Sloppy Zhang

Well if the only thing she didn't like was the fact that you weren't fully divorced, call her or text her, say you want to talk, and get around to meeting her in person. If she had other reasons beyond just you not being fully divorced, maybe you should make sure all of those reasons have been addressed as well? Other questions to ask- does she still want you? Was it a reluctant breakup, where she really wanted to be with you but couldn't bring herself to put herself at risk to a guy who didn't love her enough to leave his still legal wife, or was she just using that as an excuse to otherwise get out of a relationship she wasn't too thrilled about? I wouldn't invest too much money or emotions unless it's worth it. Than again, part of being "worth it" is being able to sleep at night without having regrets. So do what you feel you have to do to sleep easy.

Nope. I wasn't there, I just respond to things as you tell me. If you tell me you corralled a horse, I ask, did you really corral him, or did he come back to you of his own volition. If you tell me you led him across the highway and stopped traffic, I wonder if maybe traffic didn't stop of its own volition. If you tell me it's an open field, well where'd the highway come from? I wasn't there, so I am relying on your testimony here when I ask questions

Hi Manitou, I'm not denying that I had to be there, and I'm not deny that what you said happened happened. I am, however, trying to point out some nuances. Did you corral him and stop traffic with the invisible rope? Or did you have the intent to pull him back (possible with a rope or not a rope) and, concurrently, traffic stopped around you and the horse obeyed. To turn a phrase, correlation does not imply causation. I'm wondering if it is possible that you actually DIDN'T corral him with a rope. Maybe he was a nice horse who liked you and played along. Maybe the people on the road didn't want to run over a horse and human combo. And maybe this lead you to a cognitive bias in which you remember this scene because it validated your energetic rope hypothesis. Or maybe you really DID pull him in with an energetic rope! It's kind of a hard point for me to make. I'm not saying you're wrong. But I'm not saying you're right, either. My position is that we should ALL ask those questions above for ANY event. We should be seeking to reproduce these events, and we should be seeking to be able to provide external evidence (for ourselves or just for others), to reproduce these events, so we can hammer out if our hypothesis is correct (we are mind, energetic rope, etc) or if we need a new hypothesis (nice horse and careful drivers, etc). Your second to last statement, "once we figure out how to truly use it" is the kicker. Because until we can isolate the variable that is different between you intending/desire to pull the horse and succeeding, and my intending/desire to pull the horse and failing, then we're not testing the same thing.

And yet, how many people all over the world, heck, how many times have you, been in similar heightened states, had similar states of panic, had a similarly strong (if not stronger) desire/intent, but your desire/intent did not manifest? Is it possible you truly did energetically rope a horse? It's possible. Is it possible that the event of the horse being "pulled" by you coincided with your conscious awareness of your strong intent, and solidified that memory in your mind as evidence? It's possible. Is it possible you didn't energetically rope that horse, and he just thought "oh hey, looks like manitou wants me to come back. Well we were having fun running, so why the heck not." It's possible. If we (believe we) understand the mechanism behind these actions, then how do we develop that mechanism? How do we consciously call on it? How do we repeat it? How do we show it again and again, if not just to ourselves, to others? You had an intent to rope a horse and the horse complied as if it were being roped. What if we tried that one more time, ten more times? With other horses? In other scenarios? In different mental/energetic states? What separates your intent/desire from every other time you had an intention/desire and it did NOT happen? What separates your intent/desire from other people who every day intend/desire things that don't occur? An outside observer might not have the energetic development to see your energy rope. But anyone who is capable of sight will be able to see a horse complying with you as if it were being roped, and after seeing these types of actions formed, will see there is an uncanny correlation between your invisible/energy ropes, and the horse acting like they're roped. Just as there is an uncanny correlation between letting go of something, and it moving towards the ground.

My question: Why does this dream still stick out for you after a year?

