A Brief History of Qi: The Ancient Biofield Paradigm of Chinese Medicine and Its Relevance for Healthy Living Today

Course overview

This presentation will explore the philosophical and cosmological concepts surrounding the topic of vital energy in China and their historical development through a systematic presentation of textual source materials. Before this cultural background, the practical applications of qi in the related domains of Chinese medicine, nourishing life practices and the martial arts will be discussed from a variety of angles. Most importantly, the presentation will highlight the problems of the current approach to public health that is predominantly grounded in the domain of materialist science, and reveal the promise that the integration of the concept of vital energy into mainstream thinking holds for the future of humankind and our planet as a whole.