published 4/25/09
Do You Believe in Qi?
How to embrace a central concept of Eastern mysticism without being a flake
by Paul Ingraham, Vancouver, Canada MOREclose
Credentials and qualifications
I am a writer and retired Registered Massage Therapist (unusually well-trained for a massage therapist, a 3000-hour program). I’m almost done with a Bachelor of Health Sciences degree. I am a peer reviewer for The Natural Standard, and a copyeditor for Science-Based Medicine. My most important qualification is more than a decade of workaholic post-graduate study, clinical experience, and constant conversations with readers from around the world, including many experts who have provided countless suggestions and criticisms.
For more information, see: Who Am I to Say? More information about my qualifications, credentials and professional experiences for my readers and customers.
Credentials and qualifications
I am a writer and retired Registered Massage Therapist (unusually well-trained for a massage therapist, a 3000-hour program). I’m almost done with a Bachelor of Health Sciences degree. I am a peer reviewer for The Natural Standard, and a copyeditor for Science-Based Medicine. My most important qualification is more than a decade of workaholic post-graduate study, clinical experience, and constant conversations with readers from around the world, including many experts who have provided countless suggestions and criticisms.
For more information, see: Who Am I to Say? More information about my qualifications, credentials and professional experiences for my readers and customers.
I get asked this a lot. People want to know if I think all “this stuff” is real — all this stuff about vital energy, life forces and auras, or what the Chinese call “Qi.”
Qi (pronounced “chee”) is allegedly an “energy” or “force” that flows through channels or meridians in the body, according to Chinese philosophy and folk medicine.
I don’t have much use for qi as a literal concept. This is a significant difference, somewhat like the difference between a Biblical literalist and a progressive academic theologian. I believe the idea of qi is useful, interesting and aesthetically pleasing, but not a description of actual stuff.
In the course of the history of our species, we have often cooked up ideas that elegantly but non-literally described a collection of natural phenomena. I believe the Chinese were superb observers of human health, and came up with all kinds of rather beautiful ways of describing what they could not possibly understand. Qi was an attempt to make sense of it — a label for the collective je ne sais qua of human health and vitality.
Could it turn out to be a real thing after all, though? A force or an energy that might someday be measured by scientific instruments? I grew up longing for The Force to be real, and for many years qi seemed like a good candidate.
When I practice qi gong or t’ai qi, I do not trouble myself with whether or not the qi is “real.” Qi gong is an art. I practice it in a beautiful way. Like Japanese cuisine, it works best when it looks good. To do a thing in a beautiful way, to move gracefully, is to experience qi. Is beauty a real thing? Yes. But there will never be a Beauty-o-Meter®.
Is beauty a real thing? Yes. But there will never be a Beauty-o-Meter®.
I am quite content to think of qi as a complex and beautiful metaphor. The Chinese may even never have intended qi to be more than a metaphor, albeit a potent one: “just” poetic imagery that expresses the essence of the miracle of life and the vivid sensations that make it up. To live is a miracle; to live well, to be full of life and to live in balance and harmony, is a beautiful miracle — a miracle full of qi. Perhaps the idea of qi is a condensed, Taoist way of saying “I am more than the sum of my parts.”
The Chinese have always been very good at saying a lot with a single sound or a simple image.
On the other hand, I supposed qi could turn out to be a measurable force of nature or a description of physiological circumstances, and a potentially a useful medical idea. Humans and matter itself are phenomena of force and energy. We are not actually solid, you know — instead, our molecules are weird concatenations of energy. This is just physics, and we clearly have more to learn about the nature of matter.
However, this exactly the point at which many writers would hijack science to make qi seem more respectable, and it makes scientists cringe — in fact, quantum physics probably really doesn’t have anything to do with qi, or indeed anything to do with life on our scale. I only brought physics up as a general reminder that we still have some things to learn about how chemistry becomes biology, and how biology becomes a person, and maybe, someday, we’ll find out there is something like an energy-type qi going on in our bodies. I doubt it, but I’m not completely closing my mind to the possibility — I’m a qi-as-stuff agnostic.
Meanwhile, I am quite happy with qi-as-poetry. And if that is all it ever turns out to be, how can I be disappointed?
Further Reading
- For a practical guide to breathing (a great way of stimulating qi), see: SY The Art of Bioenergetic Breathing — A powerful tool for personal growth and transformation.
- Perhaps the most creative and personal article on SaveYourself.ca, a sort of poetical essay, which thoroughly explores the idea of qi: SY The Anatomy of Vitality — What makes life tick? A poetic romp through the substance of vitality.
- Just as important as “believing” in the beauty of qi, we must keep a clear head about what can be known, and what cannot. See SY Extraordinary Claims — A guide to critical thinking, skepticism and smart reading about health care on the web.
Other interesting reading:
- The Way of Qigong: The art and science of chinese energy healing, a book by Kenneth Cohen (book review). . A highly accessible and comprehensive introduction to qigong — basically Chinese calisthenics — ideal for beginners and good for experienced practitioner’s as well.
- The Rainbow and the Worm: The physics of organisms, a book by Mae-Wan Ho. . A terrible book to read, even for a physicist I imagine, it nevertheless explores the likely future of biology unlike anything else I’ve ever read, proposing that life is organized down to the atomic scale.
- The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the foundation of life, a book by Robert O Becker and Gary Selden (book review). . A fascinating exploration of the most under-rated, neglected mysteries in biology.
Notes
- See The Body Electric (highly readable and credible) or The Rainbow and the Worm (not so very readable, but probably the most comprehensive book on the subject to date). Return to text.