Walking Qigong

The Anti-Cancer Qigong

WHAT!?  Walking Qigong?  Yeah man, why not?  If there are standing, sitting, sleeping, and fragrant Qigong styles, why not a walking one?  And let me tell you, it is one of the best styles of Qigong for Cancer and many other serious conditions, such as Leukemia, AIDS, Systemic Lupus, Cirrhosis of the Liver, to name a few. 

But how can it be, when there is no cure for Cancer, AIDS and the many other conditions they claim Walking Qigong can treat?  Well, that's exactly how most doctors (among them many experienced oncologists) reacted when their patients who they'd given only months to live, recovered completely, and now some 5, 10 or 20 years later are very much alive and well!  All we know is that they keep telling us there is no cure and all we do is write about the facts.  Those who are happy to check the facts have nothing to lose, and those who would rather die, believing there is nothing else out there, are welcome to do so.

Walking Qigong was first introduced in the early 70's by a female Qigong master by the name of Guo Lin.  Since then, the number of practitioners slowly grew, and it became one of the first styles to be practiced in large groups throughout China.  It was also one of the first styles of Qigong to be scientifically researched, its values medically proven and it has been recognised on many different levels.

It started out as humbly being something that some very desperate cancer patients took up as their last resort, after they had lost all other hope.  Encouraged by the initial results, they persevered until well on the recovery or, in some cases, even the complete disappearance of their disease.  Word of mouth and newspaper reports made more people aware of the positive results Walking Qigong brings, thus attracting more cancer patients to learn this amazing technique.  More practitioners, more successful cases, more puzzled doctors' faces.  It all lead to attracting scientists to conduct some serious experiments.  The studies confirmed amazing results, not only for cancer, but for many other diseases as well. 

Medical magazines, books, popular magazines, radio and TV programs did all the rest.  In less than ten years it became one of the most established Qigong styles with several million practitioners.  At one stage there was a TV program completely dedicated to Walking Qigong, where they not only introduced its benefits, but also taught the audience how to practice it at home.  The program ran for months and was repeated several times.  The response was overwhelming.

Faced with the growing number of cancer cases that had improved after practicing Walking Qigong, many doctors realised there is something in it and it changed their attitude.  Some stopped acting like "stunned mullets" every time they came across another success story, some recommended it to their patients, some learnt it themselves and taught their own patients and some, for whatever reason unhappy with the situation, joined the hardcore conservative streamline that, without even checking the facts, tried to rubbish it by using the same old approach of it "not being scientific".

But that did not stop the development of Walking Qigong.  It did however, turn many people against such doctors and their arrogance.  The next thing that happened was the opening of the Walking Qigong hospital in one of the northern suburbs of Beijing in the late 80's.  Before that, Walking Qigong was always taught in the parks by volunteers, most of them ex-cancer patients.  Some influential people and open minded doctors came up with the idea of having a central place where a combination of Walking Qigong, traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine could be administered, using Walking Qigong as the main method of treatment.  The patients would be hospitalised the same as any other "normal" hospital.  They would be regularly examined, their progress monitored and they would accept all other necessary forms of treatment, including Chinese herbs and western drugs.

Walking Qigong's founder never suggested avoiding other forms of treatment, including surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.  On the contrary, for the best results she suggested strongly using everything there is to slow down a disease or speed up recovery.  Even so, many patients, for all kinds of reasons, only relied on Walking Qigong and had excellent results too.  Many of them, in the process of treating cancer, got rid of other ailments such as asthma, migraine, ulcers, sight problems, or had their negative side effects caused by western medical treatments subside or completely disappear.

One thing that strikes those who first come to a Walking Qigong group is the amazing optimism that radiates from each and every member.  When they start talking about where they came from, you fully understand why.  Most were desperate and scared to death of being told their life expectancy was only months.  Among them, many suffering terribly, had pains, vomiting, diarrhea and similar.  Such positive atmosphere means a lot to newcomers, especially when they discover how many people, with conditions exactly like their own (or in some cases even more severe than theirs) have completely recovered.  It instantly picks them up.  Since the majority techniques of Walking Qigong should be practiced in the morning and out in the fresh air, most can't wait for the morning so they can start practicing and feel the results throughout the day. 

