Hi, we're Cinthia Varkevisser And Michelle Walters, co hosts of mind power needs mystic. Our weekly show is here to expand your mind to what's possible to uplift your spirits to move forward with confidence and joy, and to create a space for your collaboration with the invisible. Welcome to mind power needs mystic. Welcome, everyone. We are here today as mine power meets mystic. I am Michelle Walters, and I am joined today by my podcast pal Cinthia Varkevisser. Today we have the honor of speaking to Dr. Amba Dryg-Tobin, her daughter was kidnapped in 2014 and her father was diagnosed with dementia. It was taking care of the PTSD of her daughter and caring for her father that brought Dr. Amba to start self care retreats. Dr. Amba has studied with Wim HIFF, Dr. Jerry Alan Johnson and a great many teachers at SFSU Actium AC CHS and also taught at ACC to come during a very challenging time. AC TCM gotcha her. Doctor Amba is a speaker and author and intuitive a clairvoyant doctor medical Qigong therapy and we will learn all about what medical Qigong is. And we will also learn about Dr. On those retreats, which are international and cool. He says it's medical Qigong get it right Michelle, Dr. Amba is joined today by her grandson who is making a special first baby appearance on mine he's like Greta Garbo, no pictures. I you know what I actually love that we have a baby on because as we're all moms, we really do understand that being a mom and having family, it's it's weaves into every aspect of our life. So it just feels really natural that we've got baby on board as well. So, Dr. Amba, how are you feeling about telling us about medical Qigong therapy, because as a martial artist, I find that the most fascinating of all the things that you do? Well, it's the oldest modality of Chinese medicine, it came before acupuncture. It's the foundation of acupuncture using the five elements or five phases, which they really are. And it gives prescription meditations, not medication. So I'll have a client go home and do a breathing exercise focusing on a specific organ, and an organ system. And the element that relates to it. For example, the easiest thing for high blood pressure is the H A sound like ah, over and over again until it lowers your blood pressure. And I don't tell clients to go off their medication, I say go to your doctor and talk to them about going off your medication. And that's probably the quickest and best success ever that and actually brain cancer has a really good protocol and the homework so I give people empowerment of here this is how you can take care of your body and your health as well as your mental health as well as manifestation. With all these tools that are 3000 to 5000 years old, I do remote medical Qigong and even with groups or in person, and there's a general session protocol that is for anybody that causes relaxation, it causes everyone has a different experience a bit of tingling or cold or hot or you know, sometimes long distance, people will say oh, my leg shook or a certain limb shook and it also tells me diagnostically in a traditional Chinese medicine way like Oh, left side is more mother need for approval. Right side is more need for control father stuff, center of the body is more need for security, different things, a little different things very similar to acupuncture. If you go to an acupuncturist, how they ask you a lot of questions. I ask a lot of questions. However, a lot of the knowing comes from doing the actual work on a client. And I always say it's free will of the client, as well as Divine Will I can't go right in and go Oh, I see what needs to be taken care of. I'm gonna just heal this person. If I do that we call that kind of a gray magic To like this work is magic, it's somewhere between science and mysticism were actually a long time ago, they were not separate, they were the same. And yeah, just really have to step out of the clinical room, the ego has to step out. And it has to be okay. I've learned these protocols, I've learned what I have to do when a client comes in. The same person with, like lung cancer with another person would have a different protocol would have different homework meditations and exercises in journaling, and forgiveness work, because everybody's different, their stories are different. We retrained also, I studied acupuncture, like I was saying, at AC TCM, the American College of traditional Chinese medicine, as well as in Oakland, the AC CH, the, the main thing is that everybody is unique. It's not like in western medicine, oh, you have this, we give you this or we send you for radiation, or chemo or surgery, which by the way, my understanding is, Western doctors have to give you the options or suggest all three of those or they could be sued for malpractice, even though your type of cancer might not do well with chemo or might not do well with radiation. So that's something to do research. If you ever have the gift to grow and evolve of cancer and that is my trademark. Every challenge is a gift to grow and evolve. It's about a spiritual journey, as well as personal development meant with, with all the clients with what I believe is we can have world peace, from inner peace. And that's part of the reason I do the self care retreats is to have other people hopefully, you Michelle come to teach with me because what I teach may not resonate with everyone, and I always get wonderful speakers and teachers because maybe they need what that person offers and and that's a big part of medical Qigong is this non duality around? I am you You are me. If you succeed, we all succeed and it's, you know, been a blessing for my own journey to do the medical Qigong. Definitely. You ever hear about the preacher's kids? Like how they are like, you know, if you're, if they're working on their spiritual path, their kids sometimes go astray and this little guy is actually the third child of