Research into Qigong Psychic Abilities

Extracts translated from Mandarin (with the author's written permission) from the Chinese best seller ‘The Great Masters of Qigong'.  Written by Ke Yunlu - writer, philosopher and Qigong promoter.  Ke Yunlu is the writer of at least 20 books on Qigong.  This book is based on fact and only names and places have been changed.

Professor Xia Shang, a renowned physicist from Beijing, for years used to suffer from many different diseases. After practicing Qigong for some time, he gained good health and decided not only to keep practicing but to scientifically research it.  The following are some examples of his research into psychic abilities developed by practicing Qigong.

One day he invited other reputable scientists, magazine and newspaper editors and journalists, influential politicians, writers, philosophers and artists to witness a series of scientific experiments involving high-level Qigong masters. 

These experiments have been conducted over the last few years and that day was more like an overall presentation of the results achieved.  The idea was to bring the two worlds closer to each other by, once and for all, proving that psychic abilities (and other so called paranormal / supernatural phenomena) do exist, can be performed on demand and can be measured with instruments. 

Not only will the influential people add credibility to the experiment, but they will also spread the word among their colleagues and broader communities - breaking a lot of barriers and opening a path to more studies, leading to the eventual scientific explanation of Qigong and psychic abilities.

The response was overwhelming.  The hall of professor Xia's research institute was full of people.  He greeted everyone and gave them a short introductory speech.

He said, "The research into psychic abilities had started long ago in many countries.  We started quite late and our equipment is not as advanced.  But we do have something that is precious and advanced.  We have many high-level masters of Qigong, which is very rare in the countries that are advanced in research of these abilities.  Another thing that we have is historical records about Qigong and psychic abilities.  We may have started late but we are ahead in many other ways.  With regards to research, it must be based on fact.  Today, I will provide many facts."

He introduced each classification of psychic abilities one by one.

"I have come across many paranormal abilities that I have classified under the following 15 groups:

1. Supernatural sensitivity and supernatural intellect

Supernatural sensitivity includes: supernatural sight, supernatural hearing, supernatural smell, supernatural taste and supernatural touch.

Supernatural intellect includes: supernatural memory, supernatural calculating abilities, etc.

The average person has the normal 5 senses, however a person that has supernatural sensitivity has a much higher degree of the senses.  Please have a look at some examples of some supernatural sensitive people that are on stage."

The first man to come up on stage was a slim middle aged male with a smiley face.  He had the ability to calculate extremely difficult mathematical equations.  The professor invited the audience to ask the man any difficult equations they liked, whilst he competed with a man who was calculating the answers by computer.  There were about 20 different equations coming from the audience including additions, subtractions, divisions, multiplication etc. of whole numbers, decimal points and fractions.  He would calculate them accurately and quicker than the computer.  The last one he calculated was 625 to the power of 9.  He worked it out in 10 seconds and the answer was 14,551,915,228,336,851,806,640,625 which was much faster than the lady who was using the computer.  Everyone was stunned as they applauded him.  He bowed modestly. 

The next example to come to the stage was a teenager who was able to count the number of strokes of Chinese characters within a split of a second.  No matter how complex the characters were, all he had to do was glance at the character and he could automatically conger up the answer.  A lot of the characters he was asked to decipher were very unusual complex ones. 

Whoever wanted to test him would write their chosen test characters on a piece of paper.  He would glance at it for a second and call out the answer with 100% accuracy.   I wondered if he learnt the characters by heart, but then again how can he guess at a second's glance the very unusual and very seldom used characters that people were finding from the dictionary?  Plus there are about 60,000 characters, how could he learn them all?  Most characters are up to 30 odd strokes each.   Among those who submitted the characters were making up their own that consisted of 70 plus strokes, but that did not faze him. 

The next thing the professor began to introduce was

2. "Paranormal Physiological Abilities":

  "These abilities are often seen in Ying Qigong or Hard Styles of Qigong, such as breaking stones with their bare hands or head (Iron Palm, Iron Head), bending iron bars, pulling a car with one's hair, pulling a train carriage with their teeth, then the so called Iron Shirt technique where the body is so resilient that it can withstand any direct hard blows, kicks and punches without feeling any pain etc."

A short but strong Qigong master walked up on stage wearing a wide belt and bowed to the audience.  Then another man offered him a heated cast iron sword that he held with a pair of tongs.

The Qigong master proceeded to take it off him with his bare hands and touched the red hot iron sword with his tongue several times.  When he did it, the audience heard the sizzle of his tongue on the sword and they felt as though their tongues had been singed.

The professor asked, "Is there anyone with any injuries, back or leg pains?"

A plumpish gentleman from the audience raised his arm and said that he had an injured forearm.  The professor asked him up to the stage and the Qigong master asked him to roll up his sleeve.  As the man did so, the Qigong master licked the sword a few times and then blew on the man's forearm several times.

"How do you feel?" he asked the man.

The man touched and moved his arm around and confessed that his arm felt warm and free of pain suddenly.  The audience applauded and at the end of the performance the sword was placed into a bucket of water.  The water sputtered, as it evaporated away instantly.

The professor thanked the master and continued.

 "The fine line between psychic abilities and non-psychic abilities is not always clear.  For example, a person with paranormal calculating abilities, a person who breaks stones with his head, hammering a nail into a piece of wood with his palm and similar abilities do not count as psychic abilities.  That's why, to differentiate, I call them supernatural abilities.  But now we are about to see definite psychic abilities." 

3. Bigu (spontaneous fasting)

When people practice Qigong and, as a result, they spontaneously stop food intake for weeks, months or even years, this is known as Bigu (in Qigong terminology).  The audience was brought into a lab.  In the lab, there was a room made of glass and inside this glass room was a bed, table, chair, bookshelf and a bathroom.  A young girl with fair complexion sitting in this room smiled shyly at them.  She had been fasting for 73 days.  Everyday she would only drink 20 mls of water.

