Medical Qigong and Shamanic Tai Chi?

at Healing Tao Retreats at Mars Hill

Questions? Call now to reserve your spot!
1-888-750-1773 in USA
email: info@healingtaoretreats.com

Medical Qigong Intensive

June 30 to July 05, 2011

Taught by Minke de Vos

What is Medical Qigong?

Medical Qigong is an ancient form of Chinese Energetic Medicine, dating back at least 5000 years, sometimes called the “Grandmother of Acupuncture”. It is one of the four branches of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Qi refers to the life energy and Gong refers to skillful practice.

Medical Qigong refers to a wide range of therapies both, self-healing and hands-on, breathing, movement, sounds and meditations. These therapies cleanse, strengthen and balance our energy, mind, body and our essential organ systems.

Qigong therapists today utilize the secret knowledge passed down from the Wu Yi, Qigong meta-physician healers of ancient times. The therapies address specific health challenges and also simply make us feel more centered and energized.

Medical Qigong Training is an energetic skill development and personal healing for both health care professionals and lay persons, optionally leading to certification as a Medical Qigong Practitioner. This intensive is an integrative approach to Healing with Energy. Including practices from the Universal Healing Tao system’s Cosmic Healing, Chinese Medical Qigong Therapy, Shiatsu, Acupressure and Chi Nei Tsang.

Medical Qigong awakens your natural healing energy. It is natural for us to heal ourselves and each other.

The fundamentals of Five Element Theory will be put into practice with many enlivening Qigong forms, which are fun to do, especially outside! Some point location will be applied to open and regulate the flow in the channels, like the Eight Extraordinary Vessels.

Explore the multi-layers of the soul, from past live imprints to awakening new potentials of the evolving soul. Special attention will be given how to co-operate with the “Kundalini” when some in a crisis and how to support someone who has sexual or abuse issues.

The program has a balance of theory, technical and intuitive skills and the psycho-spiritual roots of healing. Healer Heal Yourself
! Initially we will focus on self-healing and energy maintenance.

You will learn;

* Grounding, discharging and emotional transformation techniques necessary for a sustainable practice and to prevent burnout. You will be able to discharge “Sick Winds” through Tree Hugging, Bone Breathing, Sweeping and Grounding..

* How to connect to your Higher Guidance and follow your intuition.

* How to build reserves of Qi and tap into abundant sources of energy.

* Through Meditation, Healing Sounds, Self massage, Qigong and Tao Yoga you will have a big tool box for self development and also give “Prescription Exercises’ to your clients.

Healers Hold Space for Others to Heal
. You will learn:

* Diagnostic techniques, like hand scanning

* Basic Protocol for tuning up your client’s energy field, which covers sweeping channels, purging, tonifying, and balancing the organ systems, invisible needle acupuncture, pulling cords, cleaning chakra filters, and unwinding ancestral knots.

* By holding sacred space, the client can feel themselves and listen to their body, mind and spirit.

* Through the use of various healing sounds, toning and color frequencies, the soul release psychic and energetic toxins and shifts into a higher frequency state of well-being.

* Ways to counsel your client when “things come up” during the healing sessions.

* Ways to integrate the changes, center with Microcosmic Orbit and establish their protective “Wei Chi Fields” so they feel more grounded and ready to go out into their daily life.

Prescription exercises like tapping points, Qigong Walking, Five Element Movements, Healing Sounds, etc. for specific conditions. They can then continue their healing process on their own and stabilize the shifts that occurred in the treatment, so old non beneficial patterns do not creep back in.

The “Set up” of a safe and sacred space for healing is very important. Both the therapist and client are then guided and protected by unconditional love and support of the earth, the heavens, the Divine. We will invoke the presence of your guides, guardians and angels and the lineage Taoist Shamans and other Divine Beings of Sacred Healing, like Kuan Yin. 
You will become a transparent vessel for healing, trusting in the wisdom of the spirit, working through the life force.

Medical Qigong Fundamental Categories:

• physical therapy exercises for Qi development and healing specific disorders
• relaxation methods for cultivating the Qi within, and stress management
• channelling Qi to heal others

Results: Today there are hundreds of Medical Qigong hospitals and clinics throughout China, treating conditions such as breast and ovarian tumours and cysts, muscular atrophy, stress and insomnia, immune deficiency disorders, migraine headaches, certain types of cancer and pain.

Students in the Medical Qigong Intensive will learn:

• Qigong exercises, meditations and self-massage for building, guiding and emitting healing Qi

• Medical Qigong treatment protocols for a wide range of common disorders
• Qigong precautions, contraindications and Qi deviations

• guiding principles of Oriental medical theory
• meridian and point location and function

• methods of Qigong diagnosis

Supportive Subjects also covered:

• basic anatomy and physiology as applied to energy anatomy
• professional ethics in running a clinic

• counseling and psychology as applied to energy healing.

