Perceiver

His audio CDs are far from user-friendly, agree. His system is great though. Skype sessions with his instructors is the way to go..

Oneironaut, one thing you can do is to set up Skype sessions with Michaels instructors on his page. Helps a lot with questions and they can guide you through the exercises right away.

It's an inhuman crime. For some reason most of the Turks in my country are denying it happened.

The US is gradually losing its ability to fund extensive overseas campaigns with a large military force. Part of what's driving this is the demographic decline: less young people in the workforce, more old and inactive people. The other part i believe is the gradual increase in minorities that are not well integrated in the knowledge economy, thereby creating a larger lower class. Both factors lead to mounting pressure on the fiscal budget, and the typical politician's reply is to reduce it; thereby gradually reducing the military share of gdp, as has been the trend since the 80s.

I say go for it. Some here say they're cool with potentially being single forever. That's okay. But you can still be cool with potentially indefinite singleness while searching for a partner. The two don't cancel each other out. I would also advise you to maybe look into some other activities for meeting women. Perhaps a yoga retreat is great for meeting people? Or how about taking up a hobby that is of a social nature? You could also do what I do: Approach interesting women on the street. It works, sometimes.. when I summon the necessary courage ;-). Met a girl that way last year and we dated for a while.

There is a grain of truth in most beliefs, but some beliefs are more complex than others.

Hi everyone Two years ago I started my qigong journey, after an unexpected kundalini release that resulted in an energy imbalance. I've been training in Michael Winn's system since and have experienced some great relief. However I've had to do the Microcosmic Orbit (MCO) every day, plus the standing in stillness and pan-gu in order to ground and harmonize the energy. If I don't do them my sleep is impacted, and I feel bad. Over the last two years some things have gotten better. I used to feel sick, almost flu-like sick (chi sickness) around 3 PM every afternoon if I hadn't done any exercises. Now I can keep going till evening time until I start to feel out of sync. Also my emotional issues, such as social anxiety, have gotten better (though they aren't eliminated completely). Perhaps because - when I've had the courage - I've tried to embrace and face it instead of running away. I still have trouble meditating for more than 15 mins though. I will feel completely overloaded with energy. The pan-gu exercise, where the two body halves (male/female) are integrated, has been a very healing exercise for me. But here's the thing: I used to do the MCO for about 20-30 mins every day until the energy was grounded. But that has slowly gotten worse, until I now have to do it for an hour and twenty minutes (!) before the energy is grounded. It's taking away a lot of time, and I can't ignore the idea that it may get even worse. I don't want to spend several hours a day doing this exercise. I don't know why this is happening, but I have two main theories: I've slowly adjusted my energy system to more and more "loops" in the orbit, and as a result it needs more and more loops before the energy is grounded? It's another kundalini symptom manifesting itself: I'm afraid of not being able to ground the energy. And as a result the energy is manifesting itself more and more, so that i'll be forced into a situation where I can't ground it, but have to deal with it and thereby transcend this emotional blockage? I don't have a clue which one it is. I'm considering just doing the MCO for the amount of time that I want to and then deal with whatever happens. All kundalini symptoms are inherently mental, I've been told. But I am thinking that you guys, due to your experience, can certainly tell me if 1) above is a possibility? Thanks a lot

Most people talk in a relaxed and friendly way on this forum Yasjua. Because It's a nice and enlightened thing to do, even when disagreeing with other people. Would appreciate if you did the same.

It's an old-school belief that weightlifting will make you slower. It is especially prevalent in old school combat sports like boxing or karate, in my experience. And it is especially prevalent among people who haven't done heavy bodybuilding themselves, also in my experience. Look at Mike Tyson, he is a big guy, and fast. Look at the big MMA athletes like Andrei Arlovski, Vitor Belfort or Rashad Evans. All of them beefy guys, but pretty fast. Weightlifting - especially the heavy kind, with few reps - will increase your fast-twitch muscles. This makes you faster, not slower. It has been scientifically stated and the evidence abounds. I have lifted weights for many years and put on about 25 pounds of muscle in my late teens as a result. When I took up combat sports again I experienced an adjustment period, followed by a permanent increase in my punching speed. However if the OP states that he has become slower we of course have to acknowledge and respect that. He is the expert on his own body. Just wanted to highlight that weightlifting in general should not make you slower.

