NotVoid

Cool. My body doesn't seem to like it so much when I try to move too fast these days. The nice thing about tai chi is we can keep right on practicing even as we grow older. Maybe not with quite as much flexibility as when we were younger however.

Or maybe expressed a bit different way, opening and relaxing the heart.

I think it is better in general to not take some things too seriously, such as internet forum discussions, for example. Not that internet discussion forums can't be interesting or ever make a person see things in a new way. We should try not to forget about relaxing however.

Not all that is termed 'nei gong' is the same thing at all. There are also different levels of achievement in nei gong, and the corresponding skill levels will reflect that. This is often a source of confusion for many people these days. In tai chi chuan the forms must be practiced slowly and relaxed, as the form practice is actually the primary method of nei gong practice and development in tai chi chuan. Regularly practicing the forms slowly and relaxed while maintaining the core principles of tai chi chuan throughout the forms practice as best as one can develops the nei gong skill of tai chi chuan. Without this proper foundation a person is only going through the motions. One does not have to reach a high level of attainment in tai chi chuan nei gong to get the various health benefits of tai chi chuan practice however, so just because many people do not practice tai chi chuan to a high level level of nei gong or martial arts attainment, it most certainly does not mean that their tai chi chuan practice is of no value. There are likely many thousands, if not millions, of regular every day people out there who are getting all sorts of benefits from their tai chi practice, even though they may not ever become anywhere near a martial arts master. The practical benefits of tai chi chuan practice are many, and achievement of a high degree of nei gong or martial arts skill is not a requirement to achieve many benefits from tai chi chuan practice. There are levels of attainment, and even at lower levels in tai chi chuan practice, when practiced reasonably correctly, it is still quite beneficial. I believe that people who suggest that one must attain a high level of nei gong or martial skill in tai chi chuan to have achieved anything in tai chi chuan are mainly views of people who have no actual real experience with authentic tai chi chuan practice. Again, in my view anyway, there are various levels of attainment, and there are various benefits that can be had from tai chi chuan practice even at lower levels of attainment. In all probability, many every day common people who may only practice tai chi chuan only a couple a times a week, but who have been practicing fairly regularly for several years this way, are probably as healthy if not healthier in various ways than many of the so called qi gong and nei gong 'masters' and whatnot claiming to have the only true teachings and true achievements and all that sort of nonsense. Also many of these common everyday people who practice fairly regularly for several years could also probably hold their own in a self defense situation at least as well if not better than many of the hot air qigong and neigong masters out there. I have seen many humble everyday common people who have practiced tai chi chuan for even just a few years who really have obviously attained some real benefits that they themselves do not even seem to realize they have attained. Such is the way of things in this world. Just my own point of view on the matter.

Sure, but, no one said that people are not entitled to their opinions. I have just added my own views to the thread.

When some people talk about the 'history' of their practices, there may be an unspoken understanding that they are not necessarily only talking only about specific practices that trace back through one specific line of teachers. They may assume that it is understood that certain practices may have passed through different lineages and outwardly gone through various changes throughout history, but it is the essence of the practices that remains constant through the different lineages and outward changes, and it is the common essence of the practices which they are referring to as the 'history' of their practice. A practice can even disappear for several generations and then be revived at some point although perhaps outwardly somewhat different than earlier practices may have been, but if the essence is the same, then it is really the same sort of practice. Also, whether anyone believes the following or not is neither here nor there to me, but it is not such an uncommon notion in various cultivation systems that when a person reaches a certain level of attainment they are able to view the 'history' of their system or other things with a different form of cognition, and thus when they are commenting on the 'history' of something they may not be referring to history in the normal sense of the word. Regarding how some students of a teacher may teach or act, I have personally found that it is not so uncommon for students to take a certain set of teachings from a teacher and modify it somewhat over time to fit their own preferences and point of view and cultural perspective, and when these students are teaching that system they may often be adding their own personal interpretations and preferences and views onto the teachings, and it can end up being not really how the head teacher teaches it, or intends it to be presented. Do not confuse what some students may do as being necessarily close to what the teacher is trying to teach. Before passing judgment on the teacher, IMO it would be better to get to know the teacher in person first. Maribelle.Mar, Mingtang Xu apparently first started teaching to westerners in the Ukraine or Russia for a number of years, so it should not be surprising that many of his more senior students come from the Ukraine or Russsia region. I will say it again, if a particular system is proving beneficial to a person, then good, if not, then you can move on. The reality is you will be hard pressed to find any system out there that can not be questioned in one way or another. If the affinity is there, you may wish to pursue something. If the affinity is not there, then you can move on. Rational analysis is good to a certain extent, but one can only go so far with such things in regards to certain things.