Research: These time-tested ancient practices are in the process of being backed up by Western science. It is beneficial to those who have specific health challenges like depression, anxiety, asthma, fatigue and those who have difficulty “digesting their life”.

Extensive scientific research demonstrates the value of meditation on our well-being. Meditation has been proven to extend your life, create more happiness and peace, lower stress and blood pressure, increase mental clarity, and resolve long-standing emotional problems like fear, anger and substance abuse.

For Whom:

* All levels of experience are welcome as this is an introduction.

* Health Professionals who would like enhance their services to beginners in Energy Medicine.

* Anyone who is interested in self-transformation. References:
“Cosmic Healing” and “Taoist Astral Healing” by Mantak Chia and Dirk Oellibrandt
.

We will utilize some exercise from “Chinese Medical Qigong Therapy” Volumes 1 – 5, by Professor Jerry A. Johnson, founder of the International Institute of Medical Qigong.

Continuing Studies
. This Intensive will serve as a foundation for those who would like to continue with a longer professional training like the Practitioner, Therapist and Masters levels of certification with Wendy Lang, MMQ, see www.emptymountain.com This training offers certification through Henan University. If there is interest we will include this training at the Healing Tao University.

Is there licensing for Medical Qigong Therapy? 
Licensing is a state-by-state issue. The National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM), the same organization that certifies acupuncturists and Chinese herbalists, now offers a National Board Certification examination in Asian Bodywork Therapy (ABT) that includes Medical Qigong Therapy.

Over 35 states currently accept the NCCAOM exam for licensing acupuncturists. Six states now accept the NCCAOM ABT exam as the main requirement for licensing Medical Qigong therapists, and eighteen other states are currently eligible. We anticipate that more states will follow.

Credits: This intensive will give you 40 hours of credit for Qigong Requirement for ABT or Acupuncture Training. Please request a letter of attendance. ———

Minke de Vos, Senior Universal Tao Instructor

Minke will draw from her extensive background in the healing arts and her own healing journey.
She has dedicated over 25 years to spiritual embodiment, teaching and healing work. She co-created a retreat center, Silent Ground, for long–term, life-transforming programs.

Her profound Awakening opened doors for universal wisdom to move through her. She connected with Mantak Chia in 1983 and is part of the “Council of 9”.

She has studied Medical Qigong with her former student and friend, Wendy Lang, MMQ, for 4 years and has organized the training in Vancouver, BC. She teaches and gives private sessions internationally.

She is a dancer and creator of ‘Enchant Dance”, based on the etheric movement of sound, Eurythmy.

She is the author of “Feminine Treasures” and “Heart Qigong” and other “Tao Tools for Self Exploration”.

She inspires people to live with passion, love and compassion, honouring their body, chi and relationships and the world around them.

Come and benefit from her vast resources of healing methods.

Testimonials

“The retreat was very powerful for me. I healed some old, fundamental issues and now I can feel myself changing in my thinking about possibilities, and have a new commitment to loving myself and rebuilding my strength for my future.  Thank you so much for your support and love.  You are poetry in motion! a true dancer.”

Love, Susan

“Was reminded of something so simple the other day – something you truely taught me and always impressed the importance of – SMILING – thank-you”.

Rupert, Yoga Teacher

“Minke de Vos, is an extraordinary teacher: wise, compassionate and creative with in her subject. Minke’s dance background and extensive personal studies in the Universal Tao tradition, all add to her vast knowledge and teaching content. Her Fusion of the Five Elements class was transformational on many levels and connected to the ancient arts and still relevant to my life in this time. I am grateful to have such a kind and knowledgeable Teacher.”

“Minke de Vos is one of my favorite teachers in the Taoist Arts.   The work she teaches is easy to grasp and, at the same time, one would never reach the limit of its potential.  An unappreciated aspect of all healing is whether one has the vitality or simply the energy to heal.  At that level, the Taoist work addresses that foundational aspect to connecting with life’s source of energy and power.”

John, Therapist

 Healing Tao Retreats at Mars Hill

Questions? Call now to reserve your spot!
1-888-750-1773 in USA
email: retreats@healingtaousa.com

Shamanic Taiji, I Ching, and Calligraphy

Taught by Zhongxian Wu

June 24 to June 29, 2011

Due to a last minute personal conflict, Zhongxian Wu has decided to combine his Shamanic Taiji-Qigong and I Ching retreat with his Week 2 Calligraphy/Qigong. He plans to cover all the material in both retreats during that week, and believes the Calligraphy will blend well with the symbolic language of the I Ching. There is no increase in price, even though Wu is packing in a lot more material.

Chinese Shamanic Taiji Qigong is a practice for cultivating inner knowledge and a method for moving into Tian Ren He Yi (the union of the human being and the universe). It is an ancient way of physical, mental, and spiritual cultivation. The body is a Qi (vital energy) network. One will maintain wellness if the Qi is free-flowing in this network.

