Interview with Chris Shelton BY LINDA KIESLER, NQA PUBLICATIONS CHAIR
Chris Shelton is the founder of Morning Crane Healing Arts Center. He is the author of two books, Chris Shelton’s Easy Guide to Fix Neck and Back Pain and Chris Shelton’s Easy Guide to Emotional Well-Being with Qigong.
Q: Your bio mentions you had two heart attacks and then a severe back injury. How did Qigong help you heal from these serious issues?
Chris: I grew up in a dysfunctional home. I took drugs and was involved in many fights. I had two heart attacks before my 19th birthday from meth overdoses.
After my second heart attack, I thought I was going to die, go to prison, or both. It drove me to martial arts. Tae Kwon Do gave me discipline, but healing my back injury led me to Qigong.
I started taking Tae Kwon Do. It helped me get off the drugs, but I sustained a major back injury sparring before a match one night. As a result, the doctors were telling me if I didn’t have spinal surgery, I would not walk again or even be able to do simple functions if I turned the wrong way.
This is how I was introduced to Qigong, which helped me reverse the back injury and improve many other health issues.
Several years later, I was introduced to Esther Su, a Tong-style acupuncturist. I studied as a private tutorial intern for two and a half years in her clinic. She was the first acupuncturist ever licensed in California.
Her teacher was Miriam Lee, who was arrested back in the 70’s because it was illegal to practice acupuncture in California back then. All the people she helped came to testify on her behalf. California developed the acupuncture body because of Miriam Lee, and Esther Su was her protégé.
I wasn’t only studying Tong points with Esther, but she also introduced me to the deep and rich Chinese medicine philosophy. Esther also translated her mentors’ teachings of Confucianism into English. She played a significant role in developing my understanding of Qigong and Chinese medicine.
Q: What made you decide to teach Qigong?
Chris: I was a single dad with two kids, a butcher, and a meat manager for many years. I spent all day cutting meat in a butcher’s shop and studying Qigong and Chinese medicine at night.
One of my teachers and his wife kept encouraging me to get out there to teach and see clients.
Then, I received an opportunity from one of my Qigong peers, who offered me office space at their acupuncture clinic.
My ego kept talking me out of it because of fear. I couldn’t imagine how I would transition from a butcher to a healer. It didn’t make sense at the time.
I picked up the phone to tell her no, and a very clear voice said, “This is your last chance in this lifetime.”
So, I took a chance.
I didn’t quit being a butcher right away, but rather cut back my hours slowly.
Students came and went from my classes, so I had a lot of self-doubt in the beginning that I was doing the right thing.
At a book signing, I met the psychic Sylvia Browne and asked her about my new career path.
She said,“You are a healer and teacher, and this is what you were meant to do.”
I ran into her again two years later, and she confirmed it again. I also had a Chinese birth chart reading from Master Hua Ching Ni, and everything confirmed I am on the right career path, and here we are, almost 24 years later.
Q: How did you start working with the Special Olympics, professional athletes, and celebrities?
Chris: After recovering from my back injury, I started competing in Tai Chi tournaments again. I met the former UFC fighter Cung Le, who did San Shou Kung Fu, and I participated in a few amateur kickboxing matches with his fight team. I was also his Chinese Medicine doctor.
He got me all kinds of advertising as he was winning fights. Showtime, NBC Sports, and the UFC came to my office in San Jose. When Cung Le started getting into movies, he introduced me to Eric the Trainer, a Hollywood physique expert in Hollywood.
When Eric discovered my healing success in my clinical practice, he said nobody was doing that in Los Angeles and started referring all his celebrity clients to me. So, I flew back and forth between Los Angeles and San Jose for seven years to see clients.
My client, Patrick Schwarzenegger, introduced me to his mother, Maria Shriver. In 2015, she pulled me into the Special Olympics World Games, and it was the first time Qigong was presented at the US Games, then the World Games. Soon after, the Special Olympics started a program called Healthy Athletes, Strong Minds, and we became the Volunteer Clinical Directors for California and Nevada.
I give the athletes simple Qigong practices to help prepare them for competition and handle social situations like bullying or fighting. I taught them techniques like Pulling Down the Heavens and healing sounds, so it not only helps them physically and is easy to do but also gives them tools to help with emotional stress and trauma.
For example, a torch bearer for the Special Olympics had to carry the torch to the Los Angeles Colosseum and give a speech at the opening ceremonies for the World Games. Before that, he went to give a speech at the US Games, froze, and walked off stage.
