My experience with Sight Improving Qigong
By John Dolic
I once used to wear glasses. It's ironic - I started wearing them in China and got rid of them using Chinese methods. In my first year of Chinese medicine, in a class of 120 students, I was the only non-Chinese. In order to catch up, because I had arrived one month late (I needed to keep up with the lectures and notes being written on the board in Chinese), I overused my eyes. I started noticing my sight was getting worse, but I resisted wearing glasses. I tried squinting, rubbing my eyes, looking through a fine toothed comb and similar silly methods to see better, which worked temporarily, but in the long run it made things worse. In the end I had strained my eyes so much that I had to go and get prescription glasses.
Once I started wearing them, I became very dependent on them. Such as for following lectures, reading the blackboard, watching TV, watching movies, driving and so on. I found having glasses was great as a seeing aid, but it didn't really treat my problem. On the contrary, over time, my sight would deteriorate. Plus there were many annoying factors associated with wearing them. They would often get dirty, I would have to clean them regularly around the rims, they'd get foggy in the winter, they'd easily break (get sat on or dropped) which would then mean visiting the optometrist again for another check up, having the iris dilated with eye drops for the eye examination, choosing the right frames, paying heavily for them and so on.
I would also find it restricting for some activities, such as sports and using a microscope. Contact lenses could help in some ways, but in those days they were too expensive and disposables were not around yet, plus I never liked the idea of putting them directly on the eye balls and fiddling with them every morning or evening, plus trying to find them half blind if they dropped.
And so, for 7 years, I put up with the above thinking there is nothing better out there. The very last time I went to get a new pair of glasses, I made a wise decision. I ordered two pairs of glasses instead of one, thinking the next time I break a pair, I will simply pull out the other one and save myself the hassle of rushing around. Very proudly, I chose myself two pairs of cool glasses, one with gold frames and the other one dark. I also bought two nice cases with little wipe cloths. What a joy! Little did I know that I would stop wearing glasses altogether and that I would never get the chance to wear the brand new dark frames.
"Wow!! That's incredible!" you say. "This Sight Improving Qigong is amazing!" Well it's true, but as a matter of fact, I stopped wearing glasses due to practicing another Qigong style called the Five Animals Play Qigong. The reason I'm writing about my previous sight problems, is because I can relate to all those who wear glasses and to point out that all Qigong styles rebalance life energy and can treat many conditions. Still, the fact is that Sight Improving Qigong is one of the best styles of Qigong for sight problems, same as Weight Loss Qigong being the best for weight loss and Walking Qigong for cancer. But it's not rare to see that someone improved their sight by doing Walking Qigong, or to lose weight by doing Sight Improving Qigong. It just takes much longer and may not be as effective.
In my case, when I was treating my eyes, I had not heard of Sight Improving Qigong yet. Years later, when I came across it and heard about its amazing healing results, I just couldn't resist learning it. Just in case my sight started playing up and, of course, to teach others. I was especially excited when I heard about some cases that regained their sight after being completely blind, including (though rare) those born that way (please refer to the relevant case histories in Qigong Chinese Health issue 5 on page 14 or click here).
After learning many other styles of Qigong in China, I found this one very easy. I was quite relaxed and picked it up very quickly. What amazed me about this Qigong, is that it combines both internal and external Qigong to treat disease. In other words, by practicing it (especially at the initial stage), you rebalance chi energy and get rid of most energy blockages in the body. At the same time, it strengthens and accumulates your chi energy, so that after some time (sometimes in as short period of time as within a week or two) it enables you to use your palms to project chi energy into your own eyes (or any other part of your or other peoples' bodies) to get rid of any traces of energy blockages in those areas.
Before we did the "eye treating" exercise (the main part of this Qigong, i.e. projecting chi energy into the eyes), we first had to place our palms in front of our abdomen, then "pull" and "squeeze" chi energy in order to strengthen it. You normally wait for a while until you feel the energy "gets drawn" (ie connects) and then open and close your palms 36 times. I swear, I felt it so strong that I had to use force to both open (pull) and close (squeeze) my palms. We proceeded with "treating the eyes" where we placed our palms in front of our eyes and wait until the energy "catches" our eyes (from about 50cm away) then slowly bring our palms close to our eyes and then away from our eyes 36 times.
