freeform

Haven't tried I remember seeing a scientific apparatus from school that was of a similar set-up, but using an incredibly thin piece of copper sheet instead of paper - when you shined a light on it, it would spin.

Put a glass jar over the top of the whole thing so that air movement isn't an issue

I wouldn't trust the word of someone who's 1) recommended a book he never read and 2) is that broke and still manages to use a computer. I'm joking of course. But honestly... you really believe newspaper stories as "what really happened"!?

You mean fill you in. I for one am not interested. Mal - Tao and the Tree of Life I enjoyed a lot. Eric's books read very clearly and in a step by step manner - I found them much more accessible than Chia's material.

Exactly. And presence in the moment. (I'll have to resort to putting E-prime on the back burner for this post I'm afraid ) Emotions can demolish our patterned illusion... This is the silver lining of strong emotions for the spiritually focused. Illusion is the product of the ego - The ego creates illusion to make itself seem real - patterned illusion is a constant argument for the reality of the ego. Emotion is a small flow of reality into your awareness - it disrupts the constant control the ego has over you. That's why it feels so disorientating. Now notice your inclination to pinpoint a reason for the emotion - the drive to figure out the explanation... this is the ego attempting to gain control again... This is what it does - it labels, and by labelling it assumes an imaginary form of control... once it has a story for something, it's again at the top of the hierarchy - the king of you. "I'm angry because my boss is obnoxious" - suddenly there's a label, a story a frame of reference - it's fine - I understand it - it's under control. I suggest you don't find a reason, don't try to figure it out, don't name your emotions, don't even frame it in any Taoist/TCM framework... Just feel it in your body. Use your senses directly with no interpretation. Deer are known for their acute level of awareness... they respond to their senses directly - us humans tend to sense something - commentate on it - and then respond to the commentary. Remove those extra steps and just keep your attention on your senses - particularly kinasthetic sense - feeling. "I just shut down from others and myself completely" - lots of repressed anger there... the energy behind anger needs to be expressed. Shutting down in the way you describe is what we do to repress anger so that we don't have to feel it... If you give it a chance and space in your body, and some physical outlet (shouting, shaking etc - seriously ) you'll find a new lease of potent energy. Good luck - and thanks for reaching out publicly like this - it helps many people.

I'm glad to see you back here I also have fun criticising criticisms. and criticising criticisms of criticisms and then becoming sceptical of criticising criticisms of criticisms of criticisms... until it gets so silly that I can't help but laugh - and suddenly in that moment of laughter all self-importance pops like a bubble from a bubble pipe. I greatly enjoyed every one of Eric's books and value his and his wife's bubbly presence on Tao Bums.

Do you see that asking how to shut off the chatter, in itself, perpetuates it in a different guise? When the chatter goes on in your head begin to pay less attention to what you hear and much more attention to how you hear it. When you watch someone speak in a foreign language, although you don't get the content of what they say, you pick up the tone and emotion behind it. So as strange as it sounds the voice inside has a particular tone, a particular location and direction it comes from - notice if it sounds like your voice or someone else's voice... When you begin examining these things a peculiar thing may happen... I've no idea what will, but sometimes people vividly remember when they experienced this same tone of voice in the past... Once you get comfortable listening to the subtleties of how the internal dialogue manifests itself you may move your attention to the feelings that accompany it. You may discover a panicky feeling or a sense of apprehension behind it. Put your attention on the feeling and allow it to move unhindered in your body. Then you may find it helpful to follow the advice I gave in this post.

I treat emotion as a very promising indication of progress... Emotion - especially the strong kind - tends to come up when our patterned illusion collides with reality. It also provides you an opportunity to feel how different flavours of energy move through your body. I advise to detach yourself from the story behind the emotion, and put your awareness on the sensations in your body... allow the sensations to move and spread freely, without contracting and trying to stop or suppress them. Do this outside with your bare feet on the grass... Once the feelings spread throughout your body, you will notice that they transform somewhat - maybe even become pleasurable. Open up the the underside of your feet like the aperture on a camera lens and invite the feeling to move down into the ground with a smile. Trees can also help transform emotional energy, but you'd need enough sensitivity to feel if the particular tree would welcome this energy exchange.

Another good example where E-Prime can shed light on faulty thinking... "While you were arguing" - A statement you made from your point of view, but by using 'you were' you incorrectly portray that we all saw it that way too. Actually I interpret most of your posts as 'arguments' and most of Mal's posts as 'discussions'. In my view 'discussions' involve building connections and 'arguments' involve winning or being right. The ego argues for its self importance, something we all seem to be guilty of.

A perfect demonstration of what E-Prime does. 'Red is the name of a specific light wave'... Seems like a reasonable thing to say, right? In reality though, it again creates faulty thinking- it removes the process used to observe from the statement. Abstractions of abstractions of abstractions... Thoughts about thoughts about thoughts... Based on a true story about a story about a story... "If reality exists and if I am a part of it, then according to my thoughts, if I have any, about what an apple and the color red might be, if such things can possibly exist, I think I perceive something I might define as redness in relation with the thing I might define as an apple." We have awareness - a part of an earlier evolutionary step for us (deer also have awareness)... Awareness relies on our senses - and never abstractions laid over the top of senses... A deer doesn't hear a sound and think "oh shit - that sounds like a predator - I better get going!". We also have consciousness - a distinctly human trait... it allows us to create any illusion we choose to. It allows us to study patterns using mathematics and it allows us to blame our favoured football team for our bad mood. We make our life more complicated and less fun by confusing consciousness for awareness. "is" does this by making this mistake an accepted part of our language. I don't think E-Prime solves this completely, but it certainly highlights it and makes it obvious. "The apple is red" makes it seem like there 'is' an apple, there 'is' red - whereas these things are all creations of consciousness. "The apple looks red" accurately relates the dance between awareness and consciousness. (for those that have discussed 'process and content' with me will recognise how "the apple looks red" demonstrates some process as well as content... "the apple is red" demonstrates only content. Content with no process makes thought stagnant.)

