In Spring Forest Qigong, a primary healing technique is the sword fingers technique, which has a hand formation resembling a sword, with the index and middle fingers pointing straight out and the thumb pad holding the little and ring fingers curled in. Practitioners are trained to emit energy out of the extended fingertips in order to break up energy blockages in various parts of the body. Follow-up techniques involve drawing out the excess energy that has been causing a blockage, and returning healing energy through the palm to the affected area.

Interestingly enough, an ancient Greek physician, thought to be Hippocrates, wrote about some very similar medical processes in the Hippocratic Corpus, a collection of Ancient Greek medical works dating around the fourth or fifth century B.C. Take a look at this excerpt:

• It is believed by experienced doctors that the heat which oozes out of the hand, on being applied to the sick, is highly salutary.…It has often appeared, while I have been soothing my patients, as if there was a singular property in my hands to pull and draw away from the affected parts aches, and diverse impurities….Thus it is known to some of the learned that health may be implanted in the sick by certain gestures, and by contact, as some diseases may be communicated from one to another.

This technique can be used both on oneself or others. It’s a very simple technique and in fact is one of the first healing techniques learned that can be used on others. Master Chun-yi Lin describes this technique in his book, Born a Healer, and we regularly practice this technique along with a special Sword Fingers Qigong movement in our qigong classes. Feel free to reach out to me for additional information.