Taoist81

Stronger?... well, if it is lard then it likely simply gives better insulation, but that doesn't make it healthy. If it is just round like a baby then that is just like what was mentioned in the above post. Breathing exercises do work the abdominal muscles and they do so in a way that is not often done by common exercises. Anyone with a Santa belly that jiggles like jelly should not be giving health advice. Meditation advice....maybe, but not health advice. By your description of "stronger" it appears to imply a "hard" belly, which is not like a baby's soft flabby abdomen it may look like it, but it is different.

It also depends on how the two of you are defining a "six pack". Anyone who is in decent shape and doesn't have a load of lard hanging from their gut will have some visibility of their abs. In your example of a gorilla, most of the time you can see definition in even the most well fed silverbacks. Having a "bulge" to the belly may develop (keyword "may") from any number of breathing exercises from pranayama to qigong. Even then though, if the individual is not covered with fat then the abs will be seen at least in form they will just not be flat. The popular "Abercrombie boys" ab look is more to do with genetics than actual health. Perhaps that is what you are assuming mantis is after/has. Perhaps that is the case. The "Qi belly" is also not a necessity though. Looking at yoga masters one sees both "bellied" and lean masters, same with some Taoists of the centuries past (if their portraits can be trusted). The accompanying exercises that one does with the breathing exercises determine whether or not the internal abdominal muscles are "taut" or laxed. Breathing into the lower abdomen can stretch the abdomen if those muscles are not also worked.

Because despite controversy the research shows the mercury in fillings to fall within the "safe" range (unless you are allergic etc.). There are other options (especially in other countries) if you request them. As for flouride the government has it added to water because peoples teeth used to rot a lot. Nowadays it is mostly unnecessary because we have better dental care in general, but it remains as a "better safe than sorry" sort of thing. The flouride in municipal water is also considered (with controversy) to fall in the "safe" level. Keep in mind most compounds have some toxicity level, including essential nutrients and even H2O itself. People have died recently (around 2006) from dihydrogen oxide poisoning. It is found in large quantities in the atmosphere everywhere now, it is used in nuclear facilities, and released from car exhausts. Perhaps we should ban dihydrogen oxide also? Whose on board?

They have Community Acupunture in Austin, but there is is based on a sliding scale payment plan (another thing we have considered for the future). The treatment is similar to what was described in the OP but having a flat (low) rate is different. One would assume they would have to have LOTS of patients to afford to stay open. At our school's clinic where almost all patients are treated by unpaid student interns they charge $35.00 (or is it $40 now) and that is with us (the interns doing the treatment and observation students) paying tuition for the hours we work.

Flouride is good for your teeth. This is not government propeganda, it is medical science (edit, note: As long as you at least use fluoride toothpaste you should be fine. The water supply is not that necessary or even unnecessary if you use fluoride toothpaste. ) . As for the mercury filling, pretty much any real dentist would think you were nuts for asking to have it removed. Unless you have a renal problem, are pregnant or are allergic you are probably fine. If you end up needing other fillings (esp. if you do try to avoid flouride making it more likely that you will) you can request resin based fillings, albeit at a higher cost. As for the "spring water", keep in mind that, unlike municipal water sources, there is no real regulation on bottled water. Often the water source is a faucet from the municipal water supply in the area where it is bottled

Currently: Houston at ACAOM (Acu School) After licensing: maybe Houston, maybe...who knows. It is all still up in the air because the licensing won't be done until at least January for one of us and probably Nov-Jan. for the other.

Please let us know how that business goes. We were considering opening a similar clinic here.

Those dues don't sound bad at all. Is that for AMORC? Crowley sounds scary to lots of people at first glance, he may have even meant for that to happen. But the system is good, no cat sacrificing or anything. Crowley defined black magick as anything not aimed at achieving union the divine (and dissolution thereafter). Chances are anything you learn in either of the orders you are considering are required for A.'.A.'. as well and much of the OTO (not coming from an OTO member) is stuff built on Masonry with some tantric teaching thrown in. Still, it is understandable, Crowley's writing, despite its value, can leave a bad taste for some. Edit: Mantis, how old are you? If memory serves you were ~16 when you started posting here. You know that you have to be 21 for most Masonic lodges. Again if memory serves AMORC accepts 18 and up. Things could have changed for the masons what with membership numbers hitting so low lately.

