sean

Great to see you back IanB. The "Live Chat" is really new so I don't think anyone has really used it a whole lot yet. I tried to set up a meeting for today at noon but I got trashed last night and slept past then. I work a later shift during weekdays from 2pm to 11pm Pacific Standard Time. And we are all over the world so I think it'd be best if we could agree on a weekend time that works for everyone. Sunday apparently late afternoon works best for me. Sean.

Great feedback BobD. Thank you for taking the time to write that out. I am starting to feel like it'd be a shame to kill the Blog section entirely. If I revive the old-style training journals then what would the distinction between the two be? It could make things even more confusing. But what if I revived the old-style training journals and called them: Individual Practice Discussion or something. With the idea being that this is more of the place to post your practice if you want to discuss it in depth. Whereas people can still use the Blogs for other purposes. For example, the way that Leslie is using it to keep a simple food journal. She's probably not looking to generate a huge amount of discussion about what she ate that day. More like maybe a comment here and there. Plus the fact that Blogs can have different categories and the calendar is pretty useful. You could make a category "Five Tibetans" and every time you did them, you could just add an entry in that category with a simple note "Did 5 Tibetans. Had a lot of fun with them today. Etc." ... then if you wanted to get an overview of your 5 Tibetan practice two months later, you can just filter to only look at the 5 Tibetan category and you can see maybe "wow, every Wednesday my 5 Tibetan practice was no fun. Probably because Tuesday nights I drink a fifth of vodka." or maybe "Shit. Looks like I am skipping the 5 Tibetans every other Sunday when Peggy comes to visit" or whatever. In other words, the Blogs would be more of your own thing with obviously the option for people to leave comments here and there. Whereas the Training Journals become "Practice Discussion" and are where you post your more in depth experiences and insights on your practice to generate discussion. I'm kind of torn about "Contributed Articles". I've given your feedback a lot of thought and I agreed with it for about 24 hours but have since come up with some "Contributed Articles apologetics" just to play devil's advocate with. See, one of the hopes I'd had for Contributed Articles was to have it give new members a place to start. Basically a "best of" forum. Which true is highly subjective, but that's why I want to distribute the decision making process on what is/isn't a contributed article to a group of members here. Some posts start out with just a simple inquiry "Hey, has anyone ever tried Master Wee Wee's Seven-layer Steak Form?" ... a bunch of people respond with their insights. But one member takes some time to think and write out a great detailed overview of the seven-layer steak form and all the teachers that teach it with links and her experiences with all of them. This reply has now become (subjectively) more than just ordinary discussion, it's become a resource... And in this sense isn't it perhaps beneficial to have posts determined as resources put in an easily accessible section? What do you think? Agreed with the News/Announcements and Lending Library. They just are not distinct enough or active enough to be separated from Taoist Discussion. But hey, let's keep this discussion alive for another week. And next weekend, (March 12th and 13th) I'll make some of the major changes we agree upon here. Sound good? Sean.

Hey, just a heads up, I've heard good things about Dr. Xue Zhi Wang's Five Animal Play to throw a third alternative into the mix here. Sean.

Awesome feedback guys. Ok, News/Announcements is on real shaky ground then. It's just not really necessary or distinct enough from Taoist discussion and it's an added layer of unncessary complexity it seems. Let's dive in and get our hands even dirtier here. Lending Library Yay or Nay? It just didn't take off. Maybe people prefer to just lend stuff through PM's or just post about it in Taoist Discussion. Starting to feel really unnecessary. Thoughts? Blogs Ironically, considering it was one of the reasons I was so excited about IPB, I am sadly kind of disappointed in the Blogs. They just seem so disconnected from the discussion to me and, like BobD says, I keep feeling like I am missing comments. Comments seem buried and feel more and more unlikely to be read and responded to as new entries are made. Frankly I sort of liked the old Training Logs, where all of the feedback is was in one thread. I'm looking into different ways of hacking/templating/feeding the Blogs to make them have more of this feel but it's challenging. I'd love your feedback on this. Did you prefer the old Blogs? Would you rather see them brought back to the forefront, maybe with some custom modifications that you like about the current Blog feature? Or are you basically happy with the new Blog seutp? Is there anything that could be done to the new Blogs that would make them better? Contributed Articles I'm kind of happy with this concept personally. Although perhaps it will never take off. Eventually I'd like to template this section so that when you go to it, it looks like an online Magazine, with "author" instead of poster and their avatar next to the post, and lot's of other tweaks. Any member is welcome to post in Contributed Articles, which I haven't really come up with a definition for yet, so maybe the whole idea is too vague and again not really distinct enough from Taoist discussion to be worth the extra complexity. The idea was to have a team here with special priveleges to approve contributed article posts and also to move posts that are written in Taoist Discussion to Contributed Articles. Feel free to give your honest feedback on this. Anything else? Anything else that's been bothering you or that would like to discuss? Even if you can't really put your finger on it, or don't feel you can explain it right, or are afraid your are going to need to defend your feelings or perceptions somehow, don't worry, just be as vague as you want. "It just feels too complicated" is enough if you are short on time or can't explain the problems you are having in more detail. I'm just really interested in each of your user experiences here. Even if it's just a short description of what it feels like inside to come to TaoBums. Thanks! Sean.

