In Working With Energies Options

Our internal energies

Ki
Qi
Odic force
Chakra
Kundalini

watever you call it, it's intertwined into mysticism and life greatly.

so i was wondering

what do you focus on when working with energies?

The feeling of the energy?

The appearance?

Color?

Sound?

Its Existence?

This post has been edited by davisxmonster: Nov 26 2008, 10:42 PM

All or any of these things are alright. It's very difficult to explain the 'energy' feeling or sense, or the organ we use to manipulate it directly. So, instead we do this, at least at first, by proxy with other 'phantom senses'. That is to say, using the sense of touch, sight (as visualization), hearing, etc. Each of the senses, it has seemed to me, corresponds to a different quality or aspect to an energy - that is to say, that the senses will perceive different aspects of energy. For instance, negative (this is relative) energies often 'smell' bad; extremely intense energies often 'sound' like bells, or high pitched ringing; agressive energies 'feel' cold.

When we progress to a point where these proximal phantom versions of our senses are no longer necessary - either because of the initiation or completion of a permanent brain change, or perhaps just experience with various energies - then the understanding of the nature of an energy becomes more instant, bypassing these early necessities. You 'just know' and the presence and manipulation of energy becomes more natural, as a 'sixth' energetic sense and set of limbs becomes available whereas before, in my own opinion, they were simply atrophied from disuse. Legs we never learned to walk with in a sense. Then, energy has a presence in space, or at least a central locus of emanation or associated 'root' in the physical world even if it is more a concept represented by something, some place, or some person. I can't really explain it more than that.

To begin with though, your physical senses, and their phantasmal counterparts, will be the most useful tools for learning about energies and becoming sensitive to and adept with them. So any of these things, as I said, are useful. I would suggest trying each one out, with some energy that is more universally available to understand, such as elemental energies. You can contemplate the qualities of physical fire, and then abstract them to a more broadened sense of their, we might say, philosophical characteristics, such as expansion, breaking things down, releasing the energies latent in things, etc. It helps to learn about the chemical processes that cause fire/heat.

When we begin to comprehend the more subtle nature of an element in this manner, we begin to become associated more closely with the subtle energies that are its foundation, which express it into reality as a process of manifestation. WHen we're working with energy, this is what we're really working with - the 'pre-existent' archetypal forces that become manifest as physical process and things. When you have reached this level of comprehension of a chosen element - I suggest one that you naturally grasp intellectually - then begin to imagine it with all of your senses in that archetypal sense. What does it feel like around you; what does it smell like, sound like, taste like, etc. More than likely one of these things will stand out in your mind, and this is in my opinion the best place to start when accumulating that energy. Accumulation is a foundational process for working with energies - raising energy is a synonymous term, and you may read about them both. Another term is 'calling down' an energy, etc. - all that's important if you want to broaden your intellectual study is to know that Accumulation is what all of these terms represent.

Accumulation according to different senses is going to manifest a little differently. A smell will drown out all other smells and become intense and almost physical. A sound will surround you and seem to be coming from every part of you and your environment. Visually, many things can happen, but at the height you will actually see the element as though it were there in front of you or wherever you are accumulating it - someone watching will probably not see it unless they are trained to do so, of course, although accumulated energy can affect the environment such that it will affect the people in that environment whether they are 'sensitive' to energy or not. That's something you can play with over time to gauge your own progress.

Speaking of, it's important to realize that at first you will use some method to accumulate energy, and it may seem 'really intense', and yet show no sign that you've actually accumulated what appears to you to be a great deal of energy. This is a matter of getting used to the intensities of energy. What I mean is, what you will consider 'instense' when you first begin, is the equivalent of barely a whisper of energy in, say, a couple of years. Many people get confused or sidetracked based on this misconception that just because it is intense to you, it is universally intense. 100% of your capability now is only 1% of your capability later on. But you have to start somewhere. Push yourself with any given energy to the point where you literally cannot accumulate any more. You cannot harm yourself just by doing this, although of course it's important to use some balancing technique afterwards - you can exercise, do the LBRP, the MP ritual, disperse the energy in some manner if you know how, or just experiment to find something that works for you specifically. I find that sitting down to write burns of energies, and what I write tends to reflect the nature of the excess energy itself. It just needs to go somewhere. Doing this, you'll be able to push yourself farther over time, and of course accumulation becomes easier and more efficient. While you may need to spend an hour to really reach your full 'capacity' now, in time you may find you're able to reach your peak in moments, even at an instance, and cause an effect as quickly, though of course this is after a great deal of practice.

Keep in mind, this is a 'use it or lose it' kind of skill. If you do it for a few months and then take a few months off, you'll end up back where you started. As you learn to expand your own energy and accommodate greater 'amounts' of energy, you'll begin to notice changes in your own life, as you become more able to handle the energies moving through your sphere from your job, home, other people, etc., all the myriad 'causes' in life which are in reality energies manifest as these events and the objects that enact them. You will have an effect on the world around you, simply by doing this work. If you stop doing it, then over time your world will 'readjust you' as it were. This is important to know, because while it's perfectly find to dabble out of curiosity, only extended and consistent practice will ultimately yield results. In some respects it's like riding a bike - you'll never really forget the techniques themselves, but while you can bike uphill for a mile after training, take a two year break and you'll end up huffing and puffing your way back to that level when you pick it up again.

