Encounters with Qi - Exploring Chinese Medicine

When Bill Moyers visited China to explore the mysteries, and the healing potential, of Chinese medicine for his acclaimed PBS series "Healing and the Mind," he sought out David Eisenberg as his guide. For every reader fascinated by the seemingly fantastical aspects of Chinese medicine, from acupuncture addiction to Qi Gong martial arts, this captivating book offers deeper and more detailed encounters with the physicians and patients, the mystics and the martial artists, who were featured on television.

Here is a sympathetic, yet objective appraisal of the concept of Qi (chee), the vital energy which is the unifying principle of Chinese medicine. Here are Chinese sages from the Yellow Emperor of 2700 B.C. to the very modern Dr. Fang, who remarks, "Acupuncture without Qi is only as effective as one man's sticking needles in another." And here are Chinese people from all walks of life as they seek relief, through a rebalancing of their Qi, their vital energy, for ailments from colds to cancer.

"No other firsthand account so vividly reveals . . . the puzzles and promises of traditional Chinese medicine." -H. Jack Geiger, M.D., Logan Professor of Community Medicine, City University of New York Medical School

"The most honest account of China's medicine to appear in a long time." -Ted Kaptchuk, author of The Web That Has No Weaver

"Vivid-highly readable." -New York Times Book Review

June 1995

Excerpt:

Page 79

Second Encounter: The Sisters Wang

On March 11, 1979, the Sichuan Daily ran a curious story about a twelve-year-old boy names Tang Yu. Allegedly, Tang Yu "read words with his ears." He could "read" whatever was written on a piece of paper simply by holding the paper to his ear. Tang Yu's talents were referred to as "exceptional human body functions," and news of his "discovery" spread quickly throughout China.

Within months newspapers from other provinces carried stories about similar psychic abilities of dozens of school-age children. Most striking were accounts of two sisters from Beijing-the Wang sisters.

It was said that if you gave them any kind of box and put a piece of paper in the box, they could-merely by touching the box-tell you in accurate detail what was written on the paper. They could even tell you the color of ink used. The children claimed to "see" the written contents of the message inside the container. Even stranger was their claim that if one sister got the box containing a written word, she could communicate this thought to the other by telepathy. Rumor held that these children could even see the outline of internal organs simply by looking at a patient's body; that they could see a heart beating; and that they could determine the hair length and sex of an unborn fetus by inspecting the abdomen of a pregnant woman.

End Excerpt

As featured on Bill Moyers's pathbreaking PBS series "Healing and the Mind"

David Eisenberg lives in Boston, Massachusetts.