Earl Grey

Gee, thanks for breaking the chain.

I get tempted myself to do the same as many others have been more and more frequently. I am about ready to bring a mob with pitchforks and torches to demand the Off Grid area and the Trump and other related threads be eliminated from this forum and taken to an entirely different forum for that nonsense instead of polluting this place since some people can't seem to separate their quarrels from thread to thread. But we know it ain't going to happen because those who are having the most fun in those threads don't see a problem with it. I'm off to the Fun Machine because I'd rather discuss things that bring joy instead of bring out the anger and resentment in others.

I have never had any interaction with you before this (you’ve previously had the sense to keep your mouth shut) and frankly I do not have any interest in interacting further. What you call a logical fallacy dismissing my life experience is actually called “gaslighting”, a common form of abuse and bullying tactic for arguments, which you appear to lack the maturity or decency to consider as you’re focused on trying (and failing) to be funny (or original for that matter). A part of me thought that the Internet would be a place for discussion of ideas and increase of knowledge and understanding. Yet the pride and absolutely no uncertainty from individuals with zero self-awareness and zero life experience demonstrate to me that perhaps humanity deserves what is coming through climate change and the current populist world order, among other things. I shall “stomp off in a hissy fit” because it’s a lot better to leave an argument upon realizing that talking sense to a fool leads to him calling you foolish (so said Sophocles), but to continue debating needlessly is to let people watching decide that not only are both of you fools for trying to argue, but have also both become idiots for continuing to argue.

Get a life. Seriously. Out.

After seeing how multiple people here seem to think they know more from Google searches and others take them more seriously than someone who actually lived and still lives in those countries affected by climate change (in addition to being part of my own prior work before), I think it's a useless attempt to even try to have civil discourse here. The Internet is full of know-it-alls and no one in this country I am sitting in now cares that some people have the privilege to deny climate change because we're too busy dealing with it here. I just survived a 6.1 earthquake here on Monday and somehow I end up reading this garbage. Let them play their little games. Some people need to play make-believe while the rest of the world needs to act, and sadly, those playing make-believe are the ones causing most damage not just with their carbon footprint, but the spread of misinformation with disinformation.

Riiiight I've lived in Southeast Asia for 15 years (in all three countries you've linked by the way) and your Googling skills trump the experience I've had in all three places. What a waste of time. Aceh enforces a certain degree of Shariah law and is not consistent throughout the entire country (unless you seem to think that that's the case). Caning in Singapore is a punishment that has been done for a guy who spray painted on the wall, not on people criticizing government policy on social media (which a lot of people do on a daily basis and in public protests). The Manila Bulletin, an old and anti-confrontational news source that survived by not offending any regime since the Spanish-American War, is quoting Duterte, who is seen by many as a moron here (and is also supported by many morons). Duterte may say corporal punishment produces law-abiding citizens, but what we see every day here is not people being beaten silly, especially when all I need do is talk about how the police force is killing people instead for reward money for drugs (or alleged drugs), or are extremely complacent because of being underpaid, in addition to prisons being 5x over capacity at a minimum around the country. My friends in our Telegram group are laughing at the inanity of these links used to characterize the entire region as a place where people are "getting beaten with bamboo sticks for questioning government policy". True story: a Frenchman in Cambodia we once met was telling us that the Philippines was an Italian colony, not Spanish. He showed us all these links and everyone in the boarding house were wondering how he could think that Spanish names were Italian or how he could somehow provide such inane information culled from links he didn't seem to understand from his own Google searching. This seems to be a trend with those who use Google but have zero life experience.

Correct.

Spent much time here? Based on that ignorant statement about "getting beaten with bamboo sticks" (which does not happen), I'm guessing no.

Generally amongst Qigong styles emotional states can affect flow of qi. I recommend some silent sitting first to get at least into a neutral state if not a happy or calm one. Alternatively you can chant mantras to relieve emotional duress and ask me privately which would be good for you to at least shift momentarily before practice. Both of these options are also good to do after because FP energy in my personal experience has helped flow improve for these two meditation styles. I have also had friends who were upset who felt better after FP but I don’t recommend practicing while stressed often. If this isn’t satisfactory of an answer, wait for Sifu Terry to respond, and try at least the meditation before and after practice to help shift.

