Michael Sternbach

As far as I'm aware, I'm not dining with the Yellow Emperor while sleeping, or something like that, alas. But I do have some personal experiences that seem quite in line with Tao Wizard's query. Back in the 90s, I was active as a certified Bach Flower therapist. I had the great opportunity to work with the patients of a psychiatric practice during six years. I would regularly "tune into" my patients prior to meeting them, using a technique I had learned in the Silva Mind Control seminar and refined through practice together with a bunch of fellow attendees. I was strongly influenced by the book The Creation of Health written by Caroline Myss, a psychic diagnostician who was working together with a doctor, just like me. Even before meeting a scheduled patient for the first time, I would visualise them in my imaginary "laboratory". Frequently, when seeing them later, I found they really looked the way I had imagined them. Having established this psychic connection, I proceeded by scanning their chakras one by one in front of my mind's eye which lead me to their psychological and physical difficulties. I would perceive all this with a combination of inner vision and empathy (I felt their condition myself, which was not always a pleasant thing to do). When a patient showed up in the practice for the first time later, I knew quite a lot about them already! I would repeat my psychic analysis of the same patient before the following counselling sessions, and sometimes even in their presence, if I felt they were open-minded in this regard. I did this so many times, I'm really not sure which story to share here! But I will think of some suitable ones on request. I didn't limit myself to using psychic diagnosis, however. I would employ other methods as well, such as astrology and, most importantly, simply talking with the folks! It goes such a long way for ascertaining what exactly somebody needs for their betterment, for which I was trying to draw on the abilities of both my left and right cerebral hemispheres. Moreover, it was important establishing a relationship of trust and understanding that would help induce healing. Michael

The processes of the conscious mind are linear. The subconscious mind is relying on massive parallel computing, instead. Therefore it's the source of intuition. The conscious mind can't follow it in its functioning, that's why it doesn't see the subconscious. While dreaming, you are not directly aware of your subconscious mind either but you are more receptive to its messages. In the deepest stages of your sleep, when your brain wave frequency is down at delta, you are in fact accessing the non-linear mind directly, but you won't remember it upon awakening.

Hi, Interesting query... It can be answered in many ways, and all of them are right. To add yet another perspective, the mind is a function of the subtle body which permeates the physical body and extends beyond it. More precisely, there are actually several subtle bodies, or you can say it has several layers: mental, emotional, etc., but let's keep things sweet and simple for the time being. The subtle body interacts with the physical body, thus the mind will be influenced in its functioning by the given physical conditions (such as the intake of a Long Island Ice Tea ). It's important to note that the mind is not connected only with the brain, however, but with the physical body in toto. Emotions and thoughts often have their origin and can be stored in parts of the body far away from the head. Michael

Hi Tao Bums, This is my first post. I'm practicing Taiji in the Old Yang style as taught by Erle Montaigue. Erle's Taiji emphasizes Fa Jin, Dim Mak, and realistic self-defence. To him, Fa Jin was for striking, not pushing... Because if you merely push somebody away, generally they come right back to you (now really mad). All right, it is conceivable that there are times when a good push may have its survival merit but I don't feel like going further into this right now. In Montaigue's Fa Jin techniques, shaking the waist is the almost universal denominator! For example, if you were to punch with your right hand, your waist would first turn counter-clockwise, in the direction of the strike. But at the moment of impact, the waist sharply twists the other way. According to Montaigue, it is this counter action that “squeezes the Ch'i out of the Dantian” and into the technique. However, obviously, this will also reduce the time span the hand actually stays in contact with the target as well as the degree of penetration it can reach - which I think makes sense especially if a technique is aimed at the bony structures of an adversary's head, while on the body you may need more penetration to get the desired effect. Now, what surprises me is to find this forth-and-back action of the waist so prevalent in Montaigue's system mentioned hardly ever in the Taiji literature outside this system - at least as far as I'm aware of it (but maybe somebody else here can navigate me to books or websites that do elaborate on it). I am curious also how other styles of Taiji handle this issue, as well as other martial arts such as White Crane Kung fu (i.e. Shaking Crane). Any informations welcome! Cheers, Michael

I am a 45 year old Swiss student of philosophical Daoism, Taiji and Chinese medicine. I'm also involved with Western esoteric systems and modern science. I won't say more right now because: The Michael who can be spoken about is not the true Michael! So it's best you find out yourself who or what I am... and would you PLEASE let me know! Cheers, Michael

Hi Soaring Crane & Chang, Thanks for this warm welcome. The fascinating topics of these forums attracted me. I look forward to learn as well as contribute something myself, here and there. Best wishes to both of you, too! Michael