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Zha-McConnell: 09-Jun-90
Parapsychology in the People’s Republic of China
page 1
CPYRGHTd
qigong departments.
It is estimated that at least 20 million people in P.R.C., many of them well
educated, were practicing qigong in some form and at some level by the end of 1987 (Yi, 1987).
Foreign visitors were astonished to see that the qigong learners blocked parks, courtyards, and
rgmall streets while doing their morning or evening exercises.
It is obvious that the qigong movement and the reappearance of EFHB news reports (usually in
relation 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 in 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
et 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).
Other leaders showed their support publicly. Hu Qiaomu, the standing mem-
ber of the Party’s Central Political Bureau in charge of propaganda, said in a reported meeting in
T£
bi
?
Ze
U
.
nit
,
in 0Ur SOCiety to study tfgong science. I believe it is a very fundamen-
mJS £?
ff
abS0lute y not suPerstidous ficd<>n-
This
is not something about which one
H
r°P
f
gandlZe ’ or make
u^ comment”, but a topic that needs great efforts to publicize and
facilitate its development to serve the four modernizations (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, directive 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 prehminary committee under the translated name "Chinese Human-Body Science Associa-
tion
(and
Oirna Anthropic Science Association") was finally approved on May 3, 1987, under a
new -officially- translated-name as the- Chinese Society-of^matic-Science" (CSSS). Mr. Zhang
Zhenhuan was elected as the CSSS’s first president to hdnor his contributions, although he had
retired from his military commission by then. The NJ alsb resumed publishing research papers
explicitly on psi topics m 1987, though they are often qigong-related now. Thus, parapsychology
was officially accepted as a legitimate field of science in P.R.C.
—~
~
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
10 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-
STr
°f s°™at^
,f
ce - He
is quoted as saying:
"Chinese qigong is modem science and
ecnnology—high technology—absolutely top technology" (Yi, 1987).
i W
5!!f
aUS
S?
Dr* ^ian t0 0ffer so strong m endorsement?
Aside from the prize-winning film
described in Phase II above, we do not know what may have been achieved by defense-related
earns such as ISME.
It seems certain, however, that Dr. Qian was strongly impressed by the
esults more recently reported in Academia Sinica’s Shengwu Wuli Xuebao (Acta Biophysica
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Parapsychology in the People’s Republic of China:
1979 - 1989
Leping Zha
1 & Tron McConnell
ABSTRACTS The senior author, a graduate student of physics in the U.S.A., provides from his
Rennhitr^'
6^; ^
aI
11151017 °f
Parapsychology movement
in the People’s
Repuhhc of C3una (P.R C.) over the last decade. From 1979 to 1982, research into ESP (and PK)
nf thp\
C^ldreL
S7"PL
tSS^
h China
: ™S research uP°n what was called "exceptional functions
Umai\
y_(EFHB), gave rise to a sizable literature and to commitments, pro and con,
The o^mn^m of
7™protagomsts emcrged t0 carry the battle to the highest political forum.
The opponent of EFHB was an eminent
social
scientist and vice-chaiiman of the Chinese
cademy of Science.
The proponent was a physicist regarded internationally as "the father of
nese space technology."
After a public debate in the press, ending in a collaborative test of
tiie country s best-known psychics, the Communist Party raled that both sides must cease public
shifedT sifted
at
ftT
UPP
°h
ed“
00111(1 Pr0Ceed quiCtly*
From 1983
t0 1986 ’ ^rest
shifted
to
gifted
adult psychics.
Research was conducted partly
at major
universities
but
MeT
an
!vi
Und°r defense'related ^spices
in
Beijing, where gross PK
effects were reported
Meanwhtie, privately circulated publications fanned civilian research interest in parapsychology
under tire ancient rubrics of "qigong" and "Traditional Chinese Medicine."
In 1987 a set of
^
“ *** Act° MPWca Sinica from Qinghua University.
From 1987 to 1989 interest in qigong grew until, according to news reports, there were 20 million
Sd
P
OffiHTi
C
a
UdmgT
IeadefS °f
,
the Communist Party-
Restraints on research were quietly
EFHR
Th
pproval was granted t0 a "Puna Society of Somatic Science" for the study of
rh .
c
'
Jb
space
scientist mentioned
earlier was made responsible for coordinating
all of
fT
n?*
• The
aV
n
°"ng of Parapsychology has apparently persisted despite theBeijing
scientif^H^B^sfa
0^^
9^^
311
^!!
110 ’ 3 divergence bf ** P°Pular qigong movement and
from the PRC Tt
*^
^
prevalence and strength- of psi effects reported
parcd 10 Oratory experience in the West, raises a question as to tire role
of the West s Cartesian cultural heritage in determining empirical reality.
-j
-— * -
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