This ancient art and science for strengthening inner power and healing originated several thousand years ago in China. This entire workshop will be conducted in the tradition of special shamanic Qigong and healing. This workshop will help students learn:

Chinese Shamanic Healing Principles

Fundamentals of Taiji & Qigong – Five Elements and Yijing Eight Trigrams

Martial arts and healing applications of the 8 movements of Taiji Qigong Mother Form

Shamanic Qigong and Calligraphy

In Chinese shamanic (Wu) Qigong, one important practice is Fu (symbol, talisman) Qigong. Wu (Shamans) use Fu to connect with the universal Qi to help people, An energetic symbol is called Fu in Chinese. It is the traditional Wu (Chinese shamanism) way of accessing the universal Qi for healing or creating harmonizing Feng Shui energy. A movement of Chinese shamanic Qigong maybe a Fu.

Chinese calligraphy practice is an ancient and elegant art form, as well as a method of qi cultivation. It is originated in the traditional shaman’s way of accessing the universal qi. It is also a method to understand classical Chinese philosophy and the energetic healing principles.

This workshop will help students learn:

• External Qi healing skills

• How to use the basic tools of calligraphy, namely brush, ink and paper.

• the specifically chosen Fu (symbols)

• the relationship between characters, philosophy, and the universal qi

• to harness and control their own internal qi

• the principle of this shamanic healing arts

For samples of calligraphy by Zhongxian Wu, visit: www.healingdao.com/calligraphy.html

Introduction of “Fu” –

Spiritual Calligraphy Symbol

By Zhongxian Wu

Master Calligrapher & Qigong Teacher

Introductory note by Michael Winn:

I am delighted to introduce the Healing Tao community to Zhongxian Wu. I met Wu quite by chance in China in 1998, although now it seems quite fated. A Taoist monk at the Eight Immortals Temple in Xian had agreed to take me climbing up Mt. Huashan, but he got called away to a temple ceremony on a different mountain. He asked Wu at the last moment to guide for me instead. At first I was disappointed. I soon found out it was my lucky day!

Wu and I not only had a blast swinging like monkeys from the most precarious perches on Mt. Hua’s sheer cliffs, but I found in him a true kindred spirit. Wu is an ancient Taoist sage in a young Chinese body. He spent every free moment and all his money traveling all over China seeking out the old masters’ alchemical secrets before they died. He headed a qigong organization in Xian and studied all the major traditions. He is both humble and playful, yet deeply focused on his journey in Tao.

On that first trip, I found that Wu was also a talented musician, and had studied with one of China’s greatest living guzheng (dulcimer-like classical musical instrument) masters. Of course Wu would never tell me that ­ it came up by chance when another of his friends, the vice abbott at Huashan, turned out to be another apprentice of the same master. It is deeply meditative and sonorous stringed music for the soul.

I mention all this by way of getting to the main point. Although we met again in China several times, Wu completely hid from me his talent as a master calligrapher. It wasn’t until he moved to the USA that I found out that he had combined his ‘qi’ (chi) skills and his artistic abilities into spiritually very high level calligraphy. Westerners need to understand that in China, good calligraphers are revered, and a single character by a famous artist can be worth tens of thousands of dollars (= hundreds of thousands of dollars in their economy).

I love Chinese calligraphy, because I can feel the chi in it ­ if the painter has enough ‘kung’ (or ‘gong’) to infuse their personal chi into the callgraphy. So as I am very sensitive to chi, I am also very picky. It took me a long time to decide which of Wu’s paintings I would hang in my meditation room. It was a difficult choice. They all have a powerful shamanic feel of primal simplicity, but also a lyrical elegance and sometimes a bit of whimsy. I eventually chose the first symbol listed below, which combines good luck and happiness symbols. It is playful and its lovely rounded spirals remind me of Wu’s playfulness. The calligraphy and I have playful meditations together, needless to say.

I hope you find the artistic symbol that speaks to you. If not, at least take a moment and meditate with each one and see what gets absorbed and felt at a deep soul level. Then leave them, and see if one is still calling to you the next day. As handmade works of fine art, they are far more expensive than other mass duplicated products on this site, or mass duplicated calligraphy which lacks deep feeling of the artist’s personal chi. I feel these symbols are still a bargain, and in the future will cost far more as Wu becomes known. Each one is personally sealed with Wu’s chop and thus can also be considered an investment in a talented artist’s work.

– Michael Winn ———————————

Here is a longer article by Wu on the deeper cultivation possibilities are using calligraphy as a spiritual process.

Introduction of “Fu” –

Spiritual Calligraphy Symbol

By Zhongxian Wu

In Chinese Shamanic (Wu) Qigong, one very important practice is creating Fu Qigong. It means “skill in creating energetic symbol that communicates with the qi field”. Wu (Shamans) use Fu to connect with the universal Qi to help people. Daoist tradition has continued some of the ancient Wu practices by incorporating them into its own. In modern times, monks still use Fu to communicate with different beings and nature in different rituals. Some classical style Chinese medicine doctors still use Fu as a powerful treatment for their patients. As a shamanic Qigong practitioner, I want to share some information about Fu with friends.

