Advance Access Publication 28 January 2008 eCAM 20096(2)175ndash183doi101093ecamnen005

Commentary

Philosophy Psychology Physics and Practice of Ki

S Tsuyoshi Ohnishi1 and Tomoko Ohnishi2

1Philadelphia Biomedical Research Institute King of Prussia PA 19406 and 2Department of Biochemistry andBiophysics University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Philadelphia PA 19104 USA

Ki (in Japanese) or Qi (in Chinese) is the key concept in Eastern medicine Eastern philosophyas well as in martial arts We explain the philosophical and psychological background of KiWe emphasize that the unique aspects of Eastern philosophy are lsquonon-linearityrsquo and lsquoholisticrsquoapproach We then present physics aspect of Ki Our experiments demonstrated that alsquoKi-beamrsquo carries lsquoentropyrsquo (or information) which is different from lsquoenergyrsquo We introduceour experience of having taught Ki to 37 beginners in the United States through the NishinoBreathing Method If beginners had martial arts training or a strong background in music ordance about half of them could sense Ki within 10 weeks (1 h class per week) of practice

Keywords collective unconsciousness ndashEastern medicine ndashKi energy ndashKi entropy ndashmartial arts ndashNishino Breathing Method ndashQi ndashKi information ndashTaiki practice ndashToh-ate technique

Introduction

A Japanese word Ki (equivalent to Qi or Chi in Chinese)

is the fundamental concept in both Eastern medicine and

martial arts (1ndash3) It naturally follows that Ki is an

important element in complementary and alternative

medicine (CAM) Many authors have presented work

on the effects and nature of Ki (4ndash15) Still we can not

precisely describe Ki We cannot objectively say lsquoLook

This is KirsquoWhen Western people talk about Ki in terms of the

healing arts Ki seems to be understood as lsquovitalityrsquo or

lsquolife-energyrsquo For those who are studying Chinese

medicine Ki is presented as being a substance flowing

in our body along the lsquomeridiansrsquo In the view of martial

artists Ki is a source of spiritual strength for winning

When an Eastern philosopher defines Ki it is a function

of life which permeates through the life of an individual

and the life of the universe Physicists see it as a new kind

of lsquoenergyrsquo and still brain physiologists approach it as

lsquoinformationrsquo or lsquoentropyrsquo Depending upon onersquos profes-sion discipline and necessity Ki is understood differentlyBoth of us were born in Japan and were raised in

families where the concept of Ki was not foreign to ourways of thinking In 1963 one of the authors (STO)

started learning Aikido in Japan from Master Morihei

Ueshiba (the founder of Aikido) and KisshomaruUeshiba (the founderrsquos son) as well as from Koichi

Tohei and Morihiro Saito (both were Ueshibarsquos immedi-

ate disciples) From 1967ndash97 STO taught Aikido in theUSA From 1997 both authors started learning the

Nishino Breathing Method (NBM) by visiting the school

in Japan where Master Kozo Nishino (the founder)teaches In 2006 both authors started teaching NBM in

the USANishino was once a medical student but became a

ballet choreographer after he studied ballet at the

Metropolitan Opera Ballet School in New York At the

age of 50 he started learning Aikido and quickly became

a master of Aikido He then founded NBM as a method

of raising his studentrsquos Ki levels so that they could enjoy

life to its fullest (16ndash18) It has been known for the past

20 years that the practitioners of Ki experienced

beneficial health effects (16 19ndash24) Through our

collaborative study with Nishino using in vitro biological

For reprints and all correspondence S Tsuyoshi Ohnishi PhiladelphiaBiomedical Research Institute Suite 250 100 Ross Road King ofPrussia PA 19406-0227 Tel +1-610-688-6276 Fax +1-610-254-9332E-mail stohnishiaolcom

The Author 2008 Published by Oxford University Press All rights reserved For permissions please email journalspermissionsoxfordjournalsorg

systems it was suggested that Ki developed by NBM mayindeed have health benefit (25ndash27)In this commentary we will first discuss historical

philosophical and psychological aspects of Ki in Easternmedicine and martial arts Then we will switch thesubject to a more practical question lsquoHow quickly wecan learn Ki rsquo Finally we will introduce new methods oftesting the Ki-level of an individual We will also presentan experimental method which demonstrates that anlsquoinformationrsquo aspect (lsquoentropyrsquo aspect) is involved in KiWe believe that this aspect of Ki is very important fromthe standpoint of CAM

Difference between Western Medicine andTraditional Eastern Medicine

Eastern medicine has been built on the fundamentalconcept that the head and the various inner organs areconnected to specific points in distal areas (ie hands andlegs) with lsquomeridiansrsquo The major meridians are 12 regularmeridians and eight irregular meridians They are broadlydivided into yin and yang groups and Ki flows throughthem Along these meridians there are about 350 acu-points which are used for acupuncture therapy Whenthe Ki-flow is stagnant we become sick Acupunctureallows the Ki to flow smoothly At the terminal acu-pointof each meridian in distal areas it is believed that anexchange of Ki between the external world and theinternal body occurs In other words Eastern medicineunderstands the body as an lsquoopen systemrsquo connected tothe external world On the contrary modern Westernmedicine regards our body as a lsquoclosed self-containedsystemrsquo (23) The concept of our body being an lsquoopensystemrsquo would help us to understand why Ki would havea healing effect A healer who emits Ki toward an acu-point on the skin may be able to enhance or normalizethe Ki-flow inside the patientrsquos body

Understanding of Ki will Help Bridge Westernand Eastern Viewpoints

As we described previously (28ndash30) Western thinkingwas built upon three fundamental pillars namely Greekreductionism separation of mind and matter (which ledto the separation of mind and body) advocated byDescartes (1596ndash50) and a deterministic-monotheisticworldview originated by Newton (1642ndash1727) All ofthese pillars belong to a lsquolinearrsquo philosophical system inwhich the future is predictable A serious problem is thatboth life and the universe are essentially lsquonon-linearrsquosystems and therefore the future becomes lsquochaosrsquo and itis essentially unpredictable (30) Many of todayrsquosproblems are created because everyone tries to under-stand the non-linear lsquounpredictablersquo universe based uponlinear lsquopredictablersquo thinking In order to accept that thefuture is essentially unpredictable a Copernican change

of our philosophy is needed The understanding of Kiwhich is non-linear (30) and involves lsquounpredictabilityrsquowould help this transitionBy separating matter from mind material science was

able to undergo vigorous development without thehindrance of medieval mysticism However this hascarried to the extreme This has led to the loss ofhumanism in the last century Today materialism hassuperceded reverence of the mind and even the dignity ofhuman life To reverse this devastating situation we haveto overcome the dichotomy of lsquoeither-orrsquo thinkingTherefore the more holistic lsquonon-linearrsquo Easternapproach considering the lsquoOneness of mind and bodyrsquois even more relevant todayAnother urgent issue is the destruction of the ecosys-

tem In the West it was taught that human beingsappeared first on earth and plants trees animalsappeared later for the benefit of the human race Thistogether with an endless pursuit of material happinessand fulfillment of desire has caused todayrsquos ecologicalproblems Contrary to this it is a common belief in theEast that life is created from its environment andnaturally life and the environment are inseparable Thisis in perfect agreement with the results of scientificresearch It is known that lsquoplanetrsquo earth was born about5 billion years ago and a primitive lsquolife formrsquo appearedabout 4 billion years ago in the sea The lsquolife formrsquodeveloped in the sea and about 400 million years ago itstarted spreading on land because there accumulatedenough amount of ozone in the atmosphere to provideshielding from harmful ultraviolet radiation The ape-man appeared several million years ago and finallyHomo sapiens our ancestors appeared approximately35 000 years ago Civilization began about 10 000 yearsago and modern civilization started only 200 years agomdashlike a blink of an eye compared with the unfathomablylong history of evolution However modern civilizationis destroying the harmony of the ecosystem which has 4billion years of historyAccording to Eastern thought the universe has lsquolifersquo and

the function of lsquolifersquo is represented by Ki Ki flows andcirculates throughout the universe and through eachhuman being Ki is a non-linear phenomenon (30) andtherefore it can function as an essential element of life andthe universe (both of which are non-linear) If Westernpeople could understand Ki more they would incorporateholistic Eastern philosophy into their own philosophicalsystem Then mind and body as well as life and itsenvironment will be viewed as a unified entity and theworld would finally become a better place to live

Difference of Philosophical Backgroundsbetween Qi and Ki

In 1972 from the excavation of an ancient tomb in China(believed to be about 2000 years old) 44 pictures of poses

176 What is Ki

related to what we call today Qigong were found (1) Thefirst Chinese literature which described the effect ofQigong was inscribed on an ancient sword handle (whichwas believed to be about 2500 years old) The origin ofthe character of Qi was traced back to 3500 years ago (1)Confucius (who lived approximately 2500 years ago)

taught moral and ethical behavior In his Analects thecharacter of Qi appeared in four locations It expressedthe concept related to breath food and vitality (1)Taoism which was founded by Lao-Tze (who wasbelieved to have lived around the time of Confucius or100 later) have had more influence on Qi and Qigong Inthe book lsquoZhuangzirsquo which compiled the thoughts ofLao-Tze in the third century BC the character of Qiappeared 39 times What it explained was lsquoQi existsthroughout the universe When it assembles it appears asa human life When it disassembles the human diesTherefore do not worry about life and death Livenaturally and freely as you arersquo (1) The concepts of QiYinYang and meridians formed the foundation ofChinese medicine Martial artists have also studiedthese concepts They knew how to attack vital acu-points to kill an opponent or how to revive a victimIn Japan Ki was used for healing from around

1500 years ago Toward the end of Heian Period (about800 years ago) Samurai warriors held political powerand continued to do so for 700 years During that timethe upper class of Samurai devoted themselves to self-cultivation by practicing Zen and Esoteric Buddhism Asa result the martial arts were not simply combattechniques but acquired a high artistic sensitivity andspirituality They trained themselves to enhance Kithrough meditation and breathing The origin for thiscould be found in a book called Makashikan (ChineseMohezhiguzn) which was lectured by Chih-i (a ChineseBuddhist monk 538ndash597 AD) He talked about self-cultivation methods and Buddhist medicine He explainedtwo cultivation methods namely lsquomeditation with pro-longed sittingrsquo and lsquomeditation with prolonged walkingrsquo(3) The former practice became the foundation for Zenand the latter for Esoteric BuddhismChih-i also explained a method of meditation which

could enhance our health One of his methods was toimagine that a piece of excellent food (such as a deliciouscheese) is sitting on onersquos head Then imagine that thefood melts and penetrates the skin and goes downthrough the head and body thus cleaning up the wholesystem Interestingly a similar exercise is used in NBMAs opposed to Chinese Qi which grew under the

influence of Taoism Japanese Ki was heavily influencedby Buddhism The Heiho Kadensho (The Secret TextBook of the Military Method which had been perpe-tuated though the Yagyu School of martial arts TheYagyu family taught martial arts to the Shogun thehighest post in the Samurai government) described thatthe human mind is distinguished into an lsquooriginal mindrsquo

(enlightened nature or Buddha nature) and a lsquodeludedmind (easily agitated by egocentric feeling and emotion)The original goal of the Samurai way was the develop-ment of a mature personality which would not beinfluenced by the deluded mind through discipline andthrough enhancing Ki (3)However the ultimate purpose of martial arts was

changed in modern times from killing others to self-defence and conquering oneself Aikido was created inthis atmosphere Ai means harmony It also means loveTherefore the ultimate goal of Aikido is to harmonize Kiwith the opponentrsquos body-mind movement Ueshiba thefounder declared that the secret of Aikido is toharmonize onersquos movement with the universe In otherwords it is to understand that lsquoI am one with theuniversersquo The Japanese Samurai way and Buddhistteachings had a profound influence over Japanese cultureand intellectual history

Secret Technique of Ki in Martial Arts

Stories tell us that the great martial artist possessed sucha strong Ki-power that his opponents were immobilizedIn Japanese martial artsrsquo history there were records thatsome martial artists could throw opponents withouttouching This is known as the lsquoToh-Atersquo technique(literally hit from a distance) and is considered to be theultimate form of martial arts However this has been asecret technique for centuries and no curriculum tomaster this technique was taught or published untilrecently Currently at least three Japanese Ki masters(Kozo Nishino Hiroyuki Aoki and Kojo Tsuboi) arereported to be able to perform the lsquoToh-Atersquo technique(1) It is interesting to note that two of them (Nishinoand Tsuboi) had practiced Aikido Aoki was an expert inKarate Japanese brain physiologists recorded changes inthe brain wave of Aoki when he performed Toh-Atetechnique (3132)

Difference between Sports and Martial Arts

Yuasa pointed out that until recently the training emphasisfor modernWestern sports was to develop the bodyrsquos motorskills and muscles capacity (That is why some athletes useillegal muscle-developing drugs) On the other hand theJapanese Samurai way (the Bushi way or Bushi-do) wasdesigned with the goal of strengthening the synthesisbetween consciousness and unconsciousness by controllingunconscious emotional functions (3) Western sportsrsquotraining is now also embracing these concepts Now wehave to study the relationship between Ki and psychology

Ki and Collective Unconsciousness of Jung

The practice of the Japanese Samurai way is linked toovercoming problems arising from onersquos unconscious

eCAM 20096(2) 177

state of mind (exemplified by Freudian psychology) Thismay be explained by a layered structure of differentconsciousness as presented by Chih-i In Fig 1 theBuddhist concepts are shown on the left side and theWestern concepts are on the right The concepts in fivetop layers (five levels of consciousness) are called eye earnose tongue or touch consciousness Through thesesensory organs human beings perceive outer worldThese functions correspond to the five senses inWestern psychology physiology and philosophy InBuddhism the sixth level of consciousness correspondsto our mind It builds up images based upon fiveconsciousnesses and consciously understands the externalworld This is similar to the theory of Kant (1724ndash1804)on cognition A Buddhist scholar had built a theorysimilar to that of Kant 1200 years before In Descartesrsquophilosophy human has a lsquoreasoning mindrsquo whichcorresponds to the upper half of the sixth levelUnconsciousness proposed by Freud (1856ndash1939) corre-sponds to the lower half The unconsciousness is believedto be the source of creativity and inspiration SomeWestern people are interested in Zen meditation becausethey think that one may communicate with onersquos uncon-sciousness through meditation However as Chih-I taughtboth lsquomeditation with prolonged sittingrsquo and lsquomeditationwith prolonged walkingrsquo are needed for self-cultivationZen uses only lsquomeditation with prolonged sittingrsquo and thatmay not be enough The lsquomeditation with prolongedwalkingrsquo is also needed lsquoProlonged walkingrsquo does not

necessarily mean simple walking It may also imply aregular physical exercise combined with mental training Inthis regard it is interesting to note that a Zen scholar (wholater became the Head Priest of a Japanese Zen temple)wrote that his practice of NBM (which is a physical exercisewith Ki) helped him to understand and master Zen (19)The seventh level is a fundamental egocentric con-

sciousness which is related to human desire and instinctfor survival Descartesrsquo lsquoego-consciousnessrsquo can beincluded in this layer Freudian lsquoLibidorsquo also resides inthis level All of earthly desires emotions and sufferingsoriginate from hereThe eighth level of consciousness is considered to be a

storage house of all actions deeds words and emotionsof each individualm created not only during this life timebut also in onersquos past lives (note Buddhism considersthat onersquos life continues eternally) In other words thislevel is the store house of lsquokarmarsquo (or destiny) of anindividual (upper half) and the entire race (lower half)While Freudian unconsciousness is related to personal

experience after birth (especially that of the infantperiod) collective unconsciousness proposed by Jung(1875ndash1961) includes the experiences of all human beingsfrom the remote past (in terms of time) and theexperiences of everybody in the world (in terms ofspace) (33) Therefore the eighth level of consciousnesscorresponds to collective unconsciousness Then aquestion may be raised lsquoHow can an individual relateto the life of othersrsquo We believe this is where Ki cancome in At the school of NBM we see everyday that thestate of mind of an individual (in this case MasterNishino) can influence not only the behavior and mind ofa student with whom Nishino is directly practicing butalso the minds of everyone in the class room Ki emittedfrom Nishino spreads through the air and is received byeverybodyThe manner in which each individual responds to

Nishinorsquos Ki is different The life tendency or personalitywhich is normally hidden deep inside suddenly appearswhen he or she receives Ki from Nishino In other wordsonersquos deepest essence of life (or personal karma) seemsto appear instantly Not only that if everybody has thesensitivity to receive and send Ki then we all inheritthe ability of Ki This makes Ki the collective karma ofthe human being We already pointed out that thepractice of NBM may instantly bring the individual tothe lsquocollective unconsciousnessrsquo (29)The ninth level is called lsquoFundamentally pure con-

sciousnessrsquo This can be regarded as the highest level oflife (in which life of the humans is one with the life of theuniverse) or lsquoBuddha Naturersquo This can eradicate all ofthe deluded illusions of our mind and change the karmaof the individual and the karma of the entire human raceThis was explained in the Heiho Kadensho of the YagyuSchool of martial arts Chih-i believed that the Buddhanature exemplified in the Lotus Sutra represents this

Ego Consciousness(Descartes)Libido (Freud)

See Hear SmellTasteTouch

Chih-irsquos View Western View

5 Consciousness 5 Senses

6th Level of Consciousness

7th Level

8th Level

9th Level

CollectiveUnconsciousness(Jung)

Personal Karma(Ki)

Collective Karma

Fundamentally Pure Consciousness(Buddha Nature)

Instinct for SurvivalSources for desire Ego

and suffering

Reasoning(Descartes Kant)UnconsciousnessDream (Freud)

Unconsciousness(Meditation)

Conscious Mind

Figure 1 Schematic presentation of the nine levels of consciousness as

described by Chih-i Explanations on the left are from Buddhist

teachings Those on the right are from Western philosophy psychology

and physiology

178 What is Ki

ninth level Western philosophy or psychology did notreach to the depth of ninth level of consciousness as theEastern philosophic counterpart did Our idea that Kibelongs to the eighth level is derived from these Easternways of thinking In the East it is believed that Ki is afunction of life which permeates through both anindividual and the entire universe Therefore Ki mustbe very close to the ninth level

Physics of Ki

Since both of us have studied biophysics for 40 some yearswe have been interested in the nature of Ki We recentlypublished a physics-oriented hypothesis that Ki emissionmay be lsquolaser-likersquo near infrared radiation (NIR) from thepractitionerrsquos finger or hand (34) Several scientists askedus many questions for example lsquoHave you measured thestrength of the Ki-signalrsquo lsquoCan you simulate the Ki-effectby NIR emitted from an artificial sourcersquo lsquoIf you thinkthat Ki has an information you must analyze the Ki-signalto determine what kind of information is includedrsquo lsquoUnlessyou perform these quantitative measurements of Ki-energyor Ki-information you cannot proceed to build a theoryrsquoand lsquoMy idea is that Ki is an entirely new type of energyrsquoThat is perfectly true We agree with all of these pointsAn ideal scientific approach calls for many repeatedobservations If they are repeatable and reproduciblethen we build a theoryHowever in the study of Ki we encountered two

difficult problems Namely (i) Ki is manifested by onlyspecial people and (ii) we still cannot measure Ki-signalsreproducibly with any of our instruments Although thereare interesting claims that lsquoKi-signals have been detectedrsquoor lsquoKi is an infrared radiationrsquo but the lsquoKi-signalsrsquo fromQigong healers took a long time (at least the order ofminute) to grow to its full strength (33235ndash38) On theother hand Aokirsquos Toh-ate or Nishinorsquos lsquoTaikirsquo can movethe opponent almost instantly Therefore we decided touncover the secret of Ki which enables Toh-ate or Taikitechnique (29) What we did was to practice Ki at theschool of NBM first After we advanced and started toemit Ki ourselves we studied what our Ki could do tolsquosensitiversquo students In other words since we could notcatch Ki with instrumentation we used lsquosensitivestudentsrsquo as lsquoinstrumentsrsquo to measure the Ki-strengthThen based upon those results we built our hypothesis(34) This was only possible when both the Ki-emitter andthe Ki-receiver practiced NBM Interestingly this isrelated to a difference between the Western and Easternway of thinking Let us now explain this point

Another Difference between the Westand the East Theory and Practice

According to Yuasa (339) Western lsquomind and bodyrsquotheories have a strongly-held attitude of asking

theoretically what lsquoisrsquo the relationship between the mindand body On the other hand Eastern theories take theattitude of asking how the mind and body relationshiplsquodevelopsrsquo or lsquochangesrsquo through training and practiceThen based on how the relationship has developedthrough practice the theory asks in turn what is thelsquooriginalrsquo relationship between mind and bodyRegarding this Kasulis the editor of Yuasarsquos book

(39) pointed out that Eastern philosophies generally treatmind-body unity as an lsquoachievementrsquo rather than anlsquoessential unchanging linkrsquo He summarized as follows

(i) In Eastern culture meditation and breathing areimportant practices in obtaining philosophicalinsight Wisdom must be physically as well asintellectually developed

(ii) If the unity of mind and body is achieved this can betested by lsquodeedsrsquo In other words whether a personattained enlightenment or not should be verified bylsquoactionrsquo rather than by lsquoasserted propositionsrsquo

(iii) Eastern philosophers do not agree with theWestern tradition of dichotomies such as body-mind subjectivity-objectivity and theory-praxisEastern people are not doing lsquometa-physicsrsquo inthe traditional Western sense Instead what theyare doing is what Jung called lsquometa-psychicsrsquo(Actually Yuasa said that it can be called lsquometa-human sciencersquo)

These discussions clearly pointed out why dedicatedcontinuous practice is important to master any of theseEastern arts Be it for Eastern medicine Qigong martialarts Ki-related exercise or breathing we can reach betterunderstanding only after assiduous practice By simplydiscussing them from theoretical point of view or basedupon own ideas we can never grasp the true pictureof these arts For this reason we would like to touchupon our recent practice of teaching Ki to beginners inthe USA

How Quickly can a Beginner Sense Ki

If Ki could enhance our vitality and improve health thenan important question would be lsquoHow quickly can welearn Ki and utilize it to improve our healthrsquo Since wehave taught NBM to 37 students in the USA from 2006we undertook a survey of how quickly beginners cansense Ki by attending the class We taught so far thefollowing three courses

(i) Private Sunday Course this is an hour class onevery Sunday for those who want quickly to havea brief experience with NBM We used thebasement of our house for the class

(ii) Two Evening courses of lsquoKi-energy and NBMrsquowe taught two courses which were supported bythe Main Line School Night (an adult education

eCAM 20096(2) 179

program we will abbreviate as MLSN) whichuses the facility of Lower Merion High School(Ardmore PA) This course is taught for 1 h perweek once a week for 10 weeks We used MasterNishinorsquos book as the text (16) The participantssigned a consent form before participating in thecourse (Previous experiences of participants canbe found in Supplementary Table 1 in the journalrsquoswebsite) In each class we spent the first 30minpracticing the lsquoBreathing exercisersquo and the second30min the lsquoTaiki-practicersquo

The Taiki-practice literally means lsquopaired Ki-practicersquoBy combining his experience in ballet choreography andmartial arts Nishino first acquired by himself thetechnique of Toh-Ate Then he developed it into theform of Taiki-practice so that anybody could practiceand enjoy regardless of their martial arts experience Thisis basically the exchange of Ki-energy (or Ki-communica-tion) between the instructor and the student (16) TheTaiki-practice starts with the following Taiki-motion Aninstructor and a student touch their hands with eachother (right hand to right hand and then left to left) andpush with Ki alternately When the instructor sends astrong Ki-signal and extends his or her hand the studentis pushed by instructorrsquos Ki and steps backward to thewall which is covered by a soft cushion (we used either abed mattress or an air mattress) Nishino discovered thatthe individualrsquos Ki-level grows through this practiceA criticism of NBM was that the Taiki exercise may

involve a psychological or hypnotic effect because thestudent lsquowatchesrsquo the instructor Therefore we made twomodifications to the original Taiki exercise to eliminatethat bias

(i) After STO extended his hand and a student waspushed to the mattress he lsquoinstructedrsquo the studentto run toward the opposite side of the roomwhere another mattress is leaned up against thewall When the student started running he lsquopulledrsquothe students with lsquopulling Ki rsquo (Fig 2A) We foundthat some of the first-day students were lsquopulledbackrsquo by STOrsquo s Ki and started running into theopposite direction Examples of this lsquoPull-back-runner testrsquo (PBR test) is shown in SupplementaryFig 1 Since the student was running away thereis no possibility that he or she can lsquowatchrsquo theinstructor The data are shown in SupplementaryTable 2 where the lsquoRespondrsquo column indicates theresult of the PBR test on the first day To STOrsquos Ki altogether 11 out of 37 responded (successrate 297)

The most amazing result was that these 11 lsquosensitiversquostudents were also lsquopulled backrsquo by a lsquopulling Kirsquo of someof the first-day students (see the lsquoSendrsquo column inSupplementary Table 2 After 7 weeks in the MLSN

program the number of students who responded toSTOrsquo s Ki in the PBR test was 1325 (52) Thenumber of students who can move other students in thePBR test was the same The percentages of success ratefor the seventh and tenth weeks were the same

(ii) In the Taiki practice (which is done in a face-to-face position) we asked the Ki-receiver to wear ablindfold and the Ki-emitter attempted to movethe receiver without touching hands We call thisthe lsquolsquoFace-to-facersquorsquo test (FTF test) (Fig 2B) Theactual examples are shown on the SupplementaryFig 2A The data for this test are shown on theSupplementary Table 3 This test was much harderthan the PBR test When STO sent Ki withouttouching the beginners who wore a blindfold (TFTtest) none were moved on the first day Only afterthe seventh week 7 out of 25 were movedSupplementary Fig 2B shows photos of TFT-testbetween beginners on the fifth week

Experiments to Show that the lsquoKi-beamrsquohas lsquoInformationrsquo

In 1978 Chinese scientists discovered that a Qigonghealerrsquos hand was emitting infrared radiation (35) Thiswas later confirmed by Japanese scientists (38) Throughour study we also demonstrated that Ki which causedin vitro effects on biological systems and Ki which

