David Yeh

By the way, interesting fact, one of my (Western) Chinese medicine teachers had Janet Travell as a instructor back in the 1940's and Janet's niece as a classmate. The niece revealed that Janet's father was a missionary in China and learned bodywork from the Chinese. He taught it to Janet but warned her that she had to inject something or else Western medicine would never accept it. So the whole concept of trigger points was actually imported from ... Chinese medicine!

Hey Kempomaster, what was your treatment protocol on this? Or Michael, how do you approach eczema or other skin problems?

Hi there surfingbudda, I'm flying in to Indianapolis that Friday, but I was a bit hesitant about offering to carpool with people, partly because I get in late (like almost 11 PM). I am also driving back on Monday evening after the end of the clinical day, so if you were planning to stay another night in Terre Haute, you might have to find someone else to drive you back to Indianapolis. There are some other special circumstances around the car, but nothing that relates to driving to and from Terre Haute ... except that long flights make me crabby and sleepy. In any event, if you aren't able to find anything else, and you are willing to wait several hours, I'd be willing to give you a lift.

Hey Michael, any sense of when your Santa Barbara, CA, workshop might be?

Good book, I actually enjoyed it better than Magus of Java; Daskalos was decidedly more ... wholesome. Wonderful stories, like holding a young toddler who had never been able to walk, then setting her on the floor to the horror of her parents and telling her to go to mama, and she did. Daskalos (aka Stylianos Atteshlis) also wrote a few books of his own which the group he founded, Researchers of Truth, sells. I have a couple and they are very interesting. Of course more Western than Eastern, if one can categorize -- he worked within a Greek Orthodox context. Great read. Would have loved to have met the man but he passed on a number of years ago.

Elijah, you are really something, you know that?

Here's my understanding, and someone can correct me if I'm wrong. It's about intention. What are you training? With yiquan (as far as my limited understanding of it) and other types of martially-oriented zhan zhuang, you're really focusing on structure and balance and relaxation, maybe on endurance and stamina and building force. You don't really have permission to allow the qi to flow spontaneously, so to speak, because you're trying to train it into a certain shape. With Stillness-Movement the focus is not on the form but on accessing a different vibration which then expresses into your body in ways that can be very still or very active, and not in a planned way. Attuning to that frequency is what orients the whole experience. So the aim is pretty different. There are overlaps, of course, so theoretically you could maybe combine a little. For me, I've tried to combine things a bit, but I generally find that doing that tends to put me at odds with myself. I can't decide what I'm doing therefore I don't do anything as well as I would like. He who chases two hares catches none, and all that. But your mileage may vary. So think intent and goal, and what you're training, rather than what it looks like on the outside. After all, there are sometimes big differences even between what your aims are when you train zhan zhuang under two different martial arts styles, or two different teachers of the same art.

Make that nine!

I would suggest using some of the approaches in Robert Bruce's NEW Energy Ways. I work with a patient who has very little mobility in the arms due to nerve degeneration, and try to teach this to her. His approach uses mostly Western terminology too, so it makes it easier to understand for the uninitiated.

I'm not clear on your criticism, Hundun. How are presentation or "theatricality" and personal integrity related? Is this based on the assumption that the hand gestures are unnecessary? Michael's methods might look theatrical or fantastic. I've seen similar in Bernard Shannon (Jerry Alan Johnson's student) and Wong Kiew Kit. When Sifu Wong or his students project energy, they often get into a broad kung fu stance to do it. At first I thought that was unnecessarily theatrical, but after having tried it for a time I realized that it really does help.

Don't know if you guys have seen this, kinda funny: BK Frantzis doing a little tai chi dance to disco music: http://tinyurl.com/yhfwzoc

Have you heard of St. Joseph of Cupertino, "The Flying Saint"?

What seminars/workshops did you attend, and what were they like? And what is he like? Thanks for the link ... I'll check it out.

I think your focus is too narrow. Pardon the speculation, but you seem like you're not enjoying life. If you focus on cultivating a spirit of peace and pleasure and appreciation throughout your life, that will both settle and consolidate your qi so that you can begin to rebuild what you've depleted through excessive masturbation or excessive stress/anxiety/worry, and you'll enjoy what sexual activity you do engage in more, regardless of the strength of your sex drive or the potency of your erections. And then you'll naturally find yourself getting more aroused. Win-win.

Drunken Master!!!

