The Master, Part 2

The Healing Art of Qi Gong : Ancient Wisdom from a Modern Master
by Master Hong Liu, Paul Perry

(Page 2 of 4)

Word of his visit got around, and on the day of the appointment, the house began to fill with people. Not only did medical doctors show up, but also our neighbors and patients of Master Kwan. By the time the mayor arrived, there was a large group of spectators filling the living room.

At the appointed hour, three official cars arrived in back of the house. Without knocking, four bodyguards walked through the door and began searching the residence. When they saw that the living room was full of spectators, they demanded that everyone clear out. Master Kwan refused.

"You don't dare tell my people to leave," he said. "These are my invited guests."

The bodyguards began to argue, but Master Kwan dug in his heels. The master had a mind of his own, a trait not common among the Chinese people in those days. As he argued with the government bodyguards, everyone in the room became very quiet and nervous. Still Master Kwan persevered.

"If these people cannot stay, then your boss cannot come in and be treated," shouted Master Kwan. He had been jailed during the Cultural Revolution and had a sincere dislike of the police, even those in the glorified form of bodyguards. He opposed their authority whenever he could.

"Why don't you leave?" he shouted. "Then there would be more room than we would know what to do with."

Before the bodyguards could respond to this insult, the mayor walked into the room. He was an enormous man who practically filled the doorway when he appeared. It was rare in China to see someone who was so heavy, and everyone gaped openly at his girth.

At first he was surprised to see so many people. Then he began to smile. He told my mother that he was honored that so many of his people were interested in his well-being. He shook a few hands and waved to people in the back of the room and remarked about how cold it had been that winter in Shanghai.

Master Kwan had him sit down and they began to chat. Although I counted more than fifty people in the room, not a sound was uttered as the two talked.

What happened over the course of their conversation was amazing.

Almost as soon as the mayor sat down, he began to perspire. I noticed beads of sweat forming on his forehead and soon he took a handkerchief out of his pocket and was wiping it over his face. How strange, I thought. My own forehead felt cool and it was even so cold in the room that you could see the breath of some of the people near the front door.

I turned my attention to the mayor. He was perspiring more profusely now and was even unbuttoning his shirt. As I listened to the conversation I realized that they had not even begun to address the medical condition, whatever it was, that had brought the mayor in the first place.

The treatment was supposed to take only thirty minutes. When that time had passed, however, the mayor excused himself to go to the bathroom and then returned and continued talking to Master Kwan. After forty minutes he stood up and removed his jacket, which caused a buzz in the room since it was so cold already. A few minutes later he removed his shirt, which was now damp with perspiration. Very strange, I thought. The mayor of Shanghai is sitting in a cold room with only his undershirt on and still he is perspiring!

An hour had passed and the mayor's assistants were beginning to fidget. They had scheduled only thirty minutes for the meeting and were now wondering when he would be finished. One of the assistants stepped forward and whispered to the mayor, who waved him away. "Cancel that meeting," he said. "This is too interesting."

The assistant scurried out of the room to make a telephone call and the mayor went to the bathroom for the second time.

He returned and discussion began about the theories behind Qi Gong. Master Kwan had the mayor's undivided attention. The big man sat on the chair and listened attentively to the master as he talked about the origin and uses of his healing art. As the mayor listened he was perspiring so much that my mother finally gave him a towel.

He went to the bathroom for a third time and returned. An hour and thirty minutes had passed and still no mention had been made of why the mayor had come to see Master Kwan.

The conversation continued and so did the perspiration. I did not know how the mayor could ignore such drenching perspiration, and concluded that he was so impressed with Master Kwan that he did not notice it. He looked like a man who had run a footrace.

After two hours, he went to the bathroom a fourth time. When he returned, Master Kwan stood up and bowed.

"That is the end of your treatment," he said.

"It can't be!" insisted the mayor. "I haven't told you why I came to see you!"

"I know already," insisted Master Kwan. "You came because you are so heavy. You want to lose some weight."

"That's true!" said the mayor. "How did you know?"

Everyone in the room laughed when he said this. The only ones who did not know about Master Kwan's powers of remote diagnosis were the mayor and his entourage.

"Look at what happened here," Master Kwan said, addressing the mayor. "You have been perspiring for two hours. You have gone to the bathroom four times. This will continue all day."

The mayor became very excited. He wanted to sit down and talk more, but his assistants were now demanding that he leave.

"We will talk again soon," said Master Kwan, handing the mayor his shirt.

When the big man left, Master Kwan explained that he had increased the mayor's metabolism. By speeding up all of his bodily processes, Master Kwan made sure the mayor would burn more calories and would lose weight. Doing this had caused the mayor to have diarrhea, which is why he had gone to the bathroom so many times. "That will continue for a couple of days until his body adjusts to the faster metabolism," said Master Kwan.

I could contain myself no longer. "But what did you do to change his metabolism?" I asked. "You never touched him. What did you do to make him sweat?"

Master Kwan nodded like a professor forming his thoughts.

"There are three ways to convey energy," he said. "The most direct way is through acupuncture needles. The second is by touching people in meridian spots. The third and most powerful is by using remote Qi to send the energy directly through the air. That is what I did with the mayor. As we talked, I just pointed my fingers at him and continued with the conversation. The Qi that I emitted raised his metabolism, as you could all see."

He then sat down and demonstrated the position his hands had been in when the mayor was there. His hand was resting on his thigh with his fingers together and pointed at the chair where the mayor had sat.

The next day the mayor called Master Kwan from a train. He was still perspiring and had gone to the bathroom several times that night as the master had said he would. Before he hung up he made another appointment to see the master.

Master Kwan usually said nothing about his visits to high government officials. As with all patients, their cases were considered confidential. It was not uncommon for us to be talking about some government official around the house when the master would say, "I treated him just last week," or "I have visited him and his family many times."

About the Author

Master Hong Liu became a medical doctor in China with a specialty in the treatment of cancer and an advanced degree in herbal medicine, and he is one of only a small number of Qi Gong masters in the world. He trained for thirty years with renowned Taoist and Shaolin masters, including eight years under the Qi Gong Master Kwan, and treated high-ranking Communist Party members in China. Master Liu served as a distinguished professor of Qi Gong at the Emperor's college of Traditinal Oriental Medicine in Santa Monica and Samra University of Oriental Medicine in Los Angeles, and currently maintains professional offices in suburban Los Angeles.

Paul Perry is the coauthor of three bestselling books, including Saved by the Light. He lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.