Alchemistgeorge

Anybody read Sex in the Yellow Emperor’s Basic Questions: Sex, Longevity, and Medicine in Early China Jessieca Leo?

Anybody read this? Recommend it? Is it all theory? Is it practicable?

There is some pretty amazing information in that essay. Also I have found him to be a good instructor and extremely knowledgeable in his practice.

I completely agree. I would almost say your partner "must" be part of your cultivation - even if they are non-practicing they must be fairly enthusiastic about supporting your practice, and must participate in energy balancing (such as running figure 8s) between the two of you. I also recommend the book - its a very honest story of how two people did it - he made many of the same relationship mistakes I did - wish he'd written it when I was starting out <smile>

I think he has a lot to teach.

Return to your regular practices and practice regularly. Concentrate on doing your practice well. Don't worry about, think about or focus on telekinesis.

Could you say more specifically what you are looking for? The healing tao / universal tao people make and sell them for the marrow washing practices (which they call Iron Shirt 3 / Bone Marrow Nei Kung). The one I have is a bundle of thick wires. it is duct taped together at the handle - the whole beater is about 2 feet long and maybe 1 1/4 inch in diameter. I don't have it handy.

A happy accident is any ability that visits you before you have actually developed that skill/ability. Could be anything in your practice - telekinesis too. I practice energy gates (outer dissolving, cloud hands, swings) every day. I also stand in SanTi everyday. It is very very energizing, especially if I practice Pi Chuan.

Here is my experience, fwiw. Your mileage may vary (YMMV). I have strong opinions on the topic and if I have written poorly and offended anyone I apologize here at the start. That is not my goal, and my intention to be slightly humorous doesn't always work. There are, imho, several kinds of books. The first kind are introductory / overview - are like Stephen Chang’s – the Great Tao or the Tao of Sexology. They explain the medieval Chinese / TCM perspective on sex, talk about sex as a potential therapeutic, discuss the importance of controlling ejaculation for the male, probably talk about thrusting patterns, positions. To the extent that they are teaching techniques (qigong) for moving/controlling sexual energy, they are teaching you the male and female deer exercises, and possibly breast massage. Dr Chang’s books – out of print and usually available inexpensively second hand – are the ones I recommend from this group. I haven't looked at Daniel Reid’s book(s) in a couple of years. Some of the introductory/overview books are more about “set and setting”: mood, attitude, positions – and not some much about TCM and qigong. For example, Jolan Chang’s books or any book translated from Japanese. Lots of them have nice Japanese or Chinese erotic drawings. Some books are more about ‘my personal training odyssey – interesting story but not many or any practicable techniques: Chian Zettersan’s book and The Green Dragon / White Tigress books fall into this category. And then there are a number of what you might call the “buy this massage book cause you hope it will get you laid” books. Some of the massage techniques really work, but I doubt they will get you laid. <smile> The second kind are ‘here are specific qigong techniques to deal with sexual energy.’ These are not introductory books – they assume you know A LOT about qigong and energy. Mantak Chia’s two original books: Healing Love through the Tao, and Taoist Secrets of Love are very detailed – probably overly – and assume you have already opened your microcosmic orbit. If you have not and you do these practices you are “borrowing trouble.” The other really informative book is Volume 2 of The Essence of Internal Martial Arts by Jerry Alan Johnson – which is largely written for males. I really like Dr. Johnson’s book – much simpler and clearer explanations than Chia’s – you might try using it if you have a solid background / foundation in qigong. The techniques are quite similar. I am hoping there are other books of this type, but I haven’t found them yet. The third kind are “advanced alchemical texts” – Douglas Wile’s incredible book for people who have some degree of skill already and a lot of background. Beyond that there are the usual imprenetrable translations of encoded medieval Chinese texts – for example anything translated by Thomas Cleary or Eva Wong. [these are usually amazing books, but if you are at the point where you can practice with or from those books, you already know everything about them and do you teach?] There are, of course, many books I haven’t read. And Bruce Frantzis has a book coming out this winter. I don’t recommend any book with the word “multi-orgasmic” in the title. They are, imho, more about sex and relationships and less about Taoism. They have some good stuff in them, they do not teach you the complete techniques in the two healing love books, and imho they skimp on the safety precautions. I strongly agree with the posts about Do Not Use the Million Dollar Point. What you are doing is "deliberately causing a traffic jam on the highway during rush hour." That is too risky for me and my plumbing. YMMV. I hope the Alchemical Taoism site comes back from the void soon. It has a really good perspective. I also recommend Michael Winn’s excellent essay The Quest for Spiritual Orgasm. Michael is one of Mantak Chia’s senior students and has studied extensively with other teachers and studied traditions outside of Taoism.

This is an incredible book, but not for the beginner. IMHO

I have studied just a little bit with Bruce Frantzis. He has some term like "happy accident" - during the course of your practice something amazing will happen "by itself." And you think "oh, wow! I can do <x> now!" But then you can't do it again. not for weeks, or months, or years. and you forget about it. Over the course of time it may happen again, then later again, and then eventually you actually develop the ability to do <x> until, with practice, you can do it always, every time, no matter what. Since starting to practice the energy arts system regularly, I've had lots of 'happy accidents' - they are really fun, and they don't seem to mean anything, and I try not to get attached to them. I think you had "a happy accident." Be glad. Go back to practicing. Don't worry about it, and remember it doesn't mean anything.

