Aeran

Gonna third the recommendation for a teacher. In the long run, I would think you'd be better off waiting until you have a teacher and then practicing properly under their guidance, even if that means reorganizing your life or waiting a few years until things align, than trying to wing it with books.

A ton of reasons, but probably the foremost is that it opens me up to aspects of reality that I would otherwise remain disconnected from, it gives me a sense of connection with the universe and a purpose and meaning around which to direct my life. Up until a few years ago I lived as a regular, 21st century atheist, refusing to even consider anything outside of the tight confines of the materialistic/reductionistic scientism imbued in me by my education, and it made me incredibly miserable. Believing that you're nothing but an emergent property of a pile of grey goop in the top of a machine made of muscle and bone, disconnected from everything around you, with a short existence bereft of meaning or true connection, is a truly awful way to go about life. It was like being stuck in a beige hell, and discovering meditation, qigong and the spiritual side of reality was like waking up to a vibrant world of color and life.

It's always felt more Buddhist than Daoist to me, but I'm not an expert in either.

Aether would be closer to the Buddhist element of space/void, or the Hindu element of Akasha. Something much closer to Qi would be the ancient Greek concept of Pneuma, which was translated as Spiritus by the Romans. Unfortunately the concept mostly died out with the rise of Christianity, instead of integrating and developing within Western society as it did in Eastern society - it was too closely tied to pagan philosophies. Skip forward to the 18th century and there was a surge in interest in what was called "animal magnetism" following the the Mesmerism movement of Anton Mesmer, although it eventually died out. There was also Reichenbach's Odic Force in the middle of the 19th century, and then in the first half of the 20th century Wilhelm Reich wrote extensively about the concept, calling it Orgone. So the idea isn't alien to Western society, but it seems to have always clashed with philosophies which have held a stronger grip on the Western conception of the world - first Christianity, and then later, post-Enlightenment scientific materialism. So, the time on the clocks doesn't match that of the video speed, and the author puts it down to spooky time distortions as told in Chinese folktales..... Am I misreading this, or is the author really that biased? That was my first thought as well - it's an interesting story though.

But doesn't Green Tea itself contain caffeine?

I haven't seen his DVD's, but I've read all four of his books and seen a few of his youtube lectures and Q&A's, and the depth of his knowledge is amazing, especially for how young he is. I don't know anything about reincarnation but he's a testament to the fact that 20 years of hard work will yield amazing results.

His Sung Breathing method in his book Daoist Nei Gong also works to dissolve emotional blockages and tension:

My first experiences with the sensation of Qi, practicing exercises intended to lead to the opening of the MCO from a book, were of an intense heat, which I suspect was maybe not the Qi itself but just the effect moving energy intentionally for the first time had on my body. I also experienced intense pain in my legs, a prickling heat, which turned me off the exercises entirely (for the better I suspect). Later on, practicing the Middle Pillar ritual, which, in Qi Gong terms, opens the central channel by bringing energy down through the Bai Hui, it felt something like what I can only describe as feeling like slightly condensed sunlight - soft and warm, and as it moved down the torso and expanded through the body it would bring on twitches, heat, tingling and a pleasurable feeling of arousal expanding from the genitals and lower abdomen. Practicing Pore Breathing, I would feel an expansion and contraction of pressure surrounding the body, a kind of magnetic feeling (although why that word seems suitable I'm not sure, since I've never "felt" magnetism that I know of). If I held the Qi in my body instead of releasing it on the out breath, this sense of pressure would build in the body, along with a charge of physical vitality and a mild, energizing euphoria. However the effort itself seemed to create a bit of a strain, and after a certain number of rounds I would find it harder and harder to draw the energy in and feel strained doing so, much like a muscle growing tired from excessive work. The Flying Phoenix system of Qi Gong again had a slightly different feeling to it. The best way I can describe it is as something like the sensation you get when you pass your finger through a candleflame (the name of the system immediately felt appropriate), except instead of growing in heat and burning the body with continued exposure, it would spread and circulate in different ways, depending on the exercise, creating a sensation similar to the easing of muscular tension you experience when sinking into steaming hot water. The energy seems to have almost a volition of it's own, and it feels like it moves to where it is needed most and then settles in to work on healing whatever problem exists there. Finally, the Qigong taught by my Taiji teacher seems to create a soft, vibrating sensation of pressure running over the whole body, this sensation is very relaxing, and different patches of tension almost seem to subconsciously adjust during practice. Occasionally it would create patches of heat, which would sometimes move around the body before quickly clearing up. After practice, I would feel vitalized and calm.

