Sloppy Zhang

. Well I don't know enough about chi or the vagus nerve to be able to comment intelligently on it. And as I'm not a female, I can't comment on female orgasms beyond what I have observed with who I have been with I also wouldn't say that ejaculation goes "against" creating the lower tantien or Taoism per se, because Taoism does deal with ejaculation (there are guidelines for how to do it if you want to do it in some traditions). Regarding your last line, this entire forum goes against creating the lower tantien, because we're all doing a lot more thinking than non-thinking we should all be in the pit!

But the thread isn't about porn, per se. It's more about physical movement during orgasm/sex. Porn just happens to provide the largest store of observable sex acts (some of which result in actual orgasm, some of which don't) Now the OP mentioned that the orgasmic behavior he sees in porn (of a woman cumming so hard she throws her head back, eyes rolling up into her head) is not the same behavior he sees in real life. So a few things might be going on... 1) Porn is entirely faking it, and no woman orgasms like that 2) Porn is portraying an actual orgasm that some women (but not all) experience, and the OP has not been with a woman who orgasms like that 3) All women orgasm like that, and if the OP hasn't seen a woman orgasm like that, then she was faking it and the porn orgasms are real And then look at the overall physical methods to induce certain energetic flows in the body. Yoga is certainly a study of how to do that, and the OP pointed out how similar positions appear "spontaneously" in people experiencing an orgasm. So.... do they all do yoga in their free time, or is something else going on? Unless some of us could round up some "non porn" recordings of sex acts on the same scale that porn can provide.

Plenty of developed BDSM communities are a lot more "boring" than those outside of the community might expect, many of them place a huge emphasis on the self direction of the "sub", where they clearly lay out expectations, what is on the table, what is off the table, and what is a soft limit. In a healthy encounter, the "sub" is the leader, and anything beyond what the sub wants they have the ability call off (or even if they just aren't in the mood for continuing the encounter). The "dom" needs to be attentive as well, to know when a hard limit is about to be approached, and to back off when the sub requests it (or seems like they want to request it). Pretty far cry from the popular media portrayal caused by books like 50 Shades of an insensitive, unstable, abusive partner that routinely exceeds the comfort limits of their partner. On the flip side, plenty of "vanilla" sexual encounters involve surrender and catharsis and activation of infantile shame and any number of power conflicts within the psyche. Consider "slut shaming" and women who feel guilty about wanting to or having had sex with a particular person. External form may or may not line up with how you perceive internal content.

If you believe in this karma stuff, then unless you are enlightened, everything involves karma. Are you creating karma by taking someone's money? Resolving karma by making them money? Vice versa? Everything you do involves karma. Work for a corporation? Karma. Work for a local start up, privately owned? Karma. Become a homeless beggar? Karma. Become a rich person and hoard it all? Karma. Donate it to charity? Karma. Who's to say the charities will donate to will use the money wisely, and who's to say the people who receive the money are receiving money in the best way (karmically). You also have your own karma that comes into play. Why poker? Why not computer programming? Art? Science? Music? Drug dealing? Theft? Unless you are enlightened or advanced enough to perceive karma, then for the most part you're going through life blind. I would just say cultivate "awareness." Do what is right in the moment. Not do what is easy, not do what you think "should" be done, but do the right action for that moment. And yeah, you're just going to have to figure out what that is, and over time you may or may not get better at doing that.

The Dragon and Tiger Medical Qigong is most directly for getting you to feel qi, and specifically to work with the wei qi... In case you were curious I don't know of any non-Frantzis material that presents the energy bodies as Frantzis presents, so if that's what you were asking, then I don't have any non-Frantzis resources for you. That said, pretty much all of Frantzis' material talks about the energy bodies, and how to work with them.

I think that, whether it's yoga or qigong or any other system that deals with energetic flows of the body, it was discovered and developed (over thousands of years) first from observation. How does the body tend to behave in orgasm? In sleep? While digesting food? In a fight? While running? While sitting? While talking? When there's a large amount of energy moving, how does it move and along what channels? From there, systems were created to cultivate energy in specific ways. Move here, touch here, open there, etc. This would encourage/move energy in a certain way, and so develop you in that way. So I don't think it is that surprising when people move into "spontaneous" postures (whether from yoga, qigong, etc) during instances where their body is experiencing large amounts of energetic flows (orgasm).

