One shouldn't of course take any affirmation on qi gong at its face
value but, as we have seen, scientific experiments can be carried out
with it. We have taken good note of the différence between the
qi gong you practice yourself (or under the guidance of an instructor)
and qi gong practised by a therapeutist on a patient. We have learnt
that, in China, only doctors can now practice it, which leaves it to
be believed that, while therapeutic qi gong can be beneficial, it may
also present risks.
Experimentation, whether it involves work on oneself or work with the
projection of Qi, does not raise insuperable difficulties. There are
methods to assess the psychological repercussions of a personal practice
like concentration or the physiological impact (coherence of the brain
waves). These methods have moreover been successfülly applied to
test other oriental disciplines which arrived earlier in France, such
as yoga and zen.
The cultural gap itself is not insuperable, provided it is borne in
mind that support from. the subject is required more than elsewhere.
This handicap can moreover be overcome by conducting animal experiments.
As for the applications, relaxation or well-being are put forward firstly:
this is qi gong 'helping in everyday life'. A destressing factor, it
can therefore be beneficial combined with any offier therapy because
it is now known that stress weakens the immune defences.
That would be an explanation for its effects on the very wide range
of pathologies seen in the bibliography; often, moreover, the iraprovements
observed concern the subjective state of the patients as much as biological
parameters which sometimes remain unchanged.
Tuming to pathologies, mention is to be made above all of its use in
combating hypertension and senescence which are public health problems
in France: one in two French people over 50 years old suffer from. hypertension
and more and more of the population is growing older and therefore increasingly
exposed to ageing diseases.
Qi gong is also worth being studied where western medicine is inoperative,
which is the case with pneumoconiotics. We therefore sincerely hope
pneumologies will take a close interest in this therapy.
M. Cocude