FixXxer1846

Old member. Could only log in with Facebook, not via my old name FixXxer1845. Got some breakthroughs and once again was fascinated how I'm traveling the same road as Drew. So I came back.

Ha, yeah. Took me about 3 seconds to recognize his style of writing and do a little checking. Thanks though. Appreciate it. Will contribute later. Still doing a few experiments before asking questions.

As several others, I've been paying attention to full lotus topics on the Tao Bums and in Google, because supposedly "20 minutes of full lotus equals four hours of any other meditation". Drew Hempel, once a student of Chunyi Lin, has been repeating this a million times. So it only makes sense to give it a try. Not many people seem to have experimented with the full lotus, however, with many who are able to get into that position being in good health and never having paid any attention to the position's specific effects. I've only been able to find about a dozen first-hand, give-it-a-try postings on the internet. Interestingly, in (virtually?) every case the practitioner reports: "a difference". Better ability to focus and deepen the meditation. A change in the energy that is being felt. So, finally, a couple of weeks ago I began practicing the full lotus myself. I was able to get into that position by the second day of trying, although even today it is definitely not a perfect full lotus with both ankles on top of the thighs. Often times, it is more of a "three-quarter lotus". Nevertheless, I definitely noticed "a difference", even with just 5 to 15 minutes of practice every day or every other day. Here they are: Felt like I was able to concentrate a bit deeper. Others have stated the same thing, but I'm not entirely sure of this aspect yet. My heart area has been a major problem area... lots of pain when focusing attention there and moving the palms in front of that area. That was mostly gone, but each time I moved into full lotus and concentrated even a little (in general, not on the chest!), I got an uncomfortable feeling in my chest area. The first few times, actually, I had major spasms in my arms and upper torso, after which the uncomfortable feeling in my chest went away a bit for a while. To me that's a clear indication of strong energy movement (know this from my early days of acupressure and focusing on the tan tien and other microcosmic orbit points). My nose has been cold for the past 10 years. Cured my hay fever a couple of months back, but the coldness remained. But soon after a few brief full lotus sessions, it seems my nose is getting far less cold in winter weather. It's actually feeling rather warm these last few weeks, which constantly surprises me. Not 100 percent sure yet, but there seems to be a change. My initial conclusions on the full lotus (and to a lesser extent the half lotus and compared to just sitting or lying down Zhan Zhuang, microcosmic orbit and regular meditation): The common idea that meditation in full lotus is a "luxury" and only for added "stability" is incorrect. It definitely moves the energy in the body in a different way. It may actually cause some of the energy to rise, as Hempel has said. Got that indication a few times, immediately before feeling my heart. Interesting to know that, according to Wang Liping, the flow of the bladder channel is reversed by full lotus. Maybe this also goes with some of the other channels. Drew Hempel may be cooking his brains too much with all his full lotus and "O's at a D", but he seems to be on to something here. Full lotus facilitates healing, like Chunyi Lin has said. It's not just more efficient than other meditations/positions... it's actually more powerful and might be able to bring about changes in the meridian system and the body's fysiology that is hard to accomplish through other means. As Hempel said, it does seem to work (through an extent) without an empty mind (watching television, etc.). But it's more powerful when meditating, probably much more powerful. If your body and meridian system is healthy, you probably don't notice it that much. But I did. Everything with me points to a yang deficiency or blockage (plenty of libido, but still cold limbs and nose)... supposedly full lotus is ideal to raise this energy... we'll see. TDP/Moxa lamps and herbs didn't work in the past. ZZ/microcosmic orbit did, but only to an extent. If I find more stuff I'll post it here. Meanwhile, if you have interesting full lotus experiences/info, post 'em here.