Many of the techniques of "Fusion II" (Mantak Chia) - notably running your belt routes - are useful in psychic self defense. Mostly I use the techniques I learned at the Berkeley Psychic Institute.

Hello all. I've been practicing qigong since ~1985 when I lived in Japan. I was there on business, but my personal agenda was to study koryu bujutsu - the old stuff - which I did. I was very interested in the martial applications of qi (ki), and having practiced Aikido for three years before moving to Japan I was really eager to learn something, anything, about this mysterious "ki" stuff. I first heard of qigong from a co-worker. My first qigong class was "stand in the horse position for 45 minutes a day, if you do that every day, next week I teach you something more." That was how I eventually learned what Kenneth Cohen calls 'one finger zen' or Mantak Chia calls 'buddha palm.' Since then I've studied with a couple of teachers, read dozens of books, learned and practiced a lot of stuff - I did a lot with the Healing Tao. Six or seven? years back I got sick, started practicing again pretty seriously, with a big focus on zhan zhuang. Worked my way slowly through what I could find on amazon.com until I wound up with a copy of 'Opening the Energy Gates.' Since then I've been learning and practicing a lot of stuff with Bruce Frantzis and his students. I'm very pleased with the results. My biggest learning so far? Whatever you do, do it consistently. As far as I can tell, the results of practice are cumulative. If you practice only 10 minutes a day - but you do it for two years you will get results. And the results you get like that are yours, and they last. Teachers can give you a jump start at a workshop, but its just like jump starting a car - now you have to drive it enough for the car to charge itself, or that battery will be dead again tomorrow. I am very interested in classic cocktails, and the guy who really got me going on the right track was an author & blogger named Paul Harrington. On the internet they called him 'the alchemist' because he could mix sweet and sour and bitter into an elixir of deliciousness. And my friends started calling me AlchemistGeorge.

Thanks Dainin. Sometimes I wonder who reads those reviews. Like most of us I've gotten burned many times buying books based on the author's or publisher's description. May I ask a favor? If you like the reviews / found them useful, please click on the "yes" button next to "was this review helpful to you"

My experience is that there are certain practices that make my ability to smell very very good - ie increase my ability to smell faint odors - for the duration of practice - often my hearing too - it can be really inconvenient - gotta make sure clothes & room & body are clean before practice.There is a qigong set called something like 'fragrant qigong' - supposedly people doing it smell incense like smells, and purportedly people who aren't practicing who come into a room full of people who are practicing can smell it too. You can google it and find the instructions for the first level practices for free on the net.

I'd second the recommendation for zhan zhaung, although I wouldn't call it 'taiji standing' <smile, joke> I do standing as part of Hsing Yi practices. Sometimes I do I Chuan standing. I used to do a ton of standing in Iron Shirt. The healing love practices are not easy to do (at least they weren't for me) and are very "heady" - drawing energy up to the head. And [years ago] in the healing tao the usual recommendation that if you were going to do the healing love practices that you should also have a 'grounding practice' - in the Healing Tao that was tai chi chi kung or Iron Shirt (standing) I know some folks whose Tai Chi teacher, from China, told them to stand an hour a day for a hundred days to develop a root. I mention that not as a practice recommendation but to give you an idea that developing a root, like almost all real skills, takes a solid investment - not something most folks get overnight or in a weekend.

I can't remember where I learned this - a Suzanne Friedman book? I think it is called 'insomnia qigong.' Sitting, rub the sole of one foot with the palm of the other hand - 100 times. Back and forth across (or around) K1/bubbling spring. As you rub, feel the warmth from the friction rising through your body and melting any tension in your body. Then do the other foot, same. Lie down. Inhale slowly filling your body, then exhale feeling any heat/energy/tension drain from crown of your head towards K1/bubbling spring in your foot. Repeat 36 times. Helps me sleep through the night and if I wake to pee, it helps me fall back to sleep immediately. Jerry Alan Johnson has a more elaborate version of this in one of his books.

Sorry, gotta chime in here. Electrical Safety 101 here. Grounding is good. But, if you want to use a grounding wire, you really ought have a very large resistor in the circuit, otherwise you are really asking for trouble if you should somehow come in contact with any electricity. The resistor does not prevent charge from moving to ground, it just prevents 5, 10, 15 amps of current from zipping through the wire and cooking you. I work in the computer industry - if you handle chips or boards you learn that static electricity can fry components so you wear a grounding strap - but - one with a resistor. Here is a nice wikipedia entry on the topic - this is not expensive. Here in California we have lots of mild earthquakes - or a truck could back into your building - or the cat goes after a moth - and a lamp falls on you and ....

By not ejaculating, you are slowing the rate at which you are losing jing. But you are not doing anything on the plus side - there is no building or refining of energy.

I've seen lots of talk about increasing sexual magnetism, and I've talked to many men who believe this is true, and more than a few who feel that they have done this. However having asked a lot of women - at Taoist workshops and retreats - I've never heard any who felt this was true - that they found men who were doing sexual practices any more attractive than men who weren't.