Damo Mitchell's Ji Ben Qi Gong vs Eight Pieces of Brocades

[morning dew]

I was just looking at Damo's video and I noticed things like Heavenly Bow, which appears in the Brocades. He describes this as a fundamental exercise for maintaining health. I was curious if anyone knew how similar these two forms of medical Qi Gong are in terms of what they achieve?

 

 

 

[Chang]

I must admit to being most unimpressed by "Damo" Mitchell.

 

He has travelled a good deal in China and in other Asian lands training with various teachers and has cobbled together a system of sorts. He is certainly a great self promoter having various websites, publishing books and producing impressive looking video's but.................

 

Check his websites and see if you can find provenance for his teaching. You will find numerous teachers named and numerous styles and systems studied from whom he has taken what interested him. His is a self created system with bits and bobs taken from here and there and with Mitchell as the Grandmaster. There is nothing wrong with this and it has been done extensively in the past with Masters taking this and that from other styles and systems and then making it their own. The point is that to do this you must be a Master already, you must know the principles that make things work - the internal workings of the Internal Art. Damo Mitchell is sadly lacking in this respect.

 

Check some of his video's where he or his students are practicing various forms. Look especially at the feet and the manner in which they adjust the stance whilst stepping. It lacks both control and rooting. The forms look impressive - I will admit that - they are certainly showy but they lack substance.

 

Mitchell is without doubt a great front man for his organisation and his administrative abilities are worthy of admiration as is the amount of work and effort he puts into practice. His organisation Lotus Neigong International is certainly growing apace and I am sure that he has no shortage of fee paying students. But take a moment to look at his "Brief Biography" http://lotusneigong.com/damo-mitchell/  Taoist Arts, Buddhist Arts, Western Hermeticism. For a man of his obvious youth he has simply done too much, a jack of all trades and probably a master of none.

 

As a final note I am always deeply suspicious of a man who promotes his partner to Master grade in his organisation. Rony Edlund (Damo's partner) has only been studying Internal arts since 2007 and yet appears to be second only to him in the organisation. It is all a bit much.

 

 

[morning dew]

Thanks for the input.

 

Yeah, looking at his biography, you may well be right that he's overdone it in the range of things he's studied, given his age, to call himself a master (if that's what he does call himself). I don't know enough about him, really.

 

I was curious, because I'm moving up to London very soon and was wondering if his school was worth checking out. I'm guessing the answer would be 'No' from you.

Edited January 20, 2018 by morning dew

[Chang]

26 minutes ago, morning dew said:

Thanks for the input.

 

Yeah, looking at his biography, you may well be right that he's overdone it in the range of things he's studied, given his age, to call himself a master (if that's what he does call himself). I don't know enough about him, really.

 

I was curious, because I'm moving up to London very soon and was wondering if his school was worth checking out. I'm guessing the answer would be 'No' from you.

 

I would not choose to train with Damo Mitchell but I am not you.

 

Let us look briefly at teaching and teachers.

 

Before considering a teacher you must first decide what it is that you wish to learn. I assume that you are interested in Taoist Martial and Internal Arts. Lotus Neigong teach Yang and Hunyuan tai chi as well as Bagua and Xingyi. Beside this they also teach Acupuncture, Tui Na and Wai Qi Liao Fa along with various forms of Qigong - Dao Yin, Waigong and Neigong. It is a massive though disjointed syllabus but looks impressive to the naive observer

 

Mitchell is originally from the west country and I am not sure how well represented he is in London as regards teachers and teaching. You would need to investigate.

 

So you will need to decide what it is that you wish to study and then look for appropriate teachers. You will also have to consider how easy it will be to attend classes. Travelling in London can be a slow and unpleasant business so it were best if you find a class near to where you are living.

 

Progressing in the Taoist Arts is a slow but steady affair. On paper Roni Edlund (Damo's girlfriend) is an accomplished master of the Internal Arts. In practice she is simply an attractice girl with a fit bendy body.

