Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002600290003-0 Zha, Draft 13-Feb-90 page 9 after extended effort in front of high-ranking guests, They believed, however, that the formally reported results were genuine because they were under tight control and done in a matter of minutes. The senior author feels it may never be known if Zhang used trickery in these informal cases since Zhang has never admitted, as do many present-day qigong masters, that he is some- times without power. Two hypotheses present themselves. It is possible that Zhang Baosheng (who has no apprecia- tion of science) lives in his own mystical world where his perhaps-somewhat-limited psi abilities have destroyed in his thinking the barrier between reality and fantasy, so that it is a matter of indifference to him whether he uses psi or legerdemain to achieve his immediate goal. Alternatively, Zhang’s bizarre, apparent PK abilities may reflect a psycho-physical reality that mocks our presumptions of what is possible. Given the facts that micro-PK involving small forces and energies has been fully established in principle and that gross PK has been presump- tively established both by spontaneous cases and by experiments in the USA and the USSR, the authors believe it is proper for a scientist to suspend judgment when confronted by accounts such as the above. such as Qigong, Oriental Qigong, and Qigong and Science, which were begun in the early 1980's, were able to continue. These effectively prepared the way for the subsequent expansion of the qigong movement. Phase ITT (1987-1989): The Qigong Movement Resurges and Gains New Support AS a special physical practice, qigong (sometimes referred to as "the internal action of psycho- body energy" or “breath exercise") originated in China, where it has a Tich history. Records show that it had been Systematically developed as early as 500 B.C. and that it was widely accepted and practiced in every Chinese dynasty. There are various schools of qigong, each emphasizing different techniques to attain its own specific purpose. However, it is agreed by all schools that, by sending qi to certain parts of the body through the "meridian channels" and by practicing in certain ways, psi abilities can be attained. Although the initial purpose of practice is to regain the qi lost while growing up, there are said to be abilities more profound than psi which can be interest in fame or money. Occasionally they show a little of their power to respected guests such as Dr. Qian, who said once he was knocked down by the "qigong extemal emission" applied at a distance upon his request by an anonymous host, but usually they do not accept a psi researcher's invitation to join a scientific effort. Maybe the mysterious effects experienced with top qigong masters will never be available for scientific study, but there are still many lower-level masters who are active in China, practicing their art, and offering help to others. Quite a few of them are sufficiently well trained to be able to to exercise strong psi abilities. Their amazed pupils spread the word so that-more and more people are attracted. That is what happened in the late 1970's after the Cultural Revolution, when Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002600290003-0
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002600290003-0 Zha, Draft 13-Reb-90 . page 10 an Official prohibition against qigong was slowly removed. The movement did not fall under the Party’s ruling of May, 1982, because Tesearchers cleverly avoided stressing the psi aspect of qigong. A “China Qigong Science Association" was able to gain governmental approval in December, 1985 (Zhi, 1986). A rapid expansion of interest began in 1986 after several highly successful qigong demonstrations were widely publicized. Whether by the placebo effect or otherwise, qigong methods have proved useful in the cure of diseases, especially chronic ones for which Western medicine has no effective remedies. Qigong has also been found valuable for strengthening one’s physique. As a result, qigong ‘training courses were for the first time listed in many universities following a directive from the Educa- tion Department in late 1987 (Qigong and Science, 1988). Qigong curing clinics emerged by the hundreds, and existing formal hospitals were expanded to accommodate new qigong departments. It is estimated that at least 20 million people in P.R.C., many of them well educated, were prac- ticing qigong in some form and at some level by the end of 1987 (Yi, 1988). Foreign visitors were astonished to see that the qigong learners blocked parks, courtyards, and small streets while doing their moming or evening exercises. Most of these learners may have never mastered psi, but with such widespread effort there may well have been many who did. It is obvious that the qigong movement and the reappearance of EFHB news reports (often related to qigong practices) could not have occurred in this tightly controlled country without a decision by the Party to change its earlier ruling. This was done informally. Instead of issuing a new document, the instructions were given privately and gradually by some of the Party’s senior leaders, It is widely believed that many leaders at the highest positions became interested in qigong and convinced of the reality of EFHB. In the first phase there were many Specially arranged psi demonstrations, some privately performed, in an effort by some of the researchers to gain governmental support. As time