Phyllis Lefohn believes a quiet place exists in each of us where peace lives and healing happens. Learning how to get to that quiet place takes practice.

On Tuesday evening last week, Lefohn and her Mountain Spirit Qigong class gathered in a small Helena room to talk about healing and how to arrive at that peaceful place through the practice of qigong.

"It's in that state of peace - that quiet place - where healing happens," Lefohn told the group of women. "That's the place where qigong takes us. It's about clearing out all the stuff we don't need - all the emotional stuff - and getting rid of it."

Qigong, a form of traditional Chinese medicine, is said to have originated more than 5,000 years ago. And while Lefohn has been teaching it for only 12 of those years, she speaks of its power to heal, its ability to unify the mind and the body.

Lefohn tells the story of her friend and original teacher, Professor Huixian Chen, who discovered she had breast cancer while living in China. That was around 1982 and Chen, at the advice of a friend, gave qigong a try after her mastectomy left her partially paralyzed.

Chen envisioned her body in motion. Against all odds - and to her doctor's amazement - she regained her mobility. It should not have been possible, her doctor told her.

But according to the Qigong Institute, a growing number of researchers believe that practicing qigong may offer both psychological and physiological benefits, soothing the mind so it can cure the body.

"Qigong therapy is an area that is often neglected by mainstream medicine and research," wrote researchers with the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. "Our review suggests that this therapy should be seriously examined and be considered as an important supplement to conventional cancer treatment and other chronic diseases."

The school's research, published in 2002, found evidence that practicing qigong may actually inhibit the growth of cancer. Although qigong research runs into trouble when trying to explain the results, or repeating them in a controlled environment, "qigong therapy can provide an invaluable alternative to modern western medicine," the team concluded in its paper.

For the past 20 years, Chen (who will teach "Awakening Light Gong" this weekend in Helena), has dedicated herself to helping others heal themselves, increase their vitality and grow their spirit.

Her teaching posts have included the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine; and, in 2004, she founded the Wisdom and Peace Wellness Center in California. Lefohn and Chen have traveled together to China several times, learning the meditative art from noted qigong practitioners, such as Master Zhe Zhong Wang.

As Lefohn likes to say, "The more you learn, the less you know." She's also fond of quoting an old Chinese proverb that says, "If a man's hungry, don't give him a fish, give him a fishing pole."

Lefohn follows the analogy by teaching others how to heal themselves - how to care for their own well-being. Watching her practice qigong makes it easier to understand the art's ability to sooth our hurried hearts.

Sitting with a woman named Elaine, who comes up twice a week from Bozeman to take her class, Lefohn goes through the steps of "1,000 Hands Buddha."

"Everything you don't need just slides away," she says, leading the instruction, her voice like a lullaby. "You turn. You turn again."

Their arms come up like a rising sun, slow - always slow. "You're moving forward. You're on your path." Their arms come down, like water down a drain. "Does it feel better?"

"It makes a difference what instructor you're learning from," Elaine said after the class. "It's always nice to practice with someone. You have more 'qi' in the room. It is soothing."

"We're living in a society that tries to fragment the mind-body spirit, and qigong brings them back together," adds Lefohn. "It's an amazing part of our larger life-path. It makes you aware of your connections with a much larger universe, and it gives you the tools to affect your own health - mind, body and spirit.

Reporter Martin Kidston can be reached at 447-4086, or at mkidston@helenair.com.