So, what about Sunday sometime? What about Sunday at noon PST for an hour. Does that work for anyone? Sean.

Hey Ronny, maybe you should check out the The Chi Nei Tsang Institute ... I'm sure you can write any of the teachers there with your question, including the head teacher, Gilles Marin who wrote Healing from Within With Chi Nei Tsang. This place is right down the street from my loft too so after your treatment you and Lezlie and I can drink forties and roll around Oakland pickin' up bitches and fuckin' them. (I really need to stop listening to this Dr. Dre album ) Or just look up a practitioner in your area. There are a few listed in Southern Cali. Sean.

Here is the direct link to Nan's new book: Diamond Sutra And here's the page on Bodri's site that talks about it. Sean.

Thanks to everyone for your really kind words in this thread and via PM and email. Quickly, because I'm really busy today, I just want to say that I'm genuinely sorry to those of you who are upset. I think it's important, though, to accept that this isn't "AFewOldFriendsFromHT.com". It's TaoBums.com. It's a whole new thing. I'm sorry to say, but being on the "HT scene" for X number years doesn't entitle you to anything, let alone the administration of TaoBums. It also doesn't really make it appropriate to write non-sequiturs about my character if I don't comply with what you want. There are many many more members here than you. I'm doing the best I can to create a forum that will please everyone. And I very much appreciate all the help I've received. But it's time to move on from the drama. If it's too difficult for you to give me that same amount of trust you give the webmaster of every other website you visit, then it probably is just time to go. No hard feelings whatsoever. Seriously. And I sincerely welcome you to create another forum if that's what you want. Create ten forums. Let's spread Taoist discussion across the whole web! Just please remember to send me the links so I can visit them and continue learning from you all. "May a thousand flowers bloom" Sean.

I'm not familiar with some of the technical details of your proposal, but we can start out just by making Pietro a Wiki admin. I don't care. If that's all it would take to make Pietro stop whinging I'd have done it a long time ago. (awesome word) Sean.

