mrtiger

Having never experienced the presence of any deities myself, I can't say I believe or disbelieve in them. Personally I prefer the simple pre-religion of the Tao which isn't concerned with gods and demons. It just cuts through the hokum and whilst others get excited talking about which spells work the best, I feel content with simple meditations. If I lament one thing being English, it's the lack of connection we have with even our Celtic roots not to mention the pre-Celts who we know virtually nothing about. Just who did build Stonehenge and why? It certainly wasn't Druids...

I appreciate what you're saying about religions spawning new offsprings who create new beliefs to fit their own agenda but they'll always have those old texts and that deep history to fall back on. It still may be a deception of course but that's not what I'm arguing. What I find so blatant and bizarre about Wicca is that it's clearly and obviously a modern invention. Just like Scientology. I stand by the cosplay / medieval re-enactment parallel. I don't think that it's unreasonable. It's only like suggesting that one goes to church for the cultural and social aspects, to sing hymns, meet their friends and enjoy the ritual whilst not having a deep faith. For the hardcore practitioners though? I wonder if there's an unconscious subtext to neo-paganism. One which yearns back to a pre-industrial, racially homogenous age? A yearning for the lost Albion perhaps? I was reading about a coven who base their entire beliefs on The Silmarillion, published 1977. They'd certainly fit that theory. You clearly seem to know a lot about the subject. May I ask, do you think any pagan religions or fragments of them survived in the British Isles?

Great interview. It's nice to read someone who knows what they're talking about but can write in such an entertaining style. This looks like a must read: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pagan-Religions-Ancient-British-Isles/dp/0631189467/ref=reg_hu-rd_add_1_dp

Sure, but you could set-up a pseudo Christian belief quite easily which has a much deeper and better documented mythos to fall back on. Perhaps some kind of esoteric Gnostic cult? Wicca has got more in common with medieval re-enactment, steampunk or cosplay. People just want to be wacky and perhaps a bit enigmatic.

I actually think Witchcraft survived a lot better in Europe. Certainly in Italy and parts of the mediteranean it's alive and kicking. As far as I understand the Catholic countries were largely spared the witch trials of their northern neighbours (the inqisitions focused mostly on converting Jews and Muslims). But to be clear this is a question about (supposed) revival of neo-pagan beliefs of the British Isles. It's fair to say that cultures of Europe were older and more advanced those of the British Isles and our customs and language were imported from the mainland. We even lacked an indigenous writing system. Just as other groups at different times have aligned themselves with their own bastardisation of bygone civilisations (the Nazis with Sparta, the British Empire with Athens, the US with the Romans), Anglo-American neo-pagans have fabricated their own view of a wise, ancient and perhaps even racially pure peoples and have created their own mythos around it, which grows with every new book published.

It's a long one, but from what I've skim read it looks very interesting. He's certainly dismissive of neo-pagans. I'll put it on my reading list.

