Pedro

Hello Gerard! I agree that when someone achieved a good health and a higher level of qigong practice, eating cheese will not be a problem. My problem is, that I'm still unstable. A small diet error results in various symptoms still related to damp-heat. Maybe it will require a few years to get to the point when I can eat cheese everyday. Until then I will only rarely enjoy such a meal (or even just a snack). Also you mentioned the root cause: the schooling system. Yes, this is a good point. Indeed I studied a lot, way too much, too much focus and concentration, mostly in evening and night when my spleen should have rest. I did this for decades. Climate change ... during childhood we went from Italy to Germany, so the climate change is a factor. Thanks for your tips.

Hello everyone! I have often read about "sealing" in different context, like sealing of the dantian, sealing of hui yin and so on. What exactly does this mean?

Hi @Goldleaf, I have no allergy. In fact I am solely responsible of "destroying" my health with the improper diet. I ate cheese every day, almost every evening, plus too much coffee, too much chocolate, too much cold food and too spicy, for many many years. Also for the emotional stress there was no counterbalance (a way to release the heat, the stress, the frustration). With time this created a lot of blockages. I feel now so much better after changing my diet. Indeed the idea that some allergy was responsible for my condition came up last year and I left out some food categories for testing it, but without a good result. Occasionally I felt a strange feeling, like "seeing an image of a garden, absolutely beautiful". I was not able to describe it. This was in the year 2018 the first time it became more intense and more frequent. It felt like a mild form of synesthesia or ideasthesia. The image came up into my mind and naturally I tried to focus on it, but exactly in the moment I became aware of it the image disappeared. Last week I noticed that when I focused on my gallbladder channel (beginning with GB 44 the meridian "opens" and an electric feeling can be perceived), the image came up and stayed for more then 3 seconds, enough to enjoy the beauty in my mind. This could be a bigger blockage inside my gallbladder and liver meridians. I hope that it will one day clear completely.

Hello everyone! I want to give you some feedback of my progress, especially because someone else may find it helpful. Last I posted was August 2021 and my condition was not good at all. Whenever I tried to practice Zhan Zhuang, even with low arm posture (suggested by freeform) and even if I practiced only 3 minutes a day, it made all my symptoms worse (except my ability to focus, but then I focused way too much on my pains, hehehe). So I made a pause of some months, till January this year (5 months). In the meantime I stick with high discipline to my diet which lowered most of the heat symptoms. And I made almost every day a walk of 1 hour or at least some normal gymnastic exercises at home (pushups, squads, rowing with the machine, etc). I lost 20 kilo since last year (mostly due the diet), which made many of my friends envious. While I lost weight, they gained weight. So the subjective difference was even bigger. My sleep is a lot better, my digestion improved, my bowel movements stabilized, my headache is gone, my graving for sweets and alcohol is nonexistent, my skin looks a lot better, and I feel the energy in my body vibrating. Because of the improvements I began to practice sloooowly zhan zhuang again, 3 minutes a day, with low arm posture, focusing only on my feet. Then day after day the practice time increased naturally without forcing and even without that I noticed it first. When I reached 10 minutes in February I noticed a greater flow of energy in my liver meridian, then spleen, lungs, and so on. And in March finally I began noticing a little bit of heat in my lower dantian (or the region of the dantian), while I reached 30 minutes of practice. My breath goes deep, I'm able to relax almost all my muscles and it seems that I can now practice without provoking toothache or other typical damp heat symptoms. Regarding TCM herbs, I bought some tea that I researched in a few German language books about western TCM herbs therapy (using western herbs according to the TCM theory). I could drink of this tea only 3 days in a row, until it made my symptoms worse, then stopped and they got better than before. Main ingredient was dandelion (taraxacum) and tangerine. In my diet I added fresh dandelion too, horseradish, zucchini, and whatever helps for remove dampness and heat. I'm really happy with my progress so far. Yet I'm pretty cautious regarding my energy system, because I know that it will reach eventually a point where a layer of "trauma" (emotional, physical scoria inside tissues and organs, or whatever) needs to be dissolved. So I will not force my progress and stick to the daily training of 30 min and see how it evolves. Oh and before I forget, I used a homeopathic remedy too, China C200. It is indicated for the malaria miasm, which is damp heat in its essence. It is indicated in my case because I'm so hypersensitive regarding impressions and energy. Many thanks to you @Gerard, you gave me a lot of helpful information and that helped me to stay patient during the time. Additional notes: - I added Eight pieces of brocades to my daily routine since last 2 weeks, because of energetic heat from ZZ (no pain, but discomfort) which helped a lot too - still getting acupuncture weekly which helps to relax