I do not believe that this is necessarily true at all. I have encountered teachers from Hong Kong who fled mainland China to Hong Kong when the cultural revolution was starting, and they used the term 'hay gong' (the Cantonese equivalent of the Mandarin 'qi gong') to describe traditional qi cultivation practices as well. It therefore seems it is actually not correct at all to assume that the term 'qi gong', or 'hay gong', is a term that was adopted by the post cultural revolution China to describe watered down practices. The term actually does seem to predate this time period in China, and is often used to describe various traditional cultivation practices. In my experience anyway, the suggestion that the term 'qigong' only applies to inferior or recently derived practices does not seem to have any real basis in reality.

In my understanding the primary focus of tai chi chuan is to develop nei gong ability to the level that one can use this skill as a martial art. One also practices the ability neutralize an opponent's attack through non-resistance while fully maintaining your own center of balance, and practices the ability to 'listen' to an opponent's 'energy' to the point where they can readily sense the opponent's intentions before the opponent puts those intentions into action. Since this is the primary focus of tai chi chuan training, there is simply no need to practice the forms fast or tensed, and practicing the forms fast or tensed will actually be a hindrance to this type of training. This also applies to the push hands practice and related practices, although some people may practice some such practices somewhat faster after many years of practice once they reach a certain level, maybe just to keep things a bit more interesting after many years of practice. When you consider the true aims of tai chi chuan training, it really should not be a mystery at all of why the tai chi chuan form is practiced slowly and completely relaxed. I think it is only people who don't understand this, or who are stuck with the idea that martial arts training can only ever be effective if one is focusing specifically on muscular strength and speed training, who ignore the basic principles of tai chi chuan and try to change them. There is a type of strength training in tai chi chuan as well, but that strength is developed through the continuous slow and relaxed practiced of the forms and push hands . The true 'power' of tai chi chuan comes from the nei gong training. Sure, you can probably find all sorts of deviations from the core principles of tai chi chuan by various people out there, but it is only by adhering to the core principles of tai chi chuan as outlined in the various tai chi chuan 'classics' and as described by those accomplished in the true skills of tai chi chuan that a person will have a chance of approaching the true essence of tai chi chuan. I don't think anyone has ever said that mastering the principles of tai chi chuan is easy, and this is likely why there are so few who ever seem to reach a high level of accomplishment in tai chi chuan. That's my own view anyway.

Hi Maribelle.Mar. Xu Mingtang has said what he is teaching comes from a tradition which was passed on through many generations in his family. The connection to the Shaolin temple is that Xu Mingtang says one of his ancestors a long time ago served as a temple guardian at Shaolin temple, and there is a statue in Shaolin temple which pays homage to that ancestor. There is no connection in his system to zhong gong. Xu Mingtang also runs a qigong therapy healing clinic and school in China, in which his medical qigong healing method called 'image medicine' is taught and practiced. As with many qigong and martial arts traditions, it can be hard to know if claims made about their origins are valid or not, as many such traditions were not ever made public until very recent times, and some traditions no doubt still are not made known publicly. Whether there is any info on the origins which can be found on Google or not is therefore really not an indication of anything. Also, it is not uncommon for various traditional qigong and martial arts lineages to claim a lineage that goes back for thousands of years, because many traditional practices are claimed to have originated in the very beginnings of Chinese civilization, and carried on from there. There is often no way to prove or disprove whether there is any truth to such claims however, but in my experience it is not uncommon to hear such claims in martial arts and cultivation traditions from China. As always with any qigong or martial arts system, it really boils down to what resonates with each individual person. If you are finding some system good for you, then great. If not, then you can simply move on. All the best.

