Qigong 101 & Beyond: 100 Day Water Fasts, Crazy Healing Powers, Qi Balls, Sword Fingers & More With Qigong Master Robert Peng.

In this episode of the Ben Greenfield.

Fitness show, the one opportunity and the collect energies of wisdom. So when the energy here is strong, you feel like you're guided. It's not logical, but anything happens, you make a decision, you feel as if it is guided, you make the right decision. More likely, it's like you have good gps, right? All the problem or disease in terms of energy is the blockages. So whenever the blockages is cleared away, when the energy flows right, then healing starts.

He's an expert in human performance and nutrition, voted America's top personal trainer and one of the globe's most influential people in health and fitness. His show provides you with everything you need to optimize physical and mental performance. He is Ben Greenfield.

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Okay. Do you have your. Do you have your tea?

Oh, yeah, yeah. I just got a tea. That's your tea.

Where's your tea?

That's mine.

Oh, okay. Well, why don't we start this podcast off with a toast? I'm here in Robert Peng's office in New York City. Robert Peng is a qigong master who has been studying since the age of eight. And he was born and raised in Hunan, China, and he now is based out of New York City. You've learned a lot about him already from the introduction that I've given you, but it is here to his New York City offices that I have traveled via bicycle, train, car, et cetera. I just rode my bike seven miles through New York City and almost got killed coming to see you on a city bike. And I breathed in a lot of New York fumes. But based on the fact that my children and I have been studying your book and your DVD for the past several months leading up to this interview and learning quite a bit about qigong and how much it enhances the way that we feel our energy throughout the day and how much benefit I've gotten out of your book, your audios and your videos, I'm incredibly honored to be here. And for those of you listening in everything Robert and I talk about today, you can go check out, just go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com Paeng that's BenGreenfieldFitness.com P, E N G. And Robert, may I raise a toast? Tell me about this tea that you've prepared.

All Right. Thank you, Ben. Thank you for coming.

Is this a traditional Chinese tea?

Yeah. You see that little box?

I do.

Then the water can drain into the box.

Oh, the box there on your desk, the water drains into.

Yeah. And the two pots. One is the pot you made the tea and the other is a spitzer, actually.

Oh, interesting.

Yeah. So then when we finish, go. There's a drain to fill, you know, to. To stop the tea leaves so that it can be pure.

Very interesting. What is this called? What style of. Of a tea maker is this called? This is called for people.

Kung fu tea.

Kung Fu tea.

Kung Fu tea. Yeah.

I'm gonna have to get one. It's actually. It looks like a. Like a piece of art.

Yeah. I'll tell you later how you can get it. The kung fu tea is a way of drinking tea. Actually, it's not really what tea. It is the way of drinking tea. Kung fu is exactly the same word. Kung fu. But it's not that. When you're drinking tea, you're playing kung fu and fighting each other. Kung fu, originally.

As much fun as that would be.

Yeah. Originally meaning a period of time that you dedicated very strongly. You can say, it took me 10 years of kung fu to reach this. It take me two hours of kung fu to write these articles. Meaning dedicated time that you focus on. That means kung fu originally.

So kung fu is almost like this. There's a. There's a book called Deep Work. Deep work. And it sounds very similar to this concept of kung fu. Like when I wake and I write in the morning, that's my kung fu. It's deep work. No one is up.

It's 5:30am Exactly.

Find myself immersed. That's kung fu. And this kung fu tea is based on the same concept?

Yeah. Originally it means that you take some time because this way of making tea. Actually, today I give you a bigger cup. Normally I have with. Even with smaller ones.

Oh, wow. I was gonna say, if this cup is big, I'd hate to see small. It's like the size of a shot glass.

Drinking kung fu. Meaning you don't talk about. You don't. You're not. You're not pressed with the time.

Right. I get it. So, yeah.

So it can take hours.

You're drinking tea with the affluence of time.

Yeah. Like my wife and I, sometimes we are in upstate of New York in a country house, we can drink teas for five hours.

Wow. It's like almost like tea meditation.

Tea meditation. That is our downtime. That is a down Actually, that's part of my training or part of my qigong.

I've heard of candle meditation. My kids do candle meditation where we'll light a candle and they'll go into our infrared sauna and their task is to just study the candle for about 20 minutes. And it's great for a child's attention. Spanish and then my wife and I, of course, will sit on the back porch occasionally and work our way through a glass of wine in a half hour or so. But yeah, that is five hours of tea is something I'll have to work up to. That sounds like a formidable task.

Now.

A funny story for you. My children and I have been putting in your video each night, my two nine year old boys, and we stand there in front of the video before bed and we go through, we've been through your three dante ons exercise and your sword finger and the chi ball and even changing the taste of brandy.

Did you try it?

Although we used kombucha instead of brandy because you don't want the social workers showing up at my door when I tell people on the podcast, my kids are drinking brandy and we felt so great with it. And the funny thing is, my boys now ask me after dinner even if, you know, when I was nine years old, I wouldn't even thought about doing qigong. But after dinner now they say, dad, we need to go do our qigong. And they go down there and they wait for me in the basement next to the TV and I turn on the tv. One of the few times during the week when we actually use the TV and we do another segment of your qigong video. We're to video three now. Almost done with video three. We'll move on to video three.

Whales exercise. They love it.

And you began studying. They're nine years old. Am I correct in that you began studying when you were 8?

Yeah, I was 8. I was 8.

Tell me about that.

Well, and a lot of people ask me, how did you learn it? How is it from your parents or your family? Actually, it's not. Before 8 years old, I have done nothing about qigong or martial art. Actually, at 8 years old, I was sick. I was sick. Yeah, I was having a very severe pain on my chest. It's okay if I'm not doing anything, but whenever I ran or if I jump, especially the severe pain was like so hard. Sometimes it can. I can get fainted because of the pain. Of course, my mother brought me to the doctor and they prescribed this or that, but it never changed. It's Getting worse. So in the end, the doctor gave her the best prescription to say, well, your son need a break. Maybe he need to quit school and stay at home, rest. Which is good news for me. Because you know, as a little boy, you hated school. But that good news doesn't take long. Only two days. Because first day. Oh, good. Then they get bored at the end of the day. Because you don't know. Because other time it was very colorful. Because when it's the time of off work, all the other kids are in the community. But when it's school time, they went to school, adults went to work, and some go to kindergarten. Then I was alone, so it's not so much fun. So for two days, in the end I was so bored. Then I have to find something more interesting.