Hi Louis, Okay, so you are not going in totally blind, that's helpful. The way I like to look at it is that learning the pulse is like learning a language. You learn the qualities and sensations (words and vocabulary). You learn the positions and depths (grammar/syntax). And you learn the interpretation (meaning). In the beginning you start out not being able to do much but just pick up on bits here and there, but with enough practice, you can go in and have a whole conversation with a pulse in a matter of seconds. You don't have the luxury of learning it in an "organized" way, i.e. first the words, then the grammar, then the meaning. You're in a situation that's more akin to the way most of us learn how to talk: by being exposed repeatedly, and learning the rules of the language through osmosis. That's great, but I think you would benefit by just trying to apply your intention according to the simple framework I described. On the qualities in particular, I categorize them roughly in this way: 1. Thinness. Wide, thin, or normal? 2. Depth. Is it felt on the surface, or felt when pressing in hard? Is the sensation the same at all pressures/depths? 3. Volume. Is there a lot of force or substance to the pulse, or not very much? 4. Shape/Texture. Is it soft? Slippery? Is it hard -- taut, tense, tight, wiry? Are there hard or narrow "spots" or "spikes"? Does it feel rough? 5. Rate. Fast, slow, normal? 6. Rhythm. Does the rate change as you take the pulse? Any skipped beats? 7. Stability. Is the pulse stable or does it change in amplitude? Does it change from quality to quality or does it stay the same? There might be other aspects to your pulse system that aren't covered by mine, or vice versa. Your teacher is the final authority of course!!! Now, just some notes on the specific qualities you mention feeling. This is just to help you but obviously the system you're learning may be different from mine. Impossible to compare across the Internet! I think there's a lot of consensus that this is commonly interpreted as blood or phlegm stagnation; the sharper the spike, the more intense the stagnation. If it's softer, more rounded, bigger, that indicates less stagnation, and may be more on the qi stagnation end of the spectrum. Commonly the middle pulses are a bit higher and the proximal pulses are a bit deeper. Last week I had a patient in my office who was extremely hungry, and she was eating as I felt her pulse. Initially I was concerned as her right middle position was nearly absent. After a few minutes, I checked again and it was present -- it had filled in as she ate! Do you mean height, as in amplitude, or length? Or rhythm? This is a new one to me, at least the way you're describing it. I've seen where the pulse is felt upon light touch, but when pressing deeper (with all fingers), it diminishes or disappears. That's considered a version of the Empty quality, and similarly indicates serious qi and blood deficiency. As with #1, any time there's a narrowing or restriction, it would be diagnosed as stagnation of some sort. I believe it would be on the same spectrum as indicated in #1. By the way, I would not necessarily recommend that you buy a pulse book. Each pulse system is different, some extremely different. You have a great opportunity studying directly from a master, just go with what he tells you and immerse yourself in that one system, especially since you don't have much time. I do have some notes that I put together to help me organize my thinking around the pulse system I've studied. I could send it to you (it's a Word document), it might help you organize your thinking. But the same caveat would apply. My teacher, Leon Hammer, was in a situation like yours, except for years. He had no book or anything to go on and didn't speak Chinese. It was a great creative effort to put together and organize all of the material and experience that he has. So it may not always be to your benefit to rely on someone else's framework ... At the same time, if you're only there for 1-2 months ... Hope this helps. Asking questions in one of the Pulse Diagnosis groups that Taotao mentioned might be fruitful too.

Here's a question: Are pushups part of standard traditional martial arts training (the classical Chinese, Japanese, etc. forms)? If not, why not?

That is one confident (overconfident, in your case) acupuncturist. What sort of problem did you go in with?

Louis, are you learning this without any theoretical background, are you learning theory stuff simultaneously, or do you already have some background? In other words, do you know what you're looking for? Do you know, for instance, that different positions correspond with different organs (or, whatever the equivalent might be in the system you're learning)? Some of that book-knowledge can be helpful, because one way or another it's best to organize and give a direction to your efforts. When I learned pulse, we started by learning the finger positions, depths, and sensations/qualities. It's easiest and least overwhelming to focus on one thing at a time. I don't know how much overview or background you're getting to be able to do this, though, or if you're just being thrown into the deep end, which can be a great, though different, education in and of itself. One thing that was useful when I was starting out was to separate sensation from interpretation. It was too much at first to try to feel some subtle quality AND try to figure out what it meant. One step at a time.

Drosan, In Chinese medicine, tinnitus, if not the result of nerve damage from loud noise, is usually considered a symptom of a deeper organ issue, often yin deficiency of the Kidneys and/or Liver, both of which unfortunately tend to be longstanding conditions. What your TCM doctor says confirms this. Also what she said about your tongue: a tongue narrower at the root indicates a more significant Kidney deficiency. So, in general, do everything you can to nourish your Kidneys and Liver. Acupuncture and herbs help, qigong is excellent. Taking care of your body, living a moderate lifestyle, etc.

Hi all, I was taught a qigong exercise a while ago, I forget by whom. He said it was called "hunyuan" qigong. I wanted to see if anyone here knew any more details about the origin. I don't have a video or picture, but it is pretty simple to describe. It's done standing up, one side at a time. First the right hand/arm float up as the right heel lifts off the ground simultaneously. As they float back down, the left hand/arm and left heel start lifting. Repeat. Anyone know what that's from, and what it's supposed to cultivate? Thanks, David

The only context in which I've heard of those names is through the late James Ramholz's articles about Sung Baek's amazing pulse diagnosis abilities.

Dainin, in that video is it the first part that you're referencing? Soaring Crane and Baguakid, thanks. Actually the exercise I learned had arms and legs moving ipsilaterally, not contralaterally, so it's not quite the same. But, that exercise does look very therapeutic and might even be better for someone for a right-hemisphere stroke having left-sided body problems. Also it reminds me of cross-crawling (energy healer Donna Eden mentions it). Michael, I wouldn't mind if you posted any case studies on stroke you had ... Just curious. I'm still working to get to the point where I can take your certification program. David