From the article: "Her alleged attacker, she said, received a 13-month sentence for extra-marital sex and alcohol consumption." He shoulda gotten 16 months too. Total endorsement of rape.

Look, you're responsible for what you put out there. If you have a good product, there is nothing wrong with good salesmanship and a good marketing strategy. Many great products, services, and people live in obscurity because they don't have a good sales/marketing strategy, and many shitty products, services, and people enjoy the limelight for decades because they had a good sales/marketing strategy. So if you are really that great, perhaps it behooves you to study sales and marketing a little bit, hm? Like I said, you're responsible for what you put out there. Don't want to lie? Then don't. "I offer a product/service that does this and benefits my customers in this quantifiable area." I used to work in sales, and not only my organization, but a lot of other sales organizations (at least from the people in other companies I spoke to) really like the book "Spin Selling" The general idea is that rather than using a bunch of sketchy sales tactics, you ask questions about your prospective client about where their needs and hangups are, and then you "pitch" your product/service as a way to help them out. Ideally, it creates a smoother sales process, as well as more satisfied, educated, long term customers. Like marketing, you are responsible for what you sell. Don't think granny needs an ultra sound system? Guess what, don't persuade her to buy it! If she wants to buy it, ask her why she wants to buy it, what her needs are, and if it doesn't sound like a good fit, say "sorry granny, but I don't think this would be a good fit." As with anything, there will be people who sell/market in sketchy ways, and they will probably get more business than you. For every 3 or 4 legitimate customers you both get, they will get an extra 3 or 4 more questionable sales. But hey, you're not in the game to get numbers, right? Now if you lose site of what you're in the game for, if you start getting caught up in beating that 7 or 8 or 9 or 10 sales per day, and start hustling grannies to buy your sound system? Well that's YOUR fault. It's not that "sales and/or marketing makes you lose your soul." It's that "most people aren't set enough in their ideals to make the job work for them, and instead they become a slave to the job." Clearly define what you want, and tangibly work towards that, and only that, goal.

Back when I was getting into Taoist meditation and looking to get into the MCO, a review on amazon suggested to start with B.K. Frantzis' "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body" because it teaches you how to identify and resolve blockages. Really, it gets you feeling energy in the first place, and then only after you can feel you begin manipulating it. Yes, you can get the MCO going just by jumping straight into it. Yes, you can cultivate sexual energy just by jumping straight into it, and many people do. But many people also get hurt by these practices. Why? In many cases because they do not know how to perceive when something has gone wrong until it has already gone wrong. What Energy Gates does is teaches you how to identify structures that will cause problems further down the line (these structures may be physical, energetic, emotional, etc) and how to resolve them before starting to add energy into the system. After that, I would suggest the book "Relaxing Into Your Being". This teaches a very good practice for energizing the dantien, and then activating the Dai Mai (belt meridian). Not only will this help energize your body in general, but it will indirectly start to activate the MCO (MCO runs vertically and is intersected horizontally by your Dai Mai, basically from the level of your Dantien around your waist). Still, it's kind of passive, as you let energy flow around blockages. Then, once everything is opened up, THEN start doing the MCO. And then, after you're really clear, THEN start playing with sexual energies. Frantzis actually has an intro to sexual energies in his book "The Great Stillness" and a good practice for feeling and circulating sexual energy (first into the dantien through the central channel, then through the MCO and into the dantien, depending on your level). And of course he recently put out a book "Taoist Sexual Meditation" which is top notch. Sorry if that took you askew on what you were asking about. IMO and in Frantzis' tradition, the MCO is good but it's not really a "starter" practice. At least, most people in modern society have a whole bunch of issues that prevent the MCO from being immediately useful. In the best case scenarios you won't get much out of it (no energy circulating) but in the worst case scenarios things are going to be messed up (a serious blockage you didn't know about until after you started stressing the system with extra energy, ESPECIALLY sexual energy). Since you won't have an energetically sensitive teacher to point out when things are going bad, you are going to need to train up your energetic awareness in order to sense these things yourself, and then work up from there. Hate to be a buzzkill but if you want a sustainable, long term, healthy energetic practice that incorporates the MCO and will actually be useful for you, the above is, in my opinion, the best way to go about it.

