super80

I drink about 4 cups daily of Tian Mu Qing Ding (organic green tea) from specialteas.com. IMO, they have some of the best quality tea. Since I drink my tea at work I do not not have access to a stove to boil my water, so I use hot water from the coffee machine along with this cup: http://www.specialteas.com/images/catalog/a_large/CMGFRI.jpg

I too was raised catholic and studied Catholicism in a private school for 12 years. My experiences are very similar if not identical to yours. I agree with you 100%.

Could be, I am not sure. I live in a part of Georgia where collecting water from roof gutters is very much encouraged by the city, in fact they have a program where they teach you how to build a collection system yourself for less cost. Believe me I am against what is proposed in those bills, and as a daily consumer of locally grown fruits and veggies, I am very concerned for the small farmer.

This video mentions the same thing discussed in the snopes link I posted, HR 875 and Monsanto. IMO, I highly doubt the government would have the resources to go around and police people who grow their own produce in their backyards. The threat to small farmers however seem to be real, which IS disturbing... On a side note, I have to admit the woman in that video is quite mesmerizing

According to snopes, the rumor is mostly false. http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/organic.asp

Here is an interesting take on Weston Price: http://stanford.wellsphere.com/general-med...elsewhere/32629

I agree..almond milk is especially good!

I am about a quarter of the way through 'The Holographic Universe' at this very moment. So far, I think it is a great book.

My 3d work does not usually involve character/human modeling.

I am a multimedia developer and 3d artist

Shouldn't "herbivore" be replaced with something like Lacto-Ovo in your poll?? To me, vegan and herbivore seem to refer to the same thing-- veggie without any dairy, egg or meat...

I start Bagua this week, looking forward to it... As far as Capoeira, my son has been training for 2 years now (he just turned 7). While it's not my place to argue how practical/impractical it is as a form of self-defense, I can say that it is a wonderful form I wish I had studied when I was his age. It has artistic, symbolic, and positive qualities. The flexibility and endurance that is attained is incredible really. Also, he is learning with a diverse group of students, which is a great thing. I relocated to the south some years back and I have a problem with the strip mall karate mentality in this region(especially for young kids), and Capoeira is a great alternative.

IMO, you don't mess with the body like that. I prefer to leave my physical body the way it was intended to be. To each his own though. There are alternatives that work, such as Fertility Awareness. My wife measures her basal body temperature every morning and has a software program she uses to enter values. It is quite accurate. There is a book called "Taking charge of your fertility". You can buy the book and software here: http://www.ovusoft.com/ Peace, Vic

What you describe here sounds like gender identity disorder

When you call to schedule a phone session, you can ask specifically for it to be with Master Lin. You usually have to wait a week or two since he books up fast. I believe Master Lin is in Tibet at the moment.

I have nothing but good things to say about Master Lin. Spring Forest Qigong has helped me immensely. I am now starting level II and look forward to helping others more and more. The basic healing technique taught in level I does work, and works wonderfully I might add. My wife gets severe headaches from time to time and nothing helps as much as the technique I learned from Spring Forest. My wife was a skeptic at first, but after the first time I worked on her she was amazed (and at first so was I ). She said it feels like all the pressure and pain is being pulled right out of her head. It is an amazing thing to see someone in incredible pain one minute, then totally smiling and calm the next............ I also had a phone session with Master Lin a while back, very powerful.

I also recommend Chunyi Lin (spring forest qigong).

Here is something that has been on my mind for a while..Why do so many (if not all) medical Qigong systems always have to state things like: - "Qigong should be used as a complementary practice for medical care -- not as a replacement." - "You should be under the care of a medical doctor... blah blah " It seems to me that these statements are blatant contradictions to the systems and practices themselves. I don't want to start a Western vs Eastern medicine debate here, so please start another thread for that. My confusion is that some medical qigong systems talk about total healing of diseases like cancers, and systemic problems, but then they lose it by inferring that practitioners should be under the care of a "real" doctor and that the practice is merely complimentary. Mixed messages........ So my question is, do you think these types of statements are purely meant as a legal CYA or do the masters of these systems truly doubt the capabilities of the practices they teach???

I agree completely with this...

