My Understanding of

Zhineng Qigong.
The mystery of life
Zhineng Qigong turned up when I became interested in
the great mystery of life itself. You know, all the way
back to before what the scientists describe as the Big
Bang; the Taoist term is Wuji before it gives birth to
Taiji ; in Genesis, The earth was without form, and void;
and darkness was on the face of the deep.; the
emptiness, sunyata described by the Buddhists; what is
describe by the Hindus as before Shiva the creator and
destroyer created the physical world; what Lao Tze calls
the beginning of the beginning.
I had learnt from Eckhart Tolle about the illusive world
of the thinking mind, termed the world of maya by the
Hindus, contrasting with the unadulterated and simple
reality of suchness, what the Buddhist call tathata.
Alan Watts highlighted the limitation of the technology
of the thinking process, which is only capable of what
Eckhart Tolle terms as Object consciousness leaving
out Space consciousness. We forget to realize that
space is an essential function of the things that are in it.
You cant have separate stars unless there is space
separating them. Eliminate the space, and there will be
no stars at all they are two aspects of a single
continuum.
Alan Watts writes of the thinking process as Spotlight
consciousness instead of Floodlight consciousness. In
the natural evolution of mankind, from the moment we
learnt how to think before we acted, we somehow chose
to specialise in the technology of separating reality into
bits and pieces in order to appreciate it in a certain way.
To enjoy eating a chicken, you need to cut it up into
pieces and ingest part by part, but the chicken comes
whole. We have forgotten that.
The oneness of being
The oneness of being is a common theme of many wise
men from all ages. But that knowledge has some how
slipped through the net of modern mans lifestyle,
creating what Gautama called duhkha, suffering.
Suhkha means what is sweet and delightful and duhkha
means the opposite, the bitter and frustrating. Which is
caused by not having the complete view of being. Not
seeing the entirety, the oneness in apparent diversity.
But they are only talking about it. Is there a way of
directly experiencing and feeling the oneness and living
it? Then explanation becomes redundant, just like I

dont need to convince my son that there is infrared

light interacting between the apparently separate
remote control and the television set. He is experiencing
it all the time. He keeps changing channels with it!
Hunyuan lun
Zhineng Qigong based on Hunyuan lun, hunyuan from the
dictionary means primeval chaos and lun is theory, seems
to me to be the answer.
My experience with qigong is not exactly new. I took my
first lesson in taiji when I was sixteen years old. My
first feeling of the mysterious qi was nearly twenty
years ago, one and a half months into the Kongjing
Qigong course I attended. Qi is real! It can be felt like
water in the swimming pool surrounding you, embracing
you within and without. So I knew that qigong is a
practical way of experiencing the oneness of being that
everybody has been talking about.
Hunyuan lun speaks of the hunyuan entirety theory,
human hunyuan qi theory, yishi theory, dao de theory and
optimising life theory, which includes hunyuan medical
treatment views.
The hunyuan entirety theory speaks of the oneness of
existence; that the entire physical world came out of
hunyuan and that though there seem to be separate
forms i.e. things that exist separate from each other,
from a more fundamental perspective, there is only an
entirety, oneness. An analogy is whether the organs of a
human being are separate things within the body or
together are one with the body. Increasing the
magnification, can an individual cell of the toe say I am
separate from another cell located in the head. If you
zoom out, then the same could apply to individual humans
as connected. If you zoom out further, the same applies
to the solar system and the entire cosmos.
Zhineng Qigong explains that hunyuan qi was right there
in the beginning of the beginning; is that which powers
the initial creation and is still powering everything that
exists in creation. The process of creation never
stopped, it is going on. Its like all electrical appliances
which, despite differences in apparent outer forms and
applications, are powered by electricity. But qigong goes
one step further, that this energy can be frozen into
solid forms, seen by the human eye as things. All things
are but different manifestations of hunyuan qi and
hunyuan qi is alive, filled with intelligence and even
wisdom. That is why Professor Pang called his new qigong
form Zhineng Qigong. Zhi stands for Zhi Hui, which
means wisdom and Neng stands for Neng Li, capability.

Together Zhineng Qigong would mean developing ones

wisdom and strengthening ones capabilities. It is a
qigong method for strengthening mans normal
intelligence and developing paranormal intelligence.
Hunyuan qi
The qigongs perspective is that hunyuan qi is the basic
energy that powers life.
We normally define things as inanimate or animate. If it
is inanimate it is not alive, but is a rock animate or
inanimate? At the atomic level, the rock is comprised of
electrons and protons racing around nuclei; some
describe this as vibration, like the dancing of Shiva. It
takes form and disintegrates too. So it is only a matter
of perspective. From a normal human minds perspective
a rock is dead, the human alive and the world is full of
separate unrelated things. But according to hunyuan
theory, the world is one big energy exchange, a dance of
yin and yang not as opposing enemies but as
complementing partners.
Information
Not only is hunyuan qi the building blocks of everything
that exists, it also exists in the dimension of non-things
or the formless space in between things. In this realm of
the formless, there are again many aspects. One of
these is xinxi, Information. This is not unlike the
information we associate with that which is captured by
the written word or printed materials, pictures and
sounds captured digitally or otherwise and those
transmitted over the airwaves like the internet, radio
and satellite television, etc.
In qigong terms, there exists a much subtler form of
capturing, transmitting and receiving of Information
between things. Today I can hold up a piece of plastic
that was cut in a certain way I am talking about a CD
and say it contains the Information of an entire
encyclopaedia that you can retrieve, and you know that is
possible. A qigong adept can hold up a personal item that
belonged to a person who lived say a hundred years ago
and can receive a lot of Information about that person.
Unknown yet to modern science, such Information is
being transmitted and received both consciously and
unconsciously by humans and by other beings too.
Yishi
Through their qigong practice, the Ancient Chinese
learnt that hunyuan qi can be manipulated by yishi. The
dictionary describes yishi as consciousness, mentality,

thought processes.
A qigong teacher gave me the following analogy: think of
hunyuan qi as soldiers and yishi as the commander. If
your gongfu is weak, as in the army you are only a
corporal, you can only command a squad of eight men. But
if your gongfu is strong, like a five-star general, you can
command the whole army to do as you wish. He told me
that persons of particularly high gongfu who lived in the
past could leave behind very powerful Information. This
seems to make some sense of the meaning of curses and
blessings. Incidentally, that is also why in Zhineng
Qigong we say, write and generally use hun yuan ling
tong so much, because there is a lot of good healthy
Information attached to this slogan by the
practitioners. There is energy attached to it if you know
how to use it.
All these are useful for us to understand a little bit
more about why, despite apparent advances in medical
sciences, there seem to be an increasing number of
serious illnesses that modern medicines cannot cure.
Modern medicine has become outdated
Again, a Zhineng Qigong teacher explained as follows. In
the past, humans lived very close to nature and
everything was basically very physical, from earlier
hunting, nomadic life to a later more settled agricultural
lifestyle. Medical care would probably be provided by a
medicine man in the tribe for physical ailments like cuts
and broken bones with remedies that were close to
nature like herbs etc.
Then as we progressed in sophistication, we learned how
to mechanise and industrialise. So medicine also
progressed in a similar physical science way. And it was
effective! Studying the physical aspects of the body
taught us a lot about how each part of the body
functions. So intelligent and clever ways were found to
manipulate physics or chemistry for medical purposes.
They worked very well. One good example is learning the
technique of immunisation, which saved us from many
viral epidemics.
But man has progressed from there. Mans lifestyle has
gone from the physical and industrial lifestyle to more
and more of a mind-dominated, psychological existence.
We have brought mental stress to new heights, which is
the root cause of many incurable sicknesses of the body
in the eyes of modern medicine.
We have developed a lifestyle of competition based on
fear, seeing the self as me against others. Our society
strives on creating discontentment. New is good, old is

bad. First is good, last is bad. Racing into the future

because tomorrow will be better than today. Today
doesnt count! If I dont race ahead I shall be left
behind. Bombarded by media introducing new models of
all kinds of desirable things to own, even if you buy a
new model of, say, a hand-phone today, you know that it
is already outdated. Manufacturers probably have newer
models in the pipeline ready to be launched the next day.
So instead of encouraging contentment and happiness,
we breed discontentment, thinking that this is progress.
People were happier in the days when they were without
tap water or even electricity at home. Clothes were
washed in common washing areas and drinking water
probably was a distance away. Compare that with now
when we live in such luxurious material comforts when
children scarcely teenagers have hand-phones and even
get to change them probably every six months for the
latest features.
There is a Chinese saying Zhi Zhu Cang Le. When one is
contented, happiness happens often. Contentment is
almost a dirty word these days. Contentment now means
you are not progressing and if you are not progressing,
you lag behind.
So mental stress adds up, causing qi blockages and toxic
qi accumulations in the body leading to health problems.
This is one interpretation of how diseases like cancer
are formed in the first place. As you can see, if you put
the two, xinxi and yishi, together you can guess what
kind of harm that can do to the body.
Modern medicine has become outdated. The current
medical problems are no longer that of the physical or
caused naturally but manmade mind-made. Current
medical view is that the body is like a machine with many
parts, the kidneys as one part and the heart the other
altogether unrelated part. Like an engine that has a
problem with its spark plugs, they could be replaced and
the engine will operate as good as new. That is a
mechanical view, which is outdated.
On the other hand, Zhineng Qigong medical treatment
takes the view of the body as a whole and acknowledges
the effects of xinxi and yishi on the bodys health and
well being. This, unlike modern medical science, is more
in sync with todays mind-made sicknesses. You just need
to learn how to tune in to hunyuan qi. Your yishi can
command and manipulate it for good health and healing.
Xin and Fa qi
There are a couple of terms here that I would like to

highlight. The first term is xin means both mind and

heart. Xin literally means heart. Ancient Chinese
believed that the heart was the organ for thinking and
so xin was used as a term for the brain and the thinking
process. It is common for a Chinese person to point to
their heart when saying I think as much as they would
say I feel. For the Westerners, the mind thinks and the
heart feels but for a Chinese both thinking and feeling
come from the xin.
The next is fa qi. Fa qi literally means emitting qi. The
qigong practitioner mobilises his internal qi outwards or
moves the hunyuan qi from the universe, to act on a
patient or an object. Zhineng Qigong practitioners do
not use personal internal qi for fa qi but use external qi
(mainly the hunyuan qi of nature). Zhineng Qigong
believes that fa qi for healing others is part of the
process of developing ones gongfu.
I would like to end here with the words of a Belgian
student when asked by China Television how he felt
about Zhineng Qigong. He said In the beginning, I
thought that it was only a method for regaining health
and well being, but now I feel that it is also a way for
spiritual cultivation, a way to explore the mystery of
life.
Samuel Lau
Introducing Yishi
Using yishi is of utmost importance for Zhineng
Qigong Using yishi is of utmost importance for Zhineng Qigong,
the most important thing. Why do we place the
application of yishi as the top priority? Because when we
first defined what qigong is, we mentioned that qigong is
a practice and cultivation of inner yishi so as to achieve
a healthy body and mind, raise the health level of the
populace, eventually be free of illness, have healthy
bodies, and ultimately open up to the realm of wisdom
beyond the realm of the intellect. Achieving the same
results without inner yishi practice cannot be called
qigong.
This is to say that in qigong, the use of yishi occupies a
very important position. So we can go on to ask how,
through the use of yishi, can one raise ones level of
health? How it can allow a person to develop even higher
human potential? How can human potential be developed
through the exercise of yishi?
To answer these questions, we must start from yishi
itself. We must start from the activities of yishi. What
effects does yishi have? What are the effects of

particular practices using yishi? Everyone needs to

thoroughly understand all this.
So when we say using yishi we are talking about using
our attention and thoughts; it can also be called thought
activity. There could be a number of students asking:
are we not going into idealism when we study yishi?
Because in the past it was thought that yishi is the same
as mental activities; an inner activity of the mind which
it is impossible to study.
I shall quote from the 1984 philosophical text published
by the Central Government to explain this: In the
past, not many studies were conducted on yishi. From
the studies conducted recently with qigong and persons
with paranormal abilities, yishi activities have validity. It
is a subject that is worth researching. This points to
the fact that even philosophical circles are beginning to
research yishi activities. Further, they recognise that it
is a valid and fundamental topic to look at the effect of
yishi activities on matter. It has indeed been emphasised
that this subject is worthy of particular effort.
So as students of qigong, when we discuss the
relationship between yishi and its effect on matter, or
even the further step that yishi itself is a type of
matter, there should be no hesitation. Even our Central
Government has confirmed this in its publications. The
question of how this philosophical approach will develop
will be for philosophical circles to tackle. We are
concerned only with understanding things from the
qigong perspective.
So lets approach this from the high realm and
perspective of qigong. From the position of qigong look
at yishi and ask why it could have such a big influence on
humans. I must first say to students, the use of yishi is
not something that only qigong practitioners can do but
it is in fact used by ordinary people too. In fact it can
have a big effect on the entire activity of life itself. So
we shall talk about this topic: yishis effect on life
activities.
Yishi itself is a special high-level mental activity
available to humans. It is built upon the activities of the
brain cells. It is formed through the process of human
development, a high-level sensory activity. Present
medical studies and psychological studies recognize that
yishi has a controlling effect or a commanding effect on
our entire life activity. When we look at it from the
higher perspective of qigong, it is not as simple as that.
There are even more levels of effects that yishi can

have on life activities.