How do you know that's the industry you'll be working in? It sounds very broad and vague. Do you already have a job lined up? If you're in college now, and are about to graduate, (this fall? Next spring?) I would go down to career services and speak to professors and other students your age and network your ass off. It makes finding a job infinitely easier. 30-40K starting salary? I think that's doable... depending on your major and what you are willing to do for a job. What is your major? What is your ideal job? Restaurant/entertainment, so... what? Are you a stage performer? Stage manager? Waiter? Maitre'd? Chef? Stripper? Seriously, what are you going to do, and how do you know? This is really the linchpin in determining how viable your financial plan is. You can budget around whatever your income is/is going to be. But if you have no income, all of your planning is just theoretical.

Well, I noticed one of his books had "Initiation Into Hermetics" by Franz Bardon in the sources. Which is fine, I think IIH is a GREAT book... but I don't know how much of it is Taoist. Not to say that certain principles might be the same from tradition to tradition. And not to say that two systems aiming to analyze and use universal principles aren't going to come up with similar concepts.... But I recall reading a certain section that sounded an awfully lot like energetic accumulations from IIH that were just re-labeled with five elements. He was also talking about certain ways to do certain "magical" techniques (clairvoyance, invisibility, etc) and was pretty much using Bardon's stuff (western elements as well). So... That, to me, called into question his other stuff. I don't know enough about TCM and all of that to say one thing or another. It's possible that he studied legit TCM stuff, and legit magic from a Taoist tradition, but only published publicly Bardon's IIH, or that the stuff he learned from legit Taoists was the same as Bardon's IIH. It's possible. And he's putting it in the source because that is going to be more accessible for others to look at than his Chinese lineage. It's possible. Too many leaps for my liking.

Yeah, his stuff is really good. Are these the videos that go into the standing postures? He broke down different ways to do the lion standing posture with different "energies" that was very helpful, and definitely one reason why they say the internal arts are internal- you wouldn't get it just by watching it being done. Unless you were a genius

Bruce Frantzis has a good video there about the three palms:

I think you should go after what you really want. Not what you think you want. Not what you should want. Not what people think you should want. But what YOU really want. Do you want to have friends who will look out for you, notice when you aren't around, invite you out to places, date you, fuck you, kiss you, miss you, help you move out/into your apartment, give you a lift when your car is in the shop, etc? Do you want to be a spiritual enlightened person and have flowers spring up in the grass where you walk? Long term, I'd like to be enlightened. But we're talking multiple lives away. In the short term, I want to have friends, a girlfriend, someone to have sex with, people to hang out, have a drink with, go see a movie. It's nice when someone says "hey, want to come out with us?" and even if you say no, have them ask you again and you go out fun places. If you really didn't want all of that, you wouldn't be thinking about all of the fun other people are "supposedly having." You'd be absorbed in your own fun right now. If you aren't absorbed in your own fun, then you're thinking of what other people are doing, that means you don't want what you're doing. At least not all the way. I'd say focus on EXACTLY what it is you think you're missing out on (a big crowd of friends, a non-clingy girlfriend, etc) and go after EXACTLY that. Know some people going out? Say "hey guys, are you going out this Friday? Mind if I show up?" and just go out, buy a beer (you don't even have to drink all of it, but it is nice to have it in your hand, and less awkward) and just talk to people you're out with. Want to find a girlfriend? Yeah, go to meet up groups, get a dating profile, walk up to girls that you see over the course of your day and just start talking, ask them places, say "hey, I'm about to grab some lunch, you eaten yet?" or something casual, no expectations, and just see where that takes you. You may find that these things aren't what you REALLY want, in which case, on to the next thing. It's a constant process. Sometimes you might want something, sometimes another. You always have to be aware. Otherwise, you won't ever by happy, and have a lot of frustration to deal with.