I think ChiForce's skepticism is healthy to consider, especially so in spiritual communities, where many take skepticism to be a sign of a closed mind or an angry person. On the flip side, there is no way that ChiForce can say "this person did NOT shapeshift into a bird and fly away, so-and-so was obviously on drugs and then provided you a biased second hand account to you, which you are then giving us thirdhand." Because ChiForce wasn't there and for all any of us know (since no one was there) a person really DID turn into a PHYSICAL bird and PHYSICALLY flied away. Now I think a more accurate statement would be that, given the every day experiences that most of us encounter, and the very real physical obstacles that human face on a day to day basis (inability of flight being one of them, or else why would we rely so heavily on the air and automotive industries, except for very long distances where we might get tired?), it is UNLIKELY that a person physically turned into a bird and flew away. Still possible? You bet. Likely given the day-to-day experiences of the aggregate human population? Er, no. Given our knowledge and aggregate experiences of the effects of drugs on human perception, likelihood that person's experience was drug induced, or at least part of an altered state of perception (whether drug induced or just very groggy from staying up too late or waking up too early, or being asleep completely)... you see where I'm going with this. There is a common convention that says that the burden of proof lies on the person making the claim. I could ask this forum to prove I am NOT Hugh Jackman posting on this internet forum in between shoots for The Wolverine 2. But such a feat would be incredibly time consuming and would be (given your personal access to Hugh Jackman's- I mean my- whereabouts) nigh impossible. And so, for the betterment of all parties involved, it is not unreasonable (in fact, is HIGHLY reasonable) that this forum expect me to post a video of myself, Hugh Jackman, saying hello to all of you bums, and until such a time as that evidence is produced, you are well within your rights to disbelieve my complete and totally honest claim that I am Hugh Jackman. Now it would be one thing if I said "yeah guys, I'm Hugh Jackman, take it or leave it." But all too often in the meditation/spiritual communities the stakes are much higher. People claim abilities of physical transformation, healing, energetic detection, control, remote viewing, and the list goes on and on and on. Any single ability which, even if only applicable in the RAREST of circumstances, would produce a HUGELY POSITIVE impact on society at large, not only on a personal betterment scale, but on a societal scale as it broadens our view of science, our existence of the universe, and the laws within which we live. And, to make matters WORSE, people put the burden of proof on the skeptical party (who, in the truest sense of skepticism, should (and admittedly many people don't) withhold judgment towards EITHER SIDE until appropriate evidence is weighed and, EVEN THEN, should be open to contradictory evidence should it appear further down the line), claiming "well how do you know I did NOT do XYZ feat which, if not a miracle, lies way outside the bounds of the everyday experience of the aggregate masses? You must be an non-believer and have closed energy channels/asshole you should open your mind/first chakra" To FURTHER complicate matters is the fact that humans are VERY easy to fool. Heck, we fool ourselves ALL OF THE TIME: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_bias How many times have I tried to reign a horse in energetically and it DIDN'T work? How many times did I tried to energetically trace a mouse's path and I DIDN'T catch it until it was ON MY HEAD? How many times did I TOTALLY KNOW YOU WERE GOING TO SAY THAT and it turns out you DIDN'T SAY THAT AT ALL!!!??? No one remembers when they failed to be special, when their spirit did not act on this physical earth, when their god did not come down and bless them at the craps table. But they sure as hell remember when those things DID happen, and that's total proof that they happened. The final scenario is people claim these feats and say "well I'm not interested in proving it to anyone, so there." Well that's all fine and dandy. But in light of the fact that you can EASILY FOOL YOURSELF (as outlined in the Wikipedia article on Cognitive Bias), then (dare I state my opinion here) it should be part of your spiritual practice to prove these feats/events/happenings to yourself objectively, to at least determine that you are not fooling yourself, regardless of whether you have any interest in making claims in real life or on line. Because let's get real, we're all kind of gullible.