You're getting cabin fever.

Staying at home, I snag out. Yeah. Then I find some ants. I observed more than 40 kind of ants. Because it's springtime and beautiful. Yeah. Then I could begin to explore more, more further.

And you're just by yourself out exploring because you're not in school.

Yeah. Just boring. Yeah. Find all the walls. Strawberries. Then not far from my home, there's a wall. Actually a resort hotel surrounded by walls.

China.

Yeah, Chinese. Like Wall Street. Yeah.

I think they've got the biggest one.

Yeah. You can see even from the moon, right? Yeah. But that wall is not that big, of course, but high enough to stop us from going freely inside. Because my family, my hometown, was a steel and iron plant. When China and Soviet Union were very close, they sent engineers and build that factory, actually. So that resort hotel was hosting the guest at that time. Then when they left, then it was a reception area for the VIPs. That's why ordinary person, especially the boys and girls, are not allowed to get in freely. So we have to go through the gate. The gatekeeper was very, you know, very bad.

Right.

So many times we jump, get over the wall and jump inside before we visited there too. But not too deeply.

By the way, what year was this?

That was 1972.

Okay. So back in the early 70s.

Yeah. Gotcha.

So you're just a little boy, you're exploring nature, you're not in school and you're just wandering.

Yeah, just wandering the inside, I guess. Because inside there is much, much more colorful than the others. They have fruit trees, they have swimming pools like other world. So I like to go there a lot. Then one day I explored deeper. And then there's a red bricks building and big pipes connecting all the other buildings. It's a boiler room. So I snacked slowly near the door of the boiler room. Then I saw a middle aged man shoveling the coal there. And that was my master.

That was your master, the man shoveling coal?

Yeah. Well, of course I didn't know each other before that. So I snuck in and peeping. Then he saw me, said, oh, you want to watch the fire come in. Yeah, I think a lot of other boys did the same before maybe. So he was quite familiar with the little boys peeping then.

Okay.

Yeah, come in, watch the fire. Don't burn yourself. Then of course we were in conversations. Why did you go to school? I said I got sick staying at home. He looked at me later when years later I learned the skills of healing. He was doing the healing on me by scanning with the gazing power just with his eyes, just without touching even.

Interesting.

So not too long. I was recovered actually without noticing that. But of course our conversation was.

When you say not too long, do you mean you came back repeatedly to see him over several days or was just during that first time after that.

I visit him every single day actually when we left, what drew you to him?

What made him seem so interesting to you?

I don't know. I don't know. It's just like maybe he looked like middle aged men. Yeah, like my age now. But he was already late 80s. Oh wow. So he looked really like much younger than his age.

Right. Perhaps he was an early adopter of anti aging and longevity.

Yeah, because practicing qigong. Yeah, we can. There's so much benefits.

One of the main benefits I certainly.

Delved into some of the longevity, anti aging for sure.

Anti inflammatory lower plasma cortisol. All the things that can cause accelerated aging actually very similarly to deep sleep and transcendental meditation. It seems to have very similar effects.

True. Yeah. And you have a very young nature too, right? Yeah. So he's 8 years old but he likes to have fun. Many times when he's not teaching me. When he's teaching me, he's serious, you know. Then he's very good childhood child mood and he can do a lot of fun things. So that's how we first met. How I first met. Then when we left, when I left, he said well feel free to come anytime. Then of course I have nothing to do. I go every single day. Later I joked so you didn't mean when you say this just greeting. Right. You didn't know I'm making it was laughing, you know. And I think it's nearly about several weeks later. He was such A wonderful storyteller. Actually later I went there for the story. More for the story than for the fire. At first I liked to watch the fire, but after a few weeks, one day from nowhere, he said, ji Hui, do you like wushu? Wu shu means kung fu, martial art in Chinese, I say, yeah, of course, yeah. And do you want to learn it? Of course, yeah. I have no teacher I can teach you. Well, before that I have no idea he knows anything. The only thing I observe is that when he shoveled the coal, he's so graceful. Like that big pile of coal in the shovel doesn't look like heavy at all.

Yeah. And by the way, not to interrupt and go down too deep of a rabbit hole, or to make you feel self conscious, but even just watching you right now as you're talking, your movements are their fluids, they are graceful. I've noticed that about you on your, on your videos too. It's almost, you know, not. Not dancing isn't quite the best way to describe it, but it's fluidity, fluidity and grace, which is what I've noticed myself. After beginning to use these principles more during my workouts, when I'm deadlifting or breathing or running, everything seems more. More fluid.

That's right.

So you began to study Kung fu under this master?

Yeah, so I started Kung fu or martial art, that's how I started. But when he raised this, I say, you know how to do martial art? I say, because he doesn't look like bulky, big man, he looks like ordinary. He's walking on the street without some other guys. Maybe the robber may take him as the victim, which will be very wrong, of course.

But he's not like Jean Claude Van Damme.

No, he's like so ordinary, but when he's doing that, he's powerful martial artist. He can freeze a fierce animal by just bare hand. Then freeze.

He can freeze a fierce animal.

I mean, freeze meaning like he can just disable the, like big bulls.

You saw him do this wild to a bull?

Well, I saw many other things. This is. Yeah, this is. He can talk, communicate with many birds and animals, spiritually use his hand gestures. Then he can make the wild animals like a trained.

Yeah, this is very interesting and I certainly, for those of you who are listening in, who are more scientifically bent, more left brain, There are some definite physiological principles that underlie this related to the heart brain interaction and the electromagnetic field that the body produces. And, and one living being's ability to influence the field of another living being via their emotions, their movements, etcetera so some of this is steeped in quantum physics and science. But you observe this man do these things and he began to teach them to you.

Yes. Yeah. Well, I started with martial arts. Eagle claws, you know, horse stance. The horse stance is the first exercise.

Horse stance being a qigong exercise?

Yeah, qigong. Both qigong and martial art. Because we have a saying, you practice martial art without qigong. When you reach to some certain level, it's very hard for you to reach higher because qigong is very good base for the martial art. Yeah. So the horse stance is. Give you good base. You stand bending like riding a horse. It's very hard. Very hard.