I actually have been getting more flexible than I thought. When I tuck in my left leg first I can quite easily last 20-30 minutes. It's primarily the boredom (and a somewhat kyphotic back) that prevents me from sitting in this meditative posture. And I cheat, of course. My foot is kept in place relatively high because my pants prevent it from slipping down. Without pants this foot slides from my thigh. But this way works just fine. The last few days I've just been lying down with a headphone on, listening to lengthy podcasts and interviews. While doing this I do Chunyi Lin's microcosmic orbit/small universe meditation. Occassionally I push the energy through the central channel. A really powerful meditation. After about a hour I start getting all kinds of spasms. Seems to me that the longer you a meditation in one sitting, the more effective it is. So when Drew syas Chunyi Lin sat in full lotus for weeks, I actually think that's way more effective than doing (already very impressive) two hour full lotus sessions. Did do full lotus combined with microcosmic orbit while leaning back in a few pillows and a big hard pillow underneath my feet. Very relax. Will have to wait if I notice a difference from just lying down regularly.

Damn, just now I'm looking for answers. Well, not to worry. I'll get Drew back... I summoned him once. I'll try again. *Goes to woods, draws a circle, makes fire* :ninja: :ninja: :ninja: :ninja: :ninja: I conjure thee, O former disciple of Chunyi Lin! I summon thee, eclectic expert of the full lotus! I evoke thee from the corner of the room where you're meditating! Come to us now! Amen... That should do it.

Maybe I will, we'll see. Prefer to have all the info in one topic. Maybe Drew has a temporary burnout or painful fingers from posting almost 250 lengthy posts a month. Just checked out where you started from, Mantis: My own flexibility has hardly improved. One side is still quite a bit more flexible. Quit doing full lotus for a few weeks though. Tried it yesterday while watching Sons of Anarchy. Can't really enjoy anything when sitting in full lotus. But after 15 minutes I got my typical spasms again. Don't know if that's related to full lotus. Did notice that soon after I began full lotus my nose felt a lot warmer. That went away again in recent weeks when not practicing. Will keep an eye on that too now that I'm gonna practice more again.

Drew, you wrote that you always get an internal climax 1,5 hours into you full lotus sessions. I was wondering if you also get this while sitting in full lotus when watching television or doing other stuff - i.e. not focusing on the tan tien or on emptiness. That brings up the next question: what do you focus on usually when you get those climaxes? Thanks.

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That's an interesting thought. Could be that the moving of yin and yang (which is also the name of the exercise) is causing a magnetic field to be created. I remember that especially when one of my hands reached the top of my head, it was pushed way out. Very strong sensations. Definitely not imaginary. But on other occassions there was a small pull towards the body, I believe where there were/are a few blockages. So I suspect there's more to it.

Interesting, I remember that way back when I did the Moving of Yin and Yang that after 30-40 minutes I began feeling a magnetic field pushing to and attracting the palms of my hands at different points (that took a bit more time when doing it off my back and it always was more subtle that way). I told Chunyi about my experience and asked him what that magnetic feeling was. His answer was something expected: "Interesting, interesting. Very good. Keep practicing." Damn, do I hate not knowing EXACTLY what happens in my body when doing specific forms of qigong. Would love to have a device that measures how full each of my tan tiens is. Anyway, you're saying chi feels magnetic. That that is kind of interesting. Also asked around what the extreme and intense cold feelings were in my palms and around the places I was working on in the beginning - especially the head. It went away after many hours, making place for warmth. Nobody seems to REALLY know what that is. That cold felt like a cold mist hanging around my head and chest. Could literally push the cold around with my palms after 20-30 minutes. Always assumed it was either stuck yin energy or cold negative emotions and that it was probably tied to both the aura and the meridian points (makes sense, both linked to emotional state). But I beginning to think here that even people as Chunyi don't really know all the details of the different sensations. What is for certain though is that the PALMS clearly were CONVERTING that energy. But what I never understood was that the COLD seemed to move DOWN my arms towards my palms (laogong). Haven't felt that anymore after the initial weeks, so that's where my research ends on that. Also, the qigong is/was not powerful enough to release big knots and blockages which (very heavy) acupressure could release in a matter of minutes (after which the reorganization process takes a few hours, which regularly woke me up at night through spontaneous movements). Working with the palms goes deeper and seems to manipulate fields around the body. But acupressure can much more quickly remove "dams" in the meridian "rivers", at least for most people.

