2024 Week 1: Medical & Spiritual Qigong Fundamentals 1-4 + Summer Solstice Ceremony

DISCOUNTS listed at healingtaousa.com/healing-tao-retreats/tuition-discounts

CONTACT Registrar to reserve your space with $150. deposit.
call Geoffrey at (828 808 8100

or email info.healingtaousa@earthlink.net

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Week 1: June 20 – 25, 2025 (Fri-Wed) + Summer Solstice Ceremony

1a. Medical & Spiritual Qigong Fundamentals 1-4

by Michael Winn

This short video best summarizes Michael Winn’ approach, (5 min).

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdCOmj1Tmt4

See 3 videos below on specific practices 

Note: For option “weekend only” June 16-18, 2023 (Fri. eve to Sunday 6 pm), please book  by emailing registrar or calling. Tuition is $295. This option is on “space available” basis, priority given to full week students.

There will be a Summer solstice Ceremony as part of this course. Ceremony is NOT open to the public due to space limitations. To take this retreat during the Summer Solstice is a powerful way to align your personal Energy Body with the forces flowing through Nature. Your energetic practice  will be greatly empowered with the special yang energy of summer solstice.

Qigong is the modern name for medical and spiritual exercises that are mostly known as Tai Chi in the West. The ancient name for qigong was “yangsheng”, or Nourishing Life. This retreat is open to all students, beginners up to advanced. You will gain mastery of medical and spiritual qigong /chi kung/ tai chi integrated with Taoist meditation. Great for any one seeking to release stress, heal themselves of a disease,  generate a fresh feeling of self-love, and learn how to manage your life energy. You will get a clear map of how your body-mind energetically works, and take home practical methods to better FEEL and SHAPE your Qi flow.

This course is perfect for yogis, dancers, meditators, martial or tai chi artists – anyone seeking deeper grounding in their life or an upgrade in their level of wellness. Many people have succeeded in healing chronic illness with these methods. Virtually any kind of chronic illness can be healed with qigong, as they are all caused by chi blockage. (See Testimonials below).

This retreat combines Qigong Fundamentals 1 & 2 and Internal Qi Breathing and Rooting Fundamentals 3 & 4 workshops, and thus is particularly potent. Also known as Tao Basics, it delivers to your body-mind the crown jewels of China’s medical and spiritual practices. These are the core tools you will use your entire life. Learn them well, the rest is easy. “Fundamental” does not mean for beginners only – these methods are taught with very high level theory so that each practitioner will get from it according to their own ability to absorb the Qi information/transmission.

What will you take home with you? From Qigong Fundamentals 1&2: The Inner Smile, Six Healing Sounds, & Microcosmic Orbit lay the foundation for a lifetime of clear Qi/Chi flow and radiant health. (For longer description of the Microcosmic Orbit, see below). You will learn how to talk to the vital organ spirits — the biological intelligences that control your personality and your destiny.

From Qigong Fundamentals 3&4 You will supercharge your belly-dan tien with powerful “empty force” internal chi breathing – done anywhere, standing, sitting, lying. An easy, fun form called Ocean, Sky, Great Heart Breathing: Blissful Breathing Qigong. Plus deep bone marrow breathing and rooting methods of Standing-in-Stillness Qigong that open up a connection to the “bones” of your soul and your ancestors.

The course has been evolved and refined for more than 36 years to make sure you really get the tools you need for rapid progress and profound body experience of chi flow. Winn has supercharged Mantak Chia’s original internal methods with qigong practices learned from other masters and enhanced by Winn’s development of Taoist “depth psychology”. The qigong forms get you out of your head and into your body. They also facilitate easy learning and dissolving your deep emotional and mental blocks, so you soul can navigate its highest destiny this lifetime.

You will learn the following qigong movement forms: Five Animals Do the Six Healing Sounds; Open Chi Flow in Orbit; Five Internal Chi Breathing Standing Postures to open core body channels, plus simple bone beating and breathing (without wire hitters used in Iron Shirt/Bone Marrow Nei Kung).

