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Qi Gong (05)
...In the 1980s and 1990s,
the increasing popularity of qigong and related practices led to the
establishment of many groups and methods in China and elsewhere that
have been viewed in a critical light by more traditional qigong
practitioners as well as skeptical outside observers. In this view, a
large number of people started studying qigong under inadequate
supervision, indeed, perhaps the majority of people today who study
qigong study from books or video tapes and DVDs without supervision by
a teacher. This laxness can lead to several problems, according to
those who view themselves as representative of orthodox schools. Most
traditional training takes many years of practice under the
supervision of someone who has also learned over years, someone who
can guide and prevent the student from taking an unbalanced approach
to qigong practice. The theory is that unbalanced circulation of inner
energies eventually leads to unbalanced effects on the various systems
of the body, both mental and physical.
Stories of unguided
practitioners or inexpertly guided students developing chronic mental
and physical health problems as a result of such training are not
uncommon. A term used by English speaking practitioners and teachers
for one example of this syndrome is "Qigong Psychosis" (Now
included in the DSM-IV as a culture-bound syndrome: Qi-Gong Psychotic
Reaction: DSM-IV General Information: Appendix I, Outline for Cultural
Formulation and Glossary of Culture-Bound Syndromes). Another function
of improper training involves frauds and deliberate charlatans who
promote themselves as qigong "healers" promising miracle
cures of any conceivable affliction for the right amount of money.
Traditionally, qigong is considered more of a health maintenance
regimen, and any promises of miracle cures should be viewed with
suspicion, according to traditional teachers and practitioners.
This recent popularity has
also led to increased attention for quasi-religious groups teaching
styles of qigong in an atmosphere of New Age-like spirituality. Qigong
has been associated in China with Taoist and Buddhist meditation
practices for two thousand years, and this association has recently
been exploited, according to traditionalists, by many would-be cult
leaders. Perhaps the most notable example of a group promoting a
synthesis of overt religiosity with qigong practice is the Falun Gong
group, whose worldwide popularity grew to the point that the People's
Republic of China government banned their practice outright in 1999. |
