BF: How would you describe the self-healing method you teach?

LC: ChiLel Qigong--as prescribed by the Center, the largest medicineless hospital in China--has been used to treat a wide range of conditions: cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and all the so-called hard-to-treat illnesses. The method was developed by Dr. Pang, a qigong Grandmaster and medical doctor trained in both Western and Chinese medicine.

The spirit of Chi Lel is love and compassion, the cornerstone of self-healing. The method takes about 15 minutes to do. It combines visualization with a series of gentle movements that can be learned easily by anyone wanting to improve and sustain health and wellness.

BF: What is qigong?

LC: Qigong is two words: qi (pronounced chi) and gong. Gong means a long period of daily effort. For instance, you can do something for 100 days and accomplish one gong.

Qi or chi is the source of everything, the building block of all things. Human beings are made of living cells, and when we look into each cell we see a membrane, the nucleus and so on. Then if you look further into that structure you’ll see atoms--electrons, protons, and neutrons. And if you look even further, scientists now tell us that they can see energy there. However, according to the 5,000-year-old Chinese qigong theory, if you go beyond scientific measurement--this is called the chi level. We can communicate with the chi level using our minds to do different things, such as healing.

BF: How does Chi Lel connect with the chi level?

LC: Chi Lel consists of three things, the first being exercise. Some people have an emotional or psychological problem, and the exercise helps them because as their bodies follow the movements, their minds become calmer, healthier.

The second thing is imagery or visualization. While we are doing the movements, we incorporate images. An example would be, “Think blue sky, and then think about your body.” So it involves the mind also, and increases the chance of recovery.

The third thing would be affirmation, or prayer. You believe something and you affirm it, you’re not asking for anything. You affirm to yourself that your illness disappears, so deep in your mind, every time you do Chi Lel you are affirming “I am healthy now.” You believe it and it happens.

BF: Is Chi Lel anything like something we’re more familiar with--Tai Chi or Reiki or yoga?

LC: The method has some movement that is very similar to Tai Chi; the posture, for example. But this exercise doesn’t have the complexity of a martial art like Tai Chi, and is much easier to learn.

Yoga uses the same system of chakras. The purpose is to get the body centered, so again, it’s similar, yet ours is a continuous movement instead of holding different postures.

Reiki is a Japanese word. Ki means the same as the Chinese word chi. And rei corresponds to another Chinese word meaning universal or magical. We use the same universal energy; however, in Reiki the power is achieved through initiation rather than through self-cultivation.

BF: Do shiatsu and massage use this technique?

LC: Shiatsu practitioners and massage therapists use their hands on the body, so they transmit energy by direct contact.

In Chi Lel we don’t touch, but we use the same 12-meridian system as shiatsu and acupuncture. If, for example, somebody has heart disease, an acupuncturist would not put needles into the heart, but rather somewhere in the meridian that pass through the heart, to unblock the meridian so the chi can pass through.

In Chi Lel we have a lot of hand movements that open up the heart meridian, so we kind of massage the heart. We use the meridian system to stimulate the heart without increasing its workload as you would, for example, if you ran on treadmill. Because it’s very gentle, it’s suitable for everyone, even the old and the very ill.

BF: So even those who are very sick can practice Chi Lel?

LC: At the Center, if you cannot move, you use your mind to do the movements. And if you can move your hands, you move your hands. If you can only do it laying down, you do it laying down, and if you can stand up, you do it standing up. So it is for everybody.

BF: Your book is titled 101 Miracles of Natural Healing. What do you mean by miracle?

LC: I have footage of a cancer disappearing, as seen via ultrasound, when qigong masters were emitting chi to a patient. They did not even touch the patient; they were communicating on the chi level. They were saying, “Disappear, dissolve. Disappear, dissolve,” and the cancer literally disappeared on the ultrasound screen. They commanded the chi level of the cancer to dissolve.

This is spontaneous healing, and it can occur in a few seconds--not hours or days. Now every medical doctor who is in practice long enough knows that this happen occasionally. A urologist told me that in his 30 years of medical practice he had two cases where a patient came in almost dying, and the next day had completely recovered with no medical explanation. However, at the Center they study this phenomenon using thousands of people the same time, creating an environment where spontaneous healing can occur more readily. Every day at the Center, many so-called incurable diseases miraculously disappear.

BF: If spontaneous healing can occur, do we still need to practice Chi Lel every day?

LC: There are two concepts at work here: one is spontaneous healing, and the other is continuous healing. At the Center the theory is that every time you work on yourself, you affirm that the illness disappears in that moment. If your condition comes back again in the next day, it will be a new disease. So you work on yourself every day, because with that mindset, you have a better chance that the illness will disappear in that moment. Also by doing that you prevent future illness.

BF: Can anyone emit chi to someone else?