I studied homeopathy in depth. It is very useful to release deeper blockages, even if they resides buried in your subconsciousness and you are not at all aware of the problem. I used it for burn out syndrome, rheumatism, ulcers in mouth and tongue, menstruation problems, mild depressions, panic attacks, sleep problems, recurring nightmares, stomach pain, headaches and migraine, and many more problems. As @Cybele already mentioned, it works best if the remedy was chosen for the individual person, his particular characteristics, when the sum of the symptoms are similar to the remedies picture. Here in Germany homeopathy has a long history and you have a huge variety of producers, like DHU, Gideon, remedia, and so on. Many allopathic doctors and dentists also use homeopathy in single remedies with some success, but not really very successful without the proper anamnesis. The "classical homeopathy" is still the best. If you want to compare homeopathy with TCM or with Qi Gong, then I can tell you that there are many similarities. For example both work on the cause and not the symptom. The imbalance treated in TCM is based on the 5 elements, too hot, too cold, and the more precise 12 meridians, extra meridians and so on. But homeopathy analyze the imbalance by its particular and individual expression of the person by its language and symbology. For example I suffer from "damp heat" according to TCM. In homeopathy the remedies which helps me to dissolve here and there the particular layers are for example Arnica, but a homeopath would recognize this remedy from how I express myself, which words I chose to describe my damp heat imbalance. So the homeopathic remedy would pinpoint with more accuracy. But as in every therapy that use herbs or energetic substances, if you personally don't care about your diet or sleep or homework like zhan zhuang or other qi gong training, the therapy is not really successful on long term.

I try to find a TCM herb specialist in my vicinity. Else maybe you can suggest me someone who practice online? Or at least a good book? In my library I have a few books about TCM western herbs (some of the herbs are the same as in traditional chinese medicine). The strategy of my acupuncturist is to get rid of the heat first, because I suffer according to her (and the symptoms I have) from damp-heat. My tongue already changed color from 1 month of diet, cooked vegetables, no bread - milk - alcohol - cheese. And I feel better. But there is still some tension inside me. I can feel it that something is happening. My cramps in my face (stomach meridian, tendency to lock jaw) are a lot better after drinking dandelion tea, combined with some Silybum marianum (all herbs which grows in my vicinity, around the house). And many thanks for your help!!!

The acupuncturist is also a dietary specialist and she told me to eat in a certain way, cold food during spring and summer (energetic cold, not raw, only cooked food and some raw fruits, avoiding eating too late, not skipping meals, drinking hot water and so on, no red meat, more fungi, no bread, no milk and cheese and sweets). She gave me for the first 2 weeks tablets with a Gentian "formula", a combination of 5 herbs. And you are right, I also believe that my problem was night time meals (heavy, with lots of cheese). For too long time. Eating was a way to calm myself. I'm from Germany by the way. Originally from Italy.

Great advices, thank you very much. I will experiment with the following steps and then give you feedback: ZZ with arms low (very good idea) and not longer than 5 minutes a day and increase slowly Stretching and movement (I take a one hour walk every evening) Herbal medicine for Liver Qi stagnation (for example dandelion) try other forms of Qi Gong (eight brocades?) If you have more advice, I will be forever grateful!

Hello everybody! I was lazy, lazy in eating the good food, lazy in moving, and way too busy with my mind. With the years I developed damp-heat and a lot of symptoms followed, like teeth grinding and toothache (dentist could not find anything, said I have healthy teeth), nervousness, panic attacks in the middle of the night. The only thing that made me feel good was my short Zhan Zhuang sessions. But with time I noticed that after the ZZ I felt overheated and my pains become worse. Naturally I went to get some help, one energetic therapist helped me with the peak of the pain, and acupuncture is now the therapy that slowly continues to treat the damp-heat syndrome. Additionally I changed my diet, eating only "cool" foods and took some herbs against the damp-heat syndrome. Yesterday I tried again Zhan Zhuang and this time it did not make me feel overheated. I indeed felt very relaxed. I even felt energy pulsing through the points my acupuncturist treated. Could it be that when you are in the middle of a damp-heat aggravation, the Zhan Zhuang training adds more energy and makes the "heat" aspect worse? I believe that my diet was the cause of all the problems. Too much milk products, adding to much dampness.

