The Brain of a Qigong Master

My primary Qigong teacher has been Master Ken Cohen. He has more than 45 years experience in a variety of healing arts and recently allowed me to measure his brainwave activity during two different healing practices and the results were very interesting.

First we examined how his brainwave activity changed when he was engaged in a Qigong energy healing technique with a patient sitting and lying on a massage table. Ken stood near the client and performed a variety of energy healing techniques that he identified as being a relatively general cleansing and wellness protocol. Ken wore an electrocap fitted with 19 electrodes. His brainwave activity was measured first in a baseline condition, simply standing with his eyes open doing nothing. Next his brainwave activity was recorded during the healing session. After the data were cleaned to remove any artifacts from movement the two recordings were compared.

The brain images below are showing the percent of change in each brainwave (delta-high gamma) comparing healing with baseline. The key below each head map indicates the range of change. For example, the graph under the gamma head map ranges from -73 to +73. This means that anywhere the gamma head map shows colors at the extreme (red or deep blue) there is up to a 73% difference in brainwave activity in those regions.

Clearly, the largest changes that occurred during an external qi healing related to increases in fast brainwave activity (high beta, gamma and high gamma) in left prefrontal regions and occipital regions. Interstingly, increased gamma in the left prefrontal regions has been seen in Tibetan monks engaged in a lovingkindness/compassion meditation. It is also associated with an approach orientation toward others and a positive outlook. The huge increase in occipital activation suggests visual processing. It makes sense that these areas may be involved while the healer “sees” the areas of the energy body in need of healing or visualizing healing energy moving into the body.

Ken Cohen (Gao Han) is the Executive Director and founder of the Qigong Research & Practice Center. He is a world-renowned health educator, China scholar, and Qigong GrandMaster with more than forty-five years experience. A former collaborator with Alan Watts, he is the author of the internationally acclaimed book The Way of Qigong: The Art and Science of Chinese Energy Healing (Ballantine), best-selling self-healing audio and video courses (Sounds True), and more than 200 journal articles. In 2003 Ken Cohen won the leading international award in energy medicine, the Alyce and Elmer Green Award for Innovation and Lifetime Achievement.