Is this even qigong?

Desmonddf · January 7, 2017

Greetings.

I have been seeing some threads on this forum, like the one on "how to gather qi", and it actually made me question the method i have been aplying and it's results.

I will sumarize briefily the method i use to do qigong, and also the results i gather from it.

I would need to say that i do not use this method daily since i have some personal problems which deeply impact my capability to summon enough diligence and willpower to do so.

Anyhow, here it is.

First Step: Find a good place.

I have a bit of sensitivity to local qi as well as the general psychic atmosphere of places, so my Shen becomes easily disturbed in my own house or in urban landscapes, or even forest landscapes with too much human interaction.

I find the qi (or what i believe to be qi) fresher and purer in midly wild regions with low to none human interference.

Of course, those are hard to comeby, so i just settle for a natural reserve/park nearby, and try to get there as soon as possible, before people get there and start poluting the place or plainly drainig any amount of qi there is there.

Second Step: Use the place's Qi to harmonize and settle the Shen

I calm myself by letting my consciousness drift a bit while enjoying the place i have found. Then i lightly separate my feet and bend my knees, just a bit - until my hips are firm on my legs.

At this point i'm starting to doze off in a lightly meditative state already. Being in a place with good, natural qi, i can breathe and absorb it in without the need to "close" my consciousness to the surrounding energy, which relaxes me and allows for a more in-dept connection to my own self.

Third Step: Start to feel good.

Just lift the emotional, mental and energetic blockades i instinctively put on during the day. I'm also a sensitive and a medium (i actually channel spirits on an Umbanda cult place some days of the week, so, yeah, i need to "close myself" to the outside when i'm not in very pure places... which just causes a lot of stress to build up).

Fourth Step: Try to find Qi

The three initial steps are needed in order for me to find Qi - that is, the one i will actually absorb, and not the envroinmental qi.

Why?

Well, here is where my practice start to derivate from most i see on the forum, and also where i start to think if i'm doing it wrong.

Envroinmental qi is just too little and too heavy?

It's usually polluted, and even natural qi from plants early in the morning is usually too humid and damp to be of use.

If i put that thing inside of my channels, it just messes everything up.

So i try to find a "higher source" of Qi, which i do by using the surrounding qi to fall into a deeper state of counsciousness and then elevate my Shen to the "infinity above".

That means to see light (usually white or golden) descending from the universe, from an undetermined point above, directly into the center of my head and then descending all the way to my dantian, where it usually spreads itself rather well.

At this point there's also a second difference from most posts i see here : I don't need to suck it in. The qi (or whatever it is i'm channeling) actually just drives itself inside of my body as long as i allow it to.

It doesn't need to be sucked out of the environment, and it obeys any mental command as long as it has heart (shen/consciousness) and mind (intention and direction).

It comes in much greater concentrations than the local energy, and it feels a lot purer.

Fifth Step: Increase the gathering

Then i usually see the same energy coming from the "infinite bellow" by my two feet, and then raise my hands to the sides, seeing it coming to my by my hands from the "infinites" on both sides.

One weird thing that happens at these moments - it naturally starts to gather on the center of my chest, moving from my dantian to my middletian.

At these moments i usually draw it back to the dantian forcefully, as i don't want to risk damaging my heart and lungs due to qigong bad practices... letting qi accumulate on the middle of my chest? I don't have this kind of confidence yet. Definetely.

This way i have a four-point entrance of torrential qi, which storms into my body, more and more as i allow it to come by.

And here comes another difference - this qi immediately makes me start to sweat. Like, a lot.

And this is where things get weird as shit, because this is a smelly sweat, and soon mosquitoes, flys and all sort of insects start to get attracted to me.

As i have heard, this shouldn't happen.

Yeah, all lifeforms appreciate qi, but no wild animals (the park has quite a number of them, including small monkeys, some mammals and some birds) come closer. Only flys, mosquitoes, ants and such.

This sweat also reeks. My grilfriend says it's a rancid smell.

Anyhow.

At this point i also start to have a weird effect.

I feel like this qi is circulating all the way inside of my bones, in the middle of my marrow, and i feel rejuvenated, energetic and very well.

My chronicle depression alleviates a lot, and the pain i feel on my body (which is constant) is greatly alleviated.

However, this is where things start to get weird.

Sixth Step: Breathing

At this point i usually start to try and pay attention to my breathing.

I try to make a 4-4-0-2 or a 4-4-0-0 breathing, intending to hold this qi inside and have it work on me, while also being retained at my dantian.

However, at this point it becomes increasingly difficult to keep connection to this qi, as paying attention to my breathing takes a lot of awareness which is needed to keep a good visualization.

Also, when i'm channeling this qi, my body naturaly starts to breathe on a very different manner, and my spontaneous breathing is something like 2-0-4-4 or something like this.

Huge exaling times and void retention times, with little to none inhaling time.

As i try to "correct" this, i feel a weird sensation of "poisoning", as if this qi was starting to poison me.

