Known as "a molecular alchemist" for his teachings of qi gong, Grandmaster Sikung Lowe --whose family developed the LAMAS school--shares facets of the practice and the concept of chi.

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The Monthly Aspectarian: Master Lowe, I know that you were taught by your father and grandfather, and that you have 53 years of experience. Could you give us a brief outline of your history?

Master Lowe: From what I've been told, my family were originators and the developers of LAMAS and have a history going back to Su wu. Su wu was the first qi gong grand master that actually displayed phenomenal power and reserves. He was captured and incarcerated for 18 odd years by the Huns. He was able to survive for long periods of time throughout that time with little sustenance, by practicing the art of qi gong and eating whatever there was. My family's history began in a place called Guiyang. Guiyang province is a little bit north of Hunan province in Mainland China. During the burning of the books in 214 BC, after the unification of China, a lot of information and artifacts were destroyed. So many things with qi gong have been destroyed, buried or lost for quite some considerable time. It is only roughly 20 years ago they found some qi gong relics that actually showed the practice of qi gong going back for 4,500 years. At that time it was called Dao Yin.

When you have a war or conflict, there is a general practice to try to hunt down or get rid of your enemies as much as you can. Anyone who was associated with a different lord or a different emperor or whatever went on at that time, suffered cleansing. People who appeared to have any kind of special knowledge were frowned upon. Recently with the Mao Tse Tung's cultural revolution, if you seemed to be intellectual, you weren't looked upon with favor. If you had any strange abilities, you would meet people who were in fear, and they first seek to destroy. In 1842 my family decided to go right across to the other side of the world, literally away from everything. So they went from Guiyang to Guyana in South America, which was a British colony. The spelling was similar to Guiyang, like a trail.

1842 was 10 years before the first recorded numbers of Chinese leaving China to go to Guyana and they've been going there from 1852 until now. Most of the Chinese have moved to Canada. There's a lot of Chinese from Guiyang living in Canada, in Toronto and Ottawa. There's actually a web page on a Canadian site showing the dates and boats and numbers of people. But my ancestors left 10 years before that. I was born in the vicinity of Georgetown in Guyana, and my grandfather started teaching me what at first to a boy was a way of breathing, of movement and form and exercise. To people who were looking on, it looked something like a slow dance. When he was finished, my father started teaching me the martial art connection. I've kept on practicing until this moment in time.

I was born in 1943 and I was brought up as a Christian. My calling was in the Catholic school and I went to a Catholic high school, and then studied technology. I moved to England in 1961 and stayed there until now. When I was around five years of age, I had a small dilemma. Qi gong has no religious doctrine as such, but some words within Chinese interpretation translate as heaven, et cetera. So I had a problem there where I saw it as a conflict with my religious doctrine, only to find that qi gong is based purely on health, and I found that I was able to out-perform others at an academic and physical level.

TMA: If a Grand Master grandfather is going to start to instruct his five-year-old grandson, what kind of teachings did he start with? Simple physical movements?

ML: No. Discipline. Breathing. Honesty. Perseverance, a determined spirit. The abilities to look at myself and focus on what I wanted to achieve as a child. The things at that time I thought were important were being able to walk faster or longer because I like walking, and playing games at a higher level than others. In Chinese circles, in Chinese family, there's a tradition of teaching your immediate family what is necessary for their own defense mechanisms. So for the child, that was a glamorous part of it. You'd learn martial arts as a child, but you'd learn it in a soft, relaxed, gentle fashion so that as you grew up, you gain control apart from power. The first thing is control. We were taught many aspects of self control.

TMA: So now you come to teach people who are not five-year olds. They may be in their 30s or 50s or 70s. How do you approach that?

ML: My angle, if you want, is first to explain to people that qi gong is basically for health. Whether you're one year of age or a hundred years of age, primary function should be good health, prevention of ill health, and the protective mechanisms involved to protect one against disease or ill health. So really the focus, regardless of age, is on improving and maintaining health.

TMA: What are some basic introductory practices?

ML: Well, basically one could show people how, if they aren't able to stand, how they can sit and practice qi gong. Or if they're hospitalized, how you can do it in a bed. Or if you're fit, how you can do it standing or walking. It depends upon a particular person's physical condition at any one moment in time. Then you show them the practices that are gentle and soft, how to breathe, how to actually have a visualization technique that they can take home with them and also some form, movement, stylized or un-stylized, that they may usefully employ on a self-help basis.

TMA: Is the teaching tailored to the individual or are there set basics?

