astralc

well done MaudDid, I think you just discovered something very special, now to consolidate your dan tien and keep doing. Good idea to stay away from your heart, that may not be ready just yet, allow your meditations to settle your electrical/nervous system into rhythm and you will find these chakras will begin to open while you sleep - safely.

Hi again New2Qi, Robert Bruce's techniques don't work for everyone but they are certainly interesting and worth trying. As for right and wrong practice, find a good teacher, and I mean a good one, shop around, ask people who are studying tai chi or chi king and find someone who can teach you. Don't forget, most people have no idea of chi or anything about what is discussed on these forums. And many of those who do talk about it have never had an experience. You will have to go slowly and feel your way through your first year or two until you know what questions to ask to find out what to do next. There are plenty of people on this forum who will give you advice but only a few know what they are talking about through direct experience. Find them and chat with them, that will help you a lot. All the best my friend and go slowly on this mystics journey, don't rush it.

Hi New2Qi, I suggest that you start with a teacher in tai chi or chi kung who knows what they are talking about. Don't try to do the astral travel stuff or energy stuff, that will just take you all over the place like a dog chasing its tail. Focus on the basics like movement and breathing, always go back to basics, I do and it has helped in times of stress. Do the basics properly and your body wisdom will take you to the next step, then the next and the next. Trust your instincts but try not to push the energy thing, I've seen too many people blow their minds up trying to move their kundalini before they were ready for it. As for visualisations, chi is about 'feeling', if you can't feel it physically then it isn't really happening. I guess that might be what people are saying. But at the same time there is nothing wrong with visualisations for certain things. Above all - enjoy learning. All the best my friend.

This is one method I use to feel chi and to precipitate astral travel. It uses the basic chi breathing method into the lower dan tien. I use this method especially when I wake up at night. By adding the cocoon it speeds up the process of leaving my body. Last night I woke about 2 am, I felt quite awake so decided to do this chi meditation, it goes a bit like this: I bring my mind into my dan tien, the navel chakra I breathe in and out until I feel the chi, like heat or like my lungs are inside my abdomen Next, above my head, I place a ball of light about 12 inches from my crown chakra About the same distance below the soles of my feet I put another ball of light I charge these two balls with my chi breathing - I make them glow I then connect each ball of light with silken threads to form a cocoon of golden light surrounding me I bring my breath back to my dan tien and breathe until I feel as though I have become a point of light in the centre of my body / cocoon By this time I might start to lose consciousness and disappear, sometimes I leave my body if I have enough energy (it is all about energy/chi). I feel chi most intensely when I am in a very deep state of relaxation. Last night this is what happened for me: I left my body and found myself flying over an ancient township - somewhere. I remember brilliant vivid colours of the people's clothing laid out to dry on the roof tops but I don't know where it was or when - I didn't really care at the time. I was mesmerised by the colours. The sensation of astral flying is always incredible, like a whole body electric charge. Kundalini always bursts out through my crown chakra when I do this. I hope this encourages others to try deep state dan tien meditations. With a lot of practice it could be your stepping stone to astral travel too.

CofW, the energy body sure evokes amazing experiences, but its hard to find words to describe it. I like how you described your heart centre opening, mine was like being electrocuted. I look forward to hearing more of your experiences.

Manitou, a word of advise if I may to go slowly and don't rush this. A kundalini awakening can be very nasty, energy through the head and crown chakra is not always desirable or pleasant. You have plenty of good advice on this forum I am glad you have taken the time to ask and listen, good on you.

Jox, that sounds much like I do, it's energy, the energy body or dream body, and it is composed of energy. Not black or white or anything unless you want it to be a colour. The feeling I get in this state is pure joy and ecstasy. There is no other way I could describe it, how do you describe pure ecstasy?

Don't forget your basic prostate health needs: zinc, natural anti-inflammatories like vitamin C, MMS and herbs. May I suggest you go to a good naturopath or TCM practitioner and get it looked into. Excessive peeing at night is a common enlarged prostate problem so get it checked out.

As SonOfTheGods said, its no big deal, you practice it enough and you will get the benefits. Use it in your daily meditations, tai chi, etc. and you will start to feel a little better about life. Good luck and maybe go and find a tai chi class to learn from a live teacher, that's usually a good place to start on the path to enlightenment.

When I was a teenager I told my mother that I would one day astral travel, it happened. I put it down to two things, tai chi and meditating on the dan tien; and dedicated practice several times a day. Idiot_Stimpy, can I suggest that you practice tai chi or chi kung and particularly the centered breathing at the navel chakra/dan tien. And practice, daily, after a while you will start to feel something different, you will feel energy at your dan tien. Thats a wonderful feeling - and your first milestone. This is the beginning of your journey, and it just gets better. I have students and clients who can do this in one sitting, not many, but some sure can. It took me a whole lot of time and effort to become proficient, but it certainly paid off. I remember watching a program on TV, it showed a guy sitting cross legged with his hands folded at his navel. He was doing zen / chen meditation, meditating on his 'hara'. I saw that and thought that I could do that too, and I did, I could feel my mind inside my navel. It was weird but exhilarating. First attempt, first time ever, it inspired me to follow this 'path least traveled'. I hope you too have your 'first time' soon, I_Stimpy