went on, it was found that a better way to obtain Support was to let qigong masters take care of the health of the leaders. Countless healing sessions were held, and a wide variety of effects were demonstrated. Some leaders reportedly started to practice qigong themselves. It was said, for instance, that Deng Xiaoping, the party and military head, became interested in qigong and asked to watch the videotapes of a qigong master’s therapeutic lectures (see later). It was also said that there are now top qigong masters in attendance to maintain his health. Other leaders went farther, Hu Qiaomu, the standing member of the Party's Central Political Bureau in charge of propaganda, said in a reported meeting in 1987: We should mobilize every unit in our Society to study qigong science. I believe it is a very fundamen- tal scientific effect and absolutely not superstitious fiction. This is not something about which one “should not propagandize, or make any comment", but a topic that needs great efforts to publicize and facilitate its development to serve the four modemizations [Li, 1988, p. 315]. This speech is clearly contrary to the former ruling and, though not mentioned, the inner quota- tion is from the previously-referred-to May 13, 1982 speech of Hu Yaobang, the former Party general secretary who had been subsequently removed from power, Other top leaders who ex- pressed their support of qigong and of EFHB Study were Wan Li, Ye Jianying, Wang Zhen, Pen Zeng, Pen Chong, and Wang Renzhong, almost all of them senior politicians. As final evidence of the acceptability of qigong and psi research, the application presented seven years earlier by the preliminary committee under the translated name “Chinese Human-Body Science Association" (and “China Anthropic Science Association") was finally approved on May 3, 1987, under a new officially translated name as the "Chinese Society of Somatic Science" (CSSS). Mr. Zhang Zhenhuan was elected as the CSSS’s first President to honor his contributions, although he had retired from his military commission by then. Thus, parapsychological research was of- ficially accepted as a legitimate field of research. Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002600290003-0
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002600290003-0 Zha, Draft 13-Feb-90 page 11 An important change affecting the qigong movement occurred in 1987 when Dr. Qian Xuesen was named chairman of the Chinese Science and Technology Association, the semi-governmental commission that coordinates the nation’s scientific research. Dr, Qian, although famous, had held no position outside the military before, but now he was granted the right to guide the nation’s science policy. He did not waste this Opportunity and soon gave instructions urging the fur- therance of somatic science. He is quoted as saying: "Chinese qigong is modern science and technology--high technology--absolutely top technology" (Yi, 1988, p. 171). What caused Dr. Qian to offer so strong an endorsement? Aside from the prize-winning report described in Phase II above, we do not know what may have been achieved by defense-related teams such as SMEI. It seems certain, however, that Dr. Qian was strongly impressed by the results reported in Academia Sinica’s Shengwu Wuli Xuebao (Journal of Biophysics) by Lu Zuy- ing and colleagues (Lu, Zhao, et. al, 1987) of the Department of Chemistry and Biological Science at Qinghua University, which is the nation’s foremost technological school, In a series of experiments conducted between December 1986 and March 1987, qigong master Yan Xing, typically working at a distance of several kilometers, was able to create, shift, or intensify absorption peaks in the infra-red, ultra-violet, and paramagnetic resonance spectra of biological media. In other cases, chemical phase-change parameters were shifted, Concerning these results, Dr. Qian made the following recommendation to the editors of the Journal of Biophysics: The content of this paper is highly original. It has indeed indisputably proved that man can change the molecular properties of a substance without touching it. It is unprecedented work. Therefore, it should be published immediately, to announce this Chinese achievement to the whole world (Qian Cheng & Zhou, 1988, p. 283). Born in 1950 in Giangyu county, Sichang Province, Yan Xing is currently one of China’s foremost qigong masters. Mr. Yan began to practice qigong in his early childhood and was a pupil of Hi Deng Fashi, a famous Chinese "wusu" (martial arts) and qigong master. Unlike many other qigong students, Mr. Yan later attended school and graduated as a doctor from Chengdu Traditional Chinese Medicine College. He became famous in Chong Qing City for his “qi- emission" healing. It was repeatedly reported that patients, including those with comminuted bone fractures, were cured and able to return to work immediately as a result of Yan's treatment. To satisfy skeptics, the-cured bones were x-rayed before and after by medical doctors. Yan's patients, who numbered in the hundreds, began to write articles telling of his miracles. As a result of the spread of these stories by local news media, Yan came to Beijing in late 1986, where he did the PK experiments described above (Lu, Zhao, et. al., 1987) that excited Chairman Qian, as well as other experiments with physical effects (Lu, An, et. al., 1987: Lu, Zhang, et. al., 1988). For the general public, Yan Xing’s fame came mostly from his therapeutic lectures, which were referred