Bruce Kumar Frantzis is a Taoist Lineage Master with more than 40 years experience in Eastern healing systems. He is the first known Westerner to hold authentic lineages in qigong, bagua, tai chi, hsing-i and Taoist meditation. Frantzis has developed a practical, comprehensive system of programs that can enable people of all ages and fitness levels to increase their core energy and attain vibrant health. (-amazon)
I've worked with this book, this method, for a lot of years. When it comes down to all the qigong I've worked with, this is the one I come back to again and again. I did it for many years, then stopped my daily pattern at some point in the last three years due to stupid reasons like excess stress. Which should have had me continuing, but I decided to go comfortably numb instead. Not a good thing, but a survival thing.
As the stress has continued in my life and caused more than temporary increase in health issues, I've realized I need to go back to what works. The clearing exercises in this book. Profound if you do them right. Profound even if you do them partially right. No reason not to do them!
A workshop with Frantzis is great, but know he can be larger than life. He'll tell you that himself on his website.
As a first degree black sash in Tai Chi I found this book to be a very good introduction to the 'bigger world' that's out there beyond what I've already learned. I gained some very good insights and knowledge.
Like he says in his book though, I still recommend finding a good teacher of Nei Gung and Tai Chi to practice under. The subtle alignments you need are not easily understood from a book. You need another set of trained eyes to look objectively at what you're doing.
I found the dissolving and sinking techniques he described to be the most universally helpful from the book. You can just do some standing meditation or embracing horse posture while dissolving and sinking your chi blockages. Do this regularly and the benefits gained will be many.
I have read 1/3 of this book, and until I get my breathing correct and my alignment automatically correct,I will not advance! That means physical practice. What I ahve read until now- this book is great. Clear, informative.
This is Bruce's first book. The first of his many books marketing himself and his teaching but not really offering much information. There are great stories of his journey and teachers and some techniques. It is one of the 4 books that I have found to tell people how to feel and move Chi but the information was so nonchalant that I didn't see it until I read it again. It was in a small 2 paragraph section and the way he described it was bit tough to conceive of that the profoundness of the technique (not spoken of as a technique) is easily missed. He said Qigong begins with feeling the nerve endings of the body. And this was it. To me this is a hugely important technique and piece of information regarding the cultivation of Chi but yet it was buried in his book and easily missed. Maybe he didn't really get the importance of this himself or he was writing to people that just want cool stories and some physical martial art style movements. I don't know but so far he still has yet to speak of it in any of his other books I have read.
This is an excellent book to read with easy to follow exercises that can help you start learning qi gong. The author does a great job of breaking down the actions you need to take, along with example diagrams and pictures. It’s a good supplement to in person or video training and what it really teaches you is how to cultivate the qi in your body. I have done these practices and benefited greatly from them.
B K Frantzis provides simple straight forward explanation of qigong. These practices are directly applicable to meditators and martial artists alike. Good place to begin for those that do not have qigong experience.
Guy has a detailed bio of long training sessions. Can't expect "five minutes to peace, flexibility, and super strength here." It's worth taking some time mulling over the fairly minimalist practices.
Single best book ever written on qigong--yet still more valuable if you have access to Bruce Frantzis or one of his senior students. Check out his website energy arts.com for a list of his authorized instructors-- he doesn't authorize teachers easily.