Chapter One
The first aspect of yishi: the
effect of yishi on life activities.
Yishi can change the strength level of a persons
inner body
Firstly, yishi can change the strength of a persons body.
To re-state this, yishi can change the strength level of a
persons inner body.
That is to say, through employing yishi one can increase
or decrease ones bodily strength. Some of you may feel
that there is something not right about this statement
that originally there was strength in the body but that
through the activity of yishi, that strength diminished.
Or vice versa, originally there was little strength but
through the activity of yishi, strength increased. How
can that be? Can the state of the mind change a persons
strength? This doesnt sound logical but there are many
everyday life occurrences showing it to be so.
An ordinary person (*)
An ordinary person, when their mind is highly
concentrated, can increase their bodily strength. There
is a common term, ji jing, urgent power. When we
become anxious, we experience a big surge of strength.
An action or activity that could not normally be done
becomes possible when a wave of anxiety occurs. This
occurrence usually happens in emergency situations.
Under normal circumstances one is not too anxious, so
such occurrences do not usually happen. But during the
times before Liberation, these things happened more
often.
I remember in my home, Baoding District that was
under the occupation of xx, our Liberation Army - more
rightly called a guerrilla army then, was sometimes
chased in the night by the enemy. There was a small
river about 6-7 metres wide. There were several
occasions when they came to the river and the guerrillas
simply jumped across the river. So the common populace
said that they were blessed by Buddha. But in reality
how can this be explained?
The guerrillas werent really blessed by Buddha. Under
normal circumstances, nobody is capable of jumping over
6-7 metres. But they did it! How do we explain? The key

lies in the extreme urgency of the situation then. The

enemies were closing in from behind; the situation was
desperate, very pressured. There was a river below, it
was dark, it could not be seen how wide it was. The fact
that its width was not clearly seen was an advantage.
What was this advantage? They didnt get to see how
wide the river was and so did not have the concept that
they couldnt jump over it. In that extreme urgency,
there was no time to consider; enemies were right
behind; only one thought just do it! In fact there was
not even the thought of just do it, there was just
concentration of intention and execution of action.
So there was this concentrated intention issuing a
command, this intention directly affecting the body and
in this way creating massive power. Some authors of
novels would describe such a situation as: Seeing the
enemies behind, seeing the wide river in front, thoughts
were on the future of the revolution or the happiness of
the people; these thoughts brought a rush of
determination and people jumped across.
I have interviewed many of the old-timers. They said
there was simply no time to think. Only the writers
imagine that. In fact if they had been thinking, it would
have been impossible to jump across. So there was no
thought of whether it was possible to jump across or
not, but just getting to the river and jumping across:
transforming intention into action, and it was done. That
is an example of a concentrated intention creating
massive power. Try that in everyday life and it would not
work. Many of you have experienced this ji jing
personally. Isnt this quite simply thought affecting the
bodys strength, effecting a change in the degree of
strength of the body? This is a normal event.
Power originating from illness
On the other hand, when one is in a sickly condition
thought activity could also strengthen the body. A good
example is women having a fit called xie si di li. There
are quite a few women who are skinny and weak but when
xie si di li occurs and they go into a fit, even two young
men couldnt hold them down.
Where does this power come from? In the past it was
not understood and people believed they were affected
by demons. The medical explanation is that the sickness
creates activity at the surface of the brain, an
excitement light-up. When the brain is calm, this
excitement light-up occurs, like a lamp, lighting up all
around. It expands outward. In the brain there is only

one thought and that creates a very powerful strength.

52
So this is power originating from an illness. The common
names for this are mad power and mad wave.
Through concentration of thought, strength is increased
The next example relates to qigong practitioners. Quite
a few Hard (External) Qigong practitioners, with
focussed concentration, have massive power. They can
lift heavy weights or use their head to break objects. I
have two friends who, when they mobilised their qi and
concentrated their minds, could hold on to a small
vehicle in Shanghai; despite being at full throttle and
the wheels spinning continuously, the vehicle could not
escape their grip.
Where did their strength come from? Through training
in concentration of thought, they were able to create
that massive power and strength. The only difference is
that they had developed it to occur at will. With the
concentration of thought one achieves that power; when
concentration is lost, the power goes away. If you had
observed them, they had to prepare, mobilise qi,
concentrate attention and then carry out that
concentrated action, but they had a time limit. What
they did could not be sustained for a long period of time.
53
This is an example of the concentration of thought
creating an increase in strength.
With dispersal of concentration, basic life strength is
dissipated and weakened
On the other hand, when thoughts are dispersed,
strength can be lost. Some disagree: how could a person
originally full of strength lose it through dispersal of
concentration. They think this unlikely.
In fact examples of this happening in ordinary life are
everywhere. Let me use a typical example. Some years
ago in Beijing a young couple was approached by a gang
of robbers waving knives at them for their valuables.
These two youngsters were so frightened that they
couldnt even stand and they collapsed to the ground.
How could a youngster be so weak as to not even have
the strength to hold up their body? The loss of strength
came from the great fright they received. What is the
explanation? When one receives a fright it is not
possible to concentrate ones attention/ thoughts, and so
strength becomes dispersed and cannot support the
body. The result was they could not even stand up.
54
There is a folk saying: when one is frightened, the body

shivers. Why does it shiver? There is no strength left.

One can even be so frightened that one loses control of
ones bowels. So this shows that with the dispersal of
concentration, basic life strength is dissipated and
weakened.
You should give this more thought and experience these
things personally. This is what is meant by using yishi in
qigong to increase ones understanding of things.
Some will ask how to use yishi. Start by understanding
the effect of yishi. Understand how it affects the mind
and strength. Start by thinking of it, and when this is
thought through clearly, when you fa qi to treat
another, it will have a positive effect. If you are able to
focus your yishi well, then the qi emitted will be
powerful. On the other hand, if you do not concentrate
well, the qi will be very weak and so will not be effective.
This is because yishi affects the changes of qi.
So yishi equals strength, they are the same thing. When
you have completely understood this, you will be able to
direct qi more effectively.
The first effect of yishi on life activity is that it can
alter bodily strength. The second is that yishi can
55
change the state of matter within the body. In fact
yishi can change matter.
Yishi can change the state of matter within the body
Feeling happy and sad
Yishi can change the state of material conditions within
the body. When you hear this, you may feel it is even
more unlikely. Yishi and physical matter are two opposing
and unrelated things, so how can yishi change the bodys
material condition? Again, to tackle this problem we have
to use examples from everyday life.
You can think about it. When we are feeling happy, what
is it like? When we are sad, what is it like? There is a
saying, When one meets with joyful events, the spirit
feels good. When you are happy, you smile often and
your face lights up. You look healthy and strong. When
you are down and troubled, how do you look? You frown,
your face looks unpleasant, full of hui qi, foul qi. There
is no more light in your face. You may even look run-down
and lose weight.
So arent these happy and sad phenomena simply mental
activities? There is a saying, Once the heart opens up,
56
the body grows fat. There is a Chinese Classic about two
lovers parting, in which the woman feels so sad that the
bangle on her wrist suddenly feels loose. (She suddenly

loses weight due to her sadness). Although this is just a

story, it indicates that ancient people observed that
when mental energy is dispersed and sorrowful, this
could lead to weight loss. If there had been no such
knowledge, the description wouldnt have been written.
Hair turning white overnight
There are other examples. There are many examples of
people whose hair turned white when they became
anxious or worried. An historical incident is when Wu Zi
Xus hair turned white overnight due to sadness. To have
the entire head of hair turn white overnight due to
sadness may not seem likely, but it is known fact that it
does happen.
Why does your hair turn white when you are feeling sad?
Isnt this a case of mental activity affecting the state
of the body?
There is an even better example. There was a particular
illness just after Liberation called qi lei bo. When one
gets angry, the anger can cause lumps to grow on the
lymph nodes. This is due to mental activity creating
57
changes in the body. We spoke about this previously,
about building the qifield. There was a female
practitioner who tried using mental concentration to
make her breast bigger but instead created a lump in
her breast.
Isnt this also mental activity causing a change in the
body? This is to say, whether one is sick or in normal
health, it is possible to change the state of the body
through mental activity. When we practice qigong, we
are practicing this process so as to strengthen it and
make it into something that we can use directly as a
capability.
For example an External Qigong Master, with
concentration, mobilising qi, could create a lump that is
so hard that it can take slashes and all kinds of attack
without him being harmed. How does he do it? He too
uses mental control to gather the qi together. So from
the perspective of qigong, whether it is changes to
strength or changes to matter, it has to do with qi. Yishi
(mental activity) is able to effect changes through the
use of qi.
The mind effecting changes in matter
58
You may say, The examples you have given are not
common and we have not personally seen or experienced
them and so we cant decide whether they are genuine or
not. Thus we are unable to understand in depth this

lesson on how mental activities affect matter. Can we

have examples that we can identify with? Yes of course.
You bring something delicious home for your young
children but dont let them eat it right away, saying to
them, Daddy or Mummy has bought some chocolate for
you. On hearing that your children will produce saliva
in their mouths. There was a story from the Three
Warring States, that Cao Cao (leading an army through
the desert with the soldiers considerably weakened due
to thirst) said to his soldiers: See, look over the hill,
there are many plum trees. Upon hearing plums, saliva
formed in the soldiers mouths and they were
temporarily relieved of thirst. Arent such examples very
common? When you mention something that is delicious
or something that is sour and sweet, the body reacts to
it. Isnt this a case of the mind affecting the bodys
material conditions?
Speech is a mind activity and yet in the end effects
changes in the body. So isnt this the mind effecting
changes in matter? Isnt it simple to understand? If you
students consider this thoroughly and understand it
59
completely and use it in qigong, your qigong capability will
be raised. When you meet a patient with a lump, you
simply think for it to disappear and it will disappear.
With a fat person, if you think of him getting thinner,
concentrating on the fat dissipating, it will happen. Or
the reverse, to put on weight, its very simple. Within
three months an increase or decrease of ten to twenty
pounds would not be difficult.
It is all a matter of knowing how to use yishi. And that is
practicing qigong. What else do you think qigong practice
is all about? Isnt practicing qigong about using our yishi
to change our health? The key to Zhineng Qigong is the
use of yishi, it isnt about the Form. And it is so simple:
Zhineng Qigong connects with normal everyday life
experiences of normal people to explain higher levels of
wisdom. This is also to say that there is no fundamental
difference between qigong and ordinary life activities.
To practice qigong is to make use of these ordinary life
rules/principles. That is the first aspect - the effect of
yishi on life activities. The second aspect is yishis
effect on objective matter.
60
61 62
Chapter Two
The second aspect of yishi - the
effect of yishi on objective matter

Yishi can influence the intensity of effect objective

matter has on the body
Some modern psychiatrists would say that what we have
just discussed is mere psychological effect and not
qigong. Yes, they are right! The yishi in qigong that we
are discussing, as a matter of fact includes psychological
effects in psychology but it is not limited to that. If we
equate the two, then we erase the most fundamental
characteristics of qigong study. This is because in
psychology, psychological effects can only effect
personal bodily changes and cannot have any effect on
objective matters. However yishi in qigong includes both.
Ones state of mind create differences in responses
So there are two aspects to discuss. The first is that
yishi can influence the intensity of effect objective
63
matter has on the body. Due to the limitations of
language, this cannot be grasped immediately. By the
exercise of yishi, the reaction of the body to an
external objective stimulus can change; the degree of
intensity of that reaction can be changed by yishi.
There are two aspects to do this. One is the persons
degree of reaction; the other is the degree of intensity
of their objective reaction. These two effects can both
be changed. I can give some examples for you to slowly
understand this.
In our daily life, we are affected by all kinds of stimulus
from external objects. The intensity of the objects is
constant but due to the mental effect, differences in
the state of mind create differences in reactions to
them. For example, in daily life when cooking and cutting
vegetables, we accidentally slice off some flesh from
the finger. The knife cutting off the flesh is an
objective effect. No one can change this objective fact.
But how the person feels the intensity of pain can vary
according to their state of mind.
When you cut yourself, your attention was on cooking,
your attention was dispersed. Was it painful? Yes, but
not too bad. It is very unlikely that you fainted because
64
of the pain. More likely you simply applied some
medication, bandaged up and continued cooking.
Lets do a demonstration. Any female student, come up
and we shall take a knife and cut off a small piece of
flesh, lets try it out. Cut it like this, just a small piece.
Now the pain would be unbearable!
Now lets think about it. When cooking, cutting off
accidentally was not painful but now to cut off

deliberately would be unbearable? Because we would be

frightened and imagine it to be painful even before the
knife touched the skin. There will be many people, you
blind-fold them and you use a blunt object on them and
they will react with pain just from a slight touch.
Because of intense attention and fear, they amplify the
stimulus and feel great pain.
So this is mental effects changing the intensity of the
objective stimulus. With fear, pain becomes even more
intense. On the other hand, if you concentrate attention
and resist it, it can be painless instead.
An example is the story of the Three Warring States.
Guan Yu was injured by a poisoned arrow and being a
hero he didnt want to receive any anaesthetic from Hua
Tuo who was treating him. He said, Go ahead and
65
operate on me and he continued to play chess with a
friend throughout the operation without even flinching
one bit. Of course we do not encourage this, whats
wrong with a little anaesthetic? But the qigong
explanation is that he was able to shut out the pain by
using yishi.
So this tells us that by the concentration of attention
we can lessen the objective effect on us; we can make it
painless. Now you may say, Pang Laoshi is still talking
about internal psychological effects, not objective
effects. I say, You are right, but it is a mutual two-way
effect. Can we have a more convincing example?
Yishi can select and choose
Another example - In your daily life you could
experience such a thing. You are with a group of friends,
chit chatting, having a good time and then you notice
another group over there also talking among themselves
and glancing your way repeatedly, pointing around. You
are convinced they must be talking about you, so you
want to know what they are saying. But you cant just
walk over there. So your attention focuses on what they
are saying. Slowly you actually begin to be able to hear
what they are saying from afar and unable to hear what
66
your own group of friends are saying, even though they
are close by. This is called focusing yishi.
Yishi can select and choose. If yishi chooses to focus on
something in the distance and your attention is there, it
can augment the objective information over there, and
your reaction becomes more sensitive to it and becomes
connected with it. So the mutual effect on the body
changes. On the other hand, if you do not take notice of

