Aeran

It's possible for a community on the internet based around the discussion of spiritual/metaphysical topics to not only thrive with a large and consistent userbase, but to regularly host interesting and thoughtful discussions between experienced and intelligent individuals. I know people talk about trolls and political debates and all that, but coming out of the "Western occult" scene, this place was like a paradise. I think it's worth considering how much of a jewel this site is compared to some of the alternative venues for discussing these topics. And of course a specific shoutout to the Flying Phoenix thread, which is not only one of the best collections of ongoing discussion about Qigong and related topics I've found on the internet, but which introduced me to an incredible system of healing and spiritual cultivation unlike anything else I've encountered.

^ Wow that gave me a flashback to: From when I was a teenager Never knew it was sampled from an older song.

If you're looking for book recommendations regarding breathwork and the internal energy system, you couldn't do better than Damo Mitchell's work imo. I'd highly recommend all of his books, but by the sound of it his Daoist Nei Gong and Heavenly Streams would be particularly interesting to you - the former is an introduction to Daoist cultivation with a substantial chapter devoted to proper breathing techniques, and the latter is devoted to explaining the meridian system of the body (it's one of the most articulate and succinct explanations I've found) and techniques of working with different channels. Welcome

Noticed it was a full moon, went outside to finally try MGAM while actually gazing at the moon, by the time I reached the park it was spitting rain and a freezing wind had kicked up, which I figured would not be good in the hyper-sensitive state brought on by FP, came home Hopefully the weather is better tomorrow. Oh well, I decided to knock out some Taiji instead. Still had a really good session of FP earlier today with BTB, MHPearl and Basic Seated #2 (and man that last one is really going to town on my back, rides right on the edge of "good pain," like an intense high pressure massage - feels great afterwards though, and it feels like good practice for slowing the movements down to hopefully reach "speed of a shifting sand dune," since there's nothing to concentrate on other than the movement of the arm motions).

Hey Frank, good to have another Aussie around I'm stuck over in Adelaide at the moment, but I was born in Sydney and hope to find my way back there someday, it's an amazing city.

Gross :/ Back "in the day" (which wasn't even that long ago for me, only 10 years) the first thing we were taught re: tabs was "if it's bitter, it's a spitter." And yes, like you said, people were almost always upfront about whether they were selling LSD or DOI/DOC (some weird individuals actually preferred DOI/DOC... personally once was enough for me - in fact one particularly ill-advised trip combining LSD with DOI put me off long lasting psychedelics entirely at a fairly early stage). Precisely - the artificial cannabinoids are a particularly egregious examples of the problems with the RC market (and with prohibition). They developed a fairly large following among the mining industry here in Australia, since they didn't show up in regular drug tests like regular marijuana, and a huge amount of grief followed. Each round of bans is followed by the emergence of a new, less tested, often more potent, replacement. All because the government doesn't want to back down and allow people to consume a plant which, while not entirely harmless, presents only a fraction of the risk posed by synthetic alternatives, and about which we have a much deeper understanding due to a long history of research into it's effects, positive and negative. Wise words And advice I wish I had taken more seriously back in my drug using days. If I had taken set & setting more seriously I wouldn't, eg. have been permanently turned off LSD by stupidly combining it with DOI then allowing my GF and her friend to convince me to go wandering through the city instead of relaxing quietly in the garden as we had planned. It would have also prevented a lot of my misadventures with ketamine and later methoxetamine - I had some incredible experiences with these chemicals (especially ketamine) early on, but unfortunately kept on pushing well after the drug itself had communicated that I had nothing more to learn from that particular state of consciousness, and as a result of ignoring that message I ended up in a nasty cycle of addictive binging for a while. These days I no longer indulge, been there, done that, got the t-shirt And most importantly, I don't want any outside influences which could cause problems with my spiritual practice or otherwise drive my personal development off the rails. But after my own experiences and after seeing where most of my fellow travelers ended up, I'm still extremely passionate about harm reduction and drug law reform. As an aside: to the OP and anyone else in this thread planning on experimenting with hallucinogens for the first time, I would highly recommend going to http://bluelight.org/vb/forum.php . They have a large community dedicated to harm reduction, including a substantial number of extremely well educated professionals in the field and experienced, long term users. I personally feel that the spiritual potential of hallucinogens is extremely overrated, outside of the context of specific psycho-spiritual treatment modalities, but if you're going to indulge for whatever reason, it is best to do so safely.

I obviously can't answer for Sifu Terry, but I had the exact same problem (used to get it with breath sequences as well - really annoying to drift off in the middle and forget which breath you're on then have to start over!). I've found over time that practice allows the mind to get better at subconsciously tracking the breathing and then movement, and it rarely occurs to me anymore. On the flip side, if you want to go into deep sleep/dream-like states during Flying Phoenix, try out Basic Seated #3. I'm not sure if it's a specific function of that particular meditation, or just that it's a seated meditation with no movement and thus facilitates the most mental relaxation, but I recently spent a month or so practicing it daily and had a few times where I drifted into rather intense dream-like states, complete with sound and visuals. The content of these "dream-states" wasn't random either, but always correlated with specific health issues. I've moved on to Basic Seated #2 for now, but at one point in the future, when my practice is a bit more advanced, I'm looking forward to trying an hour long sessions of Basic Seated #3 and seeing how deep it can go

On a real big Chillie Peppers kick lately: Before that I was doing my daily FPCK to:

Wow, I've been doing one of my favorite FP meditations wrong all this time :/ That's a bit humbling - always more to learn I guess. For what it's worth, MHPearl seems to have had a significant effect even without the hands touching the belly. Will be interesting to see how much it improves using the proper hand position.

