Rakiel

Dr. Guan Yuan Jin still practices in Milwaukee...I'm going to look in to this since I live there as well. I'm going to look in to practicing this. Maybe he teaches the forms?

You could have been ahead of him while waiting in line at the bank and never even knew it; even qigong masters have checking accounts I presume

Does this possibly mean that P.F. Case was more right than he knew about the Arabic origins and Fez in particular: that he mentions in The Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages

Yeah, I felt it first time i did SFQ. I was a believer. My hands felt electric.

Beautiful quote. I was actually just observing a flower in the garden before i read this: how it just bloomed overnight. Rooted in the earth, healthy, happy.

Can any of these be done together, or do you recommend sticking to just one of these? I am asking because I was interested in adding another system in to my daily mix (I currently do SFQ) so that I would have a little more variety

So I have made the decision to take up taijijuan to complement my recent interest in qigong and Daoist meditation. I have a few questions for practitioners of internal arts here on this forum. I have narrowed the choices in my area down to two options: Firstly, there is an "Old Yang Style" 108-frame which apparently descended from Yang Shaohou to Wu Jianquan to An Dinbang to Chian Ho Yin. This is not the Erle Montaigne or BK Frantzis version. Students of Chian Ho Yin are currently teaching throughout the Midwest from what I have gathered. The class is offered two times per week (which is a plus). The lack of popularity of this lineage allows a few doubts to linger. As a plus, the instructor also teaches baduanjin. Secondly, There is a Chen-Style Practical Method class taught once a week near my city. Apparently the instructor offers the same class in a different location another day of the week. I am personally leaning towards this option because it is more well-known and popular style. I am mostly interested in martial applications, push hands, one day progressing towards baguazhang, and learning fajin. Any advice would be appreciated.

So I've been practicing Spring Forest Qigong for more than two months now. Everyday. And I've been sitting in Full Lotus, too. I've worked up to forty minutes at a time per leg, than switch legs. Anyways, as I began practicing SFQ I noticed that during just before "breathing of the universe" I would place my hands at the lower dantian. After a while, I felt as if the lower dantian area was being magnetized, even if only for a fleeting moment. I had been practicing "moving of the yin and yang" and had been getting good results from it. I was really feeling my front channel open up, feeling tingly and alive as I moved my hands up and down. So prior to all this I was never able to get any energetic sensations in the lower abdomen. I never felt the LDT and very rarely had any sensations in the solar plexus area. I am fully convinced that until my consistent practice of SFQ I was unable to cultivate the LDT. So I got this magnetic sensation before "breathing of the universe", and it has continued through the active exercises. But it was very brief. So I had been continuing the Full Lotus practice that others have advocated on this forum. And I would perform some reverse breathing. And after a month or so, I began feeling this "tingly heat" in the navel area, around and below the belly button. This has intensified as I brought focus to it. After a while, and to this day, bringing awareness, however subtle, will re-create this "heat" there. I have even been able to spread this sensation around the belly area, including the solar plexus. Now I had been reading "Internal Elixir Cultivation" by Robert James Coons and it said to place awareness at LDT and breathe. I never really followed these instructions, didn't seem to really work for me. Maybe I was just impatient, but my regimen as above stated was basically this: 1. SFQ active exercises 2. Full lotus 3. reverse breathing. This has really gotten the LDT fired up for me i think. So I thought it would be great to share this since there has been a lot of discussions lately about sinking chi to LDT and this has been, for me, a successful method. I have yet to do the MCO, as I was advised to allow the energy to flow on its own (a natural MCO vs consciously directing it via visualization). But I am fully convinced that deepening, extending my practice will provide these results in due time. But during my full lotus sitting I have had various sensations along most meridians of the orbit, so the channels are opening I believe. There is an SFQ level 1 and 2 seminar in Durham this October 14-16, I may attend schedule permitted. And Chunyi Lin will be leading it, which is awesome because as I understand it he doesn't do any of the level 3 or under stuff anymore, which is a pity so I think this is a great opportunity. Edit: I forgot to mention that around the time this LDT sensation began, I reached around 100 days of celibacy. I haven't committed to it permanently but I did it as a "foundation" period.

I may eventually create a cultivation journal; but in the meantime I may report certain breakthroughs

I got off track a little, but the original point I was trying to convey is that there is a lot of talk about foundation practices and exercises, and if SFQ is in itself a complete system, and I have found, so far that the exercises have created a sort of "foundational practice", what do you guys think?