My signature in all my posts basically sums up my view of dealing with the polarized mind. Some have set their options to not see signatures so it is copied and bolded here for emphasis: Cynics regarded everybody as equally corrupt... Idealists regarded everybody as equally corrupt, except themselves. It's only possible to see people when one is able to see the world as others see it. Everyone has a belief system, B.S., the trick is to learn not to take anyone's B.S. too seriously, especially your own. Of course I’m crazy, but that doesn’t mean that I’m wrong. Only the madman is absolutely sure. You are precisely as big as what you love and precisely as small as what you allow to annoy you. - Snippets of Wisdom from Robert Anton Wilson

Yes, many of them (thankfully not all) sadly are not free of the influence of their board members and shareholders, when the stakeholders (the people) are theoretically the primary beneficiaries. The stakeholders for the smaller news sources are the group to question as much as the shareholders for the larger news sources. I can't make heads or tails of the rest of what you're alluding to based on the manner of what you've written in the rest of your message due to some of the esoteric references, but it appears that we have different news sources and arrive at different conclusions about some current events. Based on the scientific method, your data, hypothesis, and conclusions are all different from mine, but I'm inclined to be open if you are equally inclined to share your sources from links or journals privately to me preferably for sake of keeping to the flow of topic here and more importantly so that my opinions after reviewing them outside the context of discussion are more open*. [* It is a truth universally ignored that people who read things on the Internet in the midst of arguments with people who disagree with them will never be truly open to even considering what the other side believes, and in turn will act in a way that will equally turn off the other side to disregard their view. So I prefer to read things alone when not caught in a heated discussion--much like the old days when we had to take a few weeks off to write and receive letter and when a phone card to call a friend in Korea are both too long and too expensive to waste on knee-jerk responses and arguments so that reflection and introspection can actually happen.] [** And yes: I wasted $30 in phone cards for a friend in the Korea in the 1990s after we exchanged angry letters with news clippings over the course of several months, which I use as my point of reference for avoiding online arguments.]

Depending on the country and era, there were differences, but this is a topic best saved for offline unless there are people who are actually interested in learning more. I don't see that happening any time soon because most people even before the Internet didn't want to have their views challenged but to retreat into their comfortable little corners. And at times, those who try to challenge their viewpoints don't have a very strong basis to argue and effectively challenge them. Recommended reading: Confessions of An American Media Man by Tom Plate, Yellow Journalist by William Wong, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972 and The Gonzo Papers vols. 1-3 both by Hunter S. Thompson. This is more bottom-up as alluded to in my above post, because of their readers/viewers/consumers, as is the case with alternative news and moreso with the latter because it's their lifeline: their paying constituents in their niche. For news groups with readers who are no more than a few thousand, those small numbers must be not just pleased, but engaged and fanatically supportive if their writers want to pay their bills. Yes, I am aware there are gems in alternative media. I was part of several groups who came up with some very important pieces for consideration for the audiences we had with our alternative viewpoints as independent contributors. Sadly, the audience wasn't interested in a counter-narrative, especially one that fundamentally uprooted the issue by challenging the fragile paradigm. Specifically, we were going against the mono-narrative of Asian Americans and identity politics by presenting a viewpoint that didn't rely on victim language or an America-centric worldview that relied on disregarding their Asian heritage except when convenient. Our team's articles were applauded by a few intellectuals, but widely overlooked, ignored, or ridiculed by the more common audience who comically missed the point due to parochialism.