Dubstep, viking metal and epic instrumental music. Also sometimes emotional singer/songwriter music like Tracy Chapman.

Josama, there's some truth in what Carbonbreath and Aetherous are saying. 12,000 dollars for ten days is an exorbitant price. The people whom I believe to be spiritually advanced are generally not that money-driven, especially not when dealing with unfortunate normal-income people like you. I would feel bad if I got a young decent guy with problems to pay me a thousand dollars per day for help - wouldn't you? Also, you're defending her to the point where it seems like she is infallible? I find that strange. I don't believe that we should ever blindly worship other people and completely deny the possibility that they could have self-interested motives. Not all people are perfect, and some teachers in the spiritual world are money-driven, egoic and well, lots of other things. Some skepticism is always warranted.

Thanks for the replies guys. The ideas about moving qigong actually relate to something in me. I'd like to give this a try. Think I will have a look at that soon. Yesterday I was considering my options.. Part of my problem has been to be able to relax into this experience and process that I'm in. The mind is a powerful thing. When your chakras have been blown open and energy is running then stuff from the mind can manifest in your body. I thought to myself "am I resisting too much"? I came to the decision that I was. In fact, I didn't really come to that decision because the answer and suspicion has been inside of me for some time. I just needed to open up to it. I decided to do the orbit for only 30 mins, and not really worry about what i felt. I didn't ground the energy to the extent that I would like to, but overall, I felt better. I think I'm gonna practice this non-resistance, and just being at ease with what is. And then look into some moving qigong because it could be fun and harmonizing as well.

Sorry, but I'm gonna be a bit cheeky here and say that the above concept is so 90s . It's been a recurrent topic in spirituality since the mid 90s (and possibly before) that "we are not our thoughts". Like Eckhart Tolle, Ken Wilber and nowadays pretty much every spiritual blog out there. And that's of course true, if you take it to mean that we are also more than just our thoughts. But a true non-dual concept - so I believe - is that we are both our ego and not-our-ego. We are both of these things at the same time. The conceptions of our mind come and go however - only the timeless "I" remains. Over time though, our ego diminishes and we wake up more to our non-ego.

Is this teacher seriously learning people to OBE without ensuring that they have a foundation first; like clearing blockages and learning to ground and harmonize energy? Don't know much about OBEs but that sounds unwise to me. Personally I can recommend you to train in Michael Winn's system. The qigong fundamentals 1-4 give you a good basis for clearing blockages and learning to ground energy. The fusion practices and everything above will advance you spiritually, theoretically all the way to a full union with the dao.

Yes, and I used to think that if I had a time-machine I would go back and stop world war II. And I would also stop the First World War and I would stop the horrible violence in the dark ages. In fact, I would go all the way back and prevent the dinosaurs from dying. And then I realized that you just can't change the world, and that some level of evil is always necessary for higher and more complex manifestations to arise. The world will change when it's ready to, and all you can do in the time given to you is to make your contribution and be happy for it. Perhaps the spiritual masters knew that, and that's why they didn't come back. Or perhaps reality knows that, and that's why it prevents them from coming back. In any case, I don't hope you feel patronized by the way in which I wrote this. That was certainly not my intention, but you just hit a button with me as I used to have the exact same thoughts.

You opened one of my favorite topics here. And no, it's not poop, but the purpose of reality. First of all, you're supposing that there actually is a purpose to our existence. That's a big if. I agree that it's an important if, and one we can and should philosophize about. But it's still an if. Let's say there's some cosmic intelligent force manifesting it all. Does it have a purpose? If it exists, I think it has to have a purpose. Actually, I believe it's an logical consequential necessity. Why? Well, if there was no purpose, then why would it create and manifest? Creating and manifesting is to do something. Absolute pointlessness cannot exist as there in any action, as well as non-action, is a choice. You chose to do that. You chose to not do anything. You chose to do absolute randomness. Whatever you do, there are an infinite number of things you could have done but chose not to do. If something exists, it does or non-does, and both of these are acts of "doing". They are "something", and not "something else". So if the grand cosmic intelligence exists then I believe it must have a purpose. But I also believe the purpose will be so inherent to it that it may be completely oblivious to its existence, and then it's up to its manifestations to rediscover and refine the purpose to an infinite complexity. Kaboom.