that daughter I was talking about who did have her was kidnapped at 14 and had even trauma when she was eight. So I'm really grateful she did a lot of art therapy. She did medical Qigong with my teacher actually, Dr. Jerry Ellen Johnson and oh Wim Hof. That was he said Wim Hof. Wim Hof. He, he studied, or he taught to mo when I knew him too, and now he has he calls it the Wim Hof Method. So, sorry for that I'm trying to talk before he starts crying. How did you come to be in this line of work? Like, how you have quite the story, but like, how did it all turn into Chinese medicine and Qi Gong? Well, I started actually, as a jazz singer in Europe, from 18 to 27. And met different healers in Glastonbury. I was there at the Harmonic Convergence in the 80s. And, you know, that was just a seed. I had definitely my first experience with angels was, I think, five or six years old. And as I got older, you just didn't talk about that. But when you were in, when I was in Glastonbury, it was like, Oh, you too, or, oh, yeah, you see, or you hear or you have a knowing that you know, more than one person was intuitive or clairvoyant, or, you know, a lot one of the players. But the thing I did then was when I came back to United States, I studied child development psychology, and got into Chinese medicine through one of my classes at the San Francisco University's Holistic Health Institute that they doctors Cynthia Chang, who is an acupuncturist who taught Holistic Health perspectives from Chinese medicine. She had a documentary about medical Qigong, and I said immediately, that's what I'm supposed to do. And I did Qi Gong training, and just general health. That's where I did the Wim Hof stuff was took that supreme science Qigong Foundation, and that's a really great place to start if people want to learn how Qi feels and do Qi Gong. They also did a great program on sacred geometry and food based healing. So I work with different smoothie recipes with my clients as well. Where was I going? Oh, and then my doctor For my professor, Dr. Jerry Johnson was a keynote speaker in Oakland at a Taoist gathering. And my friend and I, who both did the Chi Gong training, David Beaudry, when he was saying I'm coming out of Dr. Johnson said, I'm coming out of retirement, to teach my daughter, a doctoral program of medical Qigong, David and I looked at each other. And then we went and talked to him and it was like 13 spots out of 100 left. And out of those 100 Only 54 got through this program, because it was intense. We, you know, a lot of Christian people I consider myself Lutheran, Christian, but also Taoist and also Hindu and also Buddhist, because I've studied them, and anything compassion and love based. However, the Christians that were very, you know, Christian only dropped out, when we started, you know, talking about exorcism, we started talking about, you know, looking at people's, you know, lives as having these things where I don't want to maybe go into it too much, but these parasites that are not of this, this world, talking about going into bars, you know, like, drunk people around as you, you know, then the people who are a little bit spiritual or live bait. So, anyway, I'm not gonna talk about that too much. I don't know what your listeners they might have checked out now, what I just said, Oh, no, I think they're more tuned in. So many listeners are empaths. And they're very proud. Empaths, which is, that's not a bad thing. But there are so many drawbacks to be to being empathic without knowing how to protect yourself. Yeah, we teach. I mean, I do a course around energetic protection, which, by the way, one of my Enigma Buddhist teachers, while I'm alar I was studying with Kenny, Kenny, Kelly. I'm blanking on his name, but he's the regular students. We graduated together, Kelly Ryan, and he's been studying with llama lar and Taos, New Mexico. And he's like, you don't really need protection. Because everything and this is a Louise Hay. Affirmation only good lies before me, which is also part of my every challenge is a gift to grow and evolve, which is really from Romans 828, which is all things, all things, I'm blanking. All things work together for good to those who love God. Like, there's really no protection we need because everything that comes to us is for us to grow and evolve, it wouldn't come to us it wouldn't be in our path. However, as we were taught, there's all these little protection things you can do definitely for empaths, who like listen to friends, and then they're like taking on their energy of wool, you know, just that Donna Eden talks about the energy zip up to the bottom lip. My kids always taught them the white protective light, like little bubble around you. And then I like to say, Oh, that was a good book. I like to say, Oh, that was a good book. No, I like to say like, when I go in, I like a dark alley, or I'm hiking and I feel the energy of like a mountain lion or whatever. I say I am guided and guarded and protected by my highest good at all times as I say it so it is actually my husband, a teacher of mine gave me that a long time ago and I and I do if I feel the energy of you know, something threatening, I say I am guided and guarded and protected by my highest good at all times. And that that as well as a lot of the tools I do for manifestation when I do a little manifestation program. Yeah, it's there's little rituals we do. And they can be used for anything. Definitely when I have friends or teachers or clients. I'm sorry, beloved Beloved's going through any surgery or whatever. We do these same manifestation rituals around, healing quickly around the doctors being very skilled, very calm and, and happy when they go and make a cut. Because every time you cut someone, you have your energy going into that cut, so And whoever's in that room, so I'll give them some lavender to take with them. That's also protective. Amethyst