Figure 2 Relationship between the flow of Ki-energy (shown by thin

arrows) and the direction of body movement (shown by open arrows)

(A) lsquoPBRrsquo test E indicates a Ki-emitter and R a Ki-receiver Ki-emitter

sends an unspoken message of lsquoCome backrsquo The receiver responds to

the message and comes back This test cannot be explained by a simple

lsquoenergyrsquo theory The lsquoentropyrsquo aspect must be considered (B) lsquoFace-to-

face Taikirsquo test with a blindfold and without touching The Ki-emitter

sends an unspoken message of lsquoGo awayrsquo The receiver responds to that

message and moves backward

180 What is Ki

caused Taiki-motions was the same and both were NIRbetween 800 and 2500 nm (2526) Recently we proposeda hypothesis that Ki may be a laser-like NIR with awavelength around 1000 nm (34) Being NIR Ki defi-nitely has an lsquoenergyrsquo aspect However we foundevidence that Ki also has an lsquoinformationrsquo (or anlsquoentropyrsquo) aspect (29)We reported already that a mirror could reflect the

lsquoKi-beamrsquo and that the reflected beam pushed back asensitive student in the same way as the straight lineKi-beam (34) If Ki has only an lsquoenergyrsquo effect it wouldbe easy to think that both straight Ki and mirror-reflected Ki have the lsquopush-backrsquo effect We could simplyimagine that Ki energy is something like an lsquoenergy fluxrsquopouring out of the emitterrsquos hand and pushing back astudent by its energy flow (Fig 2B) Then the effect of amirror is simply to bend the direction of the energy flowWe experimented on whether we could lsquopull backrsquo

a running student from behind using a mirror reflectionFirst we used a flat mirror which was similar to the onewe used previously to reflect Ki in the face-to-face Taikiexercise (34) This experiment worked The runner whowas running away from the Ki-emitter felt the lsquopullingKirsquo and changed direction to come back (SupplementaryFig 3) However we found it rather difficult to catch theimage of a running student which appeared on a flatmirror but quickly disappeared (Supplementary Fig 4A)Therefore we switched to a glass convex mirror(diameter 35 cm this is sold at hardware stores as

a driveway mirror) Since the convex mirror allows usto view a wider area than a flat mirror the image of therunner is always in the mirror (Supplementary Fig 4B)Therefore it is easy to send Ki to that image for pullingIn order to make sure that the Ki-energy which reachedthe runner was from the mirror we placed a Ki-shield(Super Tuff-RTM heat insulator Dow ChemicalCo Midland MI) between the emitter and the runner(Fig 3) This material was used in the previous studyand we demonstrated that it blocked Ki (34) As shown inFig 3 and Supplementary Fig 5 we succeeded in pullingback the runner by sending Ki to the runnerrsquos image inthe mirrorIf we think of Ki having only an energy aspect it would

be difficult to explain why we can lsquopull backrsquo a runner frombehind The direction of the Ki-energy flow and thedirection of the pulling motion are in the opposite direction(Fig 2A) It would be even harder to explain why this canbe done with the mirror-reflected Ki (Fig 3)A possible explanation is to postulate that Ki contains

lsquoinformationrsquo and that the runner moves in accordancewith the lsquoinformationrsquo sent to the runner In theexperiment shown in Fig 2A STO sent an lsquounspokenrsquomessage of lsquoCome backrsquo In the case of Fig 2B STOsent another lsquounspokenrsquo message of lsquoGo awayrsquo Webelieve that the unspoken message was carried by Ki andthe receiver received the message In analogy Ki-energy islike a radio wave and the information (to push or topull) may be super-imposed by modulating the carrierwave (2930)Energy can do the work The energy in gasoline can

move a car but energy can neither control its speed nordirection Namely energy cannot carry information Thedriver must give lsquoinformationrsquo by operating a gas pedalor a steering wheel Other examples writings or poemscontain information which essentially consists of com-plex arrangement and combination of letters Music ismade of pitches of sounds intervals between notes andcombinations thereof Paintings are composed of thecombination of paints with different colors dark orbright and transparent or opaque In essence lsquoinforma-tionrsquo is related to the lsquocombinationrsquo The quantity relatedto lsquocombinationrsquo is called lsquoentropyrsquo in physics Entropy isa different physical quantity from energy Shannondescribed that information is related to entropy (40)Yoshiya Shinagawa pioneered the discovery of lsquotrans-

personal communicationrsquo between Qigong healers andvolunteers (3637) He proposed that Ki has an lsquoinforma-tionrsquo aspect We also emphasized the lsquoentropyrsquo aspect ofKi (29) The energy cannot carry information butentropy can The role of entropy in living organism wasfirst introduced by Schrodinger (41) Its role in CAM wasalso discussed (9) In the healing art which employs Ki orQi the mind of the healer may be transmitted with Ki asinformation Therefore the information aspect of Kiwould be expected to play an important role in CAM

Figure 3 Schematic illustration of the lsquoPull-back-through-a-mirrorrsquo

experiment which shows that Ki has information content Note that

an infrared shield (S) was placed between the emitter (E) and the

receiver (R) in order to eliminate possible direct interactions (CM)

indicates a convex mirror A broken line indicated on the floor is

showing the passage of (R) who runs away toward the wall When

(E) sends a lsquopulling-Kirsquo to the image of (R) in the mirror (R) responded

to the Ki and changes the running direction to run in the opposite

direction (For actual examples see the supplementary material)

eCAM 20096(2) 181

Why can some Beginners Send and ReceiveKi from the First Day

Why could some students not only receive Ki but alsosend Ki to other students from the first day(Supplementary Table 2) A possibility is that allhuman beings once possessed the abilities to lsquosend outrsquoand to lsquoreceiversquo Ki to and from other people This lsquolife-to-lifersquo communication might have been essential to humanbeings for their survival However since they learned touse language for communication and because of thedevelopment of civilized living they gradually lost theseabilities However when an emergency situation occursfor example when a loved one has fallen ill or is involvedin accident it is natural for other family members to sendKi in an attempt to save the life of their loved oneTherefore people still maintained the ability to send Kiuntil the present day

Ki may be Related to the Rhythm of Life

Most students who were enrolled in MLSN-1 coursewere interested in Ki-phenomena They had experience indifferent forms of Ki-practice or martial arts Some hadtraining in music or dance On the other hand most ofstudents enrolled in MLSN-2 did not have that experi-ence Perhaps the difference between the success rate ofthe first-day PBR test for MLSN-1 students (429) andthat for MLSN-2 (9) was caused by a difference in thestudentsrsquo experience (Supplementary Tables 1 and 2) It isnatural that previous training in martial arts or other Kipractices is advantageous in learning Ki However why isthe training in music or dance helpful in learning Ki A common factor in music and dance is rhythm It is wellknown that our life activities have rhythms for exampleheart pulsation breathing a daily rhythm monthlyrhythm and yearly rhythm The universe also hasrhythms the earth turns once a day the moon orbitsonce a month and the earth travel around the sun once ayear Therefore if Ki is a function of life then rhythmmay be an important element of Ki This may be thereason why some people who have had serious training inmusic or dance were found to have a high sensitivitytoward KiAlthough a considerable percentage of the beginners

could sense Ki in a 10-week course this does not meanthat 10 weeks is enough to master Ki As we discussed inthis commentary the essential requirement for theEastern way of practice is lsquodiscipline and continuationrsquoYou can become a master of any of the Eastern arts onlywhen you are dedicated to life-long continuous practiceNevertheless the finding that a substantial percentage ofbeginners could feel Ki either from the first week or atleast in 10 weeks is very encouraging It gives us hopethat we could learn and use Ki for improving our healthwith a reasonable amount of practice time

In conclusion the significance of our findings inrelation to CAM is 3-fold (i) Ki has both energy andentropy (information) aspects In the healing art thatemploys Ki the mindset of a healer may be transmittedto the patient as lsquoinformationrsquo (ii) If beginners have hadsufficient training in Ki-related practices martial artsmusic or dance about 50 of them could sense Ki aftera 10-week practice of NBM (ii) The practice of breathingto enhance the Ki level may in-essence help to restore theoriginal ability of human beings Therefore it maycontribute to improve our health wellness and life itself

Supplementary Data

Supplementary data are available at eCAM online

Acknowledgements

We thank Master Kozo Nishino for his Ki instructionThanks are also due to the students of the NBM in theUSA who participated in this study to Mr Steven Dennisfor preparing illustrations and to Mr Mark Singer forediting the manuscript

References1 Ikegami S Miracle of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Kodansha

Publishing Co 19912 Yuasa Y What is Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo NHK (Nippon

Broadcasting Company) Book Publisher 19913 Yuasa Y The Body Self-Cultivation and Ki-energy (translated by

S Nagatomo and MS Hull) Albany NY State University ofNew York Press 1993

4 Chang S-O Meaning of Ki related to touch in caring HolistNurs Pract 20011673ndash84

5 Chang S-O The nature of touch therapy related to Ki practi-tionersrsquo perspective Nurs Health Sci 20035103ndash14

6 Lee M Effects on in vitro and in vivo qi-therapy on neutrophilsuperoxide generation in healthy male subjects Am J Chin Med200331623ndash8

7 Chen K An analytic review of studies on measuring effects ofexternal QI in China Altern Ther Health Med 20041038ndash50

8 Kobayashi H Ishii M Mind-Body Ki (Qi) and the SkinCommentary on Irwinrsquos lsquoShingles Immunity and HealthFunctioning in the Elderly Tai Chi Chih as a BehavioralTreatmentrsquo Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 20052113ndash6

9 Olalde JA The systemic theory of living systems and relevance toCAM Part I The theory Evid Based Complement Alternat Med2005213ndash8

10 Flowers J What is Qi Evid Based Complement Alternat Med20063551ndash2

11 Kuramoto AM Therapeutic benefits of Tai Chi exercise Researchreview WMJ 200610542ndash6

12 Hankey A McCrum S Qigong life energy and a new science of lifeJ Altern Complement Med 200612841ndash2

13 Shinnick P Qigong where did it come from Where does it fit inscience What are the advances J Altern Complement Med200612351ndash3

14 Weze C Leathard HL Grange J Tiplady P Stevens G Healing bygentle touch ameliorates stress and other symptoms in peoplesuffering with mental health disorders or psychological stressEvid Based Complement Alternat Med 20074115ndash23

15 Abbott RB Hui K-K Hays RD Li M-D Pan T A randomizedcontrolled trial of tai chi for tension headaches Evid BasedComplement Alternat Med 20074107ndash13

182 What is Ki

16 Nishino K The Breath of Life Using the Power of Ki for MaximumVitality Tokyo New York London Kodansha International 1997

17 Nishino K Le Souffle de Vie Utiliser le Pouroir du Ki Paris GuyTredaniel Editeur 1998

18 Nishino K Il Respiro Della Vita La massima vitalita dalla forza delKi Esercizi di Respirazione facili effieaci completamente illustratiRome Italy Edizioni Mediterranee Via Flaminia 1999

19 Nishino K The Discovery of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Shodensha1989

20 Nishino K Ki-energy in health Proceedings for the 4th InternationalCongress on Traditional Asian Medicine 19941148ndash70

21 Nishino K The Nishino Breathing Method (in Japanese) In Arita H(ed) The Dictionary of Respiration Tokyo Asakura BookPublishing Co 2006 678ndash97

22 Yumi K The Ultimate Example of Nishino Breating MethodEveryday of Yumi Kaoru with Slim and Bouncing Body (in Japanese)Nishino K (ed) TAKE Shobo Pub Co 2005

23 Nishino K Anti-aging effects of the Nishino BreathingMethod (Symposium Speaker) In Symposium on Anti-aging 27thAnnual Meeting of Japanese Medical Society Osaka Japan April 22007

24 Nishino K The Possibility of Respiration in the 21st Century(Keynote Speech) In 47th Annual Meeting of the JapaneseRespiratory Society Tokyo Japan May 10 2007

25 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T Nishino K Tsurusaki Y Yamaguchi MGrowth inhibition of cultured human carcinoma cells by Ki-energy(Life Energy) Scientific evidence of Ki-effect on cancer cells httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprint23387 Evid Based Comple-ment Alternat Med 20052387ndash93

26 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T Nishino K Ki- Energy (life-energy) protectsisolated mitochondria from oxidative injury httpecamoxford-journalsorgcgireprint34475 Evid Based Complement AlternatMed 20063475ndash82

27 Ohnishi ST Nishino K Uchiyama K Ohnishi T Yamaguchi MKi-energy (life-energy) stimulates osteoblastic cells and inhibits theformation of osteoclast-like cells in bone cell cultured modelshttpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprintnem037 Evid Based Com-plement Alternat Med 2007

28 Kimura H Nagao F Tanaka Y Sakai S Ohnishi ST Okumura KBeneficial effects of the Nishino Breathing Method on the immune

activity and stress level httpmembersaolcomphilabiomedpublicationkimurapdf J Altern Complement Med 200511285ndash91

29 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T The Nishino Breathing Method andKi-energy (life-energy) A challenge to traditional scientific thinkinghttpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprint32191 Evid BasedComplement Altern Med 20063191ndash200

30 Ohnishi ST Ki A key to transform the century of death to thecentury of life httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgicontentfull43287 Evid Based Complement Altern Med 20074287ndash92

31 Yuasa Y Qi and Human Science (in Japanese) (The Proceeding ofSino-Japan Qigong Conference (in Japanese) which was held atTsukuba University Tsukuba Japan during November 4 and 8 in1988) Tokyo Japan Hirakawa pub Co 1990

32 Yuasa Y Takemoto T New-Age Science and the Science of KiReport on the 1984 Japan-France Symposium on Science Technologyand Spiritual World (held in Tsukuba) (in Japanese) Yuasa YTakemoto T Tokyo (eds) Seido Publishing Co 1993

33 Jacobi J The Psychology of CG Jung (translated by KW Bash)New Haven Yale University Press 1951

34 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T How far can Ki-energy reachmdashAhypothetical mechanism for the generation and transmission ofKi-energy httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgicontentfullnem102v1Evid Based Complement Altern Med 2008

35 Kiang T Chinese lsquoNature Magazinersquo Chinese style Nature1978275697

36 Kawano K Koito H Fujiki T Shinagawa Y EEG and topographyduring Chinese lsquoQigongrsquo training Neurosiences 199016503ndash8

37 Shinagawa Y The Science of Qigong (in Japanese) TokyoKobunsha 1990

38 Machi Y The Science of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Tokyo DenkiUniversity Press 1993

39 Yuasa Y The Body Toward an Eastern Mind-Body Theory(translated by S Nagatomo and TP Kasulis) Kasulis TP (ed)Albany New York State University of New York 1987

40 Shannon CE A mathematical theory of communication Bell SystTech J 194827379ndash423 623ndash56

41 Schrodinger E What is LifemdashThe Physical Aspect of the LivingCell Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1944

Received December 6 2007 accepted December 11 2007

eCAM 20096(2) 183

systems it was suggested that Ki developed by NBM mayindeed have health benefit (25ndash27)In this commentary we will first discuss historical

philosophical and psychological aspects of Ki in Easternmedicine and martial arts Then we will switch thesubject to a more practical question lsquoHow quickly wecan learn Ki rsquo Finally we will introduce new methods oftesting the Ki-level of an individual We will also presentan experimental method which demonstrates that anlsquoinformationrsquo aspect (lsquoentropyrsquo aspect) is involved in KiWe believe that this aspect of Ki is very important fromthe standpoint of CAM

Difference between Western Medicine andTraditional Eastern Medicine

Eastern medicine has been built on the fundamentalconcept that the head and the various inner organs areconnected to specific points in distal areas (ie hands andlegs) with lsquomeridiansrsquo The major meridians are 12 regularmeridians and eight irregular meridians They are broadlydivided into yin and yang groups and Ki flows throughthem Along these meridians there are about 350 acu-points which are used for acupuncture therapy Whenthe Ki-flow is stagnant we become sick Acupunctureallows the Ki to flow smoothly At the terminal acu-pointof each meridian in distal areas it is believed that anexchange of Ki between the external world and theinternal body occurs In other words Eastern medicineunderstands the body as an lsquoopen systemrsquo connected tothe external world On the contrary modern Westernmedicine regards our body as a lsquoclosed self-containedsystemrsquo (23) The concept of our body being an lsquoopensystemrsquo would help us to understand why Ki would havea healing effect A healer who emits Ki toward an acu-point on the skin may be able to enhance or normalizethe Ki-flow inside the patientrsquos body

Understanding of Ki will Help Bridge Westernand Eastern Viewpoints

As we described previously (28ndash30) Western thinkingwas built upon three fundamental pillars namely Greekreductionism separation of mind and matter (which ledto the separation of mind and body) advocated byDescartes (1596ndash50) and a deterministic-monotheisticworldview originated by Newton (1642ndash1727) All ofthese pillars belong to a lsquolinearrsquo philosophical system inwhich the future is predictable A serious problem is thatboth life and the universe are essentially lsquonon-linearrsquosystems and therefore the future becomes lsquochaosrsquo and itis essentially unpredictable (30) Many of todayrsquosproblems are created because everyone tries to under-stand the non-linear lsquounpredictablersquo universe based uponlinear lsquopredictablersquo thinking In order to accept that thefuture is essentially unpredictable a Copernican change

of our philosophy is needed The understanding of Kiwhich is non-linear (30) and involves lsquounpredictabilityrsquowould help this transitionBy separating matter from mind material science was

able to undergo vigorous development without thehindrance of medieval mysticism However this hascarried to the extreme This has led to the loss ofhumanism in the last century Today materialism hassuperceded reverence of the mind and even the dignity ofhuman life To reverse this devastating situation we haveto overcome the dichotomy of lsquoeither-orrsquo thinkingTherefore the more holistic lsquonon-linearrsquo Easternapproach considering the lsquoOneness of mind and bodyrsquois even more relevant todayAnother urgent issue is the destruction of the ecosys-

tem In the West it was taught that human beingsappeared first on earth and plants trees animalsappeared later for the benefit of the human race Thistogether with an endless pursuit of material happinessand fulfillment of desire has caused todayrsquos ecologicalproblems Contrary to this it is a common belief in theEast that life is created from its environment andnaturally life and the environment are inseparable Thisis in perfect agreement with the results of scientificresearch It is known that lsquoplanetrsquo earth was born about5 billion years ago and a primitive lsquolife formrsquo appearedabout 4 billion years ago in the sea The lsquolife formrsquodeveloped in the sea and about 400 million years ago itstarted spreading on land because there accumulatedenough amount of ozone in the atmosphere to provideshielding from harmful ultraviolet radiation The ape-man appeared several million years ago and finallyHomo sapiens our ancestors appeared approximately35 000 years ago Civilization began about 10 000 yearsago and modern civilization started only 200 years agomdashlike a blink of an eye compared with the unfathomablylong history of evolution However modern civilizationis destroying the harmony of the ecosystem which has 4billion years of historyAccording to Eastern thought the universe has lsquolifersquo and

the function of lsquolifersquo is represented by Ki Ki flows andcirculates throughout the universe and through eachhuman being Ki is a non-linear phenomenon (30) andtherefore it can function as an essential element of life andthe universe (both of which are non-linear) If Westernpeople could understand Ki more they would incorporateholistic Eastern philosophy into their own philosophicalsystem Then mind and body as well as life and itsenvironment will be viewed as a unified entity and theworld would finally become a better place to live

Difference of Philosophical Backgroundsbetween Qi and Ki

In 1972 from the excavation of an ancient tomb in China(believed to be about 2000 years old) 44 pictures of poses

176 What is Ki

related to what we call today Qigong were found (1) Thefirst Chinese literature which described the effect ofQigong was inscribed on an ancient sword handle (whichwas believed to be about 2500 years old) The origin ofthe character of Qi was traced back to 3500 years ago (1)Confucius (who lived approximately 2500 years ago)

taught moral and ethical behavior In his Analects thecharacter of Qi appeared in four locations It expressedthe concept related to breath food and vitality (1)Taoism which was founded by Lao-Tze (who wasbelieved to have lived around the time of Confucius or100 later) have had more influence on Qi and Qigong Inthe book lsquoZhuangzirsquo which compiled the thoughts ofLao-Tze in the third century BC the character of Qiappeared 39 times What it explained was lsquoQi existsthroughout the universe When it assembles it appears asa human life When it disassembles the human diesTherefore do not worry about life and death Livenaturally and freely as you arersquo (1) The concepts of QiYinYang and meridians formed the foundation ofChinese medicine Martial artists have also studiedthese concepts They knew how to attack vital acu-points to kill an opponent or how to revive a victimIn Japan Ki was used for healing from around

1500 years ago Toward the end of Heian Period (about800 years ago) Samurai warriors held political powerand continued to do so for 700 years During that timethe upper class of Samurai devoted themselves to self-cultivation by practicing Zen and Esoteric Buddhism Asa result the martial arts were not simply combattechniques but acquired a high artistic sensitivity andspirituality They trained themselves to enhance Kithrough meditation and breathing The origin for thiscould be found in a book called Makashikan (ChineseMohezhiguzn) which was lectured by Chih-i (a ChineseBuddhist monk 538ndash597 AD) He talked about self-cultivation methods and Buddhist medicine He explainedtwo cultivation methods namely lsquomeditation with pro-longed sittingrsquo and lsquomeditation with prolonged walkingrsquo(3) The former practice became the foundation for Zenand the latter for Esoteric BuddhismChih-i also explained a method of meditation which

could enhance our health One of his methods was toimagine that a piece of excellent food (such as a deliciouscheese) is sitting on onersquos head Then imagine that thefood melts and penetrates the skin and goes downthrough the head and body thus cleaning up the wholesystem Interestingly a similar exercise is used in NBMAs opposed to Chinese Qi which grew under the

influence of Taoism Japanese Ki was heavily influencedby Buddhism The Heiho Kadensho (The Secret TextBook of the Military Method which had been perpe-tuated though the Yagyu School of martial arts TheYagyu family taught martial arts to the Shogun thehighest post in the Samurai government) described thatthe human mind is distinguished into an lsquooriginal mindrsquo

(enlightened nature or Buddha nature) and a lsquodeludedmind (easily agitated by egocentric feeling and emotion)The original goal of the Samurai way was the develop-ment of a mature personality which would not beinfluenced by the deluded mind through discipline andthrough enhancing Ki (3)However the ultimate purpose of martial arts was

changed in modern times from killing others to self-defence and conquering oneself Aikido was created inthis atmosphere Ai means harmony It also means loveTherefore the ultimate goal of Aikido is to harmonize Kiwith the opponentrsquos body-mind movement Ueshiba thefounder declared that the secret of Aikido is toharmonize onersquos movement with the universe In otherwords it is to understand that lsquoI am one with theuniversersquo The Japanese Samurai way and Buddhistteachings had a profound influence over Japanese cultureand intellectual history

Secret Technique of Ki in Martial Arts

Stories tell us that the great martial artist possessed sucha strong Ki-power that his opponents were immobilizedIn Japanese martial artsrsquo history there were records thatsome martial artists could throw opponents withouttouching This is known as the lsquoToh-Atersquo technique(literally hit from a distance) and is considered to be theultimate form of martial arts However this has been asecret technique for centuries and no curriculum tomaster this technique was taught or published untilrecently Currently at least three Japanese Ki masters(Kozo Nishino Hiroyuki Aoki and Kojo Tsuboi) arereported to be able to perform the lsquoToh-Atersquo technique(1) It is interesting to note that two of them (Nishinoand Tsuboi) had practiced Aikido Aoki was an expert inKarate Japanese brain physiologists recorded changes inthe brain wave of Aoki when he performed Toh-Atetechnique (3132)

Difference between Sports and Martial Arts

Yuasa pointed out that until recently the training emphasisfor modernWestern sports was to develop the bodyrsquos motorskills and muscles capacity (That is why some athletes useillegal muscle-developing drugs) On the other hand theJapanese Samurai way (the Bushi way or Bushi-do) wasdesigned with the goal of strengthening the synthesisbetween consciousness and unconsciousness by controllingunconscious emotional functions (3) Western sportsrsquotraining is now also embracing these concepts Now wehave to study the relationship between Ki and psychology

Ki and Collective Unconsciousness of Jung

The practice of the Japanese Samurai way is linked toovercoming problems arising from onersquos unconscious

eCAM 20096(2) 177

state of mind (exemplified by Freudian psychology) Thismay be explained by a layered structure of differentconsciousness as presented by Chih-i In Fig 1 theBuddhist concepts are shown on the left side and theWestern concepts are on the right The concepts in fivetop layers (five levels of consciousness) are called eye earnose tongue or touch consciousness Through thesesensory organs human beings perceive outer worldThese functions correspond to the five senses inWestern psychology physiology and philosophy InBuddhism the sixth level of consciousness correspondsto our mind It builds up images based upon fiveconsciousnesses and consciously understands the externalworld This is similar to the theory of Kant (1724ndash1804)on cognition A Buddhist scholar had built a theorysimilar to that of Kant 1200 years before In Descartesrsquophilosophy human has a lsquoreasoning mindrsquo whichcorresponds to the upper half of the sixth levelUnconsciousness proposed by Freud (1856ndash1939) corre-sponds to the lower half The unconsciousness is believedto be the source of creativity and inspiration SomeWestern people are interested in Zen meditation becausethey think that one may communicate with onersquos uncon-sciousness through meditation However as Chih-I taughtboth lsquomeditation with prolonged sittingrsquo and lsquomeditationwith prolonged walkingrsquo are needed for self-cultivationZen uses only lsquomeditation with prolonged sittingrsquo and thatmay not be enough The lsquomeditation with prolongedwalkingrsquo is also needed lsquoProlonged walkingrsquo does not

necessarily mean simple walking It may also imply aregular physical exercise combined with mental training Inthis regard it is interesting to note that a Zen scholar (wholater became the Head Priest of a Japanese Zen temple)wrote that his practice of NBM (which is a physical exercisewith Ki) helped him to understand and master Zen (19)The seventh level is a fundamental egocentric con-

sciousness which is related to human desire and instinctfor survival Descartesrsquo lsquoego-consciousnessrsquo can beincluded in this layer Freudian lsquoLibidorsquo also resides inthis level All of earthly desires emotions and sufferingsoriginate from hereThe eighth level of consciousness is considered to be a

storage house of all actions deeds words and emotionsof each individualm created not only during this life timebut also in onersquos past lives (note Buddhism considersthat onersquos life continues eternally) In other words thislevel is the store house of lsquokarmarsquo (or destiny) of anindividual (upper half) and the entire race (lower half)While Freudian unconsciousness is related to personal

experience after birth (especially that of the infantperiod) collective unconsciousness proposed by Jung(1875ndash1961) includes the experiences of all human beingsfrom the remote past (in terms of time) and theexperiences of everybody in the world (in terms ofspace) (33) Therefore the eighth level of consciousnesscorresponds to collective unconsciousness Then aquestion may be raised lsquoHow can an individual relateto the life of othersrsquo We believe this is where Ki cancome in At the school of NBM we see everyday that thestate of mind of an individual (in this case MasterNishino) can influence not only the behavior and mind ofa student with whom Nishino is directly practicing butalso the minds of everyone in the class room Ki emittedfrom Nishino spreads through the air and is received byeverybodyThe manner in which each individual responds to