Or apply your interests to fields that are in demand Other thoughts: The liberal arts education system needs a shakeup. You will get paid when you provide something of value to others. Ideas are great, but without the skills to execute them, they are worthless. Looking back on it, I should have starting going to community college- much cheaper to find out what I was interested in, rather than spending tens of thousands of dollars, not knowing what I wanted, then being too far gone to turn back and change majors which required another 3-4 years to catch up on. Get some hands on experience, get some references. THEN transfer to a bigger university to round out my experiences in an institution that has more resources (funding, labs, connections to internships, etc). Then, maybe 5 or 10 years down the line (or maybe never!) go back to college to talk about "ideas." The liberal arts education is good in theory. But in practice you are trying to force worldviews and experiences into (or out of) people that don't want them. They're kids. They want to drink, have sex, do drugs. These days it's commonly on their parents or on society's dime. Then they graduate and can't make money. Traditionally successful fields like law are struggling right now. Kids go to school for four years, get massive debt, can't do anything, go to school for 3 more years, still can't do anything, and wind up getting a job earning what they probably could have earned in the same amount of time (7 years) without tens-hundreds of thousands of debt. STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) are begging for candidates. It's much harder to find candidates who are only partially qualified to fill a role. Some of these companies will bring people on who only know enough to get by, and train them on the go because they need people. But no one wants to do that because "math is hard" and "computers are for nerds" and "science isn't cool." Hm, you know what else isn't cool? DEBT! I'm a recently graduated liberal arts major. What did I do? Got my foot in the door in the tech sector. Gathered some modest tech related skills, and was transferrred with open arms to a department that needed tech people- and every day they're helping me learn new skills so I can help pick up slack that the company is gaining and I'm getting paid money to do it! I feel great that I get to learn, better myself, contribute to others, have a nice career path, and have the leisure time and money to do other things I care about. Getting more degrees isn't the answer ("the masters will be the new bachelor's" etc etc etc). Getting SKILLS that are IN DEMAND are the answer! If you want to get all spiritual about it- go with the flow, perceive the situation and perform right action at the right time! If a house is on fire, leave the house (provided you don't want to die). If liberal arts careers are sinking, jump ship! You can meditate about manifesting an apple.... or you could go find an apple tree! You can complain about how hard it is for your post doctorate philosophy major to find a job or..... you can spend 2-4 years earning some practical technical skills and make as much (or more) in less time without so much debt! Then you have the free time/money to philosophize all you want with your philosophy friends over drinks that you can pay for without feeling bad about it.

I've never had to use lube That was a serious answer, btw.

Ahahaha, I saw this thread title and was going to post a one word post: "Don't" And then I saw the OP! made my day

^ What Ya Mu said. Bruce Frantzis writes a bit about this distinction as well. Qigoing- the gong of qi, energy. Works a lot of the channels. Usually movement, sometimes stillness (as others have said, you can produce a lot of qi movement while physically moving little with the right development). Qi energy. Developing all that. Building the dantian. Use it for health, use it for martial power. Maybe use it to heal the emotions. Maybe. Nei gong- the gong of nei, internal stuff. Usually stillness, sometimes movement (in things like meditative Bagua/Tai Chi from the right lineage, a lot of movement! so like Ya Mu said, no hard and fast rule with this one if you have real internal development) You can use neigong to feel and develop the physical body and qi, sure, the principles will work. But where it REALLY has its oomph is where it touches the emotions, mind, psychic energies, karma, essence of humanity, body of the Tao, etc. It is far further/deeper/wider reaching than qigong is.

It's not an "either-or" situation. You're trying to CIRCULATE. Opening up the back of the neck doesn't mean closing down the front! Frantzis doesn't make too big of a deal about the "direction" stuff flows in the beginning methods. Why? Because people tend to come at it with your perspective- "oh so things flow up the back, down the front" then you get threads like you see on TTB's titled "HELP, my energy is flowing up the front, am I broken?" and all manner of people are cross referencing dozens of disparate practices and cultures trying to figure out what channel they're accessing/feeling.... When the reality is that the body is not so simple. There are ups and downs and lefts and rights and ins and outs occurring at every point of the body simultaneously. Energy doesn't move in a straight line. It moves in spirals. Frantzis mentions that when Bagua or Tai Chi is used to embody the I Ching (as they do in their highest meditative forms) you are combining all elements at once. So energy flows up the back... but energy also flows down the back. And down the front and up the front. And let's not forget left and right and forward and back and expanding and contracting. And spiraling, which is going to involve some side to side movement compared to the plane of direction that you're looking at and, whoa, things just got complicated. That's why he doesn't mention it in the beginning. Because he would rather not give "half truths" because half truths tend to hurt people more. But if he told them the full truth they might miss the simple fact that in most peoples' posture the back of the neck is clamped down. But since most people don't know what the occiput is, you just say "tuck your chin." It gets people to make the right movement. And as they start to get more familiar with their body, hey, it works. You're right it aint perfect. The problem is most people are starting off from such left field, their bodies are so out of whack, they're in such an extreme state of misalignment, that giving them a gentle description is only going to move them a little bit away from misalignment. For many people, if they had the feeling of "tucking their chin," then really they might be closer to home base... why? Because the state of "normal" is going to feel really "extreme" for them because their old "normal" used to be extreme (in the wrong direction). Unless you take the extreme of the opposite direction and start digging your chin into the top of your chest, and that's no good either! So to clarify, you aren't really "tucking" your chin either, because that might imply that your chin just goes down (like you're looking down), or it goes back (goes back closer to your throat). Really it should do both. But it should also go "up" a little bit. It moves "up" because you're raising your head a bit. Ever hear people say "imagine like you're hanging from a string attached to your head?" You want to raise a little bit. Why? Because you're also trying to relieve the pressure that is clamping down on the back of the skull/top of the spine. Now you see why Frantzis' books get kind of long (where he just goes on and on about the detail of a single position), because there is so much nuance to just a single position. Of course, a live in person teacher can correct you. But it's just so hard to find one of those these days that know all of these details. Do what is easy first. Separate and combine. He mentions these all the time. You're probably not going to get all the movements right on your first try. Or first dozens of tries. Notice one alignment out of whack... fix it. Whoops, another alignment out of whack. Fix that. Uh oh. That first alignment went out of whack again! Fix that.... Separate each issue out, deal with it... then combine it. And viola. You've gotten one alignment! Time to do the others.

