A personal account of the Qi Gung, Shaolin Kung Fu, & Taoist Meditation Workshop held at the Omega Institute with David Carradine from October 1-3, 1999

The day started early, with us getting up and realizing how cold we both were. We again heard the guy who were we were calling the grouch. He had complained to a couple who had just gotten up earlier and they were unzipping their tent and talking quietly. Though it was rather funny last night, we had two people on either side of us snoring, stereo snoring. The morning was foggy but not overly so. We decided to go to the Sanctuary and see what that was all about. It looked like it was fairly new in its construction. I think they used a lot of red cedar. There was a covered spot with a bench where you could take your shoes off and a guest book where you could sign your name. A small walkover bridge led to the main building. There was a pond with water fountains on either side. Though this photo does not do it justice, it was beautiful. The light level was still low.

The Pond at the Santuary

There was a bell which I took afterward. I am sure it is wrung whenever larger groups come up here for devotions.

The Bell

Inside the main sanctuary building, though was absolutely incredible, as you can see. The stone sculture that was there covered nearly both walls. Absolute quiet was called for because you never knew who might be meditating. Helen is sitting to the right.

Helen in the Sanctuary

This closeup shows that the wall is supposed to represent a cresting wave.

A Closeup of the Wall

After we had breakfast, which wasn't too bad, though I took more than I could eat at the time, we again headed for the Main hall. We learned the Principles of Learning from our third instructor Karen Holden. The first being Unconscious-Incompetence. First you don't know what you don't know. Then you go through the second stage where you are Consciously-Incompetent where you know what you don't know but you are extremely awkward. Then as you learn, you go to the third stage which is Consciously-Competent where you know the steps and you go through them by saying them, and then after a time, you get to the final stage where you are Unconsciously-Competent where you simply begin the moves without verbalizing each of the steps, the steps are more of a part of you. We then reviewed what we learned last night starting with some stretching, beginning with neck rolls, then twisting to loosen up the back. We stopped at that point when David came in. He mentioned he had a good night's sleep. Donald asked him if he wanted to say something.

David said, "There's something about doing something you know you really should be doing that's good for you, good for everybody, that makes you feel a lot better. I feel wonderful this morning, I don't know about anybody else."

Then Donald said, "Everybody looks wonderful."

David followed with, "Well, that's part of the trick is that feeling of fulfillment that you get when you know you been doing something that's really good for you, so hey, let's do some more."

We then continued with the twisting. David then picked up a mike and said after a pause, "All right, I'm wired." He then continued to stretch with us. As we were doing knee rolls, he said, "The knees are the design flaw."

While I am listening to this tape, I can hear his pendant knocking against the mike. Donald of course continued to instruct us. I can also here David breathing and he coughs a couple of times on the mike. Donald mentions to us about breathing in and out so we can increase the stretch, and David added, "Gritting your teeth helps."

David also joined in doing the stances. After doing the stances, we reviewed doing the Sun Punch. When we did the Sun punch, I could hear David say, "Punch towards me." After we did that for a while, we did the Tiger Claw. We really got into doing this. We must have done this one for more than two to three minutes. We then went over the Crane moves. Donald kept breaking up laughing when we tried to make the sound of the crane striking. We then blended everything together.

David Nakahara took a brief moment to reintroduced the instructors, including Arnold Tayam and when he introduced David, David said, "Come to Chinatown, ask for me, I will help you." Then DN handed over the mike to David Carradine and he spoke about his Sifu and how he was helping this guy who couldn't straighten out his leg. Unfortunately, this was something visual so I could not fully do justice to it, but he did tell a joke about two guys up in Alaska . The joke went like this:

"These two guys are up in Alaska, these two trappers and they were sitting in a bar talking, and they came to the subject of God. And this one guy said, 'Ah I don't believe in God,' and the other said, 'You don't?' And his friend said, 'No, no, I used to but I don't any more and I'll tell you why,' he went on and said, 'And I'll tell you why because I was out there and I lost my dogs and I was freezing to death and I tell yeah, I got down on my knees and I prayed and prayed and I looked up at the heavens and I did everything and I'm telling you, nothing happened." and his friend said, 'What do mean nothing happened. You're here, you're sitting in this bar, your alive," and his friend said, "Yeah, but God didn't have anything to do with it, some eskimo showed up and took me to town.'"

David Nakahara asked David C if he would not mention something about developing Qi (Chi) and being balanced with it. David C. mentioned that it can be dangerous, how when you have developed Chi within yourself, if you are not balanced in it's use you can really hurt someone without realizing it. He has seen it himself and he said he was even guilty of causing harm without realizing it. I knew what he was referring to in his autobiography of an incident when he sent one of his ex-wives (either Barbara or Gail) flying across the room without really trying. You must be really balanced in yourself and be in control because it is powerful stuff.

