One of the most powerful practices during a F**k It Retreat is officially referred to as Free (or Spontaneous) Qigong. It’s usually only taught after a lot of Qigong practice. We often teach it the first day. It’s not dangerous, though it can look a bit potty from the outside. We introduce newbies to the wonderful healing art of Free Qigong by inviting them to ask, ‘What do I feel like doing?’ Though that’s not a way I’ve ever seen it taught.
The first time I came across Free Qigong was in the mid-‘90s. I enrolled in a Qigong course with a great Chinese master, Simon Lau, in South Kensington in London. He taught Qigong very methodically, very slowly: teaching over weeks the philosophy behind Qigong and how simply to stand and let the qi flow. He taught a basic form, too, but the emphasis was on standing (as described in Energize It). I was there for, I don’t know, maybe six weeks. But I had to skip the class for several weeks because I was off on a shoot somewhere. When I returned, most of the people in the group seemed to have changed. We began the standing practice, just as I had learned and practiced while I was away. I had my eyes closed and was really enjoying the sensation of the qi flowing in my body. Then I heard banging coming from elsewhere in the room. I resisted the temptation to open my eyes and continued to stand. Then I heard other noises: someone was grunting, someone started to moan, there was a louder banging as if someone was stamping hard on the wooden floor. I resolutely kept my eyes shut, and tried to keep my attention within my practice. But it was hard. The noises got louder and more varied. Over the course of the next 30 minutes, I heard someone howling like a wolf, someone else moaning as if they’d had their pet kitten taken away from them, the sound of that pet kitten which had been taken away, and what sounded like someone beating their chest.
I never went back.
A few years later, I was doing a Qigong course with another powerful Chinese Qigong master, Dr. Bisong Guo. After a few weekends of practice, she too started to leave more space between the teaching and the formal set exercises. In one of those sessions, with nothing being said, nothing being done, just the space to sit or lie around and just be, I, again, was enjoying the peace and the feeling of qi flowing around my body.
Then, suddenly, there was a noise; the sound of a hand beating some part of the body… then a rhythmic guttural sound not unlike a Native American chanting by the fire. What a shock. Especially when I realized something.
It was me! Me doing the beating! Me doing the chanting thing! I hadn’t thought about doing it. I hadn’t wanted to do it. But it had just happened. Really naturally. And there was no stopping it. I seemed to be doing stuff and expressing stuff that I hadn’t consciously thought needed doing or expressing.
And I loved it. Soon everyone was at it. Or most of us anyway. Others were asleep. Though I don’t know how they slept through that racket. And the racket was just like the racket I’d heard a few years earlier, and had run a mile from. Only I was now helping to make it.
And I really got it this time. When you relax enough and tune in enough and settle enough, eventually the qi starts to move and, if you can fancy, you can follow that movement. Sometimes you feel like shaking, sometimes stretching, sometimes running around, sometimes shouting or howling, or sometimes sobbing. You don’t decide to sob, the sobbing just happens. You don’t decide to do the downward dog, the downward dog just happens. You open the door to it and that downward dog just bounces in to do its downward thing.
Free Qigong is VERY healing. You know it while it’s happening, if you’re aware of anything at all. When you let go and give in to whatever’s going on there, you’re unleashing whatever it is below (or above) all that’s normally going on: whether it’s the qi, or your instinct, or your higher self, or the Holy Spirit (those evangelical Christians get into some pretty freaky-looking stuff in the name of the Holy Spirit, including speaking blaj I waj see dah flas lieu majjaww tongues).
When you let go, you naturally begin to Express It. Whatever it is that needs to be expressed. Well, it’s not even that you express it; the expressing just kind of happens.
If you watched one of those sessions from the outside, maybe on TV, the commentator would probably say, ‘Please, don’t try this at home.’ On the contrary, my friend. Do try this at home. Here’s how:
You could practice Qigong for a while, until you really begin to feel the qi and the flow of qi in different parts of your body. Then, if you stand or sit still and wait long enough, you will feel compelled to move in a certain (usually peculiar) way.
Or, you could put some great music on and stand still for a little while. Relax your whole body. Breathe deeply. Close your eyes. Then start asking yourself, ‘What do I feel like doing?’ Whatever comes back, do it. It will probably be a stretch or a shake or a boogie. Follow that. And keep asking yourself, ‘What do I feel like doing?’ Follow it, wherever it takes you. You’ll be amazed at where it does take you and how you feel afterward. As I said, Free Qigong is very healing.
And if you want to know how far it can take you. Listen to this. Gaia has done Qigong for years, like me. And Gaia is particularly intuitive, trusting, and spontaneous. Any of you who know her will regard that as an understatement. So Gaia was particularly into Qigong over the course of a couple of years. She’d do hours a day. She’d get up in the middle of the night to do it (the qi varies at different times of the day and night). And she’d do Free Qigong outside in the early morning. At the time we lived in a rented house on a hill. Around the house was a garden, and there were pretty steep drops on all sides. You probably wouldn’t kill yourself if you fell down one, but it wouldn’t be a pleasant journey. And the whole area was like that: little flat areas, some tracks and roads, and steep fields and drops.
Well, Gaia would close her eyes and start doing her Qigong, which would usually mean rolling around in the grass, or running around the garden at high speed – with her eyes closed. She came in one morning, as usual with bits of twig and grass in her hair. And she told me about that morning’s ‘practice’ (clearly a ridiculous word for what she was doing). She had been running around the garden as usual, narrowly missing falling off the edges, and the qi had taken her off. She just wanted to run. So she ran… and ran… and kept running. No, not like Forrest Gump who ran for months. But she just ran, all the time with her eyes closed. Yes, indeed. And then she felt like stopping, so she did. And then she was guided to put her hand out, so she did. And, for the first time that morning, she opened her eyes. And there, in front of her, was a horse, sniffing her outstretched hand.
Now, don’t do that at home.
But do have a go at this. We know many, many people who have made this a regular part of their practice/life.
And it’s really about the most healing thing you could ever hope to do. Why? Well, it’s probably the case that all the various forms of yoga, Qigong, and tribal dances were developed in just this way: by people like Gaia who were incredibly in tune with the qi or life force, and just moved as they were taken. They, or someone watching them, would then turn that into a set form for the rest of the world to have a go at. It seemed easier that way. So what we get in the various forms of yoga and Qigong are broad, therapeutic movement forms. It’s like a form of physical exercise that manages to cover all the muscle groups – an off-the-peg suit, if you will.
However, if you really tune in, what you get is EXACTLY what you need and is right for you – a handmade suit, if you will. It might be that you’re in perfect form apart from a slight blockage in your gall bladder meridian. Well, without you knowing, or ever having to know, anything about gall bladder meridians, or any other meridians, you find yourself doing a stretch and patting your legs, which (if you did know anything about the meridians) is the perfect way to sort out that blockage. It’s like having the best Chinese doctor right inside you, or the best guru within you, or the best yoga teacher or energy healer. Whatever you fancy. When you tap into that qi, that vital life force, you’re tapping into the best wisdom that money can’t buy, without spending any money. Now that’s magic.