Ma Chuanxu learned some hard style martial arts when he was younger, but he focused in and specialized in the internal martial arts when he got older. It is not hard to manipulate information to try to support a certain point of view; however, I think Ma Chuanxu's explanations about what constitutes 'internal' in the internal martial arts, and what the primary focus is on in internal martial arts training, is pretty clear and straightforward. His view seems to be quite consistent with the view of various students of Yang Cheng Fu as well. I realize there are other points of view out there, but just wanted to present this point of view in the discussion, as I believe it is quite a common point of view amongst respected and accomplished internal martial artists. All the best...

I think Ma Chuanxu, an accomplished and well respected bagua zhang practitioner, does a very good job of explaining what is the role of nei gong in the internal martial arts, and how this internal qi and internal skill development is what makes the 'internal' martial arts 'internal'. Other martial arts traditions may also have 'nei gong' training, but the nei gong training in the so called internal martial arts is very specific and is at the core of those systems. "Interview with Mr. Ma Chuanxu, Liang Style Baguazhang expert from Beijing and president of the Beijing Baguazhang Research Association" http://www.chinafrominside.com/ma/bagua/machuanxu.html excerpt from the interview: "JS: Have you ever practiced any hardening or strengthening methods? MR. MA: No, I did not. These exercises develop external, stiff power. What we want is the Internal Qi which drives all the movements. It's like mercury, once you strike it's there, once you withdraw - it returns as well. It's flexible, alive." All the best...

I have heard of Li Zheng and I have seen videos of his tai chi forms. The tai chi form variations that he does teach do not really appear that much different from Yang Cheng Fu's tai chi, IMO, and the other martial arts forms he teaches may be forms which the Yang family had traditionally practiced that were not directly related to tai chi, but which were passed on to the imperial guards, as we have already discussed. Some of those other forms are known to come from other martial arts traditions which existed at the time, for example, from what I understand anyway. It is also mentioned by Fu that some members of the Yang family would practice tai chi somewhat differently depending on body type and preference and level of attainment at the time, but that the principles employed were still the same. It is still essentially the same tai chi which is being practiced, but some practiced lower and some less stretched out, etc. Not really different practices. To my knowledge, none of Yang Cheng Fu's students have ever complained that Yang Cheng Fu's form and other practices which he taught to his students were deficient in any way. All seem to have actually indicated that what Yang Cheng Fu passed on was the real core and essence of tai chi. It really appears to be only unfounded speculation to suggest otherwise. The point I have been trying to make is that if a person understands that the essence of tai chi is nei gong development and the incorporation of certain specific principles througout the movements, then it should be clear anyway that variations in form practice and supplementary practices from one teacher to the other, or variations in student practice relating to the different levels of attainment, does not really make a difference as long as the principles and core practice are the same. Fu Zhong Wen made it clear that if the Yang Cheng Fu form is practiced enough (and if practiced correctly of course) along with the other practices such as push hands, that anyone can (potentially at least) develop martial arts skill in tai chi. Since Fu Zhong Wen was himself very accomplished in tai chi from practicing such methods as taught by Yang Cheng Fu, I see no reason to doubt what he (and other notable students of Yang Cheng Fu) have said in this regard. If people want to practice other forms and other practices as well, that is completely up to them, but both Fu Zhong Wen and Yang Zhen Duo (Yang Cheng Fu's son) taught about the exact same form and practice methods. According to Yang Cheng Fu's students, practicing other methods or other forms and what not really does not appear to be necessary outside of the core practices of tai chi as passed on by Yang Cheng Fu. Others may express a different view, but again, what I am describing is based on what various notable direct students of Yang Cheng Fu have said in recorded writings and comments. The core of tai chi is the nei gong development and adherence to the core principles in the movements as outlined in the so called tai chi classics. In my own view, as long as whatever tai chi style or practice methods a teacher is teaching adhere to these then a person should be on the right track in their practice of tai chi chuan. On the other hand, if someone is suggesting that weight training and other muscular strength training outside of the tai chi form practice and other tai chi core practices such as push hands is required for tai chi martial arts skill development, then it would seem to me that such a person has probably not ever trained in authentic tai chi chuan. The same for the other internal martial arts. They are classified as 'internal' martial arts for a very good reason in my opinion, although much of this seems to have become lost or blurred in recent times. What is being taught by some teachers nowadays appears to be only external form practices and has lost the true 'internal' essence of the internal arts. All just my own opinion....

