| Students of Tai Chi on the Beach | 
| Chi healing workshop in Ireland |
Dr Evelyn Ho: If Tai Chi Chi Kung can cure cancer, then why is it not everyone who practises this artform is not cured? For example I know those who practise Chi Kung/Tai Chi diligently including giving up their stressful jobs are still not cured? Even a Chi Kung master can die from lung cancer. How do you explain this?
Peter: Besides working purely with Chi energy for helping a person to be healed, I have also worked in the the traditional medical department in the hospital over here in UK and have been requested to help in their Cancer Support Groups. So, I have both the Eastern and the Western model to refer to. For example, the same question must also apply to the allopathic and use of Chemotherapy treatment, why some patients respond better to the treatments and others do not. We can discuss about it from so many angles, the various types of cancer, the attitude and lifestyle of the patient.
There are more categories, like people who use purely meditation, powerful affirmations and mantrams, prayers, channelling spirits, and the same question applies also as to why some people recover fully from that kind of self healing and others do not?
The fact is that there are really no two human beings like each other. The healer and the patient are in a relationship. The healer need to TUNE IN COGNITIVELY and understand correctly what are the needs of the patient and the patient need to also tune in to whether the treatment is what he or she needs. In my own work, we spend a lot of one on one sessions with the client, whom we consider to be more of a student than a patient. 
We are a school not a healing centre, educating and helping people to help themselves. It is the same with the Zhineng Chi Kung Centre in China, every patient before they enter the centre are asked to accept that they are students and not patients. During the early years in Zhineng Chi Kung Centre, there was always one teacher to maximum of three students. And then, as the news spread far and wide, busloads and busloads of people arrived and overwhelmed the teachers!!
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So, the first step, if we accept that we are students studying this topic seriously for healing purposes and there are teachers teaching seriously this subject in practical terms, then, we need to accept that just as in any normal school if there are too many students and insufficient ratio of teachers to students, the learning process may not be that effective.
We are very careful to keep the QUALITY of the relationship between student and teacher as the main focus.
Hence, in slowing down to TUNE in to the emotional, physical, mental and spiritual needs of each ill person, if the teacher is sufficiently experienced and skilful, and you have a conscientious student, like any other subject of study whether it be a musician or scientist, success will come.
In Chi Healing, we focus on not just helping the person to heal himself or herself, but also to help the person find a balance of Yin with Yang energies, and therefore the Tao of health is a life long study for diligent practising. We cannot enforce that everyone must have the same degree of motivation, same degree of receptivity to chi energy just as no swimming instructor can force every one of his swimming students to swim as well as the best swimmer even if he gives each of them the same amount of attention, same number of hours of practice and homework.
Like many other Art forms, such as music and painting, any practitioner of the Art of Chi Healing need to point out clearly from the onset that patients' are considered students studying the Art of Self Healing. Having the wrong set of expectations is like a busy stressed out executive giving up his job and wanting to become a Musician overnight and play like Beethoven and he has not even mastered the basic notes on the piano!!
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Although students give up their stressful lifestyles, it does not mean inwardly, every student has the same capacity, receptivity and motivation to learn and achieve the best results. A recent example is that I have two students enrolled on this Chi Self Healing Course, both the same age, same occupation before the illness, same illness Chronic M.E. (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) Fatigue Syndrome and same amount of daily practice and same amount of attention given to both of them by teachers here at our School of Tai Chi Chi Kung. One of them has a complete recovery and has gone on to write a book and become a teacher herself. The other student has recovered to a certain degree and has become confident enough to do shopping, go out with relatives and friends and is still doing her best to sustain her energy levels through daily practice of the exercises.
Dr Evelyn Ho: Do you think people who practise Tai Chi or Chi Kung cannot also go for evidence based or commonly called "western" treatment? Are there conflicts in the treatment?
Peter: Yes, it is true that there is a division between the West and East and there are people who are so obsessed with only one option that they forget that there are valid options and there are points also when both are needed to complement each other.
I have seen adult students of mine choose to complement their breast cancer operation using 'western medical treatment' and recovery with the Rainbow Tai Chi Chi Kung exercises and principles. They recover faster than other patients who are not practising Tai Chi Chi Kung. There are no conflicts with Tai Chi Chi Kung as long as it is the choice of the cancer patient/student to do both. We also introduce Aqua Tai Chi at our School to help students relax and practice in the heated swimming pool and in the river close by to the school. I am the founder of Aqua Tai Chi.
This is illustrated and explained in deeper detail in my book, '37 Steps to Happiness - With an Introduction to Aqua Tai Chi".
| Peter and Tai Chi amongst the plants | 
| Practising Zhineng Chi Kung |
Dr Evelyn Ho: In theory, Tai Chi Chi Kung should complement and provide a more "holistic" recovery from treatment - is this the only role?
Peter: Before and during the treatment as in chemotherapy for example, cancer patients have used certain specific de-stressing tools such as Tai Chi Heart Beat Listening, to help them prepare themselves for the treatments. The second fundamental Tai Chi Exercise which can be done lying in bed or seated can help the patient to embrace all the negatives and positives of fears in their consciousness before and during the operation. The third fundamental Tai Chi Exercise of Heart Beat Listening and listening to your breathing also reduces stress by centering the heart, body and mind before and during the operation.
Dr Evelyn Ho: How do you see Tai Chi Chi Kung being used in stressful situations where there is pain from say the common headache to painful sensations associated with serious illness?
Peter: Some people turn to Acupuncture or legal drugs (or illegal ones), whereas we in Tai Chi Chi Kung choose to go to the source, find the balance of Yin and Yang and the migraine and headache is resolved. I call it the Cognitive or Direct approach to learning about the Chi.
During my early years of learning Tai Chi Chi Kung as a teenager, I remember I was sitting in MBS(Methodist Boys Secondary School) science class learning about the brain when my classmate was telling me he had been having migraines. Now, the teacher was not interested in migraines. He was interested in the Medulla and was rattling on and on about different parts of the brain.
I was interested in the headache of my fellow classmate. I said, 'Let us go to the source of this headache, the pain itself and now, the headache is the Yang, we just have to bring in the Yin of total listening..... listening to the rhythms...like a surfer riding the waves, flowing with the pauses between the highest point of the headache and the lowest point....' Are you there? I whispered to his ear, he was in this trance-like state!! And said, “yeah, yeah...” and I said, 'How is your headache now?' He said, 'It is gone!'
I believe that one day, there will be Chi healers present at hospices and in hospitals to provide alternative options for patients to request a chi healer like they can make a request for a spiritual counsellor or a Complementary Health Therapist to help him or her relax.
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