Right.

Because this is like nearly 90 degrees.

An external rotation.

Yeah. Then he said, 20 minutes, 2 minutes. You begin to feel burning chuckles on your thighs.

Right. It wakes up your glutes, your external rotators. Absolutely. I've experienced that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's.

It's like an isometric contraction.

Yeah. It's challenging. So every time when I'm going to do that, I said, my God, I have to do horse dance. But then one day, I was expecting some grueling experience before having the fun exercise. Then a few minutes later, after start the horse dance, I got in a trance. It feels as if someone is pulling a stool under my butt. Then it's like you're sitting there without any chair, really. Then I was in the trance. When I come back from my trance, my master was very pleased because he knew that I crossed, like, basically you cross one barrier, you transformed with energy, said, you know how long you were there? Four hours.

Four hours.

Four hours, horse stance, no move. Yeah. And it's after that you begin to feel the energy flow along the meridians is so strong. And then horse stance, never a grueling torture, but fun.

You began to feel more energy flow through your body.

Yes, yes. Yeah. And also feel the core here in the lower Dantian, which is the lower torso. It's much more anchored.

And we'll talk about the Dantians later on. For those who haven't heard that phrase before, want to know how to awaken those. So you and this guy in your book, your book, Master Qi, where you talk about this story, this is the mysterious Mr. Tan.

Is that who this is? Yeah. Well, his folk name, like his name, when in our communities, is Mr. Tan, but his monk name, his Buddhist name is Xiao Yao. Yeah, Xiao Yao.

Okay, so you studied under him. And at what point did you. Did you begin your journey taking like a deeper dive into this radical spiritual transformation that you talked about in the book. Because I know that you did like 100 day. You did like 100 day fast. And you moved on to a lot of things. And I assume this wasn't when you were 8 years old.

That's often more than that. Yeah, well, because I started with martial art. At first, it's martial art. Martial art. I learned many forms and getting stronger, getting stronger. Then you sort of like to like, test or try. Then it happened one day, one of my close friends, closest friends, he was beaten by by some gangs on the street. So I was fighting for him. And I got into the street fight. Of course I won. But then I realized, actually I was not so happy to fight with people. I was scared. Actually, I won, but I was scared to death because I thought policemen would come arrest me and shot me. And also, especially when I have to visit to the guy that I beat in the hospital, he was two years older than I. As soon as I entered the room, he was still scared. But actually at that moment, I have a transformation in my own self. I said, my God, he's just like another boy like me. Why at the moment when I was fighting, I was like a monster, or he was like monster in front of me. Me, I just want to kill him. So I was sympathetic. I was feeling something wrong with me. Yeah, of course, my mother was very sad, was not happy. My master was very pissed. And the good punishment is to kneel down on the washing board. You know, the washing board hand, one zigzag, then leaning against the wall. Then I have to kneel down for.

Two hours on a washing board. That is painful. That's painful on a freaking wooden floor, much less a washing board.

And two hours. Well, the pain is nothing. Actually, I was very painful. But you know, the thing that I cannot bear was to disappoint my master.

Yeah.

Because I was feeling something not so right to fight. I mean, street fight, especially then later on, not too after that, my master one day said, well, what I've learned, what I've taught you all this couple of years, is you're laying very good base for your Qi grounding. And you can lead either ways. One is you keep practicing, I teach you more forms. He teaches me how to use the brooms as a weapon. Chopsticks can stab. He can use a rope, a softer rope. Then you put the energy in that rope, begin to tighten.

Now, are these all qigong practices or is this taking the method of qigong and applying it to other martial arts? When you're doing things like broomsticks and chopsticks.

Yeah, both. Both, yeah. If you just learn the martial art without qigong, this energy support, it's just a form.

You don't have the power.

You don't have the power.

Like. Well, for example, one thing that I do is I play tennis and I've noticed that now that I'm able to channel some of my energy, I can put more energy into the ball with less effort. And I would imagine, even though I'm not big into boxing and sparring, I've.

Done a little bit of it.

That similar concepts would take place when you are fighting.

That's right.

You'd be able to channel this energy or striking or running or turning over the pedals on bicycles.

Yes. I have many students, they are martial arts top martial artists. But when they learn this qigong, they find the fist is much more penetrative. And other sports too, like some, some of them are golf player, they do the meditation, then they find the score is much better. Yeah, yeah. So it's good. It's, it's, it's very good. It's like alloy. You add this energy in your practice, then it's totally different thing in another way. Yeah. So that's why qi practice or qi is, or qigong is actually is a lifestyle. It's not something they think, oh, only monks or some special people are doing in a, you know, exclusive place. You can apply it in your daily life.

Similar to meditation.

Similar. It is meditation. Qigong is moving meditation.

When my boys and I do it, that's exactly what it is. It quote counts unquote as our meditation for that day. Now, at what point did you do? Because it's kind of interesting. I've had people talk about fasting before on the show. I recently interviewed Dr. Jason Fung who talked about everything from intermittent fasting to alternate day fasting, to the benefits in terms of longevity of caloric restriction and self control. You did a hundred day water fast, is that right?

Yes, yes.

Now why did you do that?

Well, it was actually after decide to quit martial art and to do the next role that is more the healing energies.

And how old were you when you decided to.

I think I was about 14. That was after my junior high school. Junior high school it was. We finished junior high school, have an entrance exam for the senior high school. Then we have a long break and at that time my master returned to the mountain. Already? Yeah, the mountain, his monastery. Because when I met him, he was working as a boiler room attendant, a hermit. Nobody knew he was A top martial artist and legendary healer. I don't know whether you heard about Chinese Cultural revolution started in 1966 and ended in 76. We call it 10 years disaster. Because at that time no religion was allowed. So of course he as a monk is no place. The monastery was taken over by the villagers. So he wandered to my factory to work as a ballroom. But after 1976 is finished, in 79 he was called back to the monastery. So he was rebuilding the monastery. So before that we were together for about seven, eight years. Almost every single day I double live. I live double life. Yeah. My school life, then my martial art life. Yeah. Secret. It was secret because we didn't know.

Did your parents know?