that person, your yishi is not on them and not connected

to them, then the mutual effect will be weakened.
Students should give serious thought to this issue. If
you think through this matter, this is - especially for
Zhineng Qigong - a major key that unlocks secrets, the
most important fundamental secrets.
The qifield
The practice of Zhineng Qigong emphasises the effect
of Information; emphasises building a healing qifield;
emphasises teachers involvement in training students;
emphasises the qifield of the entire Zhineng Qigong
community.
67
Does the qifield exist? It exists. If your attention is not
on it and you are not connected to it, then it has no
effect on you. If you are connected to it, then it will
have effects on you.
For example, right now as I am giving you this lecture I
am sending information, fa qi sending you qi, building a
healing qifield for you. Some students dont accept that
this is building a healing qifield. Their attention is not on
it. Their thoughts are always, Why doesnt Pang Laoshi
quickly send some qi to me?, waiting for Pang Laoshi to
formally announce and make some action of fa qi. Only
then will their attention be focused. Otherwise they
keep thinking, All this talking, why doesnt he fa qi to
us, that would be better. Actually I have been sending
qi to you, fa qi all the while, but since you are not
connected by your thoughts the qi cannot connect with
you.
Another kind of student says: Pang Laoshi sending qi this
way for everyone all at once is not for me. My sickness is
special; only when you send qi to me personally, only then
will it count, otherwise it does not work. So they are
unable to receive my qi. Then they say they dont believe
because it did not have any effect on them. How can
you make me believe if it did not have any effect on me
in the first place?
68
Actually, the key to whether or not there will be an
effect on you lies in your own yishi, in whether or not
you are willing to receive qi. There is so much qi here
that you refused to receive, and so you cant receive it
and it has no effect on you.
Do you think that being a human is so simple? One has
lots to learn. For example, saying the phrase I am well
in order to begin to recover. Whether you can recover
from your sickness or advance in your practice is

completely dependent on the condition of your yishi. We

are saying here that yishi can change the mutual effects
of matter and body.
Xin bu zai yan - the mind (xin) is not here
In order for students to understand further, let me give
you an even more obvious example. Many of you read
novels and when one is very exciting, your attention
captivated, you are completely immersed in it. At this
moment, if some one were to come up to you and call
your name. Lao Zhang, Lao Zhang, even if they called
you several times, you wouldnt be able to hear them.
69
Why cant you hear them? It is because your attention is
fully on the novel and you arent paying any attention to
your surroundings. Once you dont notice your
surroundings, you became unable to differentiate them
and so cannot receive their information. Your friend
could be calling your name repeatedly, Lao Zhang, Lao
Zhang but you wouldnt hear the stimulus. Such a loud
sound, such a significant objective fact, yet you are not
able receive it.
All the more so with fa qi. If you are not paying
attention and not taking the initiative to connect with it,
how can it affect you? So if you can really understand
this wisdom, that it is all about using yishi, all of us here
have this ability. In your daily life, you have been using
this capability. The only difference is that you have not
used it actively/positively (ji ji).
On the contrary, you have used yishi in a
passive/negative way (xiao ji) and so it takes effect in
that direction. Ancient wise men have talked very clearly
on this subject. Confucius said, Hear but not hear, see
but not see, eat but not taste, xin bu zai yan - the mind
(xin) is not here. So we now say xin bu zai yan; xin bu
zai yan, what is xin bu zai yan? It means your mind, your
attention, is not at the place. If your attention is not
70
there, even if there are many things happening, you will
not be able to feel/sense them.
An example - there is a sound, you hear it, but if your
attention is not there you are unable to differentiate/
process the information. So this is ting er bu wen: your
mind is not connected to your ears, you are doing
something else. shi er bu jian: your eyes are wide open,
there is something very big right in front of you yet you
dont see it, it doesnt connect with your eyes. So you are
eating but you dont know what the taste is, you dont
notice. The tongue does not connect with the foods

taste; this is called xin bu zai yan.

So many people know this saying, but what it means is
that yishi can change the effects of material/ objective
stimuli on the human body.
And that also is using yishi, a broad usage of yishi.
So if students give this matter due thought and
consideration, those with sickness will rapidly recover.
Those who are not sick will advance in their gong /
qigong abilities very quickly. In this way you change the
effects.
71
Xin ze ling: it works when you believe
We say in qigong xiang xin: believe and xin ze ling: it
works when you believe. Why? Because only when you
believe in it will you then concentrate your efforts to
act and so be able to receive more effectively. When we
build a healing qifield, it is immediately connected with
you and takes effect. Yishi itself has effects. So in
Zhineng Qigong we say xin ze ling it works when you
believe. You may say it is simply superstition; we dont
care about that. We in Zhineng Qigong say xin ze ling it works when you believe.
Of course we do not say bu xin bu ling: it doesnt work
when you dont believe. We can elaborate on this in
another lecture, but there were many who did not
believe when they first came; then when we removed
tumours through the effects of building a healing
qifield, they believed. The powerful qifield brought
about these effects. Of course, for those who believe
the effects will be even better, bigger and more.
So give this a lot of thought, think about it repeatedly.
Once you have thought through this principle, that in
itself is ADVANCED QIGONG. You should not, and I
emphasise this, you should not think that practicing
qigong is just about practicing (the Form/ Methods). In
72
your daily life, your every action, every word and
movement can be for practicing qigong and advancing in
gongfu.
So that is the first aspect. The second aspect we would
like to talk about is yishi changing the conditions of
objective matter.
Yishi can change the state of objective matter
Yishi can change the state of objective matter. What we
have discussed before, that yishi can change the effects
of external objective stimuli on the body, some of you
may still use the perspective of psychology to explain
this.

In order to enable students to thoroughly understand

yishis effects on objective matter, we shall go on
further to talk about yishis ability to change the state
of objective matter.
Paranormal abilities
We shall use the most obvious example. In the past it
was hard to explain. Now it is easier, as in recent years
73
the study of people with paranormal abilities has
reached great heights. Research has been conducted
throughout the country. There are many people with
recognised paranormal abilities around, hundreds of
them. Not just tens of them, but nationwide there are
hundreds of them who are able to do experiments
requiring paranormal abilities, maybe even thousands.
These people with paranormal abilities can use their
thoughts to move objects around or even make them
disappear. We have seen most of the videos of Zhang
Bao Sheng along with Wang Jian, now Vice-Chairman
Wang. Before 1984, they did many experiments
together. On one occasion, Wang Jian held a steel ball in
his hand and asked Zhang Bao Sheng if he could make
the ball disappear. He promised that once convinced he
would publicise Zhang Bao Shengs abilities. He then
placed his closed hand on the sofa and Zhang Bao Sheng
came and placed his hand on Wang Jians, made a gesture
and said Its gone. Indeed it was gone, so Wang Jian
started looking around - it was on video - but couldnt
find it. After a while Wang Jians security guard came in
and said, Your steel ball appeared in my pocket. The
security guard was not even in the room. This was using
yishi to effect change in an external object,
transporting an object from one location to another.
74
Present at the experiment was another person from the
Research Department. He was not convinced. He said
that was mere magic tricks and not acceptable. To prove
it properly the specimen object must be unique. So he
signed his name a piece of paper and pasted it on the
ball. He said, If you can do it again with the piece of
paper intact then it is irrefutable. He said, You could
have collaborated with the guard and placed the ball in
his pocket beforehand, and by magic tricks made the
original disappear and then claim it appeared in the
guards pocket. Thats magic tricks! In magic tricks
there are always two specimens that are exactly the
same. The trick was to make one disappear and the other
appear from elsewhere. But in a proper experiment, the

specimen must be unique like this: it has a hole here and

this one doesnt have, so they are not exactly the same.
And so we can authenticate the real one.
While this was being said, Zhang Bao Sheng played a
trick on the man. He suddenly said, Look, your watch is
gone! It is in the thermos flask. and the man looked and
indeed the watch was not on his wrist anymore. The man
quickly opened the flask and poured out the hot water
and found his watch cooking inside! Of course the watch
was unique! This is yishi effecting changes on objects.
75
Experiments
There were other experiments. Cutting a cake using
yishi; it was cut into two. Cutting electrical wires; with a
wave of the hand, the wire broke into two. In our
university course there were two students, they took
two steel needles and they stared at them and they
broke into two. Then they put the two broken pieces
together and stared. They reconnected them leaving no
trace of the break. Isnt this yishi effecting changes on
objects?
Some say, They are different, they have paranormal
capabilities, but can we do the same? Can we have any
effect? The difference is only in the degree of power.
Do we all have the same ability? Yes. Only that some
are weaker compared with others. But why cant I do
it? You have not experimented before. Try it out and
you will know.
In 1978, the xx Department in the USA published a
paper of an experiment that was jointly conducted with
our xx Department. They have done many experiments; I
shall only introduce two to you. The first was the
electrical thermometer. They used the power of thought
to make the temperature rise. The experiment was
conducted with 7,000 people. After collecting the data,
76
the temperature indeed had risen. But it was very slight,
only a few thousandths of a degree centigrade. It was
too small to be seen by the naked eye but could be
measured by instruments. Even though small, it did
change; it proved thoughts could change the state of
objective matter.
The second experiment was using an electrical device to
place two mirrors at a fixed distance apart. Again using
the power of thought, the experiment was conducted
with 7,000 different people to reduce the distance by
thought. Again, on collecting the data the distance had
reduced by a few ten thousandths of a centimetre. Also

very small, but this also proved that change did occur,
proving that yishi can change the state of objective
matter.
A few years ago in Shi Jia Zhuang we also did an
experiment. We had the teachers using fa qi to make
the temperature rise. Where is Bao Ming? he isnt
here. Some of them raised the temperature by two to
three plus degrees and some by over one degree. So the
temperature was raised. This points to the fact that the
yishi that we talk about in qigong studies is not merely
limited to the thought activities that are discussed in
psychology.
77
The psychological effect acknowledged by psychology
only affects personal life activities of the body and is
not able to effect changes to external objective matter.
But the yishi that we speak of in qigong circles is not
limited to changing personal life activities of the body; it
also effects changes to the state of external objective
matter.
So that was the second aspect, yishi changing the
condition of objective matter.
Students should reflect on this further. Once you get to
the bottom of this, you have learnt a lesson on using
yishi and it is an ADVANCED LEVEL of using yishi: to be
able to make use of this innate capability of yishi. The
goal of our practicing qigong is to strengthen these
capabilities, strengthen, and strengthen. What is qigong?
Strengthening the innate capabilities of a person
through the practice of a specific system of training.
Once strengthened, the capabilities will reveal
themselves and one becomes recognised as having gongfu
and capabilities.
Look inside yourself
78
Actually it isnt about practicing. Practicing can only
change the quantity a little bit. We all have these
abilities. You should not look down on yourself. In fact it
is my opinion that some of you have capabilities that
surpass mine. It is as if you have gold tucked inside your
body and yet go out begging with a begging bowl. Oh I
am poor and hungry, give me some food to eat. Not
knowing you have treasures in you.
That is to say, the capabilities are already in you. You
need only to use a certain method, concentrate your
mind, and actively use them; that is all! And that is
already advanced gongfu. You dont have to go searching
outward for any qigong masters. It suffices to look to

your self. Just look to yourself when faced with any

problems. You want to rid yourself of your sickness or to
advance in gongfu; look inside yourself. Inside you are
infinite treasures, just use them. You only need to mine
them. You thought they need to come from outside; no,
they cant come in. The real effect must come from you
yourself. Nobody can do that for you from outside.
It must expand from the inside. Like the sprouting of a
seed, it must come from itself. You can squeeze from
the outside but that will not help. Anyone who can think
this way, their gongfu will grow immediately just like
that. Its very rapid: what I say you understand
79
immediately, you grasp it upon practicing and could
conduct healing immediately with instant results. It is so
simple. In the past nobody dared to say this because
then qigong masters would be out of business. So qigong
masters are the same as us, with one nose and two eyes,
nothing special. Who would then be willing to become the
masters apprentice; following him around? So once the
cat is out of the bag, it becomes valueless. Nobody will
be willing to follow the teacher for years.
But many students dont believe it. The truth is often
not accepted but falsehood is accepted. How can this
be? Every one of us could do it? Every one of us with
such high abilities? People dont believe in themselves.
So if you talk about God, then they will believe. About
demons, they believe. And if you say its all you, they
dont believe. How could I? Looking down on oneself.
So by not believing in yourself, you also dont believe in
others. Even the teachers lecture is not believable. I
received information recently of a student of the
previous two batches. After completing the course he
returned to his home town and started believing in
God/Buddha. He has strayed from the path. In fact
what is true or false Buddhist teachings is hard to say.
But I quote Buddhas saying, fo wai wu xin, xin wai wu
fo. (fo, sounding like four, is a word for Buddha, but
80
not Buddha the person, more a description of a state of
being.) There is no xin outside of Buddha and no Buddha
outside of xin What is xin? Xin is nothing but yishi.
Those who have a real understanding of Buddhas
teachings do not believe in Gautama Siddhartha Buddha
the person. To quote another Buddhist saying: The ta
(pavilion) is xin: the belief is in xin. Actually many
Buddhist teachings are about qigong theories, but they
didnt understand. After practicing qigong, when

capabilities appeared, they created a set of Buddhist

explanations. The capabilities that surfaced, many are a
result of qigong practice. But as to the explanations,
from our qigong perspective, we do not agree with the
Buddhists.
However there are many similarities as far as practicing
is concerned. My purpose in mentioning this here is to
forewarn you not go back to blind belief. We are already
on the path of qigong science; to turn around and
backtrack would be counter-productive.
81 82
Chapter Three
The third aspect of yishi:
yishis influence on illness.
That was the second effect of yishi. Now to the third
effect of yishi.
The first was yishis effect on the life activities of the
body, including changing strength levels and changing
objective effects on the body. The second was yishi
changing the mutual effects between objective matter
and the body. The third is yishis influence on illness.
Actually the third aspect of yishis influence on illness
could be discussed under the first aspect of yishis
effect on the life activities of the body.
Because this is a short-term course mainly for patients,
we have to pick this topic out for special discussion, in
order to further strengthen and reinforce knowledge of
yishis effect on sickness in the body. Moreover many
83
patients are interested to know, so we have to speak
about this.
Yishi affects illness 1
So what effect does yishi have on illness? Some of you
may think, An illness is an illness, what does it have to
do with yishi? I do not have any illness; through thinking
about it, illness will appear? I am ill, and through
thinking that I am well, illness will go away? I have a
minor illness and if I think that it is serious, it will
become serious? I have serious sickness, I think that it
is minor and it will become minor? Let me tell you, the
truth is exactly this.
You dont have any illnesses, but by thinking that you
have, you really develop them. Originally there was no
illness, but through the effects of the mind, you can
become ill. A minor illness, through the effects of the
mind, could become a serious illness. Someone originally
not ill at all or very slightly ill could, through the effects
of the mind, end up dying.