As a former journalist and scholar, the popular misconceptions of the media now are based on misunderstanding and lack of understanding together. The lack of understanding comes from the more popular varieties of "reporting" amongst both alternative and established sources that in the old days would be relegated to Yellow Journalism and tabloids at supermarket checkout counters, nowadays just memes on social media. The misunderstanding comes from believing that every news source has the same agenda--they do not. There are four kinds of reporting in one modern model from the 20th century (please note that we are already far past post-modern times in 2019): the observer, the tool of the state, the watchdog, and the trickster. The observer tends to avoid analysis and tries to present currently known facts, the tool of the state obscures information and promotes ideology and self-justification over facts, the watchdog questions facts and may uncover unknown or unreleased information in addition to correlating previously unknown relationships, and the trickster takes facets of all three while promoting its own agenda which can be all and none of the prior categories. Most people see the "independent" and "alternative" sources as watchdogs, which is technically not wrong because that's the kind of approach that they wish to take, but much closer to how the Washington Free Beacon (a surprisingly good news outlet in spite of being right-biased) characterizes itself, which is combat journalism, and is quite different compared to investigative reporting or muckraking. The question is, as watchdogs, who are their masters (readers) and whom are they watching out for? Most of the time in the latter part of this decade, what they are watching out for are potential openings to discredit opposing viewpoints through straw man arguments and creative liberties with information (notice the difference in usage between information and facts). Many conservative outlets tend to be more analytical, and thus more opinion-based. Many liberal outlets focus on fact checking, but the problem with the fact checking is the presentation of information is subject to the level of intelligence of the readers (facts can be misrepresented or easily misunderstood). A piece in the Financial Times International Weekend Edition earlier this month reported that many people who favor certain economical policies from issues ranging from Brexit, the European Union (Brexit the event and the EU are two separate issues here for clarification), the American Federal Reserve System, and AMLO's desire to shift to state industries over private enterprise, and more demonstrate that most people lack a fundamental basic understanding of how economics and finance work, let alone how the global system actually operates. Furthermore, those who do understand how it works seldom acknowledge existing weaknesses in the system. So with watchdog journalism being a popular base model now and combat journalism being the default mode of presentation, what is now left is that the alternative individuals making such videos such as the Notre Dame video as mentioned earlier are motivated by profit from views and in other cases, like in the Philippines, paid trolls weaponize the Internet and social media, and misinformation is what makes social media by default categorized as trickster with some elements of watchdog. And they are not accountable to ethics and standards of reporting, but to their viewers and readers, who pay not just through clicks and advertising revenue, but also pay the hidden cost of what Nietzsche once predicted was the decline of literacy and subsequently critical thinking: by making literacy universal, the quality of literacy declines, and we can infer that by universal access to information, the quality of information available greatly diminishes. Seldom do we have outlets that merely observe aside from Reader's Digest. What we do have are tools of many authoritarian regimes who benefit from Facebook and its algorithms that make it the primary news source for many individuals in countries like Cambodia and Myanmar and thus subject to misinformation and eventual jailing of dissidents, which in turn invites echo chambers of individuals seeking others with like-minded world views and subsequently helps enterprising groups recognize, target, and create news outlets catering to these groups, such as Breitbart and Big League Politics on the Right, and Bitch Media and Mashable on the Left. So when YouTube videos like this spread, Big Tech algorithms, advertising dollars, and the content creators all come together in a closed loop that makes its supporters believe that they see the big picture believing they are free because a door has been opened, when all that they see is a different pattern of wallpaper in the next cell, for they remain in the prison they unknowingly co-created with algorithms, advertising, and alternative advocacies. So is the media a propaganda machine? Depends on whom they are writing for, especially when the ideological slant is apparent in headlines. Does the mainstream media lie? Yes, it does, but to presume that alternative media does not is ludicrous. The mono-narrative of media (yes, across mainstream and alternative media) might appear to be fear-based, but this is sadly what people asked for themselves and are just as accountable. Adam Smith is the individual often attributed in an apocryphal manner to have once said "My opinion changes when the facts change" but sadly the facts are dismissed over ideology today, as ideology changes facts, and what unadulterated facts exist are subject to being misapplied towards false conclusions from unqualified individuals for uneducated consumers, who ultimately feed only the advertisers and algorithms.

I've read that people who primarily get their information online are more susceptible to hoaxes, and due to the psychological concept known as the Backfire Effect, their beliefs are reinforced even when fact checks and fallacy checks are presented. This is also coupled with a recent piece I read in the Financial Times and a sister piece in the New York Times (which I am sure most of the members here will discredit as they have in the off-grid section multiple times or dismissed as "MSM propaganda"). The works in question showed how people on YouTube make a lot of conspiracies up like Pizzagate not because these are muckraking exposés (which they are also unqualified to make and have a series of errors within minutes), but because it's actually them being motivated by income from views. It is a problem of the economy when people knowingly do this and can earn well in spite of being fully aware of the societal damage that it causes from misinformation. And those who eat up the misinformation are those alt-right conspiracists who truly believe that they understand what the real facts are. Challenge any of them to verify facts without just Google searching, finding a page on social media, a meme, or YouTube video, and see what comes up. I'll keep the rest of my views to myself and have more serious conversations on such issues off site because they simply can't be had in this forum. EDIT: Seriously, how is it that this world has come to a point where people follow what are essentially tabloids and severely unqualified people over actual professionals to check sources?

