Absence of an analgesic effect of qigong 'external qi' in rats.

The analgesic effect of 'external Qi' emitted from the Qigong practitioner was investigated in rats. In behavioral experiments, the rat's tail-flick and head-movement threshold measurements were used to determine if the 'external Qi' had analgesic effect. The results were negative. In electrophysiological study, the 'external Qi' shows no significant changes in the pain-related evoked cortical potentials to tooth-pulp stimulation. Thus the results of this study are different from those reported by other investigators. It is proposed that this research be repeated and extended.