From: jhc@iris.uucp (James H. Coombs)
Subject: Re: C'hi Kung Training
Reply-To: jhc@iris.UUCP (James H. Coombs)
Organization: IRIS - Brown University
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 06:21:07 GMT

In article <EeQlA1W00iU4Q5CVwe@andrew.cmu.edu> Stephen Chan <sc1u+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>acharya@HYDRA.ROSE-HULMAN.EDU writes:

>> why is c'hi kung training, if donr incorrectly, so dangerous? is it the
>> physical aspect (for example, lifting a heavy weight with little or
>> no training can give you a hernia/burst a blood vessel in the brain) 
>> or is it the mental aspect.

>	What if you screwed up your circadian rhythm, and couldn't
>sleep at night? Your health would immediate begin to deteriorate.

My instructor informs me that T'ai Chi reduces the need for sleep.
After a three-hour class (ending at 10 p.m.), I frequently cannot sleep
until the middle of the night.  During class or practice, after
exercises or forms, I cannot talk:  my brain finishes talking before my
mouth gets started.  I cannot describe the feeling that I have after
working out; the closest that I can come is "spaced out."

I said "T'ai Chi."  We start with about an hour of exercises, all
involving deep breathing---like a bellows.  Then we stretch for about
one-half hour.  Then we do Chi Kung exercises---never timed it, perhaps
one-half hour; or we walk and spin; or we do Pa Kua exercises.  Then we
practice T'ai Chi forms or Pa Kua for an hour.  Deep breathing is part
of everything; even while stretching I breathe deeply and regularly.

I confess to just resuming after about one and one-half years of
couching.  I have been back for about two months.  Oh, yes, I guess I
have about six years of T'ai Chi and three years with this instructor.
I frequently feel starved for air now.  Some part of me has been
re-activated, but my lung capacity or the depth of my "normal"
breathing has not been fully restored yet.  Of course, when I deepen my
breathing so that I feel satisfied, my brain starts going with it.

All of this can be very threatening to the ego.  The I wants to be in
control, but starts...what...evaporating, something like that.  It can
reassert itself quite strongly.  After years of practice, I am not that
afraid anymore, although I do feel some concern that it dulls my edge
for competing in the everyday world.  Perhaps that is one reason for my
having taken two extended breaks over the last five years, both
dominated by work.

>> is c'hi kung training breathing only, or are physical movements/techniques
>> associated with it?

>	Both, as well as visualization exercises. The "harder" and
>more strenuous the qi gong, the greater the possibility of damage.

Our Chi Kung exercises all involve movement, at least the ones that I
know.

>	I guess the qi gong seminars were very, very popular and
>had the character of American Bible Belt revivals - all that
>charismatic Christian stuff: people going into ecstasies, being healed
>miraculously, speaking in tongues, etc...
>	The government got sort of alarmed at the influence these qi
>gong masters were gaining, and decided to ban the practice of qi gong.

Chi Kung can be powerful stuff.  So can sitting meditation.  Some
people can't handle anything but the view of reality that they have
been taught all of their lives.  Some people apparently can't handle
even that one view, or perhaps they see more and cannot reconcile
things.

"The government" is generally run by people who value little other than
power.  What can we say about political motivations for warning people
about Chi Kung?  Perhaps they have foundation in nothing more than
concerns about large gatherings.  In any case, they seem motivated by
the desire to maintain a particular order, and that order includes a
view of reality and proper human behavior.  The chaos of ecstasies
threatens that order, whatever their origin, threatens that order.  Chi
Kung and all of the Taoist arts force one to open up to many
possibilities, not just the order of the day.

People have warned that Chi Kung can make one psychotic, but they never
say what it means to be psychotic.  It's an easy term to throw around.
Well, let's just take some dictionary off the shelf: psychosis is

	any mental disorder in which the personality is very seriously
	disorganized: psychosis may be functional, as in schizophrenia,
	or organic, as in paresis.

Well, I'm so pleased to see here the word "disorganized."  Of course,
now I wonder about people saying things like "mildly psychotic," which
gives us a personality that is mildly seriously disorganized.  But, to
be generous, let's say that psychosis involves a disorganization of the
personality, whatever that is.  Perhaps it means that a person is more
than normally confused.  Perhaps it just means that a person is in the
state of entertaining multiple possibilities and has not rigidly clung
to the order of the day.  Well, let's be honest, someone is psychotic
only if he/she turns himself in or gets turned in to a psychiatrist who
finds that label the most useful to suit present purposes.  In short,
what is more political than the label "psychotic"?  I know that I don't
want to be the "raving lunatic" on the street, but I am not so sure
that I can fairly judge that lunacy: I can only judge its affect on me
and acknowledge my preference for its absence.

Ok, so if one doesn't want to be a raving lunatic and if one believes
that Chi Kung will turn one into a raving lunatic, then Chi Kung is
dangerous to that one.  But what IS the relationship between Chi Kung
and difficulty in functioning in the daily world?  I believe that the
relationship depends on the individual.  I believe that the practice of
Chi Kung could throw some people "out of order."  I also believe that
it could throw some people back "into order."  I know that I feel more
settled and at peace when I practice.

I acknowledge that I practice a variety of related arts.  My knowledge
and practice of Chi Kung is extremely limited.  I write this posting
only because I have felt enough to have a sense of what might have
people concerned.

>	I talked with a local guy who teaches qi gong, shiatsu and all
>that stuff. He tells me that the only qi gong systems which are
>dangerous are the ones with rapid, forced breathing.

I do not find this practice threatening, although one does have to
build up to it.  At the moment, I have the capacity to draw enough air
in exercise to make me feel concerned.  As in most practices, one has
to monitor the system and not push too hard.  Of course, the risk of
not pushing is that one establishes fear-based boundaries.  Over time,
however, these can be broken.

--Jim