ViscountValmont

My name is Josh. I'm from Cincinnati, Ohio, but currently am a social sciences teacher in Shenzhen, China. I have done internal martial arts for 15 years. I have had a few prestigious teachers as well. But my progression through the internal arts has been an enlightening one to say the least. In spite of my doubts (instilled by traditionalist teachers) along the way that I in fact was wrong and the answers were indeed "Qi based..." that has been wholly untrue. I have achieved the skills of Cotton Palm and Hip Shaking Jing, Fa Jing, and Deep Root (among others of course) all entirely through physical means. It is ALL relaxation and mind-body awareness, principles of physics and bodily control. And though I admit my skill level has truly just begun to blossom, I have reached these skills through my own didaction and understanding of the internal arts. I watched my teachers, and after many years of listening to them, discarded much of their explanations and decided to seek my own. After years of being bogged down by archaic hogwash, and very little actual instruction toward HOW-TO internally, I found all my explanations through physics and personal experience. I am here to share ideas. I am currently working on sensitivity training for internal strikes, ie- learning how to direct the energy inside a person... And, I'm working on Golden Bell techniques- how to send an opponent's strike energy back to them. I can currently take a punch from someone nearly any size (I'm 5'11", 150 lbs), and can deflect it to the left or right, or absorb it downwards. I also have gained an awareness of my internal fascia, like Cotton Palm for the guts- I can relax into both emotions (more on this in a moment) and internal strike vibrations and pain. Lastly, the spiritual aspect of the internal arts for me has been extremely... interesting. What I have found, as mentioned above, is that the necessary means for achieving enlightenment is actually found within the physical body. Learning to relax the muscles within the areas that experience negative emotions has been a skill that is worth all the others' weight in gold. I feel as though I am relaxed nearly all the time now, and negative emotions last so briefly that they are hardly worth a notice. All of this is shored up by Taoist philosophical beliefs, which adequately describe the universe, shows the connected nature of all things, and gives adequate cause for complete dismissal of all notions of human judgment. Between these things, I live a wondrously carefree existence these days; something I cannot say about my past. Please, everyone, I am enthusiastic about discussion and learning. All questions are welcome, and I look forward to conversations with everyone.

I wholeheartedly believe that the spiritual side (again, for lack of a better term, because I consider it to be an extremely advanced and complicated mental aspect of human experience) to be of dearest import. I know that astral projection (or whatever you want to call it) is a very real phenomena, and as a separate function that differs from lucid dreaming. I have put tons of time into my own spiritual development. I just don't delude myself into thinking that THAT is what gives me the superpowers to kick someone's ass. It actually contributes though. Because Taiji is MEANT to be used, as a fighting art... by the "awakened" person (now there's a term that conjures bullshit... like "enlightenment"). The state of mind of pure relaxation and of "no mind" is the pinnacle of states to be in during a fight. Especially one where you've trained for years for bodily relaxation. So, the spiritual side has a VERY practical side. This is something I spear-head in my attempt to teach people authentic Taiji that works. That the spiritual enlightenment of the boxer is to martial benefit, and was INTENDED by the style's creators. Although I don't believe that spiritual development is solely for martial purposes either. It's also because these people had the wisdom to give us the keys to a happy life. Who wants to suffer their whole lives? And between the various approaches, one truly can be happy. I'm living proof of it, as I honestly couldn't be happier and it's a sustained kind of joy. It's a way of knowing that your emotions aren't really your own, and your thoughts are just an automated response, no different than the heart. That doesn't mean you have to identify with everything that goes on in your head or in your body. That you truly are the exact same as everything else around you, and the lines drawn between things are false. And knowing that you always will exist in the form of energy, endlessly recycled into other things for all eternity, and therefore death is not real. And that our judgments, about our lives and families and deeds... are all illusory. They need not bring us pain, and can be cast aside because the past is simply a mental construct based on a warped perception of events that didn't actually happen. All this, I learned from Taiji. And... how to destroy someone physically. But I don't confuse two over-lapping fields for the same entity. And I don't pretend I'm The Emperor from Star Wars like I'm going to shock people to death while holding them up by the throat with my telekinesis. Well actually, I do. But only when I'm alone and can put on my costume as well.