Dont think that sickness is simply sickness. It is not as

simple as that. It is because we are used to the doctors
views that an illness is simply an illness. That this is a
84
stomach ulcer and this is a stone in the gallbladder. They
all say so.
The effect of yishi that I am talking about, not all of
you have heard it before. You feel that it is new. Is it
really new? In order for you to understand, I need to
give you practical examples. Many of us overlook the
many lessons that we can learn from normal everyday
life happenings. The study of qigong involves paying
attention to these things. There is a saying; paying
attention to little things accumulates knowledge. Each
little thing, by paying attention and noticing it, each one
builds knowledge. Do you think that high-level knowledge
only falls from the sky? No, all knowledge come from
everyday life activities.
An example of a minor illness becoming serious
First of all let me tell you an example of a minor illness
becoming a serious illness, then another in the reverse, a
serious illness becoming minor.
A few years back I went to the Construction
Department to treat an old civil servant working there.
After treatment, I told him about the effects of mind
and the old man agreed with me totally. He said, I have
85
personally experienced such a situation. In my unit there
was a man who had stomach trouble for more than two
years; this was in 1984. The year before he had gone to
the hospital to have an x-ray done and was waiting for
the report. When the x-rays were done his family
member asked the doctor (radiologist) what was the
outcome. The doctor did not notice that the patient was
sitting just outside the door waiting and could hear
every word very clearly. The doctor said, The patient is
finished, he has stomach cancer. Even surgery is not
possible, its late stage, a maximum of three months to
live.
So the patient was handed the x-ray films with
instructions to see the doctor. The doctor examined the
film and then said, Okay, no problem. You have a
stomach ailment, let me prescribe some medication for
you. Eat whatever you like. Do what you like, go and
enjoy yourself. Okay, thats all, you can go now.
On hearing that the patient lost his temper. He banged
on the table and said, What kind of a doctor are you?
You are humouring me. I heard the other doctor say that

I had cancer and was going to die, and here you say I am
fine and are letting me go with some simple
prescriptions! So the doctor also lost his cool. In the
past, in our days, if we behaved like him we would have
86
been booked and penalised. The doctors these days
behave very differently. They could be even more
aggressive than the patient. Oh, so you already know it.
So you also know that this is cancer. Let me show you.
See this portion here has deteriorated, its late stage,
you cant have surgery. The other doctor said three
months; he is being nice to you, I say you dont even have
three months.
So the doctor decided that he would prescribe more
painkillers and injections as the illness worsened and
warned the patient not to have more than one injection a
day.
The patient did not know what to do and asked about
hospitalisation and chemotherapy. The doctor said it was
useless to be hospitalised because no surgery could be
done and chemotherapy would only kill him faster. So
the same advice: Go home and eat as you like, do as you
like, value each day that you get to be alive, be happy.
The doctor was a little over the top, saying it so bluntly.
The patient was not especially ill when he went to the
hospital but after the visit he became really sick. He
vomited everything that he ate. The pain was so severe
than even two injections a day did not work. He was
groaning in pain. In less than twenty days his body
87
weight plummeted drastically, his face became skeletal.
So he went back to the doctor and the doctor said that
these were normal symptoms of his illness, late stage
cancer, death imminent, nothing could be done.
He was causing such a racket at home that his family
decided if he was to die, let him die in hospital, and
through special connections got him into the cancer
hospital. The doctor at the cancer hospital took a closer
look at the x-ray and said that it did not look like cancer
to him. He suggested having a scope done (introducing a
camera into the stomach to see directly). The patient
protested and said he was going to die, why make him
suffer further with more tests? If you refuse, then it
is impossible for us to find out. We dont feel that the
x-ray film showed you have cancer. The patient said,
What do you mean its not cancer; I am about to die and
you say it is not cancer?
The doctor said, Please dont shout at me; look at this

part that is swollen and assumed to be cancer here! It

is very bright. Normally cancer cells are not so bright,
the surface is full of craters and undulated; it does not
look like cancer. And this lower part too is relatively
bright; our experience tells us it doesnt look like cancer.
What it is we dont know. Very likely a stomach ulcer but
we dont really know until we can take a look with a scope
88
down your throat directly into your stomach. One look
and we will know. So the patient finally agreed. It
turned out not to be cancer. It was a stone in the
stomach and an ulcer. They happened to have occurred
together. It is rare to have a stone in the stomach. We
hear of stones in the gallbladder and kidneys but not in
the stomach.
It so happened the formation of these two looked like
cancer from the x-ray, so the original diagnosis was
wrong. When a tissue sample was taken it showed that it
was not cancer, but that an area was beginning to
deteriorate towards cancer, although not considered a
cancer yet. There was no need for surgery.
The patient said, If thats the case, then I am going
home. So in less than three months he was back to
normal and had gained his weight back.
So how do you explain his prior groaning in pain, the
injections, being unable to eat? Was it real pain or
phoney pain? Real sickness or phoney? If it was not
sickness, is it possible a grown man would be groaning in
pain, unable to eat, losing weight to become a skeleton?
If it was a sickness, what kind of sickness? His sickness
was a stone in the stomach coupled with an ulcer. But it
89
shouldnt have produced such symptoms. It could be
painful, but not so serious and not with vomiting nor such
a drastic drop in body weight.
Where did the pain and vomiting come from? From the
sentence: You are about to die, three months is too
much, I give you one or two months. That sentence
caused him to vomit upon reaching home. So this is a
case of mental effects changing a minor illness into a
serious illness, and then mental effects leading from
serious illness to a recovery to normal health again.
It is cancer or not?
I shall tell you about another case that I encountered in
1974-75. We had an old comrade at our unit who was a
nice man. He went for an x-ray of the lung and it showed
a shadow. The cause could have been some kind of
infection so he was given antibiotics for over forty days,

but these did not have any effect on the shadow. So the
doctors considered the possibility of it being cancerous.
Diagnosis is not easy at this stage.
So the patient came to me to treat him. This I did. I
examined his pulse using traditional Chinese medicines
and prescribed some herbal medicines for him. He took
90
the medications for just over a month and went for
another x-ray. It showed the shadow had shrunk
significantly, by half, but it was still there. If it was an
infection, after two months of treatment, it should have
been gone.
So it was necessary to check if indeed it was cancerous,
and at that time our unit was just next to the cancer
hospital so he went there for a checkup. He went in the
morning and returned late afternoon. When he returned,
right at the door, he cried out, Oh Doctor Pang, please
save me, I am going to die soon. I said, What
happened? Why have you become like this, you werent
this way when you left? He said, Oh I have lung cancer,
I am going to die. He didnt even have the energy to
speak properly.
I asked him when had he got lung cancer? He said, This
morning, the cancer hospital diagnosed me with lung
cancer. I said, You had the lung cancer much earlier. It
was lung cancer two and a half months ago. That big
patch on the x-ray - that was cancer. Really? I had it
two and half months ago? Didnt you take medication
and injections and that was not working, but after I gave
you Chinese prescriptions for over a month, it become
smaller? You said you are dying; if you are, then you
would have died a long time ago. No you are recovering.
91
He said, Is that so? I said, Yes, just compare the two
x-rays: the first was so big, now it is so small; you are
much better now. Why are you crying and groaning
away? At this point it was more effective to be firm
and show him the facts. So I said, There is no problem.
So he continued with another month or so of Chinese
medication and then went for another x-ray. The shadow
was gone.
He then went to the cancer hospital for a further
checkup and now they said it was not cancer. When he
returned he was so happy, waving his hands around
saying, It was not cancer, it was not cancer! I said, It
was cancer. He said, The doctor said it wasnt. I
asked why he said it was not? He said that the doctor
said if it were cancer, then he couldnt have recovered.

If he recovered then it would not have been cancer. The

doctor even asked him, Where did you get your
treatment? and he said at his units medical
departments own doctor.
The doctor insisted that it was not cancer. If it was, it
cant be treated. It definitely was not cancer. It must
have been an infection. You have been taking the bitter
Chinese medication for nothing. It will go away even
without the medication. In two or three months time
92
you will recover completely, theres no need for
medication. So the patient said he was not taking any
more medication. I said to him, It was cancer. He
turned around and accused me of cursing him; why was I
cursing him? So that was that, he refused medication.
A month plus passed and he went for another checkup.
Once again he came back crying. It was cancer, my
cancer has resurfaced. So in a few weeks without
medication, a big patch of cancer had grown. I said, I
told you it was cancer but you disbelieved. He said,
What should I do now? The hospital said it was not
possible to have surgery and suggested chemotherapy.
I said, That would kill you sooner. Lets take Chinese
medication.
So he took over two months of medication and went for
a checkup again, and again returned saying It was not
cancer, I have taken medication for nothing. He said
This time they have consulted their supervising doctor.
The previous doctors were inexperienced; now the
supervising doctor says it was definitely not cancer
because if it were, recovery was not possible. The
patient said, I have suffered so much taking the bitter
medicines. I had to force myself to drink them; now I am
determined not to take any more medication, no matter
what you say.
93
I said that I couldnt agree to that. So I went to his
family but the family could not force him if he didnt
want to cooperate, insisting it was not cancer. In the
end, he died. He went back to his hometown in Sanxi and
within three months fell sick again. I heard he was told
that eating crow could cure cancer and he ate two,
vomited blood and died.
So this demonstrates mental influences. When he heard
that it was not cancer, he was full of energy, jumping
around, and refused medication before the cancer was
completely eradicated, and so he died.
So, these two cases of patients with sicknesses from

minor to serious back to minor, back and forth. Isnt this

the effect of yishi? Of course there is the effect of
treatment in the cancer story.
The seriousness of the sickness seems like an objective
issue and yet the mental effect plays such an important
role. The idea that cancer is incurable, death is
imminent, is this actually right? We have many examples
of surviving cancer patients.
Western medical workers actually scare people to death.
Once you have a serious illness, they say it cant be
94
treated, cant be treated, they scare the patients to
death. Many people have been scared to death by
doctors. It is not a capital offence to scare someone to
death.
Maybe in saying this, some of my Western Medical
Doctor colleagues will be unhappy. I was a graduate of
Western medicine too. But it is the truth, even if they
are unhappy to hear it.
Yishi can create illness 2
I will go further in what I say. Even if you are well,
without any sickness, mental effects can create illness.
Through the effect of ones mental activities, sickness
can be created.
I dont believe it; I am so full of life and jumping about;
you could cause me to fall sick? The truth is exactly
that!
Many of us become angry when we get into a quarrel.
Isnt being angry a mental effect? Because of the anger,
you come home unable to eat or sleep, you feel a lump in
your chest and your head feels bloated and dizzy. Is
that sickness? Cant eat or sleep and pain in the chest,
95
isnt that sickness? Dizzy in the head and increased
blood pressure, isnt that sickness?
Where did the sickness come from? Isnt it from your
being angry, a mental effect? Some say being angry
doesnt count because there was a cause; a mental
effect causing a sickness must be something that did
not have a cause in the first place.
Free MSG
So let me tell you a story of my friend. His surname was
Zhou and he graduated in 1953.
After graduation he was assigned to a factory
manufacturing monosodium glutamate (MSG). They would
taste the MSG for quality at the Quality Control
Department, but he was not from that Department. In
the fifties it was thought that MSG was good and so my

friend would go to the Quality Control Department and

taste the MSG for fun. His colleagues noticed that he
was often there, taking advantage of free MSG and
disrupting their work. So they decided to play a trick on
him.
96
They set up a prank. In the afternoon, there he was
again. He pinched a handful and placed it in his mouth.
His colleagues rushed up to him and said, That was not
MSG but caustic alkaline powder. It is common
knowledge among chemistry students that caustic
alkaline burns the body. So he quickly drank a lot of
water in order to dilute the effect. What caustic
alkaline? Why didnt I feel the burning effect?, downing
another two cups of water as he spoke. Just then the
bell rang to end work.
He lived at the Xiji gate at the northwest corner of
Beijing. The factory was located at the southeast corner
of Beijing, so it was about twenty miles away. So he rode
his bicycle home. Half way he felt pain in his gullet and
he thought the worst. He managed to ride home.
When he reached home his wife saw him. He was a young
man in his twenties. She knew that something was amiss.
She worked as a nurse in Beijing University Hospital in
the Emergency Department. She saw her husband, his
face turned yellowish orange, in pain; one look and she
knew it was an emergency. As medical workers, through
experience we can tell an emergency case when we see
one. So she asked him what had happened and he told
her. She immediately took him to Beijing University
Hospital.
97
On arrival they went straight to x-ray without going
through the doctor, because they knew that it was
urgent to rush to be in time. No time to waste, because
if it burns through the stomach wall and there is acid in
the stomach, it will cause serious damage. Its a lifethreatening
situation. So the x-ray showed that it had
not burned through the stomach wall. They then went to
the doctor and told him about his condition and he was
treated with injections etc. He stayed at the emergency
room for observation for three and a half hours; his pain
receded slowly. They decided that it was all right for
him to go home and he went.
The next day he was still feeling a little pain and went to
hand in his medical certificate. His supervisor said that
the supervisor from the Quality Control Department was
looking for him and so after handling over the MC he

