Healing Through Qigong and Conscious Living with Adam

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0:44 Denzel Washington, welcome to inspire Vision. Our sole purpose is to elevate the lives of others and to inspire you to do the same. Adam, welcome to the show. Thank you, glad to be here. That's good to have you here. I'm looking forward to this discussion. You've got some interesting things that I know you talk about, and what I'd like for you to do with the audience is kind of explain your background, what brought you to this point, how did you get interested in this, and yeah, let's just kind of go from there. In my twenties, I had a pretty successful marketing agency in New York City. I had some childhood illnesses that were lingering, and I was using the asthma and handler that little pump that you see in the dudes. I was using that at least three times a day. I like to joke that coffee bar and Happy Hour weren't cutting it.

1:38 Now. I was under so much stress. Now, let's put it this way. One of my. Clients was an attorney that defended two of our presidents in Supreme Court. So new York City marketing agency with high profile clients in my twenties, I just was burning out and I didn't know it until one day at a client, young guy even younger than me, I noticed what was happening, and he said, I think I can help you. And we started training over Skype, and I practiced a particular type of breathing and movement meditation that's known as cheatong, which I'll go into a little bit more. Yeah, we'll get into that. But I practiced that every day for six months and it cured my asthma. So what ended up happening As I continued developing this practice and looking for more teachers.

2:32 So I started to realize that this was lineage based, that it's not necessarily something you can get from a book, although you can read about it. You really need somebody with a certain level of experience to guide you through certain articulations and things that are really experiential. So when you have something that's handed down from one person to another for so long, and in this case sometimes thousands of years, we call it lineage. And I started to see that as a bit of a life's purpose, that somebody saved my life. And if I could remember these things and remember these choreographies and these poetryes that go together, then I could share that with somebody else and maybe save their life or the life of somebody they love.

3:21 So here I am, Here you are, and you still do your marketing. Yeah, I get a lot of calls. I did some fairly spectacular things for a lot of people, So I get calls. But at the moment I'm in, I'm enrolled in a PhD or a doctorate in natural medicine through Quantum University out of Honoluluguay, and the degrees actually Quantum integrated medicine. So they're training me to be the bridge between the mainstream allopathic model and the natural holistic books and our motto. In so many ways, it's just whatever works, whatever works to get you healthy.

4:04 And if something's not working, if the person that's giving you health advice is prescribing something or or telling you to do something that's that's not effective, then it might be time to talk to somebody else. So are you are you in Hawaii or are you doing this online? The programs online, although I've been to Hawaii, okay and plan to go back for another training, so there is some hands on wow, okay, but it's. Amazing how now online you can get these degrees and this information. But oftentimes I think is even more effective than going to a university in person. Having having been to university, I would say that this is phenomenally more effective because.

4:51 I know. Because these are recorded videos from in this case, in this curriculm. These are world RENOUWND thought leaders in the industry of health and consciousness. These are hours and hours and hours of recorded lectures that I can listen to and re listen to. The research papers and the the research libraries that they've given me access to are astonishing. How much how much we actually know that is not in the mainstream. Yeah. To put it simply, well, yeah.

5:34 It's interesting as I've as I've interviewed various people, a lot of them, a lot of them similar to what you're doing, have gone in and got advanced degrees and then all of a sudden something's occurred to change their life and move in a different direction and they start to do all of that studying online. And we have all agreed, because I've done that too, We've all agreed that it's amazing how when you go online you're actually getting greater information and you become almost at a level at least equal to, if not a little bit higher than those that have gone to school for the same thing.

6:15 So I find that fascinating. So anyway, as we go, I know that your studies started. Basically, I want you to kind of explain to the audience Chigong, because that's something, as you said, thousands of years old, and what is that exactly? Well, oh my god, this is such a debatable topic. You know, Historically folks in the East wanted to. Both live longer and have better romantic encounters, and so these techniques were developed. These techniques were developed for intimate relationships and longevity is an interesting thing because nowadays we have a lot of quackerie and snake oil and and side effects and all of these things, and a lot of claims that are made, and so Chi gong ties in very well with philosophy of Taoism. Okay, So it's a lot, it's it's a lot. It's a lot to consider.