I agree with the OP. For a while there, I worked a lot with retention and things like that. I'd usually go about a month or so. I'd get super hyped up on energy. Always pumped up to do whatever. Go to town on someone who pissed me off. Whatever. Then I'd get uncontrollably horny. Despite my uber sexual power that I had been carefully not spilling for the past month or so, I still did not have the animal magnetism to attract women. So I'd wind up masturbating. Then the next day, all day, I'd keep checking myself in the mirror, keep looking at my clothes... why? Because all of these women were looking at me and I thought I had something on my face/clothes!!! Eventually I put two and two together. Unfortunately, I lacked the subtle energetic awareness to actually figure out what subtle changes of energy (or pheromones or sweat or placebos) were causing this change.... So now I get off when I want (with a girl or without) and I don't get off when I don't want. And engage with girls in other ways. By working out. By learning some game tips. By being an overall Tao Bum Badass that I am. You know. The ush. That's supposed to be the first part of "usual" but it's a cooler way of saying "the usual." It kills with the ladies.

I recently graduated with a liberal arts education. I'm looking around at my peers who are getting good jobs and making much more money than I am. Here's the deal: Yes, connections help. Rich kids who have family connections are going to get a job no matter their skills or qualifications. The end. You can cry about it, or you can do something about it. So here's the thing, and this is going to be true everywhere: People are going to pay money for things that have value. If you want to get paid money, you have to provide things that have value. Economics tells us that the lower the supply, the higher the demand. You want to be a writer? One of my degrees was in writing. Writers are a dime a dozen. You have to be a really good writer to make money. You have to write more than other people. You have to network and get yourself out there to make money. It's certainly doable. But it's going to to be very hard. You want to be a computer programmer? There aren't many of those. Computer programming requires a lot of technical knowledge and knowhow. The field is always changing. The funny thing is, several months ago I was looking at open positions for developers at a tech company (SAS). Their job requirements read: "person with a 4 year degree in computer science plus one demonstrable year of working in XYZ environments, OR a 2 year degree in computer related field plus two demonstrable years working in xyz environment OR 4 demonstrable years of working in XYZ environment" I was SHOCKED. You didn't even need a degree to get a well paid technical position at a great company. Why? Because the skill was valuable and in demand. Not a lot of people do it. So it becomes easier to do with a relatively little amount of work. My school had a really good business school. A lot of business majors focused in things like marketing and public relations and things like that. Where did they go? Same place I went: sales, along with all the philosophy majors and writing majors and communications majors. Why? Because they didn't have any quantifiable skill other than... communicating. What happened to the business majors who focused in accounting or finance? Well paying jobs (even before they graduated) because they had developed a skill that had value and something that not everyone could do (because it was difficult and had to be learned, some might say they had gong fu). What happened to the computer science majors, the biology majors, the chemistry majors? Paid internships which translated to immediate job offers right after or during college because they took the time to develop a skill that was in demand and relevant. Sure there were people in frats with connections that got better jobs despite having no real skills. See above note. My advice, if you're starting at the bottom? Get a technical degree from a community college. Don't go to learn things like "business management" or "marketing". It's bullshit. Kids who can write a term paper in one night and graduate a degree from a big university are going to get jobs over you because they have flooded the market and the degree requires no "gong fu". The two big fields right now are: IT and healthcare. Most all community colleges have programs that get you doing hands on skills in things like network administration, hardware installation, dental assisting, medical lab technicians, nursing, etc. For a year and a half to two years it's going to require some money out of pocket. But at the end you are going to have practical skills. And if you're smart, you're going to network while you're there, get good references, and many technical colleges teach you hands on skills, so you might be doing "live" classes in the field where you can make connections and make impressions, and since many community colleges want to place graduates locally, it would make for an easier transition. Solution? Learn gong fu. Computer gong fu. Medical gong fu. Be a Taoist. Flow with change. Act in the appropriate moment. There was a day when if you wanted money you'd go to law school. Right now the job market for lawyers is terrible. Why? So many of them, so little need (many places are using paralegals to do most of the legwork, and no lawyer is going to be hired as a paralegal, you're overqualified, and employers are afraid you'd quit as soon as you got a better offer). Compare that to companies like Sas who will give you a job on par with a college level graduate even if you have no degree as long as you can prove you have skills in XYZ category. Hm. And this isn't to say that your career goals can't be in line with your metaphysical ones. A friend of mine is a math and computer science major. He does math because that's his passion. He does computer science to pay the bills. His math has helped a lot. But he says that math is really the key to explaining the universe. You meet an advanced alien species? They'll zap you on the spot. You demonstrate you have mathematical knowledge? Suddenly they can realize that you are demonstrating that you are recognizing certain patterns within the universe. Hm. Patterns in the universe... almost sounds like something else groups of people studied... groups of... spiritual people? You want to heal people? How do you heal people unless you know what's in their body? Sure you could do therapeutic massage. Or energy healing. Want to make an extra buck? Nothing wrong with learning some hard science, biology, chemistry, the stuff that builds humans from the ground up. Not only are you going to increase your bank statements, you're also going to have a better sense of where to direct some of your meditations or energetic transmissions to yourself or patients. Hm. It's all coming together....