ML: There are many, many prescriptions in qi gong, which are used for particular health problems. When someone goes to an introductory session, they learn the normal, general qi gong practice for general health. If they have a particular health problem, that of course would have to be diagnosed and then they may be offered a prescription, which is a movement and form and breathing and visualization and dietary regulations so that they can improve their health. A group of people will be shown general exercises that will help with health overall.

TMA: Without giving away any secrets or anything, can you talk about the essence of the basic teaching?

ML: In the practice of qi gong, the focus and the aim should be for the person to achieve a state of well being. This would mean not only their physical health, but their mental health, and possibly strengthening their spirit, vigor and energetic levels. This would involve first making them comfortable, building up some rapport and showing them some soft, gentle breathing movements to use. I explain to them how the body works and the physiological and psychological gains and/or disadvantages with qi gong as against other practices. The person, whoever he or she is, can then go and research or they can take materials that can be supplied for them that they can look at so as to self-educate themselves.

In my college in England I have 12 qi gong Masters and about 20 senior instructors that have been training with me, some of them for up to 28 years. Some of them are martial artists from high levels. Some have practiced Tai Chi, Gong Fu, Tai Kwon Do, Hapkido, and other systems. I’ve had so many years of martial arts experience and I've taught a lot of good martial artists. The thing about qi gong as against martial arts is that qi gong helps you to maintain your health for longer than any other thing or discipline I've ever come upon. Some of my students are in Western conventional practice, doctors, scientists, educators, psychologists, and they're finding that qi gong offers them great respite in their professions, personal lives and aspirations.

TMA: Would you describe the basic breathing technique?

ML: We do what is called microcosmic and macrocosmic breathing. We start with the basic breath to slow down breathing, when to pause, when to breathe, and how to direct the breath to the abdomen. When this happens, we explain in detail how we're making the intestines, small and large, a place that is pressurized, aerated ... an oxygenated environment. We explain why it's necessary to breathe there. One of the most important facets of the breathing is to have internal movement, which we call xiang qiquan. Other practices may show you abdominal breathing, and maybe some qi gong, but they never go into detail and in depth in this simple format.

TMA: It seems to be the nature of the times that secret teachings and practices from all over the world are being made available in a way that's unprecedented in recorded history. It's fascinating.

ML: I think one of the reasons for that is a general awareness and awakening of humanity. This practice which complements improvement of health and works as an adjunct to mainstream complementary or alternative practice, also encourages a spiritual awakening, which is absolutely vital.

TMA: How does qi gong address the spiritual awakening?

ML: At LAMAS qi gong, it's a family thing. We embrace all religions, all political ideologies, all races. We are a truly pluralistic type of activity, because our main function is improvement of health, be it in the physical, mental, or spiritual level. We find that when a person is sickly, there's no way their spirit can be soaring and strong. If a person has a mental abnormality, there's no way their spirit can be strong or healthy. So we look first to improve the body, encouraging the mind to function faster, better, and more securely. At the same time, we address any spiritual deficits.

TMA: Is there a meditative practice associated with qi gong?

ML: Qi gong does involve meditation, but on a movement platform. When you sit in one position, you restrict the flow of smooth chi. In Western concepts, chi is a biochemical, magnetic, electronic, whatever you want, energetic systems.

TMA: It's more subtle than all of those things, isn't it?

ML: They are constituents of chi. Chi is actually the essence of life. You can be sickly but still have chi. You can be very powerful and still have chi. But if you're sickly, you don't have energy, so energy is not chi. There are many misnomers or wrong names used by people who don't understand the full concept of chi, and refer to it as bioenergetics. When I work with people on a consultation basis, they've referred to me as a molecular alchemist. I work at the basic levels of life. So to me, chi is a simple, basic, yet highly complex concept.

TMA: When you talk about visualization, you're not really saying that when people visualize moving the energy around, they're actually moving the energy around.

ML: If you think it, it becomes a reality. So whether or not their energies are poor or good, healthy or sickly, the fact that they have a visualization parameter helps to strengthen resolve and therefore produces maximized, highly efficient, and very effective outcomes.

Grandmaster Sikung Lowe will be appearing in the Chicago area in three interactive events. Introductory meetings and Qi demonstrations will be held Wednesday, March 20 at Healing Earth in Chicago, and Thursday, March 21 at the Unitarian Church of Evanston. Weekend Workshops will be held March 23 or 24 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont. Grandmaster Lowe will also be available for private consultations by appointment during his time in Chicago, and is sponsored by Alternative Choices, Inc. For more details, including times and costs, call 800-497-9560.

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