Best Of

Qi/Chi is part of the "physicalist" world. It's the energy generated by the electrical functions of our body: the circuitry of the brain, the heart's electric ticker, and the functioning of our musculature, which requires electricity to flex and relax. (This is why we need to ingest electrolytes daily.) As electricity generates a field, all these electrical functions of the body generate an external energy field, as well as internal.

The Chinese healing systems have further identified the energy flow through our body as currents that follow set pathways, which the Chinese call "meridians". Introducing pressure on these pathways has an effect on organs and other aspects of physiology, that receive energy via these pathways. Western medicine hasn't gone that far, but it has detailed the mechanisms by which our muscles utilize electricity to function, and also has noted the electrical quality of the skeletal structure. (It's amazing what you can learn in a basic Anatomy and Physiology course!)

According to physicists, our personal energy field is further bolstered by positively-charged particles emanating from the sun, and negatively-charged particles emanating from the Earth's magnetic core. This, too, contributes to our qi/chi. The entire Earth is enveloped by a magnetosphere, that imbues all of life with subtle electro-magnetic energy.

The Chinese have worked out a system by which humans can consciously harness this very subtle energy, and especially skilled practitioners apparently can amplify it. It would be great if this phenomenon could be studied and measured. Actually, that's been done in Poland and Russia, but those findings aren't taken seriously in 'the West", though no one's bothered to actually debunk it, because that would involve taking the claims seriously enough to try to duplicate the findings.

I actually moved my computer down to the basement to do my university study-work. I have to say, the room feels less "heavy" and helps me to disconnect.

The next trick I'm applying is an adaption of what How shared somewhere here in the forum. I will only "be lazy" on my phone the same amount of time I dedicate to my meditation practice. Let the challenge begin!

@Jeroen said:
@federica Older techniques are not necessarily better, otherwise there would be no progress.

I'm not saying they're necessarily better. I'm pointing out that They're still here, even after 4000 years-odd.

I’m not saying Chinese medicine has no merit, but those who were inventing these techniques were not doing so from an evidence-based approach, and so what has developed is a system where people operated more from hope than from proof of function.

you are mistaken if you think that they haven't progressed, or that nothing has changed. Knowledge about anatomy and how the body works, and why, has advanced enormously since Acupuncture was first used, and there is the benefit of up-to-date knowledge, coupled comfortably with a system that works.
I saw with my own eyes, an acupuncturist primarily alleviate, and finally accelerate the recovery of my mother's debilitating shingles attack.
I have had acupuncture myself for severe back problems, which affected my ability to sit and stand. It worked better for me than anything Western medicine could throw at it.
Remember: Western medicine primarily addresses symptoms, with drugs and pharmaceuticals. A good friend I once had, who was HIV positive, took 17 different drugs three times a day. The majority of which were to combat the severe, serious and debilitating side-effects of the remedial drugs he was taking. That's just bloody ridiculous.

I would love to see an objective statistical study of its efficacy.

Help yourself.

What I posted in another thread not so long ago...

I've found when I had trouble falling to sleep it was because I had my laptop and phone in the bedroom with me and would watch something while laying in bed, before trying to go to sleep...

It turns out I had been creating a habit in which the bedroom and lounge were not separate places( in both places I would be stimulating my mind by watching programmes)...

And after reading about the importance of associating the bedroom with sleep only ( a place of rest...a place with no stimulating devices)...I found it easier falling asleep...In other words I trained my mind to associate the bedroom with sleep...

Not saying that this approach with work for everyone who suffers from insomnia...

For those who have difficulty falling asleep...some useful tips from a Buddhist monk...

@Jeroen said:
Watched the video, and while it was interesting i am not that keen on having another set of so-called professionals fiddling with my body.

Wait until something happens to you (heaven forbid), some form of trauma, say, that throws of your nervous system, so that it's in chronic stress mode. At that point, all the Western medical system can offer you is tranquilizers, which are highly addictive (Valium, etc.) Some people are on those their entire lives, due to unresolved childhood PTSD. Would you prefer that remedy, vs. someone spending a session with you, pushing the right buttons, so your system completely normalizes?

It's easy to brush effective but non-mainstream treatments aside, when we're healthy and happy. We can even ignore doctors altogether. But when suddenly you find yourself in serious straits, you may discover, that Western medicine can't help you. That's when you start considering trying alternative methods.

@Kotishka said:
"If you’re not sure, don’t act. Once you act, you wander through birth and death and regret having no refuge. Poverty and hardship are created by false thinking. To understand this mind, you have to act without acting. Only then will you see things from a tathagata’s perspective."

Which reminds me of this quote

"The most essential method which includes all other methods is to behold the Mind...The Mind is the root from which all things grow...If one can understanding the Mind...Everything else is included"
~Bodhidharma~