How can something not exist? You can't name anything that doesn't exist. If you named it, it would exist - at some level. Physical nonexistence is possible yes. But metaphysical non-existence is not. Saying that something doesn't exist metaphysically is self-contradictory, as your consciousness of it is an existence. At the metaphysical level, everything exists, and non-existence makes no sense. It can not be. Dats what I think, at least .

Sometimes, in these topics, I see people who believe that there's no deeper purpose to life or reality. That life just is, and that's all there is to it. Like waves coming and going on a beach. But if that's true then why do things generally move to higher complexity?

My epitaph would paraphrase Winston Churchill: "I've taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me".

And a final thing: For some reason, I have a problem with doing one-pointed concentration focus. When I do that, as for example in the orbit, then I tend to get an imbalance - feels like a knot in my stomach. And then I have to stop, run the pan-gu to harmonize, and then do the orbit again to ground the energy. As strange as it may sound, it feels better when I keep the energy in motion and avoid one-pointed focus for too long. This problem is there in meditation too. Meditation doesn't ground me. It just makes my energy system feel more diffuse. I feel out of sync too when having done stuff like the 8 vessels qigong (macrosmic orbit) or five shen or even simple ocean breathing.

Here are some of the states that come up when I don't ground the energy adequately: Irritation Anger Hopelesness Sexual frustration and sexual anger/hate And then sensations/tightness in shoulderblades, chest area, liver (?) area, stomach, plus a general feeling of discomfort/out of balance and less energy for being creative and productive.

Yes, certainly can. Not sure exactly what info is needed, but here's a quick overview: Background: Started meditating as I wanted to get out of social phobia. At the time I saw a psychologist. I got a huge insight into my condition one day, and felt I had gotten over the existential part of the social phobia (still feel that), Next day, the Kundalini imbalance started. Personal practice: I found Michael Winn's healing tao system two years ago and starting practicing it in order to harmonize and ground the energy. Am nearly done with the fusion practices, soon moving on to healing love and the first Kan and Li formula. Do the orbit, pan-gu and standing in stillness breathing every day. Have done all fundamentals. Sex life: None whatsoever right now. Stopped watching porn recently because I don't want to watch women have sex with men that they're uninterested in. Stopped masturbating to save jing. It's going well. Am still dating however. Physical constitution: Good. Healthy, lift weights. Athletic. Social and family life: Come from a loving nuclear family. Have many friends. Emotional/mental: Tendency to hypermasculinity, especially in the past. Need structure, order in many things. Can't force a smile . Social anxiousness gradually becoming better and better. Points of interest:Think I may have a left-right male/female imbalance. The right side of my face looks different than the left (right looks more angry and not as firm). The left arm feels lighter than the right arm. Think I experienced a spiritual awakening around August last year. Feels like there were layers of my body that were scraped off. Since then things have been interesting. Feel like I know what infinity is. Vast increase in creativity. Some nights I almost don't sleep. Much less reactive. More moral about a lot of things. Sometimes I feel I have infinite opportunity to express and manifest myself. More understanding of my fellow human beings. Other than that I'm employed in a corporate job, which is boring. But I'm building my dream career on the side and recently it seems like we got a breakthrough (we're a team). So am happy with that .

Understanding that there are different morals from person to person and culture to culture is a healthy and true belief. Believing that absolute moral relativity prevails in every situation is however not. Because that would mean that there isn't anything inherently wrong with for example killing someone for fun. Such a belief sucks.

How do I get laid? An important question I ask myself every day .

Final PS: I got help from a cognitive psychologist. Took a year before I got a breakthrough, but man, it was worth it..