Yeah, my parents knew later. Yeah. For the first two months, I even kept secret from him. That's number one thing. He said we practiceably keep it secret. I was so good to keep secret from my parents even. But then my mother got a bit strange to say. This little boy before was so lazy in the morning. Now all of a sudden, get up at 5 o', clock, disappear for a few hours, come back home so hungry. So he said, what are you doing? Oh, I was jogging. She was not so convinced. So I told my master. Then he said, asked your parents to come to see me. So they went to see him quite, you know, surprised because they never knew each other before. Then they talked for about two hours. I was kept out of the room, not allowed to get in. Two hours later they went out and said, oh, go with Master Tan. Go with Master Tan. So they kept secret from me too. Until the Cultural revolution finished in 76. Then we began to a lot of things recovered then. Qigong is reaching to a high climax in China. Like getting huge popularity. The followers are thousands, millions of them. Yeah. So and so he was called back to monastery, rebuilt it. So after that, I visited him every year like two times in my summer in Bindaviki. So it was after that, my junior high school, that break I went there. He said, tomorrow we do the big one. Big one means empowerment. Because he mentioned many times I was expecting it. But when it comes. Really? Yeah, because I know it. It's hundred. We say 100 days. It means clarifications. Because for this purpose is three things. Yeah. Jing Ti means clear energy. Clear your body, clear energy. Ju Qi, concentrate the energy. Because when it's clear, then the energy is flowing more smoothly. So anytime you need some energy that you bring your awareness to your fingertips, the energy all swamp there and do the healing. So the third part is Bringing out your potential power. So three steps cleansing Concentrate potential power of healing of yourself or healing others. So that is three steps. And it's during this hundred days water fast that you can make it very, very pure. Because ordinary lives you have these distractions, the other distractions, eating all this, it is very hard to get it like vacuum clean things. So that is the purpose. And also spiritually you can envision a lot of things. You can get so deep insightfulness of what can happen in your life. Like, you know, in our life we have ordinary feelings. We have the feeling of pain, sadness, you know, cold, all this physical or emotional. But when you're doing that meditation, all that feelings will lead to extreme. Like the pain you never experience in your ordinary life.

You experience there when you are fasting.

You mean you are fasting.

And so if you, if you are lonely, then you would experience a higher degree of loneliness during an extended fast. Or now is the same true for positive emotions? If you're full of positivity like peace or love or joy or gratitude, would you also amplify those emotions through extended fast?

And it's always going after that. You go through this? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Actually the most difficult one is the itchiness, the itchy, it feels like itching. Itching? Yeah, it feels. Millions of ants are biting you. If you. But any moment is.

How many days into a fast do you start to feel itching like that?

Well, it goes, it goes, it goes through the organs, one organ after another. So every organ is emotional, is connected with some feelings. Then like first you feel the coldness, then you feel heat, then you feel itchy, then you feel pain. All these kind of things go. And you practice this. And the practicing is to actually challenge them. Like when you are. When the first few times I was now so experienced to meditate. It's so painful. Then I open my eyes, I just move my body a little bit, then I'm fine. Everything disappears. You still feel okay. But then when you're in deep meditation again, it comes again until you really surrender and say, okay, I gave up. Even if I die, I go to hell. I go through it. So the moment you surrender is that you're open totally.

About how many days into a 100 day fast do you experience something like.

That for the first 20 or 30 days? All this experience is like coming. When you finish this, then it won't come again. If you go through this, then the Nevada comes.

And this is when you were in junior high. Yeah, there's not many junior high boys who Do a hundred day water fast.

No, no, it's not easy.

Not of their own volition.

And it's not only that you can. You have to have a higher master who can guide you through.

And so was this guy checking in on you as you went? Mr. Tom.

He comes to see me every single day.

Okay.

Yeah. Every. Every time it's pitch dark.

You were in a small dark room this entire time?

Yeah, it's a little room. It's actually right on the. It's in the basement actually. What about the temple? Oh, they. No problem. Yeah, because they know I'm going to visit him. Then they. They feel right. Yeah, because he's like our family member too. Every now and then he was invited. My family knew him and they trusted him. So they trusted him. And you're just water.

He didn't have any vitamins or minerals.

The first 20 days.

Bone broth.

The first 20 days. Three jujube. You know jujube is Chinese date. Three jujube a day. How about those tastes? There's like three meals. One. After 20 days, just water. The water I can drink as well. And no light. The only light I could see was when he come and see me. Because he always hold incense like this long incense lit already. So he came. You can only see all this coming. Then we talk in the darkness. He taught me in the darkness, meditate. Then when it really nearly reached the end, can last about one and a half hour, I think, or even longer. Then he will go. Then that light, keep going, disappear. That's the only light I could see. Then the last, I think before 15 or 20 days, before I finish. He began to bring some juice, then some fruit and some thin porridge to help me transition. Actually when I finished, I went out. It was night. So when I went out of the dark chamber, then the second day I opened my eyes. Then my eyes are not so shocked by the light. But that meditation, that experience in the darkroom is very risky if you don't have a powerful person. Because for some time your breathing is so slow it looks like a dead person. Because like if you put your finger on the nose, you cannot feel the air by breathing. Because maybe one inhale takes 20 minutes, exhale 20 minutes. So it's like we call it small death.

Your body, I would imagine is conserving a great deal of energy by limiting the amount of oxygen is taking in. Because you have to produce far less ATP.

Big life. Because this is the total transformation. Like you touch the bottom to make a comparison. If you want to Clean a pound. You want to take out all the water, take all the mud, wash that, then refill the water. Then we say totally clean. Right. That was like that. That's why your body even like want to be dead.

Right?

Sort of like this. So when I was in that small death experience, he was with me all the time. All the time. Wow. Because make sure that the energy is moving smooth and moving across some barriers because otherwise you might be a big dad.

So during that period of your fast, he stayed with you to make sure that you didn't.

So it was about seven or eight days motionless. I was like just no conscious. But it was beautiful internally. But I didn't know he was beside me. He was guiding me through. Energetically amazing.

And for people who are listening, who might be nervous, there is not a 100 day water fast requirement in your master key program that I've gone through.

I don't encourage people just doing on their own because it's not a simple way of just not eating. It's a lot of some breathing, some exercises helps you to get nutrients from the air. That's why I didn't lose too much weight.