Makes sense if a person's flexibility is indeed controlled by the nervous system, which I believe it is. The muscles already have the ability to stretch very far, but the nervous system won't allow. So when a large dose of qi is flowing through the body I assume it can override the control mechanisms on flexibility. However, I'd still go with practicing, pure physical flexibility. Everything else is a nice addition. As for the spirit stuff of Chunyi Lin I asked, still not clear what he means by "the spirits" as there seem to be many. And I get the impression from you they are something to be feared - which is something I'd always ignore personally.

Thanks Drew, for the spirit stuff, but wat I was primarily interested in knowing why the spirits wouldn't be happy with Jim Nance spreading his experiences with qigong. My guess is Nance never told you or Chunyi never told Nance, but it's worth a shot to try and ask...

Yeah Sonhoffman, I figure Chunyi wouldn't launch a national media campaign to promote Spring Forest with Drew "I-practice-SFQ-porn" Hempel as its centerpiece: "Listen everyone, I practice Spring Forest Qigong under Chunyi Lin and you know what I can do? I can create mutual orgasms with young and old girls in public just by sitting in full lotus as taught by Chunyi! ... Let me tell you about this one time that a cat was pointing her ass to me on purpose to suck up my jing juice - just as that young girl yesterday who was sitting on purpose with her legs opened towards me. She too was sucking me off like that - and while she was with her father. Oh damn, I just farted big time because of this qigong stuff. It smells so incredibly bad! Sorry!" Damn... wait a minute... SFQ would actually become the most popular thing around... Within no time you'll find people sitting in lotus everywhere. Damn pervs! Interesting. Did Chunyi also explain why the spirits don't like that? Kind of curious.

Seriously Drew, how much does Chunyi pay you for promoting his stuff?

That reminds me. Three acupuncturists couldn't do anything for me (which included other things besides the hair loss) Stuck 50 needles in my head and body for several weeks with minimal results. Herbs... no use. Moxa... minimal effect. But doing acupressure on myself (after losing over a 1000 euros to the "experts")... a million times more effective and permanent with me. But for my head both weren't powerful enough... the headstance and wooden sword were. Painful though.

Had a similar thing - pretty darn stressful. Hair started falling out all of a sudden. Took me years to figure out a solution so it has thinned in the front. Hope this helps: Stand/lean on your head and roll around. In my case this was extremely (!) painful in the beginning. But soon my hair fallout went back with 80-90 per cent. Lately I used a wooden sword to acupressure the front of my head, primarily GV23 and GV22. It works... leg spasms (energy movement), gets less and less painful, and this is where my hair had been thinning. Don't seem to lose that much hair anymore. In the past, when putting gel in my hair, I counted about 50 hairs on my hands - every day. And that was just the gel thing. Now maybe 5 to 10 if I really rub my hair hard. So things are improving a lot. Wonder if I can make it grow back in the front. Lately I have the feeling it has been thickening a bit. Not 100% sure though. But I guess it won't work with regular pattern baldness. In my case, I was getting bald way, way too soon, because my meridians all of sudden were out of whack (hair faillout began suddenly overnight, after experimenting met with homeopathy). Good luck!

Yeah, I'm wondering about that too. I'm still reading about the orgasm stuff and now mantras, but nothing about basic tan tien breathing, which is what Chunyi Lin advised to you. Whether you want to do that with reverse breathing or not is up to the individual. I've been focusing on that recently. Had to do acupressure first again along the ren en du mai channels (with the point of wooden sword, which is far more powerful (and painful) than fingers in many places) because even with qigong all the stress of daily life is clogging these channels with me. I think I'll have to continue doing this until the orbit is open. So going with Mantak Chia, first the lower abdomen points (CV4/6/8) need to be open to supply the rest of the channel with enough juice. Does work. Worrying hits those CV4/6/8 tan tien points directly with me. They start getting sore. And give it a few months and my stomach problems probably would return. But focusing on it yesterday for some time really gave me severe cramp symptoms. So a lot of work is still needed. Can't do 'em in full lotus. Have trouble getting in that position lately. Too much stretching I guess. And I hate doing my mediation sitting up anyway. As soon as can easily get in full lotus, I'm gonna try doing it lying down with the folded legs against the wall.