David then passed the mike over to Arnold Tayam. Arnold illustrated on the board what Qi (Chi) Gong means since the first part of the day's workshop was going to be on Qi Gong. Qi means energy amd Gong means skill. So what you are developing with Qi Gong is skill to manipulate energy. Arnold mentioned that there are several schools, the first was Spiritual or the Taoist School. Then he went into discussing the Medical School which gave birth to Acupuncture, Herbalogy, massage, nutrition, and medical methods of Qi Gong. As they practiced, they were able to enhance the energy which brought in the third school, the Martial. The three regulations of physical posturing, breathing, and visualization actually work through all three schools. Arnold mentioned there are three major centers in the body in Chinese medicine. Lower Center is located in the center of the abdomen which is the physical. Emotions and thoughts comes from the center of the chest The upper center comes from the head which is related to the spirit. Arnold did the Qi Ball exercise, one of David's favorite exercises. He actually did it with us. Then Arnold paired us up and we did a rooting exercise. Helen and I paired up and she tried to lift me. At first it was easy, then Arnold had us visualize that we were heavier, like a large rock, and it became harder to lift the other person. Then he asked us to imagine ourselves as if we were a tree with our roots going deep into the earth. Helen tried to lift me, but she couldn't

Afterward David said, "Well, now imagine if you educate yourself in this direction. And really come in control of your chi power. Because ask yourself, am I imagining this, is the other person imagining this, are we both imagining this. Remember that it actually worked and we are dealing with actual weight and muscles. I remember a time when I was working with Fred Williamson, a football player, whose an actor as well. He's a huge guy, a football player, he's as big as this guy (referring to Donald Hamby) and he couldn't move me, but I was really on my game. I have seen masters who had their entire class form a pyramid pushing against each other and the front people pushing against him, impossibly they could not move him. I've seen people take a spear and stick it in a man's throat and a couple or four students push that spear until that spear turned into an arch like this (motions with his hands) without hurting the guy at all, without moving him or without anything. These are all expressions of the Qi strength that these are what I would really think of as superficial, almost unimportant. These are the physical aspects of it. The things you can do with your Qi strength in terms of improving the way you feel increasing longevity, getting rid of illnesses, or just not getting them in the first place, dealing more effectively with emotional stress, you know business problems, conubial problems, everything, just to make everything work more smoothly. This is what I feel is the purpose for all of this stuff. And all this posturing, and all this fighting that we do and everything else, is just to feel better."

He added after answering a person's question, that "It is said that a Kung Fu Master can walk through walls, but it is also said that a Kung Fu Master never said that." He then passed the mike back to Arnold and we went back to doing some Qi Gong exercises. And like a ghost, David slipped out at that point (though I could hear him take off his mike on the tape so not totally unnoticed), I, at least, saw him leave. He is someone who steps lightly, without a sound, just like his character Caine.

The Qi Gong exerises that Arnold had us do were in regards to Cleansing which was made up of five parts. I have done these exercises before from David's video tape "Chi Kung: Beginners Workout" (the one where he is wearing blue silks). Karen Holden and Arnold Tayam are both on this video as well as on his second Tai Chi tape (where is he wearing gold silks). These two tapes were made in 1997.

The first part of Cleansing is shaking. We shook the body by doing a short bouncing on our feet with our heels barely coming off the floor. We aligned our body so our back was straight but not ridged. We then breathed deeply and relaxed which is called Rooting which was the second part of cleansing. With Releasing (which is the third part), we raised our arms in front of us with palms down to about heart level at our sides but still in front, bending our elbows then letting our arms drop and swing behind us. For the fourth part of cleansing, we then raised our arms up and did Pulling Down the Heavens, where you have your palms facing upward and passing that energy down through the body through each of the centers. Finally, we then did a slinging exercise where we raised our arms up over our heads while raising up on our toes then flung them down at our sides or behind us as if we were flinging off water and re-grounded our feet at the same time. I really recommend getting David's video tapes. They help a lot to see what's being done. Describing it here is not always effective because it is something visual.

The next stage was Gathering and Circulating. It is suppose to help the energy move through the meridian channels. In Chinese, there are 12 meridians that run through the body. Oddly enough, if you look at these meridians, they actually compare and line up with the nervous system. Look at a 'map' of the nervous system and then look at an old Chinese medical drawing that shows how those meridians are mapped out. You will be surprised. The meridians were mapped out long before the nervous system had been mapped out.