Yours is the most impressive and convincing testimonial about the weight-controlling effects of Flying Phoenix Qigong practice, I believe. Over the two decades of teaching this art, because I have never had a weight problem, I have never attributed weight-loss as a benefit of FP Qigong practice. Thank you for your contribution. Because excess weight or obesity has so many contributing factors—emotional, developmental, psychological, environmental, socio-economic, etc.—and because the effectiveness of FP Qigong as an exercise for weight loss would depend so much on the discipline and perseverance of the practitioner, YOU would be in a better position than me to tell the Flying Phoenix community what combination and sequence of FP Qigong Meditations worked for you in reducing your weight. Please advise if you would. I’m sure there are many readers who would be most interested and greatful. We all thank you in advance! Hi all, Terry asked me to share my experiences with weight loss and Flying Phoenix Chi Kung which I'm more than happy to do so here it goes! I've been overweight for quite a few years and have tried various things to shed the pounds as you'll read below. I'm actually still in the process of getting to my final goal, so I'm going to hold back on what my starting weight was until I've hit my target which should happen towards the end of the year. Hopefully I'll repost this with an update at that time, and I'll tell you exactly what I weighed and what I lost. So firstly I should give some background as to where I've come from. I was pretty skinny up until my early 20s. I started going to the gym focussing mostly on my upper arms. I gained some muscle pretty quickly but when I stopped going it started turing into fat. This was the start of a long journey where I've seemed to put more and more weight on every year. Periodically I'd lose bits but it always seemed to be one step forward two steps back. When I quit smoking quite a few years ago the weight gain really ramped up as I began to substitute cigarettes for food. Over the years I've been to gyms. Done lots of running, training for and competing in 10k runs and the London Marathon. The Marathon itself was a great experience I'd really recommend it. The culmination of over six months of training doing lots of 6-10-14-18 mile runs I expected to get really fit. I lost a bit of weight but not much. And it all came back. It was really disappointing. I cycled to work and back for years which totalled about 100 miles for the week. I love cycling and wouldn't swap it for the world but it did little to take any weight off. At the same time I was going to a gym a few days a week and doing various things there, mostly cardio. So in a nutshell none of this really worked. It was always one step forward two steps back. I'd also began to smoke again on and off. And every time I'd give up I'd substitute the nicotine with food. A vicious circle! I've always eaten healthy food. Vegetarian since the age of 13. Have little junk food. We rarely have even chips in the freezer (maybe we'll buy a bag once or twice a year). I don't drink coke of any of those sugary drinks. Mostly we eat fresh, organic vegetables. We drink Soya Milk (unsweetened) and have lots of high protein things like beans, quorn, soya etc… But despite eating healthily I was eating too much. The first thing I'd think about on waking was breakfast. Then food would define my day, snacks lunch etc. I love cooking and having people over for dinner. Lots of Mediterranean food with lashings of olive oil. Heavy English food too (my girlfriend is from Yorkshire!). I'd tried diets but it'd just make me more obsessed with what was food was coming and when. Part of this was still substituting for the cigarettes of course. I'd also suffer from sugar lows which, I think caused from eating too much carbohydrate, in which I'd shake and become light headed - not unlike some of the effects of FPCK infact! I actually found these quite debilitating and would have to sit down for a while to recover. So that's where I came from. After trying various forms of yoga and qigong which only really had very mild effects at best I finally stumbled on FPCK on the advice of a friend who had the first two discs. At first I was just really impressed with the mediative effects. I've practices Zazen for a few years but never experienced what I call the headspace that I did with FPCK. I was so surprised to actually feel the effects so tangibly and so quickly. I developed my practice and soon added the seated meditations on disc two. On the advice of this forum I developed a routine where I'd practice almost immediately after waking, not eating anything, having a small sip of water just to wet my whistle. It takes me about two hours to do disc one and two. I'm lucky I have that amount of time to spend in the morning (Terry has suggested some other routines on this forum that are shorter and I'm sure are worth investigating). After the practice ends I usually have a cup of tea, then a shower, making sure I wait at least 30 mins till I take breakfast. I took inspiration from the reading that making room in the belly allows the Chi to circulate better and also from a line in the Dao De Jing - "If you want to become full, let yourself be empty." I think because I've become sensitive to the energy generated from FPCK I can appreciate much better what happens when I eat and how I can actually feel the energy much better between meals. Also this headspace finally allowed me to let go of my nicotine addiction which I think had always been just beneath the surface. By the time I come to eat in the morning, curiously I'm not ravenous, often not even particularly hungry. I can just take what I need, rather than what I want. If I overeat it might even make me feel a bit sluggish. Because I've been up for quite a while already I find that I can get to lunch without even thinking about food although I might have a piece of fruit in-between. It is neither here nor there. I'd always find that my energy would did in the afternoon and I'd need to eat again. Now instead I'll do seven reps of MSW around 3pm to perk me up a bit. Again I might have some fruit or even something more as a snack but it's not a big event like it used to be. I can take it or leave it. For dinner I'll try and eat a bit earlier so I can get some meditation in before I go to bed. I must confess I drink a lot of tea. Straight up Green, UK style black tea with milk, Pu-er and herbal infusions of all kinds. The result of this is that the pounds are just dropping off. Not only that it feels really sustainable too. I never liked the gym much. It was always a chore. It's always an odd atmosphere in the gym and gosh do people do some odd things. I think no one can really agree in a gym. I always feel like everyone is looking at each other, thinking about how the person they're watching is 'doing it wrong'. But I look forward to my FPCK sessions especially the seated ones. I try and practice every day which usually works out to be six days a week. I'm still a sucker for lazy Sundays! So in a nutshell I think FPCK has made me listen to my body a lot more. I understand this feeling of fullness/ emptiness much better. I've learned to embrace both. I've just added Wind Through Treetops from disc three to my morning session. I've actually found though that like Terry suggests, take the first two discs slowly. For me I'm still really learning disc one. Trying to keep a good, low horse stance for 10 minutes is an art in itself so I wouldn't rush the DVDS till you've got the strength in your legs to really keep that. To some up I'd say that FPCK has helped me conquer the mental problems I had relating to food and cigarettes. I'm sure there is a calorie burning element to the standing meditations too as I shake and sweat when I'm doing them. I think the other contributing factor is having more energy. I used to suffer from energy slumps and even some minor depression (I think a lot of us have been there) and I've found that these don't occur if I've practiced in the morning. I really am a complete beginner with FPCK, I've been doing it for around six months and everything I've learn't has come from the DVDs and this forum. I've not really done anything special, just followed the simple instructions. I think it's about just doing the practice and not trying to intellectualise or analyse it too much. Hope this makes some sense. Hopefully I'll come back when I've reached my final goal and I can edit this to make it read a bit better! Mr T

