I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all the people whose help and support made a difference while I was writing this book. First and foremost I’d like to thank my wife, Dongmei, for her love, patience, and support. What started as a simple idea—to write a book—became an epic four-year journey. Your insights and clear vision were instrumental in steering this project. Then I wish to acknowledge my student and dear friend Rafael Nasser, whose contributions have helped make this project flow and shine brighter. Throughout these last few years you have become my American brother.
I am filled with gratitude for Bob Hawke, Blanche D’Alpuget, Sue Pieters-Hawke, Jan Pieters, and Hazel Hawke. I am also grateful to Blake, Craig, and John Michael Foster. Your friendship was the door that ushered me into the wondrous Western world, which has embraced the wisdom of Qigong with so much enthusiasm.
A special thanks to Sally Jessy Raphael and Karl Soderlund for always looking out for my best interest, Melissa Levy for her steadfast reliability, and Elaine Thomas for her inspired guidance.
With all of you in my life, New York has truly become my new home.
My wholehearted appreciation goes to Tami Simon, Nancy Smith, and the incredible team of talented professionals at Sounds True. Your integrity, openness, and boundless creativity have added so much sweetness and joy to this project.
A few other individuals deserve to be singled out as well: Tobin Dorn for his masterful illustrations, Melissa Pilgrim for her editorial contributions, Fritz Colinet for his help with the layout, Jon Gabriel Abrams for his wise counsel, David Kelson for his unconditional support, Deborah Boyar for her selfless contributions, Camilla Olsson for her tireless devotion, Prince Federico Pignatelli for graciously offering Pier 59 Studios for the photo shoot, Ramon Fernandez for his excellent photographs, Dennis Allen for his strategic vision, Ian Hatton and Simon Wu for their magical musical compositions, and to all my students and patients who inspired me to write this book in the first place.
And finally, to the family members and friends listed below, Rafael and I say thank you for your continued encouragement and goodwill:
Don and Lloyd Abrams; Khaliah Ali and Aaisha Fletcher; Sonia Amoroso; Dr. Don Beck; Fransje Bannenberg; Patricia Bell; Dr. Richard Brown and Patricia Gerbarg; Naomi Campbell; Rosa Ena Campos; Elaine Chang; Ligang Chen; Emmy Chetkin and Sara Chetkin; Katrina Chester; Dr. Florence Comite; Dr. Lou Cox; Tom Cratsley; Princess Maria Beatrice D’Savoia; Joelle, Arielle, and Joseph Dabbah; Bob and Helen Davies; Samantha DelCanto; Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia; Xiping Ding; Vlad Doronin; Joaquin Esteban; Jorge Farre; Sandra Fayers; Fellowships of the Spirit and staff; Steven Forrest; Kathy Freston; Robert Gehorsam; Michael Gelb; Damaris Jarboux; Mona Jolis; Judy’s Plant World; Gregory Kehn; Allan Kelson; Deborah Kerr and Ray Crow; Karinna Kittles-Karsten; Nigol Koulajian; Manming Li; Jean Lim; Shulin Liu and Shulan Liu; Yanhong Liu, Jie Liu, and Yihan Liu; Malcolm Livingston; Della Ludemann; Mingzhu Luo; James MacRitchie; Julia Marchevkova; Anna and Yael Melamed; Andrea Minett; Damian Miles; Wendi and Rupert Murdoch; Albert and Nancy Nasser; Alicia Nasser and Stephen Cohen; James, Roxane, Aaron, and Joshua Nasser; Peter Nicholas; Masahiro Ouchi; Nancy Packes; Patricia and Joe Panebianco; Mark Petersson; Shaoping Peng; Xiaoqun Yi; Siqin Peng; Yijia Wang and Yuhan Wang; Yuehui Peng, Xiangfeng Lu, and Lulu Peng; Yuping Peng, Zhanzhou Li, Yuanyuan Li, Jianke Li, and Zhenxiang Li; Glenn Robinson; Jon Rottman; Don and Cindie Scott; Steve Simpson; Louise, Olaf, Nicole, Zarah, and Sven von Sperl; Beatrice and Michael Stolowitzky; Mary Lou Stricklin; Mark and Jason Thomas; Andrea Vladimir; Peter, Kyle, and Matthew Romanoff; Jennifer Rudolph Walsh; Lina Wang; Tim Wang; Michael Winn; Nikki Winston; Henry Wei; Wendy Wang and Ken Wei; Qiyuan Yang; Jinsong Yao; Shihua Zhao and May Sun; Xiao Zheng; Aidong Zhou; Shaojun Zhou and Wenqing Zhou.