DiCarlo: You are a master in the art of Qi Gong, which is rapidly gaining in popularity in the United States. Let's define our terms first, what is Qi Gong?

Cohen: Qi Gong is literally "chi" work, or working with chi. "Chi" can be defined as life energy and it has certain measurable components. For instance, life energy is often related to air and some people speak of the life breath. It's probably related to the electrical messages that flow through the nervous system and perhaps to the electro-magnetic field that surrounds the body. We know that the electromagnetic field varies according to an individual's state of health and state of mind in the same way that the Chinese say the chi field varies according to state of health and state of mind. But nobody can say exactly what the chi is. Although there are measurable components, I don't think we should reduce it to what can be measured and nothing more.

"Qi Gong" is working on the chi. It can be defined as a way of using posture, breathing, visualization and meditation along with gentle movements to cleanse, gather and circulate the chi, or life energy. Some people have compared it to biofeedback. Like biofeedback, a person becomes aware of, and thus learns to regulate or control processes in the body, such as heart rate, that are normally beyond conscious awareness and control.

For example, if a person has poor circulation in the hands and feet, there is a way of becoming aware of that area and using gentle movements to improve the circulation. As a result, the person will actually experience greater warmth in the hands and feet. This can be used to treat a variety of metabolic disorders as well. But that's the basic definition of Qi Gong, using breath, posture, movement, meditation and visualization to cleanse, gather and circulate the chi. Generally for improving health and strengthening the immune system.

DiCarlo: How do most people experience chi or life force?

Cohen: There are four sensations, which of course are subjective states. In Chinese, they are known as the Chi Gan, meaning chi feelings, or chi sensations. These are the four signs that chi is flowing. One of them is warmth. The second one is weight, weight in the sense of feeling very grounded or rooted. The third one is vibration. Some people express this as a kind of tingling sensation. I should qualify this: there is good and bad vibration. Tingling that feels like greater aliveness is the good kind of vibration. If it's tingling from poor circulation and numbness then that's not a chi sensation. That's a sign of illness, or that an individual is standing or holding a certain posture that is cutting off the blood supply. So we have warmth, weight and vibration. The last one is termed expansiveness, a feeling that the dimensions of the body have changed as though you are not sure where the air ends and your skin begins. Or a feeling that your feet reach into the ground, or that your head reaches up into the heavens. These are the four sensations that students often experience, sometimes even early in their Qi Gong training. Often, first or second class they will have one or all of those sensations.

DiCarlo: Is chi mentioned in any other cultures aside from Chinese?

Cohen: All over the world. This is a universal concept. What's unusual about the Chinese is that they are unique in having developed a systematic and very sophisticated way of purifying and accumulating chi for self-healing. But the concept of chi is found all over the world. An example in the Western tradition would be the Ruach, the divine breath with which God supposedly breathed into Adam to create life. We read in genesis that God breathed over the waters. That comes at the very beginning of our myth of creation, before God says, "Let there be light." The ancient hebrews interpreted this to mean that breath or energy is the foundation of existence.