Qigong is one of the major inner self-management practices at physical, emotional and mental levels, like Yoga, Sufism and HeartMath, whereby adepts develop what some call "superphysical" abilities. However, these are just natural latent abilities present in the human genome which manifest when the individuals exceed certain levels of inner coherence. Such qualities are particularly important at this time in human development because the event density of our lives has surpassed the threshold level for stress-activated degeneration of the normal physical biosystem. Qigong is one of the important practices available for shifting gears in biofunction ability so as to effectively deal with this exponentially increasing stress level of our daily lives.

This is a very enjoyable and easy-to-read book, full of rich awareness, grace, and deep appreciation for life and nature. It is a scholarly work, and also an artistic work by one who appears to be a master at his craft and sees it as a valuable, if not indispensable practice for "riding the river of life."

Here, the rich history of Qigong, with its many roots and branches, is woven into a tapestry of Chinese philosophy concerning body energies wherein the boldly colored threads of disciplined movements and stances merge with more muted patterns of various sensing, intuitions and feelings that ultimately result in a panorama of savoring and appreciation for the overall process.

At least one of the consequences of this overall process is the coordination and amplification of the many energies synergistically flowing in the overall energy stream called "chi" or "qi." These energies are the undiscriminated aspects of what I have referred to as subtle energies in my various writings. As such, they flow through various structural aspects of the vacuum both within and without the envelope of our bodies with one important interface network being our acupuncture points. By structurally refining these aspects of our bodies through such diligent self-management practices, we appear to significantly enhance the power flux of these energies flowing through our bodies so that we can heal local problem areas in our own bodies and non-locally do likewise for others.

Because these practices really work in the lives of the several million practitioners of Qigong around the world, they are useful for everyone and are recommended as such. Cohen, with his ability to read and speak Chinese, provides a number of useful pieces of scientific experimental data in this regard with much additional anecdotal information plus a good bibliography with extensive notes.

This is a very satisfying change from all other Qigong literature that I have seen. Few Qigong texts have a bibliography or footnotes, so that it becomes impossible for the reader to check and validate information. This may be the typical Chinese format, but it is quite inadequate from a western viewpoint because there is neither the scientific security upon which to build nor sufficient experimental details for exact replication of the experiment. I applaud Cohen for clearly seeing this weakness in all the previous work, and for having gone "the extra miles" in trying to correct this deficiency in "The Way of Qigong."

From a science of subtle energies viewpoint, it is crucial that this growing body of rich experimental data be communicated in a format that allows critical evaluation because it is clearly providing robust physical domain correlates of subtle domain activity in the vacuum.

Cohen provides a full and very readable description of Qigong basics and procedures for enhancing one's healing potential as well as a graceful recitation of benefits and dangers of Qigong. He beautifully describes the Qigong lifestyle, and one feels that it is a description of his own life pattern. Clearly, his many years of disciplined practice have created such structural development in his subtle domain bodies that his consciousness dances the dance of life from a high perspective adding quality to everything he touches. Such "added value" is definitely apparent in this book, and I do not hesitate to strongly recommend it to anyone.

William A. Tiller, Professor Emeritus
Dept. of Material Sciences
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-2205

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