Hello, newbie here... This has probably been discussed many times before, but I am curious what some of you think about the "self-teaching" thing, i.e., no master... I live more than one hour north of Atlanta(without traffic) and I don't know of any teachers in my immediate area for Qigong or Kunlun, which are the two practices I am interested in. I am currently doing Qigong practice every morning using a DVD called "Chi for health", which was produced in Atlanta by Sifu Jeff Larson. He is a great person and answers any questions I have through email. This teacher does teach in person, but he is a bit too far from me to go regularly. I also ordered the Kunlun book from Max. Some questions I have are: 1) Is it possible to do this by yourself, or is it imperative that one find a master to train? 2) From what I have read it is hard enough to find a competent master, let alone one that will actually take on a student. That said, do many of you resort to self-teaching through books and DVDs? 3) I have several of the Chia books and they all preface with the warning regarding self-teaching. Meaning, do this at your own risk if you choose to teach yourself. So what does this really mean?? Specifically what kinds of danger are we talking about? I would be curious to hear some personal stories. 4) Finally, what are some recommendations for a newbie wanting to embark on these paths? Any specific books, DVDs, advice, etc...? I apologize in advance if these topics have been beaten to death. Thanks so much, Vic

As far as it not being worth the hassle, well, that's purely your own opinion and I respect it. I personally don't find it to be a "hassle" at all. I place more importance on healthy mind, body and spirit-- my emphasis is not on attaining an aesthetically pleasing physique. A nice physique may be incidental to a healthy lifestyle however it is not everyone's primary goal. Also, what constitutes a nice physique is subjective. I don't get the impression that comment was intended to be argumentative. It was just a contrasting view to "look at all the unhealthy vegetarians" . My opinion is that if a vegetarian is weak and unhealthy, then they are living in a way that is not conducive to good health for their body/blood type. But to infer that vegetarianism = weak/scrawny is simply not true. To say that vegetarians are almost always weak and scrawny is like saying all meat eaters will need a triple bypass once they turn 40.

As I mentioned earlier, I have been vegan in the past as well as a meat eater. My reasons for being vegan were not to jump on some preachy ethical bandwagon as most meat eaters would suspect, it was purely a personal health experiment. In MY case, I felt much healthier and had more strength. After returning to eating meat for some time (and again feeling weak and getting sick often), I recently switched to a vegan+fish diet and have been feeling healthier as a result. The addition of fish like salmon, sardines and cod has made a beneficial impact. I don't however obsess about the diet, if I happen to consume cheese once in a rare while, not a problem. I personally have found that dairy negatively effects my health more so than meat consumption. I also concur that humans are omnivores, not strictly carnivores or herbivores. There has been considerable research done in this regard to show that early man was a scavenger more than anything. It still boils down to what works for the individual. I never preach my diet to anyone else since it may not work for them the way it works for me and vice versa. My last 2.1 cents on this topic 1) There exists a giant sh**pile of supposed "scientific" info out there to support BOTH sides of this debate. Unfortunately it is difficult to know who is credible, full of sh*t, or is simply agenda driven. Yes, part of the vegan community does have an agenda. I won't deny that. However, if you understand and accept that much, than you have to also accept the fact that the meat and dairy industry have HUGE agenda. One based on a profitable industry. You can be sure they have their own "scientific" data. A related thing that comes to mind is a recent commercial campaign launched by the corn industry suggesting that according to recent studies, high fructose corn syrup really isn't that bad at all for you in moderation. Yeah, OK So what is moderation??? HFCS is in practically everything off a grocery store shelf..It's in bread, jarred sauces, etc.......... We have a diabetes epidemic in this country, so let's all add soda or ice pops to our diet. Yes, that makes perfect sense. As far as the Weston Price Foundation and the China study, well once again both are biased and at times full of it. WP is based on outdated information and the China study also makes some crazy claims. 2) It is a widely accepted idea that there are no strong, healthy vegetarians. This is so preposterous I don't even know where to begin. Yes there are many scrawny, feeble looking people out there who claim to eat a veg diet. Technically, potato chips and soda is "vegan", doesn't mean it will improve one's health. Some of my friends took the time to research and experiment with their veg diets and are in better physical shape than most anyone I know. Many of them are very strong, and regularly take part in competitions like "Iron man" every year. So let's put this generalization to rest. Peace

Opposite is true for me, it boils down to what works for the individual.

Great article. I was vegan for over 3 years and lacto-veg for another 4. I started eating some red meat again a few years ago, and my health has suffered because of it. I recently adopted a "vegan" + fish (Salmon, cod) diet and so far I am feeling well. I have to say, dropping dairy and red meat has made a world of difference especially with my immune system. Adding fish such as wild salmon has lessened joint pain, etc.. Some folks worry about b12 when on a meatless diet, in which case Brewer's and nutritional yeasts fortified with b12 can help keep those levels normal. You can sprinkle on soups and salads, it actually tastes great! -Vic

Thanks for the sound advice. At this point my goals are to learn a complete internal system with emphasis on health, but I am sure I will want to go deeper at some point.