Article:What is Chi?

Article: What is Chi (or prana)?
I have been doing Qigong daily for around 4 months and what I notice is that this exercise has the affect to activate the chi energy in one’s body and get it flowing. Also I see that the longer I do this, the more aware I am of certain areas in my body where there are energy blockages where the chi doesn’t easily flow through. I have noticed that these areas of my body are ones that I’m holding and protecting in some way, and this old habit is causing side-affects and problems in other areas of my body. So my toe might have a problem, then my gait gets lopsided, then my hips, then my shoulder, etc. Looking at areas that are blocked in my body, I see that I am the one holding the blockage and what I have done is adopted an unconscious way to protect myself from further harm, by protecting this area (no chi flows if one is holding) coming out of a past injury - either physical or emotional. I heard a good analogy of chi, that it is like a river of energy, which is flowing on top of the source deep inside, yet is visible via ones senses just underneath the surface of the body. Also what should be known about it, is that one can train oneself to feel this chi flowing through one’s body, through practices of yoga, taichi, qigong, power of now, etc. It’s hard to describe but to say it as simple as possible it feels like vibrational energy inside oneself, and a sound might be heard when the chi is activated strongly. Because the chi is the reflection of one’s energetic self, it is manifest and it’s directly accessible. I think most healing modalities at the root are working with activating the chi energy in various ways throughout the body. We know there are many energy points in the body and the main difference I see between these different energetic healing modalities is the way that they access and try to activate the chi. There are various modalities including: acupuncture, reflexology, reiki, chakra meditation, light/color visualization, EFT, magnet therapy, energy frequency treatments, etc. What I have noticed about the practice of Qigong is that it very much activates the chi energy and gets it flowing like a river. This wasn’t like this when I first started, but after many months of practice it now works instantly. Now I realize that once I activate the chi strongly, it is not so hard to take the next step to direct it with my mind to certain areas of my body via visualization that need it. I know this works, because when I do this then muscle tension that I’m holding just dissolves ‘slowly’ and there are creak noises in my muscles, bones and joints where I’m directing the energy. I am not moving my body, yet it is just like one is receiving a massage of the area where someone was working on a muscle knot and you hear the snaps or tendons, etc. Another thing I try to do after my Qigong session is try to stay conscious of the activated chi as long as possible afterwards. This actually can be done all day long, by keeping a finger on feeling the river of energetic frequency which is moving inside one’s body. It takes a lot of awareness to do this, but it’s a good practice. Now to Reiki… I had my first session a few weeks ago by a visitor who was here named: Gloria. The session was about an hour long. First she meditated, then she kneeled at my side and as I could see it she would put one hand on one part of my body, then another hand on another part (connecting various energy points), and then breath deeply becoming a channel for the energy from the outside to inside of me, ideally without thinking. So to be a good Reiki healer I think one must be able to be conscious enough to be able to ‘at demand’ activate one’s own chi flow. When the Reiki was done what I noticed is that I was not tired at all. I couldn’t sleep all night long. I was full of energy and buzzing strongly inside. To me the effect of the treatment was activating the chi energy much stronger than I could have done on my own with Qigong. But it’s hard to tell exactly how the energy is being channeled. In summation I see that a treatment can boost the chi activation greatly. I think it should be seen clearly that as we are the one’s holding the energy blockages, no amount of treatments of this nature will ever result in a ‘complete’ healing. The most it can do is boost our energy level and increase our awareness so we can then use this boost to complete the transformation of our personality. The last thing I want to add is that I have a belief (oh no…), which is that I’m pretty much convinced that if one were a totally awakened human being, then the chi energy would be fully activated all the time. Because one would have no unconscious background, then one’s energy also would be freed in a significant way, and one could easily direct it at will in one’s body and clear up whatever would be needed. So in essence I feel that we could instantly heal ourselves if we could wake up, but also the reality is that we probably won’t be able to wake up except by going through this long, difficult and challenging healing process. Betsy
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Article: What is Chi (or prana)?