 

So again you will have to decide at some point if you are to be a simple dabbler in these arts or are you in for the long haul?

 

My advice would be to decide what it is that you wish to learn and then begin your search for who can teach you. Are you interested in these arts for health only or do you wish to master the martial aspects?

 

There is much to consider and I wish you luck.

 

 

[dwai]

2 hours ago, morning dew said:

Thanks for the input.

 

Yeah, looking at his biography, you may well be right that he's overdone it in the range of things he's studied, given his age, to call himself a master (if that's what he does call himself). I don't know enough about him, really.

 

I was curious, because I'm moving up to London very soon and was wondering if his school was worth checking out. I'm guessing the answer would be 'No' from you.

What’s the harm in checking them out? 

[idquest]

5 hours ago, morning dew said:

I was just looking at Damo's video and I noticed things like Heavenly Bow, which appears in the Brocades. He describes this as a fundamental exercise for maintaining health. I was curious if anyone knew how similar these two forms of medical Qi Gong are in terms of what they achieve?

 

 

There are numerous versions of the Brocades. If you do any of them long enough, you'll notice/realise that they are in fact fundamental level exercises working with qi. THis is what jiben qigong means. Regarding the goal - the goal is to release tissue, first external and then going deeper. As such this is an endless process - there will always be new levels of tissue to release, deep to the bones. So you start with Brocades of any sort and then you move on to something deeper.

 

In his classes, Mitchell and his senior students show how to better and more efficiently achieve this release. If I were in driving distance from his classes, I'd certainly attend.

[lifeforce]

9 hours ago, Chang said:

I must admit to being most unimpressed by "Damo" Mitchell.

 

He has travelled a good deal in China and in other Asian lands training with various teachers and has cobbled together a system of sorts. He is certainly a great self promoter having various websites, publishing books and producing impressive looking video's but.................

 

Check his websites and see if you can find provenance for his teaching. You will find numerous teachers named and numerous styles and systems studied from whom he has taken what interested him. His is a self created system with bits and bobs taken from here and there and with Mitchell as the Grandmaster. There is nothing wrong with this and it has been done extensively in the past with Masters taking this and that from other styles and systems and then making it their own. The point is that to do this you must be a Master already, you must know the principles that make things work - the internal workings of the Internal Art. Damo Mitchell is sadly lacking in this respect.

 

Check some of his video's where he or his students are practicing various forms. Look especially at the feet and the manner in which they adjust the stance whilst stepping. It lacks both control and rooting. The forms look impressive - I will admit that - they are certainly showy but they lack substance.

 

Mitchell is without doubt a great front man for his organisation and his administrative abilities are worthy of admiration as is the amount of work and effort he puts into practice. His organisation Lotus Neigong International is certainly growing apace and I am sure that he has no shortage of fee paying students. But take a moment to look at his "Brief Biography" http://lotusneigong.com/damo-mitchell/  Taoist Arts, Buddhist Arts, Western Hermeticism. For a man of his obvious youth he has simply done too much, a jack of all trades and probably a master of none.

 

As a final note I am always deeply suspicious of a man who promotes his partner to Master grade in his organisation. Rony Edlund (Damo's partner) has only been studying Internal arts since 2007 and yet appears to be second only to him in the organisation. It is all a bit much.

 

 

I had the feeling I was the only one who thought this. I'm glad you wrote this. It seems there is a bit of a "Damo Mitchell love in" here on The Dao Bums. 

I've always been a bit suspect.

[morning dew]

Thanks to everyone for the input in this thread. It was really useful to help me make a decision.

 

Damo seems to be based in North London. However, looking at their "training with us" section, I don't think it would be appropriate for me as I have a lot of muscular problems and a knee problem at the moment:

 

Quote

We are not really a medical school, you should not come here looking for help with physical ailments. Instead it is better to come to us with a good foundation of health and the mindset of wishing to engage with a deep and classical process.

