Victor

Hey there, it's been some time since the last post. Anyway I'd like to share my little experience (still ongoing) About a month ago I've been feeling some pain from an upper left molar when biting, and went to a dentist after something like 8 years (I'm 27 years old now). Turns out there is a deep cavity. The dentist recommended a standard treatment (cleaning of cavity, if necessary devitalization of the tooth and resin filling). Before following the standard treatment I wanted to test if the tooth could self heal. My idea of healing was to halt the cavity development and stop pain. Three weeks ago, after reading "Cure Tooth Decay" from Ramiel Nagel (book that someone posted in the discussion previously, thanks!) I adjusted my diet by drastically reducing sugar intake and carbohydrates, however not to complete avoidance as suggested from the author (which honestly feels a bit too drastic to me, as a southern Italian ). Other relevant (?) changes I did were switching from standard toothpaste to a no-fluoride, no-glycerin toothpaste, almost eliminating coffee (one or two cups of espresso per week), starting daily oil pulling and brushing my teeth with a licorice stick ("Meswak" practice as someone else suggested previously in the discussion) beside using with a traditional toothbrush twice a day. For now the situation is pretty static but I still feel pain and some swelling. If it persists I will just accept the impermanence of my teeth and go on with the allopatic treatment. Another interesting note, for the last two/three years I've been following (let's say 75% of the time) Daniel Reid dietary advices from The Tao of Health and Longevity. However, there were some contrasting indications between this book and the one from Ramiel Nagel. It is true that both advice extreme caution when eating grains and/or sugar. Good luck with your teeth everyone!

Very interesting topic. Cook's ideas are very similar to this guy's idea (The title is a bit of a clickbait but Jaron Lanoer has some very good points, besides being extremely prominent in the field)

Could meal timing also be related to body type, as diet is (probably?)? Anyway nice thread, searching and experimenting with diet is one of the most interesting things that can be done! It's fun for the body and the mind Have a nice evening

Hello everybody, I'm new to the forum. I'm a male 21 years old guy from Italy, I came across Qigong practice due to a minor health issue but the more I read and learn the more I would like to understand and experiment with this ancient practice. At the moment I'm practising level 1 XiangGong, also known as Fragrant Qigong, but sadly I needed to learn it from the Internet due to the lack of good teachers in my area. I wish everyone happy learning and experimentations, and pretty soon I will post in the dedicated area of the forum some questions about correct Qigong pratice. Thank you very much for keeping alive the research and learnings about this extremely fascinating arts. I would like to wish everybody a good evening and also to apologize if my english sounds a bit rusty or verbose.

Hey people, it's been a while since my last visit on this forum. @escott I completely agree that sometimes we, (I mean we as engineers) tend to always look for a new technique/shiny new thing. I thought a lot about this, and basically I've decided to restrict all I do to basic things, each and every day for what has been a year now. So it's 'meditation' along 'the presence process' instructions, followed by 8 pieces of brocade and zhan zhuang, along the instructions from 'the way of energy'. Nothing more, nothing less. I'm not writing to compare routines or anything like that, but I would like to have a discussion about the need to have a teacher in these disciplines. Is being 'self-taught' only delusion and laziness? I hope we can get an interesting discussion about this! Anyway, a nice evening to everyone

Can you suggest me any good sources about dumbell training? I'm quite familiar with calisthenics training and in general resistance training for strenght, but dumbells and bodybuilding style training (I suppose the aim here is shifted more toward mass and definition rather than strenght) are new to me; since I'm interested in learning about it, if you can suggest some good book I'll read it. I know that learning from a competent person is ok and sometimes much better, but generally I do not trust very much commercial gym instructors (especially here in Italy)

@alleniverson Hi! I can link a video and a pdf going around the internet, but I suggest you to search someone who can give one to one lessons (in person or via skype ecc.) here is the video https://www.qi.org/fragrant/frag1.PDF and here's the PDF http://www.qigongchinesehealth.com/fragrant_qigong here there are others informations and the contact of a Master of this form These are the first level, in the same places you can find the second level as well! Have a good evening