There are lots of adequate home training programs now. Don't be quick to dismiss them. Richard Clear's videos are great for the aspiring internal kung fu badass, And the Shaolin-Wanham website apparently has many high level skill sets for fairly cheap (Real ones. And although it's Shaolin, they are also internal. You just must pick your skill according to what you want). Don't let a teacher BS you. It doesn't take that long to learn this stuff. Just more of your money... That's right, Chi runs on money. How's that make you feel? ;-)

Okay. Well I'm going to make it clear again that I don't believe in such horseshit. As I've said, I've achieved a high level of proficiency in Taijiquan and Baguazhang without the use of "Chi," including energy strikes. Soooo... I'll clarify, Chi is a mix of confused energies of a mental and physical nature. I have no doubts that bioelectrical energy can and is harnessed for differing abilities. But there is no separate energy called "Chi." Chi is potential, kinetic, thermal, and electrical energies, often confused for a single energy. It is not. And a lone study showing some dubious claims about something they don't understand to begin with because science doesn't allow for the kind of control over the human body we actually possess within its current paradigm... isn't going to change my 15 years worth of experience and working out these high level skills for myself. You all let an obsolescent belief system goad you into untruths and half instruction, clouded and muddied by centuries of people that pretended they knew to "save face." I live in China, I assure you, these people would rather be dead wrong and save face, than lose face and be completely right. Many people would rather label it "Chi" because they want to have magical powers and revel in the adulation and looks of wonder they get performing parlor tricks for idiots. Well sorry. I would rather have the practical skills Taiji promises, than sit around hoping one day I'll be able to blow out a candle from a few feet away. I'm curious how many claim this approach as their own belief system, but cannot produce any of the results? Advice: drop the Chi nonsense and go by feel. Your body gives you everything you need. And if one day, after developing ALL THE OTHER SKILLS of the internal arts, you suddenly find you can also move a cotton ball without touching it... well, kudos. But it's still a worthless skill.

It's all bioelectrical energy being harnessed. Perfectly normal. Our bodies are basically thermo-electrical combustion bio-engines that run on sugars and proteins, requiring oxygen and water for the thermal actions that take place at the mitochondrial level. Affecting the circulatory and nervous system is easily done by visualizing correctly and breathing specifically to stoke the fires. However, these sorts of abilities are rarely used at the martial level. They are parlor tricks of the human body. I have never heard of anyone harnessing this ability for the sake of self defense, or using it for such. But other elements of the internal arts are imminently practical for their use in fighting. Sending vibrations past the opponent's abdomen wall and rib cage to the organs is a useful tactic to have at your disposal, for instance.

Fellow Atheist and Taoist here, SFRanger. I fully embrace the "purist" Taoist tradition. Nothing I do, spiritually or martially, touches the realm of the supernatural. Lao Tzu had no illusions about dying. His purpose was to eliminate fear of death (and create Sage Kings... but that's beside the point), and embrace everything completely without judgment. Internal martial arts can be explained with regular ol' Newtonian Physics. And spiritual practices are self-explanatory: they're good for the brain and body. As well, Biocentrism, a current (and very serious) Quantum Field theory states that consciousness is the key to understanding all reality. That the current experiments surrounding observation of sub-atomic is literally due to human observation, linking us with the very fabric of space. It also states that time is actually made up, part of the way human consciousness processes incoming stimuli. But it is not real, and thusly does not affect the universe the way we think it does. It is merely a useful tool that the mind uses to get by from day to day, but ultimately an illusory concept. All of these things have been stated by the Taoist (pre Celestial Masters sect) tradition for thousands of years. If you are interested in discussing this type of worldview, I love a good talk. -V

What do you want to do? Develop a dream/rainbow/astral body? Or learn internal strikes? They are two separate classifications of "chi," ultimately. And even though people will say they are connected, I don't think they are. But rather, two individual phenomena which have been confused and combined out of a desire to explain the world. But I digress. Anyway, you should choose one or the other, because this is where the confusion over training (and more importantly, results) comes from. People think training mental and spiritual techniques are going to give them super powers in the real world. They don't. And I don't mean you must give up one to train the other. I mean that you must train specific techniques for on or the other, not attempt to train spiritual Neidan in the hopes of acquiring "energy strikes."