Great to hear your take on flexibility. As for docu's, nothing special. I just found four or five on Google Video (whcih often has longer videos, which have been broken down into various parts in Youtube) and Youtube. I want many more, but that's the way it is. (believe I loved this one)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpaCY_aSK5Y (same) (love the accent in this one) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QDT58Q6Zxo (not seen yet)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZTtU7akrfQ (among those I haven't seen yet) (Ian Stevenson speech I haven't seen yet) (not seen yet) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR-F5ZrT6mA (seen, don't remember if its good) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZvAXMuJ1GM&feature=related (Weiss) As for the rest, read the books of Ian Stevensen (and his colleages), Brian Weiss, Michael Newton (the most in depth) and stuff on NDE's (I gathered a bunch of scientific articles on it from some databases, but there's enough on it in books. Sorry, nothing else I can say. But it should keep you busy for a couple of months.

The stretches worked great the first couple of days for me. But this recent week I haven't noticed any improved flexibility. Did notice that my right hip is tighter than the left. There's are also a bunch of painful knots, so I guess I've got a bunch of trigger points in those places. Have been giving them (very) hard massages to get them out. Will need to wait if it works. Did notice my typical right-leg spasms again. I always have them with heavy energy movement. Had them in the beginning with massaging every point along the front Ren channel and also when I began my tan tien breathing combined with Zhan Zhang. They always go away for me after a while, but I guess I'm also rubbing out some energetic knots in my right hip - always good. Did feel pressure in my heart just stretching, rubbing out these spots on my right hip. So now I'm starting to doubt if that effect wasn't just from strething out one or more meridians going through the muscles in the leg. Could well be. Ow well, I just went back to practicing ZZ combined with tan tien breathing while waiting to go asleep. Works like a charm and in contrast to regular meditation - even in full lotus - I can do it much longer and in great comfort. You see, I'm one of the few Taobummers who HATES to do meditation. I just have to it. Will keep working on my lotus flexibility though. Love to be able to get into lotus without even using my arms, like Eddie Bravo in the video.

Interesting how much sense Chunyi makes on this topic. So maybe's he's also right on the full lotus' effectiveness. Now I'm even more interested in getting his take on my past lives (to compare with other sources). I remember reading John Chang's take on life after death (how about before death I always ask?) and that was so incredibly primitive I immediately became sceptical about much of the claims. Basic "superpowers", okay, that's demonstrated, but still don't believe much of those battles described in Kosta's first book. Not a word. I've studied reincarnation for a couple of months, watching all docu's on it, reading all books, comparing it and writing a point-for-point summary on it (which used to be online, briefly). And then compared it with reports on Near Death Experiences. The thing is... it all overlaps and it answered pretty much every (sceptical) question I had related to: how souls are created as small pieces of individual, unique consciousness from "the source" the numerous places where souls can be "detailed" to (you can have a population of 50 billion without souls running out... in contrast to natural resources) how part of the soul stays in the in-between-state and can even lead more than one life at the same time on earth before birth, the in-between-state life planning (with soulmates and soulgroups), alternatives and putting karmic relationships in place (to learn, experience and/or balance things out) how and when a soul attaches to a fetus and interacts with the human host/ego (nice for the abortion question) different life paths soulmates and soul groups emotional adversary suicide (when it's okay, when not and the ramifications) death and the holographic life review what ghosts are and how they perceive time back to the in-between-state (pure love) how souls learn to create physical life (planets, animals, etc.) from the other side and/or manipulate natural evolution how a soul will ultimately go back to the source Different ways to study reincarnation: Basic Ian Stevenson approach: find children who talk about their most recent past life and find the old house, town, family and other details. Some docu's on this also... only rational conclusion: we come back. Brian Weiss: past life regression (can be used to find out the old life also... docu's on that). Michael Newton: deeper trance than Weiss and others, which takes 5 hour sessions. Goes to in-between-state. Has a sample of 5000 people or so. Really incredible. True or not, it makes so much sense to me it's crazy. It's how I look at the world, relationship and everything else these days. My "religion". Read up on NDE's and the holographic life review. More sciebnce studies on that. Overlaps completely with reincarnation. Learn conscious out of body experiences. Eventually you can go and find out about your past lives. Probably related to what Chunyi can do. I dunno, maybe DMT helps a bit (can you program your mind before the trip, like with dreams?)... never used it (yet). Remember there's a ton of scam artists out there. You need personal experience or verification from different sources. But only personal experience/remembering is healing. Anyway, this was for people who are interested in studying reincarnation themselves. As for me, I'll definitely be asking Chunyi some day on my past lives. Update: Ow, seemingly earth is a harsh planet to incarnate to, not suited for many souls, since here we experience both severe physical and emotional pain. Many souls also need serious breaks in between their incarnations and sometimes don't want to come back at all. In most other places it's less severe, you experience one of the two, or none at all (as in the in-between-state, which is pure love, the energy of the source).