Agent Fox Mulder got a poster in his office with the big letters "I WANT TO BELIEVE", which represented the viewers standpoint and hopes for the series. If you search for "empty force" videos in youtube you will probably notice a strange pattern. All the "victims" looks like "weird nerds", in some way "deformed". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YiAUPKQ2dg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wFR2u69As0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJr2BdUTYkU Or if you have ever visited a TCM or acupuncture course, there you may be get in contact with strange womens who claim that they are able to feel a energy burst from the acupuncture points, but later I found out they was in the middle of their menopause and hot flashes was common symptom for them. I really want to believe, but sometime the weirdos are too weird. And believe me, I regard myself as a "nerd", but they are more nerdier than 20 clones of me put in a blender and distilled in a alchemical laboratory. But there is the other side, the non believers, the skeptics or even the pseudoskeptics. If they are in some way correlated to things like aluminium or fluoride (dentists for example), then their scepticism is even worse. They regard qi as pure fantasy, there is no phenomena like nonlocality and for sure no sense in life, because everything started by pure chance and everything will end in pure chance. And there is a pattern in their look too, for example James Randi looks like Charles Darwin: http://cheezburger.com/1827157248 This could go on forever. Maybe this patterns are based on typical blockages these people have in common.

Another advise: Moving and sitting training (outer and inner training) should be for beginner 90/10. After a while the urge to go deeper while sitting and meditating the ration goes to 10/90. If one experience blockages which cannot dissolved with sitting meditation only, then again back to 90/10, with some help of herbs, homeopathy and so on. Regarding homeopathy: Recent developments in homeopathy has discovered that remedies based on original substances which contains lanthanides are more suitable for "us", people who are aware that the inner world is a cosmos which demands to be discovered. Some of this remedies are perfect "trauma remedies", like for example Arnica montana, which can help to dissolve deeper traumatic layers. A good book on this topic: Emotional Healing with Homeopathy: Treating the Effects of TraumaOct 9, 2003, by Peter Chappell

I agree. Reiki is for certain underestimated regarding it's usefulness as also the dangers. There is no shortcut for becoming a master in handling subtle energies. Some people may even drain the energy from the renal without the ability to distinguish it between the energy that surrounds them. As a warning signal one must be aware that impatience is a dangerous attitude in this field.

Dissolving small blockages (on only one layer, at upper extremities): A small blockage at lung 5 for example felt like a cold piece of metal under the skin and the qi did not flow till to the lung 1 point. Dissolving this little blockage was like I could finally feel my entire arm again and my chest get warm and "full". After this blockage was gone I did not get colds of a certain type anymore (that kind from which you get pain in the arm if you need to sneeze). Dissolving medium blockages (at the lower extremities, with two or more layers): Stomach 36 (a classic) was blocked and my knees cracked a lot and felt like they could not bend properly. After dissolving one layer the cracking disappeared and after dissolving more layers I could feel a warm stream of energy flowing till to the face under the eyes (ST 1). It even makes me now feel more grounded. Also I have the sensation as if a "data stream" flows from the earth to my head. Dissolving big blockages (the deeper paths of energy or the dantian centers): While dissolving a deeper part of the spleen meridian, a path which leaves the superficial flow beneath the skin and enters the deeper paths to the organs, I can feel now since a few days a vibration in my whole body, also like a "data stream", like bits and bytes flowing even between the organs. This is a totally new sensation to me. It is sometimes difficult to get grounded, but just one thought guided towards my lower dantian and I'm grounded again. But it's like I can feel the streams also in the air all around me. This is definitely something new to me and I need some time to get used to it. My digestions works much better now. My advise in dissolving blockages: - be patient, very patient, because some blockages are part of many "layers" - use other "tools" too, like massage, acupressure, acupuncture, bach flowers, homeopathy, herbs (western or Chinese), laser, and so on, because nobody will accuse you of "cheating" - never forget that qi has a kind of intelligence of it's own, therefore do not push, but be a good observer

Hi OldChi, I would like to become a healer, but my approach is this: - first "Physician, cure yourself" - second obtain a very high level of training - third and only then begin to learn how to heal others with your own qi After one has healed oneself to a certain degree of health, one can also understand what path one needs to go and what to expect. In the meantime I helped a lot of people with classic homeopathy.

Damo Mitchell is definitely the best author on this subject, because he treats it as it is, as a science, not a religion (or new age bla bla). And he doesn't care to make more money by putting this informations under the cover of a long hidden secret and only if you pay 100.000 dollars to him he will reveal you the "secret". I'm thankful to him that he just explain what to expect and how to reach the goal. Therefore I will buy every book he will write on this subject. For the first time I have better results in shorter time of training ... so you recognize I'm a fan of this man. Have you read his book "Heavenly Streams"? This book describes the technique and what to expect regarding the meridian training. I'm writing a book on how to dissolve dampness and phlegm which could hinder further progress, with the help of western herbs and bach flowers.