How do you get nutrients from the air?

From the air.

Now there's some people that of course poke a lot of fun at this concept of breathitarianism. People who believe they can only survive on air. And I don't believe that to be true at all. But tell me about the breathing that allows you to gather more nutrients from air.

Well, there are many breathings. You know, we're bound with natural breathing, but there were hundreds kinds of breathing. Some, there's one breathing we called navel breathing. Navel breathing is the way of your breath when you are still inside mother's body because that is connection with the mother. But the moment when you are cut off the navel cold, when you bond, you know you cry, right? Right, you cry. And if you don't cry, then the doctor, your parents are getting worried because that means you're not completed.

Right?

According to the energy system, the cry is to open the channels of meridian. The first channel of the meridian is long meridian. That's why we cry. To open the long meridian and then long, large intestine, stomach and all this 24 hours make a circle. The organs, energy are connecting to each other according to the meridians. Connect to your fingers, to your toes, all this. So this breathing then combining with another way. We call it body breathing and some special ways of controlling it. Then you're not only breathing through your nose, you're breathing through your skin, breathing through your hairs and then something in the air. In oxygen. In oxygen. I don't know scientifically.

Yeah. This is a concept I'm actually not familiar with. I could see in the same way way that for example lipids or oils or even toxins are absorbed through the skin, that you could absorb air through the skin or certain elements from the air. I also know of this concept whereby. And there's an interesting study that was reported on the Green Med Info website about how when humans have large amounts of chlorophyll in their system from eating wild plants or dark leafy greens, that when sunlight hits your skin, you, you can actually photosynthesize and create ATP in the absence of calories in a very similar way to the way that a plant would produce energy. And so the idea that one might be able to somehow have an ionic exchange from air or some element of air moving through their skin or through their body just by breathing, it makes some amount of sense that you could at least sustain life for a certain period of time. That although I imagine isn't quite as satisfying as a turkey dinner, of course.

But interesting enough is that when I was. That's something before I started Bi Guan the hundred days my master told me. But I have the same kind of question or doubt. I say what if I get hungry? What if I'm craving? But it's so interesting I was feeling hungry or crave something to eat only the, the first few days. Then later it just, it didn't occur me that I want to eat.

Yeah.

Because I was very satisfied. Yeah. Satisfied in my stomach. And of course I didn't weigh, but I didn't look losing too much weight.

You actually see something kind of like this, you know, on everything from the show. Naked and afraid to people who do long, you know, 24, 48, you know, plus hour fasts is you get to a point point where your body begins to burn very efficiently ketones as an energy source. You know, you start to break down the tens of thousands of calories of storage adipose tissue that you have on your body and all of a sudden you become less reliant upon glucose. But the pathway to get there kind of sucks. Like you're definitely uncomfortable and hungry for a certain period of time before that occurs. When you came out of your 100 day water fast, was that when you started to begin to experience some of the, some of the healing powers that you tapped into?

Yes. Yeah. That's one of the purpose of my master to try to Sharpen my energy. They call it zapping. You know, zapping. Zapping is like, well, we can try it later, after we finish, we can do a little mini sessions for you. That kind of feeling is like electricity. I had this when I was a little boy, before even I met my master. Because, like, I have to focus for several minutes. Then I press on you fingers like static electricity. I thought everybody can have this. But actually there's a very special gift. My master must have realized this. Then he want to train this as my special power. So in this, in this hundred days water fast, after all that cleansing experience, like I said, when it's cleansed and the energy is concentrated and the potential power is super amplified. So before I have to focus for several minutes, I cannot apply in my healing. But after that I can feel. It's like can constantly go with my mind. I can lead it to your stomach, to your lungs, through the fingers, or through some energy channels. Then the powerful healing can happen. So people that get this can feel refreshed. They can feel their own potential power is activated. So in my treatment, I do a little bit of this to activate their own healing power.

So here in your office, where we're at right now, we're sitting at your massage, we actually are recording on your massage table. This is a table one would lie upon. And you would actually take your chi, your energy that is in your own body, and you would actually touch people at certain meridian points, to quote zap them, unquote, or to cause your electricity to flow into them, your chi to flow into them.

Sort of like that. Well, it's not. First is not electricity because someone say, oh, it feels like electricity. Can you light the bulb? Why bother? For me to light the bulb, put it in the socket, right? So it's not my energy, it's the channeling. It's the transformation of universal energies. We're like a medium. We interpret the universal energies in a way that the clients or the patients can receive.

So if someone came to you with for example, back pain, you would actually, you would touch them in certain parts of their body to cause that to disappear in a way.

Well, for healing sessions combined with some body work, we call it Tai Chi press. We press a lot. This is to make you more settled, more relaxed, and then transform some energy and to open up. Because all the problem always say disease in terms of energy is the blockages. So whenever the blockages is cleared away, when the energy flows, right, then healing starts.

That's the whole concept behind acupuncture. For Example.

Right, right, right. Yeah. So, you know, nowadays, because we have. Why we call it stress, the big killer, you know, stress is like, someone even says stress is the only factors that, you know, that cause our disease, which in some way is true, because the stress is like a hand holding you here. Yeah, right. And this hand doesn't let go. Then your hands become numb because, you know, you. You cannot have the energy supply for you. Yeah. So all this. The stress is like this. But when you're doing the meditation, when you do the qiling, the qigong or meridian or acupuncture, whatever the heating we call it actually is like, you pinch on that hands, then that stress release. Then when energy flows, well, that's how you get healed.

Is this like that video that I've seen on YouTube where you'll see this. I don't remember the guy's name. It's got millions of views. And he'll, like, come up to people and touch them, and then he's, you know, in his practice, and their limbs will twitch, like, when he. When he touches certain points, as though it is like a nerve that he's touching that's causing a limb to twitch. Have you seen this? Oh, that sounds similar to the zapping concept you're talking about.

From Malaysia, right?

Yeah.

Indonesia. Yeah, Yeah. I met the producer.

Okay.

From England, I think.

Yeah, yeah. It was a British show.

He visited me when I was in. In Australia, because I was in Australia for seven years. One of the. My organizer called Celebrity Speaker. His organization organized speaking. So I was one of the members, and he was there. Then we met. He showed me the. He showed me the video, the videos he filmed. John Chong. John.

