Master Yap Soon Yeong and Chok C. Hiew, Ph.D., authors of Chaoyi Fanhuan Qigong Healing: Healing Self, Healing Others

Authors Website: www.cfqhealingqigong.ca

              May/June 2002 Featured Stories
Cosmic Freedom Qigong

 by Miriam Knight interviews Dr. Chok C. Hiew

It was on a trip to his native Malaysia that Dr. Chok Hiew, a Canadian psychologist, met Master Yap, the person who would finally give him the tools he needed to help the children he had been working with in war torn countries. Dr. Hiew was part of an international team of mental health professionals focused on a humanitarian mission to Kosovo to work with local doctors and teachers, helping children suffering from stress and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of atrocities committed against them and their families.

Master Yap had always been interested in the Martial Arts. When he discovered that he could heal by transmitting energy, he left accountancy and became an extraordinary healer. He manifested electrical phenomena-sparks flying off him, appliances turning off - but he soon lost his health. He was close to dying when he went back to meditation and had the experience of connecting with the light within and all the information about Cosmic Freedom Qigong (CFQ) poured out of him in one night. Since then he has healed himself and many others. Master Yap was helping children with Downs Syndrome (in 3 sessions!) when Dr. Hiew invited him to Canada in 1994.

Dr. Hiew had also been working with the street children of SE Asia - many rescued from the sex trade, severely traumatized and infected with HIV. Initially he used conventional therapies, and it was not until he connected with CFQ that he found a technique that could really help.

CFQ integrates psychology and science, mind and body. The conventional biomedical model of healing is inadequate, looking as it does at the disparate parts. It was only in 1991 that the relationship between emotions on physical effects was finally accepted as a key contributor of illness. "Life is so simple! We don't have to improve on natural processes," Dr Hiew declares. "Healing in order to be effective must be simple." The essence of CFQ is a complete letting go process that eliminates the fundamental cause of illness--stuck, negative energy--and enables us to use the pure universal energy we are born with to heal ourselves.

How do we become ill in the first place? The price we pay for living is that we have to use this body and this mind; and in the process, there is an accumulation of wear and tear from the stresses of living and we end up with blocked and debased energy. Think of a pool of water. If it is stagnant it becomes foul and smelly; it needs to move to stay pure. Energy is the same - if the flow stops it becomes debased.

To counteract this we need life force that we accumulate from nature to keep our bodies alive and functioning. The down side is that we also absorb negative energy forces that cause blockages, so that the positive energy flow - Qi- that sustains and nourishes us is blocked. Very emotional or traumatic experiences cause an upsurge in the absorption of negative energy and barriers to the continued healthy flow of chi from the outside.

Energetically it looks like a dark cloud. It is called mano consciousness and in Chinese it is called Wu Ming - an energetic cloud of traumatizing memories, fears and conflict experiences beyond the reach of the brain. It is these powerful energy forces that cause physical disease, aging. It inhibits the normal physiological functioning of all the vital organs, because it is a actually a physical force; it is energy that pushes against the cells so the cells literally suffocate because of the compression and the twisting and misalignment. Blood flow may be affected causing heart disease; or the body's normal clearing out of the debris of dead cells - the immune function - may be impaired.

Psychologically, our emotions become unbalanced, inharmonious, conflicted; our bodies are tense, then we draw in negative energy. We are cut off from that that luminous spiritual body, that God Seed within, that nurtures us, and we are not able to experience the peace, joy and harmony- that would be the kind of consciousness that would draw in pure energy.

The Eastern conception of who we are is more elaborate than the Western concept of the five senses and the mind. The sixth level is mental awareness, including the unconscious, which is like a black box. There are a lot of things that are suppressed and become part of our deep psyche. They are stored at the 7^th or Spirit level; this is an altered state where you have the residues of deep conflict and trauma, such as in PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) that are stored in the form of energy memories not accessible by the mind. These are the kind of memories deep within our consciousness that never go away, but have the tendency to surge out and have a physical effect on the brain. So you may have flashbacks and re-live traumas, shifting the mind into a negative altered state.

Beyond the 7^th is the deepest part of our consciousness. That is called the Alaya consciousness. It is the transition between our energy and physical bodies. Alaya means "storehouse" or "granary". It holds the seeds of everything that we have thought or felt or done. It is these energy forces, now in the form of karmic seeds that will become future events in our physical reality based on all our actions, thoughts and emotions.