Nishinorsquos Ki is different The life tendency or personalitywhich is normally hidden deep inside suddenly appearswhen he or she receives Ki from Nishino In other wordsonersquos deepest essence of life (or personal karma) seemsto appear instantly Not only that if everybody has thesensitivity to receive and send Ki then we all inheritthe ability of Ki This makes Ki the collective karma ofthe human being We already pointed out that thepractice of NBM may instantly bring the individual tothe lsquocollective unconsciousnessrsquo (29)The ninth level is called lsquoFundamentally pure con-

sciousnessrsquo This can be regarded as the highest level oflife (in which life of the humans is one with the life of theuniverse) or lsquoBuddha Naturersquo This can eradicate all ofthe deluded illusions of our mind and change the karmaof the individual and the karma of the entire human raceThis was explained in the Heiho Kadensho of the YagyuSchool of martial arts Chih-i believed that the Buddhanature exemplified in the Lotus Sutra represents this

Ego Consciousness(Descartes)Libido (Freud)

See Hear SmellTasteTouch

Chih-irsquos View Western View

5 Consciousness 5 Senses

6th Level of Consciousness

7th Level

8th Level

9th Level

CollectiveUnconsciousness(Jung)

Personal Karma(Ki)

Collective Karma

Fundamentally Pure Consciousness(Buddha Nature)

Instinct for SurvivalSources for desire Ego

and suffering

Reasoning(Descartes Kant)UnconsciousnessDream (Freud)

Unconsciousness(Meditation)

Conscious Mind

Figure 1 Schematic presentation of the nine levels of consciousness as

described by Chih-i Explanations on the left are from Buddhist

teachings Those on the right are from Western philosophy psychology

and physiology

178 What is Ki

ninth level Western philosophy or psychology did notreach to the depth of ninth level of consciousness as theEastern philosophic counterpart did Our idea that Kibelongs to the eighth level is derived from these Easternways of thinking In the East it is believed that Ki is afunction of life which permeates through both anindividual and the entire universe Therefore Ki mustbe very close to the ninth level

Physics of Ki

Since both of us have studied biophysics for 40 some yearswe have been interested in the nature of Ki We recentlypublished a physics-oriented hypothesis that Ki emissionmay be lsquolaser-likersquo near infrared radiation (NIR) from thepractitionerrsquos finger or hand (34) Several scientists askedus many questions for example lsquoHave you measured thestrength of the Ki-signalrsquo lsquoCan you simulate the Ki-effectby NIR emitted from an artificial sourcersquo lsquoIf you thinkthat Ki has an information you must analyze the Ki-signalto determine what kind of information is includedrsquo lsquoUnlessyou perform these quantitative measurements of Ki-energyor Ki-information you cannot proceed to build a theoryrsquoand lsquoMy idea is that Ki is an entirely new type of energyrsquoThat is perfectly true We agree with all of these pointsAn ideal scientific approach calls for many repeatedobservations If they are repeatable and reproduciblethen we build a theoryHowever in the study of Ki we encountered two

difficult problems Namely (i) Ki is manifested by onlyspecial people and (ii) we still cannot measure Ki-signalsreproducibly with any of our instruments Although thereare interesting claims that lsquoKi-signals have been detectedrsquoor lsquoKi is an infrared radiationrsquo but the lsquoKi-signalsrsquo fromQigong healers took a long time (at least the order ofminute) to grow to its full strength (33235ndash38) On theother hand Aokirsquos Toh-ate or Nishinorsquos lsquoTaikirsquo can movethe opponent almost instantly Therefore we decided touncover the secret of Ki which enables Toh-ate or Taikitechnique (29) What we did was to practice Ki at theschool of NBM first After we advanced and started toemit Ki ourselves we studied what our Ki could do tolsquosensitiversquo students In other words since we could notcatch Ki with instrumentation we used lsquosensitivestudentsrsquo as lsquoinstrumentsrsquo to measure the Ki-strengthThen based upon those results we built our hypothesis(34) This was only possible when both the Ki-emitter andthe Ki-receiver practiced NBM Interestingly this isrelated to a difference between the Western and Easternway of thinking Let us now explain this point

Another Difference between the Westand the East Theory and Practice

According to Yuasa (339) Western lsquomind and bodyrsquotheories have a strongly-held attitude of asking

theoretically what lsquoisrsquo the relationship between the mindand body On the other hand Eastern theories take theattitude of asking how the mind and body relationshiplsquodevelopsrsquo or lsquochangesrsquo through training and practiceThen based on how the relationship has developedthrough practice the theory asks in turn what is thelsquooriginalrsquo relationship between mind and bodyRegarding this Kasulis the editor of Yuasarsquos book

(39) pointed out that Eastern philosophies generally treatmind-body unity as an lsquoachievementrsquo rather than anlsquoessential unchanging linkrsquo He summarized as follows

(i) In Eastern culture meditation and breathing areimportant practices in obtaining philosophicalinsight Wisdom must be physically as well asintellectually developed

(ii) If the unity of mind and body is achieved this can betested by lsquodeedsrsquo In other words whether a personattained enlightenment or not should be verified bylsquoactionrsquo rather than by lsquoasserted propositionsrsquo

(iii) Eastern philosophers do not agree with theWestern tradition of dichotomies such as body-mind subjectivity-objectivity and theory-praxisEastern people are not doing lsquometa-physicsrsquo inthe traditional Western sense Instead what theyare doing is what Jung called lsquometa-psychicsrsquo(Actually Yuasa said that it can be called lsquometa-human sciencersquo)

These discussions clearly pointed out why dedicatedcontinuous practice is important to master any of theseEastern arts Be it for Eastern medicine Qigong martialarts Ki-related exercise or breathing we can reach betterunderstanding only after assiduous practice By simplydiscussing them from theoretical point of view or basedupon own ideas we can never grasp the true pictureof these arts For this reason we would like to touchupon our recent practice of teaching Ki to beginners inthe USA

How Quickly can a Beginner Sense Ki

If Ki could enhance our vitality and improve health thenan important question would be lsquoHow quickly can welearn Ki and utilize it to improve our healthrsquo Since wehave taught NBM to 37 students in the USA from 2006we undertook a survey of how quickly beginners cansense Ki by attending the class We taught so far thefollowing three courses

(i) Private Sunday Course this is an hour class onevery Sunday for those who want quickly to havea brief experience with NBM We used thebasement of our house for the class

(ii) Two Evening courses of lsquoKi-energy and NBMrsquowe taught two courses which were supported bythe Main Line School Night (an adult education

eCAM 20096(2) 179

program we will abbreviate as MLSN) whichuses the facility of Lower Merion High School(Ardmore PA) This course is taught for 1 h perweek once a week for 10 weeks We used MasterNishinorsquos book as the text (16) The participantssigned a consent form before participating in thecourse (Previous experiences of participants canbe found in Supplementary Table 1 in the journalrsquoswebsite) In each class we spent the first 30minpracticing the lsquoBreathing exercisersquo and the second30min the lsquoTaiki-practicersquo

The Taiki-practice literally means lsquopaired Ki-practicersquoBy combining his experience in ballet choreography andmartial arts Nishino first acquired by himself thetechnique of Toh-Ate Then he developed it into theform of Taiki-practice so that anybody could practiceand enjoy regardless of their martial arts experience Thisis basically the exchange of Ki-energy (or Ki-communica-tion) between the instructor and the student (16) TheTaiki-practice starts with the following Taiki-motion Aninstructor and a student touch their hands with eachother (right hand to right hand and then left to left) andpush with Ki alternately When the instructor sends astrong Ki-signal and extends his or her hand the studentis pushed by instructorrsquos Ki and steps backward to thewall which is covered by a soft cushion (we used either abed mattress or an air mattress) Nishino discovered thatthe individualrsquos Ki-level grows through this practiceA criticism of NBM was that the Taiki exercise may

involve a psychological or hypnotic effect because thestudent lsquowatchesrsquo the instructor Therefore we made twomodifications to the original Taiki exercise to eliminatethat bias

(i) After STO extended his hand and a student waspushed to the mattress he lsquoinstructedrsquo the studentto run toward the opposite side of the roomwhere another mattress is leaned up against thewall When the student started running he lsquopulledrsquothe students with lsquopulling Ki rsquo (Fig 2A) We foundthat some of the first-day students were lsquopulledbackrsquo by STOrsquo s Ki and started running into theopposite direction Examples of this lsquoPull-back-runner testrsquo (PBR test) is shown in SupplementaryFig 1 Since the student was running away thereis no possibility that he or she can lsquowatchrsquo theinstructor The data are shown in SupplementaryTable 2 where the lsquoRespondrsquo column indicates theresult of the PBR test on the first day To STOrsquos Ki altogether 11 out of 37 responded (successrate 297)

The most amazing result was that these 11 lsquosensitiversquostudents were also lsquopulled backrsquo by a lsquopulling Kirsquo of someof the first-day students (see the lsquoSendrsquo column inSupplementary Table 2 After 7 weeks in the MLSN

program the number of students who responded toSTOrsquo s Ki in the PBR test was 1325 (52) Thenumber of students who can move other students in thePBR test was the same The percentages of success ratefor the seventh and tenth weeks were the same

(ii) In the Taiki practice (which is done in a face-to-face position) we asked the Ki-receiver to wear ablindfold and the Ki-emitter attempted to movethe receiver without touching hands We call thisthe lsquolsquoFace-to-facersquorsquo test (FTF test) (Fig 2B) Theactual examples are shown on the SupplementaryFig 2A The data for this test are shown on theSupplementary Table 3 This test was much harderthan the PBR test When STO sent Ki withouttouching the beginners who wore a blindfold (TFTtest) none were moved on the first day Only afterthe seventh week 7 out of 25 were movedSupplementary Fig 2B shows photos of TFT-testbetween beginners on the fifth week

Experiments to Show that the lsquoKi-beamrsquohas lsquoInformationrsquo

In 1978 Chinese scientists discovered that a Qigonghealerrsquos hand was emitting infrared radiation (35) Thiswas later confirmed by Japanese scientists (38) Throughour study we also demonstrated that Ki which causedin vitro effects on biological systems and Ki which

Figure 2 Relationship between the flow of Ki-energy (shown by thin

arrows) and the direction of body movement (shown by open arrows)

(A) lsquoPBRrsquo test E indicates a Ki-emitter and R a Ki-receiver Ki-emitter

sends an unspoken message of lsquoCome backrsquo The receiver responds to

the message and comes back This test cannot be explained by a simple

lsquoenergyrsquo theory The lsquoentropyrsquo aspect must be considered (B) lsquoFace-to-

face Taikirsquo test with a blindfold and without touching The Ki-emitter

sends an unspoken message of lsquoGo awayrsquo The receiver responds to that

message and moves backward

180 What is Ki

caused Taiki-motions was the same and both were NIRbetween 800 and 2500 nm (2526) Recently we proposeda hypothesis that Ki may be a laser-like NIR with awavelength around 1000 nm (34) Being NIR Ki defi-nitely has an lsquoenergyrsquo aspect However we foundevidence that Ki also has an lsquoinformationrsquo (or anlsquoentropyrsquo) aspect (29)We reported already that a mirror could reflect the

lsquoKi-beamrsquo and that the reflected beam pushed back asensitive student in the same way as the straight lineKi-beam (34) If Ki has only an lsquoenergyrsquo effect it wouldbe easy to think that both straight Ki and mirror-reflected Ki have the lsquopush-backrsquo effect We could simplyimagine that Ki energy is something like an lsquoenergy fluxrsquopouring out of the emitterrsquos hand and pushing back astudent by its energy flow (Fig 2B) Then the effect of amirror is simply to bend the direction of the energy flowWe experimented on whether we could lsquopull backrsquo

a running student from behind using a mirror reflectionFirst we used a flat mirror which was similar to the onewe used previously to reflect Ki in the face-to-face Taikiexercise (34) This experiment worked The runner whowas running away from the Ki-emitter felt the lsquopullingKirsquo and changed direction to come back (SupplementaryFig 3) However we found it rather difficult to catch theimage of a running student which appeared on a flatmirror but quickly disappeared (Supplementary Fig 4A)Therefore we switched to a glass convex mirror(diameter 35 cm this is sold at hardware stores as

a driveway mirror) Since the convex mirror allows usto view a wider area than a flat mirror the image of therunner is always in the mirror (Supplementary Fig 4B)Therefore it is easy to send Ki to that image for pullingIn order to make sure that the Ki-energy which reachedthe runner was from the mirror we placed a Ki-shield(Super Tuff-RTM heat insulator Dow ChemicalCo Midland MI) between the emitter and the runner(Fig 3) This material was used in the previous studyand we demonstrated that it blocked Ki (34) As shown inFig 3 and Supplementary Fig 5 we succeeded in pullingback the runner by sending Ki to the runnerrsquos image inthe mirrorIf we think of Ki having only an energy aspect it would

be difficult to explain why we can lsquopull backrsquo a runner frombehind The direction of the Ki-energy flow and thedirection of the pulling motion are in the opposite direction(Fig 2A) It would be even harder to explain why this canbe done with the mirror-reflected Ki (Fig 3)A possible explanation is to postulate that Ki contains

lsquoinformationrsquo and that the runner moves in accordancewith the lsquoinformationrsquo sent to the runner In theexperiment shown in Fig 2A STO sent an lsquounspokenrsquomessage of lsquoCome backrsquo In the case of Fig 2B STOsent another lsquounspokenrsquo message of lsquoGo awayrsquo Webelieve that the unspoken message was carried by Ki andthe receiver received the message In analogy Ki-energy islike a radio wave and the information (to push or topull) may be super-imposed by modulating the carrierwave (2930)Energy can do the work The energy in gasoline can

move a car but energy can neither control its speed nordirection Namely energy cannot carry information Thedriver must give lsquoinformationrsquo by operating a gas pedalor a steering wheel Other examples writings or poemscontain information which essentially consists of com-plex arrangement and combination of letters Music ismade of pitches of sounds intervals between notes andcombinations thereof Paintings are composed of thecombination of paints with different colors dark orbright and transparent or opaque In essence lsquoinforma-tionrsquo is related to the lsquocombinationrsquo The quantity relatedto lsquocombinationrsquo is called lsquoentropyrsquo in physics Entropy isa different physical quantity from energy Shannondescribed that information is related to entropy (40)Yoshiya Shinagawa pioneered the discovery of lsquotrans-

personal communicationrsquo between Qigong healers andvolunteers (3637) He proposed that Ki has an lsquoinforma-tionrsquo aspect We also emphasized the lsquoentropyrsquo aspect ofKi (29) The energy cannot carry information butentropy can The role of entropy in living organism wasfirst introduced by Schrodinger (41) Its role in CAM wasalso discussed (9) In the healing art which employs Ki orQi the mind of the healer may be transmitted with Ki asinformation Therefore the information aspect of Kiwould be expected to play an important role in CAM

Figure 3 Schematic illustration of the lsquoPull-back-through-a-mirrorrsquo

experiment which shows that Ki has information content Note that

an infrared shield (S) was placed between the emitter (E) and the

receiver (R) in order to eliminate possible direct interactions (CM)

indicates a convex mirror A broken line indicated on the floor is

showing the passage of (R) who runs away toward the wall When

(E) sends a lsquopulling-Kirsquo to the image of (R) in the mirror (R) responded

to the Ki and changes the running direction to run in the opposite

direction (For actual examples see the supplementary material)

eCAM 20096(2) 181

Why can some Beginners Send and ReceiveKi from the First Day

Why could some students not only receive Ki but alsosend Ki to other students from the first day(Supplementary Table 2) A possibility is that allhuman beings once possessed the abilities to lsquosend outrsquoand to lsquoreceiversquo Ki to and from other people This lsquolife-to-lifersquo communication might have been essential to humanbeings for their survival However since they learned touse language for communication and because of thedevelopment of civilized living they gradually lost theseabilities However when an emergency situation occursfor example when a loved one has fallen ill or is involvedin accident it is natural for other family members to sendKi in an attempt to save the life of their loved oneTherefore people still maintained the ability to send Kiuntil the present day

Ki may be Related to the Rhythm of Life

Most students who were enrolled in MLSN-1 coursewere interested in Ki-phenomena They had experience indifferent forms of Ki-practice or martial arts Some hadtraining in music or dance On the other hand most ofstudents enrolled in MLSN-2 did not have that experi-ence Perhaps the difference between the success rate ofthe first-day PBR test for MLSN-1 students (429) andthat for MLSN-2 (9) was caused by a difference in thestudentsrsquo experience (Supplementary Tables 1 and 2) It isnatural that previous training in martial arts or other Kipractices is advantageous in learning Ki However why isthe training in music or dance helpful in learning Ki A common factor in music and dance is rhythm It is wellknown that our life activities have rhythms for exampleheart pulsation breathing a daily rhythm monthlyrhythm and yearly rhythm The universe also hasrhythms the earth turns once a day the moon orbitsonce a month and the earth travel around the sun once ayear Therefore if Ki is a function of life then rhythmmay be an important element of Ki This may be thereason why some people who have had serious training inmusic or dance were found to have a high sensitivitytoward KiAlthough a considerable percentage of the beginners

could sense Ki in a 10-week course this does not meanthat 10 weeks is enough to master Ki As we discussed inthis commentary the essential requirement for theEastern way of practice is lsquodiscipline and continuationrsquoYou can become a master of any of the Eastern arts onlywhen you are dedicated to life-long continuous practiceNevertheless the finding that a substantial percentage ofbeginners could feel Ki either from the first week or atleast in 10 weeks is very encouraging It gives us hopethat we could learn and use Ki for improving our healthwith a reasonable amount of practice time

In conclusion the significance of our findings inrelation to CAM is 3-fold (i) Ki has both energy andentropy (information) aspects In the healing art thatemploys Ki the mindset of a healer may be transmittedto the patient as lsquoinformationrsquo (ii) If beginners have hadsufficient training in Ki-related practices martial artsmusic or dance about 50 of them could sense Ki aftera 10-week practice of NBM (ii) The practice of breathingto enhance the Ki level may in-essence help to restore theoriginal ability of human beings Therefore it maycontribute to improve our health wellness and life itself

Supplementary Data

Supplementary data are available at eCAM online

Acknowledgements

We thank Master Kozo Nishino for his Ki instructionThanks are also due to the students of the NBM in theUSA who participated in this study to Mr Steven Dennisfor preparing illustrations and to Mr Mark Singer forediting the manuscript

References1 Ikegami S Miracle of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Kodansha

Publishing Co 19912 Yuasa Y What is Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo NHK (Nippon

Broadcasting Company) Book Publisher 19913 Yuasa Y The Body Self-Cultivation and Ki-energy (translated by

S Nagatomo and MS Hull) Albany NY State University ofNew York Press 1993

4 Chang S-O Meaning of Ki related to touch in caring HolistNurs Pract 20011673ndash84

5 Chang S-O The nature of touch therapy related to Ki practi-tionersrsquo perspective Nurs Health Sci 20035103ndash14

6 Lee M Effects on in vitro and in vivo qi-therapy on neutrophilsuperoxide generation in healthy male subjects Am J Chin Med200331623ndash8

7 Chen K An analytic review of studies on measuring effects ofexternal QI in China Altern Ther Health Med 20041038ndash50

8 Kobayashi H Ishii M Mind-Body Ki (Qi) and the SkinCommentary on Irwinrsquos lsquoShingles Immunity and HealthFunctioning in the Elderly Tai Chi Chih as a BehavioralTreatmentrsquo Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 20052113ndash6

9 Olalde JA The systemic theory of living systems and relevance toCAM Part I The theory Evid Based Complement Alternat Med2005213ndash8

10 Flowers J What is Qi Evid Based Complement Alternat Med20063551ndash2

11 Kuramoto AM Therapeutic benefits of Tai Chi exercise Researchreview WMJ 200610542ndash6

12 Hankey A McCrum S Qigong life energy and a new science of lifeJ Altern Complement Med 200612841ndash2

13 Shinnick P Qigong where did it come from Where does it fit inscience What are the advances J Altern Complement Med200612351ndash3

14 Weze C Leathard HL Grange J Tiplady P Stevens G Healing bygentle touch ameliorates stress and other symptoms in peoplesuffering with mental health disorders or psychological stressEvid Based Complement Alternat Med 20074115ndash23

15 Abbott RB Hui K-K Hays RD Li M-D Pan T A randomizedcontrolled trial of tai chi for tension headaches Evid BasedComplement Alternat Med 20074107ndash13

182 What is Ki

16 Nishino K The Breath of Life Using the Power of Ki for MaximumVitality Tokyo New York London Kodansha International 1997

17 Nishino K Le Souffle de Vie Utiliser le Pouroir du Ki Paris GuyTredaniel Editeur 1998

18 Nishino K Il Respiro Della Vita La massima vitalita dalla forza delKi Esercizi di Respirazione facili effieaci completamente illustratiRome Italy Edizioni Mediterranee Via Flaminia 1999

19 Nishino K The Discovery of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Shodensha1989

20 Nishino K Ki-energy in health Proceedings for the 4th InternationalCongress on Traditional Asian Medicine 19941148ndash70

21 Nishino K The Nishino Breathing Method (in Japanese) In Arita H(ed) The Dictionary of Respiration Tokyo Asakura BookPublishing Co 2006 678ndash97

22 Yumi K The Ultimate Example of Nishino Breating MethodEveryday of Yumi Kaoru with Slim and Bouncing Body (in Japanese)Nishino K (ed) TAKE Shobo Pub Co 2005

23 Nishino K Anti-aging effects of the Nishino BreathingMethod (Symposium Speaker) In Symposium on Anti-aging 27thAnnual Meeting of Japanese Medical Society Osaka Japan April 22007

24 Nishino K The Possibility of Respiration in the 21st Century(Keynote Speech) In 47th Annual Meeting of the JapaneseRespiratory Society Tokyo Japan May 10 2007

25 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T Nishino K Tsurusaki Y Yamaguchi MGrowth inhibition of cultured human carcinoma cells by Ki-energy(Life Energy) Scientific evidence of Ki-effect on cancer cells httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprint23387 Evid Based Comple-ment Alternat Med 20052387ndash93

26 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T Nishino K Ki- Energy (life-energy) protectsisolated mitochondria from oxidative injury httpecamoxford-journalsorgcgireprint34475 Evid Based Complement AlternatMed 20063475ndash82

27 Ohnishi ST Nishino K Uchiyama K Ohnishi T Yamaguchi MKi-energy (life-energy) stimulates osteoblastic cells and inhibits theformation of osteoclast-like cells in bone cell cultured modelshttpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprintnem037 Evid Based Com-plement Alternat Med 2007

28 Kimura H Nagao F Tanaka Y Sakai S Ohnishi ST Okumura KBeneficial effects of the Nishino Breathing Method on the immune

activity and stress level httpmembersaolcomphilabiomedpublicationkimurapdf J Altern Complement Med 200511285ndash91

29 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T The Nishino Breathing Method andKi-energy (life-energy) A challenge to traditional scientific thinkinghttpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprint32191 Evid BasedComplement Altern Med 20063191ndash200

30 Ohnishi ST Ki A key to transform the century of death to thecentury of life httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgicontentfull43287 Evid Based Complement Altern Med 20074287ndash92

31 Yuasa Y Qi and Human Science (in Japanese) (The Proceeding ofSino-Japan Qigong Conference (in Japanese) which was held atTsukuba University Tsukuba Japan during November 4 and 8 in1988) Tokyo Japan Hirakawa pub Co 1990

32 Yuasa Y Takemoto T New-Age Science and the Science of KiReport on the 1984 Japan-France Symposium on Science Technologyand Spiritual World (held in Tsukuba) (in Japanese) Yuasa YTakemoto T Tokyo (eds) Seido Publishing Co 1993

33 Jacobi J The Psychology of CG Jung (translated by KW Bash)New Haven Yale University Press 1951

34 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T How far can Ki-energy reachmdashAhypothetical mechanism for the generation and transmission ofKi-energy httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgicontentfullnem102v1Evid Based Complement Altern Med 2008

35 Kiang T Chinese lsquoNature Magazinersquo Chinese style Nature1978275697

36 Kawano K Koito H Fujiki T Shinagawa Y EEG and topographyduring Chinese lsquoQigongrsquo training Neurosiences 199016503ndash8

37 Shinagawa Y The Science of Qigong (in Japanese) TokyoKobunsha 1990

38 Machi Y The Science of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Tokyo DenkiUniversity Press 1993

39 Yuasa Y The Body Toward an Eastern Mind-Body Theory(translated by S Nagatomo and TP Kasulis) Kasulis TP (ed)Albany New York State University of New York 1987

40 Shannon CE A mathematical theory of communication Bell SystTech J 194827379ndash423 623ndash56

41 Schrodinger E What is LifemdashThe Physical Aspect of the LivingCell Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1944

