• Promote medical Qigong via education, research, & clinical studies
• Improve healthcare by integrating qigong and Western medicine
• Make available information on qigong, especially as developed in China, to medical practitioners, scientists, the public, and policy makers. The Qigong Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

• Publicizes lectures and other qigong events in the QI Newsletter
• Develop The Computerized Qigong Database
• Sponsors lectures, classes, and workshops on qigong
• Maintains a Web site http://www.qigonginstitute.org
• Networks worldwide among medical professionals, researchers, teachers, the public, and public policy makers
• Participates in international conferences of qigong
• Contributes articles to scientific journals and magazines
• Promotes research on qigong
• Accepts donations to support research, networking, workshops, and maintaining the Computerized Qigong Database.

By Dr. Kenneth M. Sancier
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Qigong Institute

The Qigong Institute was initially developed under the umbrella of the East West Academy of Healing Arts. In 1987, Dr, Sancier started the Qigong Institute and it was incorporated that year as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization independent of the East West Academy of Healing Arts. In 1999. Dr. Sancier worked with Dr. Effie Chow to organize the First International Congress of Qigong that was held in San Francisco.

In 1984, Dr. Sancier retired from the SRI International where he had worked as a senior scientist for more than 30 years. His career as a chemist resulted in 70 publications and about 10 patents. When he retired from SRI he cast about for about a year to find an endeavor to replace the intellectual stimulation of research at SRI. He settled on Qigong because he thought that the many claims for its power for healing and the improving health needed scientific testing. He felt that his scientific training would provide the necessary ingredient to help resolve some uncertainties. During this time he also ran some experiments to demonstrate the effects of qigong on the body. Currently, he published a total of 28 papers as a result of his interest and experiments in Qigong,

He searched the literature and found that almost all scientific research had been conducted in China. To become familiarized with the research in China, he presented his research at several international conferences in Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo and San Francisco. He developed the Qigong Database™ to collect this vast amount of information, and presently the Database was renamed the Qigong & Energy Medicine Database™ that presently contains almost 4000 abstracts in English. The Qigong & Energy Medicine Database™ is sold on Cds by the Qigong Institute/ This Database can be searched using any term or terms and is used by medical personnel, researchers, government agencies, and the public.

During its development, the Qigong Institute sponsored a series of about 60 lectures by well-qualified teachers, practitioners and Qigong masters. These lectures were held in Palo Alto, the San Francisco State University, and University of California, San Francisco. The best 10 of these lectures are available on DVDs from our website. The Qigong Institute also sponsored the Scientific Forum that consisted of about 12 scientists who explored potential scientific studies of Qigong and reviewed those that had been published.

Almost all of the activities of the Qigong Institute are published on its website www.qigonginstitute.org. Included on the website are features such as: What’s New, Qigong in the Press, Directory of Qigong teachers and therapists, Dissertations of research projects at Universities, scientific papers published by Dr. Sancier and Dr. Kevin Chen, the director of Research, Qigong study materials, and a message board.

The Qigong Institute’s income derives from several sources: membership, sale of the DVDs of lectures, the Database, and donations. It is operated exclusively by a volunteer staff.

On a personal note, Dr. Sancier has studied Qigong with many teachers and has developed a routine that encompasses what he has learned. After reading about the scientific merits of Qigong for improving health and healing, he is convinced that he should study Qigong with more dedication.