Students of qigong, Taoist inner alchemy, paranormal anthropology, and anyone interested in the limits of human potential. Not recommended for: Readers who demand double-blind studies, or those looking for a “how-to” manual for fire-starting.
Mo Pai is a closed tradition. Chang refuses to teach publicly, write manuals, or accept money for instruction. McMillan struggles with this, wanting to share everything, but Chang insists that knowledge without proper energetic and moral preparation is dangerous—both to the student and to others. Seeking The Master Of Mo Pai Adventures With John Chang
McMillan, a successful real estate investor and martial arts practitioner in the United States, sees the Ring of Fire documentary. Fascinated and deeply skeptical, he resolves to find Chang. After years of dead ends, he traces Chang to Surabaya, Indonesia. His initial meeting is anti-climactic: Chang is a quiet, unassuming middle-aged man who runs a small Chinese medicine shop. Chang refuses to teach publicly, write manuals, or
John Chang remains an enigma—either a genuine master of an ancient bio-energy art, or a highly skilled illusionist with a compelling ethical philosophy. McMillan’s book does not resolve this question, but it frames it honestly. The final verdict depends on the reader’s willingness to accept that some things may lie outside current scientific explanation. Fascinated and deeply skeptical, he resolves to find Chang
The book serves as a sequel or companion to the earlier, more famous documentation of Chang: the 1996 documentary Ring of Fire (produced by Lawrence Blair and Lorne Blair) and the subsequent book Ring of Fire: An Indonesian Odyssey . In those works, John Chang (born Chang Il-Sung) demonstrated seemingly impossible feats: generating electrical energy from his fingers, lighting paper with his bare hands, stopping a machete with his abdomen, and influencing matter at a distance.
A central and unusual claim: In Mo Pai, moral purity is not just a spiritual nicety; it is a technical requirement for energy generation. Anger, lust, greed, and lying disrupt the flow of chi . To generate the high-voltage energy needed for feats like fire ignition, the practitioner must have a clear conscience and altruistic intent. This is the book’s most unique contribution to the Western esoteric canon.
4/5 for narrative and sincerity; 2/5 for verifiable evidence. A fascinating, problematic, and unforgettable read.