Encephalon

Would it be accurate to suggest that strenuous exercise is what T5T is all about? It's my understanding that there are other goals behind the routine.

There was a line in "Cosmopolitan" Mag some time ago where women were looking forward to meeting men who don't quote lines from "Dumb and Dumber" (one of my favorite movies, BTW). Now they have to worry about men who quote lines from "Office Space" and "Idiocracy," two of my other favorite comedies. Haven't seen "Extract" yet though.

Good question. Nothing. No problem. My apologies. I introduced confusion by posting a serious article in a lighthearted thread. This is not to be construed as advice to book a flight to Portland Oregon and take a cab to the nearest Psilocybin patch.

If I had to make an educated guess and not spend the $35, I'd say she slows things down quite a bit and really focuses on breathing as deeply as possible. This is consistent with movement on the inhale, turning your body/mind into a vacuum, or sponge, that sucks the chi energy out of the air. Get your negative ion generator today while supplies last!

And Psilocybin can give you the same benefits as thirty years of meditation http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/bin/s/m/Gri...sPsilocybin.pdf

I have to respectfully disagree with your opinion of the website info. It may very well be accurate and pertinent, but the writing is quite cumbersome and could be almost impenetrable for a newcomer (written by an ESL perhaps?). I would tell a new westerner to pick up a copy of "Opening the Energy Gates of your Body" by Bruce Frantzis or "The Complete Book of Chinese Health and Healing" by Daniel Reid. I would agree that Zhan Zhuang, or "Embrace Tree" is essential, and when properly performed, abdominal breathing begins on its own. If you are unclear about which yoga asanas to begin with, many of us are having tremendous results with the 5 Tibetan Rites. http://www.mkprojects.com/pf_TibetanRites.htm I think the Embrace Tree link below is sound, but the chance to have your posture corrected by a competent instructor should be sought after at some point.

Del.

Yep, the Pineal gland is where it's at. It's a slower path, but when it kicks in...!!!! My brow chakra consistently throbs at will during my daily meditations now. It's been about a week. Things are definitely getting interesting.

I was 18 when I first took acid in 1978. I loved it, absolutely loved it. My friends and I did a boatload of drugs back then. Alcohol was by far the worst thing I could've indulged in; I was a raging alcoholic by 19, but got lucky and quit drinking before I was 22. Ninpo's assessment is an accurate one and applies to a section of the population. It is completely inaccurate for others. I probably did it 20 times as a wild youngster and had nothing but extraordinarily pleasant, moving, interesting, fun, insightful trips every time. You would think that a 19 year-old with a history of child abuse and alcoholism would meld with LSD and create nightmarish experiences, but I found the experience a consistently moving and spiritual experience. My only explanation for this is that one of the most common experiences is what they call "depersonalization." The psychological boundaries between self and non-self just melt away, leaving you with an experience of non-duality, a temporary abolishment of subject-object relations that is the hallmark of unity and non-dualistic thinking. You become "One with Everything," even for a few artificailly induced hours. In cases like mine, this is a profoundly moving and exhilirating event. For others, the temporary dissolution of the ego is about as terrifying as it gets. Of course, the wisest course one could take, after acquiring a glimpse of non-duality, however pharmaceutically contrived, is to pursue the nondualistic state of mind without drugs, with meditation and bodymind disciplines (and I am convinced that a combination of Taoist internal alchemy and Buddhist mind training techniques are the most advanced tools available on earth, but that's why I'm in here in the first place). The fun part is the synesthesia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia I was tripping in an ancient riverbed an hour's south of Denver one evening, trying to merge with Gaia, the earth Goddess, imagining the earth as one vast sleeping creature, when the boulder I was sitting on started breathing beneath me. It was powerful, fun, fascinating. It gave me an insight into what the human nervous system is capable of under artifical inducements, but, I CAN'T EMPHASIZE THIS ENOUGH, you gotta put this genie back in the bottle soon. If you simply must go forward with it, seek out advice from those who have experience. Ask them to candidly offer an assessment of your psychological profile. If you're a very young soul, you may be in for a rough ride. If you have an unquenchable thirst for inner and outer knowledge, then it may be a safe bet, because passionate curiosity is one of a handful of signs of authentic spiritual aspiration and spiritual maturity. I would also encourage you to have your first hallucinogenic experience with mushrooms instead of LSD. I don't know what the quality of acid is these days, but mushrooms will leave you feeling better after you wind down. LSD tends to leave you feeling a little tense, with a persistent feeling of having something stuck in the back of your throat. One of my best friends and one of the smartest women I know is ready to jump on the nei kung bandwagon, both for herself and her son. She said in perfectly calm and cogent terms that her 20 year old son is in his "hallucinogenic experiment phase" but he's an awfully bright kid and very mature and she didn't seem alarmed in the least bit that he was doing irreparable psychological damage. If you honestly feel healthy enough psychologically to try it out, then get it out of your system. Otherwise, seek out personal advice from someone who knows you well enough to be objective.