So a few years ago I bought some Chlorella and I was taking a few tablets per day. There were no issues. One day out of the blue, I woke up a took my first two tablets. After I had gotten to work, I came down with a terrible sickness and I had to go home. I was real sick: I spent the next few hours vomiting. So I figured it was the chlorella and I started looking it up online and it appears that I am not alone in getting sick from chlorella. A few weeks later, I tried some more (a different bottle/lot) and the same thing happened. A few weeks later, I bought a green smoothie drink with just a smal dose of chlorella and I got midly sick (not to the earlier extent). So my question is can I reintroduce myself to chlorella by taking a half pill or something and slowly incrementally increase the dosage? Does anyone have any experience in what might cause this or what to do about it? Thanks in advance

Thank you all for the replies. I have no particular inclination toward algae. I was just interested in its nutrient-dense properties and ease of use. I guess I will stick to wheatgrass. I am considering Barley Grass and Hydrilla as well.

I was sitting in padmasana a few nights ago. Recently I had been doing a lot of Spring Forest Qigong and I have noticed that I can really feel energy moving along various points along the orbit: not actually orbiting, but when I just observe I can feel energy near the abdomen, solar plexus, heart, throat, back of neck, etc. not in any particular order. Anyways, so a few years back I was only getting sensations in the crown, brow area, and throat. But since I have seriously committed to Qigong I have had numerous sensations in areas of the body along the two channels that I had never felt before, which means the Qigong must be working to open up these channels? So back to padmasana: I was sitting there just observing and after about twenty minutes suddenly I felt this incredible energy collecting near my heart (like in the center of the ribcage), as I focused on it the energy was really building up. (I begin to really feel the energy after the twenty minute mark in full lotus.) So I had to break away from the heart energy because that whole area was getting numb and tingly. Normally, I have had experiences like this at the brow and crown areas, but this heart energy was really interesting. Would that have been dangerous to allow it to accumulate there, or no? Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thankyou. In referencing seminars I was referring specifically to further SFQ levels beyond 1, not other qigong systems altogether. I would like to meet Lin personally at one of the level 4 or 5 retreats. I was also particularly interested in their "third eye" opening. And just to clarify, I am not inferring that SFQ is what is directly causing these chi sensations, but practicing SFQ daily is clearly opening up the channels/meridians in ways I was never previously able to, and therefore during my nightly full lotus sittings the sensations are really intensified. I would also like to update my initial post and state that having been several weeks practicing SFQ I have begun over this last week to have my first energetic sensations in the LDT. I have never experienced this before. It is like a warm buzzing feeling near the navel. Since the standing meditations have the practitioner focus on the LDT at times during the exercises I'm beginning to wonder if this is allowing aiding me in sensing my LDT. It is really interesting. Now I can bring my awareness there and soon i begin to feel it, which is something that months ago I could not to.

Thanks for the link/ The martial stuff would be interesting, but truthfully it is not a priority. Ultimately, it is just something I want to learn (and learn properly) for health and to further what I hope will be a lifelong interest in IMA.

I'm sure it would

I too have downloaded some of the videos just in case. His blog was removed around a month ago. It was conspirachi.blogspot.com

This has been asked before, but I will just throw this out there...anyone by chance have any info on the other steps?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfpjuJaRDhs&index=1&list=PLqJ-F3k_mVPOKR1MDxTqtTROYCTmX-5NU Isn't this the video where he describes the steps? he must be because they show a lady intercut in the video showing some of the poses...obviously I don't speak chinese. I have yet to compare it to my recording of step one

No. Other than Spring Forest Qigong from DVD i have no practical qigong experience. I want to change that obviously. I'm considering some of their seminars. Milwaukee area has no great Qigong offerings. If anyone knows of a good one in Chicago I'd consider it.

Synchronic, I am curious what kind of reactions you have had to his qi-emitting lectures on youtube? Or the nine-step recording?

It would be interesting to hear your friends' feedback about the system. That website looks pretty crazy...

I too have practiced the level 1 standing exercises on and off again for more than a year now...Last month I committed to doing it everyday and I am on day 12. I can really feel the channels opening up

If an instructor is certified through "Chen Practical Method" is that probably a good sign?

I used to work in the factory. They often asked why I was standing like that...I said "Zhan Zhuang"!"