Can qigong make you sick — not just physically, but mentally and spiritually?
An article in Christianity Today titled “Qi Gong: A Form of Exercise or a Doorway into the Spiritual World?” has reignited debates about the practice of qigong, labeling it as a ”supernatural demonic power“ that can harm practitioners’ minds and souls. This perspective may be controversial, but it underscores a significant concern: the potential psychological and spiritual risks associated with certain qigong practices.
Even within mainland China, a secular setting, there is recognition of a condition known as qigong illness—also referred to as qigong psychosis or, in Chinese, zuohuo’rmo (坐火入魔). This condition describes acute psychological symptoms that can manifest after intense qigong practice, including dissociation, paranoia, and other disturbances.
Below, we share an article written in 1999 by the NorthWest T‘ai Chi Ch‘uan Association (NWTCCA), our governing and certifying body, which delves into the phenomenon of qigong illness and offers guidance for safe practice.
Qigong (Ch’i Kung) Illness
© 1999 NorthWest Tai Chi Chuan Association
Qigong (also written as Ch’i Kung) is a form of mind-body exercise that takes many forms, ranging from calisthenics to meditation. Tai Chi Chuan is considered a form of qigong, as are hundreds of exercises developed over the years.
Many recent qigong exercises are modern innovations, which are short sets of movements that are easy to learn. Some methods are very complicated and take a great deal of study to master. Most qigong exercises are considered safe for most everyone, but others are considered to have some risks associated with their practice.
We discussed this with Harvey Kurland, exercise physiologist and tai chi instructor; Riverside, CA tai chi instructor Ruth Villalobos; and a psychiatric nurse who used Dr. Tansey, a San Bernardino tai chi teacher who works with psychiatric patients, as a resource. Ruth Villalobos found the definition of qigong illness in the DSM-IV after talking with Dr. Tansey about this condition.
Qigong Psychosis
The official qigong psychotic reaction is described by the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders as:
Qigong psychotic reaction: a term describing an acute, time-limited episode characterized by dissociative, paranoid, or other psychotic or non-psychotic symptoms that may occur after participation in the Chinese folk health-enhancing practice of qigong (‘exercise of vital energy’). Especially vulnerable are individuals who become overly involved in the practice.
This diagnosis is included in the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders, Second Edition (CCMD-2) DSM-IV.
According to University of California, Riverside tai chi instructor and qigong instructor Harvey Kurland, there is a general benefit of most methods, which includes a reduction of stress and a generalized relaxation effect similar to what is found in meditation. He believes this non-specific stress-reduction effect is what produces 80% of the benefits of the methods.
Kurland says this non-specific effect explains why widely divergent methods produce similar effects in practice, and those effects are similar to what has been found in research on yoga and meditation. This is similar to the “Relaxation Response” as described by Dr. Herbert Benson. Most methods are considered safe to do by the general public, though some teachers consider some methods dangerous.
Kurland believes bad results in qigong practice may turn out to be due to some people already having a problem or imbalance, or a condition that is ready to emerge and qigong brings it out. He feels that some students who are “on the edge” or have a current emotional problem may be drawn to the “magic” of qigong due to their existing pathological psychological needs. Kurland speculated that:
Psychological pathology due to practice may be a manifestation of an existing, possibly latent, underlying condition.
He explains that in the realm of meditation, similar problems have been described, where long sessions of meditation can result in hallucinations, dissociative, and psychotic symptoms. These symptoms were considered abnormal by the meditation masters. The meditation experts taught that such symptoms were undesirable. Some students seem to want to experience such dissociative episodes for recreation, similar to their use of certain recreational drugs.
Kurland suspects these problems were also latent conditions in the meditators and not necessarily due to the meditation itself.
Some methods, such as tai chi and Emei Qigong (O’mei Ch’i Kung) taught by the NorthWest Tai Chi Chuan Association, have been shown to be benign, and over the last 15 years, no one has reported untoward results. Tai chi has actually been reported to be used to treat depression in China, as well as other ailments, with good results.
In some styles of qigong, such as Tianshan (T’ien Shan) and others, some problems have been reported by teachers, and for that reason, those methods are recommended only for those who are mentally stable, physically well, and well grounded. Students who have studied tai chi for some time are usually in good shape energetically and emotionally to do those more dangerous qigong practices.
In the case of the Tianshan (T’ien Shan) style, typically students are screened by the master before being allowed in that class, and those who have certain physical or energetic problems are not accepted to do that qigong, as even those with extensive tai chi training have had problems. Energetic problems are in the realm of Chinese Traditional Medicine diagnosis and not a Western medical diagnosis.
In public classes, such standards are usually not adhered to. For that reason, persons with mental illness should be advised not to practice these techniques without first consulting their mental health counselors and be followed by their counselors for any untoward effects. Those who are taking medication should continue taking the medication under the advice of their physician.
Students should be advised to research the qigong they plan to study to make sure it does not promote mental illness, and be advised to watch the instructor for any bizarre behaviors that suggest the qigong mental illness process in the instructor, such as magical thinking, inappropriate behavior, grandiose behavior, narcissism, or dissociative episodes.
This article is not intended to treat or diagnose any medical condition. If you have any specific problems, please discuss them with a licensed mental health professional.
Can Qigong Make You Sick?
Qigong illness a known condition, not just among researchers: even in Chinese pop culture, wuxia novels often feature characters who practice martial arts talk about avoiding zuohorumo.
So can qigong make you sick? It can, but it depends on the practitioner—and for the novice, practicing qigong without a qualified, experienced instructor may put one at risk.
This is why our late Grandmaster, Tchoung Ta Tchen, developed his “24 Methods of Breathing and Relaxation,” a qigong form based on the Emei Qigong he learned and determined was ”safe“ to practice. In addition, Santa Ana Tai Chi Fist instructor Stephen Bay holds a master‘s degree in Christian Theology and has further scrubbed practices he considers to be spiritually risky from the classes he teaches.
Our goal is that anyone who comes to learn tai chi in one of our classes leaves feeling better and healthier, not worse.