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So I have recently taken up the practices outlined in Stephen Chang's Complete System of Self Healing. There's a somewhat long story as to how I wound up choosing them over the myriad of other practices, but overall, they just proved themselves to be more approachable and ready-to-use than what I was doing before. I had been a Yogi fanatic, and yet could never actually get myself practicing because I had no clue of to start. Before I get to my question, I would like to give some slight observations from my 3 months going into it. To start, for most of this time I only ever really did 5 exercises: The Deer, Crane, Turtle, Solar Plexus, and Abdominal exercises. The latter I got into the habit of doing because my digestive system of elimination functions got severely compromised because of the way I was eating. Even after changing my diet, using all sorts of herbs and doing some physical yoga, I had no luck restoring those functions.. until I spent 5 minutes with those two exercises and the Crane. I went and entire week without a voluntary bowel movement (which was a nightmare to someone like me, who never went less than twice a day) no matter what yoga I did or how "clean" my diet was. 5 minutes with those exercises, and it was like I never had a problem to begin with. That moment is when I divorced my obsession with Yoga, and got into these exercises. I kinda lazed into doing these exercises, as up until this time I was the consummate spiritual theorist; always reading, and never practicing. Once I started the Animal exercises, I could feel energetic movements, and I slowly got into the habit of doing the Animal, Directional, Zodiac, and Nerve Exercises. Again, from Day 1 I had a lot of improvements not only physically, but also in my ability to meditate. Recently, I found that the the Zodiac organs are fit together with the organs of the same element. For example, the stomach and spleen-pancreas are both Earth element. As things would have it, both elements are paired together in the same Zodiac timeline; the stomach from 7-9am and the spleen following from 9-11am. This happens through the entire 24-hour day, and as such, I just decided that this must be of some importance. I now find myself focusing on the Crane, Deer, and Turtle, practicing each about 5 times each separately, and combined for another 5 times. However, I have not been able to get to the general maintenance exercises. I alternate the main 3 categories of exercises - The Animal, The Zodiac, and the DIrectional - on a day-by-day basis. In other words, on one day, I do the Zodiac, on another, I do the Animal, on another, I do the DIrectional, and then start the cycle over again. I also found seminal retention to make a big difference in the practice of these exercises. When I upped the Deer- Crane, and Turtle, I retained by semen for 5 days. In that time, I released MASSIVE amounts of mucus in my head... I mean a massive amount. I found that there was so much mucus, that I literally felt pressure being alleviated from my mouth. My teeth were very loose p until that period, and suddenly they are really strong and in place firmly. My ears are clear, and my vision even improved. I could definitely feel the energy that the Deer was cultivating moving into my head, but also in my shoulders, traps, back, gut... it was far different than practicing without semen. Even though my head was releasing a lot of mucoid buildup, it felt like some of that was coming from different places. There was also energy moving in my kidneys... it was all sorts of crazy. However, looking to tempt fate, I spilled my semen, and the awareness of these things seemed to drop pretty heavily. I can't say I'm too mad, because that mucus removal was a trip, but there was definitely something to seminal retention that has inspired me to continue where other experiments have not. The only thing I wondered was whether I might be overdoing it. I saw this quote, and wondered what you guys - anyone who has practiced this system that is - might take from this: The general health maintenance exercises are to be practiced on a daily basis for a minimum of three months.Then one should continue to practice the Deer, Crane, and Turtle daily, and use the other exercises on a schedule of alternate days or weeks so as to build the body to its maximum level of health. I was wondering if he meant that a person was supposed to wait to address the other exercises until I was done with the 3 months of general maintenance? I admit, I haven't found much time to do the general maintenance exercises, and they seem somewhat important. i also have not got around to consistent practice of the Nerve exercises either. I also wondered how one might reconcile the fact that the Lung and Large Intestine blocks are fit to a time frame where people are normally asleep. If anyone has experience with this system, I would appreciate the insight. Thanks a lot.

Hello everyone, I recently picked up a copy of The Complete System of Self-Healing by Stephan Chang. The heart of the book is the Deer, Crane, and Turtle exercises practiced together after mastering each seprately. In the Deer exercise, the book says to suck in the anus as much as possible and to hold for long as possible. This will shoot Chi up the body. The second time I tried the Deer exercise was during a hot shower and after I released, I saw spots in my vision. So my question is: is that a problem? Also, is Stephan Chang a good resource? I was thinking of buying his other books. But his directions on the MCO says to direct the Chi up the spine and leave it in the head as the Chi will come back down naturally. This seems rather dangerous. Is it? Thank you.