Received December 6 2007 accepted December 11 2007

eCAM 20096(2) 183

related to what we call today Qigong were found (1) Thefirst Chinese literature which described the effect ofQigong was inscribed on an ancient sword handle (whichwas believed to be about 2500 years old) The origin ofthe character of Qi was traced back to 3500 years ago (1)Confucius (who lived approximately 2500 years ago)

taught moral and ethical behavior In his Analects thecharacter of Qi appeared in four locations It expressedthe concept related to breath food and vitality (1)Taoism which was founded by Lao-Tze (who wasbelieved to have lived around the time of Confucius or100 later) have had more influence on Qi and Qigong Inthe book lsquoZhuangzirsquo which compiled the thoughts ofLao-Tze in the third century BC the character of Qiappeared 39 times What it explained was lsquoQi existsthroughout the universe When it assembles it appears asa human life When it disassembles the human diesTherefore do not worry about life and death Livenaturally and freely as you arersquo (1) The concepts of QiYinYang and meridians formed the foundation ofChinese medicine Martial artists have also studiedthese concepts They knew how to attack vital acu-points to kill an opponent or how to revive a victimIn Japan Ki was used for healing from around

1500 years ago Toward the end of Heian Period (about800 years ago) Samurai warriors held political powerand continued to do so for 700 years During that timethe upper class of Samurai devoted themselves to self-cultivation by practicing Zen and Esoteric Buddhism Asa result the martial arts were not simply combattechniques but acquired a high artistic sensitivity andspirituality They trained themselves to enhance Kithrough meditation and breathing The origin for thiscould be found in a book called Makashikan (ChineseMohezhiguzn) which was lectured by Chih-i (a ChineseBuddhist monk 538ndash597 AD) He talked about self-cultivation methods and Buddhist medicine He explainedtwo cultivation methods namely lsquomeditation with pro-longed sittingrsquo and lsquomeditation with prolonged walkingrsquo(3) The former practice became the foundation for Zenand the latter for Esoteric BuddhismChih-i also explained a method of meditation which

could enhance our health One of his methods was toimagine that a piece of excellent food (such as a deliciouscheese) is sitting on onersquos head Then imagine that thefood melts and penetrates the skin and goes downthrough the head and body thus cleaning up the wholesystem Interestingly a similar exercise is used in NBMAs opposed to Chinese Qi which grew under the

influence of Taoism Japanese Ki was heavily influencedby Buddhism The Heiho Kadensho (The Secret TextBook of the Military Method which had been perpe-tuated though the Yagyu School of martial arts TheYagyu family taught martial arts to the Shogun thehighest post in the Samurai government) described thatthe human mind is distinguished into an lsquooriginal mindrsquo

(enlightened nature or Buddha nature) and a lsquodeludedmind (easily agitated by egocentric feeling and emotion)The original goal of the Samurai way was the develop-ment of a mature personality which would not beinfluenced by the deluded mind through discipline andthrough enhancing Ki (3)However the ultimate purpose of martial arts was

changed in modern times from killing others to self-defence and conquering oneself Aikido was created inthis atmosphere Ai means harmony It also means loveTherefore the ultimate goal of Aikido is to harmonize Kiwith the opponentrsquos body-mind movement Ueshiba thefounder declared that the secret of Aikido is toharmonize onersquos movement with the universe In otherwords it is to understand that lsquoI am one with theuniversersquo The Japanese Samurai way and Buddhistteachings had a profound influence over Japanese cultureand intellectual history

Secret Technique of Ki in Martial Arts

Stories tell us that the great martial artist possessed sucha strong Ki-power that his opponents were immobilizedIn Japanese martial artsrsquo history there were records thatsome martial artists could throw opponents withouttouching This is known as the lsquoToh-Atersquo technique(literally hit from a distance) and is considered to be theultimate form of martial arts However this has been asecret technique for centuries and no curriculum tomaster this technique was taught or published untilrecently Currently at least three Japanese Ki masters(Kozo Nishino Hiroyuki Aoki and Kojo Tsuboi) arereported to be able to perform the lsquoToh-Atersquo technique(1) It is interesting to note that two of them (Nishinoand Tsuboi) had practiced Aikido Aoki was an expert inKarate Japanese brain physiologists recorded changes inthe brain wave of Aoki when he performed Toh-Atetechnique (3132)

Difference between Sports and Martial Arts

Yuasa pointed out that until recently the training emphasisfor modernWestern sports was to develop the bodyrsquos motorskills and muscles capacity (That is why some athletes useillegal muscle-developing drugs) On the other hand theJapanese Samurai way (the Bushi way or Bushi-do) wasdesigned with the goal of strengthening the synthesisbetween consciousness and unconsciousness by controllingunconscious emotional functions (3) Western sportsrsquotraining is now also embracing these concepts Now wehave to study the relationship between Ki and psychology

Ki and Collective Unconsciousness of Jung

The practice of the Japanese Samurai way is linked toovercoming problems arising from onersquos unconscious

eCAM 20096(2) 177

state of mind (exemplified by Freudian psychology) Thismay be explained by a layered structure of differentconsciousness as presented by Chih-i In Fig 1 theBuddhist concepts are shown on the left side and theWestern concepts are on the right The concepts in fivetop layers (five levels of consciousness) are called eye earnose tongue or touch consciousness Through thesesensory organs human beings perceive outer worldThese functions correspond to the five senses inWestern psychology physiology and philosophy InBuddhism the sixth level of consciousness correspondsto our mind It builds up images based upon fiveconsciousnesses and consciously understands the externalworld This is similar to the theory of Kant (1724ndash1804)on cognition A Buddhist scholar had built a theorysimilar to that of Kant 1200 years before In Descartesrsquophilosophy human has a lsquoreasoning mindrsquo whichcorresponds to the upper half of the sixth levelUnconsciousness proposed by Freud (1856ndash1939) corre-sponds to the lower half The unconsciousness is believedto be the source of creativity and inspiration SomeWestern people are interested in Zen meditation becausethey think that one may communicate with onersquos uncon-sciousness through meditation However as Chih-I taughtboth lsquomeditation with prolonged sittingrsquo and lsquomeditationwith prolonged walkingrsquo are needed for self-cultivationZen uses only lsquomeditation with prolonged sittingrsquo and thatmay not be enough The lsquomeditation with prolongedwalkingrsquo is also needed lsquoProlonged walkingrsquo does not

necessarily mean simple walking It may also imply aregular physical exercise combined with mental training Inthis regard it is interesting to note that a Zen scholar (wholater became the Head Priest of a Japanese Zen temple)wrote that his practice of NBM (which is a physical exercisewith Ki) helped him to understand and master Zen (19)The seventh level is a fundamental egocentric con-

sciousness which is related to human desire and instinctfor survival Descartesrsquo lsquoego-consciousnessrsquo can beincluded in this layer Freudian lsquoLibidorsquo also resides inthis level All of earthly desires emotions and sufferingsoriginate from hereThe eighth level of consciousness is considered to be a

storage house of all actions deeds words and emotionsof each individualm created not only during this life timebut also in onersquos past lives (note Buddhism considersthat onersquos life continues eternally) In other words thislevel is the store house of lsquokarmarsquo (or destiny) of anindividual (upper half) and the entire race (lower half)While Freudian unconsciousness is related to personal

experience after birth (especially that of the infantperiod) collective unconsciousness proposed by Jung(1875ndash1961) includes the experiences of all human beingsfrom the remote past (in terms of time) and theexperiences of everybody in the world (in terms ofspace) (33) Therefore the eighth level of consciousnesscorresponds to collective unconsciousness Then aquestion may be raised lsquoHow can an individual relateto the life of othersrsquo We believe this is where Ki cancome in At the school of NBM we see everyday that thestate of mind of an individual (in this case MasterNishino) can influence not only the behavior and mind ofa student with whom Nishino is directly practicing butalso the minds of everyone in the class room Ki emittedfrom Nishino spreads through the air and is received byeverybodyThe manner in which each individual responds to

Nishinorsquos Ki is different The life tendency or personalitywhich is normally hidden deep inside suddenly appearswhen he or she receives Ki from Nishino In other wordsonersquos deepest essence of life (or personal karma) seemsto appear instantly Not only that if everybody has thesensitivity to receive and send Ki then we all inheritthe ability of Ki This makes Ki the collective karma ofthe human being We already pointed out that thepractice of NBM may instantly bring the individual tothe lsquocollective unconsciousnessrsquo (29)The ninth level is called lsquoFundamentally pure con-

sciousnessrsquo This can be regarded as the highest level oflife (in which life of the humans is one with the life of theuniverse) or lsquoBuddha Naturersquo This can eradicate all ofthe deluded illusions of our mind and change the karmaof the individual and the karma of the entire human raceThis was explained in the Heiho Kadensho of the YagyuSchool of martial arts Chih-i believed that the Buddhanature exemplified in the Lotus Sutra represents this

Ego Consciousness(Descartes)Libido (Freud)

See Hear SmellTasteTouch

Chih-irsquos View Western View

5 Consciousness 5 Senses

6th Level of Consciousness

7th Level

8th Level

9th Level

CollectiveUnconsciousness(Jung)

Personal Karma(Ki)

Collective Karma

Fundamentally Pure Consciousness(Buddha Nature)

Instinct for SurvivalSources for desire Ego

and suffering

Reasoning(Descartes Kant)UnconsciousnessDream (Freud)

Unconsciousness(Meditation)

Conscious Mind

Figure 1 Schematic presentation of the nine levels of consciousness as

described by Chih-i Explanations on the left are from Buddhist

teachings Those on the right are from Western philosophy psychology

and physiology

178 What is Ki

ninth level Western philosophy or psychology did notreach to the depth of ninth level of consciousness as theEastern philosophic counterpart did Our idea that Kibelongs to the eighth level is derived from these Easternways of thinking In the East it is believed that Ki is afunction of life which permeates through both anindividual and the entire universe Therefore Ki mustbe very close to the ninth level

Physics of Ki

Since both of us have studied biophysics for 40 some yearswe have been interested in the nature of Ki We recentlypublished a physics-oriented hypothesis that Ki emissionmay be lsquolaser-likersquo near infrared radiation (NIR) from thepractitionerrsquos finger or hand (34) Several scientists askedus many questions for example lsquoHave you measured thestrength of the Ki-signalrsquo lsquoCan you simulate the Ki-effectby NIR emitted from an artificial sourcersquo lsquoIf you thinkthat Ki has an information you must analyze the Ki-signalto determine what kind of information is includedrsquo lsquoUnlessyou perform these quantitative measurements of Ki-energyor Ki-information you cannot proceed to build a theoryrsquoand lsquoMy idea is that Ki is an entirely new type of energyrsquoThat is perfectly true We agree with all of these pointsAn ideal scientific approach calls for many repeatedobservations If they are repeatable and reproduciblethen we build a theoryHowever in the study of Ki we encountered two

difficult problems Namely (i) Ki is manifested by onlyspecial people and (ii) we still cannot measure Ki-signalsreproducibly with any of our instruments Although thereare interesting claims that lsquoKi-signals have been detectedrsquoor lsquoKi is an infrared radiationrsquo but the lsquoKi-signalsrsquo fromQigong healers took a long time (at least the order ofminute) to grow to its full strength (33235ndash38) On theother hand Aokirsquos Toh-ate or Nishinorsquos lsquoTaikirsquo can movethe opponent almost instantly Therefore we decided touncover the secret of Ki which enables Toh-ate or Taikitechnique (29) What we did was to practice Ki at theschool of NBM first After we advanced and started toemit Ki ourselves we studied what our Ki could do tolsquosensitiversquo students In other words since we could notcatch Ki with instrumentation we used lsquosensitivestudentsrsquo as lsquoinstrumentsrsquo to measure the Ki-strengthThen based upon those results we built our hypothesis(34) This was only possible when both the Ki-emitter andthe Ki-receiver practiced NBM Interestingly this isrelated to a difference between the Western and Easternway of thinking Let us now explain this point

Another Difference between the Westand the East Theory and Practice

According to Yuasa (339) Western lsquomind and bodyrsquotheories have a strongly-held attitude of asking

theoretically what lsquoisrsquo the relationship between the mindand body On the other hand Eastern theories take theattitude of asking how the mind and body relationshiplsquodevelopsrsquo or lsquochangesrsquo through training and practiceThen based on how the relationship has developedthrough practice the theory asks in turn what is thelsquooriginalrsquo relationship between mind and bodyRegarding this Kasulis the editor of Yuasarsquos book

(39) pointed out that Eastern philosophies generally treatmind-body unity as an lsquoachievementrsquo rather than anlsquoessential unchanging linkrsquo He summarized as follows

(i) In Eastern culture meditation and breathing areimportant practices in obtaining philosophicalinsight Wisdom must be physically as well asintellectually developed

(ii) If the unity of mind and body is achieved this can betested by lsquodeedsrsquo In other words whether a personattained enlightenment or not should be verified bylsquoactionrsquo rather than by lsquoasserted propositionsrsquo

(iii) Eastern philosophers do not agree with theWestern tradition of dichotomies such as body-mind subjectivity-objectivity and theory-praxisEastern people are not doing lsquometa-physicsrsquo inthe traditional Western sense Instead what theyare doing is what Jung called lsquometa-psychicsrsquo(Actually Yuasa said that it can be called lsquometa-human sciencersquo)

These discussions clearly pointed out why dedicatedcontinuous practice is important to master any of theseEastern arts Be it for Eastern medicine Qigong martialarts Ki-related exercise or breathing we can reach betterunderstanding only after assiduous practice By simplydiscussing them from theoretical point of view or basedupon own ideas we can never grasp the true pictureof these arts For this reason we would like to touchupon our recent practice of teaching Ki to beginners inthe USA

How Quickly can a Beginner Sense Ki

If Ki could enhance our vitality and improve health thenan important question would be lsquoHow quickly can welearn Ki and utilize it to improve our healthrsquo Since wehave taught NBM to 37 students in the USA from 2006we undertook a survey of how quickly beginners cansense Ki by attending the class We taught so far thefollowing three courses

(i) Private Sunday Course this is an hour class onevery Sunday for those who want quickly to havea brief experience with NBM We used thebasement of our house for the class

(ii) Two Evening courses of lsquoKi-energy and NBMrsquowe taught two courses which were supported bythe Main Line School Night (an adult education

eCAM 20096(2) 179

program we will abbreviate as MLSN) whichuses the facility of Lower Merion High School(Ardmore PA) This course is taught for 1 h perweek once a week for 10 weeks We used MasterNishinorsquos book as the text (16) The participantssigned a consent form before participating in thecourse (Previous experiences of participants canbe found in Supplementary Table 1 in the journalrsquoswebsite) In each class we spent the first 30minpracticing the lsquoBreathing exercisersquo and the second30min the lsquoTaiki-practicersquo

The Taiki-practice literally means lsquopaired Ki-practicersquoBy combining his experience in ballet choreography andmartial arts Nishino first acquired by himself thetechnique of Toh-Ate Then he developed it into theform of Taiki-practice so that anybody could practiceand enjoy regardless of their martial arts experience Thisis basically the exchange of Ki-energy (or Ki-communica-tion) between the instructor and the student (16) TheTaiki-practice starts with the following Taiki-motion Aninstructor and a student touch their hands with eachother (right hand to right hand and then left to left) andpush with Ki alternately When the instructor sends astrong Ki-signal and extends his or her hand the studentis pushed by instructorrsquos Ki and steps backward to thewall which is covered by a soft cushion (we used either abed mattress or an air mattress) Nishino discovered thatthe individualrsquos Ki-level grows through this practiceA criticism of NBM was that the Taiki exercise may

involve a psychological or hypnotic effect because thestudent lsquowatchesrsquo the instructor Therefore we made twomodifications to the original Taiki exercise to eliminatethat bias

(i) After STO extended his hand and a student waspushed to the mattress he lsquoinstructedrsquo the studentto run toward the opposite side of the roomwhere another mattress is leaned up against thewall When the student started running he lsquopulledrsquothe students with lsquopulling Ki rsquo (Fig 2A) We foundthat some of the first-day students were lsquopulledbackrsquo by STOrsquo s Ki and started running into theopposite direction Examples of this lsquoPull-back-runner testrsquo (PBR test) is shown in SupplementaryFig 1 Since the student was running away thereis no possibility that he or she can lsquowatchrsquo theinstructor The data are shown in SupplementaryTable 2 where the lsquoRespondrsquo column indicates theresult of the PBR test on the first day To STOrsquos Ki altogether 11 out of 37 responded (successrate 297)

The most amazing result was that these 11 lsquosensitiversquostudents were also lsquopulled backrsquo by a lsquopulling Kirsquo of someof the first-day students (see the lsquoSendrsquo column inSupplementary Table 2 After 7 weeks in the MLSN

program the number of students who responded toSTOrsquo s Ki in the PBR test was 1325 (52) Thenumber of students who can move other students in thePBR test was the same The percentages of success ratefor the seventh and tenth weeks were the same

(ii) In the Taiki practice (which is done in a face-to-face position) we asked the Ki-receiver to wear ablindfold and the Ki-emitter attempted to movethe receiver without touching hands We call thisthe lsquolsquoFace-to-facersquorsquo test (FTF test) (Fig 2B) Theactual examples are shown on the SupplementaryFig 2A The data for this test are shown on theSupplementary Table 3 This test was much harderthan the PBR test When STO sent Ki withouttouching the beginners who wore a blindfold (TFTtest) none were moved on the first day Only afterthe seventh week 7 out of 25 were movedSupplementary Fig 2B shows photos of TFT-testbetween beginners on the fifth week

Experiments to Show that the lsquoKi-beamrsquohas lsquoInformationrsquo

In 1978 Chinese scientists discovered that a Qigonghealerrsquos hand was emitting infrared radiation (35) Thiswas later confirmed by Japanese scientists (38) Throughour study we also demonstrated that Ki which causedin vitro effects on biological systems and Ki which

Figure 2 Relationship between the flow of Ki-energy (shown by thin

arrows) and the direction of body movement (shown by open arrows)

(A) lsquoPBRrsquo test E indicates a Ki-emitter and R a Ki-receiver Ki-emitter

sends an unspoken message of lsquoCome backrsquo The receiver responds to

the message and comes back This test cannot be explained by a simple

lsquoenergyrsquo theory The lsquoentropyrsquo aspect must be considered (B) lsquoFace-to-

face Taikirsquo test with a blindfold and without touching The Ki-emitter

sends an unspoken message of lsquoGo awayrsquo The receiver responds to that

message and moves backward

180 What is Ki

caused Taiki-motions was the same and both were NIRbetween 800 and 2500 nm (2526) Recently we proposeda hypothesis that Ki may be a laser-like NIR with awavelength around 1000 nm (34) Being NIR Ki defi-nitely has an lsquoenergyrsquo aspect However we foundevidence that Ki also has an lsquoinformationrsquo (or anlsquoentropyrsquo) aspect (29)We reported already that a mirror could reflect the

lsquoKi-beamrsquo and that the reflected beam pushed back asensitive student in the same way as the straight lineKi-beam (34) If Ki has only an lsquoenergyrsquo effect it wouldbe easy to think that both straight Ki and mirror-reflected Ki have the lsquopush-backrsquo effect We could simplyimagine that Ki energy is something like an lsquoenergy fluxrsquopouring out of the emitterrsquos hand and pushing back astudent by its energy flow (Fig 2B) Then the effect of amirror is simply to bend the direction of the energy flowWe experimented on whether we could lsquopull backrsquo

a running student from behind using a mirror reflectionFirst we used a flat mirror which was similar to the onewe used previously to reflect Ki in the face-to-face Taikiexercise (34) This experiment worked The runner whowas running away from the Ki-emitter felt the lsquopullingKirsquo and changed direction to come back (SupplementaryFig 3) However we found it rather difficult to catch theimage of a running student which appeared on a flatmirror but quickly disappeared (Supplementary Fig 4A)Therefore we switched to a glass convex mirror(diameter 35 cm this is sold at hardware stores as

a driveway mirror) Since the convex mirror allows usto view a wider area than a flat mirror the image of therunner is always in the mirror (Supplementary Fig 4B)Therefore it is easy to send Ki to that image for pullingIn order to make sure that the Ki-energy which reachedthe runner was from the mirror we placed a Ki-shield(Super Tuff-RTM heat insulator Dow ChemicalCo Midland MI) between the emitter and the runner(Fig 3) This material was used in the previous studyand we demonstrated that it blocked Ki (34) As shown inFig 3 and Supplementary Fig 5 we succeeded in pullingback the runner by sending Ki to the runnerrsquos image inthe mirrorIf we think of Ki having only an energy aspect it would

be difficult to explain why we can lsquopull backrsquo a runner frombehind The direction of the Ki-energy flow and thedirection of the pulling motion are in the opposite direction(Fig 2A) It would be even harder to explain why this canbe done with the mirror-reflected Ki (Fig 3)A possible explanation is to postulate that Ki contains

lsquoinformationrsquo and that the runner moves in accordancewith the lsquoinformationrsquo sent to the runner In theexperiment shown in Fig 2A STO sent an lsquounspokenrsquomessage of lsquoCome backrsquo In the case of Fig 2B STOsent another lsquounspokenrsquo message of lsquoGo awayrsquo Webelieve that the unspoken message was carried by Ki andthe receiver received the message In analogy Ki-energy islike a radio wave and the information (to push or topull) may be super-imposed by modulating the carrierwave (2930)Energy can do the work The energy in gasoline can

move a car but energy can neither control its speed nordirection Namely energy cannot carry information Thedriver must give lsquoinformationrsquo by operating a gas pedalor a steering wheel Other examples writings or poemscontain information which essentially consists of com-plex arrangement and combination of letters Music ismade of pitches of sounds intervals between notes andcombinations thereof Paintings are composed of thecombination of paints with different colors dark orbright and transparent or opaque In essence lsquoinforma-tionrsquo is related to the lsquocombinationrsquo The quantity relatedto lsquocombinationrsquo is called lsquoentropyrsquo in physics Entropy isa different physical quantity from energy Shannondescribed that information is related to entropy (40)Yoshiya Shinagawa pioneered the discovery of lsquotrans-

personal communicationrsquo between Qigong healers andvolunteers (3637) He proposed that Ki has an lsquoinforma-tionrsquo aspect We also emphasized the lsquoentropyrsquo aspect ofKi (29) The energy cannot carry information butentropy can The role of entropy in living organism wasfirst introduced by Schrodinger (41) Its role in CAM wasalso discussed (9) In the healing art which employs Ki orQi the mind of the healer may be transmitted with Ki asinformation Therefore the information aspect of Kiwould be expected to play an important role in CAM

Figure 3 Schematic illustration of the lsquoPull-back-through-a-mirrorrsquo

experiment which shows that Ki has information content Note that

an infrared shield (S) was placed between the emitter (E) and the

receiver (R) in order to eliminate possible direct interactions (CM)

indicates a convex mirror A broken line indicated on the floor is

showing the passage of (R) who runs away toward the wall When

(E) sends a lsquopulling-Kirsquo to the image of (R) in the mirror (R) responded

to the Ki and changes the running direction to run in the opposite

direction (For actual examples see the supplementary material)

eCAM 20096(2) 181

Why can some Beginners Send and ReceiveKi from the First Day

Why could some students not only receive Ki but alsosend Ki to other students from the first day(Supplementary Table 2) A possibility is that allhuman beings once possessed the abilities to lsquosend outrsquoand to lsquoreceiversquo Ki to and from other people This lsquolife-to-lifersquo communication might have been essential to humanbeings for their survival However since they learned touse language for communication and because of thedevelopment of civilized living they gradually lost theseabilities However when an emergency situation occursfor example when a loved one has fallen ill or is involvedin accident it is natural for other family members to sendKi in an attempt to save the life of their loved oneTherefore people still maintained the ability to send Kiuntil the present day

Ki may be Related to the Rhythm of Life

Most students who were enrolled in MLSN-1 coursewere interested in Ki-phenomena They had experience indifferent forms of Ki-practice or martial arts Some hadtraining in music or dance On the other hand most ofstudents enrolled in MLSN-2 did not have that experi-ence Perhaps the difference between the success rate ofthe first-day PBR test for MLSN-1 students (429) andthat for MLSN-2 (9) was caused by a difference in thestudentsrsquo experience (Supplementary Tables 1 and 2) It isnatural that previous training in martial arts or other Kipractices is advantageous in learning Ki However why isthe training in music or dance helpful in learning Ki A common factor in music and dance is rhythm It is wellknown that our life activities have rhythms for exampleheart pulsation breathing a daily rhythm monthlyrhythm and yearly rhythm The universe also hasrhythms the earth turns once a day the moon orbitsonce a month and the earth travel around the sun once ayear Therefore if Ki is a function of life then rhythmmay be an important element of Ki This may be thereason why some people who have had serious training inmusic or dance were found to have a high sensitivitytoward KiAlthough a considerable percentage of the beginners

could sense Ki in a 10-week course this does not meanthat 10 weeks is enough to master Ki As we discussed inthis commentary the essential requirement for theEastern way of practice is lsquodiscipline and continuationrsquoYou can become a master of any of the Eastern arts onlywhen you are dedicated to life-long continuous practiceNevertheless the finding that a substantial percentage ofbeginners could feel Ki either from the first week or atleast in 10 weeks is very encouraging It gives us hopethat we could learn and use Ki for improving our healthwith a reasonable amount of practice time

In conclusion the significance of our findings inrelation to CAM is 3-fold (i) Ki has both energy andentropy (information) aspects In the healing art thatemploys Ki the mindset of a healer may be transmittedto the patient as lsquoinformationrsquo (ii) If beginners have hadsufficient training in Ki-related practices martial artsmusic or dance about 50 of them could sense Ki aftera 10-week practice of NBM (ii) The practice of breathingto enhance the Ki level may in-essence help to restore theoriginal ability of human beings Therefore it maycontribute to improve our health wellness and life itself

Supplementary Data

Supplementary data are available at eCAM online

Acknowledgements

We thank Master Kozo Nishino for his Ki instructionThanks are also due to the students of the NBM in theUSA who participated in this study to Mr Steven Dennisfor preparing illustrations and to Mr Mark Singer forediting the manuscript

