rsalazar

Hello DC, With this particular reading, check your gut for any connection between your question and the reading itself - a different translation may also give you a different angle to look at the question (I like the Wilhelm/Baynes) - since this is pure intuition, the phrasing sometimes acts as a trigger for your answer - also, check the changing lines for additional info, this is left out on the clarity site when looking at the Barrett translation - primary hexagram in this reading seems to imply rethinking things, although this is just a snapshot of the current conditions, you may want to recheck later as you get closer to the deadline for getting a ticket, things are constantly in flux. Cheers, R

Hey Vortex, Interesting that you mention this, Franz Bardon writes in Initiation into Hermetics that this whole process creates thoughtforms called larvae, which are created involuntarily by most people during times of extreme emotional excitement. There is a natural cycle of birth and death with these larvae in the mental sphere, but if these energy manifestations are given more energy by repeated returning to the same source of excitement over time, they will condense to a point where they develop their own will for self-preservation. His specific term for larvae created during repeated fantasies is "schema." Years ago, I had a lady friend that was also visited by a classic incubus one night and called me one morning in hysterics crying about the event. She was unaware of these things and badly frightened. She told me she was awakened that night by what looked like a small man with large "greedy" eyes, which then jumped on her chest and made it hard for her to breathe. Interesting to note that this young lady had also been chronically indulging in masterbation from a young age (I believe from the age of 10), watching porn, etc. It seems in these cases that the initial development of some of these entities is within us, but then after a certain point they take up a life of their own. I keep Joel's recommended symbols on my walls. All has been quiet, although I had a girlfriend recently that was fairly sensitive and occaisionally would hear stuff moving around at night. Interesting that this only happened when she was staying with me. For the most part, I heard nothing, although on one occaision she woke me up and I did hear something dragging across the floor in the next room, which was a first for me. I got up, went into the room, did an LBRP, and promptly went back to sleep. This seemed to quiet things down and she heard nothing further. This all happened despite having the symbols on the wall. He does state that these symbols are for souls that need to ascend, which the symbols help facilitate. So in this case, if there was something external, maybe the symbol didn't work because the entity was not human. In the end, I don't know. Great background reading for general protectice procedures is Robert Bruce's site, www.astraldynamics.com, he is a treasure trove of info. Cheers, R

That's an interesting link,but I would caution about throwing the baby out with the bathwater - Eades goes off on how it's mainly an "observational" study, but if you read it there is plenty of experimental work that make it compelling if you read the book - after Eades also fires off on the strain of rats, I'd still say there is useful information to be had - keep in mind most pharm companies and universities use these rats as well - of course, nothing is ideal, including this study, but you can throw out Campbell's work and you are still faced with data aplenty pointing to potential benefits for most people with more of a plant-based diet - I would agree that if a person is bedridden and can't exercise, recovery is crucial, but otherwise I believe there needs to be an exercise stimulus to go along with an improved diet, the body adapts to changes in the different feedback loops. Cheers, R

I just wanted to add a couple of links of interest here: While Supersize Me and Food, Inc. are great summaries of the current problems, another great video on hulu is The Future of Food - although it's a bit dated, it is thought-provoking, getting you to think about where you get your food: This book is another classic, documenting a lot of the problems we see more publicized today - back in the 1930's the author observed what happens in different cultures across the globe when they switch out of their native diets and adopt more refined Westernized ones: http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/price/pricetoc.html In the attached nutritional review of dried fruits, check out Fig.4 - it's now a standard lab practice to lower antioxidant activity in the plasma by having a subject drink a can of Sprite, this effect lasts for 4 hours. Think about those people that drink several sugary sodas every day, on top of a fast food diet . . . On the other hand,if you want to improve your diet, ramp up your fruit and veggie intake -the data showing the power of fruits like blueberries and strawberries to help reverse age-related changes (such as in the nervous system) is pretty compelling. I've attached a 1999 review from a high-profile neuroscience journal for your perusal. Although I'm in no way a vegetarian (I still enjoy dead animal now and then), I find equally compelling the power of vegetarian diets to lower overall probability for chronic diseases we see today that are overloading our healthcare system The China Study by T.Colin Campbell http://books.google.com/books?id=KgRR12F0RPAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+china+study&hl=en&ei=B8hgTK7VFcSclgeZgbGwCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Reversing Heart Disease by Julian Whitaker http://books.google.com/books?id=EPB0rdl0yZQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=reversing+heart+disease&hl=en&ei=eshgTNLpOMH6lwees8maCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Overall, you will go a long ways to helping yourself by finding any excuse to eat whole foods and more fruits and veggies. My 2 cents, Rene' driedfruitsrev.pdf blueberry8114.pdf

