User:Missy071407/Qi gong Psychosis

Qigong
The word "Qigong" comes for the words "qi" and "gong". "Qi" is known as life energy. "It is the animating power or prana that enervate all things." Each living human being has the qi force. In order to maintain a healthy body, "the qi must be clear and unpolluted." The word "gong" refers to work. "Qigong means working with [qi], and learning to control and distribute the qi to improve the health of the mind and body. Qigong involves both meditation and exercise. This practice is a 20 to 40 minute daily exercise, and most of the techniques can be performed by all ages and physical conditions. 4 Some people even believe that the exponents [of qi] are able to manipulate this force, both inside and outside of their bodies, to derive and develop powers that are, by definition, superhuman.10 Qigong is considered the exercise of vital energy by many psychiatrists and researchers of this field. It is a Chinese method of meditation, based on traditional Chinese medicine. The best known in the West is Tai Chi. An alternate name for the syndrome is Qigong Deviation Syndrome. Qigong can cause somatic symptoms that include "headaches, dizziness or disorientation, and strange sensations in the lower abdomen (the Dan-Tian point)". People who practice Qigong "may demonstrate hypochondria, anxiety, sadness, and feelings of being out of control and experience visual and auditory hallucinations". After participating in Qigong, symptoms usually last any where from two to four weeks.1

Categories of Qigong include:

Qigong has Two General Divisions.

1) "Active qigong (dong gong) means movement of postures as in a dance or if a posture is fixed movements of the arms. Dong gong is yang and active concealing the passive yin. Movement is the external appearance, but internally the mind is quiet and tranquil." 4

2) "Passive qigong (jing gong) is meditation with the body being still. Qi is controlled by concentration, visualization, and breathing techniques. Jing gong is passive yin externally, but internally the mind is alert and actively yang.With the body still, the breath moves qi."4

Divided Applications of Qigong

1) External Healing Qi is sometimes known as cosmic healing.4

2) Jing Qigong is "meditation which is practiced as a complement to the active dong gong."4

3) Healing qigong is "complemented with meditation" and is "the active part that includes stretching, deep breathing,low impact conditioning, and isometrics." The practice "increases stamina and improves coordination."4

History of Qigong and Qigong Psychosis
According to Zorya, "the Chinese Daoism, the original philosophical texts, are very different from the folk superstitions and occult techniques that were merged with them hundreds of years later to create Religious Daoism." The original message of Daoism was lost when Religious Daoism was developed to compete with the rise of the Buddhist religion. ' Rather than trying to live a simple life in harmony with nature and accept death as an inevitable part of life, the Religious Daoists absorbed all manner of contradictory folk beliefs including the worship of local gods, exorcistic and mediumistic techniques and chemical and meditative procedures from elite traditions, relating to the pursuit of longevity and immortality. 10

In the late 1970s, Kenneth S. Cohen developed the words qigong psychosis and qigong psychotic reaction. Chinese expression that translates to "fire wild, devils enter." The psychosis is a result of overboard practice of qigong. Cohen "cites two cases of a Taiji Ouan teacher and a Buddhist master." After 10 years of practicing qigong, the teacher hallucinated about having a third aura. Third aura does existent in any of the spiritual practices. The teacher was advised to stop teaching and do just the standing meditation every morning for only 20 minutes. His hallucinations disappeared in one year. After 25 years of practicing qigong, the Buddhist became "out of touch with reality." "He was constantly talking to God by invoking deities, but he could not carry on a normal conversation with friends."4

Qigong Psychosis
The DSM-IV and Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders define Qigong psychosis "as an acute, time-limited episode characterized by dissociative, paranoid and other psychotic and non-psychotic symptoms that occur after participation in Qigong".1

People who perform qigong say that the only reason one will obtain serious psychiatric problems from qigong is from doing the exercise wrong,"miss-handling powerful life energy.They also ...say that if [one] slows down and reduce the exercise frequency the problem will stop."9

Bruce Kumar Frantzis wrote a book called Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body and studied and trained in China by one of the greatest Taoist masters. A couple of cases went wrong. One case a man was taught "Hsing I Nei Gung" practice. He became very powerful and started learning secret techniques from different teachers after his master left. "The combination of the new with the old ended in forcing the qi below the tantien into his genitals. This resulted in mental and physical problems including involuntary semen emissions and hallucinations. It took 3years to get him back to normal.4

Fukien White Crane is a practice of qigong that can result in psychosis "when the enhanced qi goes up to the brain." "The madness starts with arrogance and breaking of bones due to the power. The symptoms included "(1) hallucinations with out-of-body experiences, (2) things are moving much faster then they actually are, (3) stiffening of the internal and external body, (4) thirst for power, (5) feeling constantly active and restless and unable to calm down, (6) Experiencing involuntary movements and body spasms. The remedy is to drain and re-pattern the vebrational qi.4

While obtaining a sense of psychosis, "the phenomenon of experiential 'qi' is somewhat akin to seeing ghosts." People actually believe that they are seeing ghosts.10

Sing Lee says that when an individual that is psychologically fragile exercises qigong, it induces pian cha (health disturbances). Pian cha is believed to arise from the inappropriate application of Qigong or the inability to "terminate the qigong" (shougong), or both.6

Research Studies
John Mackett describes the practices of Qigong as a form of hypnosis that corresponds more to Mesmer's methods than to modern hypnosis. It is considered an offshoot of martial arts in which the operator projects an invisible force (chi)from his body to that of the S to restore the balance of 2 opposing elements of chi.8 According to a recent study by Dr. Hauaihai Shan, "folk-beliefs attribute the condition to 'adverse flow in the body', 'uncontrollable behavior', 'over-meditation', and 'spirit possession'. Over a third of 129 respondents described sensory problems (32%), mood symptoms (90%) and behavioral problems (24%), attention difficulties (26%), thought disorders (18%) and disordered consciousness (2%). Nearly all patients report 'the Qi moving within the body, and dashing or rushing into the head.'"8

In Wei-Chin Hwang's study (2007), a Chinese American woman immigrant from Beijing was taken to a psychiatric hospital in the United States because she was considered to be in a psychotic state of being. Even though this woman had been diagnosed with a brief psychotic disorder, she was kept in the facility. The study shows how a Western Culture can wrongly diagnose an exercise practiced by an Eastern culture.3

H.J.H. Kuijpers reports a case study of a 24 year-old Caucasian Hindu male artist who suffers from qigong psychosis and treat him using Haloperidol. With in one week the symptoms disappeared. Then the patient was gradually take off the medication; however, one month later the psychosis returned. Then the patient was given Risperidone. This lead to a complete recovery. However, Kuijpers still is unsure if this is a proper treatment for any meditation-induced psychosis.5