References1 Ikegami S Miracle of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Kodansha

Publishing Co 19912 Yuasa Y What is Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo NHK (Nippon

Broadcasting Company) Book Publisher 19913 Yuasa Y The Body Self-Cultivation and Ki-energy (translated by

S Nagatomo and MS Hull) Albany NY State University ofNew York Press 1993

4 Chang S-O Meaning of Ki related to touch in caring HolistNurs Pract 20011673ndash84

5 Chang S-O The nature of touch therapy related to Ki practi-tionersrsquo perspective Nurs Health Sci 20035103ndash14

6 Lee M Effects on in vitro and in vivo qi-therapy on neutrophilsuperoxide generation in healthy male subjects Am J Chin Med200331623ndash8

7 Chen K An analytic review of studies on measuring effects ofexternal QI in China Altern Ther Health Med 20041038ndash50

8 Kobayashi H Ishii M Mind-Body Ki (Qi) and the SkinCommentary on Irwinrsquos lsquoShingles Immunity and HealthFunctioning in the Elderly Tai Chi Chih as a BehavioralTreatmentrsquo Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 20052113ndash6

9 Olalde JA The systemic theory of living systems and relevance toCAM Part I The theory Evid Based Complement Alternat Med2005213ndash8

10 Flowers J What is Qi Evid Based Complement Alternat Med20063551ndash2

11 Kuramoto AM Therapeutic benefits of Tai Chi exercise Researchreview WMJ 200610542ndash6

12 Hankey A McCrum S Qigong life energy and a new science of lifeJ Altern Complement Med 200612841ndash2

13 Shinnick P Qigong where did it come from Where does it fit inscience What are the advances J Altern Complement Med200612351ndash3

14 Weze C Leathard HL Grange J Tiplady P Stevens G Healing bygentle touch ameliorates stress and other symptoms in peoplesuffering with mental health disorders or psychological stressEvid Based Complement Alternat Med 20074115ndash23

15 Abbott RB Hui K-K Hays RD Li M-D Pan T A randomizedcontrolled trial of tai chi for tension headaches Evid BasedComplement Alternat Med 20074107ndash13

182 What is Ki

16 Nishino K The Breath of Life Using the Power of Ki for MaximumVitality Tokyo New York London Kodansha International 1997

17 Nishino K Le Souffle de Vie Utiliser le Pouroir du Ki Paris GuyTredaniel Editeur 1998

18 Nishino K Il Respiro Della Vita La massima vitalita dalla forza delKi Esercizi di Respirazione facili effieaci completamente illustratiRome Italy Edizioni Mediterranee Via Flaminia 1999

19 Nishino K The Discovery of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Shodensha1989

20 Nishino K Ki-energy in health Proceedings for the 4th InternationalCongress on Traditional Asian Medicine 19941148ndash70

21 Nishino K The Nishino Breathing Method (in Japanese) In Arita H(ed) The Dictionary of Respiration Tokyo Asakura BookPublishing Co 2006 678ndash97

22 Yumi K The Ultimate Example of Nishino Breating MethodEveryday of Yumi Kaoru with Slim and Bouncing Body (in Japanese)Nishino K (ed) TAKE Shobo Pub Co 2005

23 Nishino K Anti-aging effects of the Nishino BreathingMethod (Symposium Speaker) In Symposium on Anti-aging 27thAnnual Meeting of Japanese Medical Society Osaka Japan April 22007

24 Nishino K The Possibility of Respiration in the 21st Century(Keynote Speech) In 47th Annual Meeting of the JapaneseRespiratory Society Tokyo Japan May 10 2007

25 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T Nishino K Tsurusaki Y Yamaguchi MGrowth inhibition of cultured human carcinoma cells by Ki-energy(Life Energy) Scientific evidence of Ki-effect on cancer cells httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprint23387 Evid Based Comple-ment Alternat Med 20052387ndash93

26 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T Nishino K Ki- Energy (life-energy) protectsisolated mitochondria from oxidative injury httpecamoxford-journalsorgcgireprint34475 Evid Based Complement AlternatMed 20063475ndash82

27 Ohnishi ST Nishino K Uchiyama K Ohnishi T Yamaguchi MKi-energy (life-energy) stimulates osteoblastic cells and inhibits theformation of osteoclast-like cells in bone cell cultured modelshttpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprintnem037 Evid Based Com-plement Alternat Med 2007

28 Kimura H Nagao F Tanaka Y Sakai S Ohnishi ST Okumura KBeneficial effects of the Nishino Breathing Method on the immune

activity and stress level httpmembersaolcomphilabiomedpublicationkimurapdf J Altern Complement Med 200511285ndash91

29 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T The Nishino Breathing Method andKi-energy (life-energy) A challenge to traditional scientific thinkinghttpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprint32191 Evid BasedComplement Altern Med 20063191ndash200

30 Ohnishi ST Ki A key to transform the century of death to thecentury of life httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgicontentfull43287 Evid Based Complement Altern Med 20074287ndash92

31 Yuasa Y Qi and Human Science (in Japanese) (The Proceeding ofSino-Japan Qigong Conference (in Japanese) which was held atTsukuba University Tsukuba Japan during November 4 and 8 in1988) Tokyo Japan Hirakawa pub Co 1990

32 Yuasa Y Takemoto T New-Age Science and the Science of KiReport on the 1984 Japan-France Symposium on Science Technologyand Spiritual World (held in Tsukuba) (in Japanese) Yuasa YTakemoto T Tokyo (eds) Seido Publishing Co 1993

33 Jacobi J The Psychology of CG Jung (translated by KW Bash)New Haven Yale University Press 1951

34 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T How far can Ki-energy reachmdashAhypothetical mechanism for the generation and transmission ofKi-energy httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgicontentfullnem102v1Evid Based Complement Altern Med 2008

35 Kiang T Chinese lsquoNature Magazinersquo Chinese style Nature1978275697

36 Kawano K Koito H Fujiki T Shinagawa Y EEG and topographyduring Chinese lsquoQigongrsquo training Neurosiences 199016503ndash8

37 Shinagawa Y The Science of Qigong (in Japanese) TokyoKobunsha 1990

38 Machi Y The Science of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Tokyo DenkiUniversity Press 1993

39 Yuasa Y The Body Toward an Eastern Mind-Body Theory(translated by S Nagatomo and TP Kasulis) Kasulis TP (ed)Albany New York State University of New York 1987

40 Shannon CE A mathematical theory of communication Bell SystTech J 194827379ndash423 623ndash56

41 Schrodinger E What is LifemdashThe Physical Aspect of the LivingCell Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1944

Received December 6 2007 accepted December 11 2007

eCAM 20096(2) 183

state of mind (exemplified by Freudian psychology) Thismay be explained by a layered structure of differentconsciousness as presented by Chih-i In Fig 1 theBuddhist concepts are shown on the left side and theWestern concepts are on the right The concepts in fivetop layers (five levels of consciousness) are called eye earnose tongue or touch consciousness Through thesesensory organs human beings perceive outer worldThese functions correspond to the five senses inWestern psychology physiology and philosophy InBuddhism the sixth level of consciousness correspondsto our mind It builds up images based upon fiveconsciousnesses and consciously understands the externalworld This is similar to the theory of Kant (1724ndash1804)on cognition A Buddhist scholar had built a theorysimilar to that of Kant 1200 years before In Descartesrsquophilosophy human has a lsquoreasoning mindrsquo whichcorresponds to the upper half of the sixth levelUnconsciousness proposed by Freud (1856ndash1939) corre-sponds to the lower half The unconsciousness is believedto be the source of creativity and inspiration SomeWestern people are interested in Zen meditation becausethey think that one may communicate with onersquos uncon-sciousness through meditation However as Chih-I taughtboth lsquomeditation with prolonged sittingrsquo and lsquomeditationwith prolonged walkingrsquo are needed for self-cultivationZen uses only lsquomeditation with prolonged sittingrsquo and thatmay not be enough The lsquomeditation with prolongedwalkingrsquo is also needed lsquoProlonged walkingrsquo does not

necessarily mean simple walking It may also imply aregular physical exercise combined with mental training Inthis regard it is interesting to note that a Zen scholar (wholater became the Head Priest of a Japanese Zen temple)wrote that his practice of NBM (which is a physical exercisewith Ki) helped him to understand and master Zen (19)The seventh level is a fundamental egocentric con-

sciousness which is related to human desire and instinctfor survival Descartesrsquo lsquoego-consciousnessrsquo can beincluded in this layer Freudian lsquoLibidorsquo also resides inthis level All of earthly desires emotions and sufferingsoriginate from hereThe eighth level of consciousness is considered to be a

storage house of all actions deeds words and emotionsof each individualm created not only during this life timebut also in onersquos past lives (note Buddhism considersthat onersquos life continues eternally) In other words thislevel is the store house of lsquokarmarsquo (or destiny) of anindividual (upper half) and the entire race (lower half)While Freudian unconsciousness is related to personal

experience after birth (especially that of the infantperiod) collective unconsciousness proposed by Jung(1875ndash1961) includes the experiences of all human beingsfrom the remote past (in terms of time) and theexperiences of everybody in the world (in terms ofspace) (33) Therefore the eighth level of consciousnesscorresponds to collective unconsciousness Then aquestion may be raised lsquoHow can an individual relateto the life of othersrsquo We believe this is where Ki cancome in At the school of NBM we see everyday that thestate of mind of an individual (in this case MasterNishino) can influence not only the behavior and mind ofa student with whom Nishino is directly practicing butalso the minds of everyone in the class room Ki emittedfrom Nishino spreads through the air and is received byeverybodyThe manner in which each individual responds to

Nishinorsquos Ki is different The life tendency or personalitywhich is normally hidden deep inside suddenly appearswhen he or she receives Ki from Nishino In other wordsonersquos deepest essence of life (or personal karma) seemsto appear instantly Not only that if everybody has thesensitivity to receive and send Ki then we all inheritthe ability of Ki This makes Ki the collective karma ofthe human being We already pointed out that thepractice of NBM may instantly bring the individual tothe lsquocollective unconsciousnessrsquo (29)The ninth level is called lsquoFundamentally pure con-

sciousnessrsquo This can be regarded as the highest level oflife (in which life of the humans is one with the life of theuniverse) or lsquoBuddha Naturersquo This can eradicate all ofthe deluded illusions of our mind and change the karmaof the individual and the karma of the entire human raceThis was explained in the Heiho Kadensho of the YagyuSchool of martial arts Chih-i believed that the Buddhanature exemplified in the Lotus Sutra represents this

Ego Consciousness(Descartes)Libido (Freud)

See Hear SmellTasteTouch

Chih-irsquos View Western View

5 Consciousness 5 Senses

6th Level of Consciousness

7th Level

8th Level

9th Level

CollectiveUnconsciousness(Jung)

Personal Karma(Ki)

Collective Karma

Fundamentally Pure Consciousness(Buddha Nature)

Instinct for SurvivalSources for desire Ego

and suffering

Reasoning(Descartes Kant)UnconsciousnessDream (Freud)

Unconsciousness(Meditation)

Conscious Mind

Figure 1 Schematic presentation of the nine levels of consciousness as

described by Chih-i Explanations on the left are from Buddhist

teachings Those on the right are from Western philosophy psychology

and physiology

178 What is Ki

ninth level Western philosophy or psychology did notreach to the depth of ninth level of consciousness as theEastern philosophic counterpart did Our idea that Kibelongs to the eighth level is derived from these Easternways of thinking In the East it is believed that Ki is afunction of life which permeates through both anindividual and the entire universe Therefore Ki mustbe very close to the ninth level

Physics of Ki

Since both of us have studied biophysics for 40 some yearswe have been interested in the nature of Ki We recentlypublished a physics-oriented hypothesis that Ki emissionmay be lsquolaser-likersquo near infrared radiation (NIR) from thepractitionerrsquos finger or hand (34) Several scientists askedus many questions for example lsquoHave you measured thestrength of the Ki-signalrsquo lsquoCan you simulate the Ki-effectby NIR emitted from an artificial sourcersquo lsquoIf you thinkthat Ki has an information you must analyze the Ki-signalto determine what kind of information is includedrsquo lsquoUnlessyou perform these quantitative measurements of Ki-energyor Ki-information you cannot proceed to build a theoryrsquoand lsquoMy idea is that Ki is an entirely new type of energyrsquoThat is perfectly true We agree with all of these pointsAn ideal scientific approach calls for many repeatedobservations If they are repeatable and reproduciblethen we build a theoryHowever in the study of Ki we encountered two

difficult problems Namely (i) Ki is manifested by onlyspecial people and (ii) we still cannot measure Ki-signalsreproducibly with any of our instruments Although thereare interesting claims that lsquoKi-signals have been detectedrsquoor lsquoKi is an infrared radiationrsquo but the lsquoKi-signalsrsquo fromQigong healers took a long time (at least the order ofminute) to grow to its full strength (33235ndash38) On theother hand Aokirsquos Toh-ate or Nishinorsquos lsquoTaikirsquo can movethe opponent almost instantly Therefore we decided touncover the secret of Ki which enables Toh-ate or Taikitechnique (29) What we did was to practice Ki at theschool of NBM first After we advanced and started toemit Ki ourselves we studied what our Ki could do tolsquosensitiversquo students In other words since we could notcatch Ki with instrumentation we used lsquosensitivestudentsrsquo as lsquoinstrumentsrsquo to measure the Ki-strengthThen based upon those results we built our hypothesis(34) This was only possible when both the Ki-emitter andthe Ki-receiver practiced NBM Interestingly this isrelated to a difference between the Western and Easternway of thinking Let us now explain this point

Another Difference between the Westand the East Theory and Practice

According to Yuasa (339) Western lsquomind and bodyrsquotheories have a strongly-held attitude of asking

theoretically what lsquoisrsquo the relationship between the mindand body On the other hand Eastern theories take theattitude of asking how the mind and body relationshiplsquodevelopsrsquo or lsquochangesrsquo through training and practiceThen based on how the relationship has developedthrough practice the theory asks in turn what is thelsquooriginalrsquo relationship between mind and bodyRegarding this Kasulis the editor of Yuasarsquos book

(39) pointed out that Eastern philosophies generally treatmind-body unity as an lsquoachievementrsquo rather than anlsquoessential unchanging linkrsquo He summarized as follows

(i) In Eastern culture meditation and breathing areimportant practices in obtaining philosophicalinsight Wisdom must be physically as well asintellectually developed

(ii) If the unity of mind and body is achieved this can betested by lsquodeedsrsquo In other words whether a personattained enlightenment or not should be verified bylsquoactionrsquo rather than by lsquoasserted propositionsrsquo

(iii) Eastern philosophers do not agree with theWestern tradition of dichotomies such as body-mind subjectivity-objectivity and theory-praxisEastern people are not doing lsquometa-physicsrsquo inthe traditional Western sense Instead what theyare doing is what Jung called lsquometa-psychicsrsquo(Actually Yuasa said that it can be called lsquometa-human sciencersquo)

These discussions clearly pointed out why dedicatedcontinuous practice is important to master any of theseEastern arts Be it for Eastern medicine Qigong martialarts Ki-related exercise or breathing we can reach betterunderstanding only after assiduous practice By simplydiscussing them from theoretical point of view or basedupon own ideas we can never grasp the true pictureof these arts For this reason we would like to touchupon our recent practice of teaching Ki to beginners inthe USA

How Quickly can a Beginner Sense Ki

If Ki could enhance our vitality and improve health thenan important question would be lsquoHow quickly can welearn Ki and utilize it to improve our healthrsquo Since wehave taught NBM to 37 students in the USA from 2006we undertook a survey of how quickly beginners cansense Ki by attending the class We taught so far thefollowing three courses

(i) Private Sunday Course this is an hour class onevery Sunday for those who want quickly to havea brief experience with NBM We used thebasement of our house for the class

(ii) Two Evening courses of lsquoKi-energy and NBMrsquowe taught two courses which were supported bythe Main Line School Night (an adult education

eCAM 20096(2) 179

program we will abbreviate as MLSN) whichuses the facility of Lower Merion High School(Ardmore PA) This course is taught for 1 h perweek once a week for 10 weeks We used MasterNishinorsquos book as the text (16) The participantssigned a consent form before participating in thecourse (Previous experiences of participants canbe found in Supplementary Table 1 in the journalrsquoswebsite) In each class we spent the first 30minpracticing the lsquoBreathing exercisersquo and the second30min the lsquoTaiki-practicersquo

The Taiki-practice literally means lsquopaired Ki-practicersquoBy combining his experience in ballet choreography andmartial arts Nishino first acquired by himself thetechnique of Toh-Ate Then he developed it into theform of Taiki-practice so that anybody could practiceand enjoy regardless of their martial arts experience Thisis basically the exchange of Ki-energy (or Ki-communica-tion) between the instructor and the student (16) TheTaiki-practice starts with the following Taiki-motion Aninstructor and a student touch their hands with eachother (right hand to right hand and then left to left) andpush with Ki alternately When the instructor sends astrong Ki-signal and extends his or her hand the studentis pushed by instructorrsquos Ki and steps backward to thewall which is covered by a soft cushion (we used either abed mattress or an air mattress) Nishino discovered thatthe individualrsquos Ki-level grows through this practiceA criticism of NBM was that the Taiki exercise may

involve a psychological or hypnotic effect because thestudent lsquowatchesrsquo the instructor Therefore we made twomodifications to the original Taiki exercise to eliminatethat bias

(i) After STO extended his hand and a student waspushed to the mattress he lsquoinstructedrsquo the studentto run toward the opposite side of the roomwhere another mattress is leaned up against thewall When the student started running he lsquopulledrsquothe students with lsquopulling Ki rsquo (Fig 2A) We foundthat some of the first-day students were lsquopulledbackrsquo by STOrsquo s Ki and started running into theopposite direction Examples of this lsquoPull-back-runner testrsquo (PBR test) is shown in SupplementaryFig 1 Since the student was running away thereis no possibility that he or she can lsquowatchrsquo theinstructor The data are shown in SupplementaryTable 2 where the lsquoRespondrsquo column indicates theresult of the PBR test on the first day To STOrsquos Ki altogether 11 out of 37 responded (successrate 297)

The most amazing result was that these 11 lsquosensitiversquostudents were also lsquopulled backrsquo by a lsquopulling Kirsquo of someof the first-day students (see the lsquoSendrsquo column inSupplementary Table 2 After 7 weeks in the MLSN

program the number of students who responded toSTOrsquo s Ki in the PBR test was 1325 (52) Thenumber of students who can move other students in thePBR test was the same The percentages of success ratefor the seventh and tenth weeks were the same

(ii) In the Taiki practice (which is done in a face-to-face position) we asked the Ki-receiver to wear ablindfold and the Ki-emitter attempted to movethe receiver without touching hands We call thisthe lsquolsquoFace-to-facersquorsquo test (FTF test) (Fig 2B) Theactual examples are shown on the SupplementaryFig 2A The data for this test are shown on theSupplementary Table 3 This test was much harderthan the PBR test When STO sent Ki withouttouching the beginners who wore a blindfold (TFTtest) none were moved on the first day Only afterthe seventh week 7 out of 25 were movedSupplementary Fig 2B shows photos of TFT-testbetween beginners on the fifth week

Experiments to Show that the lsquoKi-beamrsquohas lsquoInformationrsquo

In 1978 Chinese scientists discovered that a Qigonghealerrsquos hand was emitting infrared radiation (35) Thiswas later confirmed by Japanese scientists (38) Throughour study we also demonstrated that Ki which causedin vitro effects on biological systems and Ki which

Figure 2 Relationship between the flow of Ki-energy (shown by thin

arrows) and the direction of body movement (shown by open arrows)

(A) lsquoPBRrsquo test E indicates a Ki-emitter and R a Ki-receiver Ki-emitter

sends an unspoken message of lsquoCome backrsquo The receiver responds to

the message and comes back This test cannot be explained by a simple

lsquoenergyrsquo theory The lsquoentropyrsquo aspect must be considered (B) lsquoFace-to-

face Taikirsquo test with a blindfold and without touching The Ki-emitter

sends an unspoken message of lsquoGo awayrsquo The receiver responds to that

message and moves backward

180 What is Ki

caused Taiki-motions was the same and both were NIRbetween 800 and 2500 nm (2526) Recently we proposeda hypothesis that Ki may be a laser-like NIR with awavelength around 1000 nm (34) Being NIR Ki defi-nitely has an lsquoenergyrsquo aspect However we foundevidence that Ki also has an lsquoinformationrsquo (or anlsquoentropyrsquo) aspect (29)We reported already that a mirror could reflect the

lsquoKi-beamrsquo and that the reflected beam pushed back asensitive student in the same way as the straight lineKi-beam (34) If Ki has only an lsquoenergyrsquo effect it wouldbe easy to think that both straight Ki and mirror-reflected Ki have the lsquopush-backrsquo effect We could simplyimagine that Ki energy is something like an lsquoenergy fluxrsquopouring out of the emitterrsquos hand and pushing back astudent by its energy flow (Fig 2B) Then the effect of amirror is simply to bend the direction of the energy flowWe experimented on whether we could lsquopull backrsquo

a running student from behind using a mirror reflectionFirst we used a flat mirror which was similar to the onewe used previously to reflect Ki in the face-to-face Taikiexercise (34) This experiment worked The runner whowas running away from the Ki-emitter felt the lsquopullingKirsquo and changed direction to come back (SupplementaryFig 3) However we found it rather difficult to catch theimage of a running student which appeared on a flatmirror but quickly disappeared (Supplementary Fig 4A)Therefore we switched to a glass convex mirror(diameter 35 cm this is sold at hardware stores as

a driveway mirror) Since the convex mirror allows usto view a wider area than a flat mirror the image of therunner is always in the mirror (Supplementary Fig 4B)Therefore it is easy to send Ki to that image for pullingIn order to make sure that the Ki-energy which reachedthe runner was from the mirror we placed a Ki-shield(Super Tuff-RTM heat insulator Dow ChemicalCo Midland MI) between the emitter and the runner(Fig 3) This material was used in the previous studyand we demonstrated that it blocked Ki (34) As shown inFig 3 and Supplementary Fig 5 we succeeded in pullingback the runner by sending Ki to the runnerrsquos image inthe mirrorIf we think of Ki having only an energy aspect it would

be difficult to explain why we can lsquopull backrsquo a runner frombehind The direction of the Ki-energy flow and thedirection of the pulling motion are in the opposite direction(Fig 2A) It would be even harder to explain why this canbe done with the mirror-reflected Ki (Fig 3)A possible explanation is to postulate that Ki contains

lsquoinformationrsquo and that the runner moves in accordancewith the lsquoinformationrsquo sent to the runner In theexperiment shown in Fig 2A STO sent an lsquounspokenrsquomessage of lsquoCome backrsquo In the case of Fig 2B STOsent another lsquounspokenrsquo message of lsquoGo awayrsquo Webelieve that the unspoken message was carried by Ki andthe receiver received the message In analogy Ki-energy islike a radio wave and the information (to push or topull) may be super-imposed by modulating the carrierwave (2930)Energy can do the work The energy in gasoline can

move a car but energy can neither control its speed nordirection Namely energy cannot carry information Thedriver must give lsquoinformationrsquo by operating a gas pedalor a steering wheel Other examples writings or poemscontain information which essentially consists of com-plex arrangement and combination of letters Music ismade of pitches of sounds intervals between notes andcombinations thereof Paintings are composed of thecombination of paints with different colors dark orbright and transparent or opaque In essence lsquoinforma-tionrsquo is related to the lsquocombinationrsquo The quantity relatedto lsquocombinationrsquo is called lsquoentropyrsquo in physics Entropy isa different physical quantity from energy Shannondescribed that information is related to entropy (40)Yoshiya Shinagawa pioneered the discovery of lsquotrans-

personal communicationrsquo between Qigong healers andvolunteers (3637) He proposed that Ki has an lsquoinforma-tionrsquo aspect We also emphasized the lsquoentropyrsquo aspect ofKi (29) The energy cannot carry information butentropy can The role of entropy in living organism wasfirst introduced by Schrodinger (41) Its role in CAM wasalso discussed (9) In the healing art which employs Ki orQi the mind of the healer may be transmitted with Ki asinformation Therefore the information aspect of Kiwould be expected to play an important role in CAM

Figure 3 Schematic illustration of the lsquoPull-back-through-a-mirrorrsquo

experiment which shows that Ki has information content Note that

an infrared shield (S) was placed between the emitter (E) and the

receiver (R) in order to eliminate possible direct interactions (CM)

indicates a convex mirror A broken line indicated on the floor is

showing the passage of (R) who runs away toward the wall When

(E) sends a lsquopulling-Kirsquo to the image of (R) in the mirror (R) responded

to the Ki and changes the running direction to run in the opposite

direction (For actual examples see the supplementary material)

eCAM 20096(2) 181

Why can some Beginners Send and ReceiveKi from the First Day

Why could some students not only receive Ki but alsosend Ki to other students from the first day(Supplementary Table 2) A possibility is that allhuman beings once possessed the abilities to lsquosend outrsquoand to lsquoreceiversquo Ki to and from other people This lsquolife-to-lifersquo communication might have been essential to humanbeings for their survival However since they learned touse language for communication and because of thedevelopment of civilized living they gradually lost theseabilities However when an emergency situation occursfor example when a loved one has fallen ill or is involvedin accident it is natural for other family members to sendKi in an attempt to save the life of their loved oneTherefore people still maintained the ability to send Kiuntil the present day

