledge, and acupuncture is a pseudoscience.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acupuncture

Girl’s Symptoms - Possible illness caused by Wind-Heat.

According to the Yellow Emperor’s Suwen, Kidney Wind manifests as excess sweating and aversion to Wind. When diagnosing, one should look for a dark black color and hue in the flesh. There is also a dull gray cast to the face and swelling of the eyes; and the face may even have a charcoal hue color. This is exactly how the young girl first looked.

Note: For further information see: “The Concept of Wind in Traditional Chinese Medicine.”

The Big Hammer

A key operation in the healing was the Extraterrestrial striking Cao Gong’s “Big Hammer” acupuncture point [the Governing Vessel-14, the  Dachui xue, 大椎穴] and sending into him what the ET called, “cosmic light, electricity and magnetic energy.” Cao Gong (an alias) struck the girl, Xiao Xiaomei (also an alias) on her GV-14 point for about five minutes to effect the healing.

From The Acupuncture Point Book, by Colleen DeLaney, L.Ac.  David Bruce Leonard, L.Ac.  Lancelot Kitsch, Esq.  Roast Duck Publications, 1989.

DU 14 "Big Vertebra" 大椎 Dàzhuī

Intersection of all Yang meridians.
LOCATION: Below the spinous process of C7, approximately at the level of the shoulders. "Zhui" is also a term for hammer. The vertebrae are said to resemble hammers.

FUNCTIONS

  • Relieves Exterior Conditions
  • Opens the Yang
  • Clears the Brain & Calms the Spirit
  • Causes Sweat, Clears Heat, Fire, & Summer Heat, Dispels Wind & Cold, Moves Qi & Yang,
  • Reduces Fever, Regulates Qi, Relaxes Tendons, Restores Collapsed Yin, Tonifies Wei Qi

INDICATIONS

  • asthma
  • blood diseases
  • bronchitis
  • Cold-induced diseases
  • congested throat
  • constricted feeling in chest & soreness in ribs
  • cough
  • eczema
  • emphysema
  • fever
  • fever & chills
  • heatstroke
  • hemiplegia
  • hepatitis
  • hot sensation in bones with recurrent fever (associated with deficient Yin conditions)
  • malaria
  • pain in the back of the shoulder
  • psychosis (good point)
  • pulmonary tuberculosis
  • seizures (good point)
  • tidal fevers

NEEDLING: Obliquely upward 0.5 - 1.0 cun.
PSYCHO-SPIRITUAL USES: neurasthenia.
POINT COMBINATIONS:
ANCIENT USES:
OTHER: All the Yang Channels cross this point. Main point for high fever. Main point for malaria. fainting/ heat stroke; helps relieve toxicity—hot blood diseases, skin problems.

From a reader: Although the Big Hammer is the major collection point in the back for the gathering of Yang Qi (opposite from the Heaven’s Chimney located at the base of the throat for the gathering of Yin Qi), this area is also the center axes point for the "Back Bridge Bar" (the area located in-between the shoulders that energetically connects both arms together).  This area is an extremely important place for transferring Qi.

I suspect that when the ET slapped Cao Gong’s Big Hammer that he simultaneously activated Cao Gong’s arms via the Back Bridge Bar, and also increased his capacity to store and maintain additional healing light within his body.

From a reader: If a Qigong Master was emitting strong Qi into the patient's GV-14 (i.e., the "Big Hammer,” where all of the Yang Channels converge), that specific point is often used to remove Wind Heat (and Wind Cold), which can sometimes cause tremors and even epilepsy, depending on the patient’s excess or deficient constitution.

TALISMANS

Remember that as part of the  healing treatment the female extraterrestrial had the young girl stand on a diagram on the floor.  I suggest that this was a talisman, or at least functioned as one.

The Chinese word for talisman is  Fu - 符. Originally it meant “correspondence” [between the forces of the Heavens and Nature and the creator and owner of the drawn symbol.] Now the word means amulet, protective written charm, symbolic sign.

In modern times you don’t see much about talismans in TCM books or teaching syllabuses. Nevertheless many Daoist priests, and other spiritual healers,  then and now did use and still use these ritualistic symbols to communicate  with the heavenly spirit world and with the energetic forces of nature to cure illness. Starting an hour's drive out from any metropolis in Mainland China, and everywhere in Taiwan, you  see them everywhere—but it should be clearly understood that unless created by one who is fully schooled in their meanings and in how to draw them, they are no more than art objects. I admonish any reader who without the needed extensive training not attempt to create a power talisman—for that you need a very wise, experienced and proficient person. Inadvertently an ignorant person (and most of us are certainly that in this area) may call down upon themselves and their clients  the exact opposite of what they are seeking to accomplish. Talismans can mysteriously bring evil and sickness as well as good and wellbeing.