I think what you have described above is something that at best can be described as speculation and misconceptions. There are various translations of writings and comments by some different students of Yang Cheng Fu, and the general consensus seems to be that Yang Cheng Fu distilled tai chi down to its core essentials and main important practices, or the essence of tai chi, and some of Yang Cheng Fu's students were considered to be quite accomplished in tai chi as well. They did not express (from what I have encountered) that they thought Yang Cheng Fu held back anything important from them, at any rate. Although different members of the Yang family may have had somewhat different emphasis and different ways of practicing, I don't think it stands up to the facts at all to suggest that Yang Cheng Fu's large form and way of teaching was only focused on health maintenance, as again, some of Yang Cheng Fu's students were considered quite accomplished in tai chi martial arts skill them self. My own personal view is Yang Cheng Fu did really distill tai chi chuan down to its core essentials, as what he taught seems to be very consistent with what is described in the so called tai chi classics as well. Here are some interesting and relevant quotes from an interview with Fu Zhong Wen, a very notable student of Yang Cheng Fu, and his grandson: "Among the methods Yang emphasized was that the form should be done six to eight times in a row each day. Only in this way, he said, can a student catch the feeling of real kung-fu and be able to develop martial skills. And he said this is the way that Yang Cheng-fu taught and that Fu and his son and grandson teach." "Fu said that in the practice of the form, the first couple of times is a warm up. From the fourth or fifth repetition, you improve your kung-fu. "When students were practicing in this manner," he said, "Yang Cheng-fu would sit there and watch them." He also said that Yang Cheng-fu, while teaching a class, would take pains to correct them so that they could get movements correct. "He would always watch and would never just walk away. In watching, he might have them repeat the posture over again until they learned it correctly. He was a very good teacher." "He said, "You get different pay from different work. This is the same in the martial arts. The T'ai Chi idea is to practice slow but the idea is not to do the movements but to use your mind to control your movements. It is not your movements doing the movements. It is using the inside to do the movement so every movement can be very final. "If you are doing a movement fast, something can be wrong and not observed, he said. But if you are doing it slow, then you can see if you are doing something wrong and other people can see if you are doing something wrong." James Fu said his father, Fu Shengyuan, told him that doing T'ai Chi exercises is different from other exercise in that you use large muscles and small muscles. All the muscles, large and small, get exercised when the movements are done slowly, he said. When performed fast, only a few muscles get exercised. "That's why beginners who have strong, even big legs experience shaking legs when they start T'ai Chi." "James Fu said that if someone does the form eight to ten times a day continuously for one year, they can feel something They can then feel the jing." "When asked if the style Yang learned was the Chen style, James Fu quoted one of his grandfather's favorite sayings, "T'ai Chi is only one." James Fu said that what Yang Lu-ch'an learned in Chen Jiagou, the Chen family village, from Chen Changxing is the same form that the Yang family still practices. He said it was not the Chen style that Yang Lu-ch'an learned. "It is called the Yang style because the Yang family popularized it. In his book, Yang Cheng-fu did not refer to Yang family T'ai Chi Ch'uan, he called it T'ai Chi Ch'uan. In his book, he said that T'ai Chi Ch'uan is only one. James Fu said that Yang's sons also did the same form. "In T'ai Chi form, you can't make everyone exactly the same. That's impossible. Every human body is different. But it was not the purpose to change the movements. Because Yang Cheng-fu had a big body, he did it a little bit bigger. Because Yang Shou-hou was a little bit smaller the movements were a little smaller. But it was not a small frame like the Wu style." He said, "You can do low movements or with arms wider or with small steps and arms smaller. It depends on what level you are at. But as long as the principles are followed, as long as the shoulder is relaxed, elbows dropped, body weight in front, and relaxed, I can't say that you are wrong." "Yang Lu-ch'an did this style but Yang Cheng-fu organized it into an uniform way." (This following part may be controversial, but this is what was said in the interview): "My grandfather said that before the Communists took over the country, you never heard of the Chen style. It was only after 1949, when the government wanted to dig out old things, they dug out the Pao Tui form and combined it with T'ai Chi. The Pao Tui came from Tumbei." "He said because the Yang family has been promoting T'ai Chi Ch'uan, people call it the Yang style to differentiate it from the other styles that were derived from it. "But originally, we are just called T'ai Chi Ch'uan. And this is what we are doing, the original one. There is not any other difference. "Originally, there was only one T'ai Chi Ch'uan form and Yang style is the original form. And then afterwards came the Wu style, Sun style and Hao style. "Yang Cheng-fu, Yang Lu-ch'an and Yang Banhou never changed anything. They just did whatever they learned. And this is T'ai Chi." Fu Zhongwen said that many people changed the form, but that the form he and his family practice is exactly as it was taught by Yang Cheng-fu. "Lots of people changed the form. I am the only one that did not change the form. I still haven't studied everything. How can I change it? The ancients were so good, how can you change something that they developed with their high skills." The heart of T'ai Chi, James Fu said, is keeping the weight forward when transitioning to step forward with the other foot. He said you should not shift the weight back before stepping. "A lot of people have nice movement but lose a lot of important points when doing the transitions and that weakens their kung-fu." Fu Zhongwen was a major and close student of Yang Cheng Fu, and it is very doubtful that Yang Cheng Fu held back secrets from him. According to Fu Zhong Wen, what Yang Cheng Fu passed on to him was the same tai chi that Yang Lu Chan learned and passed on to his family, with perhaps some differences in emphasis and practice methods amongst different Yang family members. People who suggest that what Yang Cheng Fu taught is just watered down or lower level practices seem to be quite at odds with what actual and notable students of Yang Cheng Fu have said. I personally am much more inclined to believe what Yang Cheng Fu's students have said than speculation from others who it appears may actually want to change tai chi to fit in with their preconceptions.