If you're practicing Damo Mitchell's qigong forms from youtube, you should check out his books (Wu Xing Qi Gong is contained in Heavenly Streams, and Ji Ben Qi Gong in Daoist Nei Gong: The Philosophical Art of Change). The books contain more indepth instructions for the forms, including the method for properly aligning the movements with your breathing, as well as a ton of other useful information for practicing which can be worked in with any system of qigong.

I used to get a powerful burning sensation in my legs while practicing, it was only when I figured out that my hips were wildly out of alignment and began to loosen and straighten them that it alleviated. Just a guess, but it sounds like you've possibly got some tightness in the elbows which is causing issues further down the arm. I don't know enough TCM to speculate on the nature of those issues, but working to gently open up the elbow might help you out.

Yes, my very first experimentation with Qi Gong was from that book. I honestly would not recommend trying to practice from it - the instructions are often vague in places, mashed together from different sources, from memory they give little or no advice on the prerequisites for practicing the kind of exercises they teach (opening the MCO), and the techniques they give are rather blunt and forceful and could easily cause problems (in fact I experienced serious side effects while using their methods, and it put me off qigong training for a year until I found better sources for instruction). I'd be surprised if anyone has actually managed to successfully complete the training outlined in that book using the book alone as a source, to be honest, I'm not trying to put you off your pursuits, but I really think there are better sources for instruction out there. Unless you live in a rural area you should start by seeking out a teacher, especially for the Taiji. There's really no replacement for a real life, living and breathing teacher who can sit in front of you, demonstrate firsthand and correct your mistakes. If you still want instruction beyond what you can find in person, check out the recommendations in this thread: http://www.thedaobums.com/topic/40061-potent-systems/page-1 As far as books go, I'd especially recommend Damo Mitchell's books as a replacement for Qigong Empowerment, primarily Daoist Nei Gong ( https://www.amazon.com/Daoist-Nei-Gong-Philosophical-Change/dp/1848190654 ) - it's much more coherent, cohesive and extensive, especially for a beginner, and contains a lot of techniques, tips and theoretical information that will be useful even if you don't pursue the practical training in the book itself. Good luck

The structure is similar, but the content is different. I wouldn't be put off of Strovolos just because you didn't like Java. As I remember it, that was the purpose of TMOJ. The problem was, it was supposed to be part of a wider project to bring the concept of Qi into the fold of Western science, including a website (which I think existed for a time), further video documentation and proper scientific testing and publication. However the project was nixed when Chang pulled out early in the process after allegedly being instructed to do so by his master's spirit in a dream, at which point he cut off the Western students and withdrew from further public exposure. Personally? Not really. I found them an interesting read and they inspired me to get my own practice off the ground when I was first studying meditation and qigong, and I know they've done the same for others, but I think the people who take a dogmatic approach to the content of the books are allowing their insecurities to overpower their inquisitive nature and in doing so entirely missing the whole point of what Danaos' was trying to convey.

If you don't mind fulfilling my curiosity, what exactly makes a system of qigong "spontaneous" and why would such a system be more dangerous than others? I've seen the term used a lot but never heard a technical definition.