You are likely right that you have a greater chance of "special" instruction from AMORC than the US Grand Lodge. That said, there are few groups that limit membership to their group only. The Golden Dawn was founded by guys who were masons, Rosicrucian's and a few other things if memory serves. A former Superior in the A.'.A.'. was a member of the OTO as well as a freemason and he is now working towards the Episcopalian Priesthood. Lots of (mostly Western) groups have "something" to offer, and only a few require that they be your only group. The BOTA, OTO, A.'.A.'., the Golden Dawn, Inc.... the list goes on. Best thing you could do is contact them and inquire. keep in mind that the Masons, BOTA, OTO and AMORC charge dues, so they aren't cheap. A.'.A.'. expels any member who accepts compensation for A.'.A.'. training. The Golden Dawn may charge dues as well, but they are rather small in their current order manifestation and are not likely to have a temple near you. Weren't you also learning from a Gnostic society? Good luck in your journey.

Shhh! If you tell everyone about the cyborg zombie plot they might also find out about the nanite built shooter on the grassy knoll! They might even realize that the earth is flat! We can't have that, think of how much money we will lose in globe and astronomy book sales!

What you should have understood: anti-masonry = idiocy

This type of stuff is full of the same kind of bad information that Flat Earth Society and the fools that claim the Moon Landing was fake use. Morals and Dogma actually has some interesting food for thought in it. Much of what gets quoted gets taken out of context. The Freemasons are a dying breed if anything, not the vast "powerful" society of freethinkers they once were, and certainly not the ruling hidden government that numbskulls like the writers of these websites claim them to be. Though at least one book does lay the claim (albeit with circumstantial evidence) that Jesus was a member of the predecessor of the Freemasons and that he was the "morning Star" (remember the star of that led the magi to his supposed birth?) that was called Lucifer the Light Bringer.

It depends on your Rite. Blue Lodge Masonry (Apprentice through Master Mason) is basically a group of guys that get together. The initiations have some meaning to them, but it is mostly ethical and the esoteric stuff is skimmed over. Blue Lodge only initiates to the 3rd degree. Scottish Rite Masonry initiates 4th through 33rd degree and the Memphis Rite and others have yet other degrees. There are also a number of "appendage" degrees. Then there are the Shriners.... For the most part the Orders are just a group of guys that get together under the auspices of an ancient order. There are groups within Masonry though that engage in deeper study. There are likewise study groups,for history, mathematics etc. In the US and England the Grand Lodges require that an initiate believe in "an Ultimate Being" basically you have to believe in a supreme god of some sort be it Allah, Jehovah, the Trinity or an ambiguous "Great Architect". In Le Grande Orient de France this requirement was eliminated, interestingly, LGOF seems to have more of an esoteric element to it (but it is only anecdotal, since this impression is based on a very small sample). The US and UK Grand Lodges do not recognize the LGOF despite its being older than both, but they do recognize the Grand Lodge of France, which broke from LGOF to retain the "God" belief. No lodge associated with the UK Grand Lodge can admit women, but LGOF allows "association" with lodges that admit women, they just don't directly initiate them. Basically Freemasonry will give you tools, but nowadays not much real guidance. Initiation rituals can be profound, but Masonry is not the only group that holds initiation rituals. If you are made a mason in the US you will pretty much be joining a social group, most of the deeper teaching is already available on the internet etc. (Note: This is not coming from a Mason, only someone who has associated with some Masons -both US Grand Lodge and LGOF- and who has studied their history and teachings. The comment on initiation rituals is based on a non-Masonic experience with initiation, that never the less still has similarities with Masonic rites)