Vitalii, I think it is quite possible if not likely that both the Chen family and Yang family had their own martial arts traditions which they practiced besides tai chi chuan. When the Yang family trained the imperial guards, the imperial guards needed practical martial arts skills which they could learn quickly and be able to put to use fairly quickly as well. Even for someone who starts quite young and trains for hours every day in tai chi chuan, they may need at least ten years of intense training to reach a half decent degree of martial arts skill in tai chi chuan, so tai chi chuan training alone would probably not be practical for the imperial guards to learn. Their training from the Yang family may therefore have focused on other martial arts practices the Yang family practiced, although it seems they may have been taught tai chi chuan forms as well, although perhaps somewhat modified in some ways. Yang Cheng Fu was considered quite accomplished in tai chi chuan and various students of his wrote about Yang Cheng Fu and the tai chi they learned from him, and Yang Cheng Fu seems to have focused on distilling tai chi Chuan to its core practice and fundamental training skills. Based on the writing of various students of Yang Chen Fu, it really seems that he felt the slow, relaxed and regular tai chi form practice and push hands practice is the core of what holds the true essence of tai chi chuan training. Other practices may have been supplementary practices that are not necessarily essential. It does seem various students of Yang Chen Fu felt that the regular practice of Yang Chen Fu's tai chi form and push hands practice was enough to potentially reach good achievement in tai chi chuan. At any rate, few people these days have the time to devote at least three hours or more of daily practice of tai chi chuan, and most people these days practice mainly as a way of health maintenance and improvement, with the self defense aspect of tai chi probably being a secondary motivation for many people these days. Just my own view and observations...