I assume you're being hyperbolic with the "every one," but which cases specifically are you referring to? I agree that there's almost certainly some correlation, and likely a causal relationship, between marijuana and the emergence of mental illness (especially anxiety disorders and psychotic disorders). And I definitely agree that the legalization movement goes out of it's way to understate the issue, and would be very wise to adopt a less dogmatic view on that count if they don't want their propaganda to shoot them in the foot in the long run. But, that said, the question isn't whether weed is absolutely harmless or not. No drug is harmless. The problem is that if we criminalized everything which was dangerous, then we'd have to ban alcohol, tobacco, effectively every pharmaceutical medication known to man, a wide variety of herbs and foods and an assortment of human activities (martial arts, skydiving, riding, hunting, shooting, driving, etc etc). The relevant question is whether the harm caused by marijuana while it is illegal (because as you've discovered, even while illegal drugs are still readily available - and usually in a more harmful form than their legal varieties), combined with the harm caused by it being illegal (drawing users into the criminal sub culture and the black market, problems with the prison industrial complex, etc etc), is less or more than the harm caused by the drug while legally available. And I think you'll find that if you examine the evidence, it states pretty conclusively that marijuana being legal causes substantially and demonstrably less harm to society than marijuana being illegal. Putting aside the question of the life destroying prison industrial complex for the moment (although I don't think it's a question which can be ignored, since the moral ramifications are enormous), the evidence coming out of places which have legalized marijuana is that use either remains stable or decreases slightly and that the age of instigation of use goes up. Where are you getting this from? As far as I understand it, marijuana is like every drug, in that regular use causes a tolerance to develop, requiring more, not less, to achieve to same effect.

I know it's not a popular opinion (and I'm certainly not an expert, so take it with a grain of salt), but I honestly don't think so. I imagine you can learn the basic movements of specific forms from a DVD (I'm not so sure about books) and derive some physical and energetic benefit, but in my experience there are too many subtle nuances which really need to be conveyed in person to fully grasp the practice and develop it over time. I think with only books and DVD's you'd quickly hit a ceiling in terms of progress. But if you're really determined, give it a shot. It can't hurt, and what the hell do I know?

All of the above, but more importantly, I think it demonstrates how much she's willing to put up with to gain power, and probably explains why she seems to feel so entitled to it. I think it's strange, given how much of an issue it was when it happened, how much of a taboo there seems to be in the media against discussing Bill's infidelity as it relates to Hillary's political career. That said, at the end of the day, I don't see a Trump victory happening. I think it's a bit of a fluke that he got in in the first place - had Romney waited another 4 years or McCain been young enough to run again, either of them would have easily swiped the nomination (and probably the election - I bet Romney is beating himself over the head right now). I know people in the US are riled up right now, but I just don't see them taking the wildcard option that Trump represents over Hillary's stability, even if it is a rather reprehensible kind of stability.

I interpreted the "potent" in the title to mean effective, and I see nothing wrong with either people claiming to teach effective systems (as long as those systems are in fact effective) or with people seeking out systems which are effective. That's fascinating - it would have made for a very interesting study. Fair enough - FP is an awesome system but can definitely be time consuming. To answer a question, there were no known bad side effects from our severely mentally ill people doing qigong. Some qigong masters had advised us not to teach them any movements that would bring chi to their heads. That made sense since they already have too much energy there anyway but we never bothered to avoid that. What was gratifying was some of our most disruptive patients actually embraced qigong and they turned out to be model students while in the group, their behavior was well controlled and some had family members order them a qigong dvd so they could continue after discharge from our facility. Spring Forest Qigong is especially good because the movements allow most people to feel chi flowing in their hands quickly. I remember that after several months I could eventually feel some degree of chi flow in my hands from every one of the movements. So it does build up the chi. I stopped doing it at work because I retired and no longer worked there. I stopped doing it at home before that because I found other qigong methods that Eric found that gave more benefits to me. Flying Phoenix was one of those, and if you do Flying Phoenix Chi Kung, then you really don't have time to do any other method.

