Qigong Blog

Many people ask me how I came to follow the path of being a medical qigong teacher and practitioner.

The answer is much more esoteric than most people would guess!

Here’s how it happened.

In some ways, it’s a typical story. About fifteen years ago, I was at one of the main crossroads of my life. I had recently gone through a divorce and was in a new relationship that challenged me in many ways. In an effort to transform the old aspects of my life, I had gone through a deep cleansing process called panchakarma, an ancient Indian Ayurvedic practice. Partly because of my constitution (I have a tendency towards thinness and weakness and becoming overwhelmed mentally) partly because the people who were supervising the cleanse were not very experienced, and partly because I do think I needed to go through that experience, I became very thin and depleted to the point I was out of my body much of the time. My behavior was in many ways erratic and easily manipulated.

I also needed to create a new way to support myself. I had many different skills from my previous life as a performing songwriter and teacher, but I knew I needed something more steady to build a new life. Like many people in my position, I did surveys and read books on how to find my perfect employment opportunity, but nothing really felt right. Each day I became more frustrated with the traditional ways of the workplace world and I was clear that I didn’t just want a job to make money. I knew I wanted to work for myself and I wanted to do something that made a difference to myself and others that was meaningful work.

More and more, I saw that I was trying to create my reality with my mind and not my heart, but I didn’t even know how to access the deeper parts of myself. This is where my story becomes less typical.

I decided that I would put the question to my subconscious. For three nights, I set my very clear intention to have a dream that would show me the path I needed to take next. I asked for a dream that would show me my perfect income stream that was in alignment with my natural talents, heart’s desires, and what would truly be of service to others.

The first two mornings I awoke with jumbles of images and old memories that felt confused. But on the third morning, I had a dream that was crystal clear in every detail.

I dreamt that I was standing in the doorway of an office looking out into a reception area. I was dressed completely in white, even down to my shoes. I walked over the the desk and looked down at the paperwork sitting there. The top sheet read:

“I acknowledge that Elena Rayo is not a medical doctor, but a practitioner of Medical Qigong” and it went on with some more legal jargon of what was essentially a liability waiver, with a place for the client’s signature at the bottom. Now, at the time, I had never heard of Medical Qigong!

I turned back to the other room, in which there was a massage-type table covered in a white sheet, and there was a female client lying on the table. I began the session with holding her feet and sending forth my energy up from the earth and into her body. Immediately, I was flooded with information about her health, and also what actions she needed to take to correct the imbalances that I sensed within her energy fields. I got that she needed to quit her draining marketing job, and open up a yoga studio. I even had a download of the actual blueprint and dimension of the studio!

Then I woke up. I said to myself, “That is pretty darn detailed. I better go research this Medical Qigong.”

So I did, and found first a local teacher with whom I studied with for a year, and then was encouraged to attend the International College of Medical Qigong. With the financial help of family, I enrolled.

The very first week of classes, I found myself beginning to practice the ancient healing techniques taught by Dr. Shannon, the school’s director and teacher. One of the first things we did in the protocol was to stand at the patient’s feet, and send a wave of energy into her, and receive back a download of information about the health of her organs. I had the strongest sense of deja-vu from my dream!

Next, after studying for the first year of the program and receiving my practitioner’s license, we were given forms to give to our clients. The working of the form was exactly like the one that was in my dream!

I knew I was on the right path. Over the years, I’ve continued to study, and see both private clients and also to teach others the practices I learned that were designed to keep the medical qigong doctors healthy.

My own unhealthy patterns, physical, emotional, and mental, began to dissolve, and I grew into a much more calm, balanced person. I saw how the exercise we use to strengthen ourselves as practitioners and healers, made us into much healthier people. Very unlike, I might point out, the training of allopathic doctors.

This has become my true passion: to empower others to heal themselves with these ancient and powerful techniques. As much as I enjoy diving deep into individuals’ psyches and helping them to identify the aspects of their lives on all levels, I get even greater joy from giving people the tools to do the deep work I myself experienced.