I have no idea if there really is such a thing as enlightenment, and, if so, what it might be or not be. Here are a few translated lines from the Patanjali Sutra, of which I also have no idea if these translations are at all accurate or not. Now, the teaching of yoga. Yoga (union) is consciousness with its movements still. Then the seer rests in the true form of the self. At other times, the seer identifies with the movements. The movements are of five kinds, and are destructive or creative. [These five kinds of movements are:] Upward thoughts, downward thoughts, dreaming, sleep, and memory. Upward thoughts result from clear perception, logical deduction, and direct cognition. Downward thoughts consist of apparent knowledge only; they are not a stable form of the ascendant. Dreams follow the echo of experience; they are void of reality. Sleep is the movement that adheres to the thought of nothing. Memory is the absence of loss of the experience of objects. By approach and detachment, the movements still. Of these, approach is the endeavor to reach stability, but this becomes firmly established when it is continuously applied for a long time without interruption, and with devotion. Detachment is the mastery of consciousness that cuts asunder the taste for the seen, the heard, and the experienced. The supreme detachment occurs when awareness of the ascendant cuts asunder all attachment to even the fundamental forces of nature, the gunas. ... (the sutra continues on from here) From 'The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali' - by MSI

While tai chi does require a good deal of strength in the legs and flexibility in the hips, practicing the tai chi form regularly slowly builds that strength and flexibility. IMO, the core of tai chi chuan and other internal arts is the internal cultivation (nei gong). If some internal martial artists train with weights, it may be because certain traditional weapons were quite heavy and require a lot of strength to handle, but that doesn't change the fact that the essence of the internal martial arts is nei gong. Tai chi ruler may look like a strength training exercise, but its main purpose is internal training, in the sense of all the twisting and stretching and pressing of points helps to open up points and meridians and channels, etc. I believe tai chi ruler actually has different roots than tai chi chuan, although some tai chi practitioners such as Feng Zhiqiang practiced both. Even though Feng Zhiqiang learned traditional Chen style tai chi, he modified it into his own Hunyuan tai chi chuan style, in which Feng Zhiqiang brought tai chi chuan back to its more traditional roots of focusing on nei gong (internal cultivation) and full body relaxation, and removing things like the loud foot stomping and whatnot which serve no purpose in tai chi chuan training. So I have read in some comments by some of his students anyway.

That's really interesting, including about the herb infusions and also possibly a gas in the water. Water is supposed to be able to be 'charged' with qi, or at least to be able to channel or carry qi, according to some teachers/sources. The ionization of water aspect is an interesting angle as well.... I forget much of my chemistry, but I did a quick lookup, and I believe that in water an excess of H+ ions in water (positive hydrogen ions) is acidic, which corresponds to a pH reading of 0 - 6. Acids tend to taste sour (example vinegar, citrus). An excess of negative hydrogen ions (OH-) represents a base, which corresponds to a pH reading of 8 - 14. Bases tend to taste bitter and feel somewhat slippery. Examples given were lye and ammonia. A pH test on water, before and after qi charging, with a half decent quality pH meter might prove interesting...

Interesting. The problem is that the properties of the water are its chemical properties, as least from the point of view of physical tests. If the water tastes sweet, but its physical (chemical) properties haven't changed in a detectable way (at least based on the two testing methods that were done) then here's a couple of possible considerations: 1) The sweetness taste effect that Jiang Feng created in the water is only temporary, and whatever had changed in the water had returned back to normal by the time the water was actually tested. If you still have a sample of the water, does it still taste sweet? 2) If the same water sample that was tested still tastes sweet today, then whatever is making the water taste sweet would appear to not be related directly to the chemical composition of the water, so then what is it related to? Another possibility is that there is a difference in chemical composition of some sort in the water, but the particular tests done were not able to pick it up.