@Sora thank you very much for your experience, it was really useful and confirmed me the best way to follow while practicing Qigong. When starting, I choosed only the 8 pieces of brocades and Xiang Gong as they are regarded as the safest and most simple. Since I've found a Tai Chi master near my house, I will go to him to learn; my main interest is in learning Zhan Zhuang as it seems to have all I'm searching now in Qigong. I was really fearful of experiencing Qigong deviatons so I'm avoiding to try these exercises alone; Reading about how the issuses you had also affected the family, I would like to talk about the acceptance of family and generally of all people of Qigong. As for now, my health problems are really minor and I think that they will disappear as my practice progresses; instead, as my family has some quite old members (grandma and grandfather being over 80, my father beign 65 and so on), they are experiencing some aches and pains due to age and a life of manual labor. I would really like them to practice and learn Qigong, even the most simple ones like Xiang Gong. But I think that they would never believe and let alone practice constantly, because they've grown up in a really closed Italian culture and do not believe in any of this. My idea was to show it to them and then start a sort of 'challenge', like 'do it for three months diligently and if you do not feel any better stop', but they are really closed and stubborn, so I do not think they'll do it. If any of you had some issues on this theme, I would really like to hear more. Instinctively I think that standing meditation, if presented like a western exercise of breathing and relaxation could be easily accepted, but just mentioning Qi energy and channels to my family really makes me laugh internally for the possibile reaction @sl23 I will check that book, thank you very much. (As a note, when I train I use some basic yoga postures as stretches, and they really feel good after a good workout)

I really appreciate your advice. As for the Xiang Gong, I received advice from more expert practioners and I exactly know wich way I should follow to deepen its practice. However, in five months of continuos practice I had some good results, but I did not manage to solve a problem that I believe arises from muscular and mental tension. So I tought about giving zhan zhuang a try, and also starting tai chi lessons in a dojo near my house; since Xiang Gong can't be mixed, I'll have to drop it. It's not that I don't like that, but I feel that my mind and body need something more still and calm. I hope this is not just a desire for entertainment and change, but a legitimate direction. @Sora if I may ask, how did you bring chaos to your family by practicing QiGong?😶 And again thank you for your time😁 @rideforever as usual your advice is very good. I'm now reading the Way of Energy from Lam Chen for ZZ, but I hope that when I'll start the Tai Chi lessons the Master will help me in studying this.

Hey I just have a little (and probably silly) question. Since I'm completing my short journey with fragrant qigong, I strongly feel the urge to do just zhan zhuang and the 8 pieces of brocade, just concentrating myself on the basis. So I ask to more seasoned practioners: -Is standing meditation and 8 pieces of brocade enough to help healing, physical health and some degree of mental and spiritual development or not? -I heard about finding a particular set/form that resonates with oneself. How do I understand if it's just my mind searching change or the form not resonating with me? Is it natural to change forms during time or it's just a way to never progress? Thank you all, have a good day

Thanks for the advice, I won't stop the fragrant until reaching six months of continuous practice, I was just reporting this observation though!😁 Fun fact for the dentist: six months ago my dentist gave me an x-ray of the jaw and found a "hole" in the bone, an area of demineralization. Since I've never had problem with that, he decided not to attemp anything, but just to periodically check it. magic happened and one month ago we discovered that it almost totally disappeared. I don't know if it's the qigong, but this happened and I never took any medication about that. 😂 (the video was hilarious also😂)

That's surely the most important thing in every practice Jokes aside, this morning while doing my daily fragrant practice I had an unknown feeling: I started to fiercely hate my practice, and thinking it was wasted time and so on, and wanted to stop and try other styles. This is very odd for me as I usually enjoy practice very much. What do you think it could be? Personally, I tought it was something similar to self-sabotaging of the mind or thinks like that, but I really am a total beginner. I will continue my practice, but this thing really surprised me. Again, thanks to anybody sharing their knowledge, have a good day

I'll try to revive this old topic starting by this quote. Which form do you think has the most health benefits? I'm also very interested in forms that help focus and in general changes and improves the thinking and creative processes, both by helping insights and quieting the mind. So if someone has experience of that I'm ready to hear. Sorry if I approach QiGong as a begineer would, but that is what I am for now