Professor Xia described the experiment.  He said the room is completely secure with absolutely no access from the outside.  The only opening for air is a fixed ventilator, the size of a small cup.  The door was locked from the outside and carried one dozen paper strip seals, each one belonging to a different institution keeping close watch of the experiment.  One of the seals carried the date of when the experiment began (73 days ago).  There were eight people keeping watch of the young girl, keeping shifts 2 at a time.

At that stage there were 2 lab assistants keeping watch.  They gave a brief up to date report. Then the audience was given the chance to ask the girl in the glass room some questions.  They asked if she felt OK.  The girl smiled and replied she felt fine.  Another person asked, "What do you do everyday?"  She pointed to the bookshelf hosting many books and magazines and to a television in the corner.

The professor said, "If there is anyone who is not convinced enough, you are welcome to come and join in as an independent observer, her plan is to continue for another 100 days." 

4. Paranormal Senses

The professor explained: "Ordinary people do not posses these extra senses at all. They include the following:

‘X-ray Vision' or the paranormal ability to see through solid objects as if they were transparent. For example seeing inner organs inside the body, seeing pictures or objects behind the wall, underground etc.

‘Magnifying Vision' or the paranormal ability to not only see through objects but to magnify and clearly see very small images or objects.  For example not only seeing inner organs inside the human body but also seeing each individual cell that makes up that organ.

‘Remote Vision' or the paranormal ability to see remote objects as if they were in front of them e.g. seeing what's happening in another city, country or even on another planet.

These and many other abilities are all classified as Paranormal Senses.  Now, let's look at the following demonstration."

A Qigong master with straight eyebrows and thin eyes demonstrated his X-ray Vision.  He checked some volunteers who come forward with his X-ray Vision for any health problems.  After he checked each person, they then went to be X-rayed in the more common way (via modern technology).  Each of his results matched those of the X-ray machine's. 

The next demonstration this master performed was Remote Vision.  He was able to see a person's family members even though they may be in another place or country.

A chubby elderly company manager steps forward with a smile on his face and asks, "Could you tell me what my wife is doing right now?" (this demonstration was happening in Beijing and this man's wife was 2,000 km away in Canton at the time).  The master squinted and remained silent for a moment, opened his eyes and confidently said, "She is scolding your daughter." 

The chubby company manager, shook his head and said smiling, "That can't be right, my daughter is in Hong Kong at the moment."  The professor suggested they check the facts.  They immediately called the man's home in Canton and discovered that the master's information was correct.  His daughter had unexpectedly arrived home from Hong Kong that day.  The man was stunned along with the rest of the audience.

The professor explained that this is the best way to test a master, when the subject has no knowledge of the event in question.  In this case, if the man definitely knew what his wife was doing at that instant, then there could be a possibility that the master would use telepathy instead of remote sight. 

5. Reading Minds (Telepathy)

A 13 year old boy who possessed the paranormal ability of Reading Minds came to the stage appearing slightly jittery.  The experiment involved 100 cards with Chinese characters on them that had been spread out face up in a separate room.  The boy was on stage waiting to be tested.  There were plenty of volunteers waiting to test him.  The volunteers walked into the room with the cards, two at a time having one go each.  One person would look at a card and keep it in mind.  The boy would name the card chosen, then the volunteer would pick up the card and show the audience.  He proved his ability over and over and once again the crowd were amazed.

6. The effect of transmitting chi energy from one person to another

A famous Lotus Qigong master by the name of Zhao Pu-ti was invited to perform the ability of affecting people by transmitting chi energy.  Even though he was still quite young, he was a great Qigong master with a very calm and confident nature.  He smiled at everyone with the face of a Buddha.

The professor introduced the next topic, "The master will demonstrate how he can change each and everyone's heartbeat in the room so that everyone may experience his ability.   If anyone suffers from any heart disease, please don't be alarmed, this experiment is 100% safe.  It can do no damage and in fact may be beneficial to those suffering from heart disease.  If anyone is concerned about what is about to occur please raise your hand and you may be excluded from the demonstration."

The atmosphere became very lively.  The professor asked the audience to check their pulses for the average beats per minute.  The room went silent as everyone checked their pulses.  "Now Lotus Qigong master Zhao will use his energy to alter everyone's pulses.  Please stay still."

Master Zhao sat on stage in full lotus, closed his eyes as his hands formed the praying position and repeated a mantra.  Then he threw both his hands towards the audience abruptly like a magician would.  Then he asked them to check their pulses again.  The audience was surprised to find their pulse had increased by 20 beats compared to their previous pulse reading.  Some of the audience members held their chest and worried over their unusual heart palpitations. 

Master Zhao smiled from the stage innocently and said, "All please be seated, I guarantee there is no harm done.  Now I will continue".

After a second chi energy projection, everybody checked their pulses again and were shocked yet again.  This time the audience's pulse reading was 20 less than their usual pulse rate.

The professor summarised that there was a 40 beat difference between the first and second pulse reading and then asked the audience if they believed that chi energy could impact others.

Then master Zhao performed a technique literally translated to be "Fixing Body" which temporarily immobilizes another person.  All he did was to point at someone and they were paralysed.  Quite a few volunteers from the audience came up to the stage to see if he could immobilise them.  They could not move or speak, then he waved his arms at them again and they were able to move again. 

"Fixing Body" was frequently mentioned in Chinese myth and legend.  Seeing these demonstrations, made many people speculate that there had to be something in them.

(For more information regarding the Research into Qigong Psychic Abilities, please refer to Qigong Chinese Health magazine - issue 4, page 22-25 or click here)