SDAFF BLOGGER ON A SECOND NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC “FIGHT SCIENCE” EPISODE

How many of you remember that during the San Diego Asian Film Festival 2009 that there was a lady giving free Qi (chi) readings in the lobby of the theater being helped by her husband who helped many of the individuals with chi bean therapy, chi twig therapy and spoke about Qigong (chi gong)?

They discussed how Qi, Qigong and Qi healing can help people overcome disease, illness and just about any physical or mental injury.

The man was me (this blogger), and the woman was my wife Silvia Nien Mei Reid. We’re qi healers and during five fantastic nights at the SDAFF 2009 we helped one-on-one over 150 patrons at the festival understand more about the powers of Qi and Qi healing.

Last week I shared about my appearance and experiences on the National Geographic Channel (NGC) TV program FIGHT SCIENCE in the episode Fight Like an Animal, in which I was the show’s animal martial arts experts as we tried to elucidate and compare the fighting assets and abilities of the white crane, praying mantis, monkey, snake and tiger with five human martial brothers.

In case you missed the episode it airs on the NGC tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 pm.

Well, as it turns out, National Geographic invited me back for a second appearance on FIGHT SCIENCE, during an episode entitled Stealth Fighters, in which this time I am their Qigong expert as we investigate the unseen force of Qi.

However, we did not discuss its initial inception into history as a healing power, which originated circa 3000 B.C. but explored how martial artists tapped into this natural bio-energy during the A.D. 500s as a means for the body to absorb death-blows and strikes to one’s body.

To demonstrate this on the show we used a spear and baseball bat.

So imagine, if you will, A-Rod stepping up to the plate and blasting the living daylights out of a baseball with homerun power. Now imagine that he’s not hitting a baseball but your gut.

This is what we did during the Qigong section of the Stealth Fighters episode. The problem is, if we actually hit a homerun and hit the Qigong practitioner on the show out of the ballpark, it would be much more messy.

But of course to drive further home the Qigong homerun, our anti-bat Qigong man will also will take a whack on the back with a whopping piece of wood with a spear jammed against his throat at the same time.

Although when we think of stealth in martial arts we associate ninja, assassins or highly trained special forces personnel with that behavior, at the end of the day anyone who practices martial arts relies on stealth, the element of surprise.

This is why the martial artists who don’t boast or talk about their skills have the ultimate stealth weapon. But now imagine if you practice Qigong and have the ability to strike with inhumanoid power and can also absorb powerful strikes all over the body...that is stealth beyond belief.

What was doubly cool about my experience during this episode is that I was accompanied by my wife Silvia who ended up giving Qi readings to a lot of the show’s filmmakers, the talent and film crew. Is was a wild, wacky and wonderful time on set.

Cinema is a cool way to show how martial artists throughout history have used Qigong to enhance their skills. Born Invincible (1978) and Executioners of Shaolin (1977) feature villains who practice Qigong and use their abilities for wrong purposes and at the end of the film pay the Qigong piper.

I have a book coming out at the end of 2010, The Ultimate Guide to the Martial Arts Movies of the 1970s, which discusses in depth the movies that feature these Qi phenomena and how it is practiced.

For now, anyone interested in learning about the science of Qigong and Qi Healing to improve their health, thereby their stealth, please visit our (my wife and I) website www.vivalachi.com

Enjoy the show and may the qi be with you.