Tied the knot Saturday in LA, outside, amidst a torrential downpour. It was very elemental; I made a joking reference to "The Water Method" and just about everyone got it, including all the quasi-Buddhists and geographers amongst my guest list. My morning Nei Kung session was unbelievably powerful. I've never before felt so much a conduit of downward flow. In Embrace Horse I felt as if no one could have pushed me over. I credit this to the emotional strength one acquires when an important sacrament is culminated and ambivalence - i.e., diffused doubt and concern - is dissolved and washed away by the act itself. I feel as if I performed some personal version of the Inner Smile, which I've only read about, and these emotional barriers were just obliterated. Of course, we also got a negative ion generator, just like we asked for, and I cranked that mother up full blast for the whole evening before my morning routine. Daniel Reid devotes a lot of info to the postive effects of these machines, and how Taoist breathing techniques can squeeze even more chi out of air that is rich in negative ions. I do know that after a rainstorm, everybody usually feels better becuase the atmosphere is so neg-ion rich. The best $45 Christmas present you can get yourself or a loved one, especially if you live in an area of poor air quality. Thanks for all the positive vibes, folks. PS - somewhere in here is a tenous link between internal alchemy and emotional transformation, a subject I want to return to as we all grow and evolve.

No celibacy, negative. We averaged twice a week, 9X a month. We've "done it" three times since Saturday night, and I cannot detect any differences except for the bright ringlike image created by the pressure on the optic nerves, which is kinda new actually, at least during climax (we always climax together). I can't say enough about www.neikungla.com and the Book of Nei Kung by Chu http://www.amazon.com/Book-Nei-Kung-C-Chu/...0532&sr=1-1 Stephanie walked down the aisle to "Follow Your Bliss" by the B-52s - Cosmic Thing

A new low in TTB history - Childish stupidity delivered with the writing skills of a 1st-grader. A fountain of incomprehensible boredom. You go, girl!!

http://www.holmesproducts.com/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=1329

I was taught nei kung by the man who co-wrote this book. Once you get Embrace Horse down, the following nine movements/postures detailed in this book will last you the rest of your life, because there is no limit to how far you can refine them. Bioelectricity never felt so good.

Perhaps you could narrow down any personal goals you have regarding your path. There IS sound advice available in here, but we all bare the burden of being precise with our questions. The last thing you want to do is reinvent the wheel. Anyone with a library card can bring themselves safely up to speed with the theory behind Taoist arts, and with thoughtfully chosen DVDs, you can even bring yourself up to speed (safely) with the practice. It ultimately depends on your age, educational background, financial resources and proximity to instruction, but these aren't necessarily limiting factors as you start your Path.

http://www.chutaichi.com/ Classes seven days a week for all ages and abilities at world-famous Times Square studio since 1973 at 156 W44th St. Most classes are taught personally by Grand Master C.K. Chu.

It is a beautiful form. There are some clear parallels with kundalini yoga as taught by Gurmukh, especially the trunk rotation. It's not surprising that it facilitates the opening of the MCO (or the Small Circulation, as it is referred to here). Thanks for posting.

Squirt a little of this stuff on each shoulder before your Embrace Tree. This is one of the few topical analgesics that actually performs as indicated. http://www.hsusa.net/product_info.php?products_id=135 Die Da Yao Jiu

I just got my Level 1 SFQ Fundamentals package in the mail. I'll post my experiences as they unfold with all the attention I can muster. I've got a soup of inversion table therapy, 5 Tibetan Rites, nei kung, daily doses of Indium and negative ion generators going full blast, so I may not be able to factor everything out, but I'll let you know what dramatic changes unfold.

http://www.shambhala.com/html/catalog/item...59030-434-1.cfm "Don't Bite the Hook!" Stick with your regular Taoist studies but avail yourself to the ample tools of Buddhist psychology. The two make a great combo.

I voted for him too, was even inspired and hopeful. I honestly thought he had more integrity than this, and I consider myself a fairly astute, grey-haired political junkie. I think Gore Vidal is right; Hillary probably would've done a better job handling Wall St. and healthcare reform. I balked at the criticism leveled at Obama by Fox news and the people who watch it, and I still do, but I have my own criticisms. Read the explosive story of Obama's astonishing lack of cajones here - http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story...g_sellout/print

When I'm feeling extra strong with my 5 Rites I slow down the movements and really concentrate on extending my range of motion, inhaling as deeply as possible without closing off the epiglottis at all (no holding the breath for even an instant - keep the airway open at all times). The 4th rite, the table, can be as challenging as you need it to be. Taomeow, is the rep range of 24 in the book? My online source says the "magic" number is 21.

Months ago in my TTB infancy I posed the question over whether Taoism presupposes a political viewpoint. I just about got my balls shot off. My "western" spin goes something like - Taoism = ecology = interdependency = connectedness = unity = an end to duality and "us vs. them" thinking. As Joanna Macy puts it in "World as Lover, World as Self," violence to one is violence to all, (obvious expressions of legitimate self-defense notwithstanding). The reason that we have trouble is that we have a body. When we have no body, what trouble do we have? therefore: he who loves the whole world as if it were his own body Can be trusted with the whole world. -Tao Te Ching "The Western version of mytical awareness, our version of Buddhism or Taoism, will be ecological awareness." Fritjof Capra And, I would argue that until we deeply internalize within our consciousness the reality of these ecological linkages, we will continue to fight over resources, which is what most wars always are about, in the final analysis, and the oldest tale in human history.