Still, despite the fact that Walking Qigong showed definite healing results on millions of its practitioners in the last thirty years, it is not a cure all therapy.  There is a lot of commitment required and strict rules to be followed.  But it's quite enjoyable and easy to do.  Numerous testimonials that had medical examinations attached to them were regularly collected from many of the known Walking Qigong "stations" across China and published in books for the members to read and in magazines for the public.

Among many cases, the following tests (below) frequently showed huge improvements, time and time again:

There were some remarkable cases where cancer patients had been opened up in order to be operated on their inner organ(s) but then, due to cancer being widespread throughout the whole interior, immediately closed without intervention.  Yet after they used Walking Qigong as their last resort and redid the tests, they showed no traces of cancer (see Qigong Chinese Health issue 4, case history on page 14 or click here).

Of course, because Walking Qigong treats the disease, this means all the associated symptoms will disappear along with it.  Such as nausea, poor appetite, vomiting, coughing, lack of energy, indigestion, insomnia, pains.

Master Guo Lin

The Founder of Walking Qigong

Master Guo Lin, born in 1909, was not only one of the most famous female Qigong masters of the 20th century, but also a famous painter who specialised in traditional Chinese paintings.  From the early age of eight she followed her Taoist monk grandfather's teachings by learning Qigong from him, which gave her a solid Qigong foundation.  Later on, she travelled across China and studied under many other masters of Qigong before the World War II came.  During the war there was a period of unrest, poverty, fear and famine.  Guo Lin had stopped her Qigong practices and, like most of the world, was trying to survive the war.   All the trauma and suffering during the war, lead to her getting sick and in 1949 was diagnosed with cervical cancer.  She followed orthodox medical treatments by having a hysterectomy and then got back into her traditional forms of Qigong whilst undergoing chemotherapy and radiation. She had undergone an overall number of seven operations within ten years.  Even though Guo Lin had made some progress, she'd realised she was not completely getting rid of her stubborn disease.

After her last operation, which involved removing part of her bladder, she felt she needed to make some modifications to her traditional Qigong forms in order to cure her condition.  Following her extraordinary intuition and using her wealth of Qigong knowledge, she gradually developed a Qigong style to effectively combat cancer.  She called it "The New Qigong" and after she died (of natural causes, many years later) it became known as "Guo Lin Qigong" or, because the main part of the practice consists of walking, it's also known as Walking Qigong.

Firstly, she applied a so-called "breathing like the wind" technique, for hundreds of years looked upon as bad and damaging to the body.  Her genius could see that it may be bad for the average person, but for those who suffer from cancer, not only is it not damaging, but it is most beneficial.

Secondly, when developing her Qigong, she introduced the concept of focusing the mind on things outside the body rather than within the body, like you would commonly do with most other styles.

Thirdly, she tailor made the style to suit each person's needs and condition.  For example, the movements for men differ from those of women.  People with strong as opposed to weak constitutions, people with high blood pressure as opposed to low blood pressure would all practice slightly different movements.

She created a simpler, safer and more powerful style that can not only treat many common diseases but combat the most severe ones like cancer.  It took her ten years to create the style, whilst getting rid of her cancer in the meantime.  After her tests showed the all clear, she decided to help other people with similar problems.  From the early seventies, she started teaching people in the many parks of Beijing.  When her little group's results proved to be favourable, the number of new students grew.  Unfortunately, all that was happening right in the midst of the so-called "Cultural Revolution" where all the traditional practices were seen as non-communist and very frowned upon.  And of course because Qigong is a traditional practice, she got in trouble several times for it.  She was warned, criticised, sworn at, even thrown out of parks.  But neither her, nor her followers stopped practicing.  She had a daughter who tried to convince her to come to the USA, but she refused.  Despite the fact that she would have had a much more comfortable life, she wanted to stay and help her followers.

