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.

Perhaps I have been lucky but I've never had the experience of a teacher holding back 'inner techniques.' Most often you learn Qigong in Taiji classes. You might also learn it in other martial arts classes, but a class focused only on Qigong is harder to find. When I began learning Qigong back in the '80s it was horribly hard to find out any information. The only books I found were in China and they weren't especially good by today's standards. Now in my city, we have probably five good Taiji teachers who can teach Qigong well. There are a couple of Kungfu teachers who can teach martial arts Qigong, and one Bagua teacher who I assume is competent, although I haven't had a chance to check him out yet. In about the 90s, books came out by authors such as Mantak Chia, Yang Jwing-Yin, etc. They began to come out with some videos, but as it is today they are a mixed bag of useful and schlock. Now they have a fair amount of exercises demonstrated on You Tube. Some are good and some are bad, but they have the value of being free. Books are useful but seeing the exercises done and seen from different angles adds another dimension for practitioners. It doesn't entirely replace having an actual teacher, but can be a valuable addition. Mantak Chia's books tend to be a bit dumbed down or oversimplified, but this is perhaps necessary with beginners. Most of his books cover the microcosmic orbit, a favourite basic exercise. I also like Bruce Kumar Frantzis and his books.

I teach Qigong classes and I usually have people feeling their energy and being able to circulate their energy in the microcosmic orbit within four months on the average. Once you can do the microcosmic orbit then you will be able to experiment and move your energy in other patterns and other parts of your body--or outside of your body. The microcosmic orbit teaches you a lot about moving energy around. It acts as a 'seed exercise' as well. You learn to do it and other exercises and practices grow out of it and can be combined with it. I see moving energy as being easy. My old teacher used to say "Energy follows intent." By that he meant that if you focus your mind on anything-- for instance your right hand-- your Qi will naturally follow your focus. If you can feel it you will notice that much of your energy begins to flow into your right hand. If you focus on your left foot then your energy will begin to flow into and flood your left foot. Whether you can feel it or not that is what is happening.

There are exercises specifically to develop sensitivity, but generally speaking as your energy becomes stronger and healthier you become more sensitive to energy. Being able to sense energy is useful in many ways if only in building your confidence that you are actually doing something valid rather than just waving your arms and legs around. I generally give people about 15 exercises and tell them to choose the ones they like the most and practice them regularly. I try to give them a variety of different exercises to choose from. They are more likely to do it regularly if they enjoy it. At the beginner level it is like any physical exercise or like joining the gym. It takes a few months of regular work to get into condition and to build up your strength.