Hey everyone, I have a question on what exactly is chi? I'm wondering if what i'm feeling is chi or if i'm just crazy or something. For a while now I've gotten this tingly feeling throughout my body. In the beginning I couldn't control it, but now i can pretty much make it go wherever i want, main points are usually the hands and middle of the forehead. I've seen some exercises like the pushing hands, i definitely can make my hands tingle, but really not sure what the hell im doing. Could someone explain to me if whats going on is chi or something else. Thanks
Something else. If the tingling is constant you may want to see a doctor - could be a sign of poor circulation or other conditions.
An excited monk went to the roshi and told him he had seen the Buddha.The roshi told him to go back to his mediation and count his breath and the vision would go away.I suggest you do the same as these feelings are of little use and will get in the way of your practice.In fact if you concentrate on them too much you might make yourself ill.
What sort of chikung/qigong are you doing? In my experience with certain methods, this is part of the practice and the point is to be able to move this “feeling” to any part of the body at will, but also to be able to condense it to a single point and expand it throughout the body. The traditional explanation for this effect is that the intention leads the blood and the chi/qi. Hence when you focus your intention you feel this tingling felling. Whether it is chi/qi or not, is not really relevant, in my opinion this process is a way of developing your awareness and subsequently control. The methods I use to to practice which relied on this sort of “feeling” mainly consisted of condensing it in the dantien and then expanding it over the body, once this method was somewhat established and easily accomplished, one would then use this “feeling” to move it along the various TCM meridian lines. The lines used were mainly the TCM central, right and left energy channels. A few words of advice with this method, if we are talking about the same thing. Try to avoid moving the feeling to the head, unless it’s a requisite of a specific exercise, and always return the “feeling” to the dantien after any use of it.
Yeah, it definitely feels like blood flowing to the parts where its focused, what exactly do you mean when you say dantien?
Dantien is the area in the lower abdomen.Its the best place to store chi.Its what I was getting at when I said you could make yourself ill.By that I mean't getting chi stuck in your head as it can lead to high blood pressure,headaches and dizzyness.If concentrating on the point between the eyes make sure your concentration is light as if you were watching the television rather than threading a needle.
If you start to feel ill due to chi overuse, speak to a homeopath. They'll give you a glass of magical water and your headache will go away.
Once the chi is awakened it never goes to sleep again.Its not a matter of believing in it but rather awakening it.At times I wish I had never tampered wih it as the effects are very real and most Western doctors can't make any sense of the symptoms.Thankfully I have a GP who is from India and fully accepts the existence of prana(chi) but he says it is beyond Western medical science's understanding at the present time.
Uh huh. Let's be quite clear here, as I hate having to explain this over and over again to those who think science can't address the mystical. Science is a method for understanding the world, through which you constantly question assumptions and beliefs and test theories to destruction. If a test does not show any effect, then however much philosophy someone babbles there is no reason whatsoever to assume the cause exists. If chi is real, and has a genuine effect, then it can be tested, proven and understood by 'Western' scientific methods. If it is real, and does not have a genuine effect, then there is no point in it being real (pink space teapot argument). If it is not real, but there is an effect, then this effect can be tested and investigated until the causes are found. If it is not real, and there is no effect, then it is all nonsense and self-delusion. It is by no means outside the 'understanding' of Western medical science and anyone who claims that it is, GP or otherwise, does not understand the scientific method.
And the key word here is "assume".Just because you can't measure something or observe it with specialist equipment it dosen't mean to say it dosen't exist.I will be the first to admit that chi is a highly subjective experience and its hard to see how a scientist could really make sense of it.
Who said anything about measuring or observing with specialist equipment? I said testing. A test does not necessarily require any actual measurement, or any specialist equipment. It can do, but it's not a requirement of the test. If chi exists and has a genuine effect, that effect is measurable - whether by equipment, observer or otherwise. If it does not have a detectable or evident effect, then any attempt to justify it or claim it exists falls into pink space teapot territory.
I think the first thing is to determine what kind of effect you are looking for.In my experience the practice of chi kung can make me feel both good and bad.If things go wrong I can end up with a headache.But how does someone observe or measure a headache? All they are given is a description which is highly subjective.So its pretty hard to get objective evidence on the way chi works.I feel we should dismiss claims that chi kung cures various illnesses as there is no real evidence to support this but the more mundane benefits I have desribed its pretty hard to gather any solid evidence as there isn't really anything to observe or measure.
I feel pretty good after going to the gym, or after a good run, but sometimes I get a headache. There is no need whatsoever to attach a mystical explanation to this. If you can tell me what chi can do which cannot be explained by known mechanisms, then I can tell you how to test them. If you can't tell me what it can do that cannot be explained by known mechanisms, please could everyone stop trying to claim it's anything other than a label.
My Si-Hing is doing an apprenticship in Chen style and described Chi as "body synchronicity" - which is funny because I have been calling it "good mechanics" for years. He (and his Sifu) maintains that it is just the ability to "feel" your body - i.e. "be in touch" with it. Whilst I can see how this can be mistaken for an energy, it is nothing myserious.
IMO, if you develop your awareness whether in general (body) or specific to some body part (eyes, hands etc), you will start to feel all manner of things that you have not felt before. Different qigong/chikung as well as sports and martial arts (including taiji) develop your awareness differently. What you want to call the resulting effects is up to you, in the various and numerous branches of TCMA and CMA some people have attempted to classify these in to all manner of categories and ascribed all types of names, in some instances these are very arcane, if you want a good example of this, have a look at the “Daoist I Ching” by Thomas Cleary, some very bizarre, but interesting metaphors going on there. Personally, I’ve had all sorts of effects from various, mostly CMA and TCMA related practices. One of my most memorable experiences was opening (or enhancing?) of peripheral vision, this happened very suddenly after a few weeks when I first started practicing one style of chikung. Was a very strange experience. It’s like someone gave me some freaky glasses. Get used to it after a while and it becomes somewhat normal. I’ve done one which worked with focusing your awareness on the heart, result was you could feel your heart beating all the damn time, to the point where you can count your heart rate by just listening. Gets very annoying after a while, like having a metronome ticking away all the time. Luckily it buggered off after a few months. I’ve done stuff which brought awareness to the head along with some other breathing methods, result was tension headaches and high BP, very annoying, but was accompanied with some deep introspection which though not necessarily and directly related, was quite interesting. Would not recommend this though. My point is that the multitude of different practices can produce different effects. Sometimes these effects are personal and subjective, sometimes they can be repeatedly manifested in different individuals. The terminology used to describe the practices and effects sometimes differs from style to style, sometimes its homogenous across the board. At the end of the day, the words we use are irrelevant, just practice and enjoy. If you develop some useful attribute, bonus! If you screw yourself up, you learn what not to do. I really don’t see what the big deal is. Chi, Shi, Bi… mook frigging bruce fry bee energy… it makes bugger all difference… But yeah, if you brig science in to it… you have to back your stuff up with evidence since science is evidence based… otherwise just do your thing and call it whatever the heck you like, but don’t expect to prove it with pseudo BS.