I do customer facing tech support. Which means that customers only contact me when something is broken, lost, or they can't figure something out. 90% of the time, they're pretty angry and abrasive. You'd be surprised how nice people can be very mean people in a bad situation. I'm sure if you thought about yourself when you are mad, frustrated, swearing up a storm, hate the moronic corporations taking your money and keeping you down, etc etc etc. So one thing that is nice about the position (and I am quite the introvert to begin with) is that you can see this shift after you have helped resolved their issue. They are happy, nice, they love the hell out of you, want to come back for repeat business, etc. So if I were to say that for every one unit of bad energy at the start, I get anywhere from 2-5 units of good energy at the end. And of course some people are just going to be grouchy no matter what. That's completely their issue, not yours, and you need to recognize. Something is wrong with THEM. Be very careful about internalizing someone's bad attitude as a reflection of themselves onto you. There are some things I have no power over, such as making the product do something it was not designed to do. Some people want something else, in that case, they need to get something else. They can hem and haw and insult me and my company and my manager and my product as much as they want. It flat out will not change the situation. For people like that, I acknowledge, but "ignore" (for lack of a better term). They obviously have some issue, and our product "malfunction" was just the stimulus that flipped the switch of everything that was going on with their lives- bad home life, bad professional life, poor night of sleep, low quarterly revenue, etc etc. In some respects, I can understand their position and sympathize, and so it doesn't feel like they're angry at "me." But sometimes they do hate "me" in which case I have many units of positive energy built up throughout the day, so I can get on with it The thing that drained me was sales, because for the most part that's putting my energy out and only getting energy back maybe 5 or 10% of the time. "Hey you wanna buy this product?" "no." "Hey you wanna buy this product?" "no." "Hey you wanna buy this product?' "yes." "Hey you wanna buy this product?" "no." *end of month rolls around* Manager: "hey you should increase your performance." So since you can't make those 4 people who said "no" say "yes," (well sometimes you can, but it's a lot of work) you really just have to find 4 new people. And for me, it was just a constant energy sink. At least in my position now, even if it's bad energy, I still have some energy to play with

Yup, definitely a good conversation, and great points from Uroboros and BaguaKicksAss. All in all, it does depend on the student and on the group. A great student in a shitty group (or no group) will do well through their own merits and dedication, not because of what they learned in a group. A shitty student in a great group may still make progress in spite of their shitty ness. If a teacher has some parts to teach, then yeah, I say learn what you can from them. But it's important that the teacher understands where they are. All of Frantzis' senior instructors, and even the non-senior instructors, are all really nice, really approachable, and not only do they know their shit, but they know what they don't know. They know when their teaching is only a PORTION of the full teaching, and if you ask a question they don't know, they don't bullshit you. They say "I don't know." With regards to sparring and things like that, yeah, it's about keeping it real, and everybody should keep it real. For Frantzis' material, you can tell if someone is opening or closing, bending and stretching, lengthening, etc. Because you can see it in their body. If anyone doubts a senior instructor's (or Bruce's skill), well, just take a look at how they move, and see if you can move the same way. Yeah, so there you go. Same way with sparring. When I learned karate, a group of guys did their own sparring outside of class because the sparring in class was too light. No one fights that way! Now internal martial arts are a bit different, because they are working on different principles. So as the saying goes, it might take 10 years before you let the Tai Chi student step outside the door. Because not only do you have to retrain a lifetime of habits (away from using muscular strain as your default), but you also have to train up the new habits (softness, yielding, structure, etc etc etc) So you basically have to have a new lifetime of training before you're really able to do proper applied Tai Chi. Otherwise, in the best case scenario you rely on previous habits (muscular strain) and win the fight, or you are completely annihilated. Which can mean anything from utter humiliation to death.

