Customer Reviews

The Yijing Medical Qigong System

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Yijing Medical Qigong System: I have read literally hundreds of qigong books, and this is the first that delves deeply into the shared roots of Chinese medicine & Daoism, which is the I-Ching (Yijing). Few authors are willing to approach this difficult subject, but Dr. Friedman is able to discuss and present it in an accessible, easy-to-understand way. The book has a theory section, a practice section (which contains practical qigong exercises and meditations), and an external qi therapy treatment section. Dr. Friedman presents a unified system of healing for the self and others that is both impressive and clinically effective.

I've read this book several times. It's my mainstay, go-to book for Chinese Medicine in general and medical qigong specifically. For anyone already well-versed in the subject, this book will appear to be deceptively thin. What you should understand is that its a compendium of Chinese Medical theory and diagnosis, a comprehensive filtering of the most useful information you'll find in a hundred other Chinese Medical textbooks. I know this, because I've read others. The great tomes out there are wonderful if you want to know absolutely everything that can be known, but if you want to use the information on our most common problems in daily life, all you need is what's in Dr. Freidman's book. Dr. Friedman's encyclopedic understanding of the subject, compounded by her extensive clinical experience, makes this a worthwhile read. This book was designed to serve as a textbook for Dr. Freidman's ongoing classes, and thus focuses on utility and practice. This book is the one that teaches how to conceptualize health from a Chinese Medicine perspective and how to translate that into diagnosis of medical conditions. It then makes recommendations of several exercises it outlines and also of medical qigong procedures that would be used on others with this issue. Another of her books, Medical Qigong Exercise Prescriptions: A Self-healing Guide for Patient's and Practitioners, gives a bunch more qigong exercises and meditations allowing you to react to a diagnosis with greater flexibility and variety of action. In her classes, she adds a third book, The Dao of Health Eating by Bob Flaws, which allows you to use a diagnosis (if you have one) to determine what foods will be most healthful for you. Together, these three books allow you to take a stab at figuring out what's wrong with your health on your own, or to work superbly with a qualified Acupuncturist's diagnosis and take effective action in your own life. Dr. Friedman is the first Non-Chinese to be inducted into Grandmaster Bin Fang YeYoung's lineage as a YeYoung Qigong and Neidan (Inner Alchemy) master. As a Westerner, she has a sufficient command of the English language and Western mindsets to craft the material for our way of thinking, breaking through the language and culture barrier that often makes Eastern Medicine texts so difficult to comprehend and use. THE ONLY WARNING that may be suitable here is that medical qigong is promulgated on the assumption of a substance called qi that can be sensed by the body and that responds to conscious intercession, but that has not been scientifically established to exist (there are studies that have established a basis for measuring qi but they are not yet widely accepted by the scientific community). Thus, the book honestly covers what is considered by many Chinese practitioners to be perfectly useful ways of developing diagnoses, including various methods of "energy scanning," and casting a yijing hexagram reading. This doesn't bother me in the slightest, but these subjects bother some people, and as a reviewer, I feel I should warn you so you can make an informed decision. If you're curious about how to make Eastern concepts applicable to your health, read this book. If you're a medical or health practitioner interested in integrative medicine, start out with this book. If you're a qigong, taiji or other martial arts practitioner, looking to enhance the effect your art has on your body, read this book! At the very least, consider how affordable and short this text is, compared to so many that attempt to cover the subject. You won't be sorry.

This book covers all the basics of a complete system. A protocol that once internalized through practice will help any healer become more effective. Read it, practice, re-visit. Good luck.

Great idea for a book ... which must be good, it left me wanting to know more. The exercises are really good, although I had a feeling that there may be a more advanced level to them with mantras. which is probably taught in classes many miles away from where I live, damn. All in all a bit of an eye-opener that could be expanded.