kenobi

The only historically documented cases of cultivators that I'm aware of are Mazu of China (venerated as a goddess) and Shuten Doji of Japan (reviled as a cannibal). Rasputin was probably also a cultivator, apparently they had serious difficulties when assasinating him. I believe there may be some confusion between cultivation and what's referred to as enlightenment.

If meditation is a present state, then what is the destination of it then? Maybe it's just improving perception and learning ability, gamma waves, as this page says. http://mentalhealthdaily.com/2014/04/15/5-types-of-brain-waves-frequencies-gamma-beta-alpha-theta-delta/ That might be useful for something like martial arts (and for animals), but not for reaching a better understanding of the Dao at least in my view.

Maybe the concept of meditation is really Buddhist, and "proper" Taoist meditation would be some kind of trance state? (Personally I lie down and listen to recorded Tibetan gongs, tea & honey can help preventing falling asleep.) Thomas Cleary I see as someone who seeks Buddhist ideas in other traditions. Nirvana is nothingness and stillness, death in a way, but Dao is something else at least in my view (came across this article that goes into some of the differences between them http://friesian.com/divebomb.htm).

I will probably seek to follow the methods of Jerry Alan Johnson, who appears to be a practicing exorcist with wide experience. Traveling to where he lives is too expensive for me, and I don't think there is anyone qualified near to where I live. I realize I may have been too hostile towards the entity, in reality it's just a slave/tool for the sorcerous/demonic influence and I need to co-operate more with it and seek to release it into the light (after all it's now a sentient being of some kind, so I might not have any right to destroy it).

I'm not strictly Taoist more heterodox. Probably it's a question of energy in this particular case but not generally, ordinary ghosts can be exorcised with ritual etc. Maybe it's too special a case for it to be in any textbook too. Also it may be secret, because the method of destroying such entities is related to the method of creating them.

Hello, sorry I don't want to delve into it too much. Suffice to say I think it may be under the control of another (possibly "demonic") intelligence, that's why it appears to have a kind of intelligence of its own.

Well I don't think my relationship with the entity can get any worse than it is already. It operates on what one might call the qi level of reality, it's not a demon but a kind of elemental force. I just want to know how to blast it to kingdom come.

Hello, yes that may be helpful, it may be something like "energetic parasite" mentioned in volume 2 that I'm looking for information about (if it's the same as what Robert Bruce refers to however it won't be useful). It may of course also be the case that such information in Taoism just hasn't been translated, and the practical exorcists themselves for natural reasons dislike DIY.

Yes thank you, but is there nothing Taoist about the subject? Specifically maybe involving five element theory (the pentagram is also a banishing symbol in the West, but only used superficially as part of a ritual).

Thanks for that, but I was maybe more looking for some kind of "secret sauce" by practicing exorcists, than overall introductory texts. I don't see any reason for concealing that kind of information (as has been done nei gong, apparently).

Hello, I would be interested in some possible pointers regarding how to perform a DIY exorcism, within the collected works of Taoism. (Not a deceased person, but a poltergeist/tulpa/artificial elemental.) Not really interested in debating skeptics, or modern psychologists.

I was wondering if there are published authors in Taoist energy work with their date of birth? Reason is I want to see the compatibility between what their teach and my own potentials. I know Wang Liping and Mantak Chia already.