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Though many doctors doubt the power of "Qigong" regarding its alleged healing effects in the treatment of cancer, Ju Benyi, one of the first students of Guo ling, founder of the Guo Ling Sect, insisted that "without Guoling New Qigong, I would have died in 1972."

Ju, a Korean born in Beijing, found herself a patient of breast cancer in its advanced stages, with cancer cells spreading all over her body when she was just 25 years old in 1972. "Doctors told me I was untreatable when Guo, a cancer patient herself, offered to teach me Qigong-through which I survived," said Ju.

The CA Rehabilitation Club, presently located at Yanggao Middle Road, invited her as a Qigong teacher to a meeting of cancer patients who have been attracted by the holistic anti-cancer therapy advocated by the club.

"Qigong not only regulates and calms your breathing, it enables your weak body to move, and also gives patients much-needed human interaction and the psychological therapy of talking to fellow-patients thereby easing the mind," she said.

From her own experience, she found the miserable atmosphere of hospital both depressing and a hindrance to recovery.

"Patients here learn to smile first, they start to be treated as individuals again, not as patients but as normal people," she said. "Qigong helps to draw your mind away from the illness. The more you practice, the better your mood will be. Worry and anxiety can prove deadly to patients," she said.

Ju has stopped taking medicine and has not had surgery at all since beginning to practice Qigong. Yuan Zhengping, director of the club kidded that he "has peacefully co-existed with lymph cancer for 20 years," but has also received five-years of chemotherapy and radiotherapy while practicing Qigong.

"We advocate comprehensive treatment," said Yuan. "However, in my opinion, our hospitals are currently lacking in prevention methods and alternative medicines which should be used to speed up or strengthen the effects of standard medical treatments. A more holistic approach to treatment can prove effective in the recovery stage of the disease-our experience has proved this to us."

The club conducted a survey in 1997 and found that 48 per cent of 3,173 patients who had registered with the club have had a survival period of over five years. Social Studies students from universities such as East China University of Science and Technology (ECUOST) have been interested by the success the centre has been claiming and have been charting significant achievements in the history of the centre since its establishment in 1989.

Some patients are fervent believers in Qigong-and some are not: everyone who comes here learns to smile, and to reenter a society they have felt alienated from in their illness. They are encouraged to get involved with life again, to travel and to get well.

Source: http://www.shanghai-daily.com/data/city/9906m/city990603.html#4 (ne semble plus disponible.)