Good that you're researching rather than just taking things blindly. You can't be sure who to trust and who claims to be an expert too, many of whom are on this forum. Try to have a serious meditation instructor who is qualified. I don't mean going to YouTube or downloading an app--try to actually learn Golden Flower meditation (my teacher offers it but charges and arm and a leg) or do the long Gayatri meditation as it cleans and expands the chakras while also downloading from the higher realms: Om Bhur Om Bhuvaha Om Swaha Om Maha Om Janaha Om Tapaha Om Satyam Om Tat Savitur Varenyam Bhargo Devasya Dimahi Dhiyo Yonaha Prachodayat. This is the one you use, not the shorter one as the shorter one is only root, navel, and solar plexus. VERY bad idea. You can strain your head and cause blood clotting in the head as well as congestion at this early stage of discovery. STOP. Unfortunately, the leaked instructions online are missing information as well as have been meddled with due to people adding things into it that don't belong to it. The actual instructions are a closely guarded secret in Java, and the instructions from Jim and Kostas are being held by the Western Mo Pai group, an informal name of students who learned from Jim McMillan before he died and have his notes for practice. What you are doing is not only dangerous, but also not even Mo Pai, strictly speaking. Mo Pai alone without the guidance of the actual teachers is dangerous, and Mo Pai mixed with the distorted instructions that have been leaked online are worse, and one place people here can be in agreement with is that you should never get the leaked instructions and practice on your own. The sensation you feel is not the thing you should be looking for either. This is not as uncommon as you think. Wang Liping's lineage sucks energy from trees via the palm (lao gong point). Without a scan it's hard to tell, but most people who think they stored energy or opened the dantian may be simply aware of their chakras and don't have jing or qi, but li (strength). Don't bother with reverse breathing now--let it come naturally if you have a qualified teacher. Mine says it comes on its own after enough practice of seated and standing meditation (Golden Flower and Zhan Zhuang plus proper breathing before reverse, mindful, and intentional breathings). Yes, you did. STOP. Don't focus on "parlor tricks" as Paramahansa Yogananda calls these psychic techniques, focus on being One with the Divine. The psychic techniques are gifts to be taught and used properly by those deserving of it and to help others improve their relationship with God/Tao/Allah/Oneness/Source. Otherwise, people worship techniques, not God, and become separated from Oneness by focusing on Ego. Healing is an honor and sacred duty. Do not take it lightly.

You could have them watch the DVD with you and then support each other, and encourage them to buy their own copies--that's an idea since you aren't a teacher at the moment. What I forgot to mention is one participant saw a luminous golden being while meditating.

Fellow students, I was practicing for a small workshop in my friend's cafe in Manila today, the internationally acclaimed "Van Gogh is Bipolar" (VGiB from hereon out), which I have been visiting for years since its opening 10 years ago. A total of 38 registered but a final number of 11 came to the workshop because it's already summer in the Philippines and the heat reached 38˚ Celsius. So in an attempt to share the magic of Flying Phoenix, I used it as an introduction to Taoism and Qigong (and to Sifu Terry's DVDs). From seeing colors of purple, green, blue, white, and gold to involuntary movements, lightheadedness, and burping, the workshop was unanimously praised and resulted in people wanting more Qigong workshops there at a rate of 1-2x a month now and will hopefully lead to a regular group of FP meditators and new students joining this thread. VGiB is a healing cafe where the use of organic food was the basis for the owner Jethro, himself a bipolar individual, grew sick of medication and found he could regulate his moods through the use of certain natural foods and teas. He turned his home into a cafe and art exhibition of his Mad Hatter-like tea party theme with steampunk and mixed media influences. Since then, what was once a hole in the wall became a place that has become globally beloved (and subsequently invaded), which led to him downplaying its commercialism to focus on giving back to his community. As such, knowing me for the past decade, he invited me to introduce people to Qigong, healing, Taoism, and meditation since he was sick of the self-declared masters who ended up being completely divorced from self-work and focused on power and energetic sensation. A little snippet where you might be able to find me here: To keep this on the topic of Flying Phoenix, Jethro has experienced all sorts of energy workers from Jyorei to Reiki and Pranic Healing, traveled as a photographer internationally, has had local shamanistic experiences on top of his own bipolar tendencies, and he and his partner both were delighted to say that Flying Phoenix was the most enjoyable energy they had ever experienced. His partner, an artist, only ever saw colors once before in his 45+ years of life, but this time, he was seeing colors every meditation. Participants who came with anger, insomnia, or anxiety left with a feeling of openness and blissful calm, and two documentarians from Singapore who were observing the whole time commented that they themselves felt lightheaded in the same room as the workshop even if they themselves didn't do any of the meditations. We closed it with a little exercise I learned when I used to do taiko drumming in university that explained Oneness through a physics concept called the Law of Entrainment and joining heartbeats together while exchanging some experiences, and I shared some stories of Flying Phoenix right from this thread. There you go: Flying Phoenix was beloved by a group of people seeking healing and with their very first experience, gave it universal praise. Go out and buy your friends and family 2 copies of the DVDs and start healing the world around you because it works wonders more when you come together in a group. It's the best thing you can do in an era when people want to argue with each other online and seldom find something that brings them together through a common interest.