7:27 So in this philosophy, one of the foundational concepts is to be like water, and so water when it needs to be, can be ice. When it needs to be, it can be gas. So to flow like water, To be like water is to be adaptable, to be resilient, to be to have to have pressure, to be able to apply pressure. There's a lot of qualities of water that form this foundation. So Chi gong loosely translated she being energy and gong being practice is by my definition, the healing side of kung fu, that gong fu being and loosely translated the practice of movement. That there's a combat side and there's a healing side. So in this yin yang kind of balancing duality, we if we go into combat.

8:25 Will need to heal. And so these longevity techniques became more with this philosophy of Taoism, became more quality of life. That the duration is a mystery. The quality is something that can be reliably improved, and in particular with those intimate relationships. Well so, yeah, and as you get into that, I know, as I've looked at it a little bit, it talks about the mind itself, regulating the mind, regulating the breath, but also regulating the body and different postures. And I found that interesting as I meditate, and I do a lot of walking meditation that as I start to move my arms and you know, and I don't have any specific way, I find that I actually get a greater sense of feeling of that meditation. And why is that?

9:24 Why is the gentle movement like in chigong? Why is that make a difference when you consider the breath, the mind and then the movement. A great question, doctor Doug. Oh. So the chi is as I was saying before about the training that I had undergone, it's experiential. So I'm going to do my best. You know, there's the famous dowdi Ching book of philosophy. So and again to paraphrase the Dow that can be explained is not the true down. So I'll do my best. One way of one way of understanding that she this energy that we're practicing is that is the electromagnetic field that our body is generating and radiating electromagnetism, and that when you slow down through the breath, through for example, walking, meditation and walking in nature, that you that your sense is that you have a sense ability to tune into this subtle energy that you can feel your own.

10:38 Biofield. Yes, one of the one of the one of the folks that I like the most is Rupert Sheldrake. He coined the term morphogenetic. Fields, so when you're engaged in these gentle movements, you can actually feel something that otherwise may not even really be detectable by most equipment. Although at this point now they do have a device called a squid and I have to look up what that acronym stands for, but it can't contact this energy field of the body. Well. And you know, as you've as you studied, obviously it's interesting to me. I mean, you've studied with doctor Jonas s. Benza. I know that you've studied with different individuals, and I don't know if that was a progression for you and how does how does chigong fit into all of that? Because you know a lot of times on the podcast we talk about meditation and I am a big advocate of meditation and how it can literally change your life. But how how does chigong fit into the modern day teachings that we get from doctor Dispensa and other people, because I know you've studied with a number of them. What do you find?

11:57 Yeah, I have so much to say about these things and trying to be concise for you. Oh boy, Well, first of all, it feels fantastic to tune into this subtle energy and feel it moving through your body, to feel it clearing blockages. In so many ways, those blockages are physical that our lymphatic system, the endocrine system, the lymph nodes, and the branching lymphatic vessels are pump based and so similarly to our reason veins, the heart is pumping and the fluid is moving, the blood is moving, but the lymph needs a mechanical pump. It needs to be manually pumped. The main pump for that is the diaphragm.

12:45 So the more breathing, the more deep breathing, the more that the sewage of the body, the mucus and the toxins therein are moving, and then the internal organs are digesting and eliminating. Chigong has choreographies that have you move in certain patterns that express that lymphatic drainage. And there are certain choreographies that have you moved in ways that you would have never considered in your entire life. Yes, so let me let me interrupt you just for a second, because what immediately comes to my mind. You know, we talked about yoga, which also includes meditation, But when you talk about movement, is that something that anyone can do, even as you get to be a little bit older, a little bit more and difficult of that, are these movements something that anyone can do?

13:42 Absolutely? And to answer your question regarding doctor Joe Despenza and these other folks that I've studied with translating an Eastern philosophy philosophy into a Western medical language and giving it a Western medical relevance, in particular with doctor Joe, who's known for his work with La Cibo and his work with belief systems and in a sense being the world's thought leader on behavior change, that there's actually a study of I believe from Harvard that shows that these techniques done mentally in a mental rehearsal are slightly more effective.