1. YOUTUBE video 8 min. on Five Animals & Six Healing Sounds:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsfwqHT2ca4

2. YOUTUBE video 6 min. on Microcosmic Orbit Qigong:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_pUcuL8epk

3. YOUTUBE video 5 min. on Blissful Breathing Qigong:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POL94dljq9I

This is THE Entry Level Course that is the pre-requisite for Fusion, Iron Shirt, Healing Love, Chi Nei Tsang, and the higher Kan & Li internal alchemy courses. It is taught by Michael Winn, who has over 36 years of practice — an amazing depth of experience he is eager to share with you. He is funny, wise, and skillful, a lovely experience of yin and yang styles of teaching and being in harmony. He is able to powerfully transmit these practices – the live experience is always most powerful. Students taking this course typically report a burst of energy that propels them for months or even years.

You will learn simple practices combined with advanced Taoist energy body theory and training. Even students who have studied other systems or martial arts will benefit greatly from this retreat. If you get Winn’s Medical and Spiritual Qigong Fundamentals 1&2 and 3&4 audio/video home study courses prior to the retreat, you will be ahead of the game and be able to go deeper at the retreat. You will be well positioned to move to a higher level of mastery. You will not feel bored, like you are just repeating the homestudy course – because this full week retreat is very different. It has more time to unfold, with early morning qigong and mediation plus long morning and afternoon sessions.

BONUS REBATE: If you purchase now both the Qigong Fundamentals 1-2 and 3-4 audio+video packages online or by phone (888-999-0555), or purchased them within the last year, you are eligible for $50. REBATE if you take the retreat. That is almost half your money back for the packages! If you only buy one audio-video package, you get a $25. rebate. Purpose to is to reward those students who come better prepared. Rebate is given to you at registration, and applies if you buy the package even after you register – just buy anytime before the retreat starts.

Want to know more about Qigong? Read my FAQs: https://healingtaousa.com/faq/

INNER SMILE
We learn to  smile together silently, relax from the “heart-mind” (xin) level of smiling in the body until the deeper “inner heart” or soul (ling) level of smiling spontaneously arises. I will facilitate this with a transmission of that frequency of unconditional acceptance at the soul level. This is one of the most important and simplest self-cultivation practices you can learn and apply simply to daily life. Increased peace, self-love, and acceptance of others are the reward, with secondary benefits of healing all kinds of illness that is stress-caused.

SIX HEALING SOUNDS

Learn to detox your vital organs and open up your 12 regular meridians so your energy flows more easily.

FIVE ANIMALS PLAY THE SIX HEALING SOUNDS

This is a dynamic moving form of the sitting Six Healing Sounds.

TAOIST MICRO-COSMIC ORBIT

THIS trains us to crystallize an Inner Pearl that matures into our Inner Sage and a reliable spiritual guide.

Testimonial from a Frustrated Student of “the Books”

I was introduced to Healing Tao in the 1980’s, but was unable to “make it cook’, and dropped the practice. I came back to it by reading a book by Michael Winn, but still without much success. Then I bought the tapes for Qigong Fundamentals 1,2,3,4, committed to 100 days, and was able to get the concepts and structure intellectually. I committed to go to the retreat in Summer 2013.

From the retreat I was able to really get it physically, in my body. I feel that the real beginning of my practice began with the retreat. I continue to practice almost daily, and can feel a gentle Qi flow beginning to develop along the microcosmic orbit.

I found Michael’s teaching to be understandable and comprehensive. He minds the energetic space masterfully. I don’t perceive any manipulation or mind games in his teaching. I will be back. – A.B.

FUN, Long Lasting Qi, Gained Great Friends & Self-Acceptance!

I attended Fundamentals 1-4 summer with Michael Winn. Put simply, I had FUN and learned A LOT. I’ve practiced Qi gong nearly every day for the past four months. This is my greatest treasure – the Qi had long lasting effects and motivation. I felt like I was with my brothers and sisters – we could all relate and be silly as we learned about our selves, together. I’ve made long lasting friends and support. Qi gong has a beautiful gentle way of guiding me slowly towards greater self-acceptance. I’m very thankful these practices, and I hope one day to teach others! – Sinead Corrigan, Chapel Hill, NC

MORE DETAILS: WHAT IS TAUGHT AT QIGONG FUNDAMENTALS RETREAT

Qigong (Chi Kung) Fundamentals 2:

Open Chi Flow in the Micro-Cosmic Orbit (Qigong Form)

Learn the ancient Tao secrets of circulating the internal golden light (chi, or qi) up the spine and down the body’s front channel. This famous “Embryonic Breathing” or “MicroCosmic orbit” meditation stops energy leaks, balances all your meridians and energy centers into a single “wheel of chi” or unified chakra. This is the safest method to open your kundalini’s warm current and activate the healing power of your “inner elixir”. It balances the seemingly polarized forces of Heaven and Earth, male and female, yang and yin, and thereby creates a vessel for the hidden third force of the Tao, the Original Chi (yuan chi).