What we did was imagine the energy that we gathered was circulating through the main meridian point from the groin area, up the back to the top of the head, and down the front. This circulating is called the Microcosmic Orbit. When you are imagining this, you are also doing deep breathing along with this circulating, helping to control the flow of energy. This can be done almost anywhere, even sitting in a chair. It helps to relax and to bring the energy through the body to prevent stagnation. It is also a way to build the energy and then to store it. The monks would do this over a period of 100 days, abstaining from any sexual activity (because you would be releasing energy and the purpose here is to store it). Arnold Tayam spoke how all the exercises, Kung Fu, Qi Gung, and Tai Chi have both the Yin and Yang elements to them. You work with your whole body. He described this exercise as similar to going to the bank and shopping. As you build, more energy is stored and you can be able to do more with it.

We then took a mid morning break at one point for questions and answers. Helen then noticed that David was almost alone on the porch so we took our books and got them autographed. I first took my Sifu's book feeling that I wanted to get that book autographed first. My Kung Fu instructor [Sifu] is Robert LaPointe of the White Birch school in Arlington, VA. He is a 65th Generation instructor of a system of Kung Fu called Tien Shan Pai. It comes from the Tien Shan province of China. I did not feel right asking for myself at that moment. My Sifu's copy is an older one of "Spirit of Shaolin." David pointed out to me and to everyone else there that the jacket cover of the book had some mistakes on it and that it would be considered rare and valuable. They later came out with the paperback book which even had a few updates to it. He stated that "Spirit of Shaolin" will probably never be out of print. (Oh for a side note, when I recorded in my journal the fact that he signed my Sifu's book (which I kept every day that we were there), David handed me back the pen and I was writing my journal with that.) He talked about some of the movies he was in, one in particular, the Serpent's Egg, which is an Igmar Bergman film. I remarked to him that I really was disturbed by it, that it was exceedingly dark. Igmar Bergman's films have a tendency to be that way, but that particular film was more so. If you ever see that film, do not watch it at night. I watched it during the day and even then it gave me the creeps. Much of the stories he shared I have already read in his autobiography, but it was nice being able to listen to him as he shared them. It brought the stories more alive. We all should share stories, both on paper and verbally. After a time, more people began to flock around him.

David surrounded by a crowd of well wishers.

The break was only suppose to last about 10 minutes, but it was turning into more like half an hour. People were just listening to him with such interest and intent. Plus David was signing people's books at the same time. The instructors had to call us all back and I followed right behind on David's heels. In some respects, he was also reluctant to go in. It was a very nice day. He was enjoying himself talking to everyone and answering questions. I got the feeling that he really did not do that very often, and he was milking it for all it was worth. He had a captive audience and he was loving it.

After the break, there was another period for questions and answers. It's really difficult to sometimes hear the questions that people would ask. Arnold talked about the five energy elements (Chinese has five as opposed to four basic elements) and their coordination with the body. The five energy elements are Fire (Heart), Earth (Stomach and Spleen), Metal or Air (Lungs), Water (Kidney), and Wood (Liver). These five elements also have a color assoicated with them, plus they also have five exercises that relate to these five elements. These same element exercises, I have done on David Caradine's Chi Gung Beginners Workout video. This, however, was the first time that I had learned that these exercises have a relationship to energy elements.

After we did these exercises and broke for lunch, David continued to sign some books and I got a chance to take a couple more pictures, this time capturing him with Donald and Karen Holden with David Nakahara to the left.

David and his instructors.

After lunch, we watched Michael Marshall and Donald Hamby demonstrate the use of Qi power. Michael demonstrated how you can use your Qi to break bricks just by slapping them. Michael stacked two bricks spanning two cinder blocks and he attempted to break the second brick. The first time, he did not succeed, saying he had just finished lunch and he was somewhat tired. The second time he did, cleaving the lower brick in two while the top brick remained intact. While he was doing this, he talked about his experience in trying to learn how to break bricks. At first he wanted to be able to break both of them and he was disappointed when he only broke one, the bottom one. He did not realize it at the time, that what he had done had been the more difficult of the two and the more advanced. (Think of the episode where Mary Margaret met Caine for the first time, "May I Ride with You." What Caine did, breaking the fifth brick from the top was VERY real. Of course in the show, Caine didn't even slap the bricks.) Michael did not have to slap them very hard either to get results.