I have been doing Qigong daily for around 4 months and what I notice is that this exercise has the affect to activate the chi energy in one’s body and get it flowing. Also I see that the longer I do this, the more aware I am of certain areas in my body where there are energy blockages where the chi doesn’t easily flow through. I have noticed that these areas of my body are ones that I’m holding and protecting in some way, and this old habit is causing side-affects and problems in other areas of my body. So my toe might have a problem, then my gait gets lopsided, then my hips, then my shoulder, etc. Looking at areas that are blocked in my body, I see that I am the one holding the blockage and what I have done is adopted an unconscious way to protect myself from further harm, by protecting this area (no chi flows if one is holding) coming out of a past injury - either physical or emotional.

I heard a good analogy of chi, that it is like a river of energy, which is flowing on top of the source deep inside, yet is visible via ones senses just underneath the surface of the body. Also what should be known about it, is that one can train oneself to feel this chi flowing through one’s body, through practices of yoga, taichi, qigong, power of now, etc. It’s hard to describe but to say it as simple as possible it feels like vibrational energy inside oneself, and a sound might be heard when the chi is activated strongly. Because the chi is the reflection of one’s energetic self, it is manifest and it’s directly accessible.

I think most healing modalities at the root are working with activating the chi energy in various ways throughout the body. We know there are many energy points in the body and the main difference I see between these different energetic healing modalities is the way that they access and try to activate the chi. There are various modalities including: acupuncture, reflexology, reiki, chakra meditation, light/color visualization, EFT, magnet therapy, energy frequency treatments, etc.

What I have noticed about the practice of Qigong is that it very much activates the chi energy and gets it flowing like a river. This wasn’t like this when I first started, but after many months of practice it now works instantly. Now I realize that once I activate the chi strongly, it is not so hard to take the next step to direct it with my mind to certain areas of my body via visualization that need it. I know this works, because when I do this then muscle tension that I’m holding just dissolves ‘slowly’ and there are creak noises in my muscles, bones and joints where I’m directing the energy. I am not moving my body, yet it is just like one is receiving a massage of the area where someone was working on a muscle knot and you hear the snaps or tendons, etc. Another thing I try to do after my Qigong session is try to stay conscious of the activated chi as long as possible afterwards. This actually can be done all day long, by keeping a finger on feeling the river of energetic frequency which is moving inside one’s body. It takes a lot of awareness to do this, but it’s a good practice.

Now to Reiki… I had my first session a few weeks ago by a visitor who was here named: Gloria. The session was about an hour long. First she meditated, then she kneeled at my side and as I could see it she would put one hand on one part of my body, then another hand on another part (connecting various energy points), and then breath deeply becoming a channel for the energy from the outside to inside of me, ideally without thinking. So to be a good Reiki healer I think one must be able to be conscious enough to be able to ‘at demand’ activate one’s own chi flow. When the Reiki was done what I noticed is that I was not tired at all. I couldn’t sleep all night long. I was full of energy and buzzing strongly inside. To me the effect of the treatment was activating the chi energy much stronger than I could have done on my own with Qigong. But it’s hard to tell exactly how the energy is being channeled. In summation I see that a treatment can boost the chi activation greatly. I think it should be seen clearly that as we are the one’s holding the energy blockages, no amount of treatments of this nature will ever result in a ‘complete’ healing. The most it can do is boost our energy level and increase our awareness so we can then use this boost to complete the transformation of our personality.

The last thing I want to add is that I have a belief (oh no…), which is that I’m pretty much convinced that if one were a totally awakened human being, then the chi energy would be fully activated all the time. Because one would have no unconscious background, then one’s energy also would be freed in a significant way, and one could easily direct it at will in one’s body and clear up whatever would be needed. So in essence I feel that we could instantly heal ourselves if we could wake up, but also the reality is that we probably won’t be able to wake up except by going through this long, difficult and challenging healing process.

Betsy