Customer Reviews

Qigong: Chinese Medicine or Pseudoscinece?

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Lin Zixin et al's new book "Qigong: Chinese Medicine orPseudoscience?" is among the few Qigong books that tried to conduct some scientific exploration of the Qigong essence. If you are seriously looking for Qigong's scientific background, or planning to conduct some scientific research on Qigong and its applications, this book will definitely be helpful to avoid you from taking all Qigong as granted truth, and from simplifying the research design. >> The book consists of five chapters: 1. Traditional Chinese Medicine and Qigong, started with the glorious history of Qigong, it reveals the ancient origin of Qigong, some important methods, facts about Qigong and the benefits of Qigong practice. 2. External Qigong, it basically denies the very existence of external Qigong and criticizes some famous research on external Qigong done in the 1980s. Authors claimed the essence of Qigong is mind activities or psychological effects. 3. Itinerant Quackery, completely denied the possibility that Qigong may be used to diagnose diseases, and revealed how some street quackery used the name of "Qigong super abilities" to cheat patients. 4. The Debate on Human Extraordinary Ability vs. Qigong (Inner Kung Fu), it discloses some fake Qigong demonstrations and the reality of unsuccessful efforts to examine the human extraordinary ability, and criticizes four famous Chinese Qigongists. 5. Qigong and Ultra Deviation, it explains the major symptoms of so-called "ultra deviation" (Zhou Huo Ru Mo) in Qigong practice, why it occurs, and how to avoid it. It is not hard to see what attitude the authors possess in terms of scientific nature of Qigong. >> Unfortunately it is a cruel fact that there are much more fake Qigong masters out there than real honest Qigong masters, both in China and in the United States, and these fake Qigong masters brought more harm or disturbance than good or benefit in promoting Qigong and Qigong research. Lin Zixin's book will non-doubt help readers to identify some major quackeries of fake Qigong masters or medical Qigong practitioners who lack of knowledge of Qigong essence. >> The book was coauthored by six Chinese scholars, some of them are popular debunkers of pseudoscience, and all of them have publicly criticized the research of external Qigong in China. As one of the many academic perspectives about Qigong research, there is nothing wrong for them to state their perspectives publicly. However, the timing of its publication with some out-of-date research data make readers suspect its political motivation and possible government sponsorship. Some of the authors are supposed to be serious scientists; but the way they presented data, and the conclusions they reached based on very limited observations really lack of objectivity and scientific seriousness... END

The credentials of the authors lend tremendous credibility: Lin Zixin, a former editor-in-chief of China's Science and Technology; Yu Li, a popular debunker of pseudoscience with the Chinese Ministry of Internal Trade; Guo Zhengyi, deputy director and Shen Zhenyu, research director of China's Popular Science Institute; Zhang Honglin, director of the Qigong research department of China's Academy of Traditional Medicine; and Zhang Tongling, professor of psychiatry at Beijing Medical University. The book comes with an introduction about the important place that Qigong held in the evolution of Chinese civilization and in the psyche of Chinese society. A brief history of Qigong and its relation to traditional Chinese medicine is followed by the author's definition of Qigong and its practice. To prepare the readers for the subsequent debate on quackery and Qigong, the authors detail how Qigong is practiced with 30 pages of text and 23 illustrations. The authors maintain that all Qigong practices can be summarized into three principles: regulating the body by practicing form; regulating breath to cultivate "Qi" or energy; and regulating the mind by practicing concentration. As such, the authors believe that the effect of Qigong is personal, and the essential nature of Qigong is a course of adjusting mental and psychological activity. All other claims of Qigong are either a misrepresentation of the facts or complete
quackery. The goal of the book is to expose the falsehood of the pseudo-Qigong and quackery.

There are numerous self-proclaimed masters of special types of Qigong who can break tombstones with their head (Tough Qigong), eat burning charcoal, stand on balloons (Light Qigong or weightlessness), etc. Some of these performances resemble those of magicians or "psychics" in the West. Reading how these tricks are exposed one by one is quite an enlightening and entertaining experience. The authors' experiments and discussion on External Qigong typifies the care they took in conducting the tests. External Qigong refers to the fact that some Qigong masters claim that they can treat patients with what is claimed to be Qi emitted by the master. The authors' explanation of such effects is psychological suggestion. They demonstrated this by severing lines of
communication by blindfolding the patient to prevent him from seeing when Qigong is performed. When this is done, the effect of External Qigong disappears.

They also showed that therapeutic effects similar to those of Qigong can be achieved by psychological suggestion.
The authors are obviously very knowledgeable in Qigong, traditional Chinese medicine and related subjects such as human extraordinary abilities. In general, the authors take an objective stand towards the subject of investigation.

Good experimental design and reproducibility are emphasized in their evaluation of the evidence. Numerous experiments supporting the presence of External Qigong are scrutinized and dismissed based on either a poor experimental design, a lack of control or a lack of reproducibility.

The book has a fairly extensive coverage on the change of Qigong from a mental/psychological exercise to a special human ability phenomenon in China since the 1970s. It is suggested that the research and debate of Qigong
parallel those of psychic investigations in the West. The readers can glimpse the attitudes of Chinese society towards the special function aspect of Qigong through the brief biography of four super-Qigongists in recent years. In this respect, the book may serve as a resource book on the modern Qigong movement in China. A small weakness of the book is that it lacks complete information on some of the literature cited therein.

Lee Yui
MS 8391, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899
1 Dr. Yu is a naturalized US citizen and a Ph.D. research chemist in the Analytical Chemistry Division
of NIST. He is a native of China.

This book is an obvious attempt by governmental authorities in the PRC to "poo-poo" the whole notion of chi. Certainly, there are charlatans everywhere and China has more than its share of them but the "experiments" conducted alleged "scientists" leave me wondering about the credibility of the entire book.
All in all, the book is a terrible disappointment and a waste of time. I'd much rather read some serious research data conducted by qualified scientists-

What is qi? What is the flow of Qi? Where and what is the qi in your body? Mis-interpretation of qi has blocked Chinese logic thinking and medicine development for quite a while. "The flow of qi" means "the flow of blood", also means "the flow of force/energy". What has caused the flow of blood? The force from the vibration of heart causes the flow of blood. "You feel the flow of qi" means "you feel the flow of blood in your body". With a relaxed body and mind, your hands may feel the flow of something within your body, this is called qi by ancient chinese. Author is trying to tell certain truth about qi and qigong from scientific point of view. I think it is worth to read if you are seeking the truth.

Science is not just a way to criticism without real proofs. There is not much experimental attitude in this book... Just scientism and bla...bla...