Your goal shouldn't be "stop energy going to your head". Your goal should be "let energy come back down once it's up there". Circulation is key. Trying to prevent a rise (or prevent a descent) is going to lead to stagnation one way or the other. I'd recommend B.K. Frantzis' "Opening the Energy of Your Body" like I do every time. Why? Because it works with the downward flow of energy, as well as works in dissolving tensions and blockages. Something not enough systems fully explore (maybe i shouldn't say that. most all systems pretty much imply it. it's like a reference in the beginning stages which people treat accordingly (like a footnote in their practice) before moving on to the "good stuff". But Frantzis outlines that downward flow should be about 70% of the practice compared to 30% working of the upward flow, at least until being able to get energy moving back down for health and energetic balance) But since that's a thorough book, I'm going to give a tip he gives for people who sit a lot at a desk (usually on the computer). 1. You know why people say "tuck the chin in" when meditating? It has nothing to do with tucking in the chin. Rather, it has everything to do with freeing up the occiput, the space where the back of your head meets your neck. With most people it's clamped down pretty tight (imagine hunching forward to look at a computer, that angle between the base of your skull and neck). The idea behind tucking your chin is to encourage you to open that space up, because that is how blood, fluid, and energy, is going to move OUT of your head. Which is what you want. Because energy going up to the head gets stuck otherwise. And boom. Problems. 2. Eye strain. We're a visual culture. Books. Computers. All the eyes. As such,our eyes get stressed, the optic nerve gets stressed, and so our brains start to stress, and so our bodies start to stress. Solution? Relax the eyes. Ideally, you'd want to relax and open the energy gates directly behind the eyes (where the optic nerve connects). But in a pinch, starting with the eyes will work. That's going to clear up a lot of tension headaches and migraines which seem to appear "for no reason" after you haven't done anything except stare for hours at a computer or textbook (gee, no clues there as to the cause....) All of this pulled pretty much right from "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body." Wanna know why walking barefoot on gravel works? It gets you out of your head and into your body!!! Want a more relaxing method to get out of your head and into your body? A method that isn't going to produce MORE stress to get rid of stress? "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body." Seriously. Even if you're doing another system, chances are you blew over the foundational relaxation because "you're relaxed enough" and "can focus enough" and now it's time for MCO and chakra meditations and, oh noes, my kundalini awoke! Yeah. "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body."