Deep in the Alaya storehouse is Pure Consciousness- the divine spark; our true instinct which is boundless love. This is just one of the countless seeds in the Alaya, but that is the part that does the healing. We have to clear away all the blockages in the body and in the mind so that pure consciousness can expand and fill us with love and joy and peace. That is the only thing that can cleanse our Karma.

Because the Karma is focused on more egocentric things, the "I wants." Karmic energy is what keeps us alive, but also what makes us cling onto the memories and emotions that we experience. The downside is that we create all these blockages and there is no longer a healthy flow of Qi; the result is pain, illness and suffering. If we want to access and use the seed of light within us, we need to clear a path, and that is where CFQ can help.

CFQ is an acronym from the original Chinese 'Chaoyi Fanhuan Qigong' that was translated to Cosmic Freedom Qigong. Rooted in traditional Chinese medicine, it is a way of cleansing the body, mind and spirit. It uses two techniques: meridian exercises and meditation. Combined, they can undo what the body has accumulated in life. They help you access Metta - the source of boundless love - which is the only way we can get rid of these impurities.

The meditation is difficult, because it makes you deal with your karma. What comes up is the Wu Min, all your past failings, which you try to work through, systematically over time. It is not an easy task to remember all those painful things throughout your life that you have shut away. The meditation stirs up Wu Min and you need to move to release the stress and tension. You allow those movements to happen rather than trying to suppress them, unlike in traditional meditation.

A quicker way to clear these blockages is through a 7-step program of energy cleansing movements that flush out the trapped debased energy. They quickly undo the tension and trauma accumulated in the physical and energy bodies, and harmonize the body's systems.

CFQ is a different way of conceptualizing health. The usual way of healing is to add things. You assume that something is missing so you supply, drugs, supplements or herbs. CFQ says we are born with basic health, and it is because of the wear and tear of living that everything is clogged up. To revive the machine, you just need to get rid of the "sludge." If we can simply let go, release the tension, our natural resilience will take over.

Chok C. Hiew holds a PhD from the University of Colorado and is currently professor of psychology at the University of New Brunswick, Canada. He is the author of "The Tao of Healing" and "Energy Meditation" as well as many academic publications reflecting his long-term aspiration to build bridges between science and intuition. Email: hiew@unb.ca Website: www.cfqhealingqigong.ca

Master Yap Soon-Yeong is a renowned Qigong and meditation healer and the Founder of Chaoyi Fanhuan Qigong (CFQ) an original energy medicine method that he teaches worldwide. His remarkable, authenticated and continuous healing record is described in his biographic bestseller: Energy Medicine in CFQ Healing. He lives in Penang, Malaysia and for the past twenty years he has a thriving CFQ Centre for healing appointments and training international visitors.

Chok C. Hiew, (Ph.D.) has been a psychology professor at the University of New Brunswick for more than 30 years and as CFQ Founding Trainer has authored and published seven books on CFQ training. He has introduced CFQ to North American and international audiences in conference presentations and workshops since 1997. He has pioneered Qigong techniques internationally as trauma training for people traumatized by exploitation, epidemics, armed conflict, and natural disasters. Chok grew up in Malaysia, went to school in Boulder, CO and lives in Canada.

*INTERVIEW with CHOK HIEW

Editor Waseem Aladdin:

Counselling Psychology Quarterly: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice (2003).

Having reviewed your scholarly books, video, training manuals and attended your workshop on meridian therapy many of the questions I am asking you have been answered therein. However, CPQ readers who are not familiar with your works would, I think, be interested in your responses.

1. Qigong as energy therapy is an accepted part of your cultural heritage but as a respected professor of health psychology-a man of science-did you think twice before going public about your deep involvement in Qigong?

Necessity and conviction gradually overruled my lack of courage and initial distrust of indigenous (read "superstitious") ways of treating human problems. Globalisation of psychological interventions based on a Western (and especially North American) perspective has reached epidemic proportions. The historic wisdom of the East evident in its wealth of indigenous psychological health practices is fast disappearing and may not survive for long. My hope is that the world will benefit from a more multicultural or universally representative psychological paradigm that integrates the experiences of all humankind.

As an academic, I belonged to various professional and psychological international associations concerned with the basic rights and well being of children and families traumatised by global human trafficking, poverty, HIV and disease, sexual exploitation, and armed conflict. In such tragic circumstances, I was confronted with young child victims with abject emotional suffering and agony and felt moved to do something.

