Fw: Master helps others harness 'chi' for health and healing ~ Harvard Gazette

[Guest guest]

On healing,......very interesting...

Patty

From: " Ilena Rose " <ilena@...>

Sent: Monday, May 28, 2001 4:36 PM

Subject: Master helps others harness 'chi' for health and healing ~ Harvard

Gazette

http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2001/05.24/14-taichi.html

May 24, 2001

Using repetition and imitation, Master Yon Lee leads his beginning class

in the Yang style of tai chi at the MAC Quad.

Master helps others harness 'chi' for health and healing

Staff photos by Kris Snibbe

Text by

With a devoted following among students, staff, and faculty, and sworn

testimonials of increased dexterity, relaxation, and balance of body and

mind, the meditative practice of tai chi is a force to be reckoned with.

So much in fact, that the Harvard Crimson selected classes in tai chi -

which is said to foster the flow of a vital force ( " chi " ) throughout the

body - as a top 100 " must-do " for Harvard students. Beginner tai chi

student Rakhi Nandalal Mahbubani '04 seems to agree. " My week doesn't

start until Thursday " she explains, referring to that day's class.

Yet even with the growing popularity of this ancient Chinese practice

among the University's community, Harvard's chief tai chi and kung fu

instructor - Master Yon Lee - a fourth generation disciple of the Tiger

Crane Kung Fu style, is forever pushing this age-old art to greater levels

of Western acceptance and utility.

Master Lee shows his teaching assistants Ed Landaker (left) and Khin Tung

how to " re-align " chi energy in healing such conditions as carpal tunnel

syndrome.

" One of the things I wanted to do was separate the mysticism that

surrounds it [tai chi], " explains Lee, who teaches beginner through

advanced classes in tai chi, kung fu, and chi kung through the Harvard

Health and Fitness program at the Malkin Athletic Center.

With his affable manner and contagious smile, Lee, who is also an

House senior common room associate, seems to have no problem imparting

this idea - this demystification - to his students. Following a session of

airy circles and slow stretches, Lee's students, some of them seasoned

practitioners, talk of regained strength from past injuries, corrected

posture, and an enhanced sense of calmness. According to Lee, who is also

the senior adviser to the Harvard Tai Chi Tiger Crane Club, the prescribed

movements of tai chi and chi kung help one's body to align itself, thus

allowing the body to function at its optimum. " I believe that the human

body has tremendous potential to heal itself, " Lee explains. " The movement

of tai chi and its calming effect encourage body healing in an accelerated

rate. "

For the academic Lee, a graduate of Brandeis University and the Graduate

School of Physics at Northeastern, his efforts to have these healing

practices - and their fundamental chi source - recognized by the medical

and health care communities, go well beyond class instruction.

At his Chung Wah Academy in Quincy, Mass., Master Lee readjusts the

balance and circulation of chi for Ven. Geshe Tsulga in hopes of

eliminating his neck and back pain.

Ý

In 1984, Lee collaborated with a team of researchers at Massachusetts

General Hospital to measure the effects of chi energy on cancer growth in

mice. The " purely academic " research project proved to have some

statistically significant results. The mice that received Lee's chi energy

treatment had a 10-day delay in tumor development versus the control

group. Even more startling, Lee never actually touched the mice, which

were kept in plastic containers throughout the study.

" We know it goes through plastic, " says Lee, taking chi's healing

properties for granted.

Lee looks to continue such bridge building between traditional Chinese

medicine and Western medicine. He is currently negotiating with Peking

University about a similar research project involving diabetes patients.

In addition, Lee spreads the word through speaking engagements at venues

like Harvard Medical School and the Department of Athletics.

In the end, Lee is optimistic about the challenge of winning the

endorsement of the Western medical community, seeing the " compatibility "

problem as, essentially, one of communication rather than substance.

" Right now almost every software system that you want to sell you have to

make a PC or Mac, " explains Lee. " In medicine it's almost like the same

thing - traditional medicine or Chinese? "

With unfettered enthusiasm and smarts to spare, one begins to suspect that

a successful interface is on its way.

Master Yon Lee demonstrates his Tai Chi techinique while practicing with

his students inside the Malkin Athletic Center's mezzanine room.

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Copyright 2001 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College