Personally I think that anyone can gain some experience in astral travel, I think that its one pleasant and insightful outcome of the amount of effort you put into your practice. I started astral travel after practicing tai chi for 6 months. At that time I was a very determined and dedicated practitioner and leaving my body while sleeping was a real buzz. In my experience it was the lower dan tien that was instrumental in achieving these experiences, later on the head chakra played a big part as well. I have also found that developing the base chakra brought about unusual astral experiences that were also a buzz. The most important thing to develop, I think, is energy. The more energy you generate the more you develop your dreaming body. The more dan tien breathing I did the easier it was to leave my body. At one time I found myself in the Elysian Fields, the ancient Greek heaven, with a bevy of beautiful ladies. Not all of the experiences were like that though, lol, this was a very special experience. And only once did I find myself in a nasty place. At that time my dan tien exploded and safely shifted me to another dimension. For me, its all about developing chi, and it takes dedicated practice using the right techniques and mind set. Practicing the wrong way is a waste of your time.

Breathing has almost always been a technique used in the internal martial arts to channel chi. Mindfulness of one's breath is one of the techniques in taoist meditation and tai chi for developing and flowing chi. Slow, deep breaths are one quite spectacular method for developing chi in particular parts of your body, such as the dan tien. So, to answer your question, if I really understood it in the first place, is yes, we are mindful when we breathe.

Rara, it is best to do a google search for Neurofeedback practitioners in your area, its not something that you can do on yourself, its like brain surgery, I wouldn't recommend it. You can go to these sites as well, they have information, research and registries of practitioners: ISNR - www.isnr.org EEGSpectrum - www.eegspectrum.com You are welcome to PM me if you have any questions.

I think that when meditating and breathing thru the lower dan tien it can easily connect and activate the base chakra, or whatever its Chinese name is, that point between the anus and the scrotum. In fact if you do enough of this activation it sure energises your ching chi as well (of course). I spent some months specifically activating this base energy centre, every few hours I would pump chi through it and scrunch my PC muscles. It felt really good too, lots of energy. It got to the point that I would leave my body at night when asleep and go flying with it. Its really hard to describe, but like riding a pogo stick, the energy beam came out of the base chakra and felt a bit like riding a beam of light or hot air. I am sorry I can't really explain that any better. I think the fellow this discussion is about highlights his dedicated approach to improving himself. It mentions that he spent 2 years meditating in a secret location with secret masters, that says enough to point out that the work he describes is more than just pumping chi into the body, it is about cultivation of his life purpose through dedicated practice. I think we could all take a leaf out of his book and follow his example. Great thread that opens the mind to more than just theoretical mind games, its practical, thanks.

Rara, I work with people training brainwaves for a multitude of neurological, personality and behavioral problems, its called neurofeedback. Deep sleep is delta = 0-4 Hz very slow Dreaming and the unconscious is theta = 4-8 Hz Calm googfing off no thoughts is alpha = 8-12 Hz (also called the 'resting state of the brain') Calm alert SMR low beta = 12-15 Hz (think cat watching out the window resting) alert and thinking is standard beta = 15-20 Hz (what you are in now) fast beta frustration, active processing and stress = 20-35 Hz (nasty stuff in the right brain particularly) I train a lot of stressed people and many who suffer panic attacks. At the right orbito frontal cortex we reward 2-5 Hz which is in low theta and delta to calm the mind and panic, it works incredibly well. At the same time we inhibit beta 12-35 Hz to stop the rumination, worry and suicidal thoughts. Google 'neurofeedback' and you will know some more about this incredible technology.

Rara, you can also learn to calm your thinking processes by practicing your kata, be it kung fu or tai chi or karate. The repetition of the poses and the moves, done over and over for an hour or so each day, helps induce this alpha state Ya Mu is taking about. The forms of tai chi for instance, done daily for months and months helps train the mind to slow and sometimes stop. Your brain shifts from beta production, which is basically thinking, to fast alpha or Sensory Motor Rhythm (SMR, 12-15 Hz) which is a calm but alert state. With practice you then go into a deeper alpha around 8-12 Hz which is basically autopilot, no thoughts, not much happening in your head, just flow. This is the magic space you go into when you practice over time. Alpha is actually not that hard to shift into, by looking into the distance and above the horizontal, you will go into alpha a bit easier. When you are staring out the window at home and someone calls you and you don't hear them, and when they ask what you were thinking, you don't know, thats alpha. Alpha is the state elite athletes enter at the moment of their elite performance. Through years of practice they can switch off the language centre of the brain, this stops internal dialogue. Next they switch off the limbic system, which stops emotions and fear of failure. Then they synchronise alpha across both hemispheres. At this moment, just before they pull the trigger, the olympic pistol shooter basically has just their premotor cortex awake and working, thus most of their brain resources is available to make that perfect shot. How do they do it? How do people become an elite athlete or kung fu practitioner? Its just one word, practice. Practice both sides, static meditation, lying down I find is easiest, plus dynamic meditation, kung fu or tai chi.