Authentic tai chi chuan has different 'levels' of achievement, but in the higher levels of tai chi, the 'force' of tai chi comes from developing one's internal qi to the point that you can use your internal qi to shock and unbalance the opponent in various ways. This internal force can be quite devastating when released by a real master. There are various tai chi masters who have reached this sort of level, but IMO Zhu Datong is quite enjoyable to watch as he is so good natured and easy going about it all. Zhu Datong demonstrating using internal qi to overcome applied force from an opponent. Watch the whole video. There are a couple of parts where the opponent appears to be getting shocked from Zhu Datong's internal qi. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeodbargP8M More tai chi video demos of Zhu Datong: http://www.youtube.com/user/zirantaiji/videos

A mystic said I am. A philosopher said I exist. This may be, but "I" do not even know what "I" is.

I am curious what people's views are on the concepts of 'yin qi' and 'yang qi', and what the sources are for your views on such things. For example, do you think that there are two distinct forms of qi, one of which is pure yin and one of which is pure yang, or do you think that such expressions are really just indicating the relative characteristics or qualities of certain forms of qi, such as Earth qi is more yin as compared to Heaven qi, and Heaven qi is more yang as compared to Earth qi, etc., or do you think the concept of there being such things as 'yin qi' and 'yang qi' is just plain wrong? Also, I would be interested in hearing what people are basing their views on. Is this something you have been taught from a certain tradition or teacher, or how did you come to your view? I have never been a big question asker when I have interacted with teachers, so I have never asked any of my teachers over the years specifically about this.

I understand well what the purpose of electrical grounding is for in discharging static electric charge. However the suggestion seems to have been that this relates to certain cultivation practices. I am not convinced at all that the two are necessarily directly 'connected' (ha ha), although there may be a 'connection' of some sort from what little I have had direct experience with in regards to some practices of this sort. Quite unique and different to say the least, from what I have seen. I think it is very easy to make assumptions about things we do not understand, but quite another matter to try to truly understand them. That is diverging from the topic at hand however, and I will leave it at that...

Thanks for the comments on your experience and views Zoose. There are several Chinese characters that can be transliterated as ling. Here are two possibilities which may fit, but either of these two characters might not be the actual Chinese character used in the expression of 'ling qi' which I have heard of. I was told that it meant something like spiritual qi or cosmic qi, but I did not get a clear definition. 龗 - ling - dragon/spirit; divinity 霊 - ling - spirit, soul; spiritual world

Sure, but whether that has anything to do with any particular practice, depends on the exact practice, and IMO it remains to be established whether contact with the Earth is for electrical connectivity reasons or for some other reason. In some practices having a certain type of direct contact with the Earth does seem to be important however.

I think there is something that needs to be considered here that sometimes at least seems to be overlooked. Not all qigong or cultivation practices are the same or have the same approach and goals. If someone answers you that you should do such and such and offers no further explanation without even knowing for certain what you are practicing, then from my perspective there is something wrong. Different systems have different practices and different requirements. The question should be what should you be doing for the particular practice/system you are practicing? As an example, a former tai chi teacher of mine, who was in my opinion quite accomplished in internal skill, always wore rubber soled 'tai chi' shoes when practicing tai chi, and never mentioned any special requirements in that regard. As I understand it, this is because tai chi (as taught in some traditional lineages anyway) cultivates the internal qi, and does not rely on absorbing external qi. Other auxiliary practices can help to improve health and help to open up the meridians, etc., but the primary cultivation in tai chi does not depend on such methods to bring results. So IMO, how you practice and what the exact requirements are depends on what exactly you are practicing. It is only an assumption to think all cultivation practices follow the exact same principles and approach. This has not been my experience at all.