14:27 So you can practice shigong standing up, they are standing meditations, you can practice them seated, you can practice them lying down. That you can practice them purely as a mental rehearsal, and you're going to get incredible benefits. And I think the reason for that is actually more difficult. If your body is moving, there's a muscle memory, and you're in the flow and you're making these gestures and you're. In the motion. If you're rehearsing it in your mind, there's a lot more There are a lot more distractions, a lot more intrusive thoughts and other things at play that quite simply, you could fall asleep. This is what happens for most people.

15:14 They attempt the mental rehearsal and then doze off. So in meditation training, one of those if that's one of those milestones to achieve, is to be able to make it through the entire mental rehearsal without And this is where being able to do it in your sleep comes from. So if I could do it in my sleep, that means. That I can get the benefits of deep delta healing meditation. Sorry, hold on one second, We've got a helicopter. That's okay, I can't hear it. You're okay, great. You can get the benefits of deep delta brain waves that are achieved during sleep through meditation. So if you can lower your brain wave state, if you can relax into that zone, then the body starts a regenerative immune process and heals things, gives you more energy, makes you feel great. And so folks that have any kind of mobility issues or any or anything might start to see them resolve in reverse.

16:22 Well, and you know, it's interesting. I love what you said about the movement great focus because you know, anyone that meditates knows that as you're starting to meditate, however you're doing that, those thoughts constantly come in, you know, and distract and to be able to focus on movement, which is just interesting to me because I've really never done a lot of movement. To be able to focus on that as well as your breath, it sounds like it really puts you more into that state of meditation. And are you saying that that kind of eliminates a lot of that extra barricular thought process that comes in that is distracting. Yeah, you know, whether it's yoga or tai chi or pilates, or are any of these systems that include a bit of meditation or or our meditation focus, they're all self hypnosis techniques. And so a lot of folks have a misunderstanding about hypnosis. And you know, we've all seen cartoons and things where you know, you know, cluck like a chicken, or you know, something embarrassing. But we're just really slowing down, relaxing, speaking to our subconscious in a brain wave where the subconscious is active, and these repetitive motions, these focused motions where the breath is part of the where your attention is focused, helps unlock those doors.

17:54 So with tai chi, this can be like the. Bal Like the ballet, it can be a bit intimidating for folks to see some of those postures and say, wow, I don't know if I could ever do that. Yoga also similarly, you might see some people do some things you go wow, I don't know if I can achieve that, or it might take me quite a while to get there. Well, chigong sits. Somewhere in the middle where these are these are structured around cultivating the energy of the Chief. That if you can bring these into tai chi, if you can bring these into yoga, if you can bring these into how you practice your walking, meditation, if you can bring these techniques into how you do the dishes and fold the laundry, that it becomes a lifestyle where you're in a state of trance and you maintain a straight a state of trance such that you can approach meditation, this presence of being that is experiential, that you can approach that state and you can maintain your connection and your relationship with it in a much deeper in a much deeper way and for a longer period of time.

19:06 Yeah, so you experienced actually eliminating a medical issue that you had, but you said it took about six months. Well, I feel like there may have been at first a chemical dependency on the on the pharmaceutical, and then once that was cleared, there was a a psychological dependency that when an asthmatic trigger would occur, that reaching for it would you know, need to be that needed to be clear. And then eventually those triggers no longer whatever was triggering no longer had an effect that I was no longer having the sensation associated with asthma where one would reach.

19:52 For that that asthma pump. So yeah, that it took about six months, which you. Know, what I find interesting, Adam, is that, for instance, you know, going to a week long function with Doctor Joe, there's a real focus on healing. There's a real focus on that. And quite frankly, as I went, I think probably that was part of my motivation, was that healing. Now have I experienced that no other people have, And yet what I have experienced is realizing that, you know what, that's not what it's all about, because if you move past that part and get into it deeper, all of a sudden, it's changing your life, changing your attitude, creating greater peace and joy and stillness within yourself. What are your thoughts about that?

