https://www.amazon.com/LET-GO-PRACTICES-SPIRITUAL-ASCENSION/dp/B09DMTQZVQ/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=   Hey, all. I've been here a long time and this is the book I wish I would have had when I first started my Eastern spiritual journey.   Book excerpt: THE TAOIST ALCHEMY OF 100 DAYS BUILDING THE FOUNDATION   MY PREPARATION   Diet – I ate no meat, but I ate eggs, fish, and dairy.   Meditation – Emptiness four times a day for twenty minutes to an hour until July, then I was doing 8-12 hours of meditation a day, which included several hours of Taiji.   The Firing Process – After having gathered enough qi in the lower dan tien through a good diet, Taiji practice, and meditation, you need to “fire” it so it moves upwards and transforms into shen. Normally, the firing process happens naturally if you have enough desire or if you’re young or going through puberty. If your older, you will need an outside agent, and this has been one of the greatest secrets of alchemy in the east and west. Three things fire the qi, and that is pain which means ascetic practices such as self-flagellation, sexual arousal without ejaculation such as is found in Tantra and fasting. Any will work, but use sexual stimulation only on days you do the breathwork. Fasting should be extreme, but don’t kill yourself, and if you’re going to use pain, then do it every day.   Breathwork – Bone breathing with closed eyes lasting twenty minutes once a day, and I did this several times a week but not every day. This is done by inhaling ten times into your belly and focusing on pulling qi into your belly on each inhale and storing it on the exhale. Then with an inhale, draw the qi from your dan tien to the bones of your left hand. Exhale and visualized compacting the qi all the way into the marrow. Do this same routine in all your bones, starting next with your left forearm, upper arm, right hand, right forearm, right upper arm, left foot, left lower leg, left upper leg, right foot, left lower leg, left upper leg, pelvic bone, collar bone, spine, jawbone and lastly cranium. Then ten more deep breaths, drawing qi into your dan tien, and on both the inhale and exhale, draw the qi up your spine and into your head to lead it to the pineal gland at the center of the brain. After the last ten breaths, you should hold your focus on your pineal with your attention, and it should feel like you are “reverse gazing.”   My 100 Days Start:   April 24, 1994 (Full Moon) I practiced the firing, and then I practiced bone breathing with breathing energy up my spine and then in meditation and had a powerful vision of interior light. Every time my perineum would begin to pump furiously, the interior light would blaze forth before my inner vision.   June 8, 1994 (New Moon) I did the firing process and then the bone breathing. While breathing energy up my spine, the perineum began pumping with pressure/pain was felt in the third eye area. My testicles were also in pain. I was using forced willpower to move the energy up the spine. I tried to relax but couldn’t. I tried to leave my body several times unsuccessfully. Then I seemed to come out of my forehead. It was like I was in a little body a couple of inches tall. I could only get out of my forehead up to my waist.   100 Days End:   July 27, 1994 It was incredible. My normal vision was replaced with a new vision. Instead of seeing with my fleshly eyes, I became aware I was seeing from my spiritual center, my soul. This spiritual center within me was the same spiritual center within all things. This “Unity” filled me with awe and peace. I also seemed to be eternally caught up in the now. I wasn’t thinking or feeling anymore. I was just being. Looking at the trees did not reveal leaves and bark. I saw an explosion of light. It began where the seed sprouted originally. The explosions then flowed upwards and downwards. I saw into the earth. It was a golden-hued transparency. The trees were like flowing golden fountains of living light that were continually being born anew every moment. It seemed purely accidental that water and dirt were carried along with the exploding fiery light. It did not diminish the glory of it in any way, though. I thought modern science was absurd because it studies the accidental shadow and not the actual substance.   I knew everything from the beginning of time. I saw it all. At the same time, I was so peace-filled that I did not desire to know anything. With this expanded perspective, human understanding of everything, including metaphysics, seemed worthless. All the books I had read paled miserably in comparison to this. All the spiritual anguish I had been experiencing for the past few weeks vanished. I felt desireless, completely free, and at peace with all. It was as if I woke up and was seeing reality for the first time. I was released from this universe of light after a few minutes.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7a7z2HvvL0&ab_channel=DarinHamel