Hello Mantis, While the obesity epidemic in this country has roots in both the overabundance of sugar and fat (easy to access and it's cheap, also part of the poverty-obesity paradox) as well as the underabundance of physical exercise, it's a little more complicated - the answer to your question is that we are all genetically unique, so effects of any particular diet will vary with the genetics of the individual. Consider how some portion of the population gets better results from one OTC (say Advil), while others get better results from aspirin, all this is rooted in individual genetics - for a great breakdown of this, check out Roger Williams' classic Biochemical Individuality: http://books.google.com/books?id=o_HUXwbnsEoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=biochemical+individuality&hl=en&ei=A6VgTLaKNoWClAfJmcWZCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false n Some portion of the population will be more affected than others, but even in those not showing overt effects, there are still problems at a cellular level (decreasing insulin sensitivity for one thing). In the end, our bodies were designed for a lot more physical activity and to run on a lot less energy-dense food. The changes in our environment (diet and physical activity requirements) over the past 100 years or so have thrown a huge monkey wrench in the feedback loops that regulate our body homeostasis. Cheers, Rene'

Hey Guys, Very cool stuff - I gotta say, I never fail to be impressed by the agility expressed by older players, very inspiring, this is how I would like to age - I took a class with Nestor Capoeira years back and I was amazed at his agility, he was in his late 60's at the time - my first teacher, Elias Fonseca (Capoeira Quilombo San Diego) was still doing flips in his 40's - I've also been amazed at the liberating and cleansing effect from the combo of music and rhythm, the axe from a good roda has been quite healing to me. Salud, Rene'

Hello, I just wanted to add my small experience with PK thus far - I recently started training with Pak Pohan in Houston - This was suggested to me by the main rep here in the States since she's not here in TX - I was impressed by her ability to read my energetic state without my prompting with any information on my part - a while back I had an in-person "read" from Robert Peng, who made specific statements about 2 meridians - this PK teacher told me the exact same thing about these 2 same meridians during our conversation, which I found very interesting, to say the least. All for now, Rene'

Hello Ya Mu, In your experience, is transmission still possible with someone that had a previous transmission that is deemed "incompatible" with the Stillness-Movement school? Would a "transmission overhaul" be necessary if this person wanted to keep training with your school? I've heard about potential energy incompatibilities between martial and healing schools, but have you seen problems like this between exclusively healing energies from different schools? Thanks for your time and all the best, Rene'

Hello Sifu Terry and Everyone, I just wanted to chime in with my experience with FPCK thus far - I've only been practicing about 5 months, and my practice has just been including a small portion of the exercises that have "clicked" with me so far (seated #2(50,30,10), MSW3(90,80,50,20), and Monk holds pearl (50,40,30,20,10) of course, I haven't begun to scratch the surface, but for me it's a start for daily practice)- I've been intrigued that a boost in my immunity in general has been the most overt thing I've noticed, usually I catch a small cold at least a couple of times during the winter, I've felt vulnerable in general to "wind invasion" in the past, but these have been very conspicuously absent over the past few months. For me, this is very peculiar. I also have noticed I can do MSW3 at night and I can still go to sleep easily. I know that Sifu Terry has mentioned a negative impact of sudden shock and I live near a busy street. Is it still possible to make a suggestion to the subconscious that no sudden sounds will impact the system before practice, would this prevent problems inherent with sirens going off nearby? Best, Rene'

Hello Sabretooth, I don't know if he uses the same terminology of uniting Yin and Yang (maybe someone else can chime in here) but he asserts his method is a Shaolin one - the electrical phenomena come from a combination of this method as well as his own innate gift, he says that he cannot teach this to others because of this - kind of analogous to the situation with an Olympic athlete, that athlete can teach someone else the training method, but whether or not the other person will reach the same heights is another question and calls into play that person's biological potential. There is also an assumption that the overt electrical phenomena are only produced by union of yin and yang energies, but it may not be the case. Cheers, R

Hello All, Great article, thanks for the heads up - two other possible approaches would be to use gua sha on ST36, scraping in a downward direction 20-30 times - the other approach would be to apply an essential oil, such as lavender, or use Nutragena (or any other lotion with a high urea content, this comes from an old article in The American Journal of Acupuncture back in the early 90's). R

Hello Sifu Terry, Many thanks for the informative reply, you raise some very good points - I was not thinking of my girlfriend during the practice, just keeping my mind relaxed and in "neutral" - When we repeated this later she was again coming out of the shower, she started to feel the "thick air", pressure, but felt everything go away and felt very relaxed as soon as she lied down for the remainder of my practice - she was in the bedroom while I practiced in the dining room, her door was closed - while relaxed, she told me she saw a flood of tiny points of light going through the room, I have an ancestor altar in an adjacent room - the lights died down as soon as I came in to tell her I was done - the only spiritual work I've been doing to date just involves cultivating my connection with spirit energy as I'm just a neophyte - My experience may be an outlier also since my girlfriend is *very* sensitive, she also may have some emotional issues regarding her gift, she doesn't like talking about this and has told me she actively suppresses this, this could be a big psychological issue that might come to the surface when the outer conditions are fertile. My own psychological conditions have been pretty mellow, no big ups or downs, a pretty even keel. Once again, many thanks for your insight. Best, R