Ki may be Related to the Rhythm of Life

Most students who were enrolled in MLSN-1 coursewere interested in Ki-phenomena They had experience indifferent forms of Ki-practice or martial arts Some hadtraining in music or dance On the other hand most ofstudents enrolled in MLSN-2 did not have that experi-ence Perhaps the difference between the success rate ofthe first-day PBR test for MLSN-1 students (429) andthat for MLSN-2 (9) was caused by a difference in thestudentsrsquo experience (Supplementary Tables 1 and 2) It isnatural that previous training in martial arts or other Kipractices is advantageous in learning Ki However why isthe training in music or dance helpful in learning Ki A common factor in music and dance is rhythm It is wellknown that our life activities have rhythms for exampleheart pulsation breathing a daily rhythm monthlyrhythm and yearly rhythm The universe also hasrhythms the earth turns once a day the moon orbitsonce a month and the earth travel around the sun once ayear Therefore if Ki is a function of life then rhythmmay be an important element of Ki This may be thereason why some people who have had serious training inmusic or dance were found to have a high sensitivitytoward KiAlthough a considerable percentage of the beginners

could sense Ki in a 10-week course this does not meanthat 10 weeks is enough to master Ki As we discussed inthis commentary the essential requirement for theEastern way of practice is lsquodiscipline and continuationrsquoYou can become a master of any of the Eastern arts onlywhen you are dedicated to life-long continuous practiceNevertheless the finding that a substantial percentage ofbeginners could feel Ki either from the first week or atleast in 10 weeks is very encouraging It gives us hopethat we could learn and use Ki for improving our healthwith a reasonable amount of practice time

In conclusion the significance of our findings inrelation to CAM is 3-fold (i) Ki has both energy andentropy (information) aspects In the healing art thatemploys Ki the mindset of a healer may be transmittedto the patient as lsquoinformationrsquo (ii) If beginners have hadsufficient training in Ki-related practices martial artsmusic or dance about 50 of them could sense Ki aftera 10-week practice of NBM (ii) The practice of breathingto enhance the Ki level may in-essence help to restore theoriginal ability of human beings Therefore it maycontribute to improve our health wellness and life itself

Supplementary Data

Supplementary data are available at eCAM online

Acknowledgements

We thank Master Kozo Nishino for his Ki instructionThanks are also due to the students of the NBM in theUSA who participated in this study to Mr Steven Dennisfor preparing illustrations and to Mr Mark Singer forediting the manuscript

References1 Ikegami S Miracle of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Kodansha

Publishing Co 19912 Yuasa Y What is Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo NHK (Nippon

Broadcasting Company) Book Publisher 19913 Yuasa Y The Body Self-Cultivation and Ki-energy (translated by

S Nagatomo and MS Hull) Albany NY State University ofNew York Press 1993

4 Chang S-O Meaning of Ki related to touch in caring HolistNurs Pract 20011673ndash84

5 Chang S-O The nature of touch therapy related to Ki practi-tionersrsquo perspective Nurs Health Sci 20035103ndash14

6 Lee M Effects on in vitro and in vivo qi-therapy on neutrophilsuperoxide generation in healthy male subjects Am J Chin Med200331623ndash8

7 Chen K An analytic review of studies on measuring effects ofexternal QI in China Altern Ther Health Med 20041038ndash50

8 Kobayashi H Ishii M Mind-Body Ki (Qi) and the SkinCommentary on Irwinrsquos lsquoShingles Immunity and HealthFunctioning in the Elderly Tai Chi Chih as a BehavioralTreatmentrsquo Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 20052113ndash6

9 Olalde JA The systemic theory of living systems and relevance toCAM Part I The theory Evid Based Complement Alternat Med2005213ndash8

10 Flowers J What is Qi Evid Based Complement Alternat Med20063551ndash2

11 Kuramoto AM Therapeutic benefits of Tai Chi exercise Researchreview WMJ 200610542ndash6

12 Hankey A McCrum S Qigong life energy and a new science of lifeJ Altern Complement Med 200612841ndash2

13 Shinnick P Qigong where did it come from Where does it fit inscience What are the advances J Altern Complement Med200612351ndash3

14 Weze C Leathard HL Grange J Tiplady P Stevens G Healing bygentle touch ameliorates stress and other symptoms in peoplesuffering with mental health disorders or psychological stressEvid Based Complement Alternat Med 20074115ndash23

15 Abbott RB Hui K-K Hays RD Li M-D Pan T A randomizedcontrolled trial of tai chi for tension headaches Evid BasedComplement Alternat Med 20074107ndash13

182 What is Ki

16 Nishino K The Breath of Life Using the Power of Ki for MaximumVitality Tokyo New York London Kodansha International 1997

17 Nishino K Le Souffle de Vie Utiliser le Pouroir du Ki Paris GuyTredaniel Editeur 1998

18 Nishino K Il Respiro Della Vita La massima vitalita dalla forza delKi Esercizi di Respirazione facili effieaci completamente illustratiRome Italy Edizioni Mediterranee Via Flaminia 1999

19 Nishino K The Discovery of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Shodensha1989

20 Nishino K Ki-energy in health Proceedings for the 4th InternationalCongress on Traditional Asian Medicine 19941148ndash70

21 Nishino K The Nishino Breathing Method (in Japanese) In Arita H(ed) The Dictionary of Respiration Tokyo Asakura BookPublishing Co 2006 678ndash97

22 Yumi K The Ultimate Example of Nishino Breating MethodEveryday of Yumi Kaoru with Slim and Bouncing Body (in Japanese)Nishino K (ed) TAKE Shobo Pub Co 2005

23 Nishino K Anti-aging effects of the Nishino BreathingMethod (Symposium Speaker) In Symposium on Anti-aging 27thAnnual Meeting of Japanese Medical Society Osaka Japan April 22007

24 Nishino K The Possibility of Respiration in the 21st Century(Keynote Speech) In 47th Annual Meeting of the JapaneseRespiratory Society Tokyo Japan May 10 2007

25 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T Nishino K Tsurusaki Y Yamaguchi MGrowth inhibition of cultured human carcinoma cells by Ki-energy(Life Energy) Scientific evidence of Ki-effect on cancer cells httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprint23387 Evid Based Comple-ment Alternat Med 20052387ndash93

26 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T Nishino K Ki- Energy (life-energy) protectsisolated mitochondria from oxidative injury httpecamoxford-journalsorgcgireprint34475 Evid Based Complement AlternatMed 20063475ndash82

27 Ohnishi ST Nishino K Uchiyama K Ohnishi T Yamaguchi MKi-energy (life-energy) stimulates osteoblastic cells and inhibits theformation of osteoclast-like cells in bone cell cultured modelshttpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprintnem037 Evid Based Com-plement Alternat Med 2007

28 Kimura H Nagao F Tanaka Y Sakai S Ohnishi ST Okumura KBeneficial effects of the Nishino Breathing Method on the immune

activity and stress level httpmembersaolcomphilabiomedpublicationkimurapdf J Altern Complement Med 200511285ndash91

29 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T The Nishino Breathing Method andKi-energy (life-energy) A challenge to traditional scientific thinkinghttpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprint32191 Evid BasedComplement Altern Med 20063191ndash200

30 Ohnishi ST Ki A key to transform the century of death to thecentury of life httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgicontentfull43287 Evid Based Complement Altern Med 20074287ndash92

31 Yuasa Y Qi and Human Science (in Japanese) (The Proceeding ofSino-Japan Qigong Conference (in Japanese) which was held atTsukuba University Tsukuba Japan during November 4 and 8 in1988) Tokyo Japan Hirakawa pub Co 1990

32 Yuasa Y Takemoto T New-Age Science and the Science of KiReport on the 1984 Japan-France Symposium on Science Technologyand Spiritual World (held in Tsukuba) (in Japanese) Yuasa YTakemoto T Tokyo (eds) Seido Publishing Co 1993

33 Jacobi J The Psychology of CG Jung (translated by KW Bash)New Haven Yale University Press 1951

34 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T How far can Ki-energy reachmdashAhypothetical mechanism for the generation and transmission ofKi-energy httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgicontentfullnem102v1Evid Based Complement Altern Med 2008

35 Kiang T Chinese lsquoNature Magazinersquo Chinese style Nature1978275697

36 Kawano K Koito H Fujiki T Shinagawa Y EEG and topographyduring Chinese lsquoQigongrsquo training Neurosiences 199016503ndash8

37 Shinagawa Y The Science of Qigong (in Japanese) TokyoKobunsha 1990

38 Machi Y The Science of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Tokyo DenkiUniversity Press 1993

39 Yuasa Y The Body Toward an Eastern Mind-Body Theory(translated by S Nagatomo and TP Kasulis) Kasulis TP (ed)Albany New York State University of New York 1987

40 Shannon CE A mathematical theory of communication Bell SystTech J 194827379ndash423 623ndash56

41 Schrodinger E What is LifemdashThe Physical Aspect of the LivingCell Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1944

Received December 6 2007 accepted December 11 2007

eCAM 20096(2) 183

ninth level Western philosophy or psychology did notreach to the depth of ninth level of consciousness as theEastern philosophic counterpart did Our idea that Kibelongs to the eighth level is derived from these Easternways of thinking In the East it is believed that Ki is afunction of life which permeates through both anindividual and the entire universe Therefore Ki mustbe very close to the ninth level

Physics of Ki

Since both of us have studied biophysics for 40 some yearswe have been interested in the nature of Ki We recentlypublished a physics-oriented hypothesis that Ki emissionmay be lsquolaser-likersquo near infrared radiation (NIR) from thepractitionerrsquos finger or hand (34) Several scientists askedus many questions for example lsquoHave you measured thestrength of the Ki-signalrsquo lsquoCan you simulate the Ki-effectby NIR emitted from an artificial sourcersquo lsquoIf you thinkthat Ki has an information you must analyze the Ki-signalto determine what kind of information is includedrsquo lsquoUnlessyou perform these quantitative measurements of Ki-energyor Ki-information you cannot proceed to build a theoryrsquoand lsquoMy idea is that Ki is an entirely new type of energyrsquoThat is perfectly true We agree with all of these pointsAn ideal scientific approach calls for many repeatedobservations If they are repeatable and reproduciblethen we build a theoryHowever in the study of Ki we encountered two

difficult problems Namely (i) Ki is manifested by onlyspecial people and (ii) we still cannot measure Ki-signalsreproducibly with any of our instruments Although thereare interesting claims that lsquoKi-signals have been detectedrsquoor lsquoKi is an infrared radiationrsquo but the lsquoKi-signalsrsquo fromQigong healers took a long time (at least the order ofminute) to grow to its full strength (33235ndash38) On theother hand Aokirsquos Toh-ate or Nishinorsquos lsquoTaikirsquo can movethe opponent almost instantly Therefore we decided touncover the secret of Ki which enables Toh-ate or Taikitechnique (29) What we did was to practice Ki at theschool of NBM first After we advanced and started toemit Ki ourselves we studied what our Ki could do tolsquosensitiversquo students In other words since we could notcatch Ki with instrumentation we used lsquosensitivestudentsrsquo as lsquoinstrumentsrsquo to measure the Ki-strengthThen based upon those results we built our hypothesis(34) This was only possible when both the Ki-emitter andthe Ki-receiver practiced NBM Interestingly this isrelated to a difference between the Western and Easternway of thinking Let us now explain this point

Another Difference between the Westand the East Theory and Practice

According to Yuasa (339) Western lsquomind and bodyrsquotheories have a strongly-held attitude of asking

theoretically what lsquoisrsquo the relationship between the mindand body On the other hand Eastern theories take theattitude of asking how the mind and body relationshiplsquodevelopsrsquo or lsquochangesrsquo through training and practiceThen based on how the relationship has developedthrough practice the theory asks in turn what is thelsquooriginalrsquo relationship between mind and bodyRegarding this Kasulis the editor of Yuasarsquos book

(39) pointed out that Eastern philosophies generally treatmind-body unity as an lsquoachievementrsquo rather than anlsquoessential unchanging linkrsquo He summarized as follows

(i) In Eastern culture meditation and breathing areimportant practices in obtaining philosophicalinsight Wisdom must be physically as well asintellectually developed

(ii) If the unity of mind and body is achieved this can betested by lsquodeedsrsquo In other words whether a personattained enlightenment or not should be verified bylsquoactionrsquo rather than by lsquoasserted propositionsrsquo

(iii) Eastern philosophers do not agree with theWestern tradition of dichotomies such as body-mind subjectivity-objectivity and theory-praxisEastern people are not doing lsquometa-physicsrsquo inthe traditional Western sense Instead what theyare doing is what Jung called lsquometa-psychicsrsquo(Actually Yuasa said that it can be called lsquometa-human sciencersquo)

These discussions clearly pointed out why dedicatedcontinuous practice is important to master any of theseEastern arts Be it for Eastern medicine Qigong martialarts Ki-related exercise or breathing we can reach betterunderstanding only after assiduous practice By simplydiscussing them from theoretical point of view or basedupon own ideas we can never grasp the true pictureof these arts For this reason we would like to touchupon our recent practice of teaching Ki to beginners inthe USA

How Quickly can a Beginner Sense Ki

If Ki could enhance our vitality and improve health thenan important question would be lsquoHow quickly can welearn Ki and utilize it to improve our healthrsquo Since wehave taught NBM to 37 students in the USA from 2006we undertook a survey of how quickly beginners cansense Ki by attending the class We taught so far thefollowing three courses

(i) Private Sunday Course this is an hour class onevery Sunday for those who want quickly to havea brief experience with NBM We used thebasement of our house for the class

(ii) Two Evening courses of lsquoKi-energy and NBMrsquowe taught two courses which were supported bythe Main Line School Night (an adult education

eCAM 20096(2) 179

program we will abbreviate as MLSN) whichuses the facility of Lower Merion High School(Ardmore PA) This course is taught for 1 h perweek once a week for 10 weeks We used MasterNishinorsquos book as the text (16) The participantssigned a consent form before participating in thecourse (Previous experiences of participants canbe found in Supplementary Table 1 in the journalrsquoswebsite) In each class we spent the first 30minpracticing the lsquoBreathing exercisersquo and the second30min the lsquoTaiki-practicersquo

The Taiki-practice literally means lsquopaired Ki-practicersquoBy combining his experience in ballet choreography andmartial arts Nishino first acquired by himself thetechnique of Toh-Ate Then he developed it into theform of Taiki-practice so that anybody could practiceand enjoy regardless of their martial arts experience Thisis basically the exchange of Ki-energy (or Ki-communica-tion) between the instructor and the student (16) TheTaiki-practice starts with the following Taiki-motion Aninstructor and a student touch their hands with eachother (right hand to right hand and then left to left) andpush with Ki alternately When the instructor sends astrong Ki-signal and extends his or her hand the studentis pushed by instructorrsquos Ki and steps backward to thewall which is covered by a soft cushion (we used either abed mattress or an air mattress) Nishino discovered thatthe individualrsquos Ki-level grows through this practiceA criticism of NBM was that the Taiki exercise may

involve a psychological or hypnotic effect because thestudent lsquowatchesrsquo the instructor Therefore we made twomodifications to the original Taiki exercise to eliminatethat bias

(i) After STO extended his hand and a student waspushed to the mattress he lsquoinstructedrsquo the studentto run toward the opposite side of the roomwhere another mattress is leaned up against thewall When the student started running he lsquopulledrsquothe students with lsquopulling Ki rsquo (Fig 2A) We foundthat some of the first-day students were lsquopulledbackrsquo by STOrsquo s Ki and started running into theopposite direction Examples of this lsquoPull-back-runner testrsquo (PBR test) is shown in SupplementaryFig 1 Since the student was running away thereis no possibility that he or she can lsquowatchrsquo theinstructor The data are shown in SupplementaryTable 2 where the lsquoRespondrsquo column indicates theresult of the PBR test on the first day To STOrsquos Ki altogether 11 out of 37 responded (successrate 297)

The most amazing result was that these 11 lsquosensitiversquostudents were also lsquopulled backrsquo by a lsquopulling Kirsquo of someof the first-day students (see the lsquoSendrsquo column inSupplementary Table 2 After 7 weeks in the MLSN

program the number of students who responded toSTOrsquo s Ki in the PBR test was 1325 (52) Thenumber of students who can move other students in thePBR test was the same The percentages of success ratefor the seventh and tenth weeks were the same

(ii) In the Taiki practice (which is done in a face-to-face position) we asked the Ki-receiver to wear ablindfold and the Ki-emitter attempted to movethe receiver without touching hands We call thisthe lsquolsquoFace-to-facersquorsquo test (FTF test) (Fig 2B) Theactual examples are shown on the SupplementaryFig 2A The data for this test are shown on theSupplementary Table 3 This test was much harderthan the PBR test When STO sent Ki withouttouching the beginners who wore a blindfold (TFTtest) none were moved on the first day Only afterthe seventh week 7 out of 25 were movedSupplementary Fig 2B shows photos of TFT-testbetween beginners on the fifth week

Experiments to Show that the lsquoKi-beamrsquohas lsquoInformationrsquo

In 1978 Chinese scientists discovered that a Qigonghealerrsquos hand was emitting infrared radiation (35) Thiswas later confirmed by Japanese scientists (38) Throughour study we also demonstrated that Ki which causedin vitro effects on biological systems and Ki which

Figure 2 Relationship between the flow of Ki-energy (shown by thin

arrows) and the direction of body movement (shown by open arrows)

(A) lsquoPBRrsquo test E indicates a Ki-emitter and R a Ki-receiver Ki-emitter

sends an unspoken message of lsquoCome backrsquo The receiver responds to

the message and comes back This test cannot be explained by a simple

lsquoenergyrsquo theory The lsquoentropyrsquo aspect must be considered (B) lsquoFace-to-

face Taikirsquo test with a blindfold and without touching The Ki-emitter

sends an unspoken message of lsquoGo awayrsquo The receiver responds to that

message and moves backward

180 What is Ki

caused Taiki-motions was the same and both were NIRbetween 800 and 2500 nm (2526) Recently we proposeda hypothesis that Ki may be a laser-like NIR with awavelength around 1000 nm (34) Being NIR Ki defi-nitely has an lsquoenergyrsquo aspect However we foundevidence that Ki also has an lsquoinformationrsquo (or anlsquoentropyrsquo) aspect (29)We reported already that a mirror could reflect the

lsquoKi-beamrsquo and that the reflected beam pushed back asensitive student in the same way as the straight lineKi-beam (34) If Ki has only an lsquoenergyrsquo effect it wouldbe easy to think that both straight Ki and mirror-reflected Ki have the lsquopush-backrsquo effect We could simplyimagine that Ki energy is something like an lsquoenergy fluxrsquopouring out of the emitterrsquos hand and pushing back astudent by its energy flow (Fig 2B) Then the effect of amirror is simply to bend the direction of the energy flowWe experimented on whether we could lsquopull backrsquo

a running student from behind using a mirror reflectionFirst we used a flat mirror which was similar to the onewe used previously to reflect Ki in the face-to-face Taikiexercise (34) This experiment worked The runner whowas running away from the Ki-emitter felt the lsquopullingKirsquo and changed direction to come back (SupplementaryFig 3) However we found it rather difficult to catch theimage of a running student which appeared on a flatmirror but quickly disappeared (Supplementary Fig 4A)Therefore we switched to a glass convex mirror(diameter 35 cm this is sold at hardware stores as

a driveway mirror) Since the convex mirror allows usto view a wider area than a flat mirror the image of therunner is always in the mirror (Supplementary Fig 4B)Therefore it is easy to send Ki to that image for pullingIn order to make sure that the Ki-energy which reachedthe runner was from the mirror we placed a Ki-shield(Super Tuff-RTM heat insulator Dow ChemicalCo Midland MI) between the emitter and the runner(Fig 3) This material was used in the previous studyand we demonstrated that it blocked Ki (34) As shown inFig 3 and Supplementary Fig 5 we succeeded in pullingback the runner by sending Ki to the runnerrsquos image inthe mirrorIf we think of Ki having only an energy aspect it would

be difficult to explain why we can lsquopull backrsquo a runner frombehind The direction of the Ki-energy flow and thedirection of the pulling motion are in the opposite direction(Fig 2A) It would be even harder to explain why this canbe done with the mirror-reflected Ki (Fig 3)A possible explanation is to postulate that Ki contains

lsquoinformationrsquo and that the runner moves in accordancewith the lsquoinformationrsquo sent to the runner In theexperiment shown in Fig 2A STO sent an lsquounspokenrsquomessage of lsquoCome backrsquo In the case of Fig 2B STOsent another lsquounspokenrsquo message of lsquoGo awayrsquo Webelieve that the unspoken message was carried by Ki andthe receiver received the message In analogy Ki-energy islike a radio wave and the information (to push or topull) may be super-imposed by modulating the carrierwave (2930)Energy can do the work The energy in gasoline can

move a car but energy can neither control its speed nordirection Namely energy cannot carry information Thedriver must give lsquoinformationrsquo by operating a gas pedalor a steering wheel Other examples writings or poemscontain information which essentially consists of com-plex arrangement and combination of letters Music ismade of pitches of sounds intervals between notes andcombinations thereof Paintings are composed of thecombination of paints with different colors dark orbright and transparent or opaque In essence lsquoinforma-tionrsquo is related to the lsquocombinationrsquo The quantity relatedto lsquocombinationrsquo is called lsquoentropyrsquo in physics Entropy isa different physical quantity from energy Shannondescribed that information is related to entropy (40)Yoshiya Shinagawa pioneered the discovery of lsquotrans-

personal communicationrsquo between Qigong healers andvolunteers (3637) He proposed that Ki has an lsquoinforma-tionrsquo aspect We also emphasized the lsquoentropyrsquo aspect ofKi (29) The energy cannot carry information butentropy can The role of entropy in living organism wasfirst introduced by Schrodinger (41) Its role in CAM wasalso discussed (9) In the healing art which employs Ki orQi the mind of the healer may be transmitted with Ki asinformation Therefore the information aspect of Kiwould be expected to play an important role in CAM

Figure 3 Schematic illustration of the lsquoPull-back-through-a-mirrorrsquo

experiment which shows that Ki has information content Note that

an infrared shield (S) was placed between the emitter (E) and the

receiver (R) in order to eliminate possible direct interactions (CM)

indicates a convex mirror A broken line indicated on the floor is

showing the passage of (R) who runs away toward the wall When

(E) sends a lsquopulling-Kirsquo to the image of (R) in the mirror (R) responded

to the Ki and changes the running direction to run in the opposite

direction (For actual examples see the supplementary material)

eCAM 20096(2) 181

Why can some Beginners Send and ReceiveKi from the First Day

Why could some students not only receive Ki but alsosend Ki to other students from the first day(Supplementary Table 2) A possibility is that allhuman beings once possessed the abilities to lsquosend outrsquoand to lsquoreceiversquo Ki to and from other people This lsquolife-to-lifersquo communication might have been essential to humanbeings for their survival However since they learned touse language for communication and because of thedevelopment of civilized living they gradually lost theseabilities However when an emergency situation occursfor example when a loved one has fallen ill or is involvedin accident it is natural for other family members to sendKi in an attempt to save the life of their loved oneTherefore people still maintained the ability to send Kiuntil the present day

Ki may be Related to the Rhythm of Life

Most students who were enrolled in MLSN-1 coursewere interested in Ki-phenomena They had experience indifferent forms of Ki-practice or martial arts Some hadtraining in music or dance On the other hand most ofstudents enrolled in MLSN-2 did not have that experi-ence Perhaps the difference between the success rate ofthe first-day PBR test for MLSN-1 students (429) andthat for MLSN-2 (9) was caused by a difference in thestudentsrsquo experience (Supplementary Tables 1 and 2) It isnatural that previous training in martial arts or other Kipractices is advantageous in learning Ki However why isthe training in music or dance helpful in learning Ki A common factor in music and dance is rhythm It is wellknown that our life activities have rhythms for exampleheart pulsation breathing a daily rhythm monthlyrhythm and yearly rhythm The universe also hasrhythms the earth turns once a day the moon orbitsonce a month and the earth travel around the sun once ayear Therefore if Ki is a function of life then rhythmmay be an important element of Ki This may be thereason why some people who have had serious training inmusic or dance were found to have a high sensitivitytoward KiAlthough a considerable percentage of the beginners

could sense Ki in a 10-week course this does not meanthat 10 weeks is enough to master Ki As we discussed inthis commentary the essential requirement for theEastern way of practice is lsquodiscipline and continuationrsquoYou can become a master of any of the Eastern arts onlywhen you are dedicated to life-long continuous practiceNevertheless the finding that a substantial percentage ofbeginners could feel Ki either from the first week or atleast in 10 weeks is very encouraging It gives us hopethat we could learn and use Ki for improving our healthwith a reasonable amount of practice time

In conclusion the significance of our findings inrelation to CAM is 3-fold (i) Ki has both energy andentropy (information) aspects In the healing art thatemploys Ki the mindset of a healer may be transmittedto the patient as lsquoinformationrsquo (ii) If beginners have hadsufficient training in Ki-related practices martial artsmusic or dance about 50 of them could sense Ki aftera 10-week practice of NBM (ii) The practice of breathingto enhance the Ki level may in-essence help to restore theoriginal ability of human beings Therefore it maycontribute to improve our health wellness and life itself

Supplementary Data

Supplementary data are available at eCAM online

Acknowledgements

We thank Master Kozo Nishino for his Ki instructionThanks are also due to the students of the NBM in theUSA who participated in this study to Mr Steven Dennisfor preparing illustrations and to Mr Mark Singer forediting the manuscript

References1 Ikegami S Miracle of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Kodansha

Publishing Co 19912 Yuasa Y What is Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo NHK (Nippon

Broadcasting Company) Book Publisher 19913 Yuasa Y The Body Self-Cultivation and Ki-energy (translated by

S Nagatomo and MS Hull) Albany NY State University ofNew York Press 1993

4 Chang S-O Meaning of Ki related to touch in caring HolistNurs Pract 20011673ndash84

5 Chang S-O The nature of touch therapy related to Ki practi-tionersrsquo perspective Nurs Health Sci 20035103ndash14

6 Lee M Effects on in vitro and in vivo qi-therapy on neutrophilsuperoxide generation in healthy male subjects Am J Chin Med200331623ndash8

7 Chen K An analytic review of studies on measuring effects ofexternal QI in China Altern Ther Health Med 20041038ndash50

8 Kobayashi H Ishii M Mind-Body Ki (Qi) and the SkinCommentary on Irwinrsquos lsquoShingles Immunity and HealthFunctioning in the Elderly Tai Chi Chih as a BehavioralTreatmentrsquo Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 20052113ndash6