After the death of the Chinese leader Chairman Mao in 1976, the so-called "Gang of Four", who hid behind him and abused his power in many ways, were finally exposed.  The political situation in China changed for the better. Suddenly there was more freedom, more democracy, the general living standards improved.  The traditional disciplines were rediscovered and recognised.  After all the favourable changes in government, word of mouth rapidly brought Guo Lin more students.  The excellent results achieved, attracted many journalists of popular papers and magazines to write about her and her students.  People from other parts of China started coming to Beijing to be personally taught by Guo Lin, mostly to treat their own illnesses, but also to be trained to help others.  Not long after that, many other cities started running Walking Qigong classes in the open.  Today, there is hardly any place in China where you won't find people walking in an unusual way, whilst waving their hands about and breathing strangely.  Some walk along the streets and others in the park.  It's very much part of China's scenery.

Guo Lin became one of the most famous Qigong masters overnight.  There are hardly any Qigong magazines that did not cover Walking Qigong.  Either introducing it to their readers, explaining how or why it works, comparing its results with other types of treatment, or writing about someone's personal experience with Walking Qigong.  They did not feature Walking Qigong once or twice but they kept writing about it continuously for more than 30 years.   There are many books written about it too, some translated it into other languages such as English, Japanese, Korean and French.  Many foreigners came to China to learn it.  Among them a PhD of Physics from Texas' Cancer Research Institute who combined his institute's findings with Guo Lin's experience into a document that was later published in many books about Walking Qigong stating that:

1. Cancer cells lack oxygen, therefore many normal functions are interfered with, causing uncontrolled growths to manifest.  So if there is a lot of oxygen supplied, it can stop the growth and eventually kill the cancer cells.  Therefore by practicing Walking Qigong and its special breathing techniques where huge quantities of oxygen are inhaled it scientifically supports its success in treating the cancer.

2. It has been proven that our emotional state affects the physiological functions of our organs and systems.  A lot of studies have shown that many cancer patients survived trauma prior to getting the disease or are prone to depression, anxiety, worries, pessimism, had been mistreated and so on.  They found that if the emotional state of a cancer patient changes to a more positive one, the cancer growth slows down.  Walking Qigong stresses (and practically demonstrates) the importance of a strong belief in being able to conquer the cancer by regular practice, as well as staying calm, relaxed and not be affected by the environment at all times, especially during practice.

3. The bio-electromagnetic field of cancer tissue is not the same as normal body tissue, the bio-voltage of cancer cells is much lower than that of normal body tissue.  For example, with liver cancer, the bio-voltage of the cancer part of the liver is negatively charged similar to the negative pole of a battery.  In Texas, magnetic field therapy was tested on animals to treat cancer and it was proved to be very successful.  It is common knowledge in China that regular practice of Qigong strengthens the Chi (life energy) and it has been proven many times that chi energy, among other things, consists of an electromagnetic field*.   Therefore, again, by practicing Walking Qigong, it increases one's electromagnetic field.

By the mid-eighties it was roughly estimated that there were more than 1 million people practicing Walking Qigong in China.  There were also many Walking Qigong institutions, associations, health resorts and hospitals established.  The biggest hospital was in Beijing and the biggest health resort in Beidaihe , on the coast of Hebei Province, teaching beginners as well as advanced practitioners and recruiting them to become certified coaches of Walking Qigong.

Guo Lin kept teaching Walking Qigong and giving lectures on the theory behind it until the last days of her life.  She was very sought after and travelled across China many times.  Unfortunately, being that active at her age often lead to physical and mental exhaustion.  The many operations she had, being mistreated during the war, subjected to radiation and chemotherapy, all contributed to shortening her life span.  Guo Lin passed away in 1984, 35 years after she was diagnosed with cancer and she died of natural causes.  She left a great legacy to the world and many people have her to thank for their lives.

* Chi energy is actually a completely different kind of matter to all the ones that we know of so it would probably be more appropriate to say that all the research, so far, is indicating that the mixture of electromagnetic field, infra red light, ultraviolet light, even the traces of visible light, alpha, beta or gamma rays etc only signifies the presence of chi energy but what it really is, is still a mystery.

If you would like to be taught "Walking Qigong" online, please click here.

Further reading: