Ya Mu

"How do you properly drop your Brain into the Lower Dan Tien?" You don't. Give up the mental, reduce brain waves to near zero and put a gentle awareness in Dan Tian. Make every move, every action, every energetic prelude to "thought" come from or centered from this place of awareness.

Funny you should mention the wrists as well as shoulders. Just this week I opened the shoulder and wrist gates on a chiropractor. He gained 60 degrees more cervical range of motion and elimination of neck pain without me touching his neck. These shoulder and wrist GATES are SO important!

If she is already a qigong practitioner tell her to come to my next workshop and I will specifically show her how to project qi down the soundwaves of her drum. Makes the drumming much different, more dynamic, and more powerful. This is how my mediocre awesome (ha ha) rock bands always had such an unexpected, raving far more than we deserved, stage rushing, screaming fans response. Energetics and sound wave propagation.

And then there is the view that western medicine is also energy medicine; reactions to chemicals are energetic or at least the process of the chemical reaction is energetic in nature. I think cross-training is the answer. For instance, in my clinical qigong certification program, required is college level Western Anatomy and Physiology training. And by the same token, as more and more western medical professionals are trained in the energy arts, I think eventually we will see clincal qigong as a stable norm in the hospitals. It is too powerful and effective to not be eventually included. Although this may not happen until western medicine politics (insurance companies, large corporations, and AMA dogma) crashes and burns. World Medicine - recognition and use of all that works, utilized harmoniously - that is what is needed.

And there is a more dynamic approach. I know of no shoulder gate opening exercise that works better than the move "push push - pull" in Gift of the Tao I. Works really well!

Sensitivity to chi runs from 0-100; everyone is different. That said, efficiency of qigong practice makes a huge difference. If you want to try the highly efficient Gift of the Tao movements - the majority that practice it feel qi immediately - if you will agree to practice 20 min per day for 30 days I will send you a Gift of the Tao I DVD. If at the end of those 30 days if you haven't SIGNIFICANTLY enhanced your qi sensitivity then quit practicing and use the DVD as a coaster for good beer (please do not use bad beer). If you feel it has significantly enhanced your sensitivity then you can pay me for the DVD.

HA! Haven't yet seen anyone address this. I would say the majority of new students don't know how to deal with this, if the energetics are strong. Everyone has their own release patterns and we have to guide the student first in the knowledge that this is a typical happening and not just unique to them, and that these releases are the way that they themselves are achieving homeostasis. Then we utilize qi manipulation to help the student over the hump in balancing their energetics. Not going to go into what "strange occurrences" have occurred due to not wanting anyone think that is "supposed" to happen, although I think I did put one in my book. OP: I teach in a 3 day format so as to immerse the person in the energetics. I have found that doing it in this manner has immense advantages to a once a week for an hour format. A student can safely progress much faster as we can iron out, using energetics, the "humps" as a person raises their energy body vibration and as a person's channels and energy centers activate & open. I do 8 Brocade Pieces as a warmup each day - I think this helps the person stretch and warm up muscles and initializes them into movements. I follow this by Isotonal Qigong as taught to me by my Taoist Medicine teacher. These further stretch and balance muscle groups. Then we do energetics - Gift of the Tao I,II movements followed by a break. Then sitting Stillness-Movement neigong including the teacher energy projection. Then Gift of the Tao III movement. During the Gift of the Tao I and II I let a senior student teach while I move around and do corrections. I used to not be able to do this as I was the only one teaching but I think doing the corrections has immense value. When I get to Gift of the Tao IIII I have to teach and it is very difficult to teach the movements AND do corrections. We follow up with Standing, Tree, Walking and Lying down (Sleeping leading to Dreaming) forms of Stillness-Movement. And on the 3rd day we do wai qi liao fa and Taoist Medicine. I also do a week long training where I include the running form of Jing Dong Gong; basically we do all of the above many times. I have taught in a once a week format but quickly found out the 3 day intensive is several orders of magnitude better for our form of neigong/qigong. I just moved and may offer a weekly class again but I think if anyone wants to really get into the system they will also attend the intensives. Mixed level groups is the way I teach. I have found it to be very helpful in that the beginners can benefit from the senior students in several ways. One is that I say some wild things and the student just looks at me and is thinking something on the order of "Where in the heck did he come up with that?" So then the student asks one of the others who tell them that yes this really happens or is so. Much better coming from a peer than me in many cases. Also, the senior to intermediate student can help with the beginner's questions on a level of "I just did that and what you are describing is exactly what I went through". And the reverse is also true. It helps the intermediate through senior student to grow and solidify the system through helping others. Room requirements: Unfortunately or fortunately as the case may be we require a large room as the Gift of the Tao movements are BIG. This has always presented unique challenges as it is difficult to find a room large enough at any kind of what I consider decent price. Usually these type of rooms are around 2K per event. Number of participants: Generally we have 15-25. I cut the number depending on room size.

This is the only proper Taoist method:

Nice basic list and good info. Of your list I am particularly fond of astragulus, coptis, curcuma, schisandra, reishi. However, people shouldn't read this and go hog wild as Chinese Herbal Medicine is very powerful and one needs to know exactly what they are dealing with if they are sick. If you want to take Chinese Herbal Medicines I strongly suggest going to a Chinese Medical Doctor if you are sick. It has been wisely said, "A person who treats themselves has a fool for a doctor". For example, a person with high blood pressure should consult their physician as they may find ginseng to be a totally contraindicated herb, a female who has a family history of breast disease should consult their physician as they may wish to avoid vitex, etc. And, if the wrong herbs are taken they can further imbalance the system. Guess everyone here has heard my funny Chinese He Shou Wu story so I won't repeat it. I am a fan of Golden Flower Chinese Herbs formulas. A couple of their formulas always on my family's medicine shelf are Gan Mao Ling and Ease Digestion (variation of the old "pill curing" formula) which I jokingly call "ease transgressions".

Good post. I don't like the word supernatural being used to describe things that are simply beyond one's experieince at this poin in their awareness. It is all natural. This happened to me as I was visiting a hospital patient, He was so somber and sad when he was telling me about the Baptist preacher saying a prayer for him (he is not Baptist) I looked at him and asked "DId you tell him to make sure this prayer works better than the last one he said." It made him laugh, which was what I was hoping. I was asked this past weekend by one of my family did I believe in Jesus. I told her I didn't believe in anything. If a person is not prepared to face each moment in their lives with an open mind and open awareness they already have a preconceived idea as to what any particular thing is, which of course colors their perception, making them, in many cases, oblivious to the thing itself. The only way knowledge is gained is to face each moment in the moment of the moment with open awareness, using the mind as a tool instead of a hindrance to hold oneself back. I also told her I walk with Jesus everyday in all things, but not in the way she thinks - and that of course blew her mind as to how I could not believe in anything.

I honestly don't think you will find any Qigong Masters that meet your or any fundamentalist's definition of what "Christian" means. This does not mean you can't practice qigong. It is an exercise for everyone. I tell people that the truths of their religion will not be clouded by qigong practice, but indeed made stronger.

"By strengthen I mean increase the vibrational frequency of your Qi." Absolutely! OP: You may find benefit with this article: http://qigongamerica...cs-program.html

Ah...I personally think you did a good thing by not trying the energetics exercises you quoted in your first post. My experience is that the better approach is qigong movements; they are easy and productive. The truth is that there are a small percentage of people who simply can't feel qi initially but can with proper training. And an even smaller percentage who say they can't feel at all. But the good news is this is an extremely small portion of the population and I bet you can feel qi inside 30 days. And not only feel qi but feel alive with an expanded awareness. Here is my offer if you want: You PM me your address and I will send you Gift of the Tao I DVD. You practice 20 minutes a day minimum, every day. If at the end of 30 days you don't feel qi and don't have an expanded awareness of energetics then just give the DVD to someone else and pay me nothing. If you do then feel free to pay me and keep practicing!

Good to help those who need help - Trees are not much different than humanity in this aspect. Approach TREE with respect and INTENT to help. Once connection is established set INTENT for healing then surround TREE with LIGHT and hold that while you do your tree neigong.

Actually, I have held my fee at $75 since the ....so long I can't remember...90's???; anyway I am stubborn and refuse to go up. It is interesting in that, during my last workshop, only for the certification students, I gave a lecture on ethics and we discussed this topic for a while. I told them I couldn't and wouldn't dictate what they could charge but gave my reasons for staying at the $75. I will say this, if a person goes to a western doctor, even for minor problems, it is unlikely one is able to get out of there for less than $100 bucks (USA). Add to that the cost of drugs. So a treatment program could end up costing a thousand easily. I posted on the Taoist Medicine thread of a person who went to one of my students with severe pain and unable to use the limb who had paid quite a bit of money to western specialists with not only no results but increased problems. A few visits to the student cleared up the problem. I think the total fee was about $240 for several visits. I again caution about thinking a session of anything, I don't care what it is, is a majic bullet. Again, have realistic expectations. And this is still not to say anything at all about the person and fee you are agonizing about. It may be totally worth it to you and it may not.

