Aetherous

That's awesome.

I wasn't saying your post is unacceptable here, by any means. Or that speaking (your view of) the truth is wrong or to be discouraged. Just trying to shine a light on our personal cultivation, for anyone who is interested in such a thing. Not everyone here is.

Do a weight training program that progresses to heavy weights. I recommend Stronglifts. Doesn't hurt to have a personal trainer if you need help, but anyone can lift weights for free (well, with a gym membership). "Starting Strength" is a good book for learning proper form. Make sure your meals always have equal amounts of carbs, proteins, and fats. Make sure you always eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner...even (especially) if not hungry. I'm not surprised that a skinny person is saying they don't always eat due to not having an appetite. Sometimes, a lack of appetite is due to not eating...a vicious cycle. So just break it by nourishing yourself. There's nothing wrong with Organic Valley whole Grassmilk. It's good to have some, but not so much that mucus blocks your nasal passages. Everyone is different, but I don't notice any problems with a half glass or even a full glass in a day. In terms of feeling weak around others, there's a simple fix - body language. When you're standing, keep your feet slightly wider than your hips and point your feet about 10 degrees outward (as opposed to standing pigeon toed). Keep the weight on both legs, rather than shifting to one leg, and have 55% of weight in the heels and 45% in the front of the foot. In other words, only very slightly more. This stance portrays personal power. If you stand too wide, it appears as insecurity overcompensating in a weird overbearing kind of sexually immature way. If you stand too narrow, or if you're slightly pigeon toed, it's seen as incredibly weak and unstable. If your feet point too far outward, lets say like 80 degrees, it seems like you lack personal boundaries and that something is wrong with you. If your weight is shifting to one leg, you appear unstable (stability is an aspect of power) and shifty or untrustworthy. If your weight is primarily in the front of the foot, it stimulates the sympathetic nervous system and makes you appear less relaxed...if your weight is too much in the heels, you appear incapable, so just slightly gives a relaxed appearance. The second aspect of personal power body language is to have the upper body portray it, as well. If only the lower body does it, it doesn't actually look like power, it looks like confusion and like you're trying too hard to have a certain kind of body language. Same for it you only practice the upper body but forget about the lower body. For the upper body, it's important that your chest doesn't cave in, your shoulders don't hunch or roll forward, that your head doesn't go forward or tilt down too much...it's good to just be upright and centered with a slightly open chest and a balanced head. If the chest is too open, it looks like you're either trying to seem bigger than you are, which appears like overcompensation for insecurity, or that you're mentally a bit off. The point is just to prevent the caving in of the chest, which portrays weakness, depression, etc...just be upright. It helps to practice Dr. Eric Goodman's "Foundation Training" as well as play around with the basics of Esther Gokhale's method. Those methods basically re-train the upper body to be upright in the correct way. It's good for the chin to be kind of level...in other words, don't tilt your head down as if looking at a smartphone, and don't overcompensate and raise your chin up high...experiment by doing those things and finding a happy medium, where the head just balances centered on the neck. When sitting, it's good to be able to slightly rest against a back rest, while sitting upright and centered. Slouching looks sloppy...sitting too upright to the point of not being able to relax appears just like that...as a person who is too insecure to relax. Maintain the same kinds of rules as for the standing upper body...such as not caving in the chest. Keep the shoulders open when sitting against a back rest. Weight lifting also helps the structure of the body become normal, so having proper posture doesn't have to be such a conscious decision. You will just look better naturally as a result. So, if you do the body language, you will appear to others as not being weak. You'll seem stable, mentally strong, capable, etc. You still might feel weak overall, although slightly different...you might feel like people think you're weird for standing like that and will want to change it. Changing it again to a position of weakness (as described above) might feel like going back to the safety of normal, but it will appear weak to others. It can help to look in a full length mirror and practice the body language...see how to do it so that it works and makes you appear strong. See what doesn't work. Finally: it's not true that the healthiest people are very skinny and eat one meal a day.

The pure sees the world as pure, and sees the good/true nature in people. Saying this because Daobums is a spiritual cultivation forum.

It's incredibly easy...so easy that literally every person does it almost constantly, often without realizing it.

It truly was...thank you!

Just a different lens. Which way we look at it depends entirely on what we desire to cultivate with five element practices.

Maybe standing represents a single element. ... Maybe it's good to consider what the elements represent...there are different lenses to view them with. One lens is: wood ascends, fire radiates out, earth harmonizes, metal descends, water consolidates in. So there is up/down, in/out, and balancing. Another lens could be: wood moves emotions, fire uplifts, earth grounds, metal penetrates, and water descends. ... People just make up five element designations for standing. It's not like the practices come from the heavenly realms. If it's based on solid theory, if it actually works according to the theory or lens you're using, I'd say that's a good version of the five elements.

I totally agree to that.

Please do!

I thought the Snopes article was pretty excellent, actually. Good to read the links contained in it. Anyone can claim to be a Pentagon source. Also, good to consider that these supposed Pentagon sources verifying that it was top secret isn't such a great idea, either. "Yes we confirm that our enemies shouldn't know this." Gee, thanks.

Seriously...who says it was classified info? What evidence is there? I mean, wasn't such information shared freely on something like Fox's tv show 24?

What evidence do we have that it's classified information?

At least coming from Max's teaching of it...it seems the reason why that's done is to open mingmen, especially with a slight forward lean to expand the lower back open during the inhale.

