Free The Tao of Natural Breathing by Dennis Lewis

us, it does, like many of the traditions, believe that we live in a universe of energy and energy transformations, and that we depend on these energies to think, to feel, to move, and so on. For the Western scientist, these energies—which include mechanical, chemical, electrical, radiant, and nuclear—are defined in relation to the “work” they can do. This work must, however, be measurable through the techniques of hard science, especially through instrumentation designed for that purpose. By definition, anything that cannot thus be measured does not exist. Of course, other researchers, including some in “softer” sciences such as psychology and psychiatry, have over the years posited the existence of subtle energies with names such as bioplasma, bioelectricity, biocosmic energy, and so on. And they, too, have often defined these energies in relation to the work they can do—especially in relation to our own minds and bodies. They have not, however, fared well in a society geared to the marriage of science, technol-ogy, government, the medical establishment, and the drug industry.
    One of the most famous of these energy researchers is Wilhelm Reich. On the basis of much experimental evidence and personal verification by many people, Reich maintained the existence of a powerful life force energy which he called orgone energy. He began to show people how to use this energy to help prevent and fight various life-threatening diseases, including cancer. Since he viewed his work as experimental, he did not charge his patients. Yet the U.S. federal government moved against him, and in May 1956, in response to his refusal to obey FDA injunctions, the government sentenced Reich to prison, where he died of a heart attack in November 1957. While he was in prison, the FDA raided his institute and burned his books and other writings. 22

    THE REMARKABLE ENERGY OF CHI
    It is only today, after the documented success of certain forms of “alternative medicine,” including meditation and Chinese healing arts such as acupuncture and chi kung healing ( chi kung means energy cultivation ), that a few open-minded pioneers in the Western medical community have begun to accept the possibility that there may be subtle forms of energy, such as chi (also written qi ), that Western science has not yet learned to measure. The 1994 PBS television series and companion book by television journalist Bill Moyers, Healing and the Mind —which documented some of the latest breakthroughs in mind/body research by psychologists, neurologists, and immunologists—devotes a section to “the mystery of chi.” Moyers draws no definite conclusions from his experiences in hospitals and elsewhere in China, but he does admit to seeing “remarkable and puzzling things.” 23
    Since long before the birth of Christ, Taoist and chi kung masters have been experimenting with remarkable and puzzling things—with the subtle energies and functions of the body and psyche. Through their own personal practices with breathing, posture, movement, sensory attention, visualization, sound, and meditation, they have discovered how to beneficially influence not only our thinking and feeling, but also the various internal systems of the body, including the enzymes, hormones, blood cells, and other vital substances and energies that lay at their foundation. The effectiveness of many of these practices has been verified over the past two decades by chemical and biophysical research done by scientists in collaboration with respected chi kung masters in some of the top universities and laboratories in China—research that has shown the remarkable influence of chi on everything from crystals to the human immune system.
    Chi and Negative Ions
    Taoists and chi kung masters maintain that, in principle, we can all learn how to use chi to promote health and well-being. They believe, for example, that the process of breathing not only draws in the oxygen needed by the body to