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Hi. A decade and a half ago I first heard about “John Chang” aka The Magus of Java. I know that many people in the forum are aware of him, and since I recently got to Ubud, Bali, I am wondering if anyone knows of a local school similar to the one he had in Java, that involves Nei Gong or Tenaga Dalam. Also, does anyone have any recommendations for a respectable Manku/Balinese priest who’s willing to share knowledge about the Balinese esoteric tradition? I’m aware that there are many who offer to teach a kumbaya version of it to New Age tourists, I’m hoping to get a chance of meeting someone honest who knows theirs tradition. Thanks in advance for your time, Vuk

Hi everybody. The nature of my request is to consult anyone who could help me understand the nature of my experiences and tell me how/where can I develop them/learn more. It will be a bit long but please be patient, it’s necessary. I got initially interested in Taoism when I was 12. I read a book from Alan Watts about Taoism, later I moved onto Lao Ze, Chuang Ze and Lieh Ze and it I immediately started to relate to it, and it just felt natural. Since then I researched many philosophies and occult schools, but Taoism kept being the closest to my core values. I’ve experienced several very significant experiences over years, and this far no one could tell me more about their nature. 1) I dreamt of future events. When they happened some 5 percent of the details were different (there were dogs instead of cats for example) but everything, including the locations that I never visited before were just as in my dreams. 2) I had a vision (meaning it felt physically real) that I was floating upwards through purple clouds and that I was going to die. I said to myself that I am not afraid because I lived according to my values, and then a voice told me: You’ve understood the lesson. Now return to the Earth and complete your mission. when I woke up my body was shivering and being full of electricity. I was lying in my bed but I felt I was in a vertical position. 3) After practicing Baguazhang, meditation and Taiji 6 hours per day for a period of one month, one day as I was walking down the street, I closed my eyes and I could “see” everything, as if I was feeling how cars and people were moving. It was like seeing blue shapes within a dark background. In the same period I went to play basketball once and my mind entered into some sort of trance. Although I was really skinny my strenght was almost super-human, ( I was pushing much heavier guys than me as if they were children)I was performing the most weird and acrobatic movements winning every game. I could score from the most difficult positions effortlessly. During the 3 hours I played I was in a state of bliss, and as I was playing my energy was increasing instead of me getting tired. I don’t know if that was Wu Wei but it felt similar. 4) I had a vision that I was an old Chinese man walking with my wife (also a Chinese lady) through a forest. We got to a point where there was an energy source on the ground and it told me to be the source of all my incarnations. If I listen to its advice, I was told that I can exit the circle or rebirth during this lifetime. 5) I saw a previous life of mine where I was a nobleman in medieval Italy. 6) I had a lucid dream or at least a very vivid one where I was a Taoist priest, flying through the sky and fighting demons who were after me. I hid on a ceiling of a building resembling a gothic catedral. They were right under me in a huge room (I was able to see through the floor somehow), and they gathered a pile of naked unconscious people, for sacrifice purposes. The demons said (speaking about me), “he’s becoming too powerful, we must stop him”. Their intention was to be able to “see” where I am by killing all those people. The sacrifice would allow them to do so. 7) During the same period of meditation and training I’ve mentioned I tried once to focus on everything within my visual field at once, without being focused on one thing. I was being present and alert, ai just felt as if by not focusing on one thing my energies aren’t tied to one goal/task but everything is equally important. Then I entered a state of mind where I could feel that every object around me was almost like physically connected to me, and I started to cry, because I felt an amazing amount of joy by being united with everything. I walked for a few hours around the town, with tears on my face, and then it just slowly went off. I am not interested in developing any powers, but only into reaching that state where I am simply what I am, in contact with my true essence and energies, beyond the limits of the rational mind. Any advice is highly appreciated. I would also like to study some forms of Neijia or Baguazhang, that could help me learn more about myself but I need a good instructor, even in China.

This is kind of a weird topic (i think). Recently i've been experiencing something that is quite strange/interesting. I'm sure there's some subconscious factor that's making me interpret my experiences as follows, but it is becoming persistent/consistent in experience as I continue taiji practice. initially it started with experiencing energy during formwork as a cloud of energy that expands and contracts depending on the intention and specific form. Now this has been transformed into imagery/my mind/brain interpreting the energy flow as being dragons that are moving around and coiling about as I do the forms. Also, the left side seems to be a white dragon and the right side a red dragon. They feel very palpable but not threatening in any way. Odds are that my mind is just telling a "story" based on subconscious mythological conditioning (as in dragons are part of IMA lore)...but posting this to see if there might be some other explanation for this.

What time of day do you practice? Why? is there any time of day you avoid? Why?