surfingbudda

What is the Taoist view on alcohol? How does alcohol exactly affect one's chi? Heres an article showing how people with moderate alcohol usage actually live longer and have less disease than people who don't drink. It seems alcohol can have some healthy benefits for example resveratrol in wine and hops in beer both have healing prperties. Heres a few articles on the subject My link My link My link I'm open to all opinions, I just think it may be a bit black and white to label something as either good or bad, it seems certain things in moderation can actually be healthy. I am not an expert on Taoism but it seems like they're view on perfect health is that of balance and moderation. Does anyone on this forum drink alcohol once in while? Or in order for one to ever fully progress in internal alchemy, one must give up all alcohol and other tabooed substances?

Heres a cool explanation Michael blogged about earth chi as seen from the stillness movement perspective: http://qigongamerica.blogspot.com/

Hello everyone I think I have decided to begin BKF's breathing practice. I have his Opening the Energy Gates book which describes his method. I have created this thread for people to discuss this method and help people who are starting out. For people who are already practicing this method, what issues did you encounter when first starting out? What advice or comments would you give to a beginner? Also does Open the Energy Gates describe the same description for his breathing as his other books? Is there a book of his with the best information specifically for his breathing method? Is it worth buying his CD or DVD for breathing practice?

Hi Everyone, I am new to this forum and am sorry if there has been any discussion on this topic already. Anyways, I have recently become very moved by both of these religion/philosophies about life. I am fairly new to both concepts and know that much can be said in terms of my question. I am just a bit confused about the differences between both Taoism and buddhism. Could someone be both a buddhist and a taoist? Also what are the main differences between buddhist qigong and taoist qigong? Thank you, I appreciate all the help and clarifications anyone is willing to give. BTW does Taoism predate buddhism?

worth repeating

Very Cool Seeker! Glad you were able to help that lady as well as your dog, IMO this is true power, the ability to ease/eliminate someone's suffering right when it happens, what could be a better deed. Speaking of easing one's pain, last night I was at a Holiday Party with the family and my Grandma who has arthritis in her right shoulder started feeling a lot of pain there. Right before we started to eat dinner, her shoulder began to act up like it has in the past and give her much pain if she moved it. So I offered my assistance with a short qigong treatment. As soon as I pulled out a big bulk of sick qi, I noticed that her face just relaxed and she let out a big sigh. Halfway through she said she could already tell a difference and after I was done with the session she said that no more pain bothering her. The ability to help in this manner is truly an amazing feeling. Did I completely treat her long term arthritis, probably not, did I give her relief and allow her to enjoy our family dinner without uncomfortable pain, Shoot ya I did! The world needs more people with these kind of skills, if you feel the calling to help people in this way I wouldn't hesitate to seek out a good Medical QIgong Program, whether that means Qigong healing from the Stillness Movement System or some other system depends on what speaks to you. If the interest is there though I say go for it, theres nothing as awesome a feeling as knowing you truly made a difference in another's life.

I think one could talk about the concept of spirit for hundreds of years, coming up with different interesting theories or ways of describing it, yet only ever talking "around" it, never truly saying what it is. Oh wait, this is what most of our human history has been . I think something as infinitely complex, yet so simple as "Spirit" can never truly be described by words alone, it is something best experienced and left up to the individual to determine the meaning behind the word. just my two cents.

Happens to me every time lol

Another interesting Case Study: Recently attempted my first try at a distance healing. Distance treatment is a technique within SM Medical Qigong that Michael teaches as a student reaches appropriate development in their practice. Anyways, I received a call from my Mom about her friend who was going through tremendous pain. She apparently had a lot of hip and lower back pain. She had been on heavy doses of pain meds for over a year trying to ease the issue. However being a nurse, it was against the rules to be using so much pain meds so she was forced to quit. The result was a return of the horrible pain as well as very bad withdrawal symptoms from the sudden lack of medication. So with my work cut out for me, I attempted to give it a try and do my best to help make a difference in her condition. I began the treatment and did it for as long as I felt seemed necessary. From my end of things it was an interesting experience, I truly felt like I connected with her energy while treating her. After the treatment I made a prayer for the will of the Light to be done and hoped it made a difference. BTW I never told her when or if I was going to do a treatment, I just did it. The next morning the email I got was no short of amazing. Heres a quote from what she said," I woke up feeling great. No pain. Not a trace of withdrawal. Unbelievable. "Thank you" doesn't even begin to say what I feel." This shows not only shows the unbelievable efficiency of this type of healing, but how it doesn't matter if the patient knows when it is going on so there is absolutely no placebo effect going on here.