Yeah. I don't remember. Someone literally sent it to me, like, two days ago. It was perfect timing because. Because I was watching. You know, I also interviewed a guy named Scott Dawley, who's a bodywork practitioner back in the US And I'll link to that podcast episode if you guys want to. Want to go listen to it. Just go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com Pang I'll hunt down this zapping video, too, and show it to you guys if you want to see what it's looking like. But I want to bring this full circle back to chi, because obviously, there's a huge element of this that you don't need to go see a practitioner for. You don't have to use to fix an injury that you've had. But there's this practice of qigong that I've personally discovered and began to derive A great deal of benefit from. It's a series of moves and breathing and all the things that you demonstrate in your videos. But tell me first of all about what you have discovered as far as the physical or the physiological benefits of this. You mentioned lower cortisol, you mentioned longevity. What other things happen physically when you're practicing? The kind of things that you demonstrate in your videos.

Well, the huge scope of the benefits. Well, basically you feel your body more in harmony. So you feel you're young because it's such a good harmony. And through the meditations, all the cells, the tissues is like you have sprinkling every single single day for your room is always fresh. Yeah. So then you sleeping better. Yeah. You have more restless sleep and restful sleep. And you have very good mood. Very good mood. So physically you have less pain, you get lower blood pressure. Yeah, lower blood pressure and a good appetite. In my master words, they say you have six no worries. Six no worries for eating, meaning you have good appetite, you have good digestions, no worry toilet. It's also digestion. You don't have, you know, colon things. The problems clean with the colons and no worry sleeping, you have good energy, no worry energy, meaning that whenever you need to. To use energies, you can call it like say for example today you have. All of a sudden you have an assignment that you have to stay up the whole night. Some people cannot handle it. You can keep your energy high. So all this and no worry emotions. The emotional balance is actually one of the most outstanding things. My master, he was top monk, but at that time he was down as a boilerma tenant. He has a million reasons to be very angry and resented. But I've never seen him to be angry. He was smile, easy, very Zen and just so easy person. Easygoing. Well, I try to learn a lot. I'm still like learning this learning process, but I find that is the most beneficial things for physics because when you are in a very good broad heart, you avoid a lot of heart attack. Yeah. Because all this is from. It's not just physical, it is emotion.

Oh yeah, absolutely.

I recorded a very interesting cardiovascular problem and pains.

In many cases, a heart attack is due to a combination of stress and poor minerals and hydration. It's a. It's a one, two combo.

That's right. And fatigue. Many things. Many things. I have people, they suffered from depression, severe depressions, fatigue, chronic fatigue syndromes. Yeah. Wow.

So if someone wants to. Wants to begin with kind of like awakening their. Their chi power and feeling chi. If they haven't done it before. There's all sorts of things that you demonstrate. And I know that. That a lot of this is more conducive to, you know, to someone like watching one of your videos versus audio. But you talk about sword finger, and you talk about creating a chi ball, and you talk about awaking your Dantians by, you know, touching your. Your third eye and feeling that. That light and touching the middle Dantian in the chest and feeling the light and the lower Dantian. And my kids even got to the point where they just did a Spartan race. They did a mini Spartan race. And before they started, I came up on them. They're both standing facing each other, touching their upper, their middle, and their lower Dantians. And they were doing that because they learned in your video about how you want to have balance between all three. You want a strong head, your upper Dantian, a strong mind. You want a strong kind of core or chest, your love Dantian, you want a strong vitality, your lower Dantian, and you want to be kind of firing on all cylinders. I know in your video, you kind of teach how to awake each of those Dantians, and my kids were doing that before their race. Brought joy to my heart to see them tapping into that. But for someone who just wants to get started with their first qigong exercise, what exercise do you think is best for someone to first open, awaken that Qi power?

Well, to awaken the Qi power in a way of game way. I mean, to arouse interest. Changing brandy is very interesting.

Changing the taste of brandy.

That's right. Yeah. Changing the taste of brandy. Because to do that, you don't have to be very powerful with your chi. As long as you follow the procedures that I introduce, then you focus. Because everybody has Qi. Everybody has Qi. Just now you mentioned Dan Tian. Dan D A N means elixir. Tian Tian means field elixir. Field. So I have three Dantians, upper Dantian in your chest, middle Dantian, your heart, lower Dantian, lower torso. They collect different kind of energies. The one upper Dantian collect energies of wisdom. Yeah. So when the energy here is strong, you feel like you are guided. Yeah. It's not logical, but anything happens, you make a decision, you feel as if it is guided. You make the right decision more likely. Yeah. It's like you have good gps, right? Yeah. It's always guided in the general right direction. That's we call it. This is center of wisdom. And the center when energy is strong and well, here you have good decision, you have good intelligence. Otherwise you get very confused. Yeah, very confused. Like Jim has get malfunctions. That is Upper Dantian, the middle Dantian collect energy was associated with the feeling, feeling loved and feeling you are more capable of giving love. Like you have a Buddha heart. But when it's very weak, then this Buddha becomes like a glass thing. Glass easy. The broken heart, little shake, it's broken. So always carrying the broken heart, you feel like more likely to be the victim of where you are or who you are. You know, some people always complain actually in terms of energy here is too weak. They feel it's vulnerable. Yeah, even people beside him or her sneeze. Then it's nothing to do with you. But he will find the chances. Why do you sneeze? What do you mean? You know, find all this chance to make self miserable. That is because here is not so well developed. With Qi, we call it Middle Dantian Wheel of love. Then the lower Dantian and lower torso, they collect energies to give you more vitality. When Qi is strong here, you're like a juicy fruit. Like you, you don't feel tired easily. If you feel tired, you go sleep very quickly and you rest. Then you can. You have very good rhythm of go and rest. But when here energy is so weak, then that energy is very like weak. Then you need to rest. You have time you cannot. And when you need energy, you're not high enough. So all this are the main three energy centers that actually we cultivate. We cultivate. So when. So you asked me about the good practice. We have a hologram palm empowerment to practice each one of the hologram palm empowerment. Because the interesting thing is that someone can be very developing one of the Dantian, then the other is very weak. That is the time we begin to feel the imbalance. Say for example, you may have Upper Dantian very strong, very developed, but middle dentine underdeveloped.