9 Olalde JA The systemic theory of living systems and relevance toCAM Part I The theory Evid Based Complement Alternat Med2005213ndash8

10 Flowers J What is Qi Evid Based Complement Alternat Med20063551ndash2

11 Kuramoto AM Therapeutic benefits of Tai Chi exercise Researchreview WMJ 200610542ndash6

12 Hankey A McCrum S Qigong life energy and a new science of lifeJ Altern Complement Med 200612841ndash2

13 Shinnick P Qigong where did it come from Where does it fit inscience What are the advances J Altern Complement Med200612351ndash3

14 Weze C Leathard HL Grange J Tiplady P Stevens G Healing bygentle touch ameliorates stress and other symptoms in peoplesuffering with mental health disorders or psychological stressEvid Based Complement Alternat Med 20074115ndash23

15 Abbott RB Hui K-K Hays RD Li M-D Pan T A randomizedcontrolled trial of tai chi for tension headaches Evid BasedComplement Alternat Med 20074107ndash13

182 What is Ki

16 Nishino K The Breath of Life Using the Power of Ki for MaximumVitality Tokyo New York London Kodansha International 1997

17 Nishino K Le Souffle de Vie Utiliser le Pouroir du Ki Paris GuyTredaniel Editeur 1998

18 Nishino K Il Respiro Della Vita La massima vitalita dalla forza delKi Esercizi di Respirazione facili effieaci completamente illustratiRome Italy Edizioni Mediterranee Via Flaminia 1999

19 Nishino K The Discovery of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Shodensha1989

20 Nishino K Ki-energy in health Proceedings for the 4th InternationalCongress on Traditional Asian Medicine 19941148ndash70

21 Nishino K The Nishino Breathing Method (in Japanese) In Arita H(ed) The Dictionary of Respiration Tokyo Asakura BookPublishing Co 2006 678ndash97

22 Yumi K The Ultimate Example of Nishino Breating MethodEveryday of Yumi Kaoru with Slim and Bouncing Body (in Japanese)Nishino K (ed) TAKE Shobo Pub Co 2005

23 Nishino K Anti-aging effects of the Nishino BreathingMethod (Symposium Speaker) In Symposium on Anti-aging 27thAnnual Meeting of Japanese Medical Society Osaka Japan April 22007

24 Nishino K The Possibility of Respiration in the 21st Century(Keynote Speech) In 47th Annual Meeting of the JapaneseRespiratory Society Tokyo Japan May 10 2007

25 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T Nishino K Tsurusaki Y Yamaguchi MGrowth inhibition of cultured human carcinoma cells by Ki-energy(Life Energy) Scientific evidence of Ki-effect on cancer cells httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprint23387 Evid Based Comple-ment Alternat Med 20052387ndash93

26 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T Nishino K Ki- Energy (life-energy) protectsisolated mitochondria from oxidative injury httpecamoxford-journalsorgcgireprint34475 Evid Based Complement AlternatMed 20063475ndash82

27 Ohnishi ST Nishino K Uchiyama K Ohnishi T Yamaguchi MKi-energy (life-energy) stimulates osteoblastic cells and inhibits theformation of osteoclast-like cells in bone cell cultured modelshttpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprintnem037 Evid Based Com-plement Alternat Med 2007

28 Kimura H Nagao F Tanaka Y Sakai S Ohnishi ST Okumura KBeneficial effects of the Nishino Breathing Method on the immune

activity and stress level httpmembersaolcomphilabiomedpublicationkimurapdf J Altern Complement Med 200511285ndash91

29 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T The Nishino Breathing Method andKi-energy (life-energy) A challenge to traditional scientific thinkinghttpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprint32191 Evid BasedComplement Altern Med 20063191ndash200

30 Ohnishi ST Ki A key to transform the century of death to thecentury of life httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgicontentfull43287 Evid Based Complement Altern Med 20074287ndash92

31 Yuasa Y Qi and Human Science (in Japanese) (The Proceeding ofSino-Japan Qigong Conference (in Japanese) which was held atTsukuba University Tsukuba Japan during November 4 and 8 in1988) Tokyo Japan Hirakawa pub Co 1990

32 Yuasa Y Takemoto T New-Age Science and the Science of KiReport on the 1984 Japan-France Symposium on Science Technologyand Spiritual World (held in Tsukuba) (in Japanese) Yuasa YTakemoto T Tokyo (eds) Seido Publishing Co 1993

33 Jacobi J The Psychology of CG Jung (translated by KW Bash)New Haven Yale University Press 1951

34 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T How far can Ki-energy reachmdashAhypothetical mechanism for the generation and transmission ofKi-energy httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgicontentfullnem102v1Evid Based Complement Altern Med 2008

35 Kiang T Chinese lsquoNature Magazinersquo Chinese style Nature1978275697

36 Kawano K Koito H Fujiki T Shinagawa Y EEG and topographyduring Chinese lsquoQigongrsquo training Neurosiences 199016503ndash8

37 Shinagawa Y The Science of Qigong (in Japanese) TokyoKobunsha 1990

38 Machi Y The Science of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Tokyo DenkiUniversity Press 1993

39 Yuasa Y The Body Toward an Eastern Mind-Body Theory(translated by S Nagatomo and TP Kasulis) Kasulis TP (ed)Albany New York State University of New York 1987

40 Shannon CE A mathematical theory of communication Bell SystTech J 194827379ndash423 623ndash56

41 Schrodinger E What is LifemdashThe Physical Aspect of the LivingCell Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1944

Received December 6 2007 accepted December 11 2007

eCAM 20096(2) 183

program we will abbreviate as MLSN) whichuses the facility of Lower Merion High School(Ardmore PA) This course is taught for 1 h perweek once a week for 10 weeks We used MasterNishinorsquos book as the text (16) The participantssigned a consent form before participating in thecourse (Previous experiences of participants canbe found in Supplementary Table 1 in the journalrsquoswebsite) In each class we spent the first 30minpracticing the lsquoBreathing exercisersquo and the second30min the lsquoTaiki-practicersquo

The Taiki-practice literally means lsquopaired Ki-practicersquoBy combining his experience in ballet choreography andmartial arts Nishino first acquired by himself thetechnique of Toh-Ate Then he developed it into theform of Taiki-practice so that anybody could practiceand enjoy regardless of their martial arts experience Thisis basically the exchange of Ki-energy (or Ki-communica-tion) between the instructor and the student (16) TheTaiki-practice starts with the following Taiki-motion Aninstructor and a student touch their hands with eachother (right hand to right hand and then left to left) andpush with Ki alternately When the instructor sends astrong Ki-signal and extends his or her hand the studentis pushed by instructorrsquos Ki and steps backward to thewall which is covered by a soft cushion (we used either abed mattress or an air mattress) Nishino discovered thatthe individualrsquos Ki-level grows through this practiceA criticism of NBM was that the Taiki exercise may

involve a psychological or hypnotic effect because thestudent lsquowatchesrsquo the instructor Therefore we made twomodifications to the original Taiki exercise to eliminatethat bias

(i) After STO extended his hand and a student waspushed to the mattress he lsquoinstructedrsquo the studentto run toward the opposite side of the roomwhere another mattress is leaned up against thewall When the student started running he lsquopulledrsquothe students with lsquopulling Ki rsquo (Fig 2A) We foundthat some of the first-day students were lsquopulledbackrsquo by STOrsquo s Ki and started running into theopposite direction Examples of this lsquoPull-back-runner testrsquo (PBR test) is shown in SupplementaryFig 1 Since the student was running away thereis no possibility that he or she can lsquowatchrsquo theinstructor The data are shown in SupplementaryTable 2 where the lsquoRespondrsquo column indicates theresult of the PBR test on the first day To STOrsquos Ki altogether 11 out of 37 responded (successrate 297)

The most amazing result was that these 11 lsquosensitiversquostudents were also lsquopulled backrsquo by a lsquopulling Kirsquo of someof the first-day students (see the lsquoSendrsquo column inSupplementary Table 2 After 7 weeks in the MLSN

program the number of students who responded toSTOrsquo s Ki in the PBR test was 1325 (52) Thenumber of students who can move other students in thePBR test was the same The percentages of success ratefor the seventh and tenth weeks were the same

(ii) In the Taiki practice (which is done in a face-to-face position) we asked the Ki-receiver to wear ablindfold and the Ki-emitter attempted to movethe receiver without touching hands We call thisthe lsquolsquoFace-to-facersquorsquo test (FTF test) (Fig 2B) Theactual examples are shown on the SupplementaryFig 2A The data for this test are shown on theSupplementary Table 3 This test was much harderthan the PBR test When STO sent Ki withouttouching the beginners who wore a blindfold (TFTtest) none were moved on the first day Only afterthe seventh week 7 out of 25 were movedSupplementary Fig 2B shows photos of TFT-testbetween beginners on the fifth week

Experiments to Show that the lsquoKi-beamrsquohas lsquoInformationrsquo

In 1978 Chinese scientists discovered that a Qigonghealerrsquos hand was emitting infrared radiation (35) Thiswas later confirmed by Japanese scientists (38) Throughour study we also demonstrated that Ki which causedin vitro effects on biological systems and Ki which

Figure 2 Relationship between the flow of Ki-energy (shown by thin

arrows) and the direction of body movement (shown by open arrows)

(A) lsquoPBRrsquo test E indicates a Ki-emitter and R a Ki-receiver Ki-emitter

sends an unspoken message of lsquoCome backrsquo The receiver responds to

the message and comes back This test cannot be explained by a simple

lsquoenergyrsquo theory The lsquoentropyrsquo aspect must be considered (B) lsquoFace-to-

face Taikirsquo test with a blindfold and without touching The Ki-emitter

sends an unspoken message of lsquoGo awayrsquo The receiver responds to that

message and moves backward

180 What is Ki

caused Taiki-motions was the same and both were NIRbetween 800 and 2500 nm (2526) Recently we proposeda hypothesis that Ki may be a laser-like NIR with awavelength around 1000 nm (34) Being NIR Ki defi-nitely has an lsquoenergyrsquo aspect However we foundevidence that Ki also has an lsquoinformationrsquo (or anlsquoentropyrsquo) aspect (29)We reported already that a mirror could reflect the

lsquoKi-beamrsquo and that the reflected beam pushed back asensitive student in the same way as the straight lineKi-beam (34) If Ki has only an lsquoenergyrsquo effect it wouldbe easy to think that both straight Ki and mirror-reflected Ki have the lsquopush-backrsquo effect We could simplyimagine that Ki energy is something like an lsquoenergy fluxrsquopouring out of the emitterrsquos hand and pushing back astudent by its energy flow (Fig 2B) Then the effect of amirror is simply to bend the direction of the energy flowWe experimented on whether we could lsquopull backrsquo

a running student from behind using a mirror reflectionFirst we used a flat mirror which was similar to the onewe used previously to reflect Ki in the face-to-face Taikiexercise (34) This experiment worked The runner whowas running away from the Ki-emitter felt the lsquopullingKirsquo and changed direction to come back (SupplementaryFig 3) However we found it rather difficult to catch theimage of a running student which appeared on a flatmirror but quickly disappeared (Supplementary Fig 4A)Therefore we switched to a glass convex mirror(diameter 35 cm this is sold at hardware stores as

a driveway mirror) Since the convex mirror allows usto view a wider area than a flat mirror the image of therunner is always in the mirror (Supplementary Fig 4B)Therefore it is easy to send Ki to that image for pullingIn order to make sure that the Ki-energy which reachedthe runner was from the mirror we placed a Ki-shield(Super Tuff-RTM heat insulator Dow ChemicalCo Midland MI) between the emitter and the runner(Fig 3) This material was used in the previous studyand we demonstrated that it blocked Ki (34) As shown inFig 3 and Supplementary Fig 5 we succeeded in pullingback the runner by sending Ki to the runnerrsquos image inthe mirrorIf we think of Ki having only an energy aspect it would

be difficult to explain why we can lsquopull backrsquo a runner frombehind The direction of the Ki-energy flow and thedirection of the pulling motion are in the opposite direction(Fig 2A) It would be even harder to explain why this canbe done with the mirror-reflected Ki (Fig 3)A possible explanation is to postulate that Ki contains

lsquoinformationrsquo and that the runner moves in accordancewith the lsquoinformationrsquo sent to the runner In theexperiment shown in Fig 2A STO sent an lsquounspokenrsquomessage of lsquoCome backrsquo In the case of Fig 2B STOsent another lsquounspokenrsquo message of lsquoGo awayrsquo Webelieve that the unspoken message was carried by Ki andthe receiver received the message In analogy Ki-energy islike a radio wave and the information (to push or topull) may be super-imposed by modulating the carrierwave (2930)Energy can do the work The energy in gasoline can

move a car but energy can neither control its speed nordirection Namely energy cannot carry information Thedriver must give lsquoinformationrsquo by operating a gas pedalor a steering wheel Other examples writings or poemscontain information which essentially consists of com-plex arrangement and combination of letters Music ismade of pitches of sounds intervals between notes andcombinations thereof Paintings are composed of thecombination of paints with different colors dark orbright and transparent or opaque In essence lsquoinforma-tionrsquo is related to the lsquocombinationrsquo The quantity relatedto lsquocombinationrsquo is called lsquoentropyrsquo in physics Entropy isa different physical quantity from energy Shannondescribed that information is related to entropy (40)Yoshiya Shinagawa pioneered the discovery of lsquotrans-

personal communicationrsquo between Qigong healers andvolunteers (3637) He proposed that Ki has an lsquoinforma-tionrsquo aspect We also emphasized the lsquoentropyrsquo aspect ofKi (29) The energy cannot carry information butentropy can The role of entropy in living organism wasfirst introduced by Schrodinger (41) Its role in CAM wasalso discussed (9) In the healing art which employs Ki orQi the mind of the healer may be transmitted with Ki asinformation Therefore the information aspect of Kiwould be expected to play an important role in CAM

Figure 3 Schematic illustration of the lsquoPull-back-through-a-mirrorrsquo

experiment which shows that Ki has information content Note that

an infrared shield (S) was placed between the emitter (E) and the

receiver (R) in order to eliminate possible direct interactions (CM)

indicates a convex mirror A broken line indicated on the floor is

showing the passage of (R) who runs away toward the wall When

(E) sends a lsquopulling-Kirsquo to the image of (R) in the mirror (R) responded

to the Ki and changes the running direction to run in the opposite

direction (For actual examples see the supplementary material)

eCAM 20096(2) 181

Why can some Beginners Send and ReceiveKi from the First Day

Why could some students not only receive Ki but alsosend Ki to other students from the first day(Supplementary Table 2) A possibility is that allhuman beings once possessed the abilities to lsquosend outrsquoand to lsquoreceiversquo Ki to and from other people This lsquolife-to-lifersquo communication might have been essential to humanbeings for their survival However since they learned touse language for communication and because of thedevelopment of civilized living they gradually lost theseabilities However when an emergency situation occursfor example when a loved one has fallen ill or is involvedin accident it is natural for other family members to sendKi in an attempt to save the life of their loved oneTherefore people still maintained the ability to send Kiuntil the present day

Ki may be Related to the Rhythm of Life

Most students who were enrolled in MLSN-1 coursewere interested in Ki-phenomena They had experience indifferent forms of Ki-practice or martial arts Some hadtraining in music or dance On the other hand most ofstudents enrolled in MLSN-2 did not have that experi-ence Perhaps the difference between the success rate ofthe first-day PBR test for MLSN-1 students (429) andthat for MLSN-2 (9) was caused by a difference in thestudentsrsquo experience (Supplementary Tables 1 and 2) It isnatural that previous training in martial arts or other Kipractices is advantageous in learning Ki However why isthe training in music or dance helpful in learning Ki A common factor in music and dance is rhythm It is wellknown that our life activities have rhythms for exampleheart pulsation breathing a daily rhythm monthlyrhythm and yearly rhythm The universe also hasrhythms the earth turns once a day the moon orbitsonce a month and the earth travel around the sun once ayear Therefore if Ki is a function of life then rhythmmay be an important element of Ki This may be thereason why some people who have had serious training inmusic or dance were found to have a high sensitivitytoward KiAlthough a considerable percentage of the beginners

could sense Ki in a 10-week course this does not meanthat 10 weeks is enough to master Ki As we discussed inthis commentary the essential requirement for theEastern way of practice is lsquodiscipline and continuationrsquoYou can become a master of any of the Eastern arts onlywhen you are dedicated to life-long continuous practiceNevertheless the finding that a substantial percentage ofbeginners could feel Ki either from the first week or atleast in 10 weeks is very encouraging It gives us hopethat we could learn and use Ki for improving our healthwith a reasonable amount of practice time

In conclusion the significance of our findings inrelation to CAM is 3-fold (i) Ki has both energy andentropy (information) aspects In the healing art thatemploys Ki the mindset of a healer may be transmittedto the patient as lsquoinformationrsquo (ii) If beginners have hadsufficient training in Ki-related practices martial artsmusic or dance about 50 of them could sense Ki aftera 10-week practice of NBM (ii) The practice of breathingto enhance the Ki level may in-essence help to restore theoriginal ability of human beings Therefore it maycontribute to improve our health wellness and life itself

Supplementary Data

Supplementary data are available at eCAM online

Acknowledgements

We thank Master Kozo Nishino for his Ki instructionThanks are also due to the students of the NBM in theUSA who participated in this study to Mr Steven Dennisfor preparing illustrations and to Mr Mark Singer forediting the manuscript

References1 Ikegami S Miracle of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Kodansha

Publishing Co 19912 Yuasa Y What is Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo NHK (Nippon

Broadcasting Company) Book Publisher 19913 Yuasa Y The Body Self-Cultivation and Ki-energy (translated by

S Nagatomo and MS Hull) Albany NY State University ofNew York Press 1993

4 Chang S-O Meaning of Ki related to touch in caring HolistNurs Pract 20011673ndash84

5 Chang S-O The nature of touch therapy related to Ki practi-tionersrsquo perspective Nurs Health Sci 20035103ndash14

6 Lee M Effects on in vitro and in vivo qi-therapy on neutrophilsuperoxide generation in healthy male subjects Am J Chin Med200331623ndash8

7 Chen K An analytic review of studies on measuring effects ofexternal QI in China Altern Ther Health Med 20041038ndash50

8 Kobayashi H Ishii M Mind-Body Ki (Qi) and the SkinCommentary on Irwinrsquos lsquoShingles Immunity and HealthFunctioning in the Elderly Tai Chi Chih as a BehavioralTreatmentrsquo Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 20052113ndash6

9 Olalde JA The systemic theory of living systems and relevance toCAM Part I The theory Evid Based Complement Alternat Med2005213ndash8

10 Flowers J What is Qi Evid Based Complement Alternat Med20063551ndash2

11 Kuramoto AM Therapeutic benefits of Tai Chi exercise Researchreview WMJ 200610542ndash6

12 Hankey A McCrum S Qigong life energy and a new science of lifeJ Altern Complement Med 200612841ndash2

13 Shinnick P Qigong where did it come from Where does it fit inscience What are the advances J Altern Complement Med200612351ndash3

14 Weze C Leathard HL Grange J Tiplady P Stevens G Healing bygentle touch ameliorates stress and other symptoms in peoplesuffering with mental health disorders or psychological stressEvid Based Complement Alternat Med 20074115ndash23

15 Abbott RB Hui K-K Hays RD Li M-D Pan T A randomizedcontrolled trial of tai chi for tension headaches Evid BasedComplement Alternat Med 20074107ndash13

182 What is Ki

16 Nishino K The Breath of Life Using the Power of Ki for MaximumVitality Tokyo New York London Kodansha International 1997

17 Nishino K Le Souffle de Vie Utiliser le Pouroir du Ki Paris GuyTredaniel Editeur 1998

18 Nishino K Il Respiro Della Vita La massima vitalita dalla forza delKi Esercizi di Respirazione facili effieaci completamente illustratiRome Italy Edizioni Mediterranee Via Flaminia 1999

19 Nishino K The Discovery of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Shodensha1989

20 Nishino K Ki-energy in health Proceedings for the 4th InternationalCongress on Traditional Asian Medicine 19941148ndash70

21 Nishino K The Nishino Breathing Method (in Japanese) In Arita H(ed) The Dictionary of Respiration Tokyo Asakura BookPublishing Co 2006 678ndash97

22 Yumi K The Ultimate Example of Nishino Breating MethodEveryday of Yumi Kaoru with Slim and Bouncing Body (in Japanese)Nishino K (ed) TAKE Shobo Pub Co 2005

23 Nishino K Anti-aging effects of the Nishino BreathingMethod (Symposium Speaker) In Symposium on Anti-aging 27thAnnual Meeting of Japanese Medical Society Osaka Japan April 22007

24 Nishino K The Possibility of Respiration in the 21st Century(Keynote Speech) In 47th Annual Meeting of the JapaneseRespiratory Society Tokyo Japan May 10 2007

25 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T Nishino K Tsurusaki Y Yamaguchi MGrowth inhibition of cultured human carcinoma cells by Ki-energy(Life Energy) Scientific evidence of Ki-effect on cancer cells httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprint23387 Evid Based Comple-ment Alternat Med 20052387ndash93

26 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T Nishino K Ki- Energy (life-energy) protectsisolated mitochondria from oxidative injury httpecamoxford-journalsorgcgireprint34475 Evid Based Complement AlternatMed 20063475ndash82

27 Ohnishi ST Nishino K Uchiyama K Ohnishi T Yamaguchi MKi-energy (life-energy) stimulates osteoblastic cells and inhibits theformation of osteoclast-like cells in bone cell cultured modelshttpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprintnem037 Evid Based Com-plement Alternat Med 2007

28 Kimura H Nagao F Tanaka Y Sakai S Ohnishi ST Okumura KBeneficial effects of the Nishino Breathing Method on the immune

activity and stress level httpmembersaolcomphilabiomedpublicationkimurapdf J Altern Complement Med 200511285ndash91

29 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T The Nishino Breathing Method andKi-energy (life-energy) A challenge to traditional scientific thinkinghttpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprint32191 Evid BasedComplement Altern Med 20063191ndash200

30 Ohnishi ST Ki A key to transform the century of death to thecentury of life httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgicontentfull43287 Evid Based Complement Altern Med 20074287ndash92

31 Yuasa Y Qi and Human Science (in Japanese) (The Proceeding ofSino-Japan Qigong Conference (in Japanese) which was held atTsukuba University Tsukuba Japan during November 4 and 8 in1988) Tokyo Japan Hirakawa pub Co 1990

32 Yuasa Y Takemoto T New-Age Science and the Science of KiReport on the 1984 Japan-France Symposium on Science Technologyand Spiritual World (held in Tsukuba) (in Japanese) Yuasa YTakemoto T Tokyo (eds) Seido Publishing Co 1993

33 Jacobi J The Psychology of CG Jung (translated by KW Bash)New Haven Yale University Press 1951

34 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T How far can Ki-energy reachmdashAhypothetical mechanism for the generation and transmission ofKi-energy httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgicontentfullnem102v1Evid Based Complement Altern Med 2008

35 Kiang T Chinese lsquoNature Magazinersquo Chinese style Nature1978275697

36 Kawano K Koito H Fujiki T Shinagawa Y EEG and topographyduring Chinese lsquoQigongrsquo training Neurosiences 199016503ndash8

37 Shinagawa Y The Science of Qigong (in Japanese) TokyoKobunsha 1990

38 Machi Y The Science of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Tokyo DenkiUniversity Press 1993

39 Yuasa Y The Body Toward an Eastern Mind-Body Theory(translated by S Nagatomo and TP Kasulis) Kasulis TP (ed)Albany New York State University of New York 1987

40 Shannon CE A mathematical theory of communication Bell SystTech J 194827379ndash423 623ndash56

41 Schrodinger E What is LifemdashThe Physical Aspect of the LivingCell Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1944

Received December 6 2007 accepted December 11 2007

eCAM 20096(2) 183

caused Taiki-motions was the same and both were NIRbetween 800 and 2500 nm (2526) Recently we proposeda hypothesis that Ki may be a laser-like NIR with awavelength around 1000 nm (34) Being NIR Ki defi-nitely has an lsquoenergyrsquo aspect However we foundevidence that Ki also has an lsquoinformationrsquo (or anlsquoentropyrsquo) aspect (29)We reported already that a mirror could reflect the

lsquoKi-beamrsquo and that the reflected beam pushed back asensitive student in the same way as the straight lineKi-beam (34) If Ki has only an lsquoenergyrsquo effect it wouldbe easy to think that both straight Ki and mirror-reflected Ki have the lsquopush-backrsquo effect We could simplyimagine that Ki energy is something like an lsquoenergy fluxrsquopouring out of the emitterrsquos hand and pushing back astudent by its energy flow (Fig 2B) Then the effect of amirror is simply to bend the direction of the energy flowWe experimented on whether we could lsquopull backrsquo

a running student from behind using a mirror reflectionFirst we used a flat mirror which was similar to the onewe used previously to reflect Ki in the face-to-face Taikiexercise (34) This experiment worked The runner whowas running away from the Ki-emitter felt the lsquopullingKirsquo and changed direction to come back (SupplementaryFig 3) However we found it rather difficult to catch theimage of a running student which appeared on a flatmirror but quickly disappeared (Supplementary Fig 4A)Therefore we switched to a glass convex mirror(diameter 35 cm this is sold at hardware stores as

a driveway mirror) Since the convex mirror allows usto view a wider area than a flat mirror the image of therunner is always in the mirror (Supplementary Fig 4B)Therefore it is easy to send Ki to that image for pullingIn order to make sure that the Ki-energy which reachedthe runner was from the mirror we placed a Ki-shield(Super Tuff-RTM heat insulator Dow ChemicalCo Midland MI) between the emitter and the runner(Fig 3) This material was used in the previous studyand we demonstrated that it blocked Ki (34) As shown inFig 3 and Supplementary Fig 5 we succeeded in pullingback the runner by sending Ki to the runnerrsquos image inthe mirrorIf we think of Ki having only an energy aspect it would

be difficult to explain why we can lsquopull backrsquo a runner frombehind The direction of the Ki-energy flow and thedirection of the pulling motion are in the opposite direction(Fig 2A) It would be even harder to explain why this canbe done with the mirror-reflected Ki (Fig 3)A possible explanation is to postulate that Ki contains

lsquoinformationrsquo and that the runner moves in accordancewith the lsquoinformationrsquo sent to the runner In theexperiment shown in Fig 2A STO sent an lsquounspokenrsquomessage of lsquoCome backrsquo In the case of Fig 2B STOsent another lsquounspokenrsquo message of lsquoGo awayrsquo Webelieve that the unspoken message was carried by Ki andthe receiver received the message In analogy Ki-energy islike a radio wave and the information (to push or topull) may be super-imposed by modulating the carrierwave (2930)Energy can do the work The energy in gasoline can

move a car but energy can neither control its speed nordirection Namely energy cannot carry information Thedriver must give lsquoinformationrsquo by operating a gas pedalor a steering wheel Other examples writings or poemscontain information which essentially consists of com-plex arrangement and combination of letters Music ismade of pitches of sounds intervals between notes andcombinations thereof Paintings are composed of thecombination of paints with different colors dark orbright and transparent or opaque In essence lsquoinforma-tionrsquo is related to the lsquocombinationrsquo The quantity relatedto lsquocombinationrsquo is called lsquoentropyrsquo in physics Entropy isa different physical quantity from energy Shannondescribed that information is related to entropy (40)Yoshiya Shinagawa pioneered the discovery of lsquotrans-

personal communicationrsquo between Qigong healers andvolunteers (3637) He proposed that Ki has an lsquoinforma-tionrsquo aspect We also emphasized the lsquoentropyrsquo aspect ofKi (29) The energy cannot carry information butentropy can The role of entropy in living organism wasfirst introduced by Schrodinger (41) Its role in CAM wasalso discussed (9) In the healing art which employs Ki orQi the mind of the healer may be transmitted with Ki asinformation Therefore the information aspect of Kiwould be expected to play an important role in CAM