This method of circulating chi in the Micro-Cosmic orbit is so famous that many different techniques have been developed over the millennia to make it easier for the adept to develop this harmonious yin-yang chi flow. I give the ten major methods I have found, integrated into a single guided meditation. From this you can choose the technique(s) most suited to you and develop them further. I explain the deep relationship between the Orbit and the Taoist alchemy theory of jing-chi-shen-wu (essence – energy – intelligence – emptiness).

Red Dragon Spinning Pearl Orbit – Secret Mt. Wudang Method

Taoism’s most famous meditation is the Micro-cosmic Orbit, with history over 2000 years. In 1982 I wrote for Mantak Chia the first book on the Orbit method in the West (Awaken Healing Energy of the Tao). Over the last 36 years, I tested dozens of other Orbit techniques I found on 20 trips to China or from inviting top Taoists to teach at my summer retreat program.

ONE method is so clearly superior, I stopped using all other Orbit techniques. By strict tradition of Mt. Wudang, this technique is shared only by Oral Transmission to sincere adepts. There is no DVD nor book about it. This has kept it an “open secret”. How is it superior to other Orbit methods?

• Ordinary Orbit methods circulate Qi (Chi) in front chest and spine channels. Red Dragon Orbit mixes blood (jing) and Qi. It penetrates deeper into our body, causing more powerful transformation on many levels.

• It has greater health benefit in healing chronic illness and breaking up tumors. It is better at dysfunctional psychic patterns known as “our resistance”.

• After spinning pearl is activated, it automatically circulates of its own internal power.

Less effort = greater efficiency. Other methods are driven by conscious mind intent – the Orbit stops flowing when our mind shifts attention elsewhere.

• Dragon spirits from deep earth may be invited into the spinning pearl to enhance its power. This aligns our body with planetary Energy Body. Transmission of this practice will be shared.

• Red Dragon method is better preparation for Tao inner alchemy. It strengthens our ability to create and sustain a Pearl. Pearl is our soul vessel of alchemical transformation – the essence that will survive our physical death.

• Spinning Pearl Orbit emulates the spinning of planet earth, the sun, and galactic spin. This opens up and deepens our resonance with cosmic Qi flow. We feel deeper natural support.

• This Orbit method balancing all our meridians (Qi) with our ancestors (blood) and our three dantian energy centers. Our personal Energy Body becomes a flowing “wheel of spinning Chi / Qi”. This alchemically quickens our Jing-Qi-Shen-Wu transformations.

I personally have made three trips to Mt. Wudang, the mystical mountain in central China from which many Taoist martial and meditative arts originate. It was made famous by the film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I met an old Taoist living in a cave who was using this Orbit method to sustain his longevity.

The orbital flow of Qi (Chi) is the safest method to open our kundalini. Yogic kundalini methods in India activate only the spinal-fire channel, and can result in dangerous psychic imbalances. This Taoist Orbit method is the most effective way I’ve found to harmonize all Yin-Yang polar forces. It balances Heaven-Earth, male-female, blood-Qi, fire and water within our Energy Body.

This method helps our Original Spirit (Yuan Shen) to more quickly emerge from our deep subconscious and become integrated into our personality (= Self-realization).

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This course integrates movement and meditation into one. You will enjoy five simple qigong movements that will open chi flow in your orbit and give you many other healing benefits of China’s “miracle exercise”. This custom qigong form I developed over 25 years of practice with many masters.

I developed this qigong form (Open Chi Flow in the Orbit) after observing that westerners have such powerful “monkey minds” that they use too much force/effort in meditating upon the pathways of the orbit. This would create frustration and sense of failure, for the chi would stop flowing in the orbit after they ceased their mental effort. Using qigong movements to open the orbit BYPASSES the ego mind and its struggles and gets the chi flowing at a deeper level than western type visualization by the mental body can achieve.