So what is this person? Like you would like be very. You'd have a good strong mind, but you wouldn't have a lot of love or caring or compassion.

Yeah, you won't. Yeah. If you don't have enough like a little bit.

So you're basically like a smart.

Right. Or they. Or they feel depressed. You know, I have quite a lot of clients. They're very successful, millionaire, multimillionaire, you know, but they feel depressed. They feel. They don't feel happy. People won't understand that you have everything why you're not happy. Everything but a good heart and a good heart.

You can have a strong middle Dan Tian and be Happy and be full of love. But for example, a weak lower Dan Tien and not have vitality or courage or bravery.

Yeah. Although Lower Dantian also has another big power. Is that your stern firmness? Like if you have a very big heart. But Lower Dantian is weak in. Many spoiling mother are like that type. So what happened? They sacrifice everything, but in the end their children are treating them like a doormat. It's because while they're pouring the energy of love, they lose the power of vitality core. Then their firmness is shadowed. Or if you have very big heart, but Upper Dantian is weak in your head, if you have this kind of neighbor or friend, they can be very lovely but annoying neighbor.

Right, Right.

They might knock at your door at midnight, waking you up from deep sleep and telling you how to cope with your insomnia. You know?

Yeah. It's funny. And after reading about the imbalances, because honestly, you know that think about there's. There's six different imbalances you can be. And then the seventh, which would be a strong upper, middle and Lower Dantian. I've begun to be able to identify it. You know, in. In myself, for example, I am. I'm relatively strong upper and relatively strong lower. But I need to work on my love and my empathy and my caring more. And I've noticed that when I'm doing this, this palm empowerment of the three Dantians. And I believe that's what you call the Three Treasures exercise. Is that the one?

Yeah. Three Treasures is pulling them together. Oh, no.

Yeah, that's right. For four golden wheels.

Is that four golden wheels? The exercise in my book, I have different. Different focus. One, the hologram palm empowerment is more like a sharpener. Yeah. You have some problem here. You just do it. It's more. You don't have to practice all the time. You just like sharpen it. Hologram palm of Upper Dantian, Middle Dantian, Lower Dan Tien. You do Central Meridian practice to. To hold them together. Because Central meridian is very, very, very important channel. It goes from top head to the perineum, shooting down to connect the earth Qi, which is more grounding and motherly and going up connect with say the Heaven Chi, which is more expansive and inspiring and they cross three Dantians. So you are like organic part of the Qi. Otherwise it's yard cell. No matter how developed they are, they're not in one unit.

So you always finish your hologram palm empowerment by ensuring that you're grounded to the earth through Central Meridian and that energy is passing from the heaven down through your body.

Yes. Or you do a simple exercise called Three Trajas Standing Meditation. That is a practice 15 12, 15 minutes. Yeah.

It's not very long. And you have audio, too? I keep Those on my MP3 player. What I did, and this is what I would recommend to people listening in. I read your book to kind of learn the story and to study up on what qigong is. And now I'm going through the videos so that I can see what each exercise, from the Three Treasures to the Four Golden Wheels, looks like. And my goal is to be able to get to the point where I can just use your audios when I'm traveling and not have to see the video.

You got my purpose.

That's kind of the way that I've stacked things. And I'll link to. To your book and your videos and your audios in the show notes because again, for those of you listening in a lot of these. These things, you. You need to kind of see and go through slowly. And I just want to introduce you at least to this concept. So. So you like that idea of if someone hasn't done qigong before, just learning the how to awaken their upper, their middle, and their lower. Dantian using something like three treasures and.

Four goals is the good one because, yeah, for some people, standing meditation is a bit challenging if they have never done meditation or standing meditation before. Four Golden Wheels is a movement practice. It's a lot of fun, and it's also easy.

My kids actually like it. They shaking.

They love the shaking.

They like the shaking. They like. And I was doing even before I read your book, I used to shake for about five minutes each morning. I learned that from a Navy SEAL commander named Mark Devine. Told me every morning he wakes up, he as a qigong shaking. So I started doing it. And you feel the nitric oxide coming out your fingertips, and you feel this awakening of energy and blood flow. And it's great for bowel movement and for lymph fluid and all sorts of things. But what my kids like is when we're doing the empowerment, your hologram empowerment, where you pull the pearl of light out of the upper and you move that around and you move to your middle and to your lower. A lot of times they're describing their. Their light, and they're like, dad, it's a firefly. It's a great ball of fire. It's a. You know, one of my. One of my sons the other day told me it was like a. It was like A somersaulting hedgehog or something like that. They come up with all these crazy cool ideas, but it's fun to see them experience that energy. So for Golden Wheels and for those of you listening in, I'll put a link to kind of like a YouTube demonstration of that as well in the show notes. But another question that I have for you, Robert, is in terms of a practice, yoga would be like whatever, you might do a 60 minute yoga session three times a week, or for weight training, you might do a 30 to 45 minute weight training session two to three times per week. For something like qigong, is there a way to practice it that is best? Is it best to do tiny amounts each day? Is it best to do one of your longer 45 to 60 minute sessions and just do that on like a weekend? Or how do you recommend for people with limited time to be able to implement qigong into their lives?

Yeah, well, it depends on the different people. Someone, of course we can commit longer. I recommend at least half an hour, but someone that don't even have that much time. 10 minutes is enough for your daily practice. If you want to say, I, I just want to have qigong for my sense of well being. I don't want to be qigong practitioner, I don't want to be a qigong healer. I just want to have good benefit qigong. 10 minutes is enough.

When you're doing those 10 minutes, what is it that you would do? Like, how would you kind of go through a week? But I do, for example, on the morning of a Monday, do my Upper Dan Tian and on the morning of a Tuesday, my middle.