What is the nature of a calligraphy energetic symbol?

The energetic symbol is called Fu in Chinese. It is the traditional Wu (Chinese shamanism) way of accessing the universal Qi for healing or creating harmonizing Feng Shui energy. You might be able to find symbols for healing in Chinese medicine classics or in some Daoist classics. In these books, you can find information about using symbols to treat certain kinds of disease or for other functions. You might decide to try to follow the instructions, but find that nothing happens as you had expected based on what the book said about treating this kind of disease. You might conclude that this practice is just superstition.

However, the truth is that the practice of using symbols for healing is not for everyone. The secret part is that you must have the ability to use the symbol for channeling universal Qi. This is similar to the way a car functions. It can bring you to your destination, but only if you know how to drive and can control the car. Likewise, not everyone has the ability to use symbols to channel universal Qi.

The ability to use symbols for healing can be developed through special shamanic training. In all of my Qigong practice, the most powerful part is Fu (symbol) Qigong. In the Shamanic Emei Sage Style Qigong School, the lineage master was allowed to teach no more than five students this practice in his whole life. He could teach all of the other Qigong forms to everyone, but this most secret form was carefully protected.

After many years of Qigong practice, fortunately, my master started training me in Fu Qigong. In 1994, I spent 49 consecutive days with my master to practice this Fu Qigong. After 49 days of intense practice, he qualified me to do the Fu Qigong and passed the lineage on to me. I became the lineage holder of the Shamanic Emei Sage Style Qigong School. Over the past ten years, I have used this Fu Qigong to create different symbols to help people recover from their suffering and to create more joy of life with good results.

What is the process of writing calligraphy symbols?

Before I start drawing symbols, I do a Chinese astrology reading to pick the best days — those with harmonizing universal Qi. On these special days, I purify my physical and spiritual body according to Wu (Chinese shamanic) tradition. Holding my calligraphy brush, I meditate myself into the harmonizing Qi state. Then I channel special universal Qi to penetrate into the rice paper through the tip of the brush during my drawing.

After making the symbol on the rice paper, I affix my seal with red Chinese calligraphy ink next to the symbol at an auspicious time during the drawing to harmonize with the universal Qi. In the Chinese shamanic tradition, a seal is like a mudra in that it functions as a vehicle to access the universal Qi.

After I have created the calligraphy symbol, I must find someone to make an attractive scroll with silk paper and decorate it in the traditional Chinese way. This treatment holds the energy on the paper and also helps physically protect the symbol so it can be kept for a long time.

What is the spiritual function of the calligraphy symbols? The symbols contain the universal energy and have both common and special functions. A symbol can convey the type of energy needed to strengthen or improve:

1. Personal health — to help balance personal energy and to release disease

2. Family — to create better Feng Shui at home and to harmonize the family

3. Business — to help build a better business. Harmonizing Qi can give birth to more money. Good business comes from the harmonizing Qi. There is a saying of Chinese businessmen: “He Qi sheng cai,” meaning “Harmony Qi generates wellness and riches.”

4. Qigong practitioners — to help practitioners move into the better Qi state and spiritual cultivation state.

5. Energy workers — to help create a strong universal Qi field in the treatment room and office ———

Zhongxian Wu’s Bio

Zhongxian Wu is the recognized master of multiple lineages of Chinese shamanic Qigong, Taiji and martial arts. He is the author of The 12 Chinese Animals – Create Harmony in your Daily Life through Ancient Chinese Wisdom, Seeking the Spirit of the Book of Change – 8 Days to Mastering a Shamanic Yijin (I Ching) Prediction System, and Vital Breath of the Dao – Chinese Shamanic Tiger Qigong.

His new book, Chinese Shamanic Cosmic Orbit Qigong – Esoteric Talisman, Mandra, and Mudra for Healing and Cultivation, will be available in June 2011. He synthesizes wisdom and experience for beginning and advanced practitioners, as well as for patients seeking healing, in his unique and professionally designed courses and workshops.

Wu was born on China’s eastern shore in the city of Wenling in Zhejiang Province, where the sun’s rays first touch the Chinese mainland. He began practicing Qigong and Taiji at an early age. Inspired by the immediate strengthening effects of this practice, Wu committed himself to the life-long pursuit of the ancient arts of internal cultivation. He devoted himself to the study of Qigong, martial arts, Chinese medicine, Yijing science, Chinese calligraphy, and ancient Chinese music over the next thirty years, studying with some of the best teachers in these fields.