I love this qigong form. It will relax your body, keep the spine flexible, and develop healing hands. It marries the chi of Heaven and Earth. It opens the difficult front (chest) channel, where a lot of emotional chi gets stuck. It’s easy to learn — you can feel the chi flow in a few minutes!

This dynamic Orbit meditation lays the foundation for learning Taoist sexual practices. It is a PRE-REQUISITE – without opening the Orbit, your sexual energy has no easy path to flow in. So this is the FAST method for guiding your wild sexual impulses into useful spiritual pathways of creativity. The Micro-Cosmic Orbit is the foundation for the Fusion of the Five Element practices as well as all the other six higher formulas of Taoist inner alchemy, the science of cultivating ordinary chi into immortal spirit.

QIGONG FUNDAMENTALS 3 & 4: Internal Chi Breathing & Rooting

(from Healing Tao website):

The 9 Major Benefits of Internal Chi Breathing (#3):

1. Opens up our ability to breathe – not just air, but Life Force. This radically improves our ability to “breathe in our experience of life”. It gives us the strength to keep on living and trust in the flow of Life.

2. Quickly recharges our body-mind in just five short minutes. Internal breathing practices can be done 24/7 anywhere – in bed, sitting in office, during qigong.

3. Simple standing postures detoxify blocked energies and stressed emotions. Key to letting go, even if your monkey mind still wants to hold on.

4. Mixes our spinal fire and chest water energies to activate a completely safe, grounded kundalini feeling of inner warmth in our belly. It does this by capturing the flow of “empty force” (kong jing) or Original Breath (yuan chi) in deep energy channels & centers that are usually unconscious and cannot be touched by acupuncture or ordinary external qigong breathing methods (waidan gong).

5. Makes your body strong. Prevent & heal asthma and other respiratory conditions, plus many other chronic illness conditions made worse by poor breathing. 3500 scientific studies prove Qigong’s power to prevent & heal chronic illness.

6. Easy fast method to build grounding essential for energy healers, meditators, martial artists, dancers, yogis – everyone needs more grounding for comfortable flow of energy and to keep their sanity!

7. Get in touch with your power to breathe internally by relaxing into the pause between breaths. You literally reduce need for physical oxygen yet at the same time increase energy flow!

8. Creates a profound spiritual feeling of inner balance and harmony. How? Tao Mystical Power of Three cosmology is embodied in a simple qigong breathing form. It unites the Heaven, Earth, & Human Sage within us; 3 energy centers of body, 3 Treasures of Essence, Breath, & Spirit (jing, chi, shen), and the 3 phases of chi (yin, yang, yuan).

9. Put a Tiger in your meditation tank! Lay a solid foundation for deeper levels of meditation (neigong) & alchemical inner elixir cultivation (neidan). Even advanced practitioners of other qigong breathing systems will find it stimulating and filled with new insights.

QIGONG FUNDAMENTALS 4: INTERNAL BONE BREATHING & ROOTING

The 9 Major Benefits of Qigong Fundamentals 4:

1. Opens up our ability to expand the space inside and breathe inside our bones. Bone breathing moves the deep “jing” or sexual essence that shapes our body and health. A new sense of aliveness is born within our core self. When the bones are awake, the rest of you runs more effortlessly. You pump fresh hormones and life into your blood.

2. Five standing postures calm your monkey mind. The anxious thoughts and distractions are re-directed into your bones and the earth. Some ‘empty mind’ standing postures drive the monkey crazy. The dynamic nature of bone breathing keeps the monkey engaged in a positive process and gradually brought to stillness.

3. Allows healing of many chronic illnesses or alleviates their severity, including cancer. The deepest imbalances in our organs and tissues get gradually pushed down into our bone marrow. Releasing the trapped sickness from the bones can product swift (“miraculous”) healing beyond the comprehension of western doctors. 3500 scientific studies prove Qigong’s power to prevent & heal chronic illness.