Yeah, you choose. Yeah, it's good. You make a plan. Like you make a plan for a week or for a month, then you find one that you want to try to start first. Yeah, it's hard for me to tell which one is the best one for any individual. But like say hologram palm empowerment for Upper Dantian, I want to do it for about a month. So every day you can do about a month. Then of course at the weekend you can combine with some other exercises to make it one hour or 30 minutes. But every day you can do about 10 minutes to refresh it. And very important one is not 10 minutes, it's 24 hours a day. Then you say, how can I do that? Right. It's called nourishing Qi. In my book. I didn't put this is what I wanted to my second edition to make narciss pot more reached in my book. I didn't Put too much effort on talking about that. But in my interview with Tammy Simon in my. It sounds true. You know, my qigong ecstasy video or in my. On my YouTube, I've interviewed it. I talk the whole one hour talking.

About and how did you qigong for 24 hours a day?

Yeah.

Give me a glimpse of this. Like, you're not. Are you talking about similar to. To a water fast where you're literally focusing, or you're just kind of like carrying the Qi power with you throughout the day? When I ride my bike back up through New York City today, you know, focusing on channeling my chi and pebbles.

No, there are two ways. That's what. My master even frustrated me because his way of teaching is that you do this without telling you first. Then I try to figure out what is that. He said, you should do 24 hours a day. I said, how can I do that? I said, just do it. Don't ask, you know? Then he frustrated for about a month. Then one day, he just using one minute to tell me. I remember forever. We call it ripen the melon. Water melon. You ripen it before it is ripened. You have to. You take it and it still stick there. But then you wait until it ripens, click, you go. So he waited until I really got frustrated. Easy to understand. He said, I know you're working hard, practicing, but you need to nourish your Qi. You need to allow the Qi to work for you. Instead of you are driving the Qi around everywhere. Because when you're practicing, actually you are manipulating the chi, right? You moving the Qi up, Dantian, all this, this is the work. Then afterwards, you should allow the Qi to get its own will to work inside your body. How to? Right? How to. He said first always Dan Tian. Yes, we mentioned about Dantian, but when we say Dantian without specifically saying which part, it always refers to lower Dantian.

Okay.

In lower torso.

Interesting.

Yeah. It's still not possible for you to think about lower Dantian all the time. He said, anytime you are aware that you are a qigong practitioner, think about your lower Dan Tien. Okay? Yeah.

Why is that?

Treat your lower.

Why the lower. Why is it so much more important?

Your lower Dantian, Low Dantian is the lowest among your three Dantians. So it's also like a warehouse. Like warehouse. They store all the energy. So anytime you say, like after we talk, I put my hands on low Dan. Not only thinking any way that you can treat or greet on your low Dante, you can tap on your lower Dan Tien. Push on your low Dan Tien. Think about lower Dantian or even say good morning, Dan Tien. So the more frequent you greet on low Dantian, the more refreshed you made your Qi. So you make the Qi home, then the Qi generate. So the more authentic ways that Qi works you.

And what would be an example of how going throughout the day, you could keep that lower Dantian activated?

Yeah, see, now we're not talking every now and then put my hands on the.

That I've noticed that you're actually connecting with it. With your.

Yes. Or here's another way to make you social is thinking you load. Dantian is your holy baby. If you have. You have two twin sons.

Twin boys.

Yeah.

I didn't give birth to them, but I witnessed it.

Although, you know, although you are so far away, you're not here in New York, they are in Washington. But do everything you say spirit disconnect them at all? No, the spirit is never disconnected because.

Anytime I believe it is connected.

Yeah, yeah, it is connected. So anytime you have some time, you take the pictures or you think about them. That is the way how you treat the lower Dante. So you and the Qi are constantly interactive. That's what we call nar chi. That can make you chi always simmering inside of you.

There's a lot of physiological benefits to that as well in terms of digestion, bowel movements, your gut brain axis, a lot of things that, that are related to the way that you look and you feel and you perform the rest of the day. When you take that, that invisible energy that you can feel flowing to your body and be able to direct it. And I mean, you know, I now, my personal physician back home is. He's a. He's a e medicine practitioner who does acupuncture when I visit him. And now I'm doing qigong each night with my boys and I'm tapping into the power of gratitude each morning by doing gratitude journaling. And I'm realizing that, you know, when you have a strong fit body, that's not enough. And when you know you're biohacking your brain or your. You're studying and researching and teaching, that also is not enough. You have to have a strong body, a strong mind, and a strong spirit. And I think that qigong is perfect for that. Integrating that and your video, your master key video, your master key audios, and your master key book for those of you listening in. I tried a lot of resources and Roberts were the first ones that actually made sense. And I know that you Practice what you preach. And your story, which you tell in detail in the book, is fascinating.

And so I'm just curious, how did you get to know my.

Do you really want to know what I did? This is the way that I do a lot of things. I will order about 10 different things off of Amazon from 10 different experts, and I'll go through them and read the previews, read the table of contents, read the chapters. Usually this is to Kindle, right? So I'm just sending the samples. And the one that resonates with me the most, the one that I find most interesting, that's the book that I'll actually purchase and read in full. And then from there, I'll delve into that person and just follow that one person like a horse with blinders, kind of ignoring with the other.

Really? That's how you found me?

That's how I found you was I downloaded a preview of your book on Amazon along with about nine others. And yours was the most compelling, the most interesting, and the most. The most educational, I guess, when it comes to this stuff. So I'll link to that in the show notes. For those of you listening, go to Ben. That's BenGreenfieldFitness.com P E N G. And in the show notes there, I will not only link to some of Robert's books and audios and videos, but also his YouTube channel. I'll find you a video of that. For Golden Wheels Exercise, I'll link to my previous podcast episode with Scott Dali, where we talk quite a bit about creating chi balls and all sorts of interesting things and then also perhaps leave you and throw a good link to some kung fu tea resources out there. For those of you listening in, Robert, thanks for letting me come and invade your office and arrive sweaty after ride my bike through New York.

You're more than welcome. It's such an honor. It's such a pleasure to meet you in person when you send the invitation. Of course, I began to study and they said, whoa, you had such great talent, you know, to.

Oh, thanks.

Yeah. To make things all happening together around you and you are creating your own powerful community. That's good talent.

My hope is that I find things that really make people's lives better.

And so we, on the same track.

Reveal that to the world. So you've been a great help with that today. Thanks for coming on the show, man.

Oh, thank you very much, man.

Thank you.

Cheers.

You've been listening to the Ben Greenfield Fitness podcast. Go to BenGreenfield Fitness.com for even more cutting edge fitness and performance advice.

Sam.