In China, Wu served as Director of the Shanxi Province Association for Somatic Science and the Shaanxi Association for the Research of Daoist Nourishing Life Practices. In this capacity, he conducted many investigations into the clinical efficacy of Qigong and authored numerous works on the philosophical and historical foundations of China’s ancient life sciences. Since he began teaching in 1988, Master Wu has instructed thousands of Qigong students, Eastern and Western.

In 2001, Wu left his job in Xi’an, China, as an engineer to come to the United States to teach. For four years he served as Senior Instructor and Resident Expert of Qigong and Taiji in the Dept. of Classical Chinese Medicine at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine (NCNM) in Portland, Oregon. In addition to his work at NCNM, Wu was a sub-investigator in a Qigong research program sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the USA.

Currently, Wu presents trainings and workshops for professionals and the general public on topics related to the classical Chinese arts and inner cultivation. He is committed to bringing the authentic teachings of Chinese ancient wisdom tradition such as Qigong, Taiji, martial arts, calligraphy, Chinese astrology, and Yijing science to his students.

In addition to his classes, workshops, and seminars, he offers a long-term Qigong and Taiji training program which provides a strong foundation for the study of shamanic Qigong, internal alchemy, Taiji and Qi-healing skills, including classical Chinese energy techniques, medical Qigong, and martial arts applications. Please visit www.masterwu.net for the details.

TESTIMONIALS

I have been studying Qigong with Master Wu ever since he first started teaching in the U.S. Master Wu is a wonderful Teacher. His depth of knowledge and experience in the classical Chinese arts and his ability to transmit this ancient knowledge is extraordinary.

Thanks to Master Wu, I can now feel energy moving internally as well as externally and my ability to see on the inner and outer planes has greatly increased. Master Wu has taught me how to direct my energies for self-healing and for connecting with universal Qi through different Qigong practices. One of these practices is the art of calligraphy and I could feel the energy of the symbols.

Pam

Master Wu taught me how to generate and feel qi in my very first class. Then over time, through his personal refinement, integrity, and power, he taught me the ancient path to vast dimensions of qi.

Leonora Perron

I have experienced a number of very good Qi Gong teachers, and I can unequivocally say that Master Wu is the most dynamic teacher I have experienced so far.

Genie Hardee

After you have spent some time with Master Wu, you begin to realize that you are actually not in the presence of an ordinary person. As he shares and teaches, you begin to see a depth of knowledge that is uncommon even in the qi communities he associates with. If you spend enough time with him, you will come to realize he is a rare and true man wisdom. You see that his natural way with people, with changing environments and in diverse circumstances comes from his being in deep internal harmony with the Way known as “Tao.” Master Wu’s teachings are great and a lot of fun. With his capable guidance we felt we were all transported to an ancient time when men of true character still walked in the mountains of China.

Dhammadasa

Thank you Master Wu for the energy work at the December 2007 Portland program. My back is pain free at this point, which is like a miracle! My right arm has no pain that was chronic since my fall in 2005. I am so amazed by those changes. — Michelle

I have been taking Master Wu Zhongxian’s National Qigong Training (NQT) program. There are two main reasons why I have continued studying in this program: first, Master Wu’s profound knowledge in this field, coupled with his personality of patience and kindness, and second, the powerful Qigong forms he has imparted to us.

As a result of my studies with Master Wu, my health has improved. When I started this retreat program, I was a boarder-line diabetic patient and my doctor had recommended that I take certain medications. I was determined to lower my blood sugar level through Qigong practice. After four months, my blood sugar level had returned to normal. Another health benefit I have experienced as a result of my Qigong practice is that my eyesight has improved. And there is yet another experience related to physical cure. This spring I started to have an irregular heart beat and it increased to alarming frequency, especially during this spring’s retreat. I was planning to consult my doctor after the retreat. However, before retreat ended, I related Master Wu my condition and he taught me a certain Qigong form to practice. I practiced it, but I still made an appointment with my doctor. Within a week, I stopped feeling the irregular heart beat and I cancelled the appointment.

Motoe Wada

at Healing Tao Retreats at Mars Hill

Questions? Call now to reserve your spot!
1-888-750-1773 in USA 
email: retreats@healingtaousa.com

Energy Medicine & Energy Psychology #1

July 06 to July 11, 2011

(A second week followup course for those who take the first week, but want to go deeper, is also available July 12-17 – see online description).

Wed. dinner – Monday lunch

1 – 2 – 3… SHIFT!

CHANGE YOUR LIFE with PRACTICAL ENERGY TOOLS

Judith Poole

During this transformational retreat we work with these premises: Everything is energy. Your level of consciousness is fluid, and correlates with your energetic state of vibration. Emotions and thoughts help you gauge where your consciousness is at any given moment. Elegant and practical energy-based tools you will learn this week help shift your vibration. All that is required is your attention, intention, and practice.

You come with a burning desire to make lasting changes, a quest for self knowledge and your goals – be they in the realm of vocation, finances, relationships, appearance, health, releasing addictive or compulsive behaviors, or some combination of the above.

