| igong | | | | lessen the pressure on societies that spurs |
| Einstein wrote, imagination is more important | | | | instability and violence. If we saved trillions |
| than knowledge, and those words were never | | | | worldwide each year on saved health care costs, |
| more true than they are today. Ancient mind | | | | $20 billion would be hardly missed. We’d still |
| body health technologies may offer much more | | | | easily be able to afford clean water programs and |
| than health. They may offer possibilities to | | | | global education programs that could also help |
| recreate a new world with more abundance and | | | | stabilize the world, making us all safer and |
| hope for all of humanity. According to modern | | | | healthier. Global health is affected by poverty, as |
| medical research between 70 and 85% of all | | | | nations in extreme poverty pay little attention to |
| illness leading people to doctors is caused by | | | | environmental laws, and may hunt extinct animals |
| stress (Kaiser Permenente twenty year study). | | | | or decimate rain forests in order to earn money |
| The United States annual health care costs | | | | to eat and live on. |
| exceed one-trillion dollars each year. This means | | | | A few billion dollars could pay for the one hundred |
| that effective stress management techniques, if | | | | square miles of solar cells in the Mohave desert |
| provided to people en masse through education, | | | | that experts say could supply ALL of the |
| business, healthcare, etc. in an aggressive national | | | | electrical needs of the United States, and perhaps |
| campaign to train our citizens in such techniques, | | | | create technology that could be exported |
| could save our nation alone hundreds of billions in | | | | worldwide. Also, by supplying all the electrical |
| health care costs year after year. | | | | needs with cheap renewable solar, we could |
| Tai Chi & Qigong have been proven over | | | | explore more efficient and effective electric cars |
| many centuries, including in emerging modern | | | | that could be fueled by electricity supplied from |
| medical research to be powerful stress reduction | | | | solar collection, creating an absolutely non-polluting |
| technologies. The results of this are found in | | | | economy eventually. In a world where oil |
| studies like the one at UCLA indicating that Tai Chi | | | | production has peaked and will only dwindle and |
| practitioners doubled their immune resistance to | | | | become more and more expensive, this is an |
| viral infection. Many studies also show Tai Chi can | | | | exciting possibility for all of us to have cheaply |
| provide cardiovascular benefit, lowering high blood | | | | fueled personal transportation that will never run |
| pressure, and providing an effective gentle | | | | out. |
| rehabilitation therapy for those with heart disease. | | | | Global health & personal health are more |
| So bottom line, we know stress costs us | | | | closely related than one might think at first glance. |
| hundreds of billions annually in health care costs. | | | | Holistic solutions are simple and make a great deal |
| We know that Tai Chi & Qigong can help | | | | of sense, once we look into the heart of |
| millions lower stress levels and the deleterious | | | | possibility, unclouded by cynicism that tells us we |
| health effects of that stress. Yet, there is to date | | | | are victims of what is. We are not victims. |
| no aggressive national effort to spread the | | | | By allowing our minds to explore possibility we |
| knowledge of these health tools to the mass | | | | imagine, image-in a new more expansive |
| population through public education etc. | | | | reality that could make our lives not only healthier, |
| This is a tragedy, not only because of the | | | | but more exciting and profound. Einstein wrote, |
| unnecessary health problems people suffer, but | | | | imagination is more important than |
| for other important reasons as well. If the world | | | | knowledge, and those words were never |
| employed these tools on a massive scale and | | | | more true than they are today. Dare to imagine |
| began to save the trillions of dollars they could be | | | | what is possible, and the veil separating reality |
| saving, major global social and environmental | | | | from that vision becomes thinner with every new |
| problems could be addressed with that money. | | | | person willing to step beyond the walls of |
| It is estimated that for a mere $20 billion annually, | | | | limitation. |
| we could end starvation on the planet, which could | | | | |