When I was younger, my brother and I made quite a bit of beer. One batch I substituted black molasses for sugar. A Porter, it was. It turned out better than ANY beer I have ever had anywhere. It was so dang good we took a week off and drank it all up. AND...to stay on topic...it was real.

We spend billions of dollars, collectively, on western medicine which works well for acute but many times not so well for longer term conditions and mostly not at all for pain syndromes. In clinic I always offered guaranteed pain relief or no fee. "Healing" is a complex subject. I encourage all my students to keep in mind that many people cannot afford over a certain amount; but then again these practitioners deserve compensation. Really only you can decide if any particular fee is worth it to you. I tell people don't expect miracles, some things just are, but it usually is worth a try, depending on what is going on. If you have a complex situation it could take 10 sessions to really know if the sessions were doing anything, although most people know within 3 sessions and some know the first session and don't need anymore. Just adjust your expectations to reality and don't live in la la land concerning healers, therapists, or physicians.

Hi everyone. Most of you don't know it but my medical qigong school has been subsidized since I started. First with my clinic then later by my family. As this will no longer be a contribution, I have decided to set up an online music store to help subsidize me continuing to teach, as music equipment has always been a passion of mine; I am an old rock n roller/blues bass player. Just have a quick temp site at this point www.shomemusic.com Appreciate any of you musicians giving me a chance on your music equipment purchases. TTB discount - of course. I have access to most all manufacturers; email if you don't see what you want and I can tell you if I can get it or not. Pro-sound, bass amps & cabs, guitar amps; no guitars at this point, but yes to bass guitars by Spector. Right now CONUS only. Michael

A person can home brew some really good root beer. I am going to get set-up to do this again as I have done so in the past. First batch won't be root beer though, ha ha. One can pay attention and get organic non gmo to a certain extent. Don't know about commercial breweries although someone was drinking an alleged non-gluten beer at dinner at our last workshop and I have seen beer advertised as "organic".

My horse likes Porter best. At 1700 lbs her stepping on you , though, would hurt - although perhaps not as much as a grizzly.

Straight from the horse's mouth - "It looks real to me!" http://youtu.be/0jtwpSzRhq0

OK. You mean qigong, not medical qigong. Medical qigong is wai qi liao fa - healing with external energy. Yes, there are prescriptive techniques but you are going to have a very broad range of people and prescriptive techniques could lead to imbalance due to variety of people. Best to teach them a simply SYSTEM that helps to balance out everything. I would suggest starting a class of 8 Brocade Pieces. And I like rebounding, rebounding, rebounding, rebounding qigong. (ya know, the little mini trampoline thing? THAT is a rebounder) Jump with feet barely coming off the matt. Put awareness on abdomen right below navel, inside body, and think of nothing.

Best to balance the WHOLE system and quit attempting (not addressed to OP - I am speaking of ALL forms of medicine, including TCM) to break it into parts. Best medical qigong treatment balances...everything. "Leave nothing undone"

Just smile really big and radiate calmness energetics - works no matter who/what/where.

This one comes from a female senior practitioner of this system. Client: Mid-aged male Complaint: Severe shoulder & arm pain with inability to move arm. Pain on a scale of 1-10 varied from 8-10. This had been going on for one month with client on a steady self-medication dose of ibuprofen. Client did eventually go to a specialist physician and received an unclear diagnosis. Best guess was torn rotator cuff and/or biceps muscle(s). Scheduled for MRI if treatment unsuccessful. 1st Treatment (one week prior to seeing MD specialist): Acupuncture Outcome: Client reports feeling no pain relief or regaining any range of motion. 2nd Treatment: Doctor gave a steroid shot. Outcome: Client said pain let up for about 6 hours and then resumed more intense. Also severe reaction: no sleep for 48 hours, heart palpitations, nausea, heat flashes to the point of severe sweat, "rushing" feeling. Then, Therapy: Clinical Qigong and Chinese Taoist Medicine Therapeutics Outcome first session. Pain totally eliminated; was at 8 on 1-10 scale at beginning of session. 80% range of motion restored. All of the nasea and feeling of heart disturbance and "rushing" feeling eliminated. Client was totally amazed and agreed to come back the next day. Outcome 2nd session: Client had slight bit of pain after sleeping overnight - pain completely eliminated. ROM increased to "almost normal". Check of client 3rd day: No pain - slight weakness when moving arm through entire ROM. Scheduled for followup Monday. Amazing therapeutics - simply nothing else like it available.