The system seems to be a combination of a few good techniques readily available from other sources mixed with a bit of kink, and a hefty dose of bull$#!t. However, we will likely have a better basis for judgment after White Tiger and Fire Dragon get personal experience with the methods. It should be kept in mind that by severely altering one's sexuality (ex. by encouraging and watching ones wife or lover with other men) it puts a type of "Stockholm syndrome" into play with respect to the practice/belief. This is one reason that so many cult leaders have slept with their most staunch followers wives. However, your reckless comment about HIV is something that cannot be allowed to pass. The tiny number of people who claim that HIV doesn't cause AIDS are the same type of people that claim that the Earth is flat and the moon landing was a set up by reptilians who work for Xenu. Anyone who has studied medicine, looked at the research and/or worked with those who suffer from AIDS can tell you how absurd this claim is.

If the people of china were able to be truly democratic, not in the current American sense, in the "what the US founders wanted", i.e. the people actually having a choice about their government, sense? Yeah, that is something anyone should hope for.

Retention will not improve sperm quality in and of itself. However, it has been shown that the more time there is between sex with one particular woman increases the amount of sperm the man's ejaculate will contain. It is evolution at its finest. TCM for fertility has become a huge market though if you want to advise that, it actually can improve sperm quality.

Master Toledo is in the current Houston Natural Awakenings (they have a stand at the Acupuncture school yours truly is near graduating from). he has one line in his interview in which he mentions his "Siffu (sic) High Tibetan Lama Max Christianson (sp?)". He simply states he is one of 9 disciples then goes on to different topics. He advertises here in Houston as a "psychic healer" and qigong master or the like, mostly what he has on his site if memory serves. No real point to this post, just thought you Kunlun-heads might get a mild amusement or rise out of it. It is not on their website now, only the print edition. Maybe once it is on their site a link to it can be put up.

The LBRP grows as you grow. If you look at what you are doing with it, it is drawing Kether into Malkuth. You are not "just clearing out the astral". The LBRP both banishes and invokes. Two quotes from Crowley are interesting in this regard: "It is the duty of every person to see that his Aura is in good condition. There are two main methods for doing this. The first is by a performance two or three times daily of the Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. Its main point is to establish in the Astral four Pentagrams, one in each quarter, and two Hexagrams, one above, the other below, thus enclosing the Magician, as it were, in a consecrated box. It also places in his Aura the Divine Names invoked. " and "Those who regard this ritual as a mere device to invoke or banish spirits, are unworthy to possess it. Properly understood, it is the Medicine of Metals and the Stone of the Wise."

Most ceremonial magicians are interested in raising the mundane to the divine, uniting with "the ultimate" or the tao, all the wealth, etc is secondary. Though Crowley for one thought having children and raising them properly was very important. Anyone who studies GD or Crowley's work realizes quickly why "controlling others" is wrong and a path to destruction. "Demon power" depends on the practitioner, in the A.'.A.'. once one has been practicing some time on does have to show proficiency in working with so called "demons" but if you google Crowley's "Initiated Interpretation of Magick" you get a very different perspective. From this point of view controlling "demons" is nothing more than conquering the lower parts of oneself. As for immortality, if you mean physical, neither Crowley nor anyone in the Golden Dawn, even Regardie's later branch, advocated this. If you mean spiritual, most of them believed that we are already spiritually immortal after a fashion. The Work was to unite the immortal spark with the Absolute. edit: this is worth quoting here: In Magick in Theory and Practice, Chapter XIV, Crowley says: "What is a Magical Operation? It may be defined as any event in nature which is brought to pass by Will. We must not exclude potato-growing or banking from our definition. Let us take a very simple example of a Magical Act: that of a man blowing his nose." Elsewhere he wrote: "One must find out for oneself, and make sure beyond doubt, who one is, what one is, why one is...Being thus conscious of the proper course to pursue, the next thing is to understand the conditions necessary to following it out. After that, one must eliminate from oneself every element alien or hostile to success, and develop those parts of oneself which are specially needed to control the aforesaid conditions." And: "The first condition of membership of the A.'.A.'. is that one is sworn to identify one's own Great Work with that of raising mankind to higher levels, spiritually, and in every other way." (Magick Without Tears, ch. 9) None of it was meant as an argument, it was just a simple question that you answered pretty well. That is an interesting, albeit probably disturbing for your "friend", test. It actually sounds very much like some of the practices in the Western tradition when working with the Body of Light, extending, contracting affecting the surrounding environment. Though in the West doing things to unsuspecting individuals without consent is taboo. Thanks. This is a misconception. Manipulating others is dangerous and considered wrong by most who practice "real magick". It's sole goal is the uniting of the microcosm and the macrocosm. Not really at all different from "becoming one with the tao".