Wow...sounds like this sure was an amazing workshop! Truly wish I could have been there with everyone . I actually tuned into the energetics of the workshop during the weekend and WOW was it powerful. My regular SM qigong practice felt many times more vibrant and all weekend I felt a strong sense of timelessness. In fact during the weekend one night I actually attended a dream SM workshop where Ya Mu actually projected to me and I awoke feeling extra energized...do wonder if the dream attendees I met corresponded to the actual attendees last weekend . Kinda goes to show even if you can't physical make it to a workshop, there no reason you still can show up in spirit

Hi everyone, I will be attending the Finland workshop and am greatly looking forward to it! I will be landing in Helsinki on tuesday morning and plan on exploring helsinki until friday when I will head for Billnas. I am writing to ask if anyone has a similar schedule if they would be interested in rooming together a few days before the workshop in Helsinki?

I'll post a recent healing I did for my dad. A few days ago my father woke up with what he described as a super leg cramp in his right leg with intense soreness going from the knee down. My father had neuropathy affecting this leg a few years ago, however sometimes his leg still acts up. So I projected and pulled energy directly to spots of soreness as well as projected and pulled from the K1 point at the bottom of the foot. Afterwards my dad commented that he felt "something" be displaced or moved during the treatment. The next day my dad's leg greatly improved, and then today (two days after the treatment) my dad says that his leg is just about 100% back to normal.

Living in the states I don't exactly know how it works, but it seems to me that anywhere in Europe is fairly easy access to eachother. Since you live in the UK I would definitely at least look into making the upcoming Finland workshop. The last UK workshop got canceled and who knows when Michael will get a chance to teach in your area again. Since you feel a strong connection to the practice, if I were you I would probably snag the Finland trip while its available even if it costs a bit more travel expense. If you think about, its pretty fortunate someone like Michael is willing to come to out to Europe and teach relatively near you, when Michael was learning he had to travel to China each time he wanted to delve deeper into Stillness Movement. Thats just my two cents. Best of luck -SB

Hey Dreaming Light, Its sounds like Stillness Movement may be the practice for you. Thats awesome to hear that your already receiving so much benefit from the practice! As a practitioner of Stillness Movement myself I'de just like to recommend if you have time trying out Michael's Gift of the Tao 1 DVD, it truly compliments the practice and IMO is one of the most powerful movement systems out there. Also if you can make it, I would definitely look into trying to attend one of Michael's upcoming workshops he's doing. Once you receive the energy projection from Michael tuning you into the lineage, the practice truly takes on a whole new level. I think for this particular type of qigong, the projection is necessary to truly receive the full benefit of the practice. With that said though if all your currently interested in is personal development than one workshop is all you potentially ever have to attend, the projection you'll receive will last the rest of your life assuming you continue with the practice. If your interested in learning to heal others and going through his certificate program is when you will have to attend more to learn the techniques and get the hours for the certificate. In any event it sounds like your doing great and I wish you the best of luck with your practice.

Hi Billb, I'de definitely recommend checking out the first Gift of the Tao DVD. Thats what I did before my first workshop, I got Gift of the Tao one and did my best to learn the moves from the DVD. I simply went through 3 moves a day and after about a week already had them all down for the most part. Even before I attended my first workshop I could feel the strong effects of this movement system. However its a really cool thing to compare and contrast how the moves feel before the workshop to how the feel during and after attending your first workshop, you may be surprised how big of a difference it will be.