 

http://lotusneigong.com/qi-gong-nei-gong/

 

 

 

I did tai chi and brocades last year, but my main interest is health at the moment. I think I'm going to go back to basics with this school and not get ahead of myself. I don't really know anything about them, but they seem huge and there will be several different classes nearby me:

 

Quote

 

Qi Gong at the Mei Quan Academy

Material includes

 

• Baduanjin (8 Pieces of Silk Brocade): Performed to invigorate and strengthen the whole body
• Ershibashi (28 Step Qi Gong): Soft and flowing movements based on Tai Chi
• Swimming Dragon: Coiling movements to stimulate energy flow throughout the body
• Zhan Zhuang (Standing Stake) – standing meditation to cultivate internal energy
• Tai Chi breaths – simple movements to help develop the feeling of Qi

 

 

 

http://www.taichinews.com/classes/qigong

 

Edited January 21, 2018 by morning dew

[lifeforce]

2 hours ago, morning dew said:

Thanks to everyone for the input in this thread. It was really useful to help me make a decision.

 

Damo seems to be based in North London. However, looking at their "training with us" section, I don't think it would be appropriate for me as I have a lot of muscular problems and a knee problem at the moment:

 

 

http://lotusneigong.com/qi-gong-nei-gong/

 

 

 

I did tai chi and brocades last year, but my main interest is health at the moment. I think I'm going to go back to basics with this school and not get ahead of myself. I don't really know anything about them, but they seem huge and there will be several different classes nearby me:

 

 

http://www.taichinews.com/classes/qigong

 

 

Seems like a solid organisation and worthy of serious consideration.

I'm not sure if Alex Kozma is still teaching in London, he tends to travel quite a lot. You may want to try and seek him out. I've trained with him once before and learned more in 3 hours than I had in several years of practice.

[morning dew]

On 1/21/2018 at 3:40 PM, lifeforce said:

 

Seems like a solid organisation and worthy of serious consideration.

I'm not sure if Alex Kozma is still teaching in London, he tends to travel quite a lot. You may want to try and seek him out. I've trained with him once before and learned more in 3 hours than I had in several years of practice.

 

Thanks. I couldn't find Alex's details. The most I could find was this:

 

Quote

I understand that Alex is now training a group of students in Song style xingyi in the UK, so am happy to provide Alex’s contact details by PM if any UK or Europe based readers would like to check it out for themselves.

 

https://wulinmingshi.wordpress.com/2017/02/18/gordon-tso-and-song-style-xingyiquan/

 

It's okay, though. He's probably way too advanced for me right now.

 

[lifeforce]

2 hours ago, morning dew said:

 

 

It's okay, though. He's probably way too advanced for me right now.

 

 

Not necessarily. When I met Alex I had been only playing around with Qigong. I wasn't a serious internal arts practitioner at the time. That changed after training with him. I saw the power and healing properties of the arts of taiji, xingyi and bagua and decided that I needed to pursue at least one of them.

 

[Gerard]

My personal advice:

 

Become your own ‘master’ (if there is such thing anyway) which will stop you from criticising others.

 

*Hint: blood and guts you’ll have to spill on the floor to attain a very decent level. Ah! Don’t forget to find a genuine teacher that doesn’t like to promote themselves to the whole world.

 

This philosophy is one that works:

 

 

Simple, hard work over a long time. Decades of polishing a coarse stone and turning into a shiny unbreakable diamond.

 

https://goo.gl/images/vYjDMw (ordinary human Heart, social conditioning)

https://goo.gl/images/u9Zru7

(pre-birth Heart, enlightened being)

 

Good luck.

Edited January 27, 2018 by Gerard

[RobB]

Alex is in Cambridge currently. Darren Rose (Serge Augier - Da Xuan Daoism) is in London. 

 

Cheers

 

rob