It was my pleasure to post the article, Kranos, and know that—should I find something equally as fascinating as this Chi-Kung malady—I will gladly share said findings with this community.
As to my theory for this man’s uncommon condition:
The various martial art systems that fall beneath the umbrella term of Chinese martial arts (WuShu) are not altogether unfamiliar to me. In fact, I’ve practiced—though, admittedly, mostly external styles—a small number of the Northern fist styles for three years intermittently (breaks in my routine were necessitated by stifled funds). My exposure to the internal styles, however, is mostly academic; I have very little hands on training, but, in absorbing the lore associated with Bagua, Taji, and XingYi as well as less popular internal systems, I’ve never come across any case of energy cultivation leading to demonic/Djinn possession.
To explain that, to my knowledge, unheard of phenomena in those ranks, I attempted to isolate the variable in this man’s story that distinguished it from any other Chi-Kung training that I’m intellectually comfortable with. I believe that I’ve found that variable in the form of the sifu, specifically: his practice of imbuing a statue with the energies that he previously summoned.
QUOTE
"The significance of the Buddha was to become further exemplified following a visit by the Abbot Shi Yon Xian into our temple, where upon he performed a ceremony which involved the statue of Buddha, he channeled an enormous amount of Chi into the Buddha (at which point many Sifu that were present in the audience reported feeling the powerful energy of the Abbot pass into the Buddha, some even reported seeing bright lights, and indeed this energy was to remain in the despicable idol.”
The goal of Chi-Kung is to manipulate one’s own naturally occurring energies to bring about both storage of personal power and a conscious ability to will it through the proper vessels found throughout the body’s chi networks. It is an arduous process, yes, because most people are not use to handling those energies; but the effects are often beneficial and immediately apparent. In this man’s case, the effects were indeed immediately noticeable but not quite positive. Why? I believe it is because of an improperly trained sifu that passed on his broken system of Chi-Kung to his own pupils.
Never is a student of Chi-Kung instructed to pull in energies foreign to his or her body. Chi is intrinsic; our natural supply is enough to work with. Whatever energies that one absorbs into oneself is, by definition, not Chi. The sifu didn’t seem to grasp that concept though. He even went as far as imbuing an inanimate object with energies that—by logical leap—were probably gained from “summoning” rather than generating. If the summoned energy is not Chi, however, then what is it? Perhaps the sifu had been, for years, inviting intelligent agents into his body and ignorantly passing on the habit of doing so to those receiving his instruction. The “power” that the sifu felt coursing through his veins was probably composed of only a small percentage of his personal power. The entities were responsible for the rest.
In adhering to this Abbot’s practices and techniques, the poor, possessed soul of this man probably unwittingly (like his master before him) brought hostile agents into his own body which led to the events described in his story.
That’s my theory, anyway. I like what you said about the student subconsciously transforming the energies into something rather than what they should be…you’ve made me consider another theory, Kranos.