My Unexpected Encounter With A Qigong Practitioner

Dear M. 

I just witnessed the most amazing healing session! 

It was performed on the patio in front of El Restaurante Ixtapa by a latino healer who studied qigong in China (several decades ago), and now combines the “energy therapy” of qigong with oriental “cupping therapy” made famous by the great Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps.  

A fellow named Fabian (who has become a linchpin food preparer at Ixtapa) had suddenly lost much of the use of his right arm which basically hung at his side except for 15° of comfortable movement up and down. 

As I remember the beginning of the therapy session, there was no possibility for Fabian to lift his hand as high as his elbow even when he forced himself and endured great pain. 

I can go into more detail but to keep this description relatively short I will say that the healer had Fabian remove his shirt and then massaged his upper arm and shoulder using liberal amounts of the over-the-counter unguent called BenGay “ in order to get the blood moving.” 

Then the healer applied suction cups of different sizes, using differing amounts of suction pressure to hold them in place all over Fabian’s shoulder and upper arm down to his elbow. 

The epicenter of Fabian’s pain was located in the middle of his bicep. 

The Latino healer left the suction cups in place for half an hour, then removed them, and after applying more BenGay began a more targeted massage of Fabian’s upper arm combined with different “hand thrusts” toward different parts of Fabian’s arm and shoulder (but not making any physical contact) in order to channel energy according to the healer’s running commentary of what he was doing. 

The healer conducted massage and “ hand thrusts” in three separate sets, starting from scratch each time, and progressively applying more massage pressure. 

From what I saw of Fabian’s compromised movement at the outset, I would’ve thought he needed several months of weekly physical therapy plus daily physical therapy exercises in order to get back to normal. 

But at the end of just one hour, Fabian could raise his arm straight up in the air over his shoulder with minimal discomfort. The healer says it will take 2 to 3 more sessions for Fabian to be completely healed. (Along the way, the healer was able to rule out the need for Western medicine surgery.) 

My understanding is that qigong, in conjunction with cupping, can be used for an extremely wide range of musculo-skeletal healing. 

There are also other uses which you can read about online. 

If I didn’t know better, the “cynic in me” would’ve thought that Fabian was a “plant” working in cahoots with the healer in order to “wow the gringo” into thinking he had just witnessed a miracle. 

What I did witness was utterly AMAZING. ASTONISHING. FLABBERGASTING.

 In any event, when you’re in town next time I strongly encourage you consider this fellow’s service. 

And... he makes house calls!?! (The healer’s “regular” place of work is the latino flea market.) Te quiero muchísimo mi amor! Papi man.