Yeah it's a nasty scene all around - tbh I'm amazed it hasn't caused even more problems than it already has (and it has caused significant problems as it is), it seems like on a long enough timeline an MPTP type situation ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPTP ) occuring on a global scale is inevitable, given the way substances are being discovered and produced. Hell, for all we know, one of the chemicals which has gone through a phase of popularity was a powerful carcinogen, and 10 years from now we'll have thousands of drug users all over the world simultaneously developing similar cancers. There's just no way to know - and each time the government do a round of banning, the chemists just resort to more obscure, and thus even less tested, chemicals. I usually hate it when prohibition advocates use the "russian roulette" analogy in regards to illegal drugs, but it really seems applicable here. And, as you said, there's the spillover into the pre-existing market. Earlier this year a batch of capsules containing fluoroamphetamine and 25c-nbome were being sold as MDMA in Melbourne, killing at least one person and hospitalizing several others. A few weeks later, 2 men died after smoking something they thought was methamphetamine - the chemical wasn't identified, but their bodies overheated and they went psychotic before suffering brain death. The horrible part is that so much of this is preventable. Harm reduction measures alone could save so many lives, not to mention a properly scientific revamp of our global drug policy. But because of pandering politicians and greedy lobbyists and outdated stigmas surrounded drug use, nothing happens and people keep dying as a consequence. There's a huge battle to get pill testing underway here in Australia right now, but the government are just digging their heels in so as to appear "tough on crime." Meanwhile, every summer festival season brings another handful of dead teenagers and young adults. There's also a campaign to have a safe injection center set up in Richmond after 34 people suffered fatal overdoses there last year, but that is also receiving massive pushback despite the monumental success of the safe injection center set up in Kings Cross in the early 2000's. Ugh, it makes me mad So much pointless death - nobody should die because they're young and trying to explore the world a bit, or because they're in pain and trying to self medicate with street drugs. It's atrocious.

I was having similar problems with excess heat, and it was recommended to me by an Ayurvedic healer (Eric Isen, if you've been following the Flying Phoenix thread) that I could work it out of my system with physical exercise. It sounds a bit counterproductive on the surface, but I've started making sure I keep a minimum 1 - 1 ratio of time practicing Qigong/Taiji - time spent jogging on a treadmill, and this seems to vent the vast majority of any heat left over from practice.

It seems to me that the best thing to do would simply be to follow the example of a teacher who has demonstrably obtained results from their practices, perhaps combined with a bit of guided experimentation if your experience does not seem to line up with their own. It could be (in fact I find it likely) that multiple locations can be used for similar functions in the context of different systems of cultivation, or alternatively, the location of a specific energy center could vary from individual to individual (I read at least one source which claimed that the height of the dantien varied based on one's distance from the equator at the time of birth).

I thought we agreed to pretend that never happened...

Badlands, Borderlands, same difference It's a great show either way. Kinda Crouching Mad Max Hidden Dune.

So I'm not the only one who sees the irony of a website with a banner saying "awaken your potential" next to a Buddha portrait, all done up in noveau-hippy aesthetic, while selling highly addictive and completely untested benzodiazepine research chemicals, right?

I believe I remember someone saying that the protagonist isn't Japanese, but I'm not into anime so don't quote me on that... Either way, Johansson looks a lot more like the protagonist than I can imagine any Japanese actress doing - blame that on the anime art style if you want. But if they hadn't, then you'd have people complaining that the movie had no strong female roles. Identity politics is a lose/lose for the studios because there's always one demographic which people can claim isn't represented sufficiently. I'm not saying that Hollywood doesn't have some weird issues with race, it absolutely does, but I just don't think you can jump from that to the assumption that everyone who's watching what they make is somehow racist, or that the solution is some kind of demographic quota. You guys should check out Into the Borderlands, Kickass show, great reviews and the star is definitely asian, if that's a prerequisite for you.

