Anyone had any experience with these folks? Their "free lessons" are interesting. Not sure I agree with everything advocated, but I guess that's just where I came from. A few interesting "tricks" I hadn't seen before. I do like the way the information is broken down, but in dire need of some design skills for the whole thing. Here's the website; www.cloudwater.com Here's some youtube "ads"; http://youtube.com/results?search_query=chifusion&search=Search I am in no way affiliated with these folks. Just someone who is researching how people teach Tai Chi, what they think it is and how they think it should be presented. Did a couple of searches for "Al Simon", "Chifusion" and "cloudwater" on this forum... results nil, so thought I'd ask. I was pretty certain I could find people here with opinions! Thanks paradigm
Dubious ... Con-fusion IMO If it looks like snake-oil, talks like snake-oil and smells like snake-oil, there's a good chance that it is snake-oil. [Tongue-In-Cheek] :Alien: Besides, they're just plain wrong, as I'm the only one on this planet who I know for sure has the genuine secret to genuine telekinetic Qi con-fusion generation (inside and out ). I notice too that they mix and use the two Chinese spelling systems (pinyin and the other) ... e.g. Tai Chi & Qi -gong in the same sentence . No true Qi-Chi master would make such a fundamental error on the portal for their web presence. So what do I really offer (I hear you ask) ... I'm glad you asked I say, because I specialise in the extremely rare never exposed to the west temple red boat purple bamboo spiraling Chi or Qi (here-on-in referred to in the rest of this advert as Qi-Chi) with green Qi-Chi energy spots, which spiral endlessly and invisibly clock-wise in the southern hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere. All of this can be yours from yours-truly for a once in a life time offer of only $249 in e-book format that I transmit using 'telekinesis', or $196 to download yourself from this location. HURRY! WHAT ARE U WAITING FOR? (All subscibers get a brand new toaster!) I find that when my students from opposite hemisphere's try to push-hands they end up spinning off each-others vortex in a shower of Qi-Chi spots (the purple and green etc) ... particularly noticable when they attend seminars in equatorial regions such as Bali.:Alien: [/Tongue-In-Cheek]
Kembang, I think your link is broken... I tried to download Qi-Chi video (chi-chi?) at <does-not.exist>, but could not find your server. Also, would you take payments in patchouli? Nice pitch, by the way... you must be in advertising? (Or a victim of it?) paradigm
OH MY! I am speechless! ummmm, one word comes to mind, garbage. Sorry to anyone that likes this sort of thing, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it is a SCAM! Sorry but his website looks like all those other scam websites too, the people were not even breathing correctly (abdominal) in some of the shots (unless this is some "secret" I have not been privy too) and their stepping was off etc....wow, thanks paradigm for the laugh though.
Hi Taoquan, Funny, the same thought comes to my mind as well. Seems I read a great deal of BS when people start writing about TC. Yet, still I read it. It's nice to have those here validate my instincts. I've been studying in a remote part of the country now for a couple of years with out a teacher. There is a small group left over from a class that was here and we still get together once a week to practice forms and talk about what it is that we are doing. I try and sift through the mountain of mundane elucidations for things that might be useful. Interestingly, even in the most banal of text, there is usually something of worth (minute as it can be sometimes!). In the spririt described above, I "subscribed" to their free course. I had never seen Tai Chi taught this way. There are some aspects that I actually like from their program. Small digetable lessons with a long range plan for people to learn is nice. I liked the way some of the structure of the stances were shown, with graphics to highlight their structure and contrasting "wrong" and "right" ways (though some of the "right" ways weren't spot on). The thing that usually tips me off to it "being snake-oil" is when they start putting these photoshop "energy spheres" as if you are aspiring to create a blinding light souce as to show the world your mastery of "chi magic". I suppose some would say this is a visualization tool so new people can have the means of knowing what they should be imagining during practice, but I didn't learn with anything such as that. The teacher we had was always underwhelmed by any students description of "feeling their chi". He always said, "That's nice, it's going to happen, now let go of it, for if you focus on it too much you will become obsessed and unable to study properly". To this day, I don't know what chi is, but I do know what it is not.... photoshop energy balls! Still, I learn things, even from sources such as these. Usually, not what was intended when it was initially written. In this case, I've learned to save my patchouli! Paradigm
I agree paradigm, There are a great many things to learn from people all over, even from something like this as you point out. However, to me it also matters how much time you spend training in crud, to get a few useful tidbits. I used to train in anything and everything w/o so much of a filter (b/c I took learning it all to an extreme) and now realize that many hours were lost training on stuff that does not work, or was bad for me, rather than doing GOOD training. Meh, just my personal advice, weigh the crud against the good stuff and see if it is worth your time. I don't like the idea of wasting my life shifting through crud! Thus one of my favorite quotes: "We all have a TERMINAL ILLNESS it is called BIRTH, we don't have much time, get to it!"
TQ, Hadn't wasted any time trying any of it, just reading. Frankly, I don't deviate much from the forms I originally learned. I read, watch DVD's, read forums not to learn new forms, just to find different ways to "play" the form I practice. It seems solid, and compared to everything else I've seen, or heard of, suffices my needs. It is my daily gift to myself, I don't really want to go mucking with it by trying to fill my head with every form out there, to many. My brain is very small, but my curiosity is as big as the ocean. Get to it? Carpe Diem! Thank you friend. paradigm
Here is a link to an article which IMO puts the Qi-Chi idea into an easier to digest and slightly more modern context. My take on the whole Qi-Chi debate is that Qi-Chi is the result of the effort to describe from within the universe of the ancient Chinese world-view. That is why it is so misguided to dismiss the concepts as rubbish, particularly when we attempt to unravel the meaning using our modern westernised world view as the basis for critisizing the old perception from a different universe of cause and effect. We see the world through different eyes. To understand Qi-Chi the way it was meant originally, we have to see through the eyes of ancient Chinese world-view/philosophy and not that of modernity. The article I've provided the link for, is to my mind the best explanation yet that I have found that teases out the original meaning and repositions it into something that we can more readily perceive. Cheers.
Hi Kembang, Please, don't get the impression that I am dismissing Chi/Qi/Ki. I think there is something too it, just not sure what. I try and temper my curiosity with enough skeptism to remain practical and balanced. To much of either, not good. I enjoyed the article very much. Thank you. pardigm