We lay the foundation for change with three core approaches: working directly with subtle energy (aura, meridians, chakras), with emotions, and with thoughts and beliefs. You will learn how all three are doorways to interconnected realms where consciousness (vibration) determines experience. This is what is meant by the Law of Attraction.

We draw from subtle energy work as taught primarily by Donna Eden and Mantak Chia for balancing energy. Larry Nim’s “Be Set Free Fast” helps us discover and address core limiting beliefs. “Emotions: Love Them and Leave Them”, a focused emotional releasing method developed by Lester Levenson, provides a theoretical framework for understanding the scale of emotions.

Other approaches we may incorporate in the retreat are Tom Tam’s Tong Ren, Kam Yuen’s Yuen Energetics, Gary Craig’s EFT, Tapas Fleming’s TAT, Judith Swack’s Healing from the Body Level Up, and others.

Emotions generate thoughts commensurate with their rate of vibration. Thoughts generate more emotions. Oft repeated thoughts become fixed beliefs. When threat is perceived (and the triple warmer meridian becomes out of balance) it’s difficult to alter the assumed safety and predictability of the status quo.

A wily energy connected to fight, freeze, or flight response impacts thoughts, emotions, and our perceived reality. You’ll come away knowing several ways to bring triple warmer back into balance. Learning to witness your thoughts and beliefs allows you to rewrite subconscious programming and allows for immediate and lasting change.

Our focus is not on learning as many techniques as we can cram into the week, but rather on understanding how to incorporate these tools in daily life to allow for a personal breakthrough in a process that you can replicate on your own, once you return to “real life”. We take a practice run during the retreat. ——————————————————- WHY DO PEOPLE GET “STUCK”?

Are you in transition? The universe provides unprecedented support now to help you make desired changes. Tap into the hot new emerging fields of Energy Medicine and Energy Psychology.

Wanting better success in your work? Or a new vocation? Trying to lose weight? Want better financial standing? Or to change your mind about money? Making efforts to heal a chronic condition? Dealing with allergies, fatigue, pain?

Most “problems” share an energetic configuration known as “homolateral”. That’s a fancy way of describing how people get stuck. A daily routine that combines the techniques of Energy Medicine and Energy Psychology re-establishes your natural flow of energies, giving greater access to radiance and joy. These techniques are simple to learn, and easy to practice.

Homolaterality originates in trauma, sometimes in utero. Energy Psychology allow us to permanently shift these obstructing energetic patterns. Trauma leads to limiting beliefs and blocked access to emotion. We address these through the subconscious mind, and by attuning the body. Allergies and sensitivities can also be addressed.

This unique Self-Healing Intensive offers many cutting edge tools from Energy Psychology. They are self-administered, quick, and effective. Learn the difference between thoughts and feelings. Discover and reverse limiting beliefs. Unlock the energy held hostage by past trauma.

Map and zap patterns that interfere with achieving goals. Learn how to clear blockages. Engage in a powerful group dynamic while doing deep inner emotional work with a highly experienced guide who has personally tested these methods, and found them useful and practical in changing her own life. Achieve your goals for vibrant health, prosperity, relationships and career.

Come to this retreat with your goals. Work with energy for a change. Enrollment in this retreat is limited to ten people to ensure adequate personal attention is given. Please enroll early to reserve your space.

Here are a couple of articles I’ve written that will help you attune to the kind of work we will be doing on this retreat. It’s followed by some testimonials as to how quickly people have been able to change themselves. —————————————————

How “Energy Routines” Can Get you Unstuck – Fast!

Q: A week after beginning to do a daily energy routine, I noticed I began to get a few memories back. I always had a problem with memory, especially recalling any specific childhood memories. Is it possible for this to work so fast? Could these changes be from this practice?

A: Your observation makes sense. One could have an experience of this sort with the practice of Qigong, Yoga, Donna Eden’s Energy Routine, or even Pilates, aerobics, or a dance class. It can also be initiated by planetary transits, and the changes in hormone levels that occur with pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, and menopause. When I began to study Qigong with Mantak Chia, founder of The Healing Tao, in that context long buried childhood memories were also awakened.

As children, as well as later in one’s life, when disturbing things happen that the body has trouble accepting and integrating, the body’s energies rally to protect us from an experience of overwhelming trauma. Much of the event gets walled off from conscious memory. That makes it possible for us to carry on. It enables us to respond to the emergency. This is how people survive crises like a tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, a war, or an automobile accident. But even more minor crises like an argument can trigger dissociation as a response.

This process of dissociation is analogous to the way a body creates an abscess to keep a physical infection away from other tissues. While this mechanism is protective, and helps us get through difficulties, in the long run those memories of which we remain unconscious can create patterns that prevent us from attaining our desired goals. For example, if an actor has a goal of having a starring role, but an unconscious memory has led to a belief that being visible is dangerous, that person might find it difficult to get a role in a play, and wonder why he was unable to be successful even though he had training and was told he had good acting skills.