went over. The supervisor asked him what madness he

was up to. You must be mad! Why do you say that?
If you are not mad, what did you go to hospital for? I
ate caustic alkaline. Who ate caustic alkaline? Me.
You are crazy! It was not caustic alkaline, it was MSG.
You have been coming and eating our MSG, we were just
playing a trick on you.
98
It was not caustic alkaline at all. It had been MSG all
along. He hadnt specialised in chemistry, he was from
engineering, but he was educated and knew a little bit.
Caustic alkaline powder actually does not look like MSG
at all, but he was so worried at the time that he didnt
notice. So he thought it really was caustic alkaline
powder. Because of that his mind was disorientated and
in consequence he felt pain in the stomach, because he
knew that caustic alkaline has a very powerful burning
effect on the body. He knew of this fact and so he
reacted with unbearable pain. If hed had no knowledge
of the burning effect, then it wouldnt have had any
effect, would not have been so painful. If it were an
uneducated old lady, she wouldnt give the caustic
alkaline any thought. On the other hand Zhou knew of
the burning effect and so was imagining it to be
happening, and so the effect took place.
The effect of yishi is this powerful!
Yishi can choose death or life
Not only this, the effects of yishi can cause death. With
no initial illness, the result can be death, death caused
entirely by the power of yishi.
99
A few such examples were included in our (medical)
course.
In the past, experiments were conducted on death-row
prisoners. A prisoner was blindfolded with his arms outstretched
and a hole was made in the vein so that blood
would flow out rapidly into a basin below. So the first
prisoner was set up first and the second (deliberately)
walked past the first to an adjoining cubicle, with the
same done to him. So we can imagine, with blood flowing
out at this rate, the prisoners died in no time.
So after a while the first prisoner fell down; they did
not revive him and he died, and then the second also fell
and died. These two prisoners, the first died because of
loss of blood. The second died of fright. The second
prisoner, after they made the hole in the vein to draw
blood, they had running water adjusted to the same rate
as the first prisoners blood flow into the basin to

simulate the effect. But he also died. This was a mental

effect.
Another example occurred in 1986. A Beijing newspaper
printed a news report from a British newspaper.
There was a road sweeper who worked under a hightension
wire. Every day he worried about being
100
electrocuted by a falling cable. One day, while he was
below sweeping the floor, a neutral cable fell on him and
he died instantly. When they opened up his body, it was
exactly as if he had been electrocuted. His liver had
burst. He was so anxious it had caused his internal organ
to burst.
The third example is that given by an American
psychologist who wrote a book. In that book he wrote of
an incident. A few youngsters played a prank on their
friend. They tied his arms and legs together and
blindfolded him, then carried him to the railway track.
After a while the train came. The person who was tied
up could not move. He struggled but could not move.
After the train had passed his friends came along found
him dead. The psychologist said that in the final analysis,
when a person reaches an extreme state of despair, he
can choose to die. The mind can choose to die. The mind
can cause one to die.
You know that in everyday village life we find this
occurring. An old lady about to die, but the son is not
back yet. Your son is on the road, he is on his way, wait
for him. She could wait for one day, two days, and upon
seeing him, breathe her last and die. She might have
gone through many times of near-death struggles, but
her will to see her son or relatives for the last time
101
could allow her to live many more days, then once she
saw the person, die right away.
When you have an extreme desire to live on, even if you
are on your deathbed, life can be extended. When
feeling extreme despair, a normal person can die. So this
is yishi affecting illness.
So you may say thats bad news. All of us have yishi. You
can become sick even if initially you were not ill. A minor
illness can become major due to yishi; serious illness can
become death. You could even die although originally you
were not ill. How is it possible to escape the effects of
yishi? Thats bad news.
On the other hand, now that we have understood this
principle, could we turn it to our advantage? Using our
knowledge of the power of yishi, can we not actively use

it, use it in a positive manner. Take for example a tumour

in the body. If you know how to use yishi to make it
shrink and disappear, it will.
You say, Has this happened already? I say yes. I shall
give you an example. This time I shall not talk about
qigong; you might not believe in qigong, I shall talk about
science with you.
102
103 104
Chapter Four
How to use yishi
Using yishi positively
I shall tell you about a case that was documented and
published by Russia in the 1950s, and that happened in a
hospital in Moscow. The patient, who was a Second
World War veteran, had a tumour in his brain. The
patient was normally very healthy, only feeling a slight
pain in his head occasionally and his will power was also
very strong. When they opened him up they found that it
was cancer, which had spread and couldnt be operated
on. So they just took out the centre portion - the
surrounding portions they could not do anything about and closed him up. This means they didnt complete the
surgery.
At that time Russia was implementing a patient
protection policy. For their protection, seriously ill
patients were not told of their condition in order not to
add to their stress. So they showed him a specimen
105
tumour that was taken from another patient and told
him the operation was a complete success, that all the
cancer had been removed from his brain: See,
everything has been taken out, full recovery is
expected.
But the doctor told him that even if he didnt want to
stay in hospital, he couldnt go back to work. Because if
he was not careful he might cause bleeding in the brain
and that would be fatal; that he had to rest and take it
easy for at least six months. The doctor was thinking
inside that he would only live for another three months.
Better to let him enjoy himself for the rest of the time
he had left. So, Get a lot of rest, enjoy yourself for at
least six months, you are not allowed to go back to
work.
So the patient thought it would be nice to go for a
holiday and applied for leave from his unit. His unit knew
of his situation and agreed to let him have a paid holiday
together with a companion. He went on holiday for one

and a half years. After that, he thought it was time he

went back to work and so went to the hospital for a
checkup. At the hospital they took out his records; his
name, age and other information tallied, but wasnt he
supposed to be dead a long time ago?
106
So he recovered from his illness after a little over a
year. How is this possible? Isnt it the effect of yishi?
This was an official published medical document of the
fifties.
Let me give you another example, for some may say the
case from Russia may not be reliable. Lets take a case
from our own country, China itself. 1984, a case
published by Tienjin Authorities, of a female patient;
breast cancer. Late stage, surgery is ruled out, about to
die. This lady was very strong willed. I dont believe
that I am about to die. So she went to the factory and
requested early retirement, requesting the factory pay
her a retirement pension. I will go and enjoy myself.
The unit she belonged to was also very supportive. So
they agreed and gave her even more, knowing that she
was going to die soon; they included her maintenance
allowance too. She got about RMB3,000-4,000. In 1981,
that was a lot of money.
So she went to Huangshan; she liked painting Chinese
paintings. After something more than a year, before she
could spend (hua) all her money, she painted (hua) away
her cancer. She fully recovered.
Lets think about it. How she had recovered?
107
Firstly, she didnt believe that she would die of her
illness. Her attitude was that while others believe
cancer will cause death, I dont. In her mind there was
no message that cancer could kill her. Secondly, she was
in the mountains painting, not very different from
practicing qigong. She was actively and diligently
practicing. She threw the thought of death completely
out of her. In her mind the sickness did not exist
anymore. She just enjoyed herself whole-heartedly
going from place to place painting and so totally let go
of her sickness.
This is the effect of Yishi on sicknesses. If you use
Yishi this way even cancer can be overcome. From the
experience of these past years, cancer patients who
have recovered through the practice of qigong, their
attitudes from the core of their being have been so. It
is nothing, it does not matter, no problem. In this way
their problem was fixed.

Change your thinking

Some of you may say, Pang Laoshi, you have been talking
about yishi for half a day and yet have not talked about
how to use yishi. Youve just told stories and had a casual
talk with us.
108
You would be wrong if you think this. To practice qigong
and use yishi we must first turn around the position of
the mind. If the minds position is not changed, we
cannot use yishi.
For qigong treatment to be effective, the key lies with
your own use of yishi.
For example, you have cancer and your mindset is that it
will kill you and that you are totally dependent upon
treatments be it Western medication or qigong
treatment. That would be a mistake. For qigong
treatment to be effective, the key lies with your own
use of yishi.
When you use yishi, what kind of thought foundation are
you using with it. What kind of foundation are you
employing to nurture the mental activities? If you use
the old way of thinking - Ive got cancer, theres no way
to recover; if I can recover, it cant be cancer - using
this kind of mindset, will yishi work for you? When your
mindset is that once I have developed cancer, Ill die for
sure, thats using yishi too: you have unconsciously
worsened your sickness. When I have explained this
principle to you and you can use yishi, accept it and
change your thinking - cancer wont kill me; my serious
109
illness is no problem; however serious my illness is, it can
be turned around; chronic rheumatism, deformity, can
return to a healthy state; I lose control over half of my
body due to a stroke, I can recover - with this concept,
you are also unconsciously using yishi. It is taking effect.
How else do you think yishi should be used? Yishi
operates subconsciously, nurturing your life activities. If
you are unwilling to change your position, how will you use
yishi? You think that it is a question of methods.
Methods must be directed from a correct way of
thinking in order to be effective. Without a correct way
of thinking to lead you, the method will become harmful.
Yi shou focusing on a location in the body
For example, in qigong practice there is a good method
called yi shou focusing the mind constantly at a
location in the body. Yi shou dantian: Yi shou the place
where sickness is located. If you employ the right
thinking to direct your attention - for example, you have

liver cancer, your attention is on the liver for it to

recover - thats good, but if your thinking is always oh,
my liver is sick, what should I do, my liver is sick, what
should I do? that is bad. Your mind and attention is on
the liver and your thoughts and attitude are those of
110
negativity, failure, hopelessness and despair. That will
result in bad effects. If you focus your attention on the
liver with the attitude of sickness will recover, cancer
disintegrate and disappear, that is good.
Focusing attention on the liver is the method, but the
outcome is completely dependent on the foundation of
your thinking. Some people became sick after practicing
qigong. Why? With training, their power of thought is
greater and their qi is strong. And because of the
negativity of their thinking, things develop in that
direction. So when you use yishi, you must have a correct
foundation in thinking and understanding in order to
complement your use of yishi. How to mobilise qi and how
to use qi, directing it to what kind of effect; all these
have to be built upon a correct foundation of thought.
The active use of yishi
Once having understood the effects of yishi on the
body, on objective matter and on illness, once you have
thought through and understood; you have already begun
using yishi. Those who are cultivating gong are already
doing so. This is a basic principle. If everyone were able
to think for themself, I could stop here. There would be
no need for me to elaborate further. I have revealed to
111
you all of the secrets and mysteries, the most valuable
things, the best essence here. You have been told
everything about yishi at this point, the most
fundamental. You already know the nature of yishi, you
need only to begin to use it and let it produce results.
To meet students needs, I shall continue to speak more
about yishi, but in comparison this is not the essence.
Some may say that whats coming how to use yishi - is
good stuff. Thats wrong the good stuff is right in
front. Though the following sections are good too, their
comparative importance is not as great. Without the
foundation of the earlier part of the lecture, what
follows would not work well.
So the following is about how to use yishi. We have been
talking about the effects of yishi as a major topic
earlier. Now we talk about how to use yishi.
In Zhineng Qigong, regardless of what you do, no matter
what your goal is, you must actively use yishi. You must

take the initiative and actively use yishi. That specific

statement sums it all up.
Serious illness and the use of yishi
112
So let us discuss about how a patient can use yishi.
Eighty per cent of students in this class are patients.
Patients have to be further classified into those who are
seriously sick and those who have a minor illness. So,
seriously sick patients are those whom Western Doctors
say they are helpless to treat, such as cancer, late state
liver sclerosis, water accumulation in the liver, heart
deterioration, paralysis and other serious illnesses;
those who cant be treated by any other means and are
waiting to die. Of these some have a longer time to live,
some less. Cancer patients will have a shorter time,
others longer. Waiting to die, these are seriously sick
patients.
For these patients, what to do? How to use yishi? You
are now at the edge of death. On this side is life and on
this side is death. What do you do? Move towards life!
Think of life and move towards life. In your thoughts,
dont think of death but think of life.
Dont think, What will happen if I die? Dont think of
that. If you think of dying you are pushing toward this
side - death. You must think, I must live, I must live, I
must live. Only think this way. I will definitely live, I will
definitely recover. Thats the basic essence of it.
113
Next, how to get better. Firstly, conserve energy and
dont waste energy. Dont bother about anything and
dont be bothered by anything! Save energy. You have so
little life energy left and are at the edge of death. We
talk of the dying ashes coming alive again. You are
running out of fuel in the stove. At this point, if you blow
wind into the fire to make it bigger, arent you burning
more fuel and the fire will just die out. What to do? You
cover up the embers with twigs, protecting and feeding
them so they will have a chance to slowly feed and grow.
So, conserve your life energy, keep it in, grow it, grow it
and regain life. Let every cell become alive. Dont bother
about anything else. This way you live.
What should you do? Only three things: eat, sleep and
practice qigong. Hungry eat; sleepy sleep; neither
hungry nor sleepy practice qigong.
Whoever can do that, I guarantee life. In qigong we have
a saying about doing this: xin si shen huo - the mind is
dead but the spirit is alive.
Xin si shen huo - the mind is dead but the spirit is alive

