Chi Nei Tsang and Microcurrent Therapy (Engery Massage for Pain Relief, Self-Healing and Rejuvenation)

Each cell of the body is animated by a highly organized and intelligent bioenergy, or bioelectricity. When cells are damaged, they become electrically imbalanced. Recently it has been discovered that microcurrent therapy-applying low-amperage electrical currents to the body-harmonizes the cells, returns them to a normal state of cellular activity, and boosts the body's natural self-healing abilities. Combining this innovative new modality with ancient Taoist healing methods, Mantak Chia and Aisha Sieburth detail how to integrate microcurrent therapy with Chi Nei Tsang (CNT) energy massage for pain relief, self-healing, and rejuvenation.

The authors explain how microcurrent has a regenerative effect on the nervous system, helping to increase energy levels, promote circulation of blood and lymph, relieve acute or chronic pain, restore pH balance of the blood, balance hormone function, and improve the immune system. Its effects on circulation extend to all the body's vessels, tissues, and cells as well as enhancing toxin elimination and reducing inflammation. The authors show how microcurrent therapy pairs extraordinarily well with Chi Nei Tsang massage. The microcurrent, flowing through the hands of the massage practitioner into the body, enhances the effects of the massage within the nerves and tissues, making it easier to harmonize the flow of energy, release tensions, and dissolve energetic knots in the meridians.

With illustrated, step-by-step instructions, the authors explain how to use micro-current therapy during massage and describe the basic techniques of CNT massage. They also show how CNT microcurrent therapy is beneficial for general physical health and for a host of specific ailments, such as nerve pain, arthritis, sciatica, fibro-myalgia, shingles, headaches, slow-healing wounds, and tendon and ligament pain.

Mantak Chia has been studying the Taoist approach to life since child-hood. His mastery of this ancient knowledge, enhanced by his study of other disciplines, has resulted in the development of the Universal Healing Tao system, which is now being taught throughout the world.

Mantak Chia was born in Thailand to Chinese parents in 1944. When he was six years old he learned from Buddhist monks how to sit and still the mind. While in grammar school he learned traditional Thai boxing, and he soon went on to acquire considerable skill in aikido, yoga, and Tai Chi as well. His studies of the Taoist way of life began in earnest when he was a student in Hong Kong, ultimately leading to his mastery of a wide variety of esoteric disciplines as a result of the guidance of several masters, including Master I Yun, Master Meugi, Master Cheng Yao Lun, and Master Pan Yu. To better understand the mechanisms behind healing energy, he also studied Western anatomy and medical sciences.

Master Chia has taught his system of healing and energizing practices to tens of thousands of students and trained more than two thousand instructors and practitioners throughout the world. He has established centers for Taoist study and training in many countries around the world. In June of 1990, he was honored by the International Congress of Chinese Medicine and Qi Gong (Chi Kung), which named him "Qi Gong Master of the Year."

Aisha Sieburth is a senior instructor of the Universal Healing Tao system in Chiang Mai, Thailand. As founder and director of the School of the Tao of Vitality and Soulimet Association since 1998, her work is dedicated to bridging Eastern and Western approaches of ancestral healing arts and contemporary methods. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, and holding a double bachelor's degree in and human science from the Boston School of the Museum of Fine Arts in consortium with Tufts University, she continues her research, writing, and teaching to bring a modern-day approach to the ancient healing arts.

In early childhood, during a time when she lived in Japan, she was initiated in the traditional arts of Zen meditation and spiritual dance. Since then, and with much gratitude to her many teachers and especially to Master Mantak Chia, Aisha has followed the path of unifying the spirit through energy work within the body. Her travels have taken her throughout Asia and Europe, where she teaches and trains others in the Universal Healing Tao, Chinese medicine, and Kung Fu Wu Shu. She combines this with kinesthetic anatomy for movement, which is an expression of her passion for dance and art.

Aisha lives and works in Avignon, France, where she teaches and practices Taoist energy work and Chi Nei Tsang. Her workshops present a holistic approach to self-healing through energy consciousness, meditation, and movement inspired from the practices of ancient Taoist Inner Alchemy, internal martial arts, and dance.

The Taoist sages of ancient China observed that energy blockages in the internal organs often result in knots and tangles in the abdomen. These obstructions occur at the center of the body's vital functions, and they constrict the flow of chi (energy), our life force. The negative emotions of fear, anger, anxiety, depression, and worry cause the most damage. The Taoists realized that these negative emotions cause serious damage to your health, impairing both physical and spiritual functions. They understood that each human emotion is an expression of energy and that certain emotions could indicate the negative energy behind many physical ailments. They also identified a specific cycle of relation-ships between the emotions and the organs. For example, the sensation of a knot in your stomach indicates the presence of worry, the negative emotion that accumulates in the stomach and spleen.

When obstructed, the internal organs store unhealthy energies that can overflow into other bodily systems and surface as sickness. Always in search of an outlet, the negative emotions and toxic energies create a perpetual cycle of negativity and stress. If the negative emotions can't find an outlet, they fester in the organs or move into the abdomen, the body's "garbage dump." The abdomen can process some emotional garbage, but more often than not it can't keep up with the flow. As a result, the energetic center of the body located at the navel becomes congested and cut off from the rest of the body.

The Taoists discovered that most maladies could be healed once the underlying toxins and negative forces were released from the body. They developed the practice Chi Nei Tsang-chi abdominal massage of the vital organs-to recycle and transform negative energies that obstruct the internal organs and cause knots in the abdomen. Chi Nei Tsang clears out the toxins, bad emotions, and excessive heat or heat deficiencies that cause the organs to malfunction. A typical full Chi Nei Tsang massage begins with the spine and the back of the body, proceeds to the organs in the front of the body, and concludes with attention to the head, neck, shoulders, and arms.

As an art and a science, Chi Nei Tsang complements reflexology, psychology, Reiki, Shiatsu, Swedish massage, and similar therapies. However, unlike most practices that use indirect methods to con-tact the internal organs, Chi Nei Tsang directly massages the internal organs. Chi Nei Tsang is also the most comprehensive approach to energizing, strengthening, and detoxifying the internal system. It clears out negative influences and is particularly useful in relieving intestinal blockages, cramps, knots, lumps, scar tissue, headaches, menstrual cramps, poor blood circulation, back pain, infertility, impotence, and many other problems. In fact, when combined with other disciplines, Chi Nei Tsang may even help eliminate the need for surgery.

Other Universal Tao practices are useful for maintaining personal energy as well, and complement Chi Nei Tsang beautifully. Meditations such as the Inner Smile, the Microcosmic Orbit, and the Fusion of the Five Elements open channels and enable the flow of chi to energize and cleanse the organs. Exercises such as the Six Healing Sounds prevent overheating and help balance the internal system. For a review of these meditations, refer to other books by Mantak Chia, including Healing Light of the Tao, The Inner Smile, The Six Healing Sounds, and Fusion of the Five Elements.