Hi Sinansence, I am in a similar situation to you and would be happy to tell you my loose plans for the future. I am currently an undergraduate student studying for a degree in Cognitive Science, which is similar to psychology but more emphasis on studying consciousness, perception and brain functions. I have also attended several of Yamu's Stillness-Movement workshops with the intention of completing his medical qigong certificate program. I know in my heart that I want spend my life helping others and follow the path of the healer. I also know that whatever I choose to do in life, qigong and energy healing will always play a big part in it. So like you, I have asked myself what is the best path to follow to pursue these goals in mind: I have considered Med School, however IMO western medicine is so out of whack at the moment, with doctors proscribing toxic pharmaceuticals, chemotherapy and radiation treatments for cancer...I don't think I could push myself through medical school having to learn so many things I disagree with. However of course western medicine has its uses for example in stabilizing people after carwrecks, heartattacks, strokes, and other emergency situations. Western medicine simply isn't the path for me, though for many it may be the perfect option for others to pursue. I have also considered what Michael has also suggested in the past, getting a massage degree to ensure body touch is legal, allowing one to practice Taoist Medicine and Medical qigong without the legal issues. This would be fine, I could actually achieve this as soon as I graduate from my University as it has a massage program which I am planning on completing. However I feel that, being so young I mine as well get more education, plus I don't know if people would take a 22 year with only a massage degree that seriously So lately I have been seriously considering going to a graduate school in Chinese Medicine, however instead of TCM, I am looking into CCM, Classical Chinese Medicine. I found a school thats focuses on CCM My link, meaning that they try to teach Chinese Medicine as it was taught before the western industrialization of chinese culture and medicine. CCM has more emphasis on energetics, studying the classics, and they even talk about master student lineage transmissions. With this kind of degree I can open up a practice and be free to use the full scope of what Chinese Medicine has to offer: Acupuncture, herbs, medical qigong; but my practice will be heavy on the energetics. This is just as of now my current plan, however I may always change my mind and choose to pursue something different. All I know is that medical qigong will play a role in whatever I choose to do in my life. I hope my thoughts on this have been of use to you. In the end I've found to not try overly hard thinking about the future, just go with what feels right in life and things will work out.

That'd be awesome, would love to go. If its planned for Veternan's day weekend like last time then I can probably make it

I suppose if you define enlightenment as awakening to your higher-level self then enlightenment is just the beginning, not an end. But of course your right in that countless people view enlightenment as the finish line of reality.

My Qigong schedule has definitely been more erratic in the past as well. I used to do random Gift of the Tao's during the day and try to fit my sitting practice in at night, though many times things would come up and I wouldn't always get the chance to do it. I find it best to get the meat of my qigong practice done with in the morning so that I don't have to worry about trying to cram long sessions late at night. After this last workshop I really want to make the effort to truly embrace the system to the best of my ability. BTW, I've also found that after having been doing qigong, I feel more refreshed with less sleep than when before I practiced.

Thanks for the Kind words Sonhoffman . Currently I am doing around 30 minutes of combined Gift of the Tao 1 and 2, along with an hour long Stillness-Movement session in the mornings. Then throughout the day I may add a random run through of Gift of the Tao, or standing stillness to give me a boost. As well as before I go to bed I try to do at least one Gift of the Tao as that makes for much better sleep and dreams.