114
Xin si shen huo - the mind is dead but the spirit is
alive. Your mind is dead. Nothing concerns you anymore.
You lack interest in everything. Your son comes along and
says he has friends visiting, you say I dont care. Treat
me as if I am already dead. Mum my friends are here.
Dont care! Mum I am taking out the rubbish. Dont
care! Mum, what are we eating tonight? Dont care!
Time to eat! Go right ahead and eat! After you are
finished. Dont care! Grand children, naughty, run past
something and break it. Dont care! Whoever can do
this; all your energy and attention are turned and kept
inward. You live anew through practicing, through eating,
through sleeping. You sleep back to life again. Practice,
eating and sleeping is life and everything else is death.
Nothing else matters, concern yourself with nothing
else; anyone who can do that is guaranteed to recover.
Cancer, about to die: if you do not wish to die, do this;
do nothing but practice qigong. Give no heed to pain or
suffering: dont care! Think about it! You are not even
bothered about dying, why bother with pain? Just
practice like this. One hundred out of one hundred will
recover. One thousand out of one thousand will recover.
The problem is that not all the hundred will think this
way. They will think, What will happen if I die? So you
are at the edge of death, so you are pushing towards
115
death. What will happen if I die? Who will take care of
my husband? Who will take care of my son; he hasnt
married yet and my daughter doesnt even have a steady
boy friend. What will happen if I die? What will happen
if I die? You are pushing over to the side of death.
So if the black microphone represents death and the
silver life, you push and push towards death. So how can
you not die? Inevitably you will die.
Qigong is yu si wang po either the net breaks or the
fish dies
When you choose qigong it is like yu si wang po either
the net breaks or the fish dies. Some may say, Why
dont you speak words that are easier on the ear? For
seriously ill patients, you have to unlock this mental
block. I give you a blow to see if you will wake up. Once
you awaken, thats good.
There was a patient in Dongbei who said, Why was Pang
Laoshi so inhumane, saying bluntly that death is
imminent? I said, I am not saying that you will surely
die, only under certain circumstances, a particular
mindset. Take cancer for example: who can heal you? If

there were a way, then many of our leaders who have

116
died of cancer would have lived. Their resources were
much more than yours. All the leaders with such medical
resources at their disposal couldnt live, and you expect
to live? How could you live? What kind of resources do
you have? If you follow the recommendation of these
four words, xin si shen huo, then you will become special
and so illness will treat you specially. If you are not
special, then you will fall in line with the average and will
proceed in that direction. They die and you will do the
same.
So I am straight and upfront with you. When you choose
qigong it is like yu si wang po either the net breaks or
the fish dies.
So the fish is already caught in the net. The only way
out is to break open the net and swim out, and that is
life. If you stay behind then there is only death. That is
a last-ditch struggle of yu si wang po; either the net
breaks or the fish dies.
Rather die fighting! In your effort you might well break
through. And if you do, you have the freedom of the
entire ocean. If you are not willing, saying I feel
especially uncomfortable today, I shall practice
tomorrow, tomorrow will be even more uncomfortable,
117
then the next day, and it will continue like this and you
wait and wait until you die. It will be too late then.
In qigong we are able to feel and see forward to what is
coming. If you see that is not where you want to go, then
change direction. You cant be undecided and hesitate to
take action. That will lead to death. You have to move
back into life from the brink of death. Eat, practice and
sleep nothing else. When you wake up, Peng Qi Guan Ding
(Lift Qi). When you are tired, then without moving your
hands think gui dantian qi gathering in dantian. San Xin
Bing (Three Centres Merge): gui dantian qi gathering in
dantian. When feeling well start doing Xing Shen Zhuang
(Body Mind Form) and fill up the day in this way. You
cant die of tiredness practicing qigong.
Even if you die out of tiredness practicing qigong, it is
worth it, better than waiting to die. Lets fight it out,
with life at stake. Training hard, pain and aches all over
the body, that is even better, it makes you forget about
your sickness.
If there is anyone who can completely forget about his
illness, with only the one directed purpose of practicing,
a hundred will recover out of one hundred who are ill.

Unfortunately not even ten out of one hundred do it.

They keep thinking, What will happen when I die? Keep
118
thinking of dying - no way you can live! Thats yishi:
thinking of death will push you towards death.
So thats for seriously ill patients. You must xin si shen
huo - totally shut out everything else but practicing
qigong.
Lesser illnesses
So what about those who have minor illnesses? You cant
say, I am dying and I dont care about anything else. You
are like this mug here, far away from death. Dont push
towards death. Dont worsen your illness. In your mind
you must have the concept of I am not sick.
Do whatever you need to do. Do more things for others.
After learning qigong, have more thought for your family
and friends around you. Totally forget about your own
illness. In this way your own illness will recover. Some
may disagree; Why are those who are seriously ill
advised to disregard everything else, be so selfish, while
those who are not seriously ill are advised to concern
themselves with others?
Have you thought through it clearly? As a seriously ill
person, only when you are totally shut off from
119
everything are you actually doing a service to society and
caring for others. Your body is so weak and you are
dying, and yet you want to offer your opinions; do you
think they will be good opinions? What you will offer is
just useless and unhealthy suggestions. That wont do.
You are so seriously ill; everyone around wants you to
recover. Everyone would rather you not be involved, and
in so acting you are doing what is best. Once you have
regained your energy and have recovered from your
sickness that would fulfil the wishes of those around you
even more. So by fulfilling others wishes, you are
showing concern and fulfilling the needs that they have.
On the other hand, if you have a minor illness and keep
saying I am dying, it is better that I die, those who do
that - let me tell you, especially those who are going into
nursing careers - those patients wont die. Patients who
are seriously ill wont think that way. They will be afraid
to say the word death. Please dont say that, its not
auspicious. Those who yell and say, Let me die, I am
dying, its better for me to die, you will be happy then,
let me die quickly. those wont die; they dont have any
serious problems. There are patients like that. It is
because they want attention from their family members.

And it is a mental problem that keeps the illness in place.

So patients should use yishi in these ways.
120
The patients family
What about the patients family?
You should have the attitude of Its okay, you will
recover soon, recover soon. Dont say, Oh you are going
to die soon; doctor please help him, he is dying, what
should we do, please help him. With this kind of yishi,
the patient will oblige: you have been wanting him to die,
how can he not die? Why cant you help him by giving him
good Information: You are okay, nothing wrong with
you.
Doesn't everyone do this? No! Some family members
want special treatment from the doctor, so they say
their sickness is special and they want the doctor to give
them special attention. And it will be as they think; their
sickness will be special. Let me give you some examples.
Last year, in Qing Huang University where we have a
branch, there was a lecturer at the university who had a
serious brain haemorrhage and was sent to a first class
hospital. His pupils had dilated, there were no vital signs
and he was in a deep coma. The family was told that
death was imminent. The family members thought that
121
since this was the case they should try qigong, so they
asked our teachers to treat him. So a few teachers
came to visit me before going to the hospital, which was
near where I lived. They asked me what to do. I said, I
figure that the patient has a chance of surviving, go and
treat him and lets see what happens. So they went and
sent qi to him. Originally the doctors estimated that he
wouldnt live more than a day. After three days of qi
treatment, his condition improved and blood pressure
returned, going from a serious to a light coma.
It so happened that I was at Qing Huang University to
give a lecture. A family member saw me and came to
plead with me to go and see the patient. I said, Havent
the teachers gone to treat him? He said, They were
not good enough, you should go. I said, Dont be so
anxious, your being anxious is harmful to the patient.
He said, dont worry, the patient cant hear us, he is
tens of miles away. I said, It is not a matter of
distance. I said, Dont be so anxious, it makes no
difference whether it is the teachers or me treating the
patient; in fact its better being the teachers. He said,
You are the teacher, they are your students; their
abilities cant be higher than yours. I said, Dont be

anxious, its not good for the patient. I said, I am not

going, I dont treat patients personally, the teachers do
that. After a long time he finally calmed down. But then
122
later he came with the leader of his unit and started all
over again. I said, Dont be anxious, its not good for the
patient. It took me a long time to persuade them.
In the evening, while at the dinner table, he came again,
this time with the Secretary and supervisors. They all
came and started to plead with me again. I said, Now
this is bad; its all over! You have attacked me from all
angles. I am now helpless. The patient is finished; he
cant be saved anymore. Earlier on, I was able to contain
your Information so that it didnt reach the patient.
Now Ive been caught unprepared while having dinner.
There is a qifield surrounding me and you have sent your
bad Information through my qifield to the patient. I
have a qifield surrounding me. If you come to me with
positive Information Oh, the patient has recovered,
then that helps the patient. But you came saying, The
patient is not okay, he cant make it. Well, that
Information has gone over. I said, Thats it. Everything
is lost.
They said, Hes tens of miles away. I said, Even if it
were tens of thousands of miles, it wouldnt make any
difference. If you phone now, the patient has already
gone into a deep coma; there is no way to save him. I
said, The patient definitely wont survive, theres no way
out of this. They didnt quite believe me; they thought I
123
was lying because I didnt want to go. The next evening
when the teachers went to see the patient again they
found him in a deep coma which had started at about
6:00 pm the evening before, just when I was having
dinner and they came to plead with me.
This shows how powerful the effects of the yishi of
family members can be.
You may ask why the effects are not as powerful at
normal times. There is qifield surrounding me, and if you
come to me in such a state of mind, that is your bad
fortune. Both good and bad Information will go to
people. So I always say, If you want to come to me, you
should come with a positive attitude; if you come with a
negative attitude, you are looking for trouble, you will
not be able to recover from your illness.
A positive attitude
Let me give you another example. Last year we did a
class in Fuyang, and I was having a hand-shaking (healing)

event. I was shaking hands with a little child and I asked

the child, How old are you? He looked at me and was
about to answer me. His mother said, He is deaf and
dumb. So the child didnt speak but raised his hand to
124
show five, five years old. I knew he was deaf and dumb;
I was getting him to talk; he heard me and was about to
answer when his mother broke in and said he is dumb and
deaf, and so he was.
My original intention in asking him his age was for him to
speak. He heard me and was about to speak up, but the
mother says dumb and deaf. He would have spoken if not
for the mothers intervention. I said, I have warned you
not to speak before we shake hands and yet you spoke.
The mother then pleaded, Please help us. I said, I
cant do anything now. I have sent my qi to him and you
added the Information of dumb and deaf. My qi was very
strong and your Information tagged onto mine into him.
Now I am helpless. I said, Even three years of
treatment couldnt neutralise that. It is not easy to
break my Information.
There was another boy; I said, Raise your arm. The
father was about to say something; I was so worried, I
gave him a push and he tumbled over. The boy slowly
raised his arm and got it up. He was born like that, but
he tried raising it slowly and he succeeded. If anything
had been said, that he couldnt raise his arm, then he
wouldnt have been able to. The effect of yishi is as
powerful as that.
125
That is why I always say, If you have any illnesses, dont
come to me. If you come and say to me, My sickness is
special, please treat me, well your sickness has become
special. There is a qifield surrounding me. Unlike others,
I dont close up my qifield. So if you come and say, My
sons illness is special, please treat him, it becomes
impossible. You have sent your Information along with
my qi into your child, that the sickness is special, and no
matter how I use my qi to correct that, it wont succeed.
He is not dying, stop talking about dying
The effect of yishi of family members is very powerful.
We had a patient by the name of Sun Li Long. A liver
cancer patient who started practicing qigong in 1987, he
recovered and returned to his work. However they
refused to reimburse his expenses, so he lost his temper
and this provoked his illness; this was also a qi reaction.
He vomited blood and passed out blood, then went into a
coma. They sent him to hospital. There was no blood

pressure and they diagnosed him with late stage liver

cancer again. He had recovered earlier, but with his bout
of anger the sickness returned.
The hospital informed his Unit that he was dying and
that they were making the necessary preparations. But
126
his wife said, Its alright, he is okay. His wife had
actually gone through four classes with him, from Beijing
to Beixi, Chanqun to Haerbing, she attended four classes
with him. The husband and wife practiced together, so
she understood the principles. We are alright, we are
alright. You dont have to do anything, just give him some
blood and drips and we shall be fine. It is a qi reaction
from qigong practice. He is not dying. Stop talking about
dying here. There is nothing wrong.
The doctors couldnt handle this uneducated ignorant
housewife. There was no blood pressure and no bodily
responses at all and yet she insisted nothing was wrong!
So they relented and said they would continue to give
him blood and drips and she said that was all that was
needed. We know how to fa qi, so we will treat him with
fa qi. The doctors thought that she must be going mad.
So she did fa qi for three days and his blood pressure
returned and he regained consciousness. However he had
hydroperitoneum and his abdomen was bloated. The
doctors wanted to work on him, saying that he was dying,
but again his wife stood her ground. Dont go mentioning
about dying here. He is not dying. Its alright, just a qi
reaction. The doctors just couldnt do anything about
her. Dont bother about us. Just let him have some
medicines that are generally health-enhancing. What
127
kind? Ginseng and deer horn. So the Chinese
physician kindly wrote a prescription that included some
herbs with antiseptic effects. We shall do fa qi, Laoshi
is helping us, and we have the qifield. And so after
three months he recovered. Tests showed him without
any sickness, no cancer and the liver well.
So family members influence is very important. At the
most crucial moment, if they think of death, that death
is imminent, the patient has no choice but to comply. So
be especially aware of this problem. All family members
wish for their family member to recover. But if you say
What will we do if you die?, the patient will die. If you
are always thinking that he will die, he will.
Parental awareness
So as parents we must also be aware of this for children.
Some parents, when their child falls sick, over-react and

say, Oh this is bad, he could develop a high fever, what

should I do? You are actually sending Information to
the child to have a high fever. Oh dont have any fever,
dont have fever, dont have a fit, dont have a fit, but
thinking, He is going to have a fit, quickly go and get an
injection: so it will happen; you have sent a lot of
negative Information to your child.
128
What should you do? You must send good Information all
the time. As Zhineng Qigong practitioners, we always
think good things.
So that was how to use yishi for family and friends of
the patient.
ji ji zhu dong , actively taking the initiative
Next, how to use yishi in practicing qigong.
Zhineng Qigong also emphasises taking the initiative to
actively use yishi. Zhineng Qigong does not emphasise ru
jing, going into a state of emptiness. Some say, That is
what I want. Im not able to go into a state of emptiness
and am afraid to do so; Zhineng Qigong suits me.
So Zhineng Qigong emphasises taking the initiative to
actively use yishi. This is termed ji ji zhu dong , actively
taking the initiative. If you want to grow in gongfu, then
think of that as you practice. In Peng Qi Guan Ding Fa
we push and pull qi. When we push, we think of pushing
all the way to the horizon, and as we pull we pull all this
qi back into the body. All around, all the qi is gathered
into the body. It comes into the body in great quantities
129
through this. When you move qi, such as building the
qifield, think of moving the qi of the entire cosmos, it
turning with you. Use yishi this way. This is called taking
the initiative to use yishi. Anyone who can use yishi this
way will rapidly grow in gongfu.
In Zhineng Qigong this is the only technique, there is no
other. Its very simple: yishi is attached to the qi going
in and out; you can feel it. It is so simple, just an open
and a close. Open and close covers everything. Theres
nothing else; Zhineng Qigong is so simple. If it is made
too complicated, with many techniques, it will not be
easily grasped. So it is quite basic. Those who believe
and practice often with yishi; from the horizon all
around, bring all the qi into the body for yourself. When
building the qifield, do the same and think in that way.
Thats all. All of you will be filled to capacity with qi.
When you fa qi for healing, just do that and use yishi to
gather qi into the patients body, and thats it. The
patient can recover immediately.