Rara, you sound like me when I started to meditate. Seriously, it takes practice, and lots of practice to stop the twitching, itches, sneezes and wandering mind, just keep doing and stick with it as long as you can. Within a short time you will be able to go deeper and longer. All in all you have done extremely well in a short space of time, pat yourself on the back

Thats interesting, I contracted a Golden Staph infection after having a skin cancer removed. I tried everything, the anti bacterial creams and even raw garlic, none of it worked. Then one night in sheer desperation I meditated on what I could do for it. It was real nasty too, and spreading, making a big hole. I relaxed and started my breathing to begin to slide deeper into trance when in my head was spoken 'Tea Tree Oil'. I went onto google and there it was, research on tea tree oil that showed it killed every bacteria known to humanity. I bought some oil the next day and my infection was gone in 3 days. Damn I was angry at the medical establishment for not telling me about this cheap remedy. Unfortunately you can't drink tea tree oil for staph infections in the blood or organs, its toxic if taken internally. Golden staph is one of the MRSA superbug's.

4bsolute, interesting topic, I will try to give some info that I have learned about the breath. Firstly your breathing links the heart and the lungs. On your in breath your lungs expand and the heart becomes slightly compressed, this leads to your heart beating a little faster on the in breath, plus it is also under slight stress. On the out breath the lungs collapse and the heart is released from this compression, it slows down a tiny bit. If you use a finger pulse sensor instrument this is seen as the pulse beats speeding on the in breath and slowing on the out breath. This is the same finger sensor used in hospitals to measure blood oxygen levels. It has been found that using a 5 second in breath followed by a 5 second out breath, thus a 10 second cycle, is the best rhythm between the heart and lung systems. It is recognised as Heart Lung Coherence. Tribal natives have a natural breathing rhythm like this, city dwellers have shallow faster breaths that leads to illness. If you translate breathing rhythms to our Taoist meditation meditations you will find that slow long breathing cycles leads to another level of awareness. Thus training yourself to breath deeply and slowly, 15 seconds in and the same out, thus a 30 second cycle, leads to your mind sinking deeper into your inner world. Yes, breathing meditations are awesome for meditating, and you may find that you drop off into another world, dreams, etc. doing this. Chi kung is breathing chi, by combining your breath with chi, you can move your chi through your body too. Breathing out through your feet, imagining that they can touch the wall beyond your bed, is another great meditation, called Earthing when you do it standing up. I use the pulse finger sensor at work and you will be surprised just how powerful the 10 second cycle breathing is, if you stick to it you will sleep heaps better too. I generally fall asleep doing this breathing rhythm after only a few cycles, its great. If you are interested you can ask me about what the brain does when we close our eyes and start meditating

Congestion of chi comes in many forms, in the head it can manifest as dizzyness, paranoia or headaches, it seems that congested chi in the prostate can manifest as pain of various descriptions too. I think thats why we have the microcosmic orbit and other chi meditations, to chi encourage chi to flow, not to stagnate. Great thread with insightful posts.

qibrush, thats good advice from Chi Dragon, it should help. May I suggest you also look at herbs, vitamin and minerals, in particular zinc which is a major healer for the prostate. Maybe also consider anti-inflammatories like Vitamin C and Astaxanthin which both help reduce inflammation and irritation. And keep doing your chi gung, moving and flowing chi thru the tan dien and prostate point is going to be helpful.

I was lucky enough to have been taught by a master, but to to learn by yourself would be an enormous task. Good luck to you and anyone else learning pulse diagnosis, this thread should help a lot. One bit of advice, if you can, grab everyone that you know and read their pulse, its good practice and most people don't mind. Sensitising to others is a good start.

Lad, so glad you are on your path, please keep us informed, this is a story that resonates with many of us.

LCH, I started out learning tai chi from a Chinese master who's own master was from the original Chen family in Honan. He learned healing techniques that he passed on to his students and I was lucky enough to be one of them. I was studying teaching back then and moved away from my master to the country where I continued to practice and teach tai chi and healing. I also studied and practiced astrology, western, back then which was just great to have a few things going that I could draw upon. After that I studied psychology and psychotherapy amd moved ino psychological healing and away from the physical energy healing I had done and loved in the past. I now heal and teach people Daoism and tai chi without using those words. I suppose what I am saying to you is that despite your core career there is nothing stopping you from learning something you enjoy and love after work hours. In time it may lead to becoming a healer. And don't expect to make a living from it, perhaps as a p/t time adjunct to what ever else you do in life, but one that is phenomenally fulfilling. Good luck and please keep us informed of how things pan out for you.

Great web site Songtsan, thanks. CT, I did take MSM but couldn't stand the taste, I should get back to it and just stop being a sissy! And there is nothing wrong with being an extremist and taking lots of supplements in my opinion, with oxidative stress the leading cause of disease, its worth the expense (if you have the money of course). Another good website is http://www.iherb.com