is very protective, which my teacher also teaches and I highly recommend people to look at his website, which is Chi Gong, Qi Gu and g.com. He has a bookstore, he has all these great books on plant and mineral magic about how to cleanse them, how to charge them so that you can use them either spiritually medically or for your own spiritual practice, practice as well. Very cool, very cool. I want to remind all of our listeners that they are listening to mine Power meets mystic with me, Michelle Walters and my podcast co host Cinthia Varkevisser. Today we are speaking to Dr. Amba Dryg-Tobin, who is many, many things, talking about many of her adventures and teachers and philosophy. Dr. Amba? Why don't you tell us a story of a client that you have helped with some fashion of your skills along the way, so that we can get a better picture of kind of, what was the situation and and what was your prescription and how it all turned out? I would say like, so cancer, diabetes, strokes, PTSD, trying to think of what's a good story, I had this one lady in Santa Cruz, who was in a really debilitating car accident. She She was on her spiritual path. It really helps to have people who I work with, who have already a spiritual path who already have a meditation practice. So when I give them homework, they're like, on it. What I do works for like, three days really strong, and then it's up to my clients to keep doing the work on their own. But she was such a trooper, she came in all bruised up and stuff. And I did the work and she was up for it. She, you know, so every time she came in, there was a little bit of improvement, you know, it's a it's a slow thing. And she, it was really good for me to have a client who was on it and really wanting to get better. And the last time I saw her, she was driving a truck and that's why I see the truck. And I go that's, you know, I don't see her, but that's the truck. It was and she was already down the street when I got that, and I'm like, yeah, I love her. She was great. That's awesome. That's so wonderful. You know, it's great when you get those stories of people who are willing to do the work. You know, because so much of it is about our own self discovery and our own self work. So thank you for sharing that story. That's wonderful. You know, one of the things that you have talked about is your work with energy centers and mantras. Can you explain a little bit more about how you approach these energy centers and what role they play in the healing process? Well, we are a meridian system and a chakra system, which is actually more in my opinion from my studies. Since it came before I was like a base root that so what I do is based in ancient Chinese medicine and ancient Chinese spirituality and philosophy. So we have the five elements of earth, which is the center, the earth, then the metal and the air above, water and fire. So earth is the spleen and stomach area, and what I do in medical Qigong is as well as my teacher, Dr. Johnson, we open up the five elements because the earth actually has the power to, to rejuvenate the five elements, and all of the, and also the 12 meridians, they feed the entire body, all of your organs, every cell and every emotion and mental state, or associated with different elements, and with that, you can have a client come in who says, I'm dealing with anger or anxiety, I'm dealing with this and that, and sometimes I won't even talk to them about that, until after I do the medical Qi Gong, because their energy, they might tell me something is, but what I see or feel in their body is different. So then after I do the session, I'll go over what I experienced in their body. And it's not like psychic or anything. It's just seeing what I've learned and trained, what I've learned to feel and see and have witnessed. And then I'll give them homework with, like, a crystal with breathing exercises, or like I said, a specific, like meditation, sometimes it's just a simple, you know, visualization, and also, because I also do a lot of the students are really sick. I do do a lot of remote work, I had a client who did his session while he was driving. And he even said he was pulled over and he was off to the side of the road for 10 minutes to really take it in. He said it was so powerful. I've had a lot of success with that. I know a lot of people don't believe in that. And, you know, that's their right. But I had someone who had a stroke and had worked with medical Qigong. And I had a really hard time, I couldn't get a hold of them for months and months. And finally I did he said, I was in my bedroom meditating, and I saw you and I felt you doing medical Qigong on me. So I've had many experiences like that. A lot of people say they sleep through my sessions. And they sleep better that night than they have for a long time, or if they are having a bad day. That session can turn their day around. Definitely. I love that. So it sounds like you work not only with the physical aspect of the body but also with the emotional and energetic aspects of the person, and it's a holistic approach to healing. Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's great that you mentioned the meridian system and the chakras because those are interconnected systems in the body, and they influence not just the physical health, but also the emotional and mental well being of an individual. So it's great that you're able to integrate all of that into your practice. Absolutely, and you know, the 12 meridians, it's not it's one thing to know it intellectually, but it's another to see it and feel it on someone's body. And I'm also clairvoyant, and intuitive. I mean, that's like the prerequisite to do the program. And there were many that didn't have that and they had a hard time knowing where the points were or, and I think I did a lot of that. But the other thing about this work is the harder you work, like the harder you work on your own stuff, the more skillful you become with the work. So it's also a journey of your own self growth and development. Absolutely. That's so important. It's always an ongoing journey of self discovery and self growth. And I love that you incorporate that into your practice as well. Now, you've mentioned forgiveness work a couple of times, and I find that really interesting. Can you elaborate a bit more on how forgiveness plays a role in the healing process? Oh, huge role. So just like when you have a deep spiritual experience, you can't describe it in words, really. And forgiveness is the same way. I always say that every challenge is a gift to grow and evolve. And I used to say that, to get through like a major life change. I didn't say life challenge because it is about evolving and growing. But when you're in the middle of it, you don't know it. You don't know it at all, like at all. It's it's just it's it sucks. And it's, but you get through it. And afterwards, it's like, Wow, I see why that happened. I see how it made me grow and evolve. And it made me go on the spiritual journey and made me go on a personal development journey and, and learn the tools I need. And then it was that forgiveness work is also the victim, because when you're a victim, you can't forgive. You're you're in it, you know, and you're mad. You're sad, you're angry, you're, you know, and so it is a journey. And I always say if we could go if we could really forgive the Buddha said there's nothing to forgive. But in the human experience, it's, it's a journey to do that. And I just had this conversation with someone recently, who was like, God, it's so hard to forgive. And I said, Well, you can start with compassion. I think people are like, I don't want to forgive that person, I know what they did to me or what they said to me, but I said you can start with compassion and compassion is for you to heal you, you don't have to forgive them for what they did. But if you have compassion, you can hold that space and, and allow them to forgive themselves, or not, and it's none of your business. Yeah, yeah. So it's a it's an interesting journey. And I always say everything happens for a reason. And when you really can embrace that, and you can see the gifts that come from everything, there's a lot of freedom and joy and peace that comes. Absolutely. That's beautiful. It's it's a powerful message, the idea that forgiveness is not just for the other person, it's for yourself. And it's a journey, it's not something that happens overnight. It's a process of growth and understanding and compassion, as you mentioned, so it's a beautiful aspect of the healing journey. Absolutely. Yeah, it's very, it's very profound. And it's it's really an important part of it, you know, because we can carry so much weight and baggage with us when we don't forgive, and it affects not just our emotional well being, but also our physical health. Absolutely. Absolutely. And also, what ails us, what what our challenges are is what our clients are. So it is a gift that we have this gift to grow and evolve. And we're, we're here to serve humanity, you know, and to help others grow and evolve. And to step out of the clinical room and realize it's not about us, you know, and it's it's a very humbling experience as well. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's it's about service and helping others on their journey as well. And that's a beautiful perspective to have. Now, you also mentioned mantras as part of your practice. Can you talk a bit more about how mantras are used in the healing process and what kind of impact they can have? Sure. So we know that, and this is a lot of the stuff comes from Jerry Allen Johnson, who actually was also a Taoist and a Christian, but he was very, he was very traditional. So with the mantras, we know that everything is vibration. And so you can have a prescription mantra for like, high blood pressure, which is, like I said, the heart sound. But you can also, you can also have like a mantra for manifesting what you want. So my favorite one is. Oh, I forgot, what is it, it's one of the Hindu mantras. But I'm not gonna go there. But I will go to what was I talking about before, Oh, you can do a mantra for manifesting, or you can do a mantra for balance, or like the heart sound, for example. And a lot of this comes from Jerry Allen Johnson, so I give him a lot of credit. We have, if you do the heart sound, it's basically it's the heart sound is hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. And he teaches about the placement of your tongue and the pressure of your mouth. And that is a great one for people who have had, like, traumatic things happen to them, especially young, you know, like little ones that can't speak and they can't scream. It's a great one for them because it's the heart sound. And it also is a great one for people who want to open up their hearts and feel more. And that's the other thing about it's it's not just about opening your heart to love others, it's opening your heart to love yourself. And to feel more for yourself, because if we can't love ourselves, and if we can't feel more for ourselves, it's really hard to love and feel more for others. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I love that you brought up the power of sound and vibration because that's something that's been recognized in various spiritual and healing traditions, the idea that sound and vibration can have a profound impact on our energy, on our emotions, on our physical well being. So incorporating mantras into the healing process is a beautiful way to tap into that power of sound and vibration. Absolutely. And there's a lot of mantras that are secret, so to speak, secret, not because they're secret, but because the masters, they they really don't want people who aren't doing the work to be doing certain mantras because it can open up stuff in them that they're not ready for. So some mantras are private and secret. And that's kind of a tradition with a lot of the, the Chinese medicine and Chinese spirituality. Absolutely. That makes sense. It's about the readiness and the preparation for certain practices. Now, I'm curious about your self care retreats. How do you structure those, and what can participants expect from such retreats? Well, my last self care retreat was actually a medical Qigong and shamanic journey retreat in Mexico. I really like to have a location where we can go out into nature and also a place that's beautiful, and it's not like we're in a hotel, where there's all these people around it's more private, and it's more intimate. I've also done self care retreats, where we've stayed in homes, I did a self care retreat with someone. My assistant used to live on an island in the San Francisco Bay area. And we stayed at her house and it was right on the water and we would go out every day to different locations, do medical Qigong, do shamanic journeying. I usually like to have a theme for each day, whether it's balancing your five elements or working on your heart or working on your liver or, you know, releasing fear or working on trust or working on forgiveness or whatever it is. So each day has a different theme. I always do some sort of like, kind of like a yoga type exercise in the morning, even if it's really light. And then after that, we will do a little bit of a mantra and then we'll do medical Qigong. And then in the afternoon, we do a shamanic journey. And I always like to do a theme with that as well. So it's not just like, Oh, what do you want to do in the shamanic journey? It's like, well, today we're going to work on the heart or today we're going to work on, you know, this aspect. So it's all very themed, and everything is woven into everything. And like I said, I always have like guest speakers or guests, people come in to share their, their wisdom and their gifts. And I also like to have the group participate a lot. So, you know, I don't, I don't have a lot of sitting around time. I like to get people involved. And I think that's another reason why I like to go to like, locations where we can go outside and walk around and be in nature. And, you know, we do a lot of like outdoor like, kind of rituals or ceremonies, depending on where we are, and also, we've done a lot of like group type activities, where it's about building trust and about communication and about, you know, just really like, opening up and, and it's it's it's more of a community building type of thing as well. It's not like, you know, I'm here, the expert and everybody's listening to me. It's more like, let's all participate, and let's all share our gifts and our wisdom and our experiences, and learn from each other as well. That sounds like a beautiful and transformative experience, really immersive and holistic. Absolutely. And the other thing is, I always have a free day where people can do whatever they want. I think it's really important. Sometimes we get so caught up in the work that we're doing that we don't give ourselves a chance to just relax and enjoy and, and also, when you're in a different location, you know, a lot of people want to go explore and see the area. So I always like to have a free day where people can do whatever they want. And it's, it's been great. I've had a lot of success with the self care retreats, and people always come back, and they always say, it's so transformative, and they've learned so much. And, you know, it's, it's really it's about the journey, and it's about the experience. And it's not just about, you know, sitting and listening to someone talk for hours on end. It's about really experiencing it and participating in it. Absolutely. That sounds like a fantastic approach to retreats, really allowing for that balance of deep transformative work, but also having moments of relaxation and exploration. Now, as we're coming towards the end of our conversation, if someone is interested in exploring medical Qigong therapy or attending one of your self care retreats, how can they get in touch with you or learn more about your offerings? So they can visit my website, which is medical Qigong shamanic practitioner.com. And on my website, I have information about medical Qigong, about the self care retreats, about the shamanic practitioner training, I also offer a 12 week program, which is a self paced program that people can do at their own pace. And it's a combination of medical Qigong and shamanic journeying, as well as some other tools and techniques for self care and self empowerment. And they can also reach out to me directly through my website. There's a contact form there. And they can also sign up for my newsletter, where I share information about upcoming events, and also some free resources and tips for self care and empowerment. Fantastic. Thank you so much, Dr. Amba, for sharing your wisdom and your experiences with us. It's been a truly enlightening conversation. Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure. And I hope that this information is helpful for your listeners. Absolutely. I'm sure it will be. And for our listeners, thank you for joining us on Mind Power Meets Mystic. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share with others who might benefit from the wisdom shared here. Until next time, take care and be well. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to Mind Power Meets Mystic. Be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share this with anyone who could use a boost of inspiration and insight. Check out the show notes for more information about our amazing guests. And if you're ready to unlock the power of your mind and explore the realms of mysticism, visit mindpowermeetsmystic.com. Until next time, embrace the power of your mind and keep expanding your consciousness.