But all that I knew about trauma psychology was inadequate to alleviate their misery, or their despair and recurrent PTSD. It was futile to attempt to work at removing surface symptoms without attending to the poor prognosis of long term negative consequences that will overwhelm these helpless victims. What these maimed and severely traumatised victims needed was a way to heal their consciousness to return to emotional stability and the long road back to health.

*I have added some new comments to relate the article to the new book: Chaoyi Fanhuan Qigong: Healing Self, Healing Others (Nov, 2009).

2. Many people who are into complementary and alternative medicine have some familiarity with Qigong as an energy medicine but you are promoting a specific form Cosmic Freedom or CFQ Qigong, isn't one form of Qigong as good as another?  What's so special about CFQ Qigong?

CFQ (Chaoyi Fanhuan translated as Cosmic Freedom Qigong) while rooted in Eastern and Taoist philosophy and consciousness training claims no ancient lineage as other forms of Qigong do.  CFQ practise does not make claims of its efficacy based on irrefutable beliefs or unquestionable tradition. What's unique about CFQ is its "good science" or empirical approach grounded on solid theoretical underpinnings and testable assumptions. The clearly stated rationale is concretely operationalized as strategic principles and clear, easy-to-learn, procedures. That means that certain principles and practices that were traditionally "guarded secrets" in Qigong lore are demystified and transparent in CFQ. 

Essentially CFQ is a consciousness shifting and mind-body technique aimed at developing what health psychologists call "self regulation skill" to bring about cognitive, emotional, behavioural, and physiological equilibrium.  In Qigong, regulating the mind, the breathing, and the body are the keys. In practice, balance, naturalness (take things as it is) and harmony with Nature is essential. 

CFQ Qigong, unlike many forms of Qigong, avoids the pitfall of over emphasising any single dimension and causing harm rather than benefits. Emphasising the body implies that one should physically strengthen the body, but strength and hard muscles contradicts loosening and relaxation necessary for smooth energy flow. An emphasis on breathing suggests special, rigorous breathing techniques to absorb more air (or qi) and its "nourishing essence" but that contradicts a natural function and being harmonious with Nature. Emphasis on the mind implies overworking the mind's basic functions such as concentration, heavy-duty thinking and visualisation and such practice would not lead to a peaceful consciousness.

The CFQ self-regulation training manuals spell out the healing methodology that is also designed to be self-evaluative. Complete adherence ensures replicability of desired results.

A measure of its efficacy is the experience of wellbeing and the relaxation state within one practice session (the recommended 45-60 minutes of meridian exercising).

Let me read an excerpt from a recent letter by a respected and experienced psychologist and family therapist. I have to hold her name back since this is impromptu:

"I personally am continuing to benefit from CFQ, and it is becoming evident that I can help others heal by doing CFQ on their behalf. I consider this one of the most important methodologies in the world today, and I want to support you in spreading it throughout the world. Many thanks for what you are doing, on behalf of all those who benefit."

3. It is admirable that in your books you have given detailed accounts of the process of how you arrived at becoming the founding trainer of CFQ Qigong and shared with your readers freely and frankly your experiences with your teacher Master Yap from Malaysia, of which we are both natives.  You speak of him with great respect but apart from his obvious charisma, what in particular about him impressed you?

More than a decade ago, I met Master Yap in Penang when I presented a psychology seminar. Before long, I saw first-hand how he used radiant energy guided by his hands to heal patients coming to his popular clinic and documented his remarkable healing record. As I got to know Master Yap, I told him of my high regard for him, but felt that there were plenty of amazing healers in the world but they really didn't understand or couldn't explain how to heal. I suggested that to be a world healer he could teach others how so that they too can learn to be healers and multitudes of suffering humanity will benefit, well beyond what he personally can do even measured in a life-time. So what particularly impressed and touched me was his generous and compassionate heart. He became a healing and meditation teacher and I soon became the Founding Trainer of the CFQ Qigong system.

Sifu Yap is what he teaches. He exudes radiance and a joyous countenance. He has a genuine transparency in outlook and in relating with others. He is unpretentious in manner, and speaks from the heart. He has the ability to teach others to experience and purify their energy field.