Hello All, I was curious if anyone had a similar experience - I recently had a girlfriend complain about feeling pressure in her head and her heart speeding up when I practice FPCK - while I'm doing the exercises, I feel nothing out of the ordinary, I'm doing practice for about 20-30 min at a time - at the time she was in a separate room and only knew I was doing some sort of "exercise", she doesn't really know what chi kung is, she was not watching me at the time, she was coming out of the shower and dressing when she felt "funny", she wanted to leave the house as soon as I finished to get some air - I did this again and told her to lie down and relax if this happened again, which she did and felt much better - I haven't had a chance to test her reactions further, I just hope I'm not doing anything wrong. Rene'

Hi Sifu Terry, Is it OK to wear earplugs during FPCK? I live in an area with a lot of big trucks passing by and this is probably the only to prevent any inadvertent shock to the system during practice. Also, can the seated meditations be done sitting in a chair as well? Or is half-lotus a crucial component to these exercises? Thanks, Rene'

Cool link - This may be an extension of this group here in the US www.sundo.org - I visited this center a few years back, only got to attend one class but very cool. R

Very cool points, I'll continue additional discourse on PM. Cheers, Rene'

Correction: only one of the attached papers above is on Yan Xin's qi abilities - I've attached 2 more papers for your perusal, again not a whole lot in Western journals but there are a few out there. Cheers, R qi 2002_YanXin_Qigong_JSE.pdf ki1.pdf

Hi Disciple, You raise very good and obvious points and I think it is always more complicated than just going to Randi - check out some of the literature on chi (of course a lot is not in English), I've included a couple of papers on Yan Xin that Drew passed on. Now I mention Yan Xin because he's the most well-documented practitioner - there is an English translation of a book going into detail of his collaboration with high-energy physicists in China, doing the seemingly impossible like altering radioactive half-lives, etc. (this book is really hard to find and only around $200 http://www.amazon.com/Yan-Xin-Qigong-contemporary-sciences/dp/B0006F5QTY/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268784877&sr=1-10) Of course, most Western scientists have not seen any of this literature and even if they did see it, who among them would actually vet this? And all this despite the paradigm-shaking potential of such a discovery. Now I still have many questions on this general phenomena, but I must admit, much of my doubt has been quelled since getting shocked by Robert Peng, so now I have to wonder. One could still ask why he just doesn't go to Randi or any other group of skeptics and demonstrate. I don't think there is an easy linear path to proving this, despite the apparent simplicity of "show them." Things get even more complicated when you start talking about unspoken bias among scientists who have a definite world-view (it's there any time you have groups of people interacting). From my perspective, there is actually quite a bit of data on the phenomena, but it will still take a lot of work to dig this up, translate when necessary, and present this to Western scientists who would be interested in replicating/verifying the information. In my opinion, you don't need to go looking for someone that displays supernormal abilities, just look at the effects of ordninary human intent, which is well-documented in William Tiller's works (among others, such as Dean Radin, Lynne McTaggert,etc) which show very compelling data in systems such as Drosophila development, etc. Just my 2 cents. Cheers, Rene' yanxin1.pdf yanxin2.pdf

Hi Leon, Interesting topic and a tough question - it seems that sleep needs vary and usually fall in the 4-8 hr range, but the bottom line is that we all need it for survival - the actual function is still controversial and is not totally clear from my reading, although it's been a while - I've always been curious about modifications to the normal function as a consequence of training in different yogic disciplines, I'm curious if anyone's sleep needs have dramatically changed as a result of yogic training. Cheers, R

Hello YM, Thanks for the link, very cool - do you have any recommendations or links for those that would like to learn more about these sets? Are there any translations of the instructions or any instructors you'd recommend? Also very interesting that movements were repeated at a different angle of the torso, keeping more tension in the abdomen. Cheers, R

Interesting to note that when I took the bottled kombucha years back I noted a *very* similar effect as apple cider vinegar in ramping up my exercise tolerance - I keep a record of numbers with my calesthenics over the years as a crude litmus test for overt effects - also interesting to note that pectin in the ACV may have chelating effects, taking out some heavy metals in the system- just my small experience and your mileage may vary depending on your indiviual biochemistry, but this might be worth looking into as another alternative since ACV is relatively cheap as well. Cheers, R

Hello Steve, Thanks for posting this, very interesting info - How long does Master Fung recommend training per day? Does he see any partial benefit if the student can only do a fraction of this time (20 min instead of 1-2hours)? Cheers, Rene'

Hello Sifu Dunn, I'm *really* enjoying the FPCK exercises and I had a queston, Which exercises from Vol.1 or Vol.2 would you recommend for helping with any leg blockages? Many thanks for your time and all the best, Rene'

Hello Sifu Dunn, Many thanks for all the valuable tips, I will definitely keep these in mind as I start the practice. I had a general question: in your experience, do different qigongs cultivate intrinsically different qis or energies? I have heard about different categories of qi, like pre- and post-natal, yin, yang, etc. Does the spectrum of qi energy also span something similar to that of the electromagnetic spectrum? All the best, R