Not only did I feel tension and pain, as though I was pushing or pulling something from my eyes, but I could also see all sorts of wonderful colours with my eyes closed. First they were bright (yellow, red, pink and orange) mixed with crystal-like formations, then gradually they became darker (blue, brown) only to finish with bright yellow dots (star like) on a black background. In the end, all the "stars" came together to form a strong but pleasant yellow light, right in the middle.
Every time I practiced, I experienced the colour phase, and on 2 occasions I clearly saw the yin yang sign straight after this colour phase (for about 5 seconds) only it was dynamic as if there were 2 whirlpools - one coming towards me and one moving away from me. I was astounded. Years later I read in some Qigong books that it is a common occurrence to see yin yang when you reach certain levels.
After I came back from China I was so enthusiastic. I wanted to go out and treat the world. But I was soon to realise that the world did not share my enthusiasm. No doctors, or optometrists, showed any interest and even the patients I approached didn't believe it could do much for their ill sight. Some of them even asked their eye specialists for their oppinion, which made me laugh (as if they would know). Anyway, at long last, I got some people to practice it, and just when I thought "Yes! This is it! Let the world witness the power of this amazing technique", they quit. One quit after only a couple of weeks and the other after a month. Not that they felt nothing, but their sight did not improve, so they simply dropped out. One after another.
I started to question it myself. Maybe it doesn't really work. Maybe it was all just a big show. But then again, how do you explain millions of practitioners in China with their extraordinary results including the ones I witnessed for myself. Plus the energy I felt when I practiced it myself, there is no way it couldn't help. They just didn't practice it enough. I did not lose faith. Sooner or later the right person will come along, I thought. And it proved to be true.
The person I was hoping for, found me, got very interested in Chinese medicine and Qigong and in the end started working with me on a project - a book about Chinese medicine. A lady in her 60's, who became one of my most committed Qigong students and brought me more patients than all the advertising I placed in my first year of operating business in Sydney. But it wasn't that easy either. For a couple of months her vision (which was pretty bad I must say) did not improve a bit, and she was panicking. I kept encouraging her and asking her to persevere, which she did.
On top of that, her optometrist was alarmed because her condition required urgent attention by a specialist, but she refused (reason: past disappointing experience with doctors and hospitals). When asked what she was going to do about it, she said she would do Qigong with me. In the end, her optometrist wrote me a letter, warning me about the severity of her condition along with a photo of how the bottom of her eyes looked behind a microscope (among other things a haemorrage in one of her eyes). He urged me to speak to her about how much she needed to visit the eye specialist, since she had put so much faith and trust in me.
So I did speak to her. I did not want to take on so much responsibility, therefore I told her she could still practice this style of Qigong among having all of these other tests done with an eye specialist, but she refused. "What a nut!" I thought to myself, "She's almost as bad as me." And so the saga continued, but it was only after another couple of months that her sight started improving. The optometrist noticed it, but wasn't convinced the improvement was due to "some" Qigong. Yet to his surprise, the improvement that followed in the coming months, went beyond his most optimistic expectations. Her sight improved by 80% and reached the level of sight she used to possess 10 years prior (according to his files). He had to admit that this was unprecedented in his practice, spanning several decades. He was so amazed to find that after all this Qigong practice, she only needed a very minor strength lenses that he gave her new spectacles for free. But he also added, "A few more patients like this and I'm out of business". 
All this happened within 6 months time and this lady never even finished the whole course of Sight Improving Qigong. Out of three levels, she only finished the first two (the so called "foundation level" and the "assisting exercises") never even tried the main exercise (the "healing technique"). She was so happy with the results she had received thus far that she never needed to.
Since then, I taught a few more people and they got excellent results too, but I stopped being overly enthusiastic about changing the world and proving to myself or anyone else that this is a great style. There is plenty of evidence of its effectiveness and those who are interested to find it will. I myself practiced it for a while as well, when I was using external Qigong to treat my daughter who suffers from Cerebral Palsy and to treat some other patients who were unable to practice Qigong by themselves. I definitely felt how strong my energy became when practicing this wonderful style.
Further Reading
Sight Improving Qigong Case Histories
