The enigmatic Drew Hempel—activist, author, polymath, and accomplished qigong practitioner—shares his fascinating story in this Martial Development exclusive interview.
Drew, how were you first introduced to the ancient art of qigong?
I first discovered Taoism back in the 1970s, in first grade. My best friend at the time was adopted from Korea. He told me he always got his lunch from “Tao Foods” [a local grocery store], so that made me wonder what it was about.
Later, in 1995 I noticed a flyer posted to see qigong master Effie P. Chow, a Chinese master who lives in San Francisco. Immediately I wanted to go, but I was also skeptical of New Age gimmicks. I actually called to request a lower entrance fee, and amazingly I was told I could get in half price.
So Effie Chow was your first teacher?
My girlfriend joined me at the seminar, at St. Catherine’s University. Effie P. Chow had us make an energy ball. I could feel this strong electromagnetic resistance between my hands. Effie projected chi at people walking towards her, and she said that she could be attacked by huge muscle men and it wouldn’t matter—even though she’s a little lady, she could sense their energy and then redirect their energy, adding it to her own. My girlfriend remained skeptical.
As everyone was leaving, this big female security guard wandered in, wondering what was going on in here. She then stated that the fuse blew for the room behind us! (Hardly anyone heard this—it wasn’t staged or meant for any audience.)
After further researching qigong, I traveled to San Francisco to see if I could meet with Effie P. Chow again. I stayed with my Chinese high-school friend who had moved out there. Effie P. Chow was not readily available—at least at my budget, of next to no funds!
I returned home, and I kept researching the issue. By 1998 I was taking Yan Xin qigong with the Chinese community at the University of Minnesota. Again I felt strong, blissful heat from the meditation practice.
Later on, I attended a talk from a Tibetan monk—a lama meditation master. I realized I had this headache from concentrating hard, listening to his amazingly profound lecture, only it was focused on the very center point of my forehead. It didn’t hurt, it was just a strong pressure. I was really psyched.
Did you learn from other masters too?
The Chinese produced a government documentary called “Yan Xin, Superman,” showing Master Yan Xin giving chi healing lectures in stadiums filled with thousands of people. (Yan Xin has tested his qigong with the help of nuclear physicists and other scientists.) The dialogue was all in Chinese, but the people in the room translated for me.
One of my Chinese fellow students was really serious. When I ran into him on campus, he told me to continue practice in secret. His roommates didn’t know about his practice…but I could FEEL electromagnetic fields emanating from his body!
Why did he advise you to practice in secret? How did you expect people to react, if they discovered your active interest in qigong?
Serious meditation is anathema in our culture. People react to the energy. It is a transformative experience, based on the philosophy of existing within a larger consciousness containing yourself and others.
I’ve had a wide-range of reactions to my practice: people ecstatic with joy, total strangers thanking me. (It’s important not to stare while in a trance, sitting in full-lotus. Ha ha.)
Meanwhile, back at the U of MN, my housemate told me she had studied qigong with a local man named Chunyi Lin. I was intrigued, but she didn’t offer more information and I didn’t think much of it.
Later on, that same man made a presentation to my graduate class in spiritual healing (which incidentally was taught by a Jesuit priest).
Many qigong instructors make incredible claims about their abilities. What led you to believe that Chunyi Lin was a genuine master?
I had previously read Effie P. Chow’s “Miracle Healing from China”, plus many other books. I could feel Chunyi Lin’s energy right away, and could compare it with my previous experiences.
In 1999 I took his Spring Forest Qigong Level 1 course. When Chunyi Lin walked around the class, he shook his fingers at you while you were doing his simple standing exercise. There was no touching, but my body filled with bliss and I saw this amazing light. When my beautiful girlfriend picked me up, I had to admit to myself that what I had just experienced was a deeper love than anything I had experienced before.
Not until 2000 was I able to study qigong intensively with Chunyi Lin. Since I was on a special diet, and practiced several hours a day while reading and meditating, things progressed rapidly. By the end of the year, I had transformed my brain and had experienced many paranormal phenomena.
Your training included a special diet?
Diet is the most difficult aspect of practice, after emotional blockages. In the book “Beyond Telepathy“, Dr. Andrija Puharich argues that potassium enables a proton magnetic momentum—a plasma. I read elsewhere that chloride is the negative ion while potassium and sodium are slightly different positive ions. So basically, you are ionizing your body by not eating salt…I had to figure this out from experience and then my own research.
Initially, I was skeptical about a no-salt diet, but I read that vegetables would provide me with enough sodium. In fact, salt is mainly needed to counteract the acid from grains (“bigu”, the energy feast, means literally “without grains”). Just to be safe though, I used Braggs Soy Sauce, which is a vegetable sodium salt substitute.
Did you have to rearrange your schedule to allow this intensive training? How did you support yourself and pay your bills during this time?
In 2000, I was working at Clean Water Action for 10 hours a week, and living just a mile bike ride from work. I was a part-time graduate student at the University of Minnesota, completing a self-designed masters degree through the Liberal Studies Program. My father paid for my school, and provided $500 a month for books and living expenses. I devoted my master’s degree to volunteering in sustainability activism.
There I organized a campaign to divest $1.5 million from Total Oil, since they used slave labor in Burma. Later, I focused on the University’s clothing contracts with sweatshops, achieving the goal of having the University join the Workers Rights Consortium.
This work was very intense, and I experienced firsthand amazing corruption at the highest levels of power. So I dropped out of school; I could not agree to accept a degree after directly experiencing the hypocrisy of society.
I eventually readmitted to finish my degree, on the condition that I would do my final self-directed research by taking qigong classes with Master Chunyi Lin, through a community college. (This was formally supervised by the chair of the African Studies department, as a study in non-Western non-dualism philosophy.)
I lived right next to a cooperative food store, so I had the finest (salt-free, vegetarian) diet and I was able to focus all my attention on reading and researching meditation. I ordered rare books through the University’s inter-library loan system, used the University database for research, and stayed in my room to practice Spring Forest Qigong exercises many hours a day.
I read Mantak Chia’s work, and I read “Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality”. I read spiritual and religious books from India and Thailand.
I also had a car at that time, so I would drive to the Spring Forest Qigong classes and retreats. I attended the Spring Forest Qigong guild meetings, where the students meet once or twice a month to practice healing on each other.