A Doctor’s Search for the Taoist Healing Energy by Lawrence Young, M.D.

When I was twelve and had just begun my grammar school education

in Hong Kong under the British system, I was at an age of

fantasies and hero worship. I was crazy about physics, mathematics,

atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs and nuclear reactors. Albert

Einstein was my hero and I wanted to be a physicist, discovering

the smallest particles of energy and matter, while exploring the

galaxies and the ever expanding universe.

Oddly enough, it was during the same time period that I read

about the esoteric experience of Master Yun. It was written in Chinese,

and I had the good fortune of having been taught how to read

classical, modern and simplified versions of the chinese language.

I did a lot of reading, staying in school and public libraries in Hong

Kong several hours a day after school was over. There I read about

Master Yun’s strange experience.

Master Yun was 28 in the year 1900. Pulmonary tuberculosis

was rampant in his village. Many villagers had died, including his

cousin. Then he came down with a cough which lingered for several

months. One day he coughed up a large amount of red blood

and went into a panic. He checked with his village elders, as well

as the traditional herbal doctors. They all confirmed that there was no treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis in 1900. Sunlight, fresh

air and adequate rest were the only hope.

However, they did come up with an idea — the last chapter of

the book: Annotated Chinese Medicinal Formulae recommended

Taoist Meditation as the best form of adequate rest. It suggested

that completing the Small Heavenly Cycle through the practice of

Taoist Meditation might activate the bodily defenses powerful enough

to overcome disease. Master Yun had practiced Taoist Meditation

since his teens but without any significent effect, except that he

always felt stronger when he practiced it regularly. Threatened by

death, he read the methodology in the Annotated Chinese Medicinal

Formulae carefully and consulted the village elders for clarification

of certain details. Then he commenced practicing four times

a day for two hours at a time, isolating himself in a small cottage.

On the eighty-fifth day, a sudden vibrating in his navel area caused

heat to rush up his spine to the back of his skull. The same sort of

vibration occurred on six consecutive nights with heat traveling up

through his spine to the top of his head each time that he practiced.

When it was all over, he seemed to have a new body. All

symptoms of his illness were gone and he felt light and bright like

never before.

One night, two years later, the vibration started up again in his

navel. This happened on three consecutive nights. The vibration

and heat rushed up his spine on its own, hitting the back of his

head (at the occiput) and causing considerable pain. One night his

‘skull suddenly felt as though it had cracked open and a sensation

of heat swirled round and round in the top of his head. This began

‘to happen every time he sat down to practice.

After another six months, a vibration again started suddenly in

his navel and the heat again rushed up to the top of his head, swirled

around in the vertex, came down his face, continued down to his

chest and went on to again reach his navel. Thereafter, during every

practice period, the heat went up his spine to the top of his

head, then came down his face and chest and returned to his navel,

after which, the heat circulated round and round without stopping.

Master Yun remained healthy until his passing in his nineties,

living a normal secular life.

I recount Master Yun’s personal experience because his autobiography,

first published in 1914, is an important landmark in Taoist

Meditation. Before him, no one had written about the actual methodology,

personal experience, benefits or side effects in simple,

explicit language. There are volumes and volumes of Taoist Esoteric

writing in Classical Chinese but the methodologies and accounts

of experiences are hidden in a cryptic language. The benefits

are written more explicitly, but the side effects are frequently

clouded.

At age twelve, fascinated by the personal experience of Master

Yun, I started to go through all the available Taoist classics that I

could lay my hands on. But I was disappointed because I simply

could not break what seemed to be a code, although I could understand

every single Chinese word literally. It was then that I started

an unending pilgramage to Taoist and Buddhist temples. I went to

temple after temple but found that there was a lot of ritual, philosophy

and religious data built into the meditation programs. Because

I refused to do the rituals. I could not be initiated into Taoist practice.

I was concerned by the fact that Master Yun had no teacher,

he learned from a Chinese medicine book and was never initiated

into Taoist practice via rituals. Never the less, I managed to talk to

several Taoist teachers and many of their students, whom are now

scholars and successful businessmen in Hong Kong, and was

able to learn of their personal experiences in terms of energy flow

and improvements in health similar to Master Yun’s.

Initiated Taoists spoke of step by step guidance into the experiences

that Master Yun had described and then higher levels beyond

that. Master Yun had no such step by step methodology. He

had only one step and one method that carried him through the

experience described above.

Unfortunately, university life was demanding, and there were so

many new attractions and distractions, that I stopped researching

Taoist and Buddhist meditations after I entered medical school.

The busy internship and residency years carried me even farther

away from my investigations. My resurgence of interest began several

years after my residency when I was in private practice. Although

I was using every means available to modern medical science,

many of my patients were still suffering and some of them

continued to die, perhaps needlessly.

The memory of Master Yun’s experience came up one day, along

with the advice the many Taoist and Buddhist initiates and teachers

I had seen. I had the thought, “If a patient has exhausted all

forms of available medical care, he should at least have the right to

try some safe mental techniques like meditation.” I set out on a

new pilgrimage to Yoga, Taoist and Buddhist meditation teachers,

biofeedback and stress reduction programs.

Mantak Chia is one of the teachers I have met in my new quest.

He is able to reproduce what Master Yun was able to do and goes

beyond that, doing what the Taoist initiates can do as well. He is a

Taoist initiate himself, but he does not include any of the Taoist

rituals, religion, or philosophies in his program. A Christian by conversion,

he is a doer, not a talker. He teaches his students solid

steps without any high-sounding philosophy.

I have interviewed many of his students and I estimate that over

50% of his students who put a reasonable effort into their practice,

open up the energy channels with vivid sensations and with noticeable

improvements in health. The rest of them open the channels,

without the vivid sensations, but with improvements in health. A

very small number drop out. I have observed no side effects in his

students, although all of them were prepared to meet all sorts of

unusual bodily sensations. His students come from practically all

walks of life, and many different races.

All in all, Mantak Chia is one of the few living heirs to the great

Taoist tradition. He has access to the codes in the Taoist Classics.

He is writing the Taoist Esoteric Encyclopedia in simple English for

everyone, dispensing what had been secrets for centuries in simple,

solid, easy-to-follow steps. Many other Taoist Masters and initiates

may not agree with him for giving this esoteric knowledge so freely.

If used for the improvement of health and the treatment of illness,

it is morally justified to disseminate this knowledge far and

wide. Fortunately, Chia refuses to teach higher levels of achievement

that might lead to paranormal abilities, unless the student

can prove himself to be a law-abiding and trustworthy citizen, willing

to serve mankind and use his or her esoteric knowledge to help

the needy in a selfless and generous manner.

I wish Mantak Chia every success in his ambitious endeavor.

Lawrence Young M.D. is an internist in private practice in New York City. He is the Director of the National Clearinghouse for Meditation

Relaxation and Related Therapies and publisher of its National

Report.