From: http://www.vinnypinto.us/products-informational-1.html Observations on Sungazing -- a Mini E-book By Vinny Pinto During one of several consulting calls on sungazing in mid-2004, one of my callers, a newcomer to suingazing (but a longtime member of the sungazing list) who wanted some basic advice, said to me (and I paraphrase a bit, due to lousy memory): "Why don't you put your recommendations, observations and guidelines in a mini e-book and make it available? You could even include your own observations and conclusions in the areas of sungazing and not-eating, sungazing and healing, and sungazing and the spiritual path. Lots of people want to know more of your observations on sungazing and not-eating, and the spiritual angle. You could sell it much like you sell your EM brewing e-book, and this would give people much basic info, plus some advanced stuff -- from your viewpoint -- in one convenient book, so they don't have to search the Sungazing list archives for 100 years or wait for your future posts on inedia and other topics. It could also help to pay for all your free volunteer work on the list and free phone consulting and coaching on sungazing. It could also save many hours of phone calls... you could even require folks to read the mini e-book before they can call for individual consulting!" Well, I replied that I actually had such an e-book project on the back burner, but that maybe I should accelerate its development. So.... for those of you who are sungazers or interested in sungazing, and who are frustrated at times with the limitations of the Sungazing list group -- primarily: * repeated newbie questions and elementary discussions * difficulty of accessing info in past posts, due to the inefficiency of the groups search engine, which searches only from 200 to 400 archived messages at a time (can take a long time to search 14,000 posts for even a single term!) * the limitations to exploring the more advanced aspects of the topic given the broad nature of the list membership * the fact that most posts in archives are on elementary topics or are irrelevant to your current interests I have decided to acclerate the timetable of the mini e-book type document... This e-book is not intended to be an encyclopedia of sungazing, nor an A to Z guide to sungazing, nor to be a book on the history of sungazing. Rather, my intent is to share with you my own experience from my 17 years of sungazing and from having talked with and worked with hundreds of sungazer; especially from a spiritual angle; will address inedia as well. Much of the information in the sungazing mini e-book will be material much as I share in the one-one individual coaching which I offer to folks who are sungazers, and also in related spiritual areas. And some of the material will be on advanced topics such as sungazing and inedia as well as sungazing and spiritual growth, much which I have never shared on the Sungazing list group, and also my own observation on use of mirrors, lenses, pinholes, polarizers, etc. based on my own intuitive sense and stories I have heard from friends who have been sungazing for over 30 years, one of whom also taught sungazing seminars in the US. If you have sensed that I do not share everything that I know or have observed on the list group, this is entirely true, because, among other things, the amount of (often trivial and distracting and misleading) questions generated by such disclosure of information -- and the follow-up replies required of me -- would be overhwhelming. And, quite frankly, some information does not belong in full public view; it is better given only to those who can really use it and who are committed to the work at hand. With that behind us, Here is a more complete description of the e-book document: Observations on Sungazing, including Spiritual Aspects and the Claims of Inedia Tentative release date now March 25, 2005; portions will likely be released occasionally in interim and distributed to all who have placed pre-publication orders. I am a degreed scientist, a spiritual healer, a long-term mystic and spiritual student, and have geen sungazng since the late 1980s. I created in late 2000 or early 2001 the first site on the web offering a positive slant on sungazing, and I count among my friends and acquaintances (this was before I ever started the Sungazing list group!) over 45 experienced sungazers, some of whom have been gazing for over 35 years. I have also had dialogues with friends and acquaintances who have taught classes on sungazing, or who are sungazing teachers, and even authors of books on sungazing or the benefits of the sun. Two such friends have even done extensive work and research with use of mirrors, pinholes and lenses. This copyrighted mini e-book is offered in PDF file format containing both basic and advanced information, including my own guidelines and recommendations for safe and sane sungazing and also on related topics, such as sungazing related to inedia (not eating), spiritual practice, spiritual growth, healing, etc. Content goes beyond what I have offered on my websites and on the Sungazing list group. This mini e-book will also offer my views on inedia (not eating) and the claims mayd by various persons about sungazing and inedia. On the other hand, this mini e-book is not intended to be encyclopedic, nor to delve into th ehistory of sungazing, nor into overly analytic or intellectual discussion of sungazing. Rather, it is a sharing of my observations and experiences after having sungazed for 17 years, having been a spiritual student for almost 40 years, and having known many sungazers. If you purchase a copy of the e-book version, you will receive a free electronic copy of any revised editions free for the next six months after your have received your first copy. The document price is $19 US dollars. Tentative release date now March 25, 2005; portions will likely be released occasionally in interim and distributed to all who have placed pre-publication orders. Online payment information and terms in Ordering and Payment section below.

I found Yudelove's books gave me a good overview. I've also heard really good things about Treasures of Tao: Feng Shui - Chinese Astrology - Qi Gong although I haven't read it myself. Sean.

Oddly enough, I found this one of the most empowering things about Winn's Fundamentals. Something I hadn't done since I was a kid. Just shaking and twisting and writhing around for the hell out of it. Has anyone ever tried out DuCane's material? Sean.

Yeah, this change is really really easy to make. Does anyone else have an opinion about this? Sean.

The "Latest Blog Entries" RSS feed at the top of the forum was hanging. I had misgivings about it at the start. I sort of hacked it together and it relied on another host's RSS to Javascript conversion. I'll look into it and see if I can patch together a more reliable feed solution. Sean.