The next demonstration was done by both Donald and Michael. Donald came in carrying a steel reinforcing bar. He had members of the group touch the bar to make sure that bar was real. They placed that bar inside a wooden block and Michael braced it with his hip. Then Donald, after preparing himself with some deep breathing and focusing, making sounds that represented energy elements such as anger, he placed the end of the bar against the soft tissue of his throat. And within five minutes, he had bent the bar without touching it with his hands, using only his Qi strength through his throat to bend the bar into a v-shape. Donald mentioned that others would come up to him and feel his throat to be sure that there was no steel plate that had been placed there. This demonstration reminded me of the episode with Clarence and the Iron Shirt Discipline. That too is VERY real. I tried to tell Gary (my husband) about this, but he was somewhat skeptical. Without seeing it with your own eyes, it is difficult to believe, but it is real. You can develop the power of your Qi to such an extend that you can focus and use it in many ways. You can even use it for healing, especially for healing. I think that was the primary reason why the Shaolin did develop their Qi strength, to heal themselves and others.

After demonstrations and another break, we started on the next section of the workshop and that was Tai Chi. At first, people were thinking we should go outside, but it would have been more difficult to see and to hear. There was a main higher stage that Arnold moved to so he could be seen more clearly. Arnold began asking how many people did Tai Chi and quite a few people did. He mentioned there were at least two forms. The Chen form and the Yang form. The Chen is the older form. The Chen form is characteristic of slow and snapping movements (strikes and stomps) that help to release energy. The Yang is a softer and slower form. I had been learning both (without realizing there were differences). The Tai Chi that David Carradine does on his tapes is the Chen style. My Sifu teaches the Yang. Tai Chi can be used in fighting, but most are used to build energy for health, though they also help in making the movements of Kung Fu more flowing as well when you work on form.

Arnold had us get with a partner to test whether we were rooted and balanced and had a firm posture as we were in a horse stance (Wu Shi posture). He indicated that you do not want the weight going into the knee. While in the stance, pressure would be applied say to the left shoulder and the energy would go down to the opposite leg. If the person was able to move you, you were not balanced and needed to adjust your stance.

Arnold took us through part of the Tai Chi form when David Caradine came in. We took a break at that point and David talked about the teaching aids. He mentioned his book, "Spirit of Shaolin." He showed the other books, "Introduction to Chi Kung" with the companion tape, and "David Carradine's Tai Chi Workout" and its companion tape. He talked about the very first tapes and how they would not go away, the making of the second set, and how everything just seemed to explode from there. He knew they had to do another series of tapes, this time producing four more. He described his latest two Tai Chi tapes one for the morning for energizing, Tai Chi for the Body and one for the evening for relieving stress, Tai Chi for the Mind. He also had two other tapes, one on Cardio Kickboxing and I think the other is also on Kung Fu. He talked about meditation and using a tape to help in meditation. He then added at the end, "Anyhow, that's the product pitch here, okay? I think all of this stuff is good for you. I think David makes a lot of money when he sells these things, too. And he sends me a check once in awhile." Someone asked him a question and he responded, "No, that's one of the nice things. David pays me directly. I can discuss it with the IRS later. The new adjuster is kind of a fan."

David then got into talking about the effects of being on this path. How it made him feel, like helping him to see better, and to hear better. He then got into talking about the series and how he had been lucky to be hired. He shared the story of being in Jerry Thorps's office and he had been barefooted. he asked about the Kung Fu and Jerry thought well, we'll use stunt people. But David didn't think that was a good idea. Most people, even during that time, wanted to see the star do more of the action. Stunt people would not have worked as well. Jerry Thorp wasn't convinced at first until David, as he was leaving the office, jumped up and kicked the door jam, six inched above the door and left an impression of his foot. He also said, that at the time, it wasn't important to know the philosophy but after a year or so, he said, "Maybe I ought to learn more about this stuff." So he began studying it. And learning about the philosophy became even more important than the fight scenes, though fight days were his favorite days on the set, and still are.

David then got into talking about when he had been approached to do a movie regarding boxing. This was when he was much younger and before Kung Fu. He had gone down to the gym and worked out. He actually had been scheduled to do some boxing (though not professionally); three rounds, and he found out during that time that he really liked hitting people, but he also discovered that he really didn't like getting hit.

He then talked about his life and getting involved with drugs then finding at one point he stopped that and replaced it with alcohol. (For him, taking drugs was more on the order of experimentation. He never got into the real heavy stuff like Cocaine. Drugs during the 60's and 70's were not as harsh or potent as they would be today. Oddly enough, he knew where to draw the line having witnessed an exchange being taken place at one point-I believe this was during the time he had been married to Linda. It's mentioned in his autobiography "Endless Highway." That time for him was one of his roughest periods of his life. If you ever get a chance to read his autobiography, it is an eye-opening experience. It is raw and honest and you will not be able to put it down.)