Hi Terry, Thanks again for taking the time to write such a detailed reply. Yours is the most impressive and convincing testimonial about the weight-controlling effects of Flying Phoenix Qigong practice, I believe. Over the two decades of teaching this art, because I have never had a weight problem, I have never attributed weight-loss as a benefit of FP Qigong practice. Thank you for your contribution. Because excess weight or obesity has so many contributing factors—emotional, developmental, psychological, environmental, socio-economic, etc.—and because the effectiveness of FP Qigong as an exercise for weight loss would depend so much on the discipline and perseverance of the practitioner, YOU would be in a better position than me to tell the Flying Phoenix community what combination and sequence of FP Qigong Meditations worked for you in reducing your weight. Please advise if you would. I’m sure there are many readers who would be most interested and greatful. We all thank you in advance! I'd be more than happy to share how Flying Phoenix has guided/is guiding my weight loss. I'll gather my thoughts and post them here shortly. The gentle audio chime very 10 minutes is a smart device…if you need to keep track of time as you practice and in order to pace the practice. Due to the luxury of having bountiful time to practice after retiring from corporate work in 1991, I have never had to worry about the pacing of the meditations or time limitations. I'm lucky in that I also have a good amount of time in the morning. I find it hard to measure how long I've been doing the static exercises so it helps me commit to doing each one for 10 minutes. Also I still find the horse stance quite difficult and it's stops me from wimping out. I love the look of the Bat Dim Gum exercises on your youtube channel. Will you ever produce an instructional Bat Dim Gum DVD? Yes, I plan to produce at least three BDG training videos. Great. I'd love to give BDG a try. It looks beautiful. Do you think it'll be released this year. The Zen tradition is an excellent one. It’s health and spiritual benefits initially are more a function of one’s teacher or roshi. Zazen’s healing effects are limited compared to a complete Qigong system--because as a yoga, Zazen focuses only on the lesser circulation between the heart and stomach charkas. I learned this from the late 70’s through the mid 80’s from my experience at an senior instructor at a Taoist center in North Hollywood, CA as our school would frequently receive Japanese monks from the Los Angeles Zen Center during our bi-annual Open Houses and numerous healing workshops, and we learned first-hand the nature of their Zen meditation practices. I know there are some esoteric Zen traditions, and I stand to be corrected by any Zen practitioners reading this thread who may want to add to my past observations. I could write a whole post on Japanese Zen. Let me tell you that I was born in Japan and I have a great love for the country (although I'm ethnically British if there is such a thing lol). But after practising and reading about Japanese Zazen for many years I've come to the conclusion that it's better suited for a monastic life. Most of the famous Japanese Zen teachers were monks and it's mostly this practice that's been transmitted to the west. Furthermore I've just been a bit disappointed about how little reference there is to the Dao, Chi and Qigong in modern Zen writing. It feels almost like they've been airbrushed out of history. In short, discovering the roots of Zazen such as The Secret of the Golden Flower has been a real eye opener. I have a reading list on my website www.taichimania.com. The book on FP Qigong should be completed by the end of this year—or end of first quarter next year at the latest. Thanks for pointing me to the reading list. I've read a couple of these but lots I've never heard of. Enough to keep me busy for the next few years! Not to mention mastering the next instalments of the phoenix!