Pietro. You know what they say about arguing on the Internet don't you?

I just stumbled across a new article on Healing Tao USA that was put up just last month. It's called Multifaceted Health Benefits of Medical Qigong and it's pretty dense and references a detailed bibliography that I want to explore further when I have more time. I'm always curious about the "hard science" behind alchemy, especially remote intentional influence via Chi, prayer, etc. This seems to me the most likely quantifiable "occult" phenomenon and could provide an important solid bridge between materialism and spiritual cultivation principles. Several months back I scoured the net for similar resources as the ones cited in the above article and compiled the following list: The Efficacy of "Distant Healing" A Systematic Review of Randomized Trials There are links to many related articles on this same page at the bottom. Scientific Evidence for the Efficacy of Prayer Dr. Peter Fenwick A Randomized, Controlled Trial of the Effects of Remote, Intercessory Prayer on Outcomes in Patients Admitted to the Coronary Care Unit Many more related articles on the same page at the bottom. Distant Healing Daniel J. Benor, MD Using western scientific methods to prove the efficacy of traditional healing methods A proposal for a large-scale human clinical trial Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis of Bioenergy Therapies by James L., Ph.D. Oschman Book Review - Scientific Qigong Exploration The Wonders and Mysteries of Qi The International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research International Consciousness Research Laboratories You can find the same list in the Resources: Books, Links, Articles, Movies, etc. sticky in the Taoist Discussion forum. If you bump into any well-conducted scientific research on these subjects online, be sure to think of me and help my hopeless overactive left-brain by hooking me up with the links. Sean

Great idea Michael. Unfortunately my schedule is probably going to conflict with everyone else's. I work M-F, 2pm - 11pm PST. How about we all post our schedules and maybe we can decide on a weekly Chat meeting time. Could be fun. Sean.

Well, I acquired Invision Power Board with all the works. Now we can have proper Training Blogs, a member Gallery, Live Chat, a portal home page, and lot's of other goodies. It's still a big work in progress but I couldn't resist launching it. The transition was mostly seemless but some things didn't carry over from the old forum. Unfortunately I couldn't transfer the Training Blogs into the new Blog structure. Maybe when I get more experienced with PHP I can figure out how to move the data. But for now you'll need to start a brand new Blog. Go to My Controls>My Blog>Activate Blog to start your own blog. The you can go to "Blogs" and start posting entries. The threaded structure of the old forum was unfortunately lost. But the plus is that this forum has a threaded feature that is much faster and better integrated into the system. So going forward your posts will have a threaded hierarchy. Avatars, attachments and some smilies were lost. I'll keep the old forum up for a little while for the purpose of letting people go and grab their avatars and reupload them here, and do the same with attachments. You should be able to just edit old posts of yours that are missing attachments and add them again. The old site is here: http://www.thetaobums.com/oldsite/ I'll be putting in some hours over the weekend restoring avatars and attachments and cleaning up the template. This was actually a lot of work. What else ... Articles will now go in the Articles forum. If you post in there, your post will await moderation and if it's actually a contributed article of relevance and not spam it will be approved. [Yoda, I'm going to convert your article to this forum tonight] News and Announcements is the same way. If you post in this forum it will hang out until approved basically as relevant-non-spam and then it will get posted and automatically syndicated to the front page. "Links" will be back soon. Constructive feedback, bug reports, questions, etc. are welcome. Enjoy! Sean

Thank you Michael. There've been some grueling all nighters for sure, but I'm pretty happy with how everything is turning out. Thanks again. Sean.

Ok, after much snooping around I think I finally figured out the proper cookie settings. Is this working now? How about for you BobD? I think you should be able to flip back and forth between News and Forum without losing your session now. Sean.

Bye Pietro. I haven't a clue what you are talking about in most of your farewell post here. But I genuinely hope that one day soon you find a place where your idealism intersects with reality.

Ahhhh.... that really sucks. I've heard of that. But I guess the censorship makes total sense. You really gotta watch those Falun Gong. They hack babies heads off.

Huh. I'm completely stumped at the moment. It's working for me both logged in and out. Is anyone else having trouble accessing Moose's external blog? Sean.