It's my personal belief what what you wrote about is, well, an implication of the system. I say it's my belief because no one ever told me (with resepect to his system) that it's what it causes. Rather, it's something I've experienced. And maybe it's because I'm wildly off base and aside from reading and practicing Frantzis' materials, I also have read and practiced other materials. In any case, this is how I see it... Yes, you start with dissolving blockages after the fact. You don't really analyze whe you have that crick in your neck. You just dissolve it. Then the next day you dissolve the same crick in your neck. A week later, you dissolve that again. So you think "okay, here's a spot that I should pay attention to when I dissolve." That's level one. Awareness of something after the fact. But your awareness starts to grow. You start to dissolve earlier and earlier in the process. So maybe you don't notice that crick for two or three weeks. Then two or three days. Suddenly, you start noticing it as it happens. And you realize "hey, when I start slumping like this in my chair, it causes this crick in my neck. Hm. Maybe I should...... not slump so much?" Then the tension goes away. And your posture improves. Then as your awareness expands, you start to see what causes tension BEFORE you get into the act. You look at it. You think about it. You project yourself in that situation and going through what you're going to have to go through and you can already feel the tension mounting. And so you go "nuh uh, No way. Not for me. I'll pass." Tension averted. One tradition, Franz Bardon's Initiation Into Hermetics, has you analyze varying situations and place them into the categories of the four elements. It lets you analyze yourself and a situation and see how balanced or unbalanced it is. Which is great. But for me, different situations are going to require a different level or complexity of analysis. Some of them will have intermingling issues (abandonment mixed with personal validation issues mixed with lack of self confidence mixed with the fact that you just hate it when people says "yolo") and some of them will be somewhat straight forward ("ah, this situation is predominated by the fire element. hm.") Frantzis' method (to me) takes the approach of, look, it's going to cause a blockage. It's going to hamper the ability of your energy to flow on one or of several possible levels. If you can release this, great. If you can release it as it's happening to mitigate the problems, better. If you can circumvent the situation in the first place, best. Maybe it comes from too much fire. Maybe it comes from too much water Maybe you just aren't abiding by the principles of "yolo". Maybe... it doesn't much matter? Maybe rather than learning to avoid "bagels" and then doing the process over again to avoid "aggressive people" and then doing the process again to avoid "brainwashing tv programs" you just follow one overarching principle.... "avoid blockages". So you might have a complex situation. Do you analyze complexly, then dissolve complexly? Or do you just dissolve complexly because that's what you have to do anyway, and you can figure out as you go through life and as your awareness expands what intermingly issues are going to cause complex blockages? Or maybe I'm missing something. It might have to do with my overwhelming lack of an in-person master.

I'm a huge fan of William Mistele's perspectives on Bardon's practices. His website is here: http://www.williammistele.com Basically he's coming at it from the perspective of Western society being heavily steeped in Fire, Air, and Earth energies already, with very little respect, acknowledgement, or practical workings of the Water element- feeling, naturalness, emotion, sympathy/empathy, etc. So obviously the steps will seem "mechanical"- the way that they are presented, the way they have been translated, and the way they have been adopted has been done through the lens of Western culture- which is all about logical progression, rational thinking, and connecting separate pieces (various combinations of Air, Fire, and Earth elements). I'd read through his commentaries as well as the archives of some of his past articles. Very interesting stuff.

