Master Mingtong Gu 

QIGONG MASTER, FOUNDER OF SOUTHWEST SANCTUARY (THE CHI CENTER)

Master Mingtong Gu is a globally recognized teacher and healer, honored as Qigong Master of the Year by the 13th World Congress on Qigong and Traditional Chinese Medicine. With a profound ability to harness energy for personal and collective transformation, he has become one of the most sought-after teachers of Qigong healing in the West. 

Born in China during the Cultural Revolution, Master Gu grew up amidst hunger, poverty, and separation from his family. Despite these hardships, he became the first in his village to attend college, earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and later two master’s degrees, including an MFA from Ohio State University. During his graduate studies in art, he discovered spiritual traditions across cultures, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Western mysticism, and began practicing yoga, Tantric Buddhism, and Qigong. 

 In 1997, he returned to China to study with Dr. Pang Ming, a physician and Qigong Grandmaster who founded the world’s largest Qigong hospital. There, Master Gu witnessed thousands of cases of chronic and “incurable” conditions being healed through Qigong practice, igniting his lifelong dedication to spreading Wisdom Healing Qigong™. 

Today, Master Gu teaches internationally through workshops, books, and online programs, including his Qigong for Life Mastery series, which makes the ancient teachings accessible to modern practitioners. He is the founder of The Chi Center and the Center for Wisdom Healing Qigong, a 150-acre retreat center near Santa Fe, New Mexico. His teachings emphasize awakening the body’s innate capacity for self-healing, vitality, and joy. 

Having healed his own chronic conditions—including asthma, scoliosis, back pain, and kidney weakness—through Qigong, Master Gu embodies the transformative power of his practice. He lives in New Mexico with his wife, Linling, also a gifted healer, and their two children, continuing to share his vision of global healing through the wisdom of energy, compassion, and practice.