Chi Kung For Magicians Options

Which is the best form or school of Qi Gong, one that works well with a persons development as a magician?

Have been practicing yoga for a while now and its benefits are astounding, wasnt keen on Qi Gong as the slow movements seemed to go against my more firery temperament but after much back and forth regarding the benefits of the two, yoga and qi gong, someone said it... that Qi Gong teaches you how to manipulate energy, yoga dosent, at least not at all in the same way. Sounds glaringly obvious but it swayed my opinion which was one for the marriage of yoga and magick as the perfect matrimony, being able to open physically blocked channels and assume new positions marking the progress of development etc.

Surprised to read just how many variations of Qi Gong there are, some involving elements such as sound into things and so I thought I'd ask and get a better opinion on which form would go well with Magick, am looking into the Alchemy of Baguazhang...

Think this should be in the Eastern section, forum has been sloooooow recently, not even sure if anyone is around (IMG:style_emoticons/default/face08.gif)

Peace
.M.

Mchawi said:

Which is the best form or school of Qi Gong, one that works well with a persons development as a magician?

All and none. Not a mystical answer, just my big disagreement with how Qi Gong is taught.

Enroll in a school, read some books, and they all say, "Do these movements to control the flow of chi". Practice, practice, practice, show that you are dedicated to learning, and in a decade or so you will have a private conversation with the master of the school who will say, "Now you can be taught the inner techniques to control chi".

What a bunch of baloney.

The "inner techniques" are those involving the mind (imagination, will, sensation) along with the movements. Without them Qi-Gong is like a sip of water to a person dying of thirst; yes, over time there is a habitual control of chi established but it is usually very weak. Why aren't they taught at the start? The usual explanation is that the student must be "prepared", the power of chi could be "overwhelming". More baloney. Development of the inner techniques is as slow as the physical and, based on a lot of experiments and developments in the West on moving chi, many of the "overwhelming" problems a student can run into are easily corrected. Also, many of the "inner techniques" in Qi-Gong are less effective than they could be because they are purely based on tradition and the student is warned never to deviate from them so no attempt at improving them has been attempted in thousands of years.

This all assumes that you learn from a school with a lineage from past masters and an actual knowledge of the inner forms; many so-called "schools" today have been started by students who were never taught any of the inner forms.

OK, I'm finished with my rant. My advice: enroll in a school, learn the forms and movements and at the same time study some of the Western methods for moving chi (New Energy Ways and Quantum Touch are the simplest to learn that I know) and then apply them to your Qi-Gong practice. With the combination you'll quickly sense the difference from just doing the forms with concentration. It still requires time, concentration and practice but the results are worth it. Just don't tell your Qi-Gong teacher what you're doing; most get apoplectic at the idea that there are better ways to move chi than what they know.