Thank you for your contribuitions to this discussion! I think I'll try some of those practices I was also wondering what's your opinion on yoga? I'm asking because there is a teacher near my house (even though I don't know if he's legit in a traditional sense). I whish you a pleasant evening

Ok, since I completed 100 days of fragrant qigong (109 more exactly), I would like to share with you my experience and of course ask some questions. Maybe this is not the right discussion but I do think that I'm too much a beginner to have a personal experience diary like the ones that are on the forum. So here we go: 109 days of continuos Fragrant practice, with my best possibile attention to practice details and physical execution. I practised 2 times a day, sometimes one due to circumstances, but the principle has been to never let 24 hours pass without practice. I did the first level, 54 repetition of each exercise. Regarding the health problem that I had, I do feel that is slowly changing. I must say it partially resolved, even if the evolution was and still is almost unnoticeable. Regarding general health, I do have some observations, that are probably obvious to the seasoned pratictioner but surprised me: -Better flexibility, more strenght and need to move and workout. -Better mental clarity, I do concentrate more easily and do not feel the need do to more activities at one time. -Decreased appetite and slightly better sleep, but frequent (almost every night) and absolutely crazy dreams, ranging from street fights to fantasy settings to absolutely crazy sexual fanstasies. -This one is really strange: I do think my senses sharpened a bit. The more affected is sight: I've always had excellent sight, but now I can read and study for long hours without signs of fatigue, I've completely lost light sensibility and notice details that are very far or very close. Also my hearing got finer, and my tinnitus lessened from a 10 to a 4. -I feel emotionally more stable, but at the same time feel the need for emotional exploration; I had some periods of strange ups and downs and really aggressive and immotivate outburts; they felt really strange as I've always been a cool and calm person; those moments were mostly triggered by close proximity with family members, so I'm starting to understand what is the 'emotional purging' I've red here on the forum and been told about. -My general view on life shifted and keeps shifting. I've become more assertive, kind, scientific in my way of thinking and interested in phylosophical and even spiritual matters. I also observed that I go through period of general grumpiness and need to be alone, but they last usually only one or two days, and then I go back to the above description. Observation during the practice: Since the end of the first month, almost every time I finsh my practice I experience very enjoable chills, and feelings of something reaching my head running along the spine; Also, during the stillness meditation part of the practice I often go through visions of colours, light and strange body feelings. I sometime get really sexually excited, but for what I've red on the forum all the above are normal. The only thing that worried me a bit was the feeling of pressure on the head during the second month, that is now gone. To be sintetic, I'm enjoying very much the practice, and it's become the most important thing of my day. I do think I will complete the six months required by the Master and try the second level, since I'm very curious about it. It seem to have impacted health positively also. Now the questions: 1)This Qigong is not really demanding on a physical point of view, and carries some obligation like not practicing with other systems. I would like to experiment a routine with more strenuos forms (also more 'punishing' on a mental/spiritual level) and stillness meditation, like zhan zhuang or chakra meditation (would like to learn more about this one for sure). Which forms do you think are suitable for a beginner? 2)This is more a general question, and I hope it will begin a large discussion: does every form of energy work lead to the same goal, with different routes, or are they set to achieve different things? Not that there is a goal at all to be achieved, but do you think that a way equals another, provided it works for the practioner? Thanks to anyone reading and helping me in the early steps. I really hope to start a profound discussion and help someone with my little experience.

Hi Aleks, as usual I suggest to learn from an experienced master. However, to my knowledge and from the sources I've got, the pratice of Fragrant Qigong brings with it some strict rules. You can read them on the documents that I'll link below. For some of them, like avoiding to practice near meals or during thunderstorms, I can personally say that they are of great importance, since I've experienced adverse effects from my mispractice. Some of them were persistens headache, choking, choughing and similar things. They cleared up after some time, but I do think they are a clear indicator of error in the practice. http://www.qigongchinesehealth.com/chi-qigong This is the website of Master Dolic, in which some informations are avialable. Below I attached the documents I was talking about. There are some knowledgeable people on this forum, if you scan it wth the search function maybe you'll find them. I wish the best luck to you and to your cultivation frag1.PDF Dont's_in_fqg.pdf

