Chapter XIII
An M.D. Interviews Three Practi-
tioners of Taoist Yoga
by Lawrence Young, M.D.
An Interview with “S”
Dr. Young: I would like to do an extended study of people who
meditate. It’s a venture that would call for a lot of follow up. Were
you to take a drug for a month or so it would be fairly safe but were
you to take it for 5 years it would not be. In the same way, the
medical field is very eager to learn about people who meditate for a
lifetime. That might include people who have problems, what the
nature of those problems are, how they get problems and what
they do to be rid of them. I’d like to know how you came to practice
with Master Chia, whether there was any health problem that
brought you into it or whether it was simply because you were
interested in it.
S: It was a combination of all of them.
Dr. Young: Tell me about your health interest.
S: I hurt my back about 6 years ago and ever since then have a
hard job sitting, let alone lying down. I couldn’t sleep through a whole
night, my neck especially would hurt me. Ever since I came to
practice with Master Chia, in fact, immediately upon trying this, the
pain abated. As though to prove the point, about 2 or 3 weeks ago
I became a little slipshod about my practice. There seemed to be
too many different formulae. There are formulae you have to do —
exercises might be a better term — and I was pressed for time and
began to find excuses. I cut down the number of repetitions that
were called for in each of the meditations and sure enough, my
neck began to hurt again and my back has begun to hurt gain, too.
I don’t really know, it may be a purely circumstantial thing. There
may be other factors involved in this case, but it would seem over
the years that I tried various things and had no help. It is more than
An M.D. Interviews Three Practitioners