As designated overseer of this thread by both Sifu Terry and the admin of TDB, I ask you to please stay on topic as all posts irrelevant to this topic will be deleted. You are welcome to participate without disrupting or posting argumentative beliefs that deviate from the focus on Flying Phoenix, as the contrarian approach is distracting the conversation. Thank you.

As far as I know and what Sifu Terry talks about, we don't focus on chakras, meridians, jing, qi, or shen so much because FP qi is intelligent. It goes where it's needed and all is mind as Sifu Terry said above when quoting a fellow scholar. It's a system even TCM itself can't classify or explain how it works and was said at some point in the thread. The end goal of Flying Phoenix (as I have understood from my class with Sifu Terry) is to heal others as it's one of the most (if not the most powerful system) for healing since the energy will spontaneously leap off of you onto others. I can't speak for anyone's reactions, including Sifu Terry's, but I attribute Internet communication to be difficult on top of people with different language and emotional intelligence backgrounds trying to express without the nuances of tone and in context--on top of an already very esoteric subject matter, and there are very few qualified individuals with the authority to talk about this, and there are very few universalities amongst systems. So your tradition isn't necessarily going to give you as much help understanding FP in relation to what you've been taught the same way a basketball player can't go to a volleyball team and ask them to explain how their sport will help him improve his skill in basketball. What I can emphasize is that an appropriate way of asking your questions in the beginning was acceptable, but when quoting other sources and lineages in the manner you have can potentially be read as a challenge to the authority of the teacher and derails the focus since it is no longer about FP, but about dreams and Yuan qi, and as I and Sifu Terry are answering now, it's not relevant because FP makes no such distinctions to focus on chakras, dantians, meridians, or the like. However, if you are curious as to how it works for you as an individual, I highly recommend you get in touch with Eric Isen who can make a specific reading for you and your questions on how FP would affect your dream practice and on dantians and chakras. I'd like to now invite everyone to focus on Flying Phoenix. Thank you.

@Antares I appreciate your perspective and experience, but it would be best if you open another discussion thread since that’s not tied to how Flying Phoenix works as Sifu Terry said above. We welcome you to share your insights in relation to the topic.

And are proud of the name of the school and its reputation before they even get accepted, let alone have the effort and knowledge evaluated. Power is not useless but flaunting power one doesn’t have or criticizing the concept of power is again one thing I will say about it: when you have actual power, you won’t talk about it or prove it to anyone because the real thing is not what people believe it to be. And it’s not worth it trying to explain when people have their own ideas about power already and won’t listen.

Sounds a lot like most people with what they want to do after college before they've even been accepted into a university.

Yes, but can anyone see Uranus in this pic?

A suggestion for the mods: with the way this thread is going, is it perhaps worth considering splitting this off from the original thread given that it's no longer anything to do with the OP?

This hearty attitude is why I enjoy the Loneman Pai fellows. I don't practice it, but I sure would love to grab a beer with them and party in the vein of the Beastie Boys.