Ok OK I apologise if I upset anyone here to you theurgy, and of course to disablednotbroken No offence was intended. I just wanted to engage you in debate. I obviously went to far and for that I apologise. Let this be the end of it. Best wishes to everyone.

You see there you go getting personal again. Why do you need to attack me personally ? All I want to do talk about is King Arthur in an intelligent way. Now I'm getting called a troll and being falsely accused of having multiple accounts. Bad Karma to falsely accuse people. I forgive you though.

Labelling everyone who challenges your point of view as 'a troll' just dehumanises the poster and deflects from the debate. The academic history of King Arthur is fascinating and it's a real shame we can't discuss it sensibly here. But I have learnt my lesson.

I'm here to challenge not to nit pick. It's nothing personal but it's obviously been taken that way and I've clearly bruised your egos. I'll leave you all to it. Good luck, long life and riches!

You need to cross the anger bridge and come to friendship shore. Why get so personal? I'm trying to engage you intelectually that is all. You are somebody so am I. Do me a favour and just listen to some people who have dedicated their academic careers to Merlin and Arthur. You'll love it. It'll change your whole world! I guess you're not going to do that. You'll be poorer for it. I'm out. Good luck with your life friend. I really do wish you well.

Open your mind. Listen to this. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003k9j2 Come back and debate. Until then, I ask you politely to stop posting such delusional fantasies.

I'm trying to sober you up. You never address my points. Arthur had nothing to do with this Pagan hocum. He's clearly a Christian/Empirical figure. I am going to make a suggestion to the moderators that witchcraft/neo-paganism or whatever you call it, is given its own stem.

Clear as mud then!

You say Arthur is a Daoist. You want him to be a Daoist. I think you've just invented this for your own amusement. You want people to congratulate you for your profound insights. But you've just made this fantasy up out of thin air. Why? Really why do you invent this hogwash?

You're say I'm incorrect but you fail to give a source to back anything up. Put your money where your mouth is Aaron...

Ok Aaron that's a fail. Dates please or you concede...

Very good.

What is I in Chinese. How would his express that?

If I could humanize him, I'd put him way back - thousands of years before the warring states, perhaps at the end of the golden age. The idea of the empire in decline of which Lao Tzu is fleeing has parallels with the cycles of the yugas in Hindu texts (is it the Vedas or the Gita, I'm not an expert).

In Our Time is a BBC 4 radio programme. I am suggesting you listen to the Merlin episode.

Ok guys. Did Lao Tzu exist? Maybe. Did he write his books for rulers? Maybe. What difference does it make? Just do your job.

If you're going to ridicule me, let's have some dates. Which texts? And what's wrong with Wikipedia? What are your sources? Are they better? Show them! I'm happy to be wrong.