In lieu of that I was able to gain the following from a Chinese Daoist master knowledgeable in the use of healing talismans. This master asked that their name be withheld.

I am assuming that the patient [is] the young Chinese girl in the picture. In her particular condition - after the treatment (having successfully purged the Wind-Heat, and Tonified all of her internal organ deficiencies), I would then provide her with the following Talisman used to strengthen her Five Yin Organs, and rebuild her constitution: 

Draw the following Healing Talisman on yellow paper with black ink, add the patient’s name and Four Pillars to the talisman (her birth year, month, day, and hour) at the center of the bottom hill, then at the bottom that - dedicate the talisman to the healing power of Taishang Laojun.

Daode Tianzun (道德天尊) is the official title of Taiqing (太清): the Grand Pure One.
Commonly known as Taishang Laojun (太上老君) "The Grand Supreme Elderly Lord." Source: Wikipedia.

While doing this [dedication] draw a Talisman Gall Bladder; i.e., a black ball and fill it with clockwise circling ink while speaking a healing incantation dedicated to quickly bringing healing Qi into the patient’s three San Bao bodies: physical-jing, energetic-qi, mental-shen.

Next “ Activate" the Talisman: First place a Three-Star Seal at the top of the talisman, representing the Celestial Power  and Divine Authority of the Three Pure Ones (this top image looks like the out-stretched wings of 3 seagulls : side-by-side). 

Second exhale your Daoist Priest Lineage Name into the talisman paper, and then place the official Daoist monastery chop seal in red ink in the center of the talisman. 

Third place the talisman inside the Altar Incense, and swirl it clockwise nine times while repeating the talisman’s specific energetic function. 

Right after that, light the talisman in the left red candle of the altar table, 

then place the ashes into a small cup.

Add some water and stir it with a wooden chop stick while again repeating a healing talisman. 

After that - give the talisman water to the patient to drink.

As the patient drinks the talisman water, 

repeat the following Incantation “An - Lam” “An - Lam” “An - Lam” while she swallows it.

This is done in order to purify the way and to quickly release the imprinted energy currently inserted inside the talisman water.

ENDNOTES

About Cao Gong: “his great-grand father was a wizard, who healed people, and refused payments. The Emperor gave the wizard a wood plaque that thanked and honored him.” [Cao Gong is] skilled in Bone Massage inherited from his Buddhist family. Soon after the abduction he practiced such healing practices on several of China’s leading political figures. Certain sources say that he was a member of a  governmental advisory group, the CPPCC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_People%27s_Political_Consultative_Conference

Cao Gong strapped to a lie detector

Professor Sun Shili, the renowned  director of the Beijing UFO Research  Association, made the following comments:   “As for Cao Gong, the figure at the  center of this incident, we first checked  his personality traits and discovered that  he is a man dedicated to public welfare.   “Those that know him all admit that  he is a respectable man of upright behavior, thus ruling out personality traits  where he would willfully fabricate lies.”   MUFON https://issuu.com/disclosureproject/docs/mufon_ufo_journal_-_2005_12._decemb

For more information about him see: http://it.sohu.com/20070129/n247899406.shtml .

Talismans

Sun Simiao (C.E. 581-682) was called China's “King of Medicine.”  He wrote that the treatment of disease must include chanting the names of a particular Healing Spirit while tracing its esoteric Seal and Magic Talisman on yellow paper. The paper was then burnt and its ashes mixed with the appropriate herbs and swallowed by the patient, or applied topically to heal a wound.

Sun Simiao China's King of Medicine. Source - By Unknown - 清宫殿藏画本. 北京: 故宫博物馆出版社. 1994., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57203315

Stunning modern art Talismans (and a short essay) may be found at http://marlowbrooks.com/chinese-healing-talismans/#

Japanese UFO story.

Hidden within medieval Japanese mythology there is a story that synchronistically relates to our case, and strangely enough perhaps might even help us better to understand it.  Many of the same images appear in it that we find in the Beijing Abduction: a UFO looking craft  with a thirteen-year old Chinese girl aboard, a strange box (containing Ban Jiang Can, a medicine for Wind-Heat conditions), a Talisman looking diagram, an undefinable cup (remember the metal bottles at Xiao Xiaomei’s feet). But I admit this is more the stuff of fantasy stories than medical research.

Utsuro-bune ("Hollow-craft") painted in the mid-1800s.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utsuro-bune\

Last ET Comment: Thank you for your cooperation. Our experiment has been very successful.  Because our superconducting magnetic healing energies are too intense for earth people to directly receive, we used a really healthy earthling like yourself to be the conduit to harmonize the qi and transmit it to the girl.

Here we have something I wish all TCM healers could experience and enjoy: Being a conduit to harmonize and transmit energies to successfully aid in the healing of our clients, (minus of course the “healing energies…too intense”).

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The author may be reached at john.voigt@comcast.net

by Emma