20:45 Yeah? Oh boy, again, there's so much to say about all of this. All right, we'll go. Well, as I was saying, it feels fantastic. Our body releases and doorphins and horns, and we have serotonin and dopamine and so these repetitive motions when they're tied to the breath, when they're independent of the breath, there are certain techniques go one way or the other. That and as I was saying, moving in strange ways that you wouldn't necessarily consider. Some of the techniques are agricultural based their physical therapy and rehab or doing the types of tasks that anybody would do any day on the farm.

21:32 Other techniques when you look at when you look at the great Sage Bodhi Dharma and his contributions to the modern Shallon Temple and having been credited with Zen, Buddhism and kung Fu, that this Indian mystic that comes to the Chinese territories fifteen hundred years ago, we have a lineage that includes a choreography called the bone marrow washing. So they knew back then that the blood, that new blood is created inside the bones, and that stem cells inside of that fresh blood now circulate into the bloodstream and go where they need to go and become what they.

22:14 Need to become. And you know, there's a deeper science over which stem cells can become which and which ones are harder to produce, and which ones they don't believe necessarily can regenerate. And then you attend a miraculous healing event like doctor Joe's workshops, and you witness not only witness people experiencing what I can only really describe to others as faith healings spontaneous remissions, but that they're actually capturing the data live in the moment as it's occurring. So you'll see a person's face and that they've had a transformative mystical experience and tears are running down their face. But the brain wave pets AT and the heart rate monitor and the other types of devices that are being used are are.

23:04 Showing h incredible activity that. Wasn't present leading up to and then wasn't present after the moment, and then when that person goes for further testing it, it'll show that they've you know, and and these are the these are the kinds of uh experiences that that folks are having that no longer have. And I won't I won't uh name all of them, but you know, there there have been spontaneous for emissions of cancers and MS and even Parkinson's and folks you know, getting out of wheelchairs and and these are have become common occurrences, which is why, which is why these workshops are gaining in popularity.

23:51 You know, it's amazing how that is happening, and now it's being scientifically validated. And you know, you talk about the energy, you talk about frequency. It's like anything else as fascinating. As you know, as I've studied religion, Buddhism, in some of these other ones, it's interesting to me how there's that original thought and philosophy and then all of a sudden down the road it gets modified and modified here, modified there, and all of a sudden here we are looking at things that really don't relate to the original. So here's my question for you, because as we talk about quote, the quantum field, as we talk about energy, as we talk about different frequencies, what are your thoughts and what is your experience as far as someone who is wanting to meditate is meditating but hearing all of these things from the outside about well, you know, you should be using sophagio frequency or you should be using binural frequencies. What is your experience and as you've said this, what are your thoughts about all of that?

25:00 Yeah? Oh okay, So in context of in context of my training in the quantum program, whatever works, the idea is to get you there. All of these self hypnosis techniques, whether it's listening to brainwave and trainment, you know Monroe Institute binural beats, whether it's using tuning forks and hearing the reverberation of a self veggio frequency, whether it's counting your breath, whether it's doing a chigong or yoga or or any of these. These are all relaxation techniques. These are all self hypnosis, and they're all meant to get you there. So, by my definition, meditation is not something you can do. It's a presence of being that arises when you stop doing. One of my teachers, who would where I developed this this s depth, this personal definition, was responding to another classmate asking, you know, is there any meditation music and is there something you could play in the background, And he said, well, if you're listening to music, you're not meditating.

26:09 You're listening to music. And similarly with anything else we want to and especially in when it applies to healing, if we want to reverse a condition, if we want to regenerate our vitality and reconnect with life force, then we have to we can't continue to go in along with the agenda in the direction we've been going. We have to go back the other way. So all of these techniques are going back the other way. But at some point, the wellspring of consciousness is at that zero point. You've been bringing me closer and closer to what I'm learning in this program about the quantum reality.