I wrote my dissertation in E-Prime. It tends to remove many semantic ghosts... and very importantly, it forces us to reference our awareness, rather than our abstract thoughts. Just notice how when we write in E-Prime we often substitute a sensory term for the 'is'... 'The apple is red' becomes 'The apple looks red'... suddenly the process used to make this distinction reveals itself. I also practice 'grounded and ungrounded assessments' - quite simply - 12 jurors would agree with a grounded assessment... they wouldn't with an ungrounded one... "John looks angry" - Ungrounded "John furrows his brow and raises the volume of his voice as he speaks" - Grounded Avoid implying a preference for one or the other, but noticing the difference (even if only done for a day) can teach you a lot about your habitual thought processes. And helps you notice when you mistake thoughts for awareness - one of the major 'sleep inducers' in our culture.

It can also happen in an instant. Please don't limit yourselves or others with preconceptions. Some great suggestions otherwise. Liver stagnation sounds about right... I've found there is a close relationship between liver and lymph flow - massaging neurolymphatic points you'll find ones that are very sore - pay more attention to these points and keep massaging daily for about a week. Drink plenty of water. Take a break for a week (doing mild exercises) then begin again for another week. This clears stagnation powerfully (sometimes making symptoms flare up before they recede completely).

Yup - it's great. I thought Michael gives the DVD out for free when you book the workshop.

Yup - definitely therapist time. First thing to discuss: your mother.

I don't think it's that important. I was taught to have my hand just above the heart and under the throat. Interesting. Does your body tremble/vibrate with the energy? I've had it happen that the movements go totally internal - and I just vibrate almost invisibly - get very hot and sweat a lot... but then it's moved back to intricate spirals and circles for me recently.

From my experience - to keep the energy going between the lower and middle dan tien. Let your hand move where it moves!! For me the hand position is only held for a second or so before the energy rushes up into the arms and they start doing their own thing.

Yeah - when others open up near us, it becomes easier to let go, just by following their example. In a workshop with Max I was shifted around the practice room for that very reason... it's as if when you see someone being completely vulnerable and uninhibited it gives you permission to let it all out too... group practice is beneficial in that sense - wait till you start spontaneously coming up to and healing people!

It's a butter 'oil' - so all milk proteins are removed - basically its shelf-life is indefinite, so there's probably not a specific season that's best... If buying actual unpasteurised butter from grass fed cows late spring would probably be best. The butter oil is expensive - but good in combination with cod liver oil - especially for ligament, bone, joint problems. Yes to going to the pain rather than through - very important! Also balancing the rest of the body is key - having a long-term injury creates lots of compensatory tensions all over the body - concentrating just on the ankle would be too specific. Cool!! I didn't know that. It's a deceptively powerful program - if done with some awareness and in combination with qi gong, it does a lot more than oil the joints.

I've already recommended this one today

I highly recommend Intuflow [link]. Supplemented with X-Factor Butter Oil and good quality Cod Liver Oil (taken together). Lots of green, leafy vegetables (kale!) along with above would be perfect. And learn qi gong from a teacher.

There's no simple duality like you seem to think - life just doesn't work that way... It's much more about compatibility than anything else... someone easily aroused might get on well with a woman who's similarly responsive... and conversely a man who takes longer to 'warm up' might get on better with a girl who does too - or it might work the other way round too Popular culture likes the visual sense - TV, the internet, magazines and all kinds of adverts are all primarily visual - that's why you feel like you should be aroused by a visual stimulus... But you've been sold a lie - you have many other senses and you might find that stimulus from the tactile or auditory or even emotional kind might be your primary sense... Women - in general are less sold on the visual stimulus... Of course their interest is piqued by an attractive person, but it's only part of the equation - your smell, voice, touch, attitude, level of 'presence', ability to bring out emotion, maintain sexual tension etc. are at least as important as what you look like... I suggest that if you pay more attention to these things yourself, and look beyond surface appearances, you might find much more satisfaction in intimacy and relationships. Relationships should be nourishing - surface appearances are rarely that nourishing - at least for some people... you may be the type of person that requires more substance from a girl... look for that in a girl, bring it out more in her and don't settle for anything less and you'll be attractive to the kind of girls that attract you.

This is just as much of a belief as that of your mum's... And the feeling that it's 'hollow' is as correct or incorrect a response as your mother's fear for your soul. Yes. No belief can be ultimately 'true' - so your beliefs, however more inclusive or 'balanced' they seem, are the same as your mother's. What you have on your hands is not a quest for who's 'right' (because nether of you are) - but a simple power struggle. Up to you how you go about it.

Yeah it's a confusing sea of contradictions to start with. The most important thing to know is - What do you really want? Yes there are martial, health and spiritual qigong systems, but they all overlap at a certain point. Find out what you would like most and then get to know some people that want the same thing and are further along the path of getting it - simple as that. If you don't really know what you want - just say so and then you'll be offered some suggestions... there are even some teachers that visit this forum. If we don't know what inspires you to do qigong and how much time and effort you want to invest in it, then there are just too many possibilities, so you won't receive many recommendations.

Baptism doesn't mean your child automatically takes on Christian beliefs.

Me too!! You can tell Cat's really taken that Water thread to heart! Being drunk + energy work... not compatible... mildly hung over + energy work - for me at least - works great.