In several global workshop tours, I work closely, travel and lived with him. He needs little sleep (much less than five hours), he does continuous marathon energy treatments (14 patients over 10 hours a day)--Other than a lunch break and a brief walk outdoors in between treatments at times. At the end of the day he is still radiant and fully in the present. This is his normal professional work routine in his clinic, and he has been at it since 1989.

4. Presumably meridian therapy does not require a belief in God. It works for the young and the old. It has specific and global effects. It's so simple and gentle in its exercises yet it is so profound in its effects. For example, I was astonished at the drop in my blood pressure (some 20mm of mercury) after a mere 45 minute practise of CFQ Qigong. What would you say to those who may exclaim that it is the closest we have to a panacea and sounds just simply too good to be true?

Right, there is no panacea and CFQ healing has lasting effects only with continued effort and perseverance to help oneself.

Psychological and medical science has established the mind-body connection and the dynamics of health. Psychopathology and pain arises from emotional turmoil and disturbed thinking that provokes the stress response. Fundamentally, psychological disability perpetuates physiological dysfunction, a breakdown of the self-repair response, and eventual poor health.

Qigong is an integral part of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) with a very contemporary disease etiology, paraphrased as the link between the seven emotions that creates disharmony and weakens a person to become vulnerable to attack by external noxious agents of disease.

The emotional tension is trapped as coiled-in dense energy forces that block energy flow in the body's network of meridians. The physical (blood) and non-physical (bioenergy) exists in a yin-yang balance, Energy blockages lead to blood flow blockages and hardens tissue and muscles, misaligns posture and inhibits self-regulatory mechanisms.

Another TCM assumption (from the" Huangti Nei Ching" Book, the most ancient Classic on Internal Medicine): "When the bioenergy flushes down, hundreds of disease disappears."

As you have experienced, 45 minutes of meridian exercising is effective to flush out and unblocked the meridians and harmonise your blood pressure.

Ironically, we know that some of the best healing techniques are also the simplest. Remember another research based relaxation technique—biofeedback—and its mind-less simplicity. It works because the procedure enables the mind to detach, disengage and become free from its distressing thoughts.

5. I admit I was sceptical (but open-minded) when I attended your workshop at the International Council of Psychologists Conference in Toronto this year.  I had had a very late night and was tired at the early start, at risk of falling asleep on my feet! I was afraid the short simple exercise we were about to do was going to leave me breathless, showing how unfit I was. However, I was amazed at the profound and rapid effects of something as simple as the lotus walk. For me, the doing —the experiencing— is believing. I felt uplifted, energised and I suppose you would describe me as being on the road to becoming radiant. I also noticed that my breathing had become rhythmic and effortless. This experiential transformation was like a peak experience for me and I was sold on CFQ Qigong and decided then and there that I should interview you and invite you to the UK so that others could also experience for themselves the powerful effects. Is this the sort of experiences your workshop participants have?

In a typical two-day workshop, the first day is spent on understanding and experiencing the meridian exercises. By the end of the day, participants would have practise the Hexagram dance. And many would feel energised and a good sense of well being and lightness (rather than fatigue) going home. They have unplugged their meridians and enhanced their energy flow.

The full impact becomes evident when participants return on the second day. I would begin with doing with them two sets of the Hexagram dance.  No sooner than having sat down, people would share their stories of their experiences and their collective wonderment: a clinically depressed client announcing a deep refreshing sleep for the first time in 17 years); constipation or bladder infection cleared out; a chronic knee pain evaporates; people with chronic illnesses waking up feeling energetic and a more hopeful outlook, and so forth.

CFQ practitioners who were therapists describe teaching their clients a single meridian exercise (e.g., Movement I called "Flying Cloud Hands") repeated for 25-30 minutes and reported their clients felt relaxed and more motivated to talk about their problems. One trauma patient (auto accident) became so energised that their depression and apathy lifted and became motivated to seek legal counsel for insurance claims.

There are also stand alone meridian exercises such as the "butterfly shake" and the "lotus walk." These are energy tools that clear out blocked meridians, smooth energy flow, and expand consciousness. One feels more alive sensing the radiant energy coursing through one's entire being beyond the routine consciousness confined to the brain.     

And this was just the beginning.  For those who persevere and took the time to let go and relax with meridian exercising daily, the genuine well being continued as deeper psychological issues and problems were resolve and cleared away.    