26:55 So all of these things are fantastic. Let's say yes to all of them, right, but at some point you leave them behind or you turn them off and you go okay. So you take your walk, and after enough time you go, okay, I'm going to now sit and experience the presence of being the state of meditation that I'm no longer counting my breath, I'm no longer practicing some mental rehearsal, that I'm allowing myself to exist and to experience the relationship with myself in being this. So one of my professors, not seem harming, had done some wildly complicated mathematics around gravity, and without getting incredibly technical, imagine the shape of an apple and pumpkin and any other thing.

27:49 We have this. Mathematical geometrical shape we call a taurus field, and so the energy is coming in, it's wrapping around, it's swirling, Okay, And Nassim Harmin talks about how this is the fundamental shape of the universe, that from the smallest atomic particle to the largest galaxy, that this shape is present, that energy. Flows in according to this design. And he talks about how when you pull the plug on the tub, when you pull the drain and the water starts to swirl, that the event horizon, that the zero point of a black hole is similarly that point where the water is swirling and it reaches that moment where it now is going back in the other direction as it's continuing down the pipes. So, in a sense, what the quantum model talks teaches us is that we have these mathematical principles of ent hanglement and nonlocality, we also have superposition that we're able to manipulate the energy system such that if you could imagine your heart as that zero point, that if the energy is all flowing through your heart, and that this center of you is

29:22 similarly the center of all reality, that each individual physical component of all reality follows this type of shape, that a there's an entangled connection that what you're experiencing with your system through consciousness is then affecting and manipulating the reality as a hole. When you do these meditations. One way of looking at is that you've had a friend you just I was trying to describe this, he said, so you're flushing your life and I just felt like that, like as a great visual, like yeah, like all the crap, just flush it through your heart, through that capacity of unconditional love and let it feed back the shape, let it feedback clean. And so this presence of being that I'm talking about when you no longer are doing, when you're no longer counting your breath, when you're no longer rehearsing something, then when you're no longer trying to repeat your mantra, when you're no longer allowing your thoughts to pass without judgment, when when these techniques have gotten you there, and it's almost like the moment of meditation is experiential.

30:43 It's almost like when you go And I think most people are probably listening to this and not watching it visually, but I'm going to try to demonstrate, which is just oh how long was I gone? Right? That it's not you didn't necessarily fall asleep. You know that you weren't asleep, but you know that you weren't, uh that that you that that you know that you went somewhere that that you that there may be is a sense of traveling and returning. And so as I was saying, it's it's experiential. And the purpose of my degree and my and my training that led up to the degree is to help folks understand the medical relevance of all of this, that there are techniques that are heavily researched, wildly reliable, and that these are all available to everybody freely, that if we were then do diagnostic testing, we could demonstrate the health impact and the positive effects of them. So with all of that knowledge, you know, it's just about finding the technique that you love the most, that you say, oh I could do this every day or at least when you begin your she go on training they say for a season, so for one hundred days.

32:03 Well yeah. What fascinates me is, as you're talking about this, it's almost a step by step process of you know, you start out, and we're going to talk a little bit about how to someone start out, But as you go through that process and you're listening to this, for instance, for me, you're listening to the sofaggio, which is music the frequencies, and you're saying, as you continue to progress and progress, you get to a point where you take that away because now you're just experiencing that stillness, and that's when you've really achieved what you're looking to achieve. And that's when the body literally starts to experience that change that helps to create that better help. Is that a fair statement?

32:46 Yeah, yeah, absolutely, because she going choreographies and poetries, let's do a let's do a quadrant. It teaches you what to think and how to think it. There's a lot of there's a lot of poetry that includes guided visual guided visualization. A lot of poetry with guided visualization that includes visualization of light moving through the body. There's connections with that poetry to elements like water and wood and fire. There's visualizations of your internal organs illuminated with light. There's a lot of connection to in and so in traditional Chinese medicine and how it relates to acupuncture and the meridians.

33:36 All of this centers a lot in the emotions and that the organs regulate, uh regulate certain it and so I'm trying to hold myself back. From going and what to think and how to think it. These are natural pathways that we we've had since as we've become what we are. So re establishing those connections in the brain right now now you're thinking in ways that are natural, and restoring that natural, those natural connections is easier for the body to get into that.