Always be open to receive qi

I see that you students dont know how to use your
initiative. I sent you qi when I did that but you didnt
receive it. I am sending qi to you but you didnt receive
130
it. Not many received my qi just now. If you had when I
did that, right away your qi would have filled you to
capacity and you would have grown in gongfu. Right away
any problem you had would be resolved.
If you are only prepared to receive qi when I say I am
sending it, the effect will be much reduced. If you have
to think about it before doing anything, thats not what
we call actively taking the initiative to receive qi. The
effect will still be there, but much reduced, if you do it
only after I have told you to. But if you act on your own
initiative then it will be very different.
This is called ji ji zhu dong, using yishi. You dont have
to come up to me to ask for qi. You can go ahead and
grab some! There is plenty of qi here in the practice hall.
How can you heal yourself? Grab a handful of qi and send
it wherever you need it! That is taking the initiative to
use yishi, what else. Thats all it is! Doing that will be
effective. Am I sure its so simple? Try it out and see!
But it is not logical Forget about being logical! As
long as it works! Many things are not logical but as long
as you attain your goals, thats all you need. So it really
is that simple, taking the initiative to use yishi.
131
In the past no one was willing to state this so clearly.
There will no longer be any mysteries; this is the reality
of how it is. Then again, there will be some who believe
and some who do not. Just by doing that? For those
who believe, a grab and send action will be effective. But
the doubter will ask, What have you grabbed, I cant
see it; there is nothing! They need to see something to
grab, say a towel, would the towel go into the body? The
towel is not qi. So it is really that simple, Zhineng
Qigong, taking the initiative to use yishi.
In its simplicity lies the fundamental essence; the
knowledge is there in the simplicity. When it is made
complicated, then the strength of thought in the brain
will be dispersed. It works best when the thought and
effect happen instantaneously.
Long-distance healing
We could do an experiment. Right now we could do one.
You can think of a family member at home who is sick,
who is not present, or even someone who is also present
here. Say they have a tumour; you could think that the

tumour has disappeared. Through the strength of the

qifield, the tumour can disappear. This will be effective
even if the person is ten or two hundred miles away. We
132
have done this experiment each time we hold a course.
You just think of the patient; they do not have to know
about it. Someone may have pain in their leg and cant
even move it. You think for the leg to be well, not painful
any more, back to normal; think that way and it will
become normal. We have a qifield here, and adding your
yishi to it, the Information is sent to the patient and
produces the effect.
Why doesnt this happen normally? You dont practice
and you dont have the qifields help. Here we have the
qifield, plus now that you know how to use yishi, you know
how to manipulate qi and so produce an effect.
I remember a case in Tangshan; no, in Qing Huang Dao. I
told them to think about a family member at home while
I did fa qi. This students wife had a growth in her nose
and it hindered her breathing. He only came to tell me
after two days; he said, I didnt go home yesterday, but
went back today. My wife can now breathe properly.
During our experiment, I thought of her and I used my
finger to poke at the blockage to clear it, to make the
flesh disappear, and when I returned home, my wife told
me that she was able to breathe easily and the flesh was
gone.
133
That action, thinking in that way, is called taking the
initiative to actively use yishi. Do this with healing as
well as in your practice.
You say, Is there anything else to Zhineng Qigong? Just
this little bit of knowledge? If you master this you will
find uses without end for it. You can change anything!
Come on, there should be more. Well, like a meal, the
main course is what I have spoken about first.
Everything else is like an entree, dessert or soup, but
these are useful to know too.
Stray Thoughts
One issue is, what to do when during training we have
stray thoughts. Whilst doing Peng Qi Guan Ding, push
and pull, Oh its raining, my son didnt take an umbrella
to school today. You have stray thoughts, what should
you do?
Just concentrate your attention on doing the
movements, and thus the problem is solved. Why worry
about stray thoughts? Once you realise you are having
stray thoughts, just double your concentration; you

134
could even say to yourself: push and pull, push and pull.
The stray thought will go.
No need to ask what to do with stray thoughts, no need
to concern yourself with them. There is an ancient
saying: stray thoughts are sickness, concentration is
medicine. Just drop the stray thoughts, concentrate on
your movements, and it is back to practicing qigong and
the problem is solved, its that simple. Stray thoughts
are not so formidable: just concentrate your attention,
do the movements and take the initiative to actively use
yishi, thats all.
Another issue: I was doing quite well initially and could
concentrate, but after three months of practice stray
thoughts seem to be increasing and are harder to
overcome. Whats the explanation?
Some people cant concentrate. When doing San Xin Bing
Zhanzhuang, the Three Centres Merge Standing Form,
they practice in a frustrated mood, their eyebrows
frown and they are unable to keep going. Let me tell you
that practicing qigong is a process of many progressions.
It is not a progression along a straight line. As you
progress, impurities will surface. At a deeper level, the
relatively smaller impurities of before become bigger,
and so you have to rid yourself of them to progress. It
135
may seem that you are regressing but actually you are
progressing. Dont feel frustrated.
Some are frustrated by what they are experiencing.
Aware that so many stray thoughts are appearing and
disturbing their training, they think, I cant continue.
But isnt that also a stray thought? That is not a
thought about training. On the other hand, if you accept
that you are progressing in your practice and settle your
heart and mind to train, thats better. With a correct
attitude towards stray thoughts they will go away much
sooner.
This is the attitude Zhineng Qigong has regarding stray
thoughts. You ignore them and you clear them step-bystep.
It is like a wave and not a straight progression.
Once you are faced with a challenge, you should have an
endurance match with yourself, hold your position for at
least half an hour. Once you are able to outlast stray
thoughts, they will go away. So if you cant calm down
during practice, persevere. That should solve your
problem.
136
137 138

Chapter Five
Illusions
So in Zhineng Qigong there are no other secrets for
using yishi. It is so simple: concentrate your attention,
perform the movements and take the initiative to
actively use yishi, thats all. But there is a point that
needs to be said here.
With Zhineng Qigong, our gongfu grows rapidly. So
through our practice, paranormal abilities develop
quickly too. But before that, there will be qigong
practice reactions. What kind of reactions? Some will
have illusions; there may appear hills, rivers, ponds, seas,
stars, flowers, grass, trees, humans, demons, gods,
temples, spirits etc.
Zhineng Qigong takes a scientific attitude toward these
problems. None of these images are real. Even the
Buddhists and Taoists both do not treat them as real.
The Buddhists explanation about illusion is that the
mind is not completely still and so has reactions to
139
external influences. The mind (xin) is not settled and so
creates these illusions. The Taoists attribute them to
excessive qi in the organs of the body creating a
reaction that affects the mind. Taoists focus on
developing a pill (dan) and believe excessive qi causes
this illusion. They do not consider it something real.
Quoting a Buddhist saying: That which is perceived by
the five senses (ultimately) is unreal; only that which is
without form and colour is real (from an esoteric
perspective).
So whatever you see that appears during training is
unreal. When there is peace and quiet during training,
thats reality. So students have to take extra note of
this matter. I am going to give you an example.
The Fox Spirit
This occurred in 1964. A friend of mine, with the family
name Zhou, had a father-in-law who had a problem with
his eyes. After practicing the Standing Form his eyes
recovered.
For more than a week, every night at midnight the old
man would start to talk to himself. Looking at the door
140
he would say, Who is that? You are the fox spirit. What
do you want from me? You want my pill. Do I have one?
Even if I had, I wouldnt give it to you. No I am not
giving it to you. While saying this he waved his hands
about in a struggle. Every night he said this at midnight.
My friend and his entire family were frightened by all

this and asked me to go and take a look and see what was
going on with his father-in-law. In 1964 I had started to
have some abilities, not much but some, so I went to
have a look. So I asked the old man, Whats happening
to you? Nobody in the family dared ask him. All this
about fox spirits! They were all afraid. Mind you, the old
man was a Professor. He wasnt a simple commoner. He
was a Professor at the Beijing Medical (College).
So I asked him. He said that whenever he practiced
strong qi appeared and then a voice spoke to him. So I
asked the rest of the family if they heard this too. They
said no. He said the voice called his name, Lao Jing - his
surname was Jing . Lao Jing, Lao Jing. So he answered,
Who is that? And what was the answer? Fox. I
asked if he saw it. No, just the voice, no form. So he
then said he asked, What do you want from me? Fox
said, Your elixir pills. He said, I have only been
practicing for just over half a year, do I have pills?
Yes you have. You have three, one on top, one in the
141
middle and the last at the bottom. I said, I am not
giving you them. Fox said, Then I will take them by
force, so I struggled with him. At that point it
disappears.
So when does it come? At midnight. But yesterday it
came at 7:00 p.m. I said, it is not 7:00 p.m. yet; start
to practice now. When will he come? I will know when
his qi appears, I will feel it. So I said, Let me know
then. So he started the Standing Form and after about
twenty minutes I saw him move a little, I asked him if it
was about to come, and he nodded his head. I used my
middle fingers to point into the middle of his chest and
said it wouldnt be able to come tonight. So he stood for
another half an hour, then he said, Yes, it is not coming
any more, so I said, Well, finish your practice.
I said to him, You are a psychology Professor; what is
wrong with you? He said, Whats wrong with me? I
said, What fox spirit nonsense! But I heard it
clearly. I said, It is all the effect of your yishi.
What do you mean? I said, After practicing qigong,
your ability has strengthened. When you have a faint
thought in your sub conscious mind, the signals could be
amplified and could become a sound. I said, Have you
heard anything about a fox spirit stealing pills recently?
He said, About three months ago at the training place
142
we did discuss something about fox spirits stealing pills.
I said, Thats it! You have that thought in your mind and

when you practice you mobilise your zhen qi inborn qi.

The mind is now very sensitive and there is a thought
about stealing pills, and so .
Before I could finish he understood right away. He said,
I am a psychologist; how could I have forgotten about
these yishi activities? And so he let go of it right away
and was well again.
It can be easy to convince some people just by explaining
the facts. For some who are not educated, if you cant
get through to them with explanations and persuasion, it
can be a difficult task. If they refuse to listen and hang
on to what they believe, that the voice they hear is real,
then there is a problem. The voice is so clear to me. You
cant hear it but I can. - taking the unreal for real, it
becomes hopeless.
Monkey God
Another example occurred in 1985, twenty one years
later. While I was teaching, an old man with gongfu
requested to see me. So I agreed and asked him how I
could help. He said he had a stomach full of Xi You Ji,
143
relating to the classic Chinese story of the Monkey God
on a journey to the West to fetch Buddhist scriptures.
I said, What do you mean? He said, The Monkey God
is now speaking. He says He (Pang Laoshi) knows, he
knows, you can talk to him. Tang Sheng, Sun Wu Kong,
Zhu Ba Jie, Sha Sheng; they are all inside me. I asked,
What about the white horse? He said, It never spoke.
They are fetching the scriptures. I said, This is not
real. He said, No, I have consulted others, they say the
spirits of the four of them have gone into my body. I
said, No such thing. He said, Now Zhu Ba Jie is saying
Dont listen to him, dont listen to him! Just talk to him
about qigong. He knows nothing about this matter, dont
listen to him on this!
I said, What nonsense about spirits going into the body.
Xi You Ji is indeed a book for practicing gong but it is
not as you interpret it. You are at the stage of zhen jia
hou wang, similar to the stage of zhen wang xiang gong.
In your practice you should go through different stages
from the one to the other, but something has gone
wrong for you somewhere in the process.
Zhu Ba Jie said, He doesnt know; dont talk to him
about this. Dont listen to him. So what do you think it
is? The spirits have entered me to help me practice.
144
Then why did you come to me? I have some illness. he had some problem with his stomach.

