A Ramble About Qi

Recently, I’ve been learning more about the Chinese concept of “qi” (pronounced “chi”). It’s often demonized by both western science and Christian theologians for various reasons, but it has an uncanny track record for prediction and use in the healing arts which neither can explain. The human body’s qi reacts negatively or positively to different objects, substances, and materials. I haven’t thought a great deal about it until a recent, repeatable experiment I performed where the rubber of a cell phone case was able to insulate a negative qi producing object so that the reaction was neutral rather than negative. This was performed on separate objects whether the control reaction was positive or negative. One would think that if it was all psychological in nature, this would not be the case. So it caught my attention and I began reading trying to understand what it is I observed.

One interesting thing which I learned is that “qi” literally means “breath, air, energy, spirit” while defying quantification or absolute definition. I found this extremely interesting because it highly resembles the definition of the Ancient Greek word “pneuma” and the Latin word “spiritus” on a near 1:1 basis. That is, “qi” is a drop in replacement word every time the word “pneuma” is used and is the literal Chinese equivalent.

Consider then the rendering of Galatians 5:16-18 using this drop in replacement:

“But I say, walk by qi and you won’t bring the desire of the flesh to completion. Because the flesh is against qi, and qi is against the flesh, because these things are opposed to one another, so that not whatever you might wish these things you might do. And if you are led by qi, you are not subject to Torah.” (more or less lit.)

And also Galatians 5:22-23:

“Yet the fruit of qi is love, joy, peace, endurance, kindness, goodness, faith, gentility, self-control; there isn’t a Torah against such things as these.”

This reminded me of a quote from The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon in one article I read on the subject (Flowers, James. “What is Qi?” Advance Access Publication. ECAM 2006;3(4)551–552. doi:10.1093/ecam/nel074). It cites:

‘It is from, calm, indifference, emptiness, and non-

desiring that true qi arises. If the spirit is harboured inside,

whence can illness arise? When the will is at rest and wishes

little, when the heart is at peace and fears nothing, when the

body labours but does not tire, then qi flows smoothly from

these states, each part follows its desires, and the whole gets

everything it seeks’

(From Farquhar J, Zhang Q. Biopolitical Beijing: Pleasure, Sovereignty and Self-Cultivation in Beijing’s Capital Cultural Anthropology. Academic Research Library, 2005)

It is a common interpretation of this passage in Galatians that it is referring to the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Holy Trinity. But the word “pneuma” in this passage, as is frequently in Paul’s writings, is used ambiguously, often frustrating translators who want to be able to distinguish “spirit” from “Spirit” on theological grounds. The text itself is not accommodating to this dichotomy.

But what if Paul’s understanding of “pneuma”, and Jesus’ in John 3, was not as categorized as this? What if they didn’t understand it as a dichotomy? What if their view of pneuma was more like the Chinese view of qi where each thing had a personal qi both alongside of and as part of a larger universal or cosmic qi? In truth, the modern western theological view of pneuma or spiritus “spirit” is quite nebulous to begin with. We cannot actually define it to any reasonable, scientific satisfaction and often toss the word about as though everyone knows what it means without any hard definition, often relying on analogies and illustrations like wind.

What if, on some level, all pneuma is pneuma hagio? What if, on some level, all spirit is Holy Spirit? All energy is merely borrowed for our use from His eternal energy because without it we simply would not be? What if Almighty God is generous and tolerant of our use of His energy regardless of what we are doing with it because He knows we would cease to exist without it? We are created by Him and for Him, and within Him we live and move and have our being.

I don’t have the answer to this question any more than I understand what qi is, or why there is a measurable effect for something which is otherwise immeasurable and unquantifiable. But it is a compelling thought, and one worth ruminating on.

Maybe as Christians, our fear of concepts like qi have less to do with its foreign or pagan origins and more to do with bringing a concept like spiritus into the real world. As long as it remains indefinable and nebulous, it remains safe. Once it is proven measurable and usable then we have to respond to it, and if most modern Christians have proven anything, its that they prefer their theological notions to remain nebulous, out of reach, and non-interfering in their daily lives. As long as Jesus remains safely in the Sunday School cartoons, everything is fine.

The problem is that’s not what either Paul or Jesus Himself taught, and neither lived safe, practical lives.