Figure 3 Schematic illustration of the lsquoPull-back-through-a-mirrorrsquo

experiment which shows that Ki has information content Note that

an infrared shield (S) was placed between the emitter (E) and the

receiver (R) in order to eliminate possible direct interactions (CM)

indicates a convex mirror A broken line indicated on the floor is

showing the passage of (R) who runs away toward the wall When

(E) sends a lsquopulling-Kirsquo to the image of (R) in the mirror (R) responded

to the Ki and changes the running direction to run in the opposite

direction (For actual examples see the supplementary material)

eCAM 20096(2) 181

Why can some Beginners Send and ReceiveKi from the First Day

Why could some students not only receive Ki but alsosend Ki to other students from the first day(Supplementary Table 2) A possibility is that allhuman beings once possessed the abilities to lsquosend outrsquoand to lsquoreceiversquo Ki to and from other people This lsquolife-to-lifersquo communication might have been essential to humanbeings for their survival However since they learned touse language for communication and because of thedevelopment of civilized living they gradually lost theseabilities However when an emergency situation occursfor example when a loved one has fallen ill or is involvedin accident it is natural for other family members to sendKi in an attempt to save the life of their loved oneTherefore people still maintained the ability to send Kiuntil the present day

Ki may be Related to the Rhythm of Life

Most students who were enrolled in MLSN-1 coursewere interested in Ki-phenomena They had experience indifferent forms of Ki-practice or martial arts Some hadtraining in music or dance On the other hand most ofstudents enrolled in MLSN-2 did not have that experi-ence Perhaps the difference between the success rate ofthe first-day PBR test for MLSN-1 students (429) andthat for MLSN-2 (9) was caused by a difference in thestudentsrsquo experience (Supplementary Tables 1 and 2) It isnatural that previous training in martial arts or other Kipractices is advantageous in learning Ki However why isthe training in music or dance helpful in learning Ki A common factor in music and dance is rhythm It is wellknown that our life activities have rhythms for exampleheart pulsation breathing a daily rhythm monthlyrhythm and yearly rhythm The universe also hasrhythms the earth turns once a day the moon orbitsonce a month and the earth travel around the sun once ayear Therefore if Ki is a function of life then rhythmmay be an important element of Ki This may be thereason why some people who have had serious training inmusic or dance were found to have a high sensitivitytoward KiAlthough a considerable percentage of the beginners

could sense Ki in a 10-week course this does not meanthat 10 weeks is enough to master Ki As we discussed inthis commentary the essential requirement for theEastern way of practice is lsquodiscipline and continuationrsquoYou can become a master of any of the Eastern arts onlywhen you are dedicated to life-long continuous practiceNevertheless the finding that a substantial percentage ofbeginners could feel Ki either from the first week or atleast in 10 weeks is very encouraging It gives us hopethat we could learn and use Ki for improving our healthwith a reasonable amount of practice time

In conclusion the significance of our findings inrelation to CAM is 3-fold (i) Ki has both energy andentropy (information) aspects In the healing art thatemploys Ki the mindset of a healer may be transmittedto the patient as lsquoinformationrsquo (ii) If beginners have hadsufficient training in Ki-related practices martial artsmusic or dance about 50 of them could sense Ki aftera 10-week practice of NBM (ii) The practice of breathingto enhance the Ki level may in-essence help to restore theoriginal ability of human beings Therefore it maycontribute to improve our health wellness and life itself

Supplementary Data

Supplementary data are available at eCAM online

Acknowledgements

We thank Master Kozo Nishino for his Ki instructionThanks are also due to the students of the NBM in theUSA who participated in this study to Mr Steven Dennisfor preparing illustrations and to Mr Mark Singer forediting the manuscript

References1 Ikegami S Miracle of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Kodansha

Publishing Co 19912 Yuasa Y What is Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo NHK (Nippon

Broadcasting Company) Book Publisher 19913 Yuasa Y The Body Self-Cultivation and Ki-energy (translated by

S Nagatomo and MS Hull) Albany NY State University ofNew York Press 1993

4 Chang S-O Meaning of Ki related to touch in caring HolistNurs Pract 20011673ndash84

5 Chang S-O The nature of touch therapy related to Ki practi-tionersrsquo perspective Nurs Health Sci 20035103ndash14

6 Lee M Effects on in vitro and in vivo qi-therapy on neutrophilsuperoxide generation in healthy male subjects Am J Chin Med200331623ndash8

7 Chen K An analytic review of studies on measuring effects ofexternal QI in China Altern Ther Health Med 20041038ndash50

8 Kobayashi H Ishii M Mind-Body Ki (Qi) and the SkinCommentary on Irwinrsquos lsquoShingles Immunity and HealthFunctioning in the Elderly Tai Chi Chih as a BehavioralTreatmentrsquo Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 20052113ndash6

9 Olalde JA The systemic theory of living systems and relevance toCAM Part I The theory Evid Based Complement Alternat Med2005213ndash8

10 Flowers J What is Qi Evid Based Complement Alternat Med20063551ndash2

11 Kuramoto AM Therapeutic benefits of Tai Chi exercise Researchreview WMJ 200610542ndash6

12 Hankey A McCrum S Qigong life energy and a new science of lifeJ Altern Complement Med 200612841ndash2

13 Shinnick P Qigong where did it come from Where does it fit inscience What are the advances J Altern Complement Med200612351ndash3

14 Weze C Leathard HL Grange J Tiplady P Stevens G Healing bygentle touch ameliorates stress and other symptoms in peoplesuffering with mental health disorders or psychological stressEvid Based Complement Alternat Med 20074115ndash23

15 Abbott RB Hui K-K Hays RD Li M-D Pan T A randomizedcontrolled trial of tai chi for tension headaches Evid BasedComplement Alternat Med 20074107ndash13

182 What is Ki

16 Nishino K The Breath of Life Using the Power of Ki for MaximumVitality Tokyo New York London Kodansha International 1997

17 Nishino K Le Souffle de Vie Utiliser le Pouroir du Ki Paris GuyTredaniel Editeur 1998

18 Nishino K Il Respiro Della Vita La massima vitalita dalla forza delKi Esercizi di Respirazione facili effieaci completamente illustratiRome Italy Edizioni Mediterranee Via Flaminia 1999

19 Nishino K The Discovery of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Shodensha1989

20 Nishino K Ki-energy in health Proceedings for the 4th InternationalCongress on Traditional Asian Medicine 19941148ndash70

21 Nishino K The Nishino Breathing Method (in Japanese) In Arita H(ed) The Dictionary of Respiration Tokyo Asakura BookPublishing Co 2006 678ndash97

22 Yumi K The Ultimate Example of Nishino Breating MethodEveryday of Yumi Kaoru with Slim and Bouncing Body (in Japanese)Nishino K (ed) TAKE Shobo Pub Co 2005

23 Nishino K Anti-aging effects of the Nishino BreathingMethod (Symposium Speaker) In Symposium on Anti-aging 27thAnnual Meeting of Japanese Medical Society Osaka Japan April 22007

24 Nishino K The Possibility of Respiration in the 21st Century(Keynote Speech) In 47th Annual Meeting of the JapaneseRespiratory Society Tokyo Japan May 10 2007

25 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T Nishino K Tsurusaki Y Yamaguchi MGrowth inhibition of cultured human carcinoma cells by Ki-energy(Life Energy) Scientific evidence of Ki-effect on cancer cells httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprint23387 Evid Based Comple-ment Alternat Med 20052387ndash93

26 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T Nishino K Ki- Energy (life-energy) protectsisolated mitochondria from oxidative injury httpecamoxford-journalsorgcgireprint34475 Evid Based Complement AlternatMed 20063475ndash82

27 Ohnishi ST Nishino K Uchiyama K Ohnishi T Yamaguchi MKi-energy (life-energy) stimulates osteoblastic cells and inhibits theformation of osteoclast-like cells in bone cell cultured modelshttpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprintnem037 Evid Based Com-plement Alternat Med 2007

28 Kimura H Nagao F Tanaka Y Sakai S Ohnishi ST Okumura KBeneficial effects of the Nishino Breathing Method on the immune

activity and stress level httpmembersaolcomphilabiomedpublicationkimurapdf J Altern Complement Med 200511285ndash91

29 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T The Nishino Breathing Method andKi-energy (life-energy) A challenge to traditional scientific thinkinghttpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprint32191 Evid BasedComplement Altern Med 20063191ndash200

30 Ohnishi ST Ki A key to transform the century of death to thecentury of life httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgicontentfull43287 Evid Based Complement Altern Med 20074287ndash92

31 Yuasa Y Qi and Human Science (in Japanese) (The Proceeding ofSino-Japan Qigong Conference (in Japanese) which was held atTsukuba University Tsukuba Japan during November 4 and 8 in1988) Tokyo Japan Hirakawa pub Co 1990

32 Yuasa Y Takemoto T New-Age Science and the Science of KiReport on the 1984 Japan-France Symposium on Science Technologyand Spiritual World (held in Tsukuba) (in Japanese) Yuasa YTakemoto T Tokyo (eds) Seido Publishing Co 1993

33 Jacobi J The Psychology of CG Jung (translated by KW Bash)New Haven Yale University Press 1951

34 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T How far can Ki-energy reachmdashAhypothetical mechanism for the generation and transmission ofKi-energy httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgicontentfullnem102v1Evid Based Complement Altern Med 2008

35 Kiang T Chinese lsquoNature Magazinersquo Chinese style Nature1978275697

36 Kawano K Koito H Fujiki T Shinagawa Y EEG and topographyduring Chinese lsquoQigongrsquo training Neurosiences 199016503ndash8

37 Shinagawa Y The Science of Qigong (in Japanese) TokyoKobunsha 1990

38 Machi Y The Science of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Tokyo DenkiUniversity Press 1993

39 Yuasa Y The Body Toward an Eastern Mind-Body Theory(translated by S Nagatomo and TP Kasulis) Kasulis TP (ed)Albany New York State University of New York 1987

40 Shannon CE A mathematical theory of communication Bell SystTech J 194827379ndash423 623ndash56

41 Schrodinger E What is LifemdashThe Physical Aspect of the LivingCell Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1944

Received December 6 2007 accepted December 11 2007

eCAM 20096(2) 183

Why can some Beginners Send and ReceiveKi from the First Day

Why could some students not only receive Ki but alsosend Ki to other students from the first day(Supplementary Table 2) A possibility is that allhuman beings once possessed the abilities to lsquosend outrsquoand to lsquoreceiversquo Ki to and from other people This lsquolife-to-lifersquo communication might have been essential to humanbeings for their survival However since they learned touse language for communication and because of thedevelopment of civilized living they gradually lost theseabilities However when an emergency situation occursfor example when a loved one has fallen ill or is involvedin accident it is natural for other family members to sendKi in an attempt to save the life of their loved oneTherefore people still maintained the ability to send Kiuntil the present day

Ki may be Related to the Rhythm of Life

Most students who were enrolled in MLSN-1 coursewere interested in Ki-phenomena They had experience indifferent forms of Ki-practice or martial arts Some hadtraining in music or dance On the other hand most ofstudents enrolled in MLSN-2 did not have that experi-ence Perhaps the difference between the success rate ofthe first-day PBR test for MLSN-1 students (429) andthat for MLSN-2 (9) was caused by a difference in thestudentsrsquo experience (Supplementary Tables 1 and 2) It isnatural that previous training in martial arts or other Kipractices is advantageous in learning Ki However why isthe training in music or dance helpful in learning Ki A common factor in music and dance is rhythm It is wellknown that our life activities have rhythms for exampleheart pulsation breathing a daily rhythm monthlyrhythm and yearly rhythm The universe also hasrhythms the earth turns once a day the moon orbitsonce a month and the earth travel around the sun once ayear Therefore if Ki is a function of life then rhythmmay be an important element of Ki This may be thereason why some people who have had serious training inmusic or dance were found to have a high sensitivitytoward KiAlthough a considerable percentage of the beginners

could sense Ki in a 10-week course this does not meanthat 10 weeks is enough to master Ki As we discussed inthis commentary the essential requirement for theEastern way of practice is lsquodiscipline and continuationrsquoYou can become a master of any of the Eastern arts onlywhen you are dedicated to life-long continuous practiceNevertheless the finding that a substantial percentage ofbeginners could feel Ki either from the first week or atleast in 10 weeks is very encouraging It gives us hopethat we could learn and use Ki for improving our healthwith a reasonable amount of practice time

In conclusion the significance of our findings inrelation to CAM is 3-fold (i) Ki has both energy andentropy (information) aspects In the healing art thatemploys Ki the mindset of a healer may be transmittedto the patient as lsquoinformationrsquo (ii) If beginners have hadsufficient training in Ki-related practices martial artsmusic or dance about 50 of them could sense Ki aftera 10-week practice of NBM (ii) The practice of breathingto enhance the Ki level may in-essence help to restore theoriginal ability of human beings Therefore it maycontribute to improve our health wellness and life itself

Supplementary Data

Supplementary data are available at eCAM online

Acknowledgements

We thank Master Kozo Nishino for his Ki instructionThanks are also due to the students of the NBM in theUSA who participated in this study to Mr Steven Dennisfor preparing illustrations and to Mr Mark Singer forediting the manuscript

References1 Ikegami S Miracle of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Kodansha

Publishing Co 19912 Yuasa Y What is Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo NHK (Nippon

Broadcasting Company) Book Publisher 19913 Yuasa Y The Body Self-Cultivation and Ki-energy (translated by

S Nagatomo and MS Hull) Albany NY State University ofNew York Press 1993

4 Chang S-O Meaning of Ki related to touch in caring HolistNurs Pract 20011673ndash84

5 Chang S-O The nature of touch therapy related to Ki practi-tionersrsquo perspective Nurs Health Sci 20035103ndash14

6 Lee M Effects on in vitro and in vivo qi-therapy on neutrophilsuperoxide generation in healthy male subjects Am J Chin Med200331623ndash8

7 Chen K An analytic review of studies on measuring effects ofexternal QI in China Altern Ther Health Med 20041038ndash50

8 Kobayashi H Ishii M Mind-Body Ki (Qi) and the SkinCommentary on Irwinrsquos lsquoShingles Immunity and HealthFunctioning in the Elderly Tai Chi Chih as a BehavioralTreatmentrsquo Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 20052113ndash6

9 Olalde JA The systemic theory of living systems and relevance toCAM Part I The theory Evid Based Complement Alternat Med2005213ndash8

10 Flowers J What is Qi Evid Based Complement Alternat Med20063551ndash2

11 Kuramoto AM Therapeutic benefits of Tai Chi exercise Researchreview WMJ 200610542ndash6

12 Hankey A McCrum S Qigong life energy and a new science of lifeJ Altern Complement Med 200612841ndash2

13 Shinnick P Qigong where did it come from Where does it fit inscience What are the advances J Altern Complement Med200612351ndash3

14 Weze C Leathard HL Grange J Tiplady P Stevens G Healing bygentle touch ameliorates stress and other symptoms in peoplesuffering with mental health disorders or psychological stressEvid Based Complement Alternat Med 20074115ndash23

15 Abbott RB Hui K-K Hays RD Li M-D Pan T A randomizedcontrolled trial of tai chi for tension headaches Evid BasedComplement Alternat Med 20074107ndash13

182 What is Ki

16 Nishino K The Breath of Life Using the Power of Ki for MaximumVitality Tokyo New York London Kodansha International 1997

17 Nishino K Le Souffle de Vie Utiliser le Pouroir du Ki Paris GuyTredaniel Editeur 1998

18 Nishino K Il Respiro Della Vita La massima vitalita dalla forza delKi Esercizi di Respirazione facili effieaci completamente illustratiRome Italy Edizioni Mediterranee Via Flaminia 1999

19 Nishino K The Discovery of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Shodensha1989

20 Nishino K Ki-energy in health Proceedings for the 4th InternationalCongress on Traditional Asian Medicine 19941148ndash70

21 Nishino K The Nishino Breathing Method (in Japanese) In Arita H(ed) The Dictionary of Respiration Tokyo Asakura BookPublishing Co 2006 678ndash97

22 Yumi K The Ultimate Example of Nishino Breating MethodEveryday of Yumi Kaoru with Slim and Bouncing Body (in Japanese)Nishino K (ed) TAKE Shobo Pub Co 2005

23 Nishino K Anti-aging effects of the Nishino BreathingMethod (Symposium Speaker) In Symposium on Anti-aging 27thAnnual Meeting of Japanese Medical Society Osaka Japan April 22007

24 Nishino K The Possibility of Respiration in the 21st Century(Keynote Speech) In 47th Annual Meeting of the JapaneseRespiratory Society Tokyo Japan May 10 2007

25 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T Nishino K Tsurusaki Y Yamaguchi MGrowth inhibition of cultured human carcinoma cells by Ki-energy(Life Energy) Scientific evidence of Ki-effect on cancer cells httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprint23387 Evid Based Comple-ment Alternat Med 20052387ndash93

26 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T Nishino K Ki- Energy (life-energy) protectsisolated mitochondria from oxidative injury httpecamoxford-journalsorgcgireprint34475 Evid Based Complement AlternatMed 20063475ndash82

27 Ohnishi ST Nishino K Uchiyama K Ohnishi T Yamaguchi MKi-energy (life-energy) stimulates osteoblastic cells and inhibits theformation of osteoclast-like cells in bone cell cultured modelshttpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprintnem037 Evid Based Com-plement Alternat Med 2007

28 Kimura H Nagao F Tanaka Y Sakai S Ohnishi ST Okumura KBeneficial effects of the Nishino Breathing Method on the immune

activity and stress level httpmembersaolcomphilabiomedpublicationkimurapdf J Altern Complement Med 200511285ndash91

29 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T The Nishino Breathing Method andKi-energy (life-energy) A challenge to traditional scientific thinkinghttpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprint32191 Evid BasedComplement Altern Med 20063191ndash200

30 Ohnishi ST Ki A key to transform the century of death to thecentury of life httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgicontentfull43287 Evid Based Complement Altern Med 20074287ndash92

31 Yuasa Y Qi and Human Science (in Japanese) (The Proceeding ofSino-Japan Qigong Conference (in Japanese) which was held atTsukuba University Tsukuba Japan during November 4 and 8 in1988) Tokyo Japan Hirakawa pub Co 1990

32 Yuasa Y Takemoto T New-Age Science and the Science of KiReport on the 1984 Japan-France Symposium on Science Technologyand Spiritual World (held in Tsukuba) (in Japanese) Yuasa YTakemoto T Tokyo (eds) Seido Publishing Co 1993

33 Jacobi J The Psychology of CG Jung (translated by KW Bash)New Haven Yale University Press 1951

34 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T How far can Ki-energy reachmdashAhypothetical mechanism for the generation and transmission ofKi-energy httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgicontentfullnem102v1Evid Based Complement Altern Med 2008

35 Kiang T Chinese lsquoNature Magazinersquo Chinese style Nature1978275697

36 Kawano K Koito H Fujiki T Shinagawa Y EEG and topographyduring Chinese lsquoQigongrsquo training Neurosiences 199016503ndash8

37 Shinagawa Y The Science of Qigong (in Japanese) TokyoKobunsha 1990

38 Machi Y The Science of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Tokyo DenkiUniversity Press 1993

39 Yuasa Y The Body Toward an Eastern Mind-Body Theory(translated by S Nagatomo and TP Kasulis) Kasulis TP (ed)Albany New York State University of New York 1987

40 Shannon CE A mathematical theory of communication Bell SystTech J 194827379ndash423 623ndash56

41 Schrodinger E What is LifemdashThe Physical Aspect of the LivingCell Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1944

Received December 6 2007 accepted December 11 2007

eCAM 20096(2) 183

16 Nishino K The Breath of Life Using the Power of Ki for MaximumVitality Tokyo New York London Kodansha International 1997

17 Nishino K Le Souffle de Vie Utiliser le Pouroir du Ki Paris GuyTredaniel Editeur 1998

18 Nishino K Il Respiro Della Vita La massima vitalita dalla forza delKi Esercizi di Respirazione facili effieaci completamente illustratiRome Italy Edizioni Mediterranee Via Flaminia 1999

19 Nishino K The Discovery of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Shodensha1989

20 Nishino K Ki-energy in health Proceedings for the 4th InternationalCongress on Traditional Asian Medicine 19941148ndash70

21 Nishino K The Nishino Breathing Method (in Japanese) In Arita H(ed) The Dictionary of Respiration Tokyo Asakura BookPublishing Co 2006 678ndash97

22 Yumi K The Ultimate Example of Nishino Breating MethodEveryday of Yumi Kaoru with Slim and Bouncing Body (in Japanese)Nishino K (ed) TAKE Shobo Pub Co 2005

23 Nishino K Anti-aging effects of the Nishino BreathingMethod (Symposium Speaker) In Symposium on Anti-aging 27thAnnual Meeting of Japanese Medical Society Osaka Japan April 22007

24 Nishino K The Possibility of Respiration in the 21st Century(Keynote Speech) In 47th Annual Meeting of the JapaneseRespiratory Society Tokyo Japan May 10 2007

25 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T Nishino K Tsurusaki Y Yamaguchi MGrowth inhibition of cultured human carcinoma cells by Ki-energy(Life Energy) Scientific evidence of Ki-effect on cancer cells httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprint23387 Evid Based Comple-ment Alternat Med 20052387ndash93

26 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T Nishino K Ki- Energy (life-energy) protectsisolated mitochondria from oxidative injury httpecamoxford-journalsorgcgireprint34475 Evid Based Complement AlternatMed 20063475ndash82

27 Ohnishi ST Nishino K Uchiyama K Ohnishi T Yamaguchi MKi-energy (life-energy) stimulates osteoblastic cells and inhibits theformation of osteoclast-like cells in bone cell cultured modelshttpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprintnem037 Evid Based Com-plement Alternat Med 2007

28 Kimura H Nagao F Tanaka Y Sakai S Ohnishi ST Okumura KBeneficial effects of the Nishino Breathing Method on the immune

activity and stress level httpmembersaolcomphilabiomedpublicationkimurapdf J Altern Complement Med 200511285ndash91

29 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T The Nishino Breathing Method andKi-energy (life-energy) A challenge to traditional scientific thinkinghttpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgireprint32191 Evid BasedComplement Altern Med 20063191ndash200

30 Ohnishi ST Ki A key to transform the century of death to thecentury of life httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgicontentfull43287 Evid Based Complement Altern Med 20074287ndash92

31 Yuasa Y Qi and Human Science (in Japanese) (The Proceeding ofSino-Japan Qigong Conference (in Japanese) which was held atTsukuba University Tsukuba Japan during November 4 and 8 in1988) Tokyo Japan Hirakawa pub Co 1990

32 Yuasa Y Takemoto T New-Age Science and the Science of KiReport on the 1984 Japan-France Symposium on Science Technologyand Spiritual World (held in Tsukuba) (in Japanese) Yuasa YTakemoto T Tokyo (eds) Seido Publishing Co 1993

33 Jacobi J The Psychology of CG Jung (translated by KW Bash)New Haven Yale University Press 1951

34 Ohnishi ST Ohnishi T How far can Ki-energy reachmdashAhypothetical mechanism for the generation and transmission ofKi-energy httpecamoxfordjournalsorgcgicontentfullnem102v1Evid Based Complement Altern Med 2008

35 Kiang T Chinese lsquoNature Magazinersquo Chinese style Nature1978275697

36 Kawano K Koito H Fujiki T Shinagawa Y EEG and topographyduring Chinese lsquoQigongrsquo training Neurosiences 199016503ndash8

37 Shinagawa Y The Science of Qigong (in Japanese) TokyoKobunsha 1990

38 Machi Y The Science of Ki (in Japanese) Tokyo Tokyo DenkiUniversity Press 1993

39 Yuasa Y The Body Toward an Eastern Mind-Body Theory(translated by S Nagatomo and TP Kasulis) Kasulis TP (ed)Albany New York State University of New York 1987

40 Shannon CE A mathematical theory of communication Bell SystTech J 194827379ndash423 623ndash56

41 Schrodinger E What is LifemdashThe Physical Aspect of the LivingCell Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1944

Received December 6 2007 accepted December 11 2007

eCAM 20096(2) 183

Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom

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