6.  I understand you have a book (now in print: True Stories of Qigong Healing), which details the remarkable and positive experiences of other professionals and people in general of CFQ Qigong which sceptical people may assess for themselves. Whilst particular CFQ Qigong exercises have specific effects on certain conditions but as a totality they have an unblocking effect on the meridian channels and facilitating the free flow of chi and therefore on the mind-body-spirit as a whole. Now a question that the hard nosed scientists amongst us would like answered. Could it be that the remarkable effects you have reported in your books are nothing more than either placebo effects or just due to the charismatic effects of the teacher, in energy medicine terms the golden radiance of the therapist's personality?

Placebo or the power of positive thoughts and the credibility of the therapist certainly can be a source to facilitate healing in all forms of therapy. For healing actions to have their intended effects, co-operation between physician/therapist is needed. But we know that this is short-lived and soon disappears as stressful thoughts and emotional pain resume and take over.

I know placebo effects cannot produce or demonstrate lasting cures (at least three years) for hypertension, diabetes, frozen shoulders, sciatica, PTSD, to name a few. I have documented these and multiple other cases with CFQ healing actions (see Energy Medicine in CFQ Healing (2002)). Similarly, with childhood diseases and animals such as race horses with damaged knees (see Tao of

Healing (2000)).

In the book you alluded to, several chapters are contributed by health professionals documenting how their clients benefited after they introduced CFQ therapy in their treatment. These professionals saw how the new interventions made a powerful difference, whereas previous treatment modalities were found wanting. 

You can also look at the published research on other Qigong therapies (accessed by "Pub Med" web link) reported in numerous scientific reports and peer reviewed journals.

In our Energy Medicine (2002) book, we documented cases of patients in deep coma for weeks that were revived after one session of CFQ treatment and subsequent stay awake. I doubt a placebo or therapist's charisma can operate in patients who are physiologically in an unconscious state!

Clients learn the meridian exercises and energy meditation as self-care tools once personal therapy is completed. When they practice daily on their own, they reap the benefits such as sounder sleep, pain reduction, more energy, a strengthened immune system, and better coping with stress. But if they stop for a week, problems creep back. It's one's perseverance to take healing actions to flush out trapped tension energies that works, not placebo.

7. You also teach meditation in CFQ Qigong. How does this differ for example from mindfulness meditation?

Yes, most Qigong have both meridian movement exercises and healing meditation modalities. In meditation traditions such as insight meditation and Zen meditation, the meditator learns to be relaxed, to let go, and be at peace. But not healing per se.  CFQ light meditation has all these features including the healing effect.  Healing comes from its special feature of using the meridian channels as outlets to flush out negative energy forces.

In meditation, the purpose is to cleanse past karma (thoughts, emotions, actions and memories of all experiences) held in one's entire being (mind, body and spirit. With complete letting go, mind and body is liberated, peace and harmony is revealed and experienced.  However, this is a difficult task and there are no guarantees even after a lifetime of practice.

Besides, meditators over time do age also suffer age-related diseases or arthritic pain so that they may be unable to physically sit in a traditional meditative posture or stay relaxed and continue their meditation practice. The more their meridians are plugged up the less likely they are able to sit mentally relaxation or remain in stillness. Without relaxation, there is no peace and their meditation cannot advance. 

In CFQ meditation, the process of cleansing karmic forces is operationalized as flushing out energy forces.  Karmic energy or trauma is released in the unwinding process as spontaneous movements and discharged by grounded predominantly through the meridians in the legs. With sufficient purification, the dense obstacles become more transparent, energy flows harmoniously, and the primal ocean of healing energy (Metta) radiates out from within activating the self-repair response.

8. With your academic credentials and oriental background you are uniquely placed to promote CFQ Qigong. You have given an ancient practice scientific respectability and demonstrated that it is not simply a placebo effect or merely due to the charisma of the therapist.   Your books and website give details of some of humanitarian efforts you have assisted with worldwide both for the war traumatized and for health care professionals in particular.  If you had all the resources you needed, how would you further promote CFQ Qigong?

What I wish to say is not just to promote CFQ Qigong to your readers. It is to promote understanding of an age-old resilience or wisdom paradigm based on the consciousness-energy factor.  This is not about mind-body therapies based on positive psychology, or the power of the mind over body in whatever form. In Eastern health practices, the correct interpretation is mind-in-body or mind freed or detached from thinking. It allows restoration of the primal consciousness and brilliance (the health protective life energy) to the body.  In the presence of a harmonious energy flow, each heartbeat and breath radiates life and rejuvenates mind, heart, and body.