Unfortunately, not everyone has access to a teacher who can judge them, or even a teacher who has developed the perception to truly see what that person TRULY needs. Not all masters are the same. Regarding gauging progress, again, that comes to diligence and training. Are you really making progress? I did some standing practices from Tai Chi that I learned from books/videos. I learned the theory, and I did the practice. So then I saw videos of masters who couldn't be pushed. So I went to my brother who is 220 lbs of muscle and said "hey man, I'm going to stand like this, could you try and push me over?" and he was like "ok." He usually winds up pushing me over. But every time I do it, I learn more about structure, root, etc. It's also good because he has no bias. He is not invested in Tai Chi, health, standing, structure. He goes to the gym and throws weights around. He's very healthy and very strong (proper training, no over training, immediately treats pains/stiffness, etc). So he is in no way trying to "go along" with it. I honestly think serious Tai Chi people interested in Tai Chi for martial arts should go train with some MMA people. Why? Because MMA people aren't going to go along with anything! And if you lose your root, hey, you'll be choking on your back. How's that for feedback? Analyze, experiment, analyze, experiment, etc etc etc etc. Then when you have the ability, go see a teacher, get refinements, then go out and find out what works and what doesn't. Back in the old days, if your Tai Chi failed you then you died. Luckily, MMA guys aren't going to kill you during practice. But how many Tai Chi people are going to walk into an MMA club and say "hey guys, I've been doing Tai Chi, and want to test my development. Do you mind if we did some sparring and I'll try and stay rooted so you can't take me down and I'll try to blend with your strikes so they don't hurt?" MMA guys won't really care. Some gyms might make you sign a waiver before you join, but hey. They'll probably try and convert you to MMA so you aren't deluding yourself. But really, who has the balls to do that? I don't. My level of Tai Chi is NOTHING! I'll fall back to my MMA knowledge in a pinch. So there go my principles But how far are you willing to go? How well are you going to use the resources at hand? Well, B.K. Frantzis' seminars can get pretty big. But luckily a good number of his senior students show up, so they help out a lot too. And of course you have to take responsibility for your own learning. If you don't get something, ask. It depends on what you mean by "a lot of unskilled folks together". Do you mean me mixed with some MMA dudes and I tell them I'm going to spar with them using Tai Chi? Or are you talking about a lot of unskilled folks together who are all invested in the practice so will go along with it? Because then you have guys like this: I think it's very careful about what "feedback loop" you're getting into. The feedback loop where fantasy meets crushing reality until the quality of your practice is able to produce something real? Or the feedback loop where one person agrees with another person's delusion and the fantasy gets way out of hand... and then reality LITERALLY crushes you, like this dude (warning, brutal):

I'm not sure about energy healing. The only energy I've felt has been rather subtle and very subjective. I've never healed anyone with my "energy" and I don't think I have been healed by "energy" (of course I might be mistaken and energy HAS healed me I'm just too much of a knuckle head to realize it!!!) One thing I might suggest is to take control of your own healing. Yes, energetically, but also physically. Again, I highly highly highly suggest B.K Frantzis' book "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body". It teaches you how to identify blockages, and dissolve them. Eventually your awareness will get more and more refined, more and more subtle. This allows you to do the next step (and where I'm at in my own development), pulsing. I'm actually at the Heaven and Earth instructor training now where we are working on pulsing. And damn! Let me tell you, if you ever get the chance to go to an opening/closing class, or a Tui Na class done by Frantzis or one of his senior instructors: GO!!!! It might be exactly what you're looking for. Usually he "pulsing" that someone else does to you is usually just to jumpstart your system. It gets you to feel a very subtle thing very tangibly, and the person blends with your flow (whether it's flow of energy, flow of fluids, whatever you believe/feel inside), and from there, they let you take over your own pulsing! THAT is the important part, because it means that you eventually can do it on your own without external feedback or aid. Of course, more serious injuries will require higher level healings and more development on your part if you want to not only fix, but enhance your health. And of course, how much you feel depends on your own internal awareness. So that's why I suggest.... Start with dissolving, because without that you have nothing. You need to develop your internal awareness to 1) identify 2) dissolve Blockages that you feel. From there, you can

Second for your question being unclear. Though might also be the wrong place to ask. I imagine everyone here being overweight males who want to get into Tai Chi for the weight loss, it doesn't come off, and they blast weight/cardio for damaging your body, and their overweightness is actually healthiness. Haha, I kid, I kid... or... do I....? Shoulda said you have done cardio for the past 5 years, and only recently it started happening. Or did it? Have you always had this problem? How long have you know about the hypothyroid? Are you taking anything to deal with it? Did the issues always exist, and you just powered through, or are they a recent development? Details man, give us the details, so we can correctly diagnose you over the internet!

