Traditional chinese medicine and qigong healing therapy for horses

Qigong and T'ai Chi

horses and energy healing

About Buqi

What is Buqi?

The Buqi Treatment.

How are Buqi practitioners trained?

 

What is Buqi?

A bit of background and theory.

Buqi is pronounced 'boo-chee'.

The Buqi system is largely a system for human healing, health and personal development, which is currently being taught and practised throughout Europe and the United States. The originator  is Dr Shen Hongxun, (Shanghai 1939), a T'ai Chi Grandmaster, teaching Lama, a trained physician in chinese and western medicine and a true master of internal forces. Dr Shen is the Director of the Buqi Institute, Belgium and the Shen Hongxun College, London.

The Buqi healing system takes into account the relationship between body posture, the emotions and health. The theory of the 'double vicious circle of health and disease' describes how these interrelationships affect one another and provides the basis for the treatment model of generating an intervention that breaks this negative cycle.

The system is based on the theory that disease is caused by the build-up of pathogenic factors and toxic by-products. These pathogenic factors or sick 'qi', known as 'binqi' (pronounced 'bin-chee'), accumulate in the body, in particular in the inter-vertebral spaces, joints and organs. Negative emotions, such as stress, anger, fear and sadness, are another type of binqi. The Buqi practitioner has techniques for connecting with, and clearing, binqi which allows healing to take place.

The Buqi practitioner works with energy

Buqi is an energy healing system using vibrational and internal forces to effect change. Its literal translation is 'Bu' which means 'to activate' or 'to tonify' and 'qi' is a term meaning 'energy' and may otherwise be spelt 'chi'.  It is a form of Chinese medicine, has a link with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and can be considered as a Qigong healing system: Qigong is a method of developing internal energy forces through exercise which has its roots in martial and spiritual practise.

The fundamental element about a Buqi treatment is in the interaction of the energy system of the practitioner with the energy system of the individual being treated.  The Buqi practitioner will have undergone an extensive period of development of their own internal energy system and subtle forces, and will understand the movement of internal forces, how to generate vibration force, how to work with a field of energy, the effects of different vibrations on the system and how to connect with different vibrational frequencies.

The Buqi treatment

What are the treatment aims?

During the Buqi treatment session the practitioner has two main aims. The first is to clear ‘binqi’. Binqi is the generic term given to ‘negative factors’. Binqi is an important concept as the practitioner seeks to locate this ‘information’ through sensing and close observation and then to generate a movement or activity within the body (of the person or horse). When binqi accumulates, it causes pain, stiffness, diminished activity of the body structures and the area becomes generally weakened.

The second main aim is to activate the system in order that it may generate its own healthy vibrational frequency and bring alignment to its structure so that the body can operate as a dynamic and integrated whole. The human system is able to develop 5 main energy channels (which can be perceived and understood through specific practise) and we can work along the same lines for the horse. The health of the spine continues to be an important consideration which means working towards a biomechanical sound body structure. 

What is Binqi?

It is difficult to explain what binqi is in a way that can be easily understood to the Western mind.

Binqi is the negative or pathogenic factors. To the practitioner it may be felt as a disturbance in the energetic frequency of the meridian system and may be a felt-sense that is manifest in different ways; heat, cold, itching, wind, prickling, etc. The horse or person being treated can also have an awareness of binqi moving, which may be felt as a sensation, a passing discomfort, a heaviness, an itch or other. As the breath changes it affects the rest of the body and deep sighs can help the further release of binqi, especially from the diaphragm. Binqi can exist in the joints, organs, muscles and bones. When binqi accumulates it causes stiffness, pain and reduction in functioning. It has a quality of being moveable and this is the element that contributes to the uniqueness of this healing system. Buqi practitioners will describe the different qualities of binqi that they feel during treatment and practitioneres of the self healing exercises (called Taijiwuxigong) will describe how they can feel their own binqi moving out of the body; there is a strong emphasis in this practise for doing just this.

A further explanation of binqi.

The following explanation has been distilled from the article 'Binqi and expelling binqi' written by Dr Shen, which can be seen at www.buqi.net. Please read the whole article for an even more comprehensive explanation.

The Buqi system refers to six main different types of binqi, which may be understood as pathogenic or unhealthy factors, or sick ‘qi’. This binqi may accumulate in the intervertebral spaces, organs, muscles, tissues, joints and channels. A phenomena of binqi is that it can move in and out of the body. Any area of the body in which binqi has accumulated or to which binqi has moved, will experience uncomfortable sensations such as cold, heat, itching stiffness,pain, etc. As a result that area will become weaker, there will be varied symptoms, and after a certain time different dis-eases will develop.

In health the body will naturally expel binqi by its own mechanisms. This will occur through the energy channels to the extremities, through elimination via the organs, etc and these effects can be linked in with the breath. The efficient use of the diaphragm affects the internal pressure of the body and has a direct result on internal movements. (My addition - During a Buqi session on a horse we can see this mechanism being tapped into directly as we watch the breath become slower and deeper generating increasing movement of thediaphragm).

Several factors disturb the natural elimination of binqi.

  • An excessively high production of binqi will make it impossible for the body to expel it in a natural way. An accumulation of binqi is the result.
  • The mind has an auto-regulating function but an overactive mind loses this ability.
  • Lack of movement.
  • Shallow breathing keeps the position of the diaphragm too high and diminishes the pressure that pushes binqi towards the exits.
  • During sleep or deep relaxation the exhalation of the breath is increased which helps to move binqi. Therefore insufficient sleep or not sleeping deeply enough will disturb the natural elimination of binqi.
  • Prolonged poor body posture is the primary cause of disease because it disturbs the free flow of the body fluid and therefore provokes the stagnation of binqi.

(All of the above is appropriate to the horse).

In Buqi healing the practitioner has more than 80 hand techniques at her disposal and will use different kinds of vital forces - which are in fact taiji forces - to transmit health information. These forces activate and regulate the functioning of different physiological systems in the patient. By transmitting the information of vibration, spontaneous movement and mental force, the movement of the body fluids improves and binqi is expelled from the patient's body.

How are Buqi practitioners trained?

There is a full professional training completed through The Buqi Institute. The course requires students to study the aetiology (causes) of disease, develop their own internal energy forces, learn Buqi diagnosis and become adept at the different treatment techniques. 

The Buqi practitioner will have undergone an extensive period of development of their own internal energy system and subtle forces work. Most practitioners who use Buqi have undergone far more training than the requirements of studying the Buqi course alone and will have done many years attendance on the myriad of different courses run by the Buqi Institute, taught by Dr Shen & Shen Jin..

Buqi for horses is a development from the Buqi system which has been explored and developed by Jo Osborne over a period of time. Jo has an extensive background in Buqi and its related activities and is also a qualified BHS registered Intermediate teacher, an Equine Sports Massage Therapist, lecturer, writer, a rider of 30+ years of experience and a horsewoman in her own right.