Haha, it's funny about what people say about the guy. I think he's legit. I think his material is legit. And I don't think he really cares about making an impression, whether "good" or "bad". He just does what he does. He mentioned at an event that he had gotten into several car accidents. A new age-y kinda person was there and said "that would clear a lot of your karma." He said "it would clear karma, yes, but not necessarily yours." He then hinted at the fact that one of the functions of a Taoist priest (which he was initiated into) involves, in some cases, taking on the karma of others in some cases (for instance, healing). That karma would then have to work itself out in some ways and, well, you never know. But then he moved on and I don't know anything more about the topic so I can't say anything further. Since the comment was made publicly and in passing I don't feel too bad about repeating it. Sufficed to say, spirituality and spiritual traditions can be rather complex. I think Frantzis has been around the spiritual block. So if one wishes to complicate the system by mentioning things like balancing karma and all that, rest assured, if Frantzis were in the room with you, I'm sure he would quickly complicate the situation even more than you might be prepared to handle. That, I'd wager, would also be the case if you were talking about human anatomy, human energetics, emotions, mental thoughts, psychic issues, the essence of human beings, or the nature of the Tao, all of which his tradition explores in depth. And that's not to say that he would complicate the situation for the purposes of baffling and confusing you. He'd simply tell it like it is. And the world is complicated. And the spiritual world is complicated. And if you want to hear it told like it is, I think he will tell it to you. And if you misunderstand him, or don't misunderstand him, he's not going to take responsibility for it. That said, he has mentioned in several contexts that he won't reveal stuff until people were ready. Because information in unready hands will be at best useless, and at worse harmful. And he doesn't want to damage his tradition nor does he want to damage people. For instance, in the forward of his new sexual meditation book he writes that he didn't want to publish it until his children were all grown up. He mentions in the Hsing I DVD's that he doesn't teach Hsing I that much because... most people don't want Hsing I, even if they know what it is, they just aren't ready to receive the material. So he's not going to waste it like that. So if people can't understand the complexities and subtleties of a fully realized spiritual system... why even bother? Something he mentions in one of his books is that practices are like a spiral, in the sense that advanced levels of a practice don't cover any "new ground", they cover the same ground, but going deeper. A higher level student, or even a master, isn't necessary going do a practice that's different or better than yours. They are just going to do it in a more experienced, refined way. That's what I found incredibly refreshing, and looking at a book such as, say, "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body" is quite revealing when you look at it with that in mind. At one point in the book he says that experienced practitioners can open the energy gates like you open or close you eyes, and masters can open the energy gates of other people. So for someone like myself, who has worked with those practices for a while, am I anywhere near to being through with that book? Hell no. It takes me quite a bit of "settling" and focus before I can even begin to work practically with an energy gate, let alone open it fully, let alone opening it like an eyelid, let alone messing with gates of another!!! I too am curious to hear, although I'm not courageous enough to hazard a guess as to what the point might be

Get "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body" by B.K. Frantzis. Not only does he provide the theoretical overview of Taoism/meditation, but he gives you a PRACTICAL set of practices that encompass body alignments, posture, breathing, the foundation of energy work, and how those practices tangibly tie into the theory, and how the theory ties into the practices. The alignments and energy foundations taught in that bookk are the very same foundations that you would use before you started any of the internal martial arts (Tai Chi, Bagua, Xingyi, etc), and are in fact great alignments to enhance physical performance in every day life (whether you want to take the stress out of your knees when you jog, are an elderly person looking to get more physical despite your age, or are even a high performance athlete looking for an edge).

Definitely look at that forum. Also don't forget his book which goes into much more detail about dissolving: "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body". I'd suggest you get and read this first and foremost. It outlines the practice and will answer a lot of questions like where to start/stop, and when different start/stop places are most appropriate. In that book he suggests that as you start opening different places, once you have, say, opened your head, the next time you practice you can just dissolve your head very quickly (rather than taking, say, 1+ hour to go through it) and then move on to a new area (and as others mentioned, you can also go to certain places with agendas, but I don't think he talks too much about angendas specifically in "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body"). His other pair of books, "Relaxing Into Your Being" and "The Great Stillness" give more broad overviews about the system as a whole, with "The Great Stillness" introducing the inner dissolving practice. I'm not familiar with the material on "The Tao of Letting Go" CD. But the outer/inner dissolving thing is pretty foundational to understanding his system, and where you are/where you plan to go in that system.

Hey, sorry, if I left you hanging there for a bit. http://williammistele.com/ Well the thing about Frantzis' water tradition is it's not quite... "like that". For instance, in one of his books he mentions that while the Water tradition learns to feel and notice the energies surrounding transformation and manifestation, it doesn't "play with them" in the sense that Fire traditions do. So there are many steps in the IIH that surrounding projecting energies, using energies to impregnate a space or object with a certain intent, manifest certain outcomes (within certain acceptable boundaries) and things like that, which just don't come up in Frantzis' tradition (at least the segment that appears in the books). And to that end, the books are the basics. Like the basics of the basics. He outlines in the books where things like real internal alchemy comes up... and that doesn't happen until you've used outer/inner dissolving to work your way through most of the first energy bodies! He goes a lot more into this outline in his Taoist Sexual Meditation Book. Really, it's a long process. I think in the grand scheme of things, the process of personal development is roughly the same (balancing your energy, clearing your mind, etc) between Bardon and Frantzis (of course with cultural differences adjusted, like the different five elements, different emphasis on what achievements are emphasized, etc) But the IIH has a much wider scope, and Frantzis' books tend to focus on just the foundation stuff, but in a bit more detail (see my previous post in which I mentioned how qigong could be tucked into just the first couple of steps for Bardon, but see how much depth qigong teachers can go into).