But again, circumstances are as variable as people. It might be that the old man who walks in the park was trying to escape Communist China, and in exchange for cleaning his gutters he teaches you internal secrets. Or it might be that the old man in the park is just another old man in the park. And hey, when you can't afford a plane ticket or you don't have a car, a master two states over might as well be in China. My point is that people can't always be around the teachers they want to be around. The teachers aren't always there. And when a teacher isn't there, or a QUALITY teacher is not there, books/dvd's can be an incredibly viable opportunity. You can't really help that there are things that can't be put in books. At some point, it's gonna happen. That said, you can make some VERY good progress through self study, discipline, maybe some luck, and maybe some talent/insight. Regarding inner door teachings, even if you learned from them in person there's still a very good chance they WON'T tell you those anyway If it's a choice between shelling out cash for a book or hoofing it to visit a teacher you don't have a connection to in the hope that you're going to get some "inner teaching," go for the book. Regarding "initiation," plain old history and statistics can explain that success. If you are learning from a teacher, group of teachers, or a long standing well documented lineage (whether that documentation exists internally or externally) you suddenly have the resources of all of those teacher's insights. Having trouble with something? Maybe your teacher had the same issue, and can help you. Maybe another student had the issue and he knows the fix. Maybe a past student had the issue and has the fix. Maybe an old master made some observation that has been preserved. Maybe one of your other teachers or members of the lineage have insights into it. When you have a supporting network, you're going to have more success. We've all heard the story of how Yang Luchan spied on the Chen family teachings of Tai Chi. He was discovered, and what did he do? He kicked the crap out of all of the current students. How? Because he studied like a fiend! He didn't just "watch" the teachings, he "watched" the teachings. And when he went back to his room, he didn't just "practice" the teachings, he "practiced" the teachings. He applied superior amounts of detail and refinement to what he was learning. THAT is what gets you to success. If you don't have a teacher, I say don't sweat. If all you have is access to a book or the internet? Do what Yang Luchan did. He learned from a master at a distance, and applying dedication he was head and shoulders above all of the other students. If you're THAT good, you'll discover something on your own. If it doesn't happen, then when you meet teachers they're going to like having such a competent student, and you'll be able to take right off.

Also, copy/paste.

Meh, a little water isn't gonna getcha... But a little lava:

Constant vigilance! I've read "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body" probably 6 or 7 times. Not cursory glances and snippets, but reading as if it was my first time (okay, I do skip some of the parts on Frantzis' backstory ) Sometimes things jump out at me, sometimes I see a point I didn't before, because I know I need to focus on it and go "oh hey, I don't need to spend a thousand dollars on an event, the answer is right here!" I'm still surprised by the things he includes in the basic books. You also have to be very disciplined in your practice, and observing what you are doing. It is so easy to get "lazy" when you're practicing and "space out". If you have a teacher who walks around and hits you with a stick, or makes adjustments, it's not a big deal. But what if you are alone in your mountain cave? I mean, studio apartment? No teacher to whack you then. You have to keep yourself focused! Keep yourself from spacing out, And if you do, you need to bring yourself back, and figure out what went wrong. If you do a movement practice (like qigong or Tai Chi) you need to scrutinize every movement. There are videos that I've watched the same 3 seconds fifty times in a row because I want to see what Frantzis or one of his senior instructors is doing with just their foot, how is it moving? How did that movement originate in the leg? How did it originate in the waist? How did that power their arm? Wait, is their arm and foot coordinated? How is it? Where is that coming from? Ah, I see the waist turning. How does his foot move during this transition? Where is his weight? Each of those questions take up another 2-3 seconds of video watching Then you need to scrutinize YOUR every movement. Stand in front of a mirror and do it. Again, I did learn Karate before, so I'm kind of used to this. But you can learn this skill also from playing a sport with a good coach (muuuuuch better and cheaper for most of us to find than a real internal master!) or a personal trainer at the gym. How does your body move through space, how do you coordinate what you're seeing with what you're doing/feeling? Also stay humble. Does Frantzis even know my name? No. I just read his books, watch his DVD's, practice like crazy, and still suck ass compared to him and his senior instructors, and even instructors who do this as a profession. Also, the stuff you're doing is basic basic basic stuff. Foundational stuff, but basic. Also, stick to the basics. Something like, say, the Bagua Mastery Program has some pretty wild stuff as far as openings and closings, twistings, bendings and stretchings. I don't do ANY of that stuff. Why? Well, because I can't. There also isn't a lot of public instruction out there on exactly how to do it (Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body is a pretty deep dive, but is there anything like that on openings and closings? Twisting? Nope) so I can't really learn. There is a lot of material that can be pieced together, and I think I have successfully pieced it together (enough to do it if I practiced). But then there's the injury aspect. I don't want to hurt myself doing a practice that even long term students only do moderately well (and even senior instructors can't do it nearly so well as Frantzis himself). Truth be told, I don't even do the full spine stretch from Energy Gates. It does seem very powerful, and I can see where the benefits come from. I can also see the progression that it acts as the basis for, where you incorporate openings and closings, get a good pump going, etc. But damn I don't want to fuck up my spine! So I don't. I do keep the knowledge of it in mind for theory, and how it can be applied. For instance, bending from the back of the spine and straightening from the front. I keep that in mind whenever I fix my posture for instance (I tend to slump, but have gotten better since working out more, stronger supporting muscles). But I don't actively do the spine stretch. So know your limits, and stay humble. Also be your own worse critic. I suck at everything! And that helps when you meet Frantzis or a senior instructor. Because when they tell you something that you missed, you can do it instantly. And since you have a solid foundation in other things, it can gel with your system a lot quicker.