I said, Okay, let me take a step back and say I accept

your theory about the spirits of people who have died
coming to live in you. So this theory says the person once
lived and after their death they have come into your
body. But Sun Wu Kong, Zhu Ba Jie and Sha Sheng were
fictional characters, only Tang Sheng was real, a monk in
the Tang Dynasty, by the name of Tang Xuan Zhuang,
son of Chen Kuang Gui. Such a person did exist, but Sun
Wu Kong, Zhu Ba Jie and Sha Sheng were fictional
characters made up by storytellers. There never were
such living people. So if they never were alive, how could
they have died and how could their spirits enter
someone elses body?
He said, Didnt Sun Wu Kong then became so and so, and
the others also? I said, These were stories made up by
storytellers. So Zhu Ba Jie in his stomach said Lets
ignore him. He was not very educated and believed the
stories of Xi You Ji and that spirits go into bodies. So I
couldnt get through to him with the truth.
Two years later he came back again. I asked him about
his spirits in the stomach. He said, They are about to
get to the scriptures, they have all grown in gongfu. So
145
I asked, Why are you here? Im here to seek
treatment. Why? Havent they advanced in their
abilities, cant they help you? I said, Your prostate
gland has swollen; why dont you ask them to help? He
said, How did you know about my prostate gland
problem? It is there, I can see it so clearly, how would
I not know? Does Sun Wu Kong know? He knows but he
cant heal it. Why dont you ask him to use his staff to
poke at it so it will be well again? He said to come to
you for help. But you dont believe in me. You said I
dont know, so why come to me? I said, If you give up
Xi You Ji I will treat you and you will recover there and
then, but if you dont I will not treat you. But he
insisted and so he left.
So if one is not educated and cant understand, then it is
difficult. Even though clearly this is not real, he does
not accept that, so it is impossible. So I hope that
Zhineng Qigong students will be forewarned and will not
treat these phenomena as real. The thoughts in your
mind are like an illusion and are not real.
But why do they keep talking to you? Well if you heed
them and respond, you add energy to them. If you ignore
them, they will slowly disappear. If Zhu Ba Jie speaks to
you, just ignore it and it wont last more than a few
months. If you have a conversation that goes like this:

146
Zhu Ba Jie, I have a pain. Where? In my back, what
should I do? Just hit it a few times. - the more you
do that, the more the voice establishes itself as real. So
you have made a wrong turn in your training. At this
stage of your training you must be alert and be in a state
of not being affected by illusive visions. Kill demons and
well as gods whenever you see them and all will be fine.
No matter what it is, just ignore it and the problem is
solved.
So that is about illusions. They are comparatively easy to
rectify. They can be explained away. But the next
example is harder to deal with.
The stage of opening to paranormal abilities
You are at the stage of opening to paranormal abilities.
Someone comes and he has heart problem. You know
about it. Or you are able to know in advance that a
friend is coming, and he turns up. You hadnt had
experiences of this kind before, so the mind can create
an illusion. I wont explain the details here, but a voice
may seem to appear and say, Someone say Zhang San is here, go and take a look. Actually it is your
paranormal ability detecting this information, while the
147
voice of another entity saying he is coming so go and
look is an illusion.
If you are not alerted to this and you follow the voice
and discover that indeed Zhang San is coming, you could
think that a particular god has entered your body. It
may develop into you asking the god, Who will come
today? and getting the answer, Wang Wu will be here
at 8:00 a.m. And Wang Wu comes at 8:00 a.m. That
further reinforces the belief that God has come to
inform you.
Actually this is your own ability to tell the future. It is
your own ability. The voice of another speaking is an
illusion. This is zhen wang xiang gong. This mutual
struggle between reality and illusion is very hard to deal
with. Many who reach this stage turn to believing in
Buddha, gods and spirits. It is actually their own ability,
but they see it as another separate entity and they ask
that entity for information.
Because of this many people become stuck at this level
and cannot move on to higher levels. It is like a
kaleidoscope that children play with: many different
colours of glass fragments inside show all kinds of
beautiful patterns, and children can be mesmerized by
it. But adults will not be mesmerised by it in this way

because we have seen it before, we have experienced

148
the illusions and know that they come from the pieces of
glass. Children who are ignorant see the different kinds
of complicated patterns and colour changes and believe
that they are so beautiful and are real. So also with our
practice, when we encounter zhen wang xian gong, it is
the same. If we tell the person that it is an illusion, the
person will not accept. This is akin to the child holding on
to the kaleidoscope. After they have passed that stage,
then on hindsight they will understand. But while they
are at that stage they will not believe.
Some may even argue back. Dont believe what Pang
Laoshi says. How do you know there isnt anything? Have
you experienced it yourself? How do you know? You cant
say that everything is zhen wang xiang gong.
Sometimes it is an animal spirit. Sometimes it is aliens
from space. Sometimes it is God and spirits. How do you
know there isnt anything?
Different kinds of illusion
We in Chinese folklore believe in Hu, Huang, Bai, Liu and
Hui. Hu for the fox, Huang for the weasel, Bai for the
hedgehog, Liu is the snake and Hui is the rodent.
149
So there is this Chinese belief in different demons and
spirits that haunts people, whereas these are not found
in Western cultures. In the West there is only the devil,
none of the others we have in Chinese folklore. Why do
all these animal spirits only come to China to haunt
people, and do not do so in the West? Are those that
haunt only found in China? The Westerners also have
animals like the snake, the fox and the weasel. Why
dont they have animal spirits haunting them?
So in the West people believe in God in heaven and the
devil in hell. In comparison, we Chinese believe in so many
kinds of gods and spirits. There are spirits in snakes,
tigers, and mountains, even spirits in doors. So there are
spirits of every kind of animal. And every kind of spirit
can haunt a person.
Why is this? Because they live alongside people and are
very common and they often startle someone, giving
the person a fright, so a mental impulse is registered in
the mind. When this impulse is associated with a weasel,
every time there is a concern, it is linked to the
Information of the weasel. And then it is thought to be
the weasel creating the anxiety or unease. Once you fall
sick and you consult someone, they are able to see the
weasel Information and conclude that you are haunted

150
by the weasel-spirit. But actually it was a combination of
your discomfort and your agitation.
Beliefs or convictions developed in this way. You
encounter a snake and you want to hit it but you feel
frightened. In fact this fear is a symptom of sickness.
So this sickness Information is combined with the
Information of the snake. When you feel unwell, and
someone who is able to see the snake Information in you
tells you that you have been haunted by the snake-spirit.
Have you heard of someone haunted by a Panda spirit?
Most have never seen a Panda in person, have only seen
pictures and they look cute. There is no Information of
fear associated with the Panda. Only those animals that
are encountered, and where past associations of fright
or unhealthy Information have been registered in the
mind, have been blamed for having spirits that haunt
people.
So I hope that you will treat this topic conscientiously.
Go past zhen wang xiang gong
You should use yishi to break all these superstitions
associated with qigong. You are able to diagnose
151
illnesses, you are able to foretell future events, you can
manipulate objects at a distance, you can see things at a
distance; all these are your own abilities, they are real
abilities not from somewhere else.
To be stuck at this level is akin to the story of Xi You
Ji back at the place where the Monkey God was before
setting off with the rest to fetch the scriptures. You
would be much the same as ordinary people except for
being able to foretell future events and diagnose
illnesses and thus branded as a hero by ordinary people.
You couldnt go further.
But if you are able to surmount the illusion and accept
that it is your own ability and continue to train in that
direction, only then can you progress upwards step by
step. So the level below zhen wang xiang gong is
considered to be low-level achievement.
I shall give you two examples. Those who have gone
beyond this I shall not mention here.
A couple unable to advance
There were several at Shi Jia Zhuang who went through
this stage. Two years ago there was a husband and wife
152
couple. Originally their educational level was not high,
but then they became able to speak and sing poetically.
They spoke poetically in sentences of four words or five

words. Whatever they said was like poetry. It was

pretty impressive. If they started with a four-word
sentence, they could continue the conversation with four
word sentences all the way. The same with five-word
sentences, all the way the same. With only a little
education, how could they have done that?
I was conducting the class and they were below and
afterwards they came up and said to me that during the
class they had been deliberately sending opposing qi to
me. I said I was not aware of it. I had conducted the
finger lengthening experiment. I was sending qi to have
the fingers grow longer, so they said they were sending
qi to oppose mine, to have the fingers not grow longer,
sending opposing qi. I said I was not aware of that. They
didnt believe, they thought I should know.
I said, You have helped me. They said, We havent. they had intended to oppose me. I said, I dont think
that way. It does not matter what you think. I rotate
the qi and your qi coming straight to me will be pulled
into my rotation, adding strength to it. Oh, I have
helped you in the rotation? I said, Yes. Originally the
effect was not great, but with your help it became much
153
stronger. I push from this way and you come straight at
me, your qi is caught and added into my rotation. You
have helped me, I must thank you.
Many people try to sabotage us when we build the
qifield, but we dont receive it as sabotage; rather, we
add the power to our cause and it becomes part of our qi
rotation, rotating together. So in Zhineng Qigong we do
not have the thought that they are opposing us but
instead thank them openly for their help regardless of
whether their intention was to help or not. If you see
them opposing you and you oppose them in return, then
that would be bad, you cancel each other out and the
result will not be good. However, if you receive their qi
into your rotation it will no longer be opposing you but
helping you instead, so it is appropriate for you to thank
them.
So I asked them, What work do they do? They didnt
dare answer qigong but said they also deal with healing. I
asked them who their teacher was. They said their
teacher was at the bottom of the third pillar of the
Cang Jiang bridge. When they said that I understood, so
I said, Is your teacher a dragon, a snake or a crab?
They said, We havent seen so far. He said the teacher
came to them whenever they started training, to teach
them. How long has that been? They said almost ten

154
years. I said, This is an illusion, it is zhen wang xiang
gong. The ability is yours. Dont bother with that,
practice on your own, but they didnt believe me.
So last year he got a message from his teacher saying
that I was in trouble with my practice, that I was in
Beijing practicing and would not receive anyone else. Go
and help him. Bring him some herbal eggs for him to eat
daily; that will help him get past his hurdle. So he
travelled from Anhui to Beijing with the eggs. He talked
with the chief of the Beijing training post and told him
about the eggs, and so the chief understood. The chief
told him that I was not in Beijing, but he insisted that I
was in Beijing because his teacher said so. Actually I
was in Wuhan conducting a class. This shows that zhen
wang xiang gong is unreliable. If the teacher were so
powerful, he should have known that I was nearer his
residence.
So this tells you that you have to go past zhen wang
xiang gong; otherwise, if there is a qi field that
interferes with you, your power will be lost. If you meet
people who are slightly above you, they can neutralise
you easily. Achievement at the zhen wang xiang gong
level is actually very small and can be wiped out easily.
155
I hope that you achieve a proper understanding
regarding this hurdle of zhen wang xiang gong so that
you can overcome it and able to progress even further
with your practice.
So here I shall end the lecture on using yishi. Thank you.
156
Notes
157
DESTINY QIGONG
Our Publishing Mission:
To make available publications that encourage the inner
journey to discover the mystery of life, coming to a
place of peace and joy of being that expresses what we
truly are.
DESTINY QIGONG
10 Dover Rise, #14-04,
Heritage View
Singapore 138680
www.QigongHealingTreatment.com
Email: sml_lau@yahoo.com
Distributors:
Chi Neng Institute Europe
www.chineng.eu

Email: info@chineng.eu
Chi Neng Institute The Netherlands
www.chineng.nl
Email: info@chineng.nl
Chi Neng Institute Sweden
www.chineng.se
158
Email: info@chineng.se
Chi Neng Institute Belgium
www.chineng.be
Email: info@chineng.be
Chi Neng Institute Great Britain
www.chineng.co.uk
Email: info@chineng.co.uk
Chi Neng Institute Germany
www.chineng.de
Email: info@chineng.de
Chi Neng Institute Norway
www.chineng.no
Email: info@chineng.no
Chi Healing Center (USA)
www.chicenter.com
Email: admin@chicenter.com
Zhineng Qigong Trust (New Zealand)
www.qigongtrust.org.nz
Email: patricia@qigongtrust.org.nz
Hungary
Email: totisz@mail.euroexpert.hu
159
I found "Using Yishi" to be awesome! I've been fortunate to train
with a number of great Qigong people and found the approach to
writing to be very refreshing. As a matter of fact, I could not put it
down after getting started.
The direct, easy to read manner in which it was written, is to be
applauded. The focus on empowering the practitioner, training
simplicity and the demystification of a topic (that often gets
overcomplicated) makes this work a true classic.
- William Rowe, M.Ed, USA, QigongGuide.com
In front of you is a magnificent presentation by Samuel Lau of a
lecture given by Dr. Pang, originator of Zhineng Qigong. It is
literally magnificent because by truly absorbing the content of this
lecture, you will be able to magnify - to enlarge - your results in
Zhineng Qigong. And this will be regardless of your current level, it
will be so for beginners and more advanced practitioners alike.
Study this book over and over again and ponder it in your daily life,
it will transform your ability in Zhineng Qigong to the extent that
you make it part of your being. With this book Samuel Lau has given
the non-Chinese part of the community of Zhineng Qigong access to

a profound essential of Zhineng Qigong. This is a magnificent gift to

us all.
- Donatus Roobeek, ZQ teacher, United Kingdom
I am very grateful to Samuel Lau for making the original lectures
given by Pang Laoshi finally available to the West. Pang Laoshi gives
us a straightforward approach with many real life examples and
humour. He makes us aware of the great importance of conscious
use of the mind. Through watching the DVD and reading the book
over and over again I hope you will be inspired to walk the path of
self-knowledge. By doing so you will develop your potential and enjoy
life to its fullest.
- Patricia van Walstijn, Director, Chi Neng Institute Europe
160
To me the reading was a deepening experience
- Emilie Koolen, ZQ teacher, Holland
Firstly I would like to express my deepest respect and gratitude to
Pang Laoshi for sharing his wisdom, insight, skill and deep
understanding and for giving us Zhineng Qigong. To me one of the
highest goals in life is to really knowing the true self, being true to
the self and discovering the "Buddha nature" inside. I believe that
Zhineng Qigong provides the keys with which we can unlock the
doors to our inner realm. We have so much to be unleashed and so
much unused potential waiting to be tapped. Furthermore I am very
grateful to Samuel Lau for making Pang Laoshi's work available to
the western world. This is very important and crucial. The timing
could not be better. Using Yishi is such an important part of deep
practice and without it I feel we are missing the point and not
getting the results which we could achieve. I hope this work will
touch and inspire many practitioners so that they will be able to
transform themselves and their lives and blossom to full potential,
so we can ultimately change the world into a better place.
- Annelot Lensing, ZQ teacher, Holland
It was a strange feeling to read this book. It was like Dr. Pang Ming
talking especially to me, so I should fight down my problems.
Reading it I felt like I was there in the famous Zhineng Qigong
Centre listening to the lectureTranslating and editing Pang Laoshis
lectures is a great contribution to international esoteric literature.
We in the West can get from Eastern wisdom only what is published
in EnglishSamuel Laus English translation and editing of Using
Yishi is a present for me, and will be a present for Hungarian
readers, too.
- Andras Totisz,Qigong Teacher and Author, Hungary
161