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July 26, 2005
How A Vietnam Vet Rehabbed His Wooden Arm Back To Life With Qigong
Do a little qigong… and you’ll feel better, no question. Do a massive amount of qigong and the results can sometimes be astounding. Here’s the strongest qigong rehab story I have personally ever encountered:
In the winter of 2001 I flew to Albany, New York to bone up on some therapeutic qigong methods. At one point my teacher was too busy and asked one of his students to take me into the basement and show me some new moves.
I had been watching this gentleman move around earlier while practicing for a Lion Dance. Strong, agile, mid-fifties, a little “militaristic” in his bearing, but rolling around with the best of them. Let’s call him Paul.
After watching me practice, he told me I needed to relax more in my upper body. I told him how I had recently injured myself in the upper back while carrying a lady up a cliff face in Hawaii… and was still feeling kinda stiff.
“Hah! Tell me about injury,” was his brusque response.
Turns out Paul had been manning a machine gun in the Tet Offensive when an explosion just behind him shattered the back of his skull.
His right arm got caught in the gun and was almost ripped out of the socket.
The medics took Paul for dead and he was left out all night on the battlefield. In the morning, when they found him alive, they lowballed his chances and put him through triage… which meant they didn’t bother with him until around 24 hours after he’d been blown up.
For more than the next twenty years Paul’s arm went from bad to worse, despite a ton of medical and therapeutic attention. His right arm felt like a useless piece of dried wood, just hanging by his side. He suffered from regular, blinding headaches and serious kidney problems.
Paul tried yoga and a number of alternative practices. Nothing helped. Then he discovered tai chi and qigong. The effect was magical – he completely regained the use of his arm, his kidney problem cleared up and his headaches disappeared.
But, in some ways not magical… because he spent at least four or more hours a day on his qigong to arrive at that rehab.
Paul was no BS artist, but I did check with his teacher, who confirmed the condition he was in when he first showed up.
There are a number of messages you can extract from this story. But what I am wanting to emphasize this time round is a version of Michelangelo’s famous response when complimented on his art: “If you knew how much work I put into it, you wouldn’t think it was so marvelous.”
Practice, practice, practice. You gotta put in the time if you want the results.
See all of John Du Cane’s qigong resources.
Posted by james at July 26, 2005 9:50 AM