If you're angry, bitter, depressed, have mood swings, don't have a job or don't have a job that you like, living with your parents as an adult or in an oppressive environment with friends, family, or co-workers that don't accept you or your life decisions, and you feel out of step with the world and you simultaneously practice meditation.... You aren't having a kundalini awakening. You're just living in this life. Your kundalini isn't awakening and throwing you out of step with the world, giving off energetic vibes that people don't understand and subconsciously reject you. It's not affecting your desire for friends or your focus to get a better job. I don't think Kundalini has anything to do with that. It's just life.

Here's my experience from the well balanced, even keeled school of thought: Some books are better than live teachers. What? Yeah. Some books are better than live teachers. For instance, B.K. Frantzis (whose material I primarily study) has books and DVD's out there, that contain more information than many (I almost used the word "most" here, but there are a LOT encompassed in the use of the word "many") even know. So I would suggest, between a book like "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body", or his Tao series of books (forget the name now, but Relaxing Into Your Being, the Great Stillness, The Tao of Letting Go, and his Taoist Sexual Meditation book), or his DVD's like the Hsing-I series, and Bob's Tae Kwon Do and Ki Gong (yes, Ki Gong)? Frantzis' book any day. I will say, however, that my experience in karate schools of murky lineage and other similarly local martial arts did teach my body coordination, learning how to feel my body move in space, and learning how to look in a mirror, see what needs correcting, and correcting it myself. Am I perfect? No. But I made leaps and bounds more progress than I would have made if I "studied with the 'master' in person"? If the master is Si Gong Bob (yes, Si Gong) then yes, I did. Now that I've got the disposable income to go to seminars (his books are modestly priced, but the seminars and some of their exotic locations will get ya, but saving up for once every year and a half to two years and good planning/budgeting does it for me, personally) I jump in knowing exactly what I'm doing, and can soak up every bit of information that isn't in the books. I cringe and feel bad for people who show up and don't know stuff that is in the books or DVD's, or asks a question that could be answered in them. I'm like "dude and or dudette!? You could have had that question answered for 12.95 on Amazon but instead you pay thousands of dollars in seminars and travel to ask if you should breathe from the front or back of the lungs? Nooooooooo." Okay, I exaggerate. But still. I put the quote in my signature "start where you are, use what you have, do what you can" for a reason. Because people CAN'T up and travel to seminars on in person teachers who are true and good. I was one of those people for a long time. I held on to books and DVD's, I shunned Bob's Tae Know Hapki Do, I took shit from people on this forum who criticized my approach and life choices, and I did what I could. Other things in my life moved around (or did I move them around?), and I was able to move to a next step, and man, what a next step! I have a workable understanding of knowledge and theory that when I DO make it to a seminar, I'm just sucking up gobs and gobs of information that just isn't readily consumable in an accessible fashion (not to say that it's "secret" but it's just not highly visible). This, and similar sounding posts by other people, might have more to do with your own personal learning style. For instance, I'm a very "mental" person in my approach. I learn by analyzing, understanding, and internalizing the theory. Once I have the theory, and a map for how that practice fits in the theory, I can make it my own and do it quite naturally. If you tell me to just stand up and do a bunch of things, I'm just like "this is dumb." But when I understand the theory behind it, I'm like "fuck yeah let's go back and do that thing now." So hey, maybe people don't read, for instance, Frantzis' materials, because they aren't the kind of learner I am. And maybe my success with my approach is because of the learner I am. So your mileage may vary. If you have limited financial resources, though, and are limited by location, then your options with regard to applicable learning styles is also limited. So maybe it's not "live teachings are better in quality" it's that "some people retain information learned by watching or doing, and so it appears to them that the teachings they learned via those methods stuck to them more than the methods they read in a book, and so they interpret that to mean that if you want to learn a good teaching that will last with you then it will be done in person. Maybe.