Chi - Chi - Qi

Several students have asked me what I think about Chi First I would like to say that I do believe in Chi and have experienced it first hand. Having said that, I feel obligated to make clear much of what is described in the mass media as “Chi” I believe to be heavily dependant on Auto-Suggestion. Below are the aspects of what I understand Chi to be.

According to Chinese Culture

The character from the Chinese (Pre-Communist Era [before 1956] characters i.e. C(Q)hing dynasty) depicts vapor coming up from a steaming bowl of rice. From this we can safely relate Chi to the production of heat in the body and that also pressure, or perhaps a feeling of expansion. The same implication is given as air pressure or pneumatic force, like the inflating of a balloon, or the action of a steam piston, or the whistling of a tea-kettle. In the body, the deep inflation of the diaphragm as it pushes the belly out is called “Chi” as is nearly any variety of tingling sensation.

In essence, the REAL CHI creates heat and pressure. It is most easily experienced in forms of reverse breathing and what is popularly known in Yoga as Pranayama and Kumbaka. A few rounds of Tai Chi Chuan will get you sweating too! And a little is good. But too much sweating depletes the kidneys as well as the whole system of water and salt, so care must be taken to replace it. In spite of this, the old timers practiced for hours until they were to the point of fainting! That includes the Tai Chi practitioners too! There is no substitute for hard, arduous training. The main thing is to know when to let up - and how to nurture your self. That is the whole yang (active) and yin (nurturing/nourishing) cycle. Without discovering your own personal, “Golden Mean” you can easily hurt yourself...

The problem with this “tingling” business is it could also just be a limb has gone to sleep or a nerve is being compressed!

I know of a yoga teacher in Taiwan who had a growth on his tongue. He said it was because “the Yoga has made the Chi very strong.” Well I hope the growth was not cancerous!

So you see, the term can be used to explain anything abnormal or subtle. Clairvoyance, astral projection, phenomena associated with various meditation states can all be due to Chi. In some ways this is just another way of saying, “We cannot explain this rationally so we will defer to an ancient paradigm.”

Chi, like many other things in Traditional Chinese Culture is based- not on experimental double-blind lab studies-but on empirical observation over a period of time. Hung I-mien, my Gao Ba Gua teacher, used to say, “The Chi will change the tendons of the body as you practice Ba Gua - just watch your deltoids when they begin to form deep dimples, that is a function of Chi as is the ability to inhale and tense the abdomen against punches.” What he did not say was any exercise that repeatedly raises the arms develops definition in the deltoids and any deep breathing exercise will give one a good strong abdomen!

In Chinese/Taoist Yoga the Chi is mixed with Ch(J)ing. That is the air from deep breathing and its associated energies and pressures is mixed - in the abdomen, with an essence from the kidneys (testosterone?). Without Ching or 'sperm essence,' the Chi cannot transform the tissue of the body. With women the essence is related to the ovaries and their energy.

The result of the fusion of Chi and Ching is a strengthening and thickening of the internal organs and connective tissue and membranes (including the organ bags and joint capsules).

The emphasis in Traditional Chinese Medicine on keeping an amount of sperm in the body (there are several versions of sperm loss time-tables) has not imported very well to America! In spite of the fact the Chinese, Hindu and Tibetan traditions all carry this idea. All these older traditions see sperm as concentrated blood. The ratio given by Indian Yoga is 60 drops of blood equals one drop of sperm. So a man's ejaculation was seen as paralleling a woman's period only amplified by a factor of about 60 times!

Women too were encouraged to restrain their period through exercises using muscular contractions of the pelvis, vegetarianism and physical exercise - usually some kind of Gong-fu or daily physical exercise regimen-could be as simple as running and jumping or other Lightness Skills.

The difference between sperm and blood is distinct - one has spinal fluid in it - which is normally circulated in the brain through the spinal canal. This is distinct from the lesser- potent blood, which is circulated through the veins and arteries.

All of these ideas of retaining and transforming physical juice and mental discipline were directed toward longevity. The life span hoped for was 120 years old. Did it work? Well there are some pretty old people surviving in the mountains of Chung Nan to this day. I don't know how old some of them are and in Chinese culture they are not beyond lies! If you wish to read about these folk try Bill Porters' "Road To Heaven". Bill's mentor was John Blofeld and his tour with the Taoists-before Mao-is captured in his text, "The Secret and Sublime".

Chi and Autosuggestion

The base of the brain scans and screens input from the body. This is called the Reticular Activating System. When you say to someone, "Feel the Chi in your fingertips" - well their brain is going to scan that area on your command - and it will tingle. The Chinese see that as evidence of "Chi". I see it as the electrical scanning mechanism of the Reticular Activating System.

Under hypnosis things get more intense. You can hypnotize someone and say, “;Your hand is burning” and blisters will appear on the skin! Actual burn blisters. So human chemistry is responsive to visualization and command. To what limit I don't know. But at this simple stage things are already pretty weird. The body is actually creating a chemistry which, being based on a mental construct, produces the visualized effect. The Chinese would call this “Chi” too. And several cultures have taken this training to its logical conclusion in particular the Tibetans with their multi-template Tantric meditations.

Now if you add to these phenomena, laying on a bed of nails like a Hindu fakir, or breaking bricks, like a Gung-fu master, then you have a sense of the whole circus of Chi. All of these things can be faked too, which makes it very complicated. Any bed of nails can be laid on if it has enough nails in it! It is just a matter of weight distribution! Try laying on a single spike and see how you do! Any brick can be broken if it's the right size. Try a round creek stone! So some of this is simple physics. When you get to breaking a single brick half way down a stack of twelve then there is something else going on...If it is not faked! A very fine sense of impact and projected vectors, which the human body can certainly develop.

My Conclusion

So is there Chi? Yes, certainly. Tibetans can melt iced sheets placed on their bodies on mountain ledges in the winter! And some Chinese boxers can inflate their limbs almost like bicycle inner tubes! And yes, if you practice your forms with breath and intention over a long period of time with some semen retetion technique the texture of your body will change-the protein and vitamin E in the sperm has to go somewhere! You will see it in the skin and musculature particularly. Both become much more elastic. But if someone charges you some high price to breathe deep and wave your hands around know that anything like that will make you feel a little tingly for whatever reason!