Qi Gong (Chi Kung or Chi Gong) restores and enhances harmonious chi flow, thus overcoming illness.

Qi (Chi) means breath and internal energy and Gong (Kung, Gung) means work or achievement.

In China, Buddhist and Taoist adepts sought to increase their internal energy and keep it flowing freely throughout their long days of seated meditation.

Some say that an Indian Buddhist named Bodhidarma first brought Qi Gong, Chi Kung, and Chi Gong to a Taoist temple in China, while others believe that Qi Gong, Chi Kung, and Chi Gong was first developed in China.

Qi Gong, Chi Kung, and Chi Gong work with the energy found in our bodies and in the surrounding environment toovercome the imbalances that sap our strength and give rise to disease.

Anyone can discover Qi Gong, Chi Kung, and Chi Gong.

Observe a child running onto the warm sands of the beach. Notice how deeply they breath in the salty air or how their arms open wide to embrace the fun that lies before them.

Children have a natural relationship with the energy of their environment.

The simple meditative movements and breathing exercises can be practiced by anyone to rediscover the energy around.

Formerly kept secret for thousands of years, various styles are now being taught openly and published.

Today millions of people in China and around the world regularly practice qigong as a health maintenance exercise.

Qigong and related disciplines are still associated with the martial arts and meditation routines practiced by Taoist and Buddhist monks, professional martial artists, and their students.

Once more closely guarded, in the modern era such practices have become widely available to the general public both in China and around the world.

Medical qigong treatment has been officially recognized as a standard medical technique in Chinese hospitals since 1989.

It has been included in the curriculum of major universities in China.

After years of debate, the Chinese government decided to officially manage qigong through government regulation in 1996 and has also listed qigong as part of their National Health Plan.

Qigong can help practitioners to learn Diaphragmatic breathing, an important component of the relaxation response, which is important in combatting stress.

Yan Xin, a doctor of both Western and Chinese medicine as well as founder of the relatively popular Yan Xin Qigong school, suggests that in order for qigong to be accepted by the modern world it must pass the test of scientific study. Without such studies, Yan maintains, qigong will be dismissed as "superstition" .

In the mid-1980s he and others began systematic study of qigong in some research institutions in China and U.S.

More than 20 papers have been published. Yan Xin's research papers were never published in peer-reviewed journals of any international scientific standing and he has denied to demonstrate his results to sceptic scientists.

Qigong and its intimate relation to the Chinese martial arts are often associated with spirituality.

Therefore, for many centuries the popular imagination has placed it in the province of the religious practitioners.

This link is much stronger than with other techniques in traditional Chinese medicine.

Qigong was historically practiced extensively in Taoist and Buddhist monasteries as an adjunct to martial arts training, and the claimed benefits of martial qigong practice are widely known in East Asian martial traditions and popular culture.

In addition, the traditional teaching methods of most qigong schools (at least in Asia) descend from the strict teacher-disciple relationship conventions inherited in Chinese culture from Confucianism.

In some styles of qigong, it is taught that humanity and nature are inseparable, and any belief otherwise is held to be an artificial discrimination based on a limited, two-dimensional view of human life.

According to this philosophy, access to higher energy states and the subsequent health benefits said to be provided by these higher states is possible through the principle of cultivating virtue .

Cultivating virtue could be described as a process by which one comes to realize that one was never separated from the primal, undifferentiated state of being free of artificial discrimination that is the true nature of the universe.

Progress toward this goal can be made with the aid of deep relaxation (meditation), and deep relaxation is facilitated by the practice of qigong.

According to Chinese medical thought, practising chi kung can cure as well as prevent all kinds of illness, including diseases like asthma, diabetes, hypertension and cancer which are generally considered "incurable" by conventional medicine.

Practising chi kung is also very effective for overcoming psychological problems.

One must, first of all, realise that the conventional medical paradigm is only one of many ways to look at health and illness, and it is not necessarily the only correct way.

According to the Chinese medical paradigm, there is no such a thing as an incurable disease, although a patient may be incurable if his disease, even a simple one, has done damage beyond a certain threshold.

No disease is incurable because it is our natural birth-right to overcome all types of diseases -- if our psychological and physiological systems are working the way they should work.

Illness occurs only if one or more of these natural systems fail in their functions.

When all our systems are functioning naturally, the Chinese figuratively describe this condition as harmonious chi flow, i.e. the energy flow that supplies the right information to every part of our body (and mind), that provides the right defence or immunity when needed, that repairs all our wear and tear, that channels away toxic waste and negative emotions, and that performs other countless things to keep as alive and healthy, is functioning the way it should. If this harmonious chi flow is disrupted, illness occurs.

The forte of chi kung is to restore and enhance this harmonious chi flow, thus overcoming illness, irrespective of the labels one may use to define its symptoms, and promoting health, which the Chinese have always considered to be more important than curing diseases.

It is significant to note that the claim of chi kung to overcome illness and promote health is not based just on the above philosophical explanation, but on thousands and thousands of practical cases.

It is an ancient science just waiting to be investigated.