mike andre

Hello, I've developed an energetic problem. When I do qigong or meditation, pressure builds in my neck and heart area leading to a feeling like little "electric ants" biting me on the arms, legs, and back. Often the fiery "electric ants" feeling will stay with me for many hours afterwords making it impossible to sleep. I've struggled with this for over a year and am at wits end. I can't practice with any real intensity especially meditation. I was wondering if anyone could recommend any qigong healers to me who could potentially help me with this problem. I contacted Robert Peng in NYC and am on his waiting list. I would be very interested in hearing about anyone else though. thanks

Thanks for your responses everybody. I appreciate it and will look into a few of the things mentioned. mike

Anybody out there have any experiences with the taoist (or non-taoist) dream practices you want to comment on? I'd love to hear about it.

Hi mwight, You've made refernces in other posts about the system of neigong you are studying. I was wondering if you could offer any information about what that system is and who you are learning from. thank you, mike andre

So then, What is jing?

Hey Spectrum, May I ask with whom do you study taoist meditation ? thanks

Hi, You said: " I learned Tai Chi from him too which was the eight energies and five elements with applications mostly." I am curious how you are manifesting the eight energies and five elements through taichi. I do a little bit of taichi and am looking for ways to integrate it more into my alchemical practice. If you could expand on that statement a little bit I would be interested to hear it. thanks, mike andre

Yes, BK Frantzis talks in his " the power of internal martial arts" book about how bagua can be a meditation on the 8 energies of the i ching. 1 Do you agree with this? 2 Do you teach this? Thank you

Hey, I've starting doing some standing in the embracing the tree posture and I've been finding it to be a very interesting practice. I'm getting a really nice grounded feeling from it. I'm finding that I start getting some discomfort (aching shoulders) at about 10 minutes and I'm wondering how I should relate to that. Should I stop as soon as I experience discomfort or should I continue on through the discomfort?

Hey Matthew, I've come across a few comparisons of lesser kan and li with kundalini, (like in the glenn morris book "pathnotes of an american ninja master") With the idea being that the energy activated by lesser kan and li is comparable or analogous to kundalini. As someone who seems to have experiences of both, I am curious to hear how you would compare and contrast the two.

Cool link. Thanks. He relates the dream state is connected to a larger cosmological picture which is interesting.

Why are these guys jumping around like maniacs after the master guy hits them?

B vitamins huh? Maybe I'll try that, can the b vitamins help induce lucid dreaming as well as boost dream recall? Also, I'm interested in that mysterious gap bettween sleep and awakeness, any thoughts on how to navigate that terrain?

I'm fascinated by this conversation, and curious. If the shen is the product of the conversation between hun and po souls, what about the zhi (kidney water spirit) and yi (earth spleen spirit)?

I'm involved in a very interesting but incredibly contentious and difficult group dynamic. I'm interested in hearing about any techniques or meditations people use to balance energy in group situations How can we create balance in the group mind?

thanks yoda, it sounds like the idea is that by generating good thoughts/feelings about the other people, that those intentions will be transmitted to them either through some kind of psychic mechanism or by them actually seeing some change in my demeanor and responding accordingly. I'll keep this in mind.

It's cool to see people talking about fusion. I've had a good experience with the winn fusion 1 material. I think his emphasis in really getting into the feeling, is what made it work for me. Before, when I did fusion meditations, I was able to create a strong sense of compressed chi in the lower tan tien, but I wasn't able to transform the negative emotions, in fact it seemed like sometimes I was making my self feel worse. In retrospect, I think my failure stemmed from the fact that I wasn't really feeling much emotionally, just bossing chi around but not listening to it. When I began to let myself be emotionally receptive, the process went a lot deeper.

I messed around with the some of the grounding/standing stuff in a half assed way which probably acounts for a good portion of the trouble I had , sorry for not having been more clear.

I experimented with some of the practices in Yudelove's Tao of Sexual Energy a few years ago. On one hand, it was nice to see kind of an overview of the healing tao system, on the other hand, I sorta cooked my brain with the final pratice in the book ( I was skipping around through the book ) and after that experience (couldn't sleep for a couple days, tons of hot chi stuck in my head, sort of ungrounded not always pleasant sense of euphoria)decided that I really needed just to get more grounded and to get my body more open to chi flow with basics like microcosmic orbit and chi kung. The book gets into fusion, which at the time I could only half make work, it wasn't till years later when I later got the winn fusion 1 material that I could get the fusion to actually transform negative emotions on some modest level. That being said, while I was going through the book I did have a few good months of feeling like my heart was opening up to the beauty of taoist energetics. I think seeing how he interrelates all these various practices with eachother may have induced that feeling, so I'm kinda thankfull for that.

Hi taobums, I'm mike andre. I live in DC and I've been practicing taoist meditation and chi kung for about 5 years. I started because I felt a really intense need to get a deeper understanding of my sexual energy and the taoist's seemed to have a really developed map of the situation. From there I just fell in love with chi. I've been slowly working through michael winn's tapes and am currently spending time on the fusion 1 practice. It has been interesting to see how my surface behavior is often being manipulated by deep emotional forces. My other practice is writing music, I'm at the point where I'm looking to integrate the two, music with taoism where that might lead I don't really know. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to introduce myself, I have learned a lot from this forum. It's been great to hear how other people are relating to their practices, I hope to be a little more vocal and open here in the future and also at the healing tao usa discussion board. Good luck to everybody.