34:18 Now. The other two quadrants are how to move and what to feel while you're moving. All of those together are so overwhelmingly that they overwhelm everything. There's no room for other thoughts set. All right, So so here here's a question. I want to go quickly on this. For someone that's listening that's never done any meditation, how do they start? And then for someone who has done meditation and all of a sudden, you know, like myself, where I'm hearing about this begong, how do I find that information and how do I then apply it?

35:02 Sure? Well, another professor of mine, doctor Amika Swami, wrote a book called The Quantum Doctor, and the shortest version is that until scientists find a way to animate an inanimate object and bring something to life or bring something back to life, then our entire reductionist model of Darwinism and Newtonian physics is incomplete. That it applies to inanimate objects it has gaps, and that the notion that consciousness is coming from matter is backwards and that in fact, matter is coming from consciousness.

35:46 Okay, so I'm going to we got just a little bit of time. So how does someone start this if they've never meditated before? What's the first steps for them? Sure? So that she is your interface with consciousness. That electromagnetic field allows us to interpret the information coming from consciousness into reality. So with that knowledge and with that perspective shift, you can now go and seek out, generally speaking, at a senior center, you'll find a tai chi teacher, and a tai chi teacher will be trained in the energetic principles of chigong that express themselves through the ballet, through the dance of taichi.

36:30 Okay, all right, and so do you need to go find someone and then you talk about tai chi, you talk about chigong. I look at those a little bit differently. Maybe I shouldn't. But if I want to start learning about yigong and learning about the movements and do all of that, where do I go? There are a lot of great teachers online that you can look up on YouTube that have follow along videos that I love. Some of those are montac Chia and Robert Peng p E n G. There's there's so many, there's so many names. Domo Domo Mitchell is fantastic, Lee Holden and those are the men. So there there's some wonderful women as well. Uh yo key y o q I is a great channel this Uh there's so many, so many great teachers on online, myself included.

37:26 If you search Relax with Adam, you can find. I've tried that. I've tried that, and I don't find you. I find it. You know, someplace where you're trying to get some help financially to finish your degree? How do I find you? In some of your tapes? Do I end up going to LinkedIn? Or where do I go? Sure on that same funding page to help with the tuition of the school, the medical equipment that I need to perfer or my case studies for my dissertation. There's some video links there and specifically on YouTube. If you search Relax with Adam, you'll find but a lot of my a lot of my techniques, A lot of the videos that I that I've recorded for certain techniques are the they require, they require preliminary training and a lot of the teachers that have shared these techniques with me, there's a respect that I don't publicly showcase these techniques without proper, proper introduction. So a few videos that I do have if if those are because I might, I might not be your teacher. I really believe that there there's a the right teacher for everybody, and who resonates with you is the person that can help you commit to the discipline of one hundred days of practice as

38:58 an initial launching pad. This is what I think makes a great teacher, and the right teacher for. You would be the one where you get into that one hundred days and at the end of it, there's a transformative. Aspect to guide folks there. But I could certainly help people the find the right teacher as well. All right, So as we close final thought, what would you like to share with the audience. Everybody already meditates. If it's fishing, it's gardening, anything you do to self regulate emotionally, all of these things are fantastic. Let's just develop this skill to a greater degree.

39:39 And have you access consciousness in a way that resolves in your life. You'll see it in synchronicity. You'll see it in luck, in grace, in little miracles. Life is lovely and wonderful and amazing and circling back to our original place where we started. Shigong is about quality of life and you can certainly improve that through these techniques. And wish you all well on your journey. Wonderful Adam, thanks so much. This has been so fascinating. I've loved this and you've got such experience and understanding that you've been able to share and I really appreciate that, so thanks so much.

40:22 Absolutely, and doctor Doug, I'd love to invite you to meditate with me anytime, happy to We don't have to do it live for the audience, just to enjoy some time together with meditation, that. Would be great. Thank you, and folks, thanks for listening. I hope you've enjoyed this, and you know, I hope that it motivates you to start really getting that curiosity up to find what works for you and what teacher out there can really help you to get to a point that Adam has been talking about. So anyway, this is doctor Doug saying, no, I'm a stay The court at calder hatted with here