[KS] KI power, eunuch secrets & more - Lee Won-sop

[Frank Tedesco]

>http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/14_6/9807/t4651235.htm
>              Lee Won-sop Is in Search of
>              `Rare Earth'                                
>              07/07(
>              By Choe Young-min
>
>              Staff Reporter
>
>              Lee Won-sop feels ``ki,'' a supernatural energy in a boulder
>              in the mountain valley in Sokwang-ni, Ulchin County,
>              Kyongsang-pukto.
>
>              Ulchin, Kyongsang-pukto - Breathing in the 5:00 a.m.
>              ``water-fog,'' Lee Won-sop picks up a couple of glittering
>              splinters of purple amethyst scattered in the mud-path around
>              him, then stops in front of a black boulder. He spits on it,
>              rubs the rock vigorously and sniffs it. Then with a nod, he
>              wraps his entire body around it, slinging his injured leg
>              around the jutting edge and holds this position with his eyes
>              closed. Behind him, a large steel cross mounted on a pile of
>              rocks looms up, lower only than the ``ki'' saturated
>              mountains.
>
>              ```Ki' is partly a question of faith and belief,'' he had
>              said the night befor , upon arriving at the Dalwoo mines in
>              the amethyst valley. Indeed, strange natural phenomena seem
>              to inhabit places like this ``zone,'' one of the national
>              sources of natural ``ki.''
>
>              Ki, supernatural energy widespread in the universe, is
>              everywhere from rocks that peel off its outer layers, to the
>              cranes that flock like magnets only to certain spots in the
>              entire expanse of the mountainside, to bold streaks of
>              amethyst that go straight through the mountain and under
>              brooks and valleys, and to boulders that exterminate odorous
>              bacteria upon contact.
>
>              But for Lee, these are more important as factors indicative
>              of where ``rare earth'' can be found rather than as exotic
>              and esoteric phenomena.
>
>              He explains that the now widely used term ``ki'' is a
>              slightly misunderstood word that became rooted in
>              superstition for lack of knowledge in the old days, when an
>              explanation was needed but methods of scientific
>              investigation were unknown.
>
>              Searching for ``vital energy'' in the rocks, grasses and
>              trees that grow on the Korean peninsula, Lee strives to
>              gather and establish scientific proof to support the
>              traditional royal Korean methods of medicinal concoction that
>              he learned by word of mouth from his great-uncle, a senior
>              eunuch in charge of health and sanitation affairs to King
>              Kojong of the Choson Dynasty.
>
>              When he dies, Lee Won-sop may carry with him the many as yet
>              unrecorded tomes of secret medical remedies of the Korean
>              Royal Palace which are based on the use of pine, loess,
>              amethyst, and everything in the chain of nature related to
>              these natural phenomena in the alchemy of ``ki'' into
>              medicine.
>
>              ``Yangmyong 6 ki,'' with which the well-being of the king's
>              health was attended to, was secretly handed down among the
>              eunuchs of the court. Its creation was completed through an
>              epoch-making secret method that divided medicinal products
>              into six different categories based on the ``ki'' found in
>              nature.
>
>              Lee knows exactly where and how to ``extract'' and ``absorb''
>              it from nature into the body for health because Lee's
>              great-uncle Lee Jae-woo (1884-1963) never got the chance to
>              ensure the continuance of the custom by choosing a real
>              eunuch disciple.
>
>              In 1910, Hirubumi Ito, the first governor general of the
>              Japanese colonial government, called all the eunuchs together
>              on the grounds of Toksu Palace and commanded their dismissal.
>              Changing out of his eunuch attire, Lee Jae-woo left the
>              palace grounds and dedicated his life to bringing the secrets
>              of health and sanitation which prevailed in the royal court
>              to the outside world.
>
>              ``When Korea fell to Japan, my great-uncle said that the
>              nation's financial comeback after regaining independence
>              would lay in the country's `subterranean resources.'
>              Unwilling to let him take to his death the secrets of the
>              country's resources in health, as well their valuable use in
>              the nation's resurrection one day, I became his disciple in
>              1953,'' says Lee.
>
>              Now, more than 50 years after his great-uncle passed the
>              secret ingredients of palace remedies on to him, Lee is
>              vigorously doing the same and is equally convinced that
>              ``Korea is rich in all the resources that will be needed in
>              the 21st century.''
>
>              Lee explains, ``Japanese claimed that Korea had no natural
>              resources in order to demoralize the nation and cripple it
>              from rising in rebellion. But after World War II, they
>              admitted knowing that `Korea could survive for hundreds of
>              years just by selling the rocks and earth on the peninsula.'
>              They were talking about loess and amethyst.''
>
>              The amethyst mines held together by yellow loess beneath the
>              pine trees supposedly give off an intense dose of ``ki,'' and
>              to put it simply, it exudes some 80 percent of the solar
>              energy that remains from the 20 percent used for
>              photosynthesis about 150 years ago, Lee claims.
>
>              ``Basically, it is the sun's energy minus the harmful factors
>              of direct sunlight that acts as the healing ingredient in
>              these ki-containing natural resources,'' Lee said.
>
>              ``Some rocks just absorb more `ki' energy, which physicists
>              compare to the `O-energy' found in outer space, although it
>              is slightly different. Since plants and animals are being
>              polluted, rocks may be regarded as the hope for the future
>              because of their thick skin. On the outside they may be
>              polluted, but on the inside they will be fine,'' according to
>              Lee.
>
>              Amethyst contains more than 70 percent SiO2 (silicic acid).
>              Likewise, the yellowish clay substance loess, hence its use
>              as an anti-toxin against pesticides and herbicides. The
>              functional energy in loess and amethyst is effective for the
>              immune system, metabolism, enzymes, difficulties in
>              pregnancy, poisoning and stress release to name a few.
>
>              Lee says, ``Their properties were discovered by accident in
>              the past. Amethyst was worn because it looked nice, and
>              people found they felt better when they did. Loess came to be
>              sought because it was rumored that fishermen's wives had the
>              best skin, retained their youth longer, and maintained their
>              health because they spent so much time working in mud. But
>              there are modern scientific explanations for this.''
>
>              Going a step further from defying the supposed contradictory
>              line between religious faith and scientific evidence, Lee is
>              advancing what he calls ``neurotechnobiology,'' a cross
>              between biology and technology where nature is assumed to
>              possess the ability to pick up human ``neuro'' signals.
>
>              Despite his progressive search for modern scientific
>              explanations for classic Korean medical science, Lee
>              consistently advocates a return to nature. More specifically
>              a return to natural foods to begin with, like ``chang
>              (fermented food) culture.''
>
>              ``People should make `chang' at home instead of buying
>              mass-produced jars of it from factories. Down-to-earth foods
>              like `twoen-chang,' `kochu-chang,' are healthy, unlike the
>              instant junkfood people like so much these days,'' he says.
>
>              Lee is presently working on a book on diets. He is already
>              the author of six books, formerly a regular columnist at
>              major Korean newspapers, a travel writer on Korea, and he has
>              his own homepage http;//blue.nownuri.net/~mgarden/.
>
>
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>                           (C) COPYRIGHT 1998 THE HANKOOKILBO
>


Frank Tedesco, Ph.D.
Occasional lecturer, University of Maryland
Assistant Professor
Sejong University
98 Kunjadong, Kwangjin-gu
Seoul 143-747 KOREA
Tel/fax: 82-2-997-3954
E-mail: tedesco at uriel.net

"Life is a terminal disease, and it's sexually transmitted."
John Cleese, the Buddhist.



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