LC: Yes, once they’ve learned the method. At the Center, the teachers emit chi to the students 10 hours a day, seven days a week. But they aren’t using their own energy. There is a fine line between universal chi and what the Chinese call dantian chi, your own energy. So sometimes you may think you are using universal energy but you are actually giving off your chi. The way they teach at the Center is to think of gathering the chi from the universe into that person and yourself at the same time, so two people become one.

BF: What’s the origin of Chi Lel?

LC: Chi Lel qigong was started by Dr. Pang back in the ‘70s, before China opened its borders to tourists, when he was working in a hospital as a physician. At that time the Chinese didn’t believe in qigong. Dr. Pang had to practice in secret because the government would not allow anything that could not be perceived by the senses--it was considered suspicious. So when no other doctors were around, he would emit chi to his patients. All his patients were getting well, even those with incurable diseases.

Then after China opened up in the early ‘80s, Dr. Pang started to teach openly. More than 10 million people in China have learned his method.

As a physician and a scientist, Dr. Pang knew that for people to treat this healing method with respect, it had to be proven scientifically. He concluded that the data accumulated by treating a large number of patients would be one way to prove it was effective. So in 1988 he started a nonprofit clinic and treated patients using qigong--no medicine, no special diets. The first center later expanded and moved to the present hospital, about two hours from Beijing.

Since then, people have come from all over China. An average of 4,000 to 5,000 people, both patients and working personnel, are in the hospital all the time. They don’t advertise, so how do they get so many people? It’s word of mouth. When someone’s cancer disappears, he or she goes back and tells their friends. As more people practice in their hometowns, they send “incurables” to the Center--which doesn’t take reservations. Remember, word of mouth works both ways; if it weren’t good, people wouldn’t come.

BF: Can people really learn the method in your two-day workshop?

LC: Many people who go to the Center with terminal illnesses must learn now or never; therefore the method must be simple and effective. I teach the same method taught at the Center. Learning is easy because we have audio tapes to follow, you don’t need to memorize it. So the first day you get the benefit immediately, then you have the tape to practice at home, and you do it for 100 days. After 100 days it becomes a habit, just like brushing your teeth. You move to a higher level of wellness, instead of just an absence of illness.

Traditionally, it took years to learn qigong, but those days are past. Learning is not so difficult; the consistency of practicing everyday is the challenge.

We have support groups and newsletters after the workshops, and we have a practice with Dr. Pang leading the whole world every full moon.

BF: Do you tell people to throw away their medicine?

LC: Oh no! Once you’ve been taught you go home and practice, and then when the chi arrives in your body, you feel good, and gradually you can use less and less medicine. Your body will tell you what to do. Because it is a self-healing method, you become your own doctor.

BF: Do you ever take people to China?

LC: Twice a year I take people to China for training so they can teach--we bring the technology back to the U.S. It’s not that I’m the master and you follow me--this was the old style. You learn it, and then from the first day you are the master on your own.

BF: What makes someone a good Chi-Lel teacher?

LC: A good Chi-Lel teacher is someone with a good heart. Actually, everybody is a healer. A mother holding and loving her baby is emitting loving chi, so the baby grows faster and happier. With a loving heart, patients or students can respond faster and better.

During a workshop situation, we organize a chi field. The whole group synchronizes their thinking, and then, because everybody is filled with chi energy, just like everybody carries candlelight, the whole room brightens up. They found out at the Center that spontaneous healing happens most frequently in a group of people gathered in a loving, relaxed atmosphere; suddenly things happen. So it is not my power when people experience spontaneous healing in my workshops; it’s everybody’s power.

Everybody is equal, according to Dr. Pang, because we are all made of the same chi. Just as in a workshop we breathe the same air, so the spirit of the Center is without discrimination. In a regular hospital they treat you differently because you are a patient. But in the Center you are considered a student because you are learning a self-healing art. They don’t treat you like a patient, they give you dignity and say “You can do it!” When you arrive they say, “You have the fighting spirit--we will give you the method, we will coach you.” People from different parts of China live together, and very soon they become friends and help each other. It’s a group spirit.

BF: Does every disease use the same method?

LC: Yes, the beauty of the thing is that it’s so simple. It’s all the same, whether you have cancer or just want to maintain your health, because we are talking about the meridian system. I document this in 101 Miracles when I asked the same question of people with a variety of disease, from paralysis to diabetes, cancer to fibroid tumors: What goes through your mind? And they told me what went through their minds doing the same work, doing the same movements. You don’t need to relearn every disease; it’s simple, yet very profound. And the success is phenomenal. In all documented cases, it effective rate is 95%

BF: What is your goal for Chi Lel?

LC: My goal? One million Americans will practice Chi Lel daily by 2006. How many Americans brush their teeth everyday? One hundred million? Everyone, because they know it protects their teeth. People will start to practice Chi-Lel once they realize it strengthens their body.

The stage has been set: I am ready, Dr. Pang is ready and Chi Lel is ready. Now we invite you to become part of it. Are you ready?