to as “lectures carrying the qigong effect." His lectures were usually very long, lasting 8 to 14 hours, and were given in hundreds of cities with audiences as large as 30,000. In some Cases, towns were nearly emptied and factories declared a holiday to allow their workers to attend the lectures. It was reported that during the course of these lectures many audience mem- bers were cured as "the healing qi filled the room". Paralyzed patients in wheelchairs stood up and walked with tears of gratitude; cripples who came in on crutches walked out on their feet; patients’ gall stones disintegrated; diabetes was mitigated; cancers sent into remission; and pains in general, disappeared. While remaining on the stage, Yan talked only about the power of qi emission treatments and taught preliminary practice methods, meanwhile “releasing qi" as he talked. The claimed miracles happened by themselves without his direct individual attention. To verify these unbelievable effects, a research group from the High-Energy Institute of Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002600290003-0
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002600290003-0 Zha, Draft 13-Feb-90 page 12 Academia Sinica (which is also an important Chinese psi study site) reportedly slipped into a lecture hall without telling\the master, bringing with them various radiation measuring instru- ments. From a scientific point of view, they collected records of broad-band radiations of greater magnitude than their control recordings, but perhaps the most interesting datum gathered was the reported fact that during a 14 hour, non-stop lecture only 43 out of the estimated 1,400 people in the audience left the hall even temporarily, and of these, many went directly to pick up their children from closing kindergartens. The remainder of the audience had water but no food and did not leave even to visit restrooms. Evidently, their mental concentration was so intense that some physiological functions were largely suspended. Yan’s demonstrations pose more questions than science can hope to answer. Several scholars in Qinghua University initially were excited participants when Yan performed various transfor- mations of the physical characterisitics of samples at a distance of several meters, but they grew fearful and withdrew upon observing that the same results were being obtained when the master was at Guangzhou City, over 2,000 kilometers away from the samples being affected. (The distance would suggest a teleological process rather than one governed by the inverse-square law.) If these reports are true, the matter-mind relation must be more profound than most Wes- tern parapsychologists are willing to imagine. There are still other top qigong masters besides Yan Xing in China today: Chen Linfong, Mong Haunzhang, Wu Huawen, Wang Baojing, Huang Zenzhong, Wang Niping, Qiuan Guan- liang, to name but a few. The whole attitude of society toward qigong has changed. Stories of these masters appear daily in the news media, including major national publications such as the People’s Daily. An International Qigong Science Convention was held in October, 1988, in Beijing at which 142 printed papers from several Asian countries were presented, many from members of the newly approved CSSS. Qigong medicine is taking on some of the roles of Behavioral Medicine in the U.S.A. For example, a “China Qigong Cancer Treatment Research Association" was formed as a branch of the China Cancer Research Foundation in February, 1989. It is said to include 3 research in- stitutes, 4 hospitals, 2 recovery Centers, and 14 regional organizations (Qigong, 1989). An example of the changing academic prospects for parapsychology in China is the thriving civilian research group headed by Prof. Lin Shuhuang at Beijing Teacher’s College, one of the most active and productive teams thoughout the 1980’s. In the middle of the decade, Prof. Lin in the Physics Department of the College found it difficult to survive academically because his psi work was not formally accepted. Now, however, he has been promoted to the position of head of the College’s Scientific Research Coordinating Office. Still spending most of his energy on psi research, he and his ‘colleagues have been able to formally establish a “Comprehensive Tech- nology Institute" which has gained official support from the Chinese National Science Foun- dation, as well as at state, ministry, and commission levels, thereby allowing Lin to continue his somatic science work. . Most Westemers will find it hard to believe that parapsychology could gain so much momen- tum in a communist country where materialism is supposedly dominant. The explanation is to be found at the level of cultural philosophy. While there are, of course, personal political convolu- tions, the ideologies of communism and democracy are irrelevant in this matter. Western culture is Cartesian in that it divides reality into material and spiritual parts and as- signs to revealed religion all tesponsibility for the spiritual. Western science is neo-Cartesian in that it simply denies that consciousness has any reality. Because parapsychology seeks to relate consciousness to the physical world, its Study is resisted both by theologians and by sophisticated scientists in the West (Honorton, 1982: McConnell, 1983, pp 49-52; McConnell, 1987, p 208). Chinese have far less of a dichotomy in their thinking. While borrowing science from the Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002600290003-0