Because he had to give a speech in various cities across the US en route to the World Games, he was afraid that because he froze once, he would freeze in every town he had to pass through.
I gave him the heart movement and the heart-healing sound. A few months later, when he carried the torch to Los Gatos, CA, he successfully gave the speech! He told me he had done the daily practices and could now speak to over ten thousand people.
Q: Tell us about your film and TV show
Chris: Two years ago, we shot a short documentary called The Healer’s Journey, which will be released at the film festival this year. Last year, we filmed a dramedy called The Healer that will be made into a series on YouTube.
Our purpose in Los Angeles is to educate the world about Tai Chi and Qigong and show people that it can help them with anything they are going through in their lives. Right now, it’s important we show those in Los Angeles recovering from the fires and others going
through depression, addiction, or anything else how Qigong and Tai Chi can help them.
Q: You recently released a book on emotional well-being with Qigong. Can you tell us about the benefits of practicing the Five Elements with the healing routines in your book?
Chris: Chinese Medicine believes the leading cause of death and disease are negative emotions.
These negative emotions attack different organs of the body. Organ function and dysfunction intertwine back to the Five Element theory, which is an extension of Yin/Yang theory.
For example, one of the tools I use for assessment in my clinical practice is Face Reading. When I see a particular line on your Face that connects to the heart or lungs, for example, it tells me that the emotion or trauma is still there. I break down the Five Element movements so that when you perform the movements, you also look at who or what you are angry, sad, anxious, or resentful at and why or what makes you upset about the person or situation.
When you visualize a particular event, past or present, along with the movement and healing sounds, you can release it.
This comes from personal experience. I grew up in a violent home with abuse and neglect, and I can relate the stomach problems that I had to repressed anger. Since then, I have been able to transmute my anger and heal myself through these practices.
We need to be able to transmute these feelings. I don’t teach Qigong only because it feels good. I teach it for what we are doing medicinally, according to the Five Elements inside the body.
My motto is if I can change, you can too.
Q: What is the importance of learning face reading, and what is the benefit of knowing it?
Chris: Face reading is relevant because it shows a person’s personality, how they think, what emotions are trapped in which internal organs, and what potential diseases are inside the body.
Face Reading relates to the Five Elements as well. It is an opportunity to point out underlying conditions. In my work, I also check the tongue and pulse, but the face also says a lot about a person’s inner state.
>>I have a website where people can send in a picture for me to do a reading.
It can also point out health and mental health issues. I recommend specific Qigong practices, as I can help people transmute all of this.
Q: What got you interested in learning Chinese Face Reading?
Chris: I was at a Chinese New Year celebration at Yo San University, and one of the booths did Face Reading. A friend of mine had her face read, and I was amazed that the reader was accurate about everything they saw in my friend’s face.
I was so intrigued that shortly after that, I bought the book Face Reading by Lillian Bridges. I combined book learning with what I was seeing in clinical practice, which would then solidify the meaning of specific facial features in my clients. It’s fun to learn how to
read others, but Face Reading is ultimately about introspection into yourself.
Q: Your wife, Parisa, is integral to your work. Can you tell us about her and what she teaches?
Chris: Parisa is amazing! It’s nice to have a life partner who shares my values, ambitions, drive, and purpose. We could work a 10 to 12-hour day, and at the end of the day, we have the same goal of showing the world that you don’t have to live with chronic pain, inflammatory diseases, and mental anguish.
And that Qigong, Tai Chi, and Chinese Medicine can help alleviate and transform these conditions. Parisa teaches in the Qi Club, sees patients, and handles our technical and business work. She has a background in Qigong, Yoga, and Pilates.
Q: What else would you like our readers to know about you and your work?
Chris: Our mission is to empower people to live the ultimate life we are all designed to live. We have Qigong Teacher Training courses.
Check out the videos I contributed to the NQA Library about what Qigong is and business strategies to get your practice going.
Check out The Qi Club.
These weekly live classes on Zoom allow you to practice Qigong directly with Parisa and me, every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. It started during the pandemic and is a community of health-conscious individuals cultivating and developing our energy together.
I have an art background, so I created all the illustrations for this book.
Also my book, Chris Shelton’s Easy Guide to Fix Neck and Back Pain, has just been released and is available for purchase. Get your limited edition, plus video bonus series.
Linda Kiesler
NQA Publications Chair
[email protected]