Good to hear some of you revived your full lotus practice because of this topic (and also noticed a difference!). And also that some benefitted from the Eddie Bravo stretching. My hips hurt at the moment because of the full lotus. So have to give it a bit of rest. Do notice less and less of an effect from the lotus. It's the same with the microcosmic orbit, which I hope to be doing tonight for several hours. In the begiining, with 15 minutes of practice before bedtime, I'd wake up with this strong energy feeling going up the back. Later on I'd just wake up feeling a general buzzing all over my body. Now... nothing... even after 30-45 minutes. So those initial "symptoms" are very important to me and I always write them down. So I know a particular practice works. Got those sensations while lying on my side in bed and on my back, just getting ready to fall asleep. Nothing fancy necessary, but I think the lotus gives results faster - except I can medidate lying down for much much much longer than lying or sitting up. Ill get back to this. For now I hope get some of these sensations back by doing the orbit for several hours. Once read about a person doing the orbit for 4-5 hours the first time at a seminar. She collapsed afterward with powerful electric like shocks going through her body... I love it! That way I know something works. ;) Anyway, gotta question, Drew: How did you know Chunyi Lin can read past lives? Do you have any examples of that? Any other freaky stuff Chunyi can do which you haven't really discussed in detail yet? Ow, and I thought Chunyi's wife had gotten cancer this or last year. Wouldn't understand that, even if she didn't do qigong. Why on earth wouldn't Chunyi not have detected that?

I talked about this in the topic where an interview with Chunyi Lin is posted. I didn't feel much of anything during two phone healing sessions - but twice I got a little nauseated so that's why I'm pretty sure something happened. Still, didn't change anything for me. Had to do a ton of acupressurre and ZZ to improve my health. Still gonna do another session one day and have him give an opinion about my body. Also interested in his supposed ability to see past lives, which you mentioned, Drew. Chunyi was pretty surprised when I asked him about it. I remember he didn't confirm or deny it... had to call him on a later point for those kind of questions. But I never did. Btw, can't you just ask Chunyi with whom he studied? You seem to know him to some extent. Also, I heard Chunyi's wife got cancer. Do you know how all that went. Hope she's doing well, but that got me really worried. How is that possible when she's living with someone as Chunyi?

Ha... I was messing around with homeopathy a couple of years back. Caused dramatic problems. All of a sudden my hair began to fall out like crazy. The thing that finally stopped it were neck bridges/rolling over the top of my head with my full weight. Hurt like hell the first couple of times. Was crying from the pain. Then... no more hairfall. Probably some blockage of the orbit there, because after I stood up from the headstand the first time I started sneezing and my nose itched. Basically a superpowered acupressure session.