I postualted that maybe this is removing toxins too deeply etched on my system, and the extreme exhaling breathing maybe is a way to avoid myself being poisoned by it, but i'm not sure.

What i am sure is that i start to feel light-headness, muscle aches and a weird feeling of dizzines and nausea, as soon as i start the 4-4-0-2 breathing.

Also, it usually doesn't get right again, even if i return to the 2-0-4-4. It keeps going bad until i sever totally the connection to that "infinity qi".

If i do it, then about 24hrs later or something, then i will return to my regular self. Until them, i will be feeling hot and damp inside, and also a weird feeling of being "intoxicated".

Anyhow.

Once in a while i manage to get over this intoxication and manage to proceed to the next step (usually when i let my breathing slip to 4-4-4-4 or 2-4-2-4...).

Seventh Step: Qi Gathering.

If i manage to not fall to the weird feelings (usually by stop giving so much weight to my breathing and letting it be) i start to use Shen to visualize and manipulate the qi inside my dantian.

First i let it accumulate a great deal, always taking care with my back. If i feel lightness or pain on my lower back, then i know i'm doing something wrong (as it means my kidney qi is being used somehow).

Usually it happens when i start to try and suck in more of that "infinity qi", which just doesn't work and even cut of the connection with it.

Instead, the right state of mind is that of someone who waits patiently until the qi has descended to the dantian, and then just "suggests" to it to stay put instead of going all around.

If i do it right, then i will start to feel my whole body lighter and, at the same time, stronger.

Also, there will be an energy on my dantian which i can also move freely, as if moving your consciousness inside of your body, needing only to make use of the movement of consciouness to move it.

I believe this is the qi used for medical qigong?

I don't know for sure.

Anyhow, this light starts to gather there, and i accumulate a huge amount, since the next step is a bit dangerous if you don't have enough.

Eight Step: Small Purification

The eight step is to take all of that accumulated qi and then make it go from my dantian to my perineum.

At this moment i contract the perineum and make the energy rise all the way to the mingmen, and then make it go inside and connect back to the dantian.

This process consumes HUGE amounts of energy, and when i do it and there is little energy, a HUGE lowerback pain is inevitable.

To the point of me needing to sit down for at least thirty minutes before even thinking on giving up on everything and going back home.

So, this is a step i only do after accumulating a lot of qi.

Now, the effects of this are weird. This qi actualy becomes more like "mine" ?

I guess the better way to say would be to say that this qi, which was full of "infinity" and would hardly be contained into my body as it where, then dilutes on my channels and on my mingmen, mostly mixing into my blood and fluids.

This makes me feel very good, even if what comes back from this process is just a weird, impure qi which it's usually expelled from my body naturally.

After doing this a few times, i stop this process and accumulate more again.

After nuturing myself with this qi a few times, i start another process.

Ninth Step: Second Orbit

After doing the small orbit a few times (accumulating more qi every time i feel it's starting to run low) i accumulate a big amount again, and then do a process which is alike, but different.

This time, after sending the qi to the perineum and contracting it, i make the qi to rise all the way to my head, and then follow the rest of the Governor Channel and then to the Conception Channel.

If i have put a lot of qi in the process i can feel it go all the way inside my back to my mouth, and then descend to both my stomach and the Conception Vase as well, a part of it being swallowed and another part descending by the front of my body.

It makes me feel refreshed and clears my mind, so it's very good.

It's also another technique which gives huge backpains if you do it with little "infinity qi" on your dantian, so i don't even think about it.

Afther doing it a few times, i feel very well and go to the next and last step...

Tenth Step: Energy Pearl / Elixir

The tenth step comes as i start a process of consolidating that "infinity qi" into a small pearl inside of my body.

It becomes detached from the dantian, and starts to concentrate and actually become a little solid.

By using attention, intention and direction, i'm able to order the "infinity qi" inside my dantian to form layer after layer of itself and concentrate on a pearl, which starts to become more and more solid.

At this point i have only succeded once.

The pearl indeed felt solid, but it didn't solidify my dantian itself. It just stood there, a mass of "infinity qi" of very concentrated nature.

I try to see it red most of the times.

Now, the effects of this are mostly delicious.

This small "pearl" will actually realease qi constantly as it dissolves inside of your dantian, and will be constantly nuturing your body and your channels.

Also, if you need a huge amount of energy out of a sudden, it will just dissolve all at once and be used instead of your own energy.

I have constant backpain, and much of it is related to me being a medium and having trouble keeping my energy to myself... i actually spend it unconsciously all day, at all times.

So this little pearl takes the tool instead of my body, and even nuture it.

When i made it i was one of the few days i managed to stay a whole day without backpains.

Now, about trying to make the "pearl" whitout going throgh the two previous purifications, i believe it would be impossible.

The good feelings it gives are needed to allow one more "freedom of shen", which is needed to better control the "infinity qi" and make the pearl.

Without it one would probably be unable to be conscious and sensitive enough to make it. Or at least i haven't been able to.