00. 1. 00. 14

Span of Chinese

Qigong... millions of Chinese get out of bed for it every morning.

But what exactly is Qigong?

Is this the real thing... traditional Chinese breathing exercises, part of a keep fit routine.

Or is this Qigong... a source of physical strength.

Qigong user - breaking bricks with own physical strength

You harness your Qi throughout your body, so when you hit the bricks you won't feel any pain.

01.10

To understand Qigong, you must first understand Qi... and that's no easy matter.

ROSEY GRANDAGE is a qualified physiotherapist.  A student of Qigong, she combines it with western medicine to treat her patients.

01.27

Rosey Grandage - Physiotherapist

In my view, or my experience studying it in China is that it's really a way of looking at nature as a whole.  This concept of Qi is the driving force behind nature.  It gives nature it's pattern, and Qigong is the way of understanding that.

01.49

The claimed power of Qi and Qigong is astounding.

By practicing Qigong, followers say Qi energy can be transferred... from one person to another.

Male Qigong teacher

I discharge my Qi to you, once the Qi reaches your body, it expels your bad, sick Qi.  In the course of generating my Qi, your condition improves.

Female Qigong Teacher

Relax

02.16

Qigong Teacher/ Healer cont.

And discharging Qi isn't just a one on one experience.  This Qigong teacher is preparing for a mass healing.  Shouting

...Ser, ser ser

She targets everything from kidney stones to cataracts.

Everybody can heal after learning, and it doesn't have to take a long time, quite a short time.

02.35

Rosey Grandage

I think today there's a lot of debate as to whether Qi actually exists or doesn't exist.  Certainly those that are practicing think that it can be used for an infinite number of things.  If you understand this natural balance, because it is as I said the driving force behind everything in nature you can understand all sorts of things.  So you can use it to treat people.  You can use it to predict things.  All sorts of things.  It depends which level you're practicing on.

03.10

Singing - span of crowds

For true believers there's no limit to what can be achieved by practicing Qigong .. and learning to harness the body's Qi/  From mass healings to a sort of Qigong telepathy.. and the long distance diagnosis. 

Male Qigong healer

That person in the back.....

Sometimes you have difficulty breathing, and your blood pressure is slightly low, sometimes your knees are sore

Is that all right? .. Yes clapping

03.47

In fact having your ailments exposed from a distance is just part of the whole magical experience.

This is WANG MING FENG .. a Qigong teacher who lays claim to a supernatural gift.

She calls it XIAO LIANG.

Wang Ming Feng - Qigong teacher

Let Xiao Liang diagnose the problem of your father.

Qigong believer Chinese man

Please diagnose my father.

Wang Ming Feng

His heart has problems, also has problems with his stomach.

Music background

04.31

No-one doubts Qigong helps keep you fit and healthy.  But can Qi be transferred from one person to another, and can Qigong really cure the sick. 

Prof. Feng Lida - China Association for Qigong Sciences Research

This is the control group, this is the Qigong group. 

We will compare how long they can live. 

04.56

Professor FENG employs Qigong masters, highly skilled Qigong practitioners, to treat cancer patients. 

The mice in the Qigong group have received a hefty dose of the master's Qi.  By keeping their heads above water for longer, they're meant to demonstrate the power of the Qi treatment. 

Prof. Feng Lida

Why some people after Qigong feel they are stronger.  ... This experiment we can demonstrate it. 

From stronger mice to cancer patients is a big leap.  But Professor FENG says Qigong masters can use their Qi to treat cancer. 

Prof. Feng Lida

What means the Qi?  It's the field, it the energy of the electric wave, magnetic wave, microwave, subsonic all combined together... we call the Qi energy.

05.22

Can the Qi on its own kill the cancer cells?

Yes, we can destroy, you can see under the electronmicroscope it really can.  But not one hundred per cent, like cancer stomach, only twenty five per cent. 

06.15

Rosey Grandage

If you have a material world where you just believe in things which you can see, which you can prove with scientific experiments, then it's very hard to accept that there's something outside that.  I find when I'm talking to people in the west, if you put it to them that it's a natural energy that's controlling things, it then becomes quite logical, because I think more and more people are beginning to think there is something more that's making things happen, that's making things change. 

06.48

But what about so called Qigong performers... who claim to have harnessed their Qi as a source of superhuman strength. 

Just how is this done?

View Sima  breaking brick with fingers

07.03

Sima Nan has made a name for himself in Beijing, exposing what he calls fake Qigong. 

Sima Nan, Journalist and Qigong Researcher

In fact these bricks were mainly researcher broken by the edge of the wall.  I hit the brick with this part of my palm, I hit this part of the brick, and the brick was lifted a little bit, when it hit here the clean edge breaks the brick.  Without this sharp edge, if you put this brick fully on the surface, nobody could break it. 

07.49

Everything looks like a demonstration of extraordinary energy, is just a matter of practice.

But Sima Nan still counts himself as a Qigong follower...dismissing the tricks from the real thing. 

08.03

Using Qigong to improve health and reduce suffering is normal and what Qigong was originally about.  Going beyond that to seek after magical things and supernatural power is 99.999 per cent cheating. 

08.36

View people practicing Qigong

So far, the more bizarre claims about Qigong haven't dented its reputation.

And while the debate about its real effectiveness goes on, for millions of Chinese, Qigong works.  For those who believe.... That's the end of the story. 

08.56

END