Qi Reactions

Qi Reactions are very common when practicing Qi Gong. What is also common for new people getting into Qi Gong is that they are a bit worried when their body makes strange noises or movements when the Qi starts flowing. Qi Reactions can be experienced as heat, cold, tingling sensations, pain or pleasure, gurgling, tightness and more. They are nothing to worry about. It’s simply your body reacting to Qi moving through the body. It’s actually a good sign and indicative that your practice is bearing energetic fruit.

Here is what Daohearts have to say about Qi Reactions:

“The term “Qi reaction” refers to a common aspect of the healing process in Qi Gong, known in some Western medical paradigms as a healing crisis. Qi reactions are symptoms or sensations that occur when qi (energy), stuck in our bodies in certain patterns over a long period of time, begins to transform and release as part of the healing process. These changes are beneficial but can often feel uncomfortable. A qi reaction is also called a “Qi purification.”

While your health can improve without necessarily experiencing any uncomfortable side-effects, most people encounter qi reactions at some point along their healing journey. Because Zhineng Qi Gong has very powerful healing effects, qi reactions can occur more frequently than in other forms of healing. Therefore, it is especially important for Zhineng Qigong practitioners to understand these reactions and how to handle them.”

[..]

“Sometimes, it may seem that a previous illness is recurring. This is because that illness, or perhaps it is a past trauma, has not been completely healed, even though the symptoms are gone. You thought the problem had been alleviated, but in actuality, the unhealthy Qi remained suppressed in your body. So as you practice qigong and the Qi mobilises this suppressed Qi, it emerges as it transforms and releases, evoking the old symptoms. This applies to illnesses or traumas across your whole lifetime, even congenital ones. Qi reactions can happen on all levels. A change on a deeper level is more difficult to handle. When the change involves the reference framework, you can experience Qi reactions at the level of consciousness.”

Why do qi reactions happen? What can we do?

Master Wei was asked this question and here is what he said:

First, it is important to build a good understanding of Zhineng Qigong — it is not just a practice to feel better or improve your energy or strength. At its essence, Zhineng Qigong involves the transformation of the Life Entirety, or your life as a whole. This means that, when you practice Zhineng Qigong for the longer term, your consciousness changes and your life changes, too, beyond the immediate illness or emotions you want to heal.

If you only practice on the level of the physical body and qi, you may feel more energy, and your symptoms may improve, too. At this level, however, consciousness has not yet evolved to see beyond the old reference framework. So if you experience a strong change in qi, your consciousness may not like it, because it only recognizes the old balance of qi in the body. If the changes in qi are too strong or too fast, leading to many qi reactions, for example, your consciousness may not have enough power or stability to see through these phenomena.

Once you experience a few qi reactions, your consciousness will come to know these new reactions as part of the new energy state of your body. At that point, qi reactions form a new reference framework, meaning you can understand the role of qi reactions without struggling against them; you can reclaim a sense of agency in your healing process, and you can also see how qi reactions strengthen your willpower and uncover suppressed imbalances. With this new reference framework in play, qi reactions can pass more quickly, too.

Take for example a child who has a cough. His parents give him modern medicine and the symptoms of the cough disappear. He grows into an adult and starts to practice qigong. His internal qi begins to transform and purify, improving the body, at which point, the qi reaction comes in the form of a cough. This is because the information and blocked qi are still in his body. So this qi reaction happens to clean and open up the blocked energy.

At first, his consciousness may feel the coughing is uncomfortable, and he may worry that it’s a bad sign that something old is recurring. This is when the practice guides us in keeping the mind stable and the heart open, and in accepting all reactions. In fact, the practices guides us to love the reactions and send good information to guide the transformation process.

This is how a good consciousness state can support your continued practice.

Qi Reactions & How The Body Heals

Walter Last – a Bio Chemist turned Naturopath – has also written about this phenomenon but coming more from a detox and nutrition standpoint. What we can see is a common theme start to arise. What may initially cause a bit of discomfort will lead to greater health and happiness in the end. compare this to the Western medical system and its often the reverse. Providing temporary relief for more pain further down the road.

“This concept of a healing crisis clearly shows the opposite perceptions that drug medicine and holistic medicine have of health and the healing process. In drug medicine it is assumed that a patient who is free of disease symptoms is more or less healthy and the aim of drugs is to achieve this condition by removing any disagreeable symptoms. Frequently alternative or complementary medicine is used in the same way, instead of more or less toxic drugs just more benign remedies are being used. This is what most patients want and according to their beliefs they either use drugs or natural remedies for this purpose.

However, holistic medicine, following in the footsteps of the old nature cure movement, aims much higher. Here, health is regarded not just as a temporary absence of disease symptoms, but as a state of profound physical, emotional and mental wellbeing so that we simply cannot develop or catch a disease.”

The body knows how to heal. So when practicing Qi Gong, it’s common to experience what seems like the recurrence of old illnesses or traumas. This phenomenon occurs because while the symptoms might have disappeared, the underlying unhealthy Qi remains dormant in the body. As one engages in Qi Gong, this suppressed Qi is mobilised, bringing up old symptoms as part of the healing process.

Qi reactions are not limited to physical ailments but can also manifest on deeper levels, including one’s consciousness, particularly when fundamental belief systems or “reference frameworks” are challenged. These reactions serve as indicators of where personal growth is needed, pushing practitioners to cultivate greater self-compassion and flexibility in their views. Even among healthy practitioners, as they advance in Qi Gong, they might encounter these reactions as a natural part of progressing towards higher states of health and practice. Such experiences are integral to the broader healing and transformative journey facilitated by Qi Gong.

So the next time you are deep into a Qi Gong practice and your body starts reacting, just know that your body is incredibly intelligent and has all it needs to heal itself, so long as we nourish and cherish it and a lot of the time, get out of the way and remove the ‘gunk’ (trauma) blocking our divine light.