The Breast Cancer Association Amazona of Stockholm County is a non-profit association for women treated against breast cancer as well as their relatives. They have now opened a co-operation with European Zhineng Qigong Center in which a number of their members will join a Qigong course directed by Dongyue Su. When the association made this suggestion to the members they got speedy advance applications.

Dongyue Su will hold a public lecture at the start of the project on 1 September in the ABF building in Stockholm. The Amazonas members will then join the course which is held in Stockholm on 13-14 September, by Dongyue Su himself. Since we expect a large number of participants we recommend that those who are interested in joining the course apply as soon as possible.

Our first Winter Course was held between 25 February and 2 March. The course took place in Bollnäs and the participants came from Norway, Finland and various parts of Sweden. Many of them had previously joined Summer Courses so they were accustomed to somewhat longer-lasting courses, although they were not so used to practising our new exercise Shenxin Qigong.

The course proved inspirational to the people of Bollnäs in a number of ways. Several residents aided us idealistically with the arrangement and an additional number of them joined the course. The newspaper Ljusnan, distributed in Hälsingland, visited the course for an interview of some of the participants. On 5 March they published an article in the newspaper, featuring the participants´ stories and several pictures, including one large picture on the front page.

Soon after the course had started several of the participants commented that they felt mentally clearer and more stable, and they also felt greater mental strength. This characterized the remainder of the course and it continued after the period as well. One participant found that after the course there was an unusually large number of people who wished to talk to her – and she thinks this is caused by the calm and the harmony that she brought with her from the course. After the course Barbro discovered that she was able to read more and better than before. Already while she was a young student she had problems with her vision. About twenty years ago she got new spectacles which helped her to see much better, but even with these new spectacles she found it difficult to read. She was, for one thing, dependent upon daylight to read because electric lighting was inadequate, and the other thing was that she was not able to read for longer periods of time. If she would try to read for a long time the letters would become blurred and finally they would all blend into a muddle. During later years she has formed the habit of reading talking books when they were available. After the course while travelling on a train, Barbro felt like doing some reading and so she bought a paperback. She did not expect very much since the text of the book was rather small and the light at the train was not too good. To her great surprise she found herself reading 90 pages in one afternoon and in two days she had finished the book which was 220 pages long! After that Barbro has bought several books because she hopes to be able to catch up on some of the things she has been missing over the years.

Very fine results were also found among those participants who suffered from pain. Below are some statistics from the participants´ replies on the inquiries. The columns of the bar chart below represent the percentage of the participants who had joined the course with various complaints such as depression, and who had found improvements during the course.

After the course the participants noticed an improvement in their training at home, not just concerning Shenxin Qigong but also Hold Qi Up. Their body felt stronger and more flexible. For most of the participants Shenxin Qigong has become more fun to practise. With the participants´ fine results, their happy faces and positive feedback in mind, we hope that the Winter Course will become a new tradition.

Since 1995 European Zhineng Qigong Center has organized one or more Summer Courses each year. Several people have found the time between Summer Courses quite long, so now, at long last, it is time for a Zhineng Qigong Winter Course! During this five-day course we will have an agenda similar to that one the Summer Courses – with morning training, teaching and training during daytime, and evening training, but we will mainly practise Shenxin Qigong. We will learn the training methods of Shenxin Qigong and we will also practise a new arm training.

The course will be held in Bollnäs where we have access to fine premises. The fact that the course will be held in Bollnäs also means that we will get away from the cities into more open areas, in this case a Winter landscape covered in white, invigorating snow. We will also be able to make use of Bollnäs fine facilities for cross-country skiing and slalom.

To join the course it is required that you have joined our basic course in Shenxin Qigong. The day before the start of the Winter Course we arrange a basic course in Shenxin Qigong in Bollnäs. Beginners can join the basic course and then directly join the five-day course. If you have already joined the basic course in Shenxin Qigong, you can of course repeat the course and in so doing, join us for six whole days instead of five.

European Zhineng Qigong Center arranged two nine-day courses in Zhineng Qigong this summer, level 1 and level 2. The courses are very popular, the number of participants have increased from about 20 during the first Summer Course in 1995 to around 300 participants in the courses during the last four years.

