B.K. Frantzis book on Chi Gung

I just picked up in the local second-hand bookstore a work called Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body (1993). My first impression is that this contains, in concentrated form, a great deal of information which most other authors in this general subject area (energetic cultivation) are unaware of. It also has some fascinating anecdotes about the author's experiences in Japan and China, in the latter case, Frantzis claims, as the first Westerner to gain acceptance in the mainland Chinese Taoist culture, traditionally secretive and still closed to most Western observation. This followed many years of study in Japan, which proved to be merely a foundation for the more advanced teachings available in China (but rapidly dying out even there).

To take just one example, here, from the introduction, is a story about the founder of the Japanese martial art, Aikido:

[Frantzis] had the good fortune—from 1967 to 1969—to study with the founder of aikido, Morihei Ueshiba. Ueshiba was an extraordinary man, one who had unmistakably reached an advanced level of chi development. During the last few months of his life, too weak to walk, he was carried into the dojo (practice hall). Even in this condition, he was able to stand up and suddenly muster the energy to throw his strongest students as if they were rag dolls. After practice, he would again be carried back to his bed.

(But, the book notes, Ueshiba apparently failed to pass on this level of ability to any of his students.) . . . CONTINUE

Frantzis also seems to have a certain amount of respect for the results achievable by the Chinese political system. To deal with the crisis in the Chinese medical system following the loss of most of the country's medical personnel after the revolution, he says,

What the government did was this: they told the top Tai Chi teachers that they must design Tai Chi and Chi Gung programs for the health of the general population. Many of these masters wanted to keep their secrets to themselves, so their families could retain their "patents." It has been said that the government insisted that they make their secrets public, or face the extermination of their families down to the last child or relative. Given traditional Chinese family values, this would have loosened things up significantly . . . . The system worked. Tai Chi and Chi Gung managed to keep health matters as stable as they could be kept given the poor sanitation and starvation diet most lived with . . .

Tai Chi and Chi Gung are the only internal energy systems that have actually worked for large masses of a population. Yoga practitioners never really exceeded one percent of India's population. The ancient Greek mystery schools never extended to more than one-tenth of one percent of the Greek population.

(It is unclear what census data the last two figures would derive from, but the general point seems valid.)