This is likely the common reason that most people become interested in Magick, and likewise, likely why most fail or drop it. None of these were goals through the Golden Dawn, A.'.A.'. or most of the other Orders that defined Western Magick in recent years. Rather it was often said that things like the above lead one on a path to "destruction", and not the good kind. What do you mean "substantive"? He often wrote that people should not rely on his or anyone elses accomplishments, but to drop anything that did not, when done properly, work for them.

No, comment on the videos, here at work youtube doesn't work, maybe later. As for your personal testing.. What "reactions" do you mean? Again, many of us here have the experience of having others "feel what we are doing" without telling them what we are doing (in many cases without 3-4 hrs trances it is worth saying). Drew claims his "o's at a d" regularly, others among the posters here have experienced causing orgasms or other reactions without physically "doing anything". At the same time, without a controlled setting, none of it is "proof" of anything. Not that that makes it invalid or any less of a "neat experience". If you mean healing, you could ask any number of western practitioners who have "caused healing" through an invocation or prayer or through the use of a talisman. Again, without controls...could be a lot of coincidences. Your example of your friend and the punches, is not surprising, but also not exactly comparable. Western traditions tend to not be associated with martial techniques (which is what this example is at its root), so there is not a tit for tat way to compare. It is also likely that anyone who you might be able to "test" for this from a western tradition would have learned things from eastern practices as well, further clouding what was causing the results. There are examples of meditations in most if not all esoteric traditions in which you will feel and/or detect heat (or cold) in he hands or other body parts. Bottom line, you can get diverse results from any number of systems. Most traditions have at some point in time adopted practices from other systems and lent practices to other systems. They all (or at least most of them) work with subtle "energies" they simply use different methods and use different languages/symbols.

Unfortunately there are those with delusions of grandeur in all systems. Talk to enough people involved in Asian practices, some qigong "masters" included, and you will find people who believe they can do "amazing things" with nothing more than their imagination to show for it. Magick does often involve seals, symbols, rituals etc. but the primary focus of most of the Western Mystery Tradition (not speaking for Wicca etc. here) is lifting the microcosm to the macrocosm. This is not, despite the way it may sound, something that leads to delusions of "hollowing out mountains". Even Aleister Crowley, who made some outlandish claims in his day, defined magick as ANY willed act and pointed out that "magickal results" normally take the form of natural effects. The real change is inside you. The few things that most people have seen any qigong or taoist masters do are as spurious as any claims of psychics. Thus far anytime a "master" has tried to use his "qi" publicly to combat a real opponent or to demonstrate their abilities in a controlled environment they have failed. Other effects that have been displayed have been easily duplicated by illusionists. Now, this is not to say that these things "can't" be done, or are being faked. It is only that the important part of any cultivation method is what happens "inside" the practitioner. If you look at these nut job televangelists they can display their "power" over individuals under their charismatic influence, but their teachings are empty on deeper evaluation. Following only those who "walk the walk" is a good credo, but basing the perception of that walk off their open display of "power" is not. Proven their effectiveness how? Internally? Yeah, sure. Most if not all of us here have had "internal" experiences from qigong. Some of us have even experienced feeling another persons "qi". These things you can easily find with someone who has practiced Western Magick for at least a short while with some dedication. One issue that does arise as a difference between east/west traditions is that there are many more people who "practice" western methods (at least they claim to), that actually do no real work and just smoke pot and do a banishing ritual to call themselves wizards. Because eastern methods are often wrapped with martial arts or other specific traditions it is harder to get away with calling yourself a "qigong master" with no real training or practice. This is an advantage of participating with one of the different groups out their. The A.'.A.'. in particular doesn't pass members to a new grade until they have demonstrated their abilities through testing by the Order. They also consider accepting money for training an offense with the penalty of permanent expulsion. Some other groups have dues they charge to support temple space etc.. But for the majority of the groups your training is tested. However, the number of "practitioners" that are part of any group is far lower than the number of people who claim to practice "magick".