4. Excellent for women seeking to avoid or heal osteoporosis. Bones waste away because we don’t live inside them. Women lose blood monthly, and this exhausts the jing (= stem cell) supply in the bones that converts itself into blood. Hormonal precursors are produced inside the bones. Learn to manufacture what you need for good health – supplements are not enough. Isometric pressure on bone muscle + chi flow is what works.

5. Increase your flexibility and stretch-ability with tendon and joint qigong. You never grow old if you stay limber. Spine, arm & legs & finger and toe joints all get a beautiful and quick tune-up.

6. Prevent and heal arthritis – the bane of old age (and young age for some). Joints are like spark plugs between the bones – they need cleaning regularly to keep your “spark” in life. My top joint qigong exercises, collected over 20 years search.

7. Learn to clear up and access ancestral issues. This is just beginning level of this work, being able to witness how many emotional and health issues are really blood – ancestral – genetic. But they can be changed by vibrating the bone marrow and “washing” it. Higher level marrow washing method is Lesser and Greater Water & Fire alchemy (Kan & Li).

8. Standing practice and bone breathing is the very best method to build grounding. Grounding is essential for anyone stuck in their head or not quite living “in their body”. It benefits energy healers, meditators, martial artists, dancers, yogis, psychologists, all health care workers, business people. Everyone needs more grounding for comfortable flow of energy and to keep their sanity!

9. Open up deeper level of internal chi breathing, between 1) bones and the dantian, 2) dantian and mingmen (gate of life) where you convert formless chi into your body & mind, and 3) internal counter-force breathing between crown of head (bai hui) and perineum (hui yin). This is deep, blissful experience of core self.

There is a unique synergy that occurs during this residential week long training that does not happen at weekend workshops. We integrate the practices more deeply, and with the morning session have a longer time to practice and integrate everything we have learned.

There is so much material here that I cannot emphasize strongly enough that you will get a lot more from the course if you have done the home study course once before coming. Then you will be exploring the deeper level of yourself and the possibilities of qigong and Tao meditation.

Associate Instructor Certification

Associate Instructors may also be re-taking this course as part of their training, and will be available to assist the new students. If you are interested in joining the community of 200 Healing Tao Instructors in the Americas (plus another 800 globally), the Associate Instructor training is the fast track to get started that can be upgraded later to a full instructor position (needs extra 3 weeks of training).

Requirements for Associate Instructor: 70 hours of training in any core track course (Fundamentals, Fusion, Healing Love, Iron Shirt/Rooting, Tai Chi Qigong). To calculate weekends = 16 hrs; retreats = 40 hrs). One year practice prior to Associate Instructor Training retreat is needed (can be shortened if you have extensive training in related Qi systems or Chinese Medicine), plus letter of recommendation from a Healing Tao Instructor. Associate Instructors are certified

to teach only the Qigong Fundamentals (Orbit, Inner Smile, Healing Sounds, simple qigong forms that support this) in 100 mile radius of their local area. See http://www.Healing-Tao.org for more details on Instructor Certification. ———————————————————-

Praise for Michael Winn’s Qigong Fundamentals

I would like to tell the whole world to get this video “I’m writing to call your attention to my whole-hearted rave about Chi Kung Fundamentals #1 home study course, which I just now posted on our Forum “Tao Speaks!” You might enjoy seeing it, and thanking Michael Winn on my behalf. As my fellow forum members know, I was expected to die at any moment from the severity of my asthma. 

I am 68, and also have emphysema, and this video, more than any other source has improved my health, mental and physical, remarkably. I am able to do my own shopping, for the first time in ages, can walk half a mile without creating an emergency for myself, can get around the house and yard without the ski pole I’d relied on. I wish I was a faster learner, but this has been so amazing. Thank you so much!” In Tao — Sister (Kate Hawthorne) 

Sister Kate’s review of Michael Winn’s Five Animals Do Six Healing Sounds, from Tao Speaks! Forum: 

“Each animal play has a particular emotional problem it is expected to dispel. In his system, Tiger (white, lungs, cloud) dispels grief; Bear (blue, kidneys, ocean) dispels fear; Deer (green, liver, vegetation) dispels anger; Crane (red, heart, fire) dispels self-judgment; and Monkey (yellow, spleen, sun) dispels worry. Interesting to me, because from the emotional perspective, this lists problems I have had, in order of severity, AND it lists the exercises, for me, in order of difficulty. 