When you start to activate the meridian energies and help them flow, you allow memories to surface that the body has sequestered to protect you. This creates the opportunity to neutralize any negative charge that the memories carry, and reverse patterns that have kept you stuck.

Each summer I offer a retreat at Tao Mountain Retreat Center, now at Heavenly Mountain in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mtns of North Carolina. “Energy Medicine + Energy Psychology = Self-Healing” takes place in a wonderfully peaceful and extraordinarily beautiful setting. Participants learn a repertoire of energy balancing exercises developed by Donna Eden that activateand balance meridian, chakra and aura energies. We practice the Microcosmic Orbit and other Taoist disciplines. In one such exercise, we trace all 14 acupuncture meridians in the order in which they flow. The Six Healing Sounds help to clear the emotions and excess heat associated with the meridians.

Note that Governing channel, Bladder, and Gall Bladder meridians all go over the head. Triple warmer circles the ears, and communes directly with the hypothalamus, which, along with the amygdala stores emotional memories. Stomach, large and small intestine and central meridians contact areas of the face. Only the yin meridians are concentrated in the torso and arms or legs and are NOT found on the head (i.e. liver, lung, spleen, heart, kidney, and circ/sex.) Thus it is natural that working with these meridians has the potential to activate buried memories.

We want to go beyond merely surfacing such memories, especially if they are disturbing. A number of energy psychology techniques help neutralize the emotional charge. EFT, Emotional Freedom Technique, was developed by Gary Craig. His website, http://www.emofree.com has a wealth of supporting materials and instructions on how to use it on . Be Set Free Fast, (BSFF) a way to access beliefs and orchestrate change from the level of the subconscious mind, was developed by Larry Nims. His website, http://www.besetfreefastdvd.com, has materials and a DVD for sale. Tapas Fleming developed TAT – Tapas Acupuncture Technique – which is particularly helpful for healing trauma. She also has a series of DVD’s and other downloadable materials available on her web site, http://www.TATlife.net

Those who attend the summer retreat learn these tools and others and have an opportunity to apply them to current life goals. A retreat setting provides advantages that allow you to go deep and initiate real transformation in your life. You can focus on health, work, career, weight loss, financial, relationship and lifestyle goals. With methodologies derived from energy psychology, you can do significant work with great privacy. While you can assign a rating to your “subjective units of distress” no one else has to know the cause of that distress.

When a group engages in this transformative process together, and holds a unified intention to support each other’s growth, the energy available for such work increases exponentially. Often one release sparks others as together we lift the vibration through our efforts. You can’t beat the mountain energy and having three delicious meals prepared for you each day. Taking your self out of the context of daily life frees the psyche to transform limitations that have been binding you.

In prior years participants have reported that they returned home to improve relationships with partners, got a sought after job, initiated a healing tao class for children, and experienced a dramatic improvement in long term symptoms of chronic fatigue. Judith Poole

Why is It So Difficult To Change a Bad Habit? A Meridian Perspective

Do you ever feel that although you know just what to do, you find you are unable to do as you intend? The consensus is that habits are hard to change, and this seems to apply to any change we attempt to make. It turns out that this has a lot to do with the way we are wired, for survival.

It doesn’t seem to matter what your target goal is. Every time you attempt to find a new path y might find yourself slipping back into your old habits. A pattern like this can be very frustrating. We may be told by someone else that we lack will power. Or we might grow impatient with ourselves and call ourselves unkind names. But from the brain’s and the meridians’ point of view, there is a good reason for us to resist any change. Our basic wiring that insures our survival suggests to the psyche that all contemplated change is dangerous.

A very small gland, the hypothalamus, is found in the interior of the brain. It is known as the master gland. It communicates with the pituitary and adrenal glands instructing the body to produce hormones that are associated with the stress response. It also closely presides over one of the 14 meridians in the body, known in Chinese Medicine as Triple Warmer. Through this complex system, the endocrine and nervous systems release hormones and neurotransmitters designed to shift our physiology in order for us to meet emergencies.

Triple Warmer, along with the hypothalamus, thus oversees survival. It takes this mission very seriously, and in that role is suspicious of anything that is unfamiliar. Its efforts are directed at making sure that nothing changes, holding everything familiar in place. Unable to think in shades of grey, and weigh various possibilities, this aspect of our physiology acts like a switch that is either on or off. It’s binary reasoning goes something like this: It’s my job to keep you alive. You are alive. Therefore I will not let anything change. Anything that changes is a threat to my survival.

This stress physiology does not have a mechanism for anticipating incremental improvement. It does not understand past, present and future. For it, everything happens right now in this moment.