No personal experience with the SOL. However, Dion Fortune, one of her teachers is quite renowned for her books. There are a number of options out there for the Western Tradition. www.outercol.org is one of the A.'.A.'. lineage options. There is the Builders of the Adytum, the Golden Dawn offshoots etc. As Seth alluded to, the Western Traditions simply use what look like different methods to do similar things to the asian methods. In the A.'.A.'. you are expected to study eastern and western methods of "attainment". You are then given a practice "guideline" and are assigned a teacher who has been through the same work to guide you. One advantage to Western methods is that most of the texts need little if any translation (though a teacher is still advantageous). Likewise, for many westerners the methods are absorbed much more easily than some of their asian counterparts. Do not expect to change "the world" though. The Yogic warnings of avoiding "lusting for siddhis" are as valid in the West as the East. The practices of Magick and Mysticism are fraternal twins, both "change" the microcosm, to let it realize its connection and identity with the macrocosm.

Sure, to the majority of Xians there is a pretty big difference between God and Tao, but the majority of Xians are uneducated (at least theologically) people who basically believe because "they will go to hell if the don't". One only benefits from these types of comparisons if one compares the "highest concepts" embedded in differing traditions. This is why when Muslims and Xians were killing each other for centuries, Sufis and Xian mystics were comparing notes and accepting of each other. "God" is just a label for the infinite and infinitesimal as well. This is exactly the point. The idea that "the religion came later". It always happens this way. Nearly every religion began with some mystic wandering in the wilderness (or in the city) and having an experience then trying to pass that on. Later followers codified the moral teachings and demand adherence. Then you end up with ritual solely as "the husk of faith". Those Xians who truly explore their relationship with "God" experience a cultivation comparable with that of ALL mystic traditions. The idea of "God" "doing this for" a believer is erroneous just as much as saying that a Taoist cultivator "does it on his/her own". It is inherent in the human being, while not being just the "natural progression". Both the Taoist and the True Christian must work toward oneness. Alan Watts' Behold the Spirit covers this apparent contradiction in a rather more in depth way than space here allows. "Jesus said: If those who lead you say unto you: Behold, the Kingdom is in heaven, then the birds of the heaven will be before you. If they say unto you: It is in the sea, then the fish will be before you. But the Kingdom is within you, and it is outside of you. When you know yourselves, then shall you be known, and you shall know that you are the sons of the living Father. But if ye do not know yourselves, then you are in poverty, and you are poverty." "Jesus said: I am the light that is over them all. I am the All; the All has come forth from me, and the All has attained unto me. Cleave a (piece of) wood: I am there. Raise up the stone, an ye shall find me there." "Jesus saw some infants at the breast. He said to his disciples: These little ones at the breast are like those who enter into the kingdom. They said to him: If we then be children, shall we enter the kingdom? Jesus said to them: When you make the two one, and when you make the inside as the outside, and the outside as the inside, and the upper side as the lower; and when you make the male and the female into a single one, that the male be not male and the female female; when you make eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then shall you enter [the kingdom]. " -The Gospel of Thomas There is much more to the teachings of Jesus than most people, even Christians, give them credit for. Still, you and others are quite right about the distinction that should be made between the concept of god for the common believer and the mystic, just as distinction should be made between the beliefs of the "common Taoist" and the "cultivator".