Even though David said that while he was doing KF:TLC and consuming a quart and a half of Vodka every day, his health still remained good. He equated it with doing the Kung Fu. but then he began to think, if he could balance all of this bad stuff and come out normal, what it would be like if he didn't do all that bad stuff, so he stopped. He had been taking a lot of vitamins early on when he was young before anyone else thought of doing that so he tried to regain some of that. He had gotten off of the drinking without any side effects. He told us of a time when he wanted to stop drinking, that he had gone to a psychiatrist and the psychiatrist wanted to take him down to Cedar Siniah Hospital and hook him up to a bunch of IV's and David said, "What ever for?" and the doc indicated, "To find out what's wrong with you." and David responded, "I know what's wrong, I want to stop drinking." Then David decided, well he really didn't need their help and he told the psychiatrist so, and the doctor said he would never make it, and David responded, "Well, F--K You." He then went with his wife to Kam's ShaolinWest and to a couple of other healers. All he got was a few headaches as a response. He never had any of the side effects that normally happens when a person is trying to overcome an addiction. He had gone to a couple of AA meetings, but he felt he could not spend a great deal of time worrying about taking another drink. He did say he does go once a year " . . . to collect his anniversary cake."

David said, "The arts (referring to the martial arts: Kung Fu, Qi Gung, Tai Chi) had helped him more and he's become more involved." He's really deep into the arts and he really believes in it and that he really believes that it should be spread around. He then mentioned that this was the first time at doing the workshop. He then got into talking a little bit about the Tao (he talked more on Sunday on this so I will not go into too much detail). He talked about his mother being a Christian Scientist. When he got into studying the Tao, he realized that it was the same as Christian Science in its understanding. He also said that the Tao was also identical to Quantum Theory Mechanics. (He might have read the "Tao of Physics" though in his book "Spirit of Shaolin," only a small listing of the books that he has read are there.) He stated that the Tao is all about this energy and how you can tap into this energy and the amazing things we could do with it. Such as being able to tap into the energy of a grain of rice and light a city up with it, and even to increase the goodness in and around us. When we were going to get back to do the Tai Chi form, he encouraged us to remember the form. He even mentioned about how he would forget his forms until his Sifu told him to teach it and he also tried to encourage us to pass on the knowledge.

We then went back to exercising and Karen Holden did an exercise called Tiger Breath. She would raise her arms up then as she exhaled, she growled like a tiger. She said that this is good to do during holidays and around family, especially if they don't know what the hell your doing. You could get some really strange looks. Then Arnold took us through each of the parts of Tai Chi. During this part, I started to feel some discomfort in my right foot. Earlier in the year, I had developed heel spur syndrome and had been working to relieve it until I got pregnant. For a while it seemed to disappear, but when it started to bother me during the forms, I had to stop and try to stretch out my Achilles' tendon to relieve the pain. It helped for a while, but then I had to end up sitting in a chair to do the rest of the form. After the pain subsided a little, I again attempted to stand but it just wasn't going to work. So I went out onto the porch to lean against the rail to stretch. I ended up talking with a guy who told me of another stretching method I could do to help that and it did help somewhat. What I really needed though was some ice, so I had gone down to Guest Services to get some ice to put under my foot. When I got back, David was sitting outside and again people were gathering around him. He sat relaxed and drank some water.

David taking a break.

He spoke about his current wife a little bit. Unfortunately, I did not pay too much attention to the conversation. I was concentrating on trying to keep ice on the arch of my foot to relieve what pain I was in. What I did hear about it was that fact that he shared that he was wearing two watches. I do not know the full reason for it. (Since the conversations out on the porch of the Main Hall were not taped, I have to rely more on memory.) Helen again got her photo taken with him.

David and Helen

I sat on the steps with my ice under my foot. Helen took a photo of me, just to show that I was there, in David's presence.

Alisa taking a break on the porch.

Another wonderful day was coming to a close. We again had dinner and for that evening, there was going to be some entertainment in the Main Hall. We checked it out, but we weren't interested. Instead we went to the cafe and sat and talked more. We took some time out to call home briefly to let everyone know that we were having a wonderful time. Afterward, we talked about the show and about the day, and just how incredible everything had been. Then we went back to the tent (this time keeping silent so we would not disturb the grouch). We also remarked that we only had tomorrow left and we were saddened that it had to end, but at the same time, we looked forward to the rest of it.