By the time I was 35, I had severe scoliosis, largely due to 3 falls and 4 major car accidents that I experienced between the ages of 12 and 32. I tried everything—medical doctors, osteopaths, chiropractors, acupuncturists, cranial sacral practitioners, etc. At times there was temporary relief, but no major improvements. When I was 40 years old, I became totally disabled with high levels of back pain. I was living in the country then, and someone gave me a copy of Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body. I read it and began trying to do what it said. I felt I was stranded on a desert island with a bible. My pain began to diminish.

I had a sports injury to my right thumb many years ago. It had become arthritic to a point that I could not touch it or pull my keys from my pocket without extreme pain. Chi gung got me my thumb back without surgery. As an architect I needed that thumb to draw! So, one day sitting at my desk I thought of pulsing the joint, breathing energy in and out, something I learned from one of my classes with Bruce. After about 5 minutes the joint started to pulsate with a force, something that felt like an electromagnetic field, and energy started moving out the end of my thumb. It felt like electricity. To my surprise the pain went away. This was about 10 years ago. The joint is now pain-free even though it still looks damaged. If I ever feel a twinge of pain starting, I just pulse the joint to give it a tune up.

Bob Carter, Architect, Jackson, WY

I sustained a severe spinal injury some years ago from a disease I caught while travelling in Africa. I had no sense of where my legs were in space and had to look down to make sure what they were doing. It was only after I began working with Bruce Frantzis that I began to see rapid progress. Soon after starting, I could feel and move the energy in my legs. I began to walk without leg braces and with canes instead of crutches. Chi gung enabled me to put away my wheelchair.

Peter Day, Santa Fe, New Mexico

The very first time I took a class from Bruce in Martha’s Vineyard I had the chance to apply his principles right away. It was the same weekend as a multi-hull race starting and ending on the Vineyard. I was crewing on a trimaran and was standing out on the starboard when the boat jibbed. The boom hit me full force on the upper back and neck, a tremendous blow that buckled me to the deck. Believe it or not, I had incorporated just enough “martial arts” training the previous evening with Bruce to consciously absorb the blow and keep myself out of the hospital.

I had an auto accident several years ago where I went off the road and the car flipped over. In the split second before the crash, using methods from tai chi and Energy Gates chi gung, I was able to completely relax and soften my body and avoid any major injuries. Witnesses to the crash were absolutely stunned that I was able to walk away from the vehicle. I just had some very minor cuts and bruises. I did suffer from anxiety afterwards, but was able to reduce this using the inner dissolving from Taoist meditation.

Don Myers, Library Training Consultant, Innovative Interfaces, Inc., Emeryville, CA