Hi, would like to take an advice from more expert people in physical training. The problem is the following: I am currently practicing a very slow and physically 'effortless' form of QiGong, that also requires abstaining from other types of energy work. I am doing this beacuse a have a condition that involves nerve entrapment in my pelvic floor, and the QiGong is helping in resolving the problem. As for the physical training, i used to train a strenght protocol in a powerlifting gym 3x a week, but I stopped beacuse squats and deadlift caused a lot of flare ups and pain in the area. I also tried bodyweight training, but just involving abs and legs in the training causes problems. So I'm trying to find a suitable way to retain my strenght and remaining quite lean; As for the diet I practice intermittent fasting and follow a high protein diet, but physically there's not much I can do. My thought is that maybe I could just walk a good amount of minutes every day, but this won't stop the shrinking of my muscle mass, so any idea in this regard is greatly appreciated. Anyway, if I can contribute to this discussion: I strongly advise everyone to read 'The Primal Blueprint fitness guide' , and just to try weightlifting. It can be a game changer, and if followed in a sustanaible way ( no harsh diets, no overtraing, exercise variations) can be a wonderful lifelong companion, that will help in almost any aspect of your life! I also enjoy bodyweight training a lot ( you can refer to StartBodyweight.com for that and other countless resources), but I think it's a bit more time consumig and requires a lot of other good skills like flexibility and coordination. To keep it short, train, but don't forget to have fun. Take training not as a homework but as a moment to play and explore

Hi, as an engineering student with some interests in physics I'm trying to gather all the informations I can about this topic, to try to understand what we are talking about. Let's assume this orgone energy is composed by a flux of energy, made both by positive and negative charges, as told in William Reich's papers. I can try to understand how an accumulator of such energy could help enhance this flux, much like things like meditations or energy practice also do, balancing, harmonizing and improving the Qi flow. I can also accept that this flow of energy can be affected by other forms of energy, like EMfields or Wi Fi, or also sunlight or mechanical energy (in QiGong practice its always said that tight muscles block the Qi flow). What I cannot really understand is how a piece of so called orgonite can interact with those fields and turn the negative charge into positive charge, as said by the promotors of this device. In QiGong practice, as is in my current knowledge, what is searched is not one of the two kind of energies, but rather equilibrium and a proper flux of both. So if we think orgone energy is somewhat similar to Qi, would a device that turns negative into positive charge disrupt the balance and thus generating problems and stagnations? I red that a lot of people feels better when around this devices, so if we ignore the suggestion comoponent, those object have a real effect. Maybe the orgonite is just a device that improves overall orgone/qi flow, in opposition to other form of energy that stop them? So maybe it's mechanism is better told by the opposition between flow and no-flow? Thanks to anyone answering. If you have some more clear material I would really like to read it.

Hi, I'm quite interested in buying and using some towerbusters as i live near a big electrical powerline. Do you think it could have some detrimental effects on QiGong cultivavation? have you hade any experience in this regard?

Thabk you again,I think I understand. Last observation, probably common to every QiGong style: I find that since I practice I sleep much less and also eat less, like 6 hours at night, but I do not feel tired or confused. I hope this will not affect my health or mental clarity😂

Wonderful, I will PM so I won't disperse the topic. I was also wondering why did such a powerful practice not spread much more than it actually did? I understand that Chinese Communist goverment didn't like big groups of people gathering so it banned it, but now with the help of Internet it should have spread all over the globe. Maybe daily commitment it's the obstacle?

Not wanting to go off topic but since that I always carry my musican custom made earplugs to every gig/concert, they cut off unwanted noise and even give a better spectrum and clarity of the music you're listening, so in this sense you're absolutely right, and I advice every musican and/or concert goer to do the same.

