The Swimming Dragon

Book excerpt: For therapists, healers, and lay practitioners, this superb guide covers every aspect of the ancient healing art, from its basic functions and the energetic principles underlying its practice to a detailed history of the method and its practitioners. Most important, it offers an explicit presentation of essential qi gong methods and styles of practice, including basic postures and respiratory exercises. The author translates into Western medical language the effects of qi gong on the nervous system, heart rate, blood pressure, endocrine system, appetite, and digestion. With an enlightening summary of the relationship between qi gong and the other Chinese healing arts, and an inspired collection of quotations from traditional texts, this is a thorough representation of an increasingly popular approach to health and healing.