If you choose option 2 you can spend your sleepy time mastering dream yoga And with obscene wealth you can make pretty good use out of two hours a day. Though I doubt that obscenely wealthy people adhere to a strict 24 hour day. I didn't even do that in college, between pulling all nighters and crashing and then wanting to go hang out with friends and then go to class and then another all nighter to another crash... But yeah, even assuming a 24 hour cycle I think it'd be doable.

I think the thing to consider (to borrow some lines from various B.K Frantzis material, yeah, I'm a huge fan of his...) is "do what is easy first". In "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body" he mentions that sometimes you're going to run into blockages that are too big to dissolve/release. When that happens, dissolve/release what you can and move on to the next one. Sometimes dissolving something further downstream will help loosen something a bit upstream... and vice versa. In some sense, some blockages are so big and are so deeply rooted, it not only takes an advanced practitioner to handle them, but someone who can feel and practically work with energies beyond just the energetic, emotional, and mental bodies, but into the realms of the psychic or, in really deeply rooted situations, the karmic bodies. Rather than saying "I am attached to my sufferings" it may be more apt to say "I cannot release these blockages as of yet". You may not be in a place where you could remove them... even if you wanted to! It's very easy to identify with things that might define you. I too experienced a lot of trauma, and that has shaped the way I view the world- things like justice, personal responsibility, responsibility to the group, are all things that, in day to day life, I used to "define" myself and to define my stance on the world. While I consider these things "good" in the sense that they help others and help me to act as a contributing member of society, I will be the first to admit that if it were not for these negative experiences in my past, I would not hold these views! So in that sense I am still attached to negative things, at their root, even if they blossom into something that benefits others. So what does that mean? Should I let them go? Probably. Will I let them go any time soon? Probably not. If by letting them go, will I still have the same views of morality? I'm not sure. So I do what I can now. Dissolve what I can. And maybe somewhere down the line, I'll get to a point where I can realistically work on letting things go. Right now if you can't let them go, don't sweat it. If you can use those feelings to draw out something that is productive or beneficial in some way, at least it's not all bad.

B.K. Frantzis actually addressed this in his Hsing I DVD (It's taken me a while to work my way through them since I first got them...) It's in the "Metal" installment. He says that as far as the "middle dantien" goes, the solar plexus has been written about as the "lower middle dantien". I forget the actual Chinese name he uses. Anyway, he says that the energetic qualities of this "lower middle" dantien are more or less the same as what you would find as ascribed to the solar plexus chakra (manipura, he mentions it by name) and has to do with the will. Then he goes on to teach a method of reverse breathing that strengthens the solar plexus (well maybe not "strengthens" but stimulates, stretches, activates, etc), which will increase your willpower, which Hsing I is all about!

This would be my own interpretation based on some of the principles B.K. Frantzis teaches in his books like "Opening the Energy Gates of the Body"... The end result of a meditative position is to give you a position which frees up blockages so that physical, energetic, emotional, etc energies can flow freely so that you can actually, you know, meditate. Many people, due to modern physical nature or injuries, might not be able to get into an "ideal" meditative position. In fact, getting into such a position, or even attempting it, may cause more blockages and get the body to shut down even more! This is the opposite of what you want. Keep in mind the 70% rule. If you're injured or practicing a difficult position, the 50% rule. That means do only 70% of your total capacity. You CAN go more, but you don't (because if you were to "overclock" your system, you'd actually do yourself more harm that good). First and foremost, get into a position that gets comfortable FOR YOU. Work on releasing or dissolving whatever is blocking your system. As you release more and more, you may find that your posture starts to shift. Keep in mind- your posture starts to shift, but you aren't consciously moving your posture! In fact, as you gain greater awareness of your body, you might find that your old patterns of sitting/standing/lying down/walking/other physical activities start to cause blockages you didn't realize, and you'll automatically adjust in a more NATURAL way, a natural way for YOU.