Starjumper: I'm quite young, 21 years old. The tinnitus started when I was 16 probably due to drum practice and incorrect listening hygiene(loud music in headphones, frequent rock concerts ecc), so I think there's a significant hear loss component in that ( on Wikipedia you can read something about cells in the cochela dying and the brain replacing the missing frequencies with tinnitus). However, in my 18 it worsened a lot, and it was linked with a feeling of blocked ears, fullness, and sinusitis. I started general QiGong practice about 4 months ago, with 8 brocades and five elements qigong series on youtube. One month and half ago I started fragrant, but I made some mistakes for the first ten days or so, so I would say it's one month of real practice. My tinnitus followed this evolution: 1st month--> no change 2nd month--> down to 8/10, often feeling of dripping in the ear and nose 3rd month---->6/10 now-->2/10, right after practice it tends to zero and raises during the day. Considerations (Always remember that I'm no expert and all this is about my own personal experience): if I refer to my starting condition as 10, I could say that every day of QiGong practice brings it down of 0.1, while incorrect expositions to noises and or music concerts raises it of like 0.5. I'm pretty confident that if you're tinnutus comes partially from fluid in ears it can be helped significantly. About complete resolution, my knowledge is that cochlea cells do not regenerate, so probably we'll never achieve that, almost like no practice can let you regrow an arm (but I sincerely hope QiGong surprises us about this last statement). I know how much distress this condition can cause and I sincerely hope you can solve that, also, when I will have more experience in QiGong I'm going to open a topic about this problem. Moreover: Should I ask you directly to Master Dolic or also you? I'm very curios about stories of fragrant practice leading to healing, as anyone I think, but also about how it is possible that this form improves intelligence and concentration quality (I always tought it was a fixated quality for an adult). I'm also surprised by the fact that practice seems to balance my emotions and outcomes with other people, so any story in this regard would be really appreciated! Again, thank you very much for your knowledge and I apologize if my english is not really delightful to read😂

Hi, just wanted to share my short personal experience with this form and ask something about the second level. I've been doing the first level for about a month and a half, two times a day. I tried to follow strictly the rules for the practice, and I strongly advise to do so to everyone. As for the healing, I had some nasty condition that involves nerve entrampent and muscle spasm that seems to be like 80% gone. Also, my tinnitus reverted from quite noticeable (45 deciBels to give an aproximation, to almost not udible, I would say 10 dB with a very low buzz tone), so in this regard I'm very happy and looking forward to achieve 1 year of practice. Generally I feel more confident, have more energy, my mood lifted and my temperament molded a bit. I also find that I enjoy music much more than before and eat less. As for the sensation during practice, I have to say that I am an absolute beginner in QiGong, so maybe I just experienced the normal way of things. My sensations are: buzzing in ears, numbness in hands and feet, deep relaxation of leg muscles, feeling of something dripping inside my throath and inside my eustachian tubes and ears. During the meditation part: intense cold, inexplicable happiness, goosebumps and "vision" of a river and/or a big waterfall when I close my eyes. Never smelled anything unusual, but after practice the smell of things seems to be much stronger. I hope this short report can help someone. For the second level I wanted to ask if it's better to get the Dvd from Master John Dolic? I understand that learning from the PDF source leads to an incomplete teaching, since the movement are more complicated than the first level. Also, if you know any knowledgeable master in Europe I could consider to personally learn from him. I'm Italian, so if it's possible to meet him in southern Europe I would be really happy. When I'll complete the 'six months trial' 😂 of this practice I'm considering to introduce my family to it, so hopefully we will do group practice and again test this system with more people. P.S. (Special thanks to Earl Grey 😀 for solving some doubts about Xiang Gong practice)

Hello everyone, I'm continuing the XiangGong practice and I think I'll stick to it for at least another five months, as the Master suggests. However, I liked very much the mental focus required from other QiGong forms, so my question is: considering that my main focus is health and secondly mood/behavioral development, would it be wise to explore other forms (that are suitable for a beginner like the 8 brocades) togheter with Zhan Zhuang? How much time is required to "experiment" if a QiGong form resonates well with me? Skimming on the forum I red a lot about other forms but being a musician I know how important are the basics, so I don't want to get lost in advanced practice but rather to build a strong foundation that will serve me for life while I experiment with variuos forms. Again, thank you for every bit of knowledge shared, I hope to write soon a report and share my personal experience with Fragrant Qigong.