Like in previous years, the courses were held in the beautiful village of Hamburgsund in Bohuslän by the Swedish west coast. We live together in the Hamburgsund School, we are served nourishing food and we practise in the large gymnasium. The school is situated in the middle of the village, just by the harbour with its ferry going to the island Hamburgön with its beautiful scenery. A normal day at the course starts with Morning training before breakfast. Between breakfast and dinner, with a break for lunch, we have lectures and education as well as a lot of training. In the evening we have a group training and after that anyone can practise extra.

The courses are attended by all sorts of people; men, women, young and old. Some have good health and they wish to learn more about Qigong, others have health problems of various kinds which they hope to fix by joining the courses. What they all have in common is that they see the oppurtunity to affect their quality of life and benefit themselves through the training as well as the deep knowledge and wisdom Dongyue Su shares with us.

The atmosphere was good as usual, with fine fellowship and a definite will to help each other. The professional training gives us an increased relaxation and a greater inner calm, and the evaluation done after the course also bears this out. The nine days disappear quickly and after the course many persons feels that they have recharged their batteries and looks forward to face the daily life with renewed strength. Below some examples of what the participants wrote in their evaluations of the course:

• “All the time I take small steps forward towards an improved quality of life at all levels. I worry less, get less irritated, more happy, more positive etc.”
• “I feel much happier and more alive.”

The diagrams below shows some simple statistics from the participants’ answers to a questionnnaire.

Early in the Saturday morning we were gathered – fifty Qigong enthusiasts – at Arlanda Airport, to begin the much awaited trip to Thailand – a trip with Qigong combined with sunshine, heat, sight seeing, good food and all those other things that one can wish for on a vacation. Thirteen hours later we disembarked the air plane at the crowded Bangkok Airport. After a transfer we continued by air to Krabi and Koh Lanta, one of the relatively unspoiled islands, about one hour by air to the south-west. This time as we got out of the air plane the heat struck out against us like a wall. The minus 6°C of Stockholm had been substituted with the plus 30°C.

We were greeted by our trip organizer and we stowed ourselves and our luggage into the cars that were waiting for us. Then we were off, but the nice road near the airport soon changed into one full of holes, and we bumped our way along, sometimes on and sometimes off the road – and eventually we started to look yellowish red from all the dust that was swept up by the cars ahead of us. After two trips by ferry, we arrived at the place which was to be our permanent base for the next two weeks – Southern Lanta Resort on Koh Lanta. Oh, what a feeling – to get out of the cars, to see all the magnificent vegetation, the rolling waves of the sea, our little bungalows and, first and foremost – to get to eat real food (Thai Airways´ food in all respect, but, still…). Deep-fried fish cake with sweet sauce, Chicken soup with coconut milk, Fried fish with Tamarine sauce, Woked mixed vegetables with oyster sauce – well, how about that, eh?

The activities during the fortnight stay were well planned. The cool morning- and evening hours were very suitable for Qigong training. Accompanied by the waves upon the beach we practised Pulling Qi and Hold Qi Up under the guidance of Qigong master Dongyue Su. During the hot hours of the day we had free choices of activities with baths in the nearly 30°C water, strolls, visits to the local fair where they sell fruit, meat, fish, clothes and everything else that one might require. Many of us tried elephant riding in the jungle, a boat trip in the nearby swamp areas or rented a moped for a visit to the oldest place on the island – Lanta Town.

The excursion days offered both excitement and experiences out of the ordinary. During a boat trip we visited Bobo Island and we had a walk through a jungle with dense vegetation, termite nests and lizards. The visit to Koh Muk Island was a highlight, and also the swim we had in the narrow Emerald Cave. During a trip to the Trang province, which is located a couple of hours by car to the south-east of Krabi, we visited buddhist monks at the Sumano Cave Temple, which had been established in a number of caves. We were very kindly received and we were even invited for a short session of meditation. The canoe trip into the Le Cave Kao Kob, among lit stalactites and stalagmites was yet another great experience. During one of the last days of the holiday we had one of the ultimate highlights, an excursion to Koh Rok with wonderful opportunities for bathing and snorkel diving.

In summing it up: A lovely journey, it had it all; sunshine, bathing, joy and getting to know each other. A vacation with Qigong was a very successful combination and it is worth trying more times.