I think you're making assumptions here again. Why would they be willing to cast him in Mr. Robot but not as a super hero? Hell, Mr. Robot practically is a superhero show in many respects, just with more emotional depth, less physical violence and less fantastical elements. They also devoted substantial resources to Luke Cage, a show which had a majority black cast. And I'd be interested in how you think they could have better cast Mr. Robot or Humans to be less prejudiced. It's easy to point fingers, but without even trying to suggest a solution it seems a bit pointless. Well it would be a bit weird if they had an Indian or Black or Asian man running around medieval Scotland in a kilt, waving a broadsword, wouldn't it? Certainly people get upset fairly quickly (and rightly, imo) when the reverse is done in movies like The Last Samurai. I don't think I avoided anything - as I said, I think the answer would depend less on the skin color of the chosen actor and more on their acting ability, especially in a show like Billions which is carried almost exclusively by the acting ability of the core cast. You have to remember that demographics play a role too - how many Indian actors are there in Hollywood with the right combination of age, gender, availability, reputation, talent and suitable acting profile to pull that specific role off? I'm fairly certain the casting of Tilda Swinton in Dr. Strange was an attempt to subvert the "wise asian master" trope and to give a major, powerful role to a woman in a film which is otherwise dominated by men. And I think it worked - she nailed that role (especially given the flaws in the script she had to work around), and the movie would have been the poorer for her absence. Again, this is a lose lose situation. If they had cast an asian man, people would complain that there were no women with strong roles in the movie, or that the asian actor was being typecast. That's the problem with identity politics - no matter what you do with a given piece of media, there's always some angle from which you can portray it to make it look racist/sexist/oppressive/whatever.

I have enough to worry about in this lifetime, thanks I'll worry about the next if and when I get there.

Based on what? As you've pointed out, there are few shows with Asian actors in lead positions precisely because it's viewed as a risk, so what can you use to gauge whether it's a risk in the current market? The problem is that we're talking about multi-million dollar productions, no company wants to be the first one to dive in and take that risk in case it doesn't work out for them. It sucks, but that's just the nature of the beast. Anyway, all I'm saying is that I think if people were given a chance, they might surprise you. Yes because the shows were shows about... robots (well, metaphorically anyway, in the first case). In fact both characters had fairly intensive emotional dimensions which their actors portrayed exceptionally, I thought. Two excellent roles which were given to excellent actors, who proceeded to perform excellently and receive critical acclaim for doing so. I mean what more do you want? If they had cast Caucasian actors in those roles instead, you could say it's less roles being given to minority actors. If they had cast more minority actors in antagonist roles, you could say it's negative stereotyping. Should we just never cast minority actors as robots? What would have been a satisfactory outcome, in your eyes? That depends on whether you're talking about shoehorning an Indian actor into the role just because it's allegedly loosely based on an Indian individual, or selecting an Indian actor for the role because he performed the best in the casting process. The former seems like it would almost certainly be detrimental to the show, while the latter could only be beneficial. I notice that nobody is insisting we head over to China or India and insist that they start including a greater number of Caucasian actors in their productions.

Or possibly the studios just haven't given them a chance to do so? I think it's unfair to write off an entire nation as racist because movie producers don't seem willing to take what they see as a financial risk.

Thanks. That seems to confirm my theory, since they also gave the location for the MDT as the bottom of the sternum - instead of the height of the center of the sternum/nipples, as in most layouts. It's neither here nor there for me of course, but interesting all the same. Cheers.

Very interesting... When I first started my spiritual practice I trained for a time under a pair of teachers who also claimed that the LDT was located at the height of the navel, as opposed to the traditional location further down. I always wondered where they came across this idea (they were always evasive when questioned about it, and despite researching the subject I could find no other sources which validated their teachings on this subject) - given their geographical location, it looks like I almost certainly have an answer now. For what it's worth, I always found using that location very uncomfortable and unintuitive, and it seemed to me that most of the energy I tried to direct there using their practices would simply sink a little further down to the traditional LDT location. But that isn't to say that it might not work for other people of course. Out of curiosity (and apologies if I'm hijacking the thread) - where does the Spring Forest Qigong system place the Middle Dantien?

Interesting article, thanks for linking it. I remember when I was first working on improving my breathing and getting to the point where slow, belly-breathing became my default, I was watering the garden one day and noticed that, as I swapped from normal irregular/chest breathing to slow/belly breathing, I automatically went from swinging the hose from side to side in quick, random motions to slowly circling the hose over the garden bed in time with my breath. Interesting the flow-on effects these things can have

Interesting, thanks I might actually try that one out at some point(it's the last one on the DVD, yes?), since I suspect my kidneys could use a boost. Side note, but I had another odd bout of spontaneous movement tonight, this time in my fingers I decided to mix up my routine and start doing Bending the Bows as my standing meditation, and every time I raised my hands in front of my face in the Monk Gazing at Moon posture my fingers would start shaking and twitching like mad. Just the fingers, oddly enough, at first the pinky and ring finger on the right hand. There was a bit of shaking of the same fingers in the left hand towards the end, but not much. No idea what that was about... although I did dislocate a finger in my right hand years back during a misadventure, which left a visible misalignment which can be seen as a gap between the middle and ring fingers when I hold the hand closed. Going to keep up with BTB, maybe throw in some MGAM or possibly Basic Seated #1, see what happens in those fingers. BTB is becoming another of my favorite meditations - it feels in many ways like a more active version of MHPearl. It feels like it really gets the Qi circulating around the system, but you can still pause at the end of a cycle for a few breaths if you just want to relax and go deep (at a minimum I usually just sit at the end with the hands in front of the Dantien for a minute or two before closing the meditation). Really love this system - hope everyone's practice is kicking ass! ps. I think coming onto forums and talking about how much you love Qigong while buzzed off the energy from your last practice session is basically drunk-dialling for Daoists