Hi Everyone, This last weekend I attended Michael Lomax's Stillness-Movement Workshop in Springfield MO. I had a fantastic time, seeing old friends, meeting new ones, and sharing plenty of high level energy over the weekend. I was not planning on posting about this workshop as I have already written about my previous SM workshop experiences on this forum. However I will recap some pretty cool healings I did, as IMO the medical aspect is what it is all about and embodies the true potential of what Stillness-Movement has to offer. With that said though, if anyone is interested or has questions about my experience with this system, please feel free to PM me and I will attempt to answer to the best of my ability. To put things into perspective, this last workshop was exactly the one year mark in practicing the system of SM. So during the workshop Michael chose volunteers to participate in healing demonstrations. Most of the people doing the healings were his senior students demonstrating different techniques of medical qigong. This time however was the first time Michael asked me to do a healing. Nervously walking up to the front of the class, Michael explained how the patient's issue I would be treating would be shoulder and upper back pain with deeply rooted Sick Qi which Michael used the analogy of tentacles clinging onto his body. Michael said this would need some real "Ooomph" or power to uproot the pain, and I was thinking, "all great...exactly how much Ooomph is Michael talking about here". Michael showed me where on the body to apply the Medical Qigong techniques and I went to it to the best of my ability. After a few minutes I felt I was done and the patient replied, "That was great', stating that 100% of his pain was gone. Can't do much better than that. Personally I would have still been impressed with myself if half of his pain was gone because were talking about just a couple minutes of energy manipulation, but to be able to completely eliminately a complex pain like that from someone is a pretty awesome feeling. On the third day dedicated to the Medical aspect of the practice, we utilized different fun techniques including Medical Qigong, including Water Fu which was pretty cool, and of course the Taoist Medicine. That day was filled with fun and amazing healings from people, I will describe one of the ones I did. Utilizing Medical Qigong I was treating an elderly lady for an arthritis pain in her finger, which had a huge lump protruding from it. Compared to the previously mentioned case, this one was pretty easy in removing the pain associated with the finger. After which Michael asked, "Did you try to shrink it". I said no and then went ahead on attempting that. I set my INTENT on shrinking the lump and projected for about 30 seconds. Halfway through I heard her say, "Wow", and after I finished projecting I opened my eyes to see a significantly smaller bulge on her finger. Michael said you could actually see it shrinking in real time. If these kind of results after only 30 seconds aren't amazing, then I don't know what is. Well after the workshop I flew back home to find that my Mom had very badly strained her back the previously day and was in excruciating pain. So much so that she could barely walk or even sit down. I have almost never seen my mom in that kind of pain. So I did some Stillness-Movement and Gift of the Tao to recharge after the plane ride and went right ahead in treating her lower back pain. I pulled out ALOT of sick qi and projected for a good while until I felt I was done. Then my mom got up smiling at me and jumped for joy that her pain was completely gone, not one trace of it left. This was truly a miracle for my mom because she was already planning on having to on making several appointments to see an acupuncturist, massage, and/or a chiropractor to somehow ease the pain, which she said the day before had been a 10/10 on the pain scale. Well today she woke up perfectly normal without any pain. Simply unbelievable results! Well my dad I found out apparently also had some bad neck pain he had been having for about two months and woke up this morning feeling a good amount better, I went ahead and did a small treatment on him and cleared up whatever pain was left. I believe this has to do with the energy cords Michael talks about, which are especially strong between Husband and Wife. I remember a past treatment that I did and treated the husband only to find that the Wife sitting next to him felt a big release of energy on her shoulder and her pain went away. So I think by treating my mom, I was in fact indirectly treating my dad as well. Hope these strories help inspire those who feel the calling of the healer in their heart to take the initiative and pursue that path. Peace, Surfingbudda

I recall reading a book a while back about a medicine man who practiced hummingbird medicine. While practicing Gift of the Tao I have seen countless instances of hummingbirds flying near me and observing me as I practice. I remember one hummingbird fly so close I could hear its wings as it flew past my ear, also another occasion one kept moving in interesting patterns of which I've never seen hummingbirds do before, as if it was dancing in the energy brought in from the practice. Could this technique be achieved simply from utilizing a strong INTENT as well as strong energetics to back it up?

Kempomaster I believe was actually part of a study done by Indiana State University I think, which involved the treatment of tennis athletes using medical qigong, apparently virtually all the subjects were completely healed of their conditions. If someone asked I'm sure Kempomaster would be kind enough to tune in and give more details about it. I do wonder how much impact studies like this will make, it seems like the current medical system is pretty stubborn and set on staying the same, possibly because there is much money in drugs and pharmceuticals, whereas with qigong anyone has the power to learn it for their own health benefit or become healers to treat others. Woops, sorry just now read earlier in this thread and realized Kempomaster already elaborated on his University study.

a new case study to add to the mix: Friend of mine was pretty sick from a cold and feeling miserable. I recalled Michael saying water fu was a good treatments to colds so I decided to give it a try. This was my first time doing water fu, I simply took a cup of purified water and projected energy setting my INTENT on treating the cold and giving the patient what he needed to become healthy again. Well I followed up today two days later and patient replied feeling "a hell of a lot better in the last two days". Patient greatly thanked me for the treatment. Nothing like knowing you truly made a difference for someone. Anyone considering the path of the healer I highly recommend pursuing it, may not be the easiest path but certainly one of the more rewarding. P.S. Water fu seems like a nice method in certain cases for the healer to proscribe a treatment to patient without having to get down and dirty with sick qi. Just let the water do the work...of course with a bit of energetics to help

I strongly recommend Call of the Great Spirit: The Shamanic Life and Teachings of Medicine Grizzly Bear My link The best book on Native American spirituality I have read, it is a personal account of a native american's reconnection to his heritage and finding his path as a medicine man. Personally I stay away from books that offer "step by step" shamanism or spirituality, because to me its not that black an white. I enjoy reading books like this or Mysteries of the Life Force: My Apprenticeship with a Chi Kung Master by Peter meech My link. These books offer the wonder and possibility of whats out there and encourage people to find their own teachers to learn and grow from. Peace, SB