Trump completely dominated in the final debate.

When one element has an issue, at least two others do as well. In reality, all five (or six) are in some way the cause and the effect.

Tong shenming 通神明 is not an easy concept to understand. For one, there is this article which is pretty damn good. There is also debate among modern scholars about how to translate it into English for the Shennong.

I didn't mention an egregore at all.

It helps to cultivate and focus on all that is good and virtuous. Religious people would say that having a real connection to God is of utmost importance here...then nothing can come near you.

That's not how my particular school teaches...like I said, schools mostly stick to TCM despite being called CCM. In modern day, the French acupuncture style aims for using only 1 or 2 needles. Their results tend to come on slow (instead of feeling better right away, you feel better a month later) and yet be lasting and kind of all encompassing, from what I've read. In historical times, Hua Tuo advised to use only 1 or 2 needles...although what's attributed to him (the Zhong Zang Jing) is questionable. The one needle way isn't necessarily "classical" though, because the Nei Jing says many different things...sometimes using up to 4 channels at a time, sometimes tonifying the most deficient channel while reducing the excess using 3 needles, etc. I think it gives the body a much clearer message to use less needles. One needle is potentially powerful because of that. You just have to be really good in order to know the exact message to send for the best result. It's totally possible to send a clear message that the body doesn't benefit from at all...it was the wrong message. On the other hand, you can use multiple needles on each limb, sending a more broad spectrum message, which provides greater results despite not being so focused and powerful. In clinic, "classical" doesn't matter...what matters is the patient improving. So despite studying the classics primarily (avoiding homework to do so), I will even go to modern distal needling methods to treat pain like Dr Tan, or use e-stim with needles surrounding the area. Whatever works. The classics, as well as much throughout the history of the medicine, are great to explore, and only benefit you as a practitioner...sometimes you can practice 100% that way, when it's really indicated. I personally feel like it'd be a disservice to patients to practice that way absolutely, if there was a better way that was more modern. One teacher I know put it well...just because it's old doesn't mean it's better or worse, just because it's new doesn't mean it's better or worse.

Well, I go to a "CCM school" and consider myself a CCM type of practitioner who is also learning from a true CCM teacher...so perhaps you didn't understand my post upon first reading.

Classical Chinese Medicine is not actually well defined. Is it strictly practicing from the Classic, the Nei Jing, and maybe the Nan Jing which some also consider to be a classic? The Shang Han Za Bing Lun? Is it practicing from various schools of thought throughout its history prior to the creation of TCM? Is it just practicing anything outside of TCM, including "intuition" and "spiritual" sounding things? Is it just a marketing buzzword? The truth is that TCM evolved as a coherent language, out of the disparate schools of thought and various practitioners prior to it. It wasn't invented entirely...it actually comes from the assorted ideas that arose throughout Chinese Medical history. It has its roots in the Classics, yet doesn't stay strict to them or to any particular school of thought. A TCM curriculum or textbook presents things in a certain way: if they have these signs and symptoms, they likely have this pattern. For this pattern, use this historical formula, and use these acupoints. It's a system that works pretty well when done correctly. Any "Classical" Chinese Medical school teaches TCM at its core, but then just has you think outside of the box slightly. None of them are strict Nei Jing. Any program that teaches herbalism as part of the degree, ends up doing a broad overview of the various schools of thought, even if the school advertises itself as purely TCM...the Bensky herbal textbooks contain snippets of the historical texts...so no matter what, you are getting an introduction to the vast amount of knowledge outside of TCM. Yet it's still all taught according to the common language of TCM in the schools. Some take it a step further, with continuing education programs, or perhaps apprenticeships. Ed Neal created a course on the Nei Jing, which might lend perspective to the dedicated student's reading of the text itself. Arnaud Versluys teaches a family style of the Shang Han Za Bing Lun, which suggests formulas for specific pulse and abdominal patterns. Zhao Wang wrote a book Ling Shu Acupuncture, which attempts to practice a style of needling that is strict to the Nei Jing (only references its various passages and no other text)...although it doesn't include all of the needling styles in the classic, nor all of the diagnosis considerations. So yeah...when it comes to colleges that you get a degree from, "Classical" is a marketing term used to attract students who want something better or older than what's commonly practiced. They nebulously want the best...yet, 99% of students entering don't actually grasp the differentiation. Because you only really begin to learn about the medicine after you enter the school...prior to that, it's just crappy articles you read online or very basic books that only partially make sense, and don't permit you to practice. A Classical Chinese medicine practitioner is someone who is very familiar with the Classic texts, who practices from them rather than from the lens of TCM. Needling may be done differently. Herbs done differently. Diagnosis done differently. There's not a curriculum for what this looks like, because even the Classics contradict themselves at times...but it must depend on learning from historical texts, and does not resemble "spiritual" treatments (unless done strictly according to the texts) or using your intuition, etc. Just my view.

It seems to me like a person must love Chinese Medicine, or at least its potential, in order to become a good practitioner of it. It involves a constant revisiting of the basic theories...if you don't like it, best to find what you like. What do you think is a noble career to have? What are the things you enjoy? What's your purpose?

Glenn Beck only said he considered Hillary at one point...he's actually voting for the Constitution party candidate.

I think your idea is spot on, and must have been a pretty clear inspiration from a higher source.