Osher Center for INterTIVE hEALTHhttps://osher.ucsf.edu/patient-care/group-medical-visits/qigong
A Deeper Sense of Belonging
Process Philosophy and Qigong
“At the heart of Whitehead’s postmodern position on these issues is an expansion of the notion of ‘energy’ into ‘creativity.’ From his perspective, the ‘energy’ of current physics is simply an abstraction from, a limited aspect of, the full-blown creativity that is the true material cause embodied in all actualities (Whitehead, 1933/1967, p. 186). The energy of current physics involves only the quantitative aspect of the creativity of events, and then only the external side of this quantitative aspect—that is, the energy transfers between events. Energy thus treated leaves out the qualitative side of the creativity and what this creativity is for the events themselves, which includes an experiential realization of value and an element of self-determination. (It is to bring out this richer meaning that I sometimes translate Whitehead’s term ‘creativity’ as ‘creative experience.’)
—David Ray Griffin, “Parapsychology and Philosophy: A Whiteheadian Postmodern Perspective,” Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 87, no. 3 (July 1993): 217–288.
Energy as Creativity
In modern physics, energy is traditionally seen through a strictly quantifiable lens—measurable, mechanical, and describable in physical terms.
David Ray Griffin invites us to broaden this concept by drawing on Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy. Griffin encourages us to recognize that energy in its fullest expression is an expression of Whitehead calls creativity: the universal activity of becoming that runs within and through all things.
This creativity is found everywhere throughout the universe—from atoms and molecules to stars and galaxies, from plants and animals to hills and rivers, from human beings on earth to life in outer space. The activity of creativity includes bodily happenings and also mental or psychological occasions, evident in the qualitative states of experience and awareness found in human life. This is why Griffin sometimes translates creativity as "creative experience."
None of this denies the reality of what contemporary science calls physical energy, well worthy of study in science and used for practical purposes in engineering. Rather it suggests that there is more to energy than the sciences currently study, and that science itself, in principle, can expand its notion of energy to include these additional dimensions, some of them more qualitative than qualitative.
Qi and Qigong
This is the larger context in which process philosophers, both within China and beyond it, can consider qi and practices such as qigong. Seen through a process lens, qi can be understood not as a static “thing” but as a name for the dynamic, relational, and creative energies that flow through the world. It is a way of talking about the vitality of becoming itself: the patterned movements, emotions, atmospheres, and transformations that constitute reality. In this sense, qi is not merely a concept within Chinese philosophy; it is a poetic, cosmological, and experiential term that resonates with Whitehead’s understanding of creativity, relationality, and the processive nature of existence.
Within this broader framing, qigong is more than a set of exercises. It is a practice of attunement: a way of participating bodily in the ongoing flows of energy, breath, rhythm, and felt connection that shape human life. It is a way of inhabiting the world as a field of interdependent movements: each moment a fresh act of concrescence, each breath a negotiation between inherited energies and the lure toward harmony, balance, and vitality.
Felt Creativity
Thus understood, qi does not belong only to China; it becomes a cross-cultural bridge. It offers a way for process thinkers to speak of energy not only as quantifiable force but as lived experience—felt, relational, and expressive of the world’s creativity. At their best, qi and qigong invite us toward a metaphysics and a practice that are both philosophical and embodied, both cosmic and intimate, bridging the metaphysical insight that all things flow with the human desire to participate in that flow with grace and harmony.
Qigong embodies this understanding through concrete practices: slow, flowing movements; coordinated breathing; standing and seated meditations; visualizations; and an attunement to the energies of the surrounding environment. These practices are not merely exercises for the individual body; they are ways of participating in a larger field of relational energy. In this sense, qigong approaches energy as interconnected, relational, ecological, and communal—a dynamic interplay between person, community, and the natural world.
Toward a Deeper Sense of Belonging
As such, qigong is especially relevant in the 21st century, as people all over the world suffer from what has come to be called a crisis of meaning. This crisis is the anxiety, loneliness, and absence of a sense of purpose that afflict so many today. It is woven from many sources: the acceleration of life through digital technologies, the commodification of nearly every dimension of existence, the weakening of traditional communities, the flood of information that overwhelms but rarely nourishes, and a pervasive sense of disconnection from the natural world.
The crisis is also existential. Many feel uprooted from deeper sources of belonging. They are cut off from the body, from others, from the earth, and from a trustworthy sense of the sacred. Qigong responds to this condition not through abstractions but through embodied practice. Its slow, rhythmic movements and attentive breathing reconnect the practitioner with their own life-energy, with the atmosphere around them, and with the creative flows that move through all beings.