Any time that we decide to change a behavior – be it action or thought – we can work first to alter the habitual reactionary resistance to change that happens on automatic pilot. Even though at the conscious level we know that we will ultimately benefit from making the anticipated change, Triple Warmer will tend toward resisting the change. It lacks the ability to foresee that the change we are attempting will be beneficial. Much like the proverbial overprotective parent, It resists change with the best of intentions: It is done in an effort to protect us.

Knowing how this system operates gives us an edge, however. We can ease into the anticipated transition by first negotiating directly with Triple Warmer. Energy Medicine provides numerous ways to calm Triple Warmer and send more reassuring messages to the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis.

Herbert Benson was one of the first in the medical field to document the relaxation response which he initiated in his mind/body clinics through the use of breathing techniques, meditation, and yoga. Qigong related energy focused practices accomplish the task of subduing a stress response while raising the vibratory rate of the cells in the body. The physiology of well-being is activated.

The annual summer retreat, “Energy Medicine + Energy Psychology = Self-Healing” held in the Blue Ridge Mtns of North Carolina, affords an opportunity to master several of these tools. The menu is rich and varied. In the course of the week you will learn energy activities derived from Healing Tao practices, Donna Eden’s Energy Medicine, and the field of energy psychology that balance your energy field; neutralize strong emotion; reverse negative beliefs; clear blocks in energy flow; and resolve hidden traumatic memories. You will be able to apply your new understanding of how to work with Triple Warmer to help you institute change now and in the future.

Judith Poole

Director, Pooled Resources

TESTIMONIALS

The Energy Psychology week was astounding. I came to learn technologies (which I did) but I also was able to release many of my own issues – most impressively the pain and stiffness from arthritis. Thanks, Judith!

Bill Bush, MD

[Note: Bill had not been able to close his hands in a fist or to bring his thumb to the base of his baby finger for the past 15 years. On the third day of our retreat he was able to do just that.]

And from other venues:

I attended your workshop on The Many Benefits of Grounding at the Energy Psychology Conference and just wanted to let you know how great it was. It was well presented and filled with a great deal of valuable information – information that will be invaluable in my own healing from chronic Fatigue syndrome.

Thank you for such a great workshop!

Kathy Izzo

Hi, Judith. This is wonderful stuff! I continue to be very impressed with the work you are doing. And, I very much appreciate your sharing so fully. May I have your permission to use this email in my revision of the BSFF Manual and/or to share it as an example of excellent strategy in using BSFF? It could both encourage and teach others how to use BSFF skillfully. Warmly,

Larry Nims, Ph.D. (Developer of Be Set Free Fast)

Judith I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your presentation and both of your books. Your information was both informative and timely. You radiate a special knowing that I could actually feel as you were teaching. I rubbed shoulders with so many wonderful souls during those three days that it really seems like just one very l o n g day. Thank you again for sharing your knowledge and energy with me. I wish you all things wonderful as your work continues to touch and heal.

Yours in the Masters Love,

Gary Travis –

This 660 page textbook on Medical Qigong Therapy is considered the main classic in modern China, and is essential reference material for anyone interested in this field. It was a massive project to write it, involving large teams of qigong masters, and another massive, multi-year  project to translate it into English, involving more teams of qigong masters and researchers led by Kevin Chen.

Special thanks to Kevin’s ongoing efforts to get medical qigong studied in the West using Westernized standards of testing for results. He publishes a newsletter,Yang-Sheng (Nurturing Life) which is both an E-magazine and a network for all Qigong, Tai Chi, Yoga, Reiki, mindfulness and meditation practitioners, health seekers, and spiritual cultivators. You can find it on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/YangSheng.net

Of course, in an ancient civilization like China with countless schools of qigong, family styles of healing and different epochs in which different approaches dominated, it is impossible to do justice to every style. So there is a necessary tension between going deep and going wide, and I think the balance here is admirable. Some of the phrases used in traditional China (such as “evil qi”) may seem quaint or irrelevant to Westerners, but I like having the authentic Chinese flavor in the text. One of the things I love about the text is the many references to classical Taoist literature.

Please take the time just to browse the table of contents as it speaks for itself. A wide variety of specific treatments are covered for many different medical conditions. Such a text could not get into the more esoteric inner alchemy methods used by the Healing Tao in One Cloud’s 9 Formulas, but you will see overlap in many of the Fundamental practices.

Again, Medical Qigong Therapy retails for $90, but I have arranged with the publisher for a special discount to my readers of $60. plus $5. s/h. It is not listed on my website, so to order you’ll need to call Jan at 888 999 0555 or email her at info@healingtaousa.com.

-Michael Winn

May your Summer Bring You Joy and Great Awakening,

Michael Winn

“Who takes Heaven as his ancestor, Virtue as his home,
the Tao as his door, and who becomes change — is a
Sage.” — Chuang Tzu, Inner Chapters

“The Tao is very close, but everyone looks far away.
Life is very simple, but everyone seeks difficulty.”
— Taoist Sage, 200 B.