Is he wearing the hoodie to hide a blue arrow tattoo'd on his forehead?

That's fascinating. Did any of the patients experience side effects from their practice? I would have thought if anyone would be vulnerable to some kind of qi gong sickness, it would be a room full of psychiatric patients. And if you don't mind my asking, why did you stop practicing Spring Forest Qigong? It sounds like it was yielding excellent results.

I wouldn't draw a particularly strong comparison with Castenada, personally. Stylistically they're fairly different, and more to the point there's considerable evidence that Castenada's books were the product of imagination, whereas, unless you're one of those people who refused to believe in any kind of spiritual subject, it seems pretty obvious that there's at least a strong current of truth running through the story of John Chang (that is to say that there was a man living on Indonesia, who studied martial arts and nei gong throughout his life, developed at least some degree of energetic power as a result, used this power to work as a healer, and took on several students, including a handful of Westerners). That said, one thing a lot of people don't realize is that Magus of Java is clearly and knowingly structured after an earlier book, The Magus of Strovolos by anthropologist Kyriacos Markides, which was published a decade before TMOJ and recounts his experiences socializing with and later training under a mystic and healer from Cyprus named Stylianos Atteshlis (aka. Daskalos). Even the title of Danaos' book is a clear reference to Markides', and it's fairly closely structured after it as well, which I would guess was also intentional on Danaos' behalf. The similarities between the chains of events which both Markides and Danaos went through are actually quite uncanny - both men (both Greek men, at that) learned of a spiritual healer who lived on an island, was well known within the local community for his abilities to perform preterhuman feats and heal afflictions Western medicine could not influence and was surrounded by a circle of students, both men sought this man out, socialized with him and managed to join his circle of students, spent a period of time training under him, wrote a series of books stemming from the experience, then underwent some form of dispute with the teacher, who cut ties with them. It's enough that, if there weren't so much independent evidence of the existence and capabilities of Chang, you'd be forced to accuse Danaos' of plagiarism. As it is, you have to wonder how much his account of his experiences with Chang was influenced, consciously or otherwise, by his reading of a book which he obviously admired.

The media has a strange way of both understating and overstating the amount of conflict and trouble in the world. On the one hand, incidences are clearly unreported on a statistical level - for every Nice or Orlando, there are a dozen such similar attacks which are not reported in the Western media, simply because they didn't happen in the Western world to Western people. The same goes for a multitude of other atrocities. So in this sense, it could be said that they under report these issues. If they didn't, they wouldn't have enough hours in the day to report on every horrible thing that happened somewhere in the world. On the flip side, until the development of the modern TV news cycle, people simply weren't exposed to most of the atrocities which took place in the world. For most of human history, our understanding of what took place in the world was on a much smaller scope - limited to what happened to ourselves, those in our social circles or our local area. People generally weren't exposed on a daily basis to the fear that they were under some kind of threat (and certainly not such a wide variety of them). So we turn on the news, and we see all these horrible things happening. And we feel a clear dissonance between this and our daily experiences, simply because we hear about these things constantly, but are rarely, if ever, exposed to them. But a level of fear is still instigated, which is of course the goal of the news services - to induce fear so that we feel the need to constantly watch for more information with which to protect ourselves.

Where did you work that they had you practicing qigong?

You might find the discussion in this thread interesting: http://www.thedaobums.com/topic/41419-my-favorite-topics/

The above list is a good one, I've heard nothing but good about all of those systems, and can vouch myself for how great the Flying Phoenix system is.

Quite sad to hear this, I've corresponded with a few people who trained under or visited master Jiang, and by all accounts he was a great teacher and a genuinely compassionate healer. I know he had several students who had been training under him for a long time and reached decent levels of attainment in his system, I sincerely hope they can keep the hospital open and continue the teachings of his lineage, it would be a huge loss if either of those disappeared from the world.