I had no problem with Tiger and Bear. Deer is very awkward for me. Crane! you have to stand briefly on one leg and then the other for this, and I have always had a problem with balance, which has worsened radically in recent months. 

Well, first I was able MIRACULOUSLY to improve my balance very much, THEN I was able to release self-judgment, and THEN I was able to do the Crane reasonably well, at least for a brief period. As to Monkey, tonight was the first time I was able to do it at all, and suddenly it made sense and was easy and fun. Leaving me still with Deer, in the middle, residual anger to shed. 

I am so happy about all of this, and I would like to tell the whole world to get this video and do these exercises. I have NEVER had any medicine so therapeutic in my life. I have been bursting with this, and that’s why I just had to post it. Happy, happy, hopeful of attaining true Qi in one lifetime.” Sister (Kate Hawthorne) — 

I just forgot about my asthma, and it started to disappear like magic! 

I had asthma problems. I tried doctors, yoga, etc. nothing helped. I took Chi Kung Fundamentals from Michael Winn. The guy got me laughing and moving and breathing like I never had before. He was great. I just forgot about my asthma, and it started to disappear like magic! Later, I taught my mother the Six Healing Sounds. She is pushing 75. This boosted her like a rocket, and a lot of her pains went away. Amazing stuff! Powerful!!!! J. Carruthers — N.J. 

Michael Winn is a modern sage. 

His Fundamentals 1-4 is an encyclopedia of knowledge and he presents it with extreme clarity. If you want to study qigong or just learn about how energy functions in your body-mind, study with Michael. Grateful Student — Illinois 

Succinct, comprehensive, consistent explanation of Daoist (Taoist) thinking 

I have been studying tai chi for 13 years, first yang style, then chen, then began doing chi kung almost exclusively after studying with Grandmaster Feng in Illinois in August 2000. During these years of practice, I have gathered bits and pieces of information about energy development, daoist thinking, and modes of practice (sitting, standing, forms, etc.). 

What has been missing for me is the big picture, a way to put it all together, that is presented to me in a way that I, an English-speaking westerner, can understand. In your workshops, which I’ve just taken in fall 2002, you have provided me with this missing piece. Here is what keeps me coming back: 

1. Succinct, comprehensive, consistent explanation of Daoist (Taoist) thinking. I have tried to get this from my Chinese teachers, and could just never before (primarily due to language barriers & cultural differences) see how it all hung to gether (yin-yang theory, five phases etc). 

2. Explanation of the “why” and the “how” of the physical practices. For years I have heard, “focus on your dan tien”…. but I never understood why or how. I am now able to feel movement in and through my dan tien that I have never felt before. Your portal concept was revolutionary for me! 

3. Simple movement practices that give quick access to practices such as the microcosmic orbit. I have been practicing the orbit for a few years now, but after learning your form in Chi Kung Fundamentals, I can feel the orbit much more clearly, have a better understanding of what was blocking it before, and how to unblock, also a better understanding of how to teach it to others. 

There is much more that I could say, but this is a good start. 

I’m really glad to have someone of your teaching ability who is willing to share!! Sandra F. Seeber, MA, MAEd, LPC — President, Synergy Clinical & Consulting Services, Inc., Winston-Salem, NC

You Vastly Improved my Martial and Medical Qigong! I have been practising Shaolin Kung Fu and Tai Chi Chuan for 6 years, so I have a very deep feeling of qi throughout my body and a very wide understanding of martial and medical qigong. Recently, I have been studying your inner smile, 6 healing sounds, microcosmic orbit, chi-self massage, etc. and they are just out of this world. 

I have already been practicing methods like Yi Jin Jing (Sinew Metamorphosis), 18 lohan hands, and many other methods. However, your methods are unlike these, in that, they work with all the organs and emotions and they do not neglect a single part of the body. It is also so effortless and comfortable. 

I am already in very good health (as I am young), but I found that the Healing Tao system has invigorated my life even further than what martial or medical qigong has to offer. It is with these unique and highly effective methods, especially the macrocosmic orbit, which has helped to improve my martial ability significantly. I wish to express my deepest gratitude. J.F —

Taught by:
Michael Winn