Hope that helps!

Peace
V

This post has been edited by Vagrant Dreamer: Nov 27 2008, 09:43 PM

? So whats a good way to train energies?

Middle pillar?

Lbrp?

Chakra meditation?

Btw, remember that "Game" I used to play i mentioned in another thread?

One of my friends, early on, physically altered a material object by surging his energy through it (The hammer went from bronze to a variety of colors)

He still does that Spirit World thing, and he is really talented with energies and can meditate and astral project extremely easily,

but he isnt very wise, or smart at all, so he isnt very good at acually grasping any uses for it, cant do any astral spells that i once could sorta do.

its kinda sad,

but it does to seem to give him unnatural strength

? So whats a good way to train energies?

Middle pillar?

Lbrp?

Chakra meditation?

They are all decent methods. In any of them the end goal, as far as energetic development, is to grasp and control the actual energies themselves, apart of the ritual that is used to enact them towards these ends. However, it is enough, although depending on your individual nature, perhaps less efficient or more efficient, to simply sit and contemplate a concept until you grasp its true nature. Complex concepts will be composed of more than one archetypal energy, so I believe that beginning with primal energies is best. For instance, should you wish to ultimately grasp and utilize the hebrew alphabet - for instance in making pantacles, talismans, etc. - you might begin with aleph (or more appropriately Tau) and spend a few weeks on each letter, until you have grasped the deeper significance which is represented by the physical symbols. The same principle as fire. Use what you know, or experiment and try something different. What's important is that whatever method you use leads to real growth in ability - whether that is represented by your ability to apply that energy to yourself or your world, either way you should be able to see a change; perhaps not immediately at first, of course. Elemental energies are great to begin with because they are very simple, and the kinds of changes that they cause are easily identified and observed. Fire vivifies, water calms, air causes movement, earth causes 'settling', and of course other things depending on where and how they are applied. The point is that in any given case the expected change caused by manipulating the elemental energies present, is not difficult to grasp, whereas the hebrew letters, as another example, can be far more subtle.

Btw, remember that "Game" I used to play i mentioned in another thread?

One of my friends, early on, physically altered a material object by surging his energy through it (The hammer went from bronze to a variety of colors)

I've never seen a hammer made of bronze, as it is not a good metal for the purpose. Maybe it was a real transmutation and he is a savant - or innocent enough that he didn't realize it "couldn't" happen - or maybe it was a trick of the light. Difficult to say, as over half of what we remember in life is not real; an unfortunate side-effect of the function of the brain and how we determine which experiences to preserve 'perfectly' and where to simply fill in the gaps. In my opinion, you should never trust your memory - trust your objective reasoning and observation instead; magic, of course, involves a revision to some basic reasoning principles, but should by no means abandon reason all together.

He still does that Spirit World thing, and he is really talented with energies and can meditate and astral project extremely easily,

but he isnt very wise, or smart at all, so he isnt very good at acually grasping any uses for it, cant do any astral spells that i once could sorta do.

its kinda sad,

but it does to seem to give him unnatural strength

I would say, focus on your own ability, your current capability, and short terms goals that are reasonable and grounded in the knowledge of who and what you are right now. You bring your friend up a lot, and I suppose there's really nothing wrong with it, so don't misunderstand me here, but we are not all the same, and it may be you will never accomplish what your friend has accomplished. Better instead to learn and expand upon your own particular natural strengths, which as surely as you have anything else you must have these as well.

For instance, I have a friend who interprets dreams with a kind of preternatural awareness that transcends basic psychology. Hearing your dreams tells her things about you that I simply would never perceive. This is a natural talent for her, she has no specific training, although it is accompanied by a natural interest, as such talents often are. Despite this particular application of awareness, she is virtually blind to energies as living currents; whereas they are part and parcel to my existence, and have been since I was a child. Wind is not just wind, a tree is not just a tree, a person is not just a person - they are all complex interactions of a myriad of energetic currents constituting the discrete parts that we, physically, can only see as being a single 'thing' or 'concept'. I didn't have to reason it out, that's how I see them. However, that particular strength I apply towards certain acts very easily, whereas other uses elude me or are unreliable. Similarly, my friend can tell you what your dream signifies as far as what you are feeling or going through, but is unable to grasp what it signifies as far as what action you should take - something that is often also included in the content of dreams, although also something beyond my current comprehension and certainly outside my natural strengths.

Begin somewhere, and begin as a beginner. Whatever you could do when you were younger, if you have not done it for some time it is likely not as much use to you now as you might think, except in reflection and as inspiration for where you might go now. Start with an empty cup, and you can be more certain of what is filling it up.

peace
V

well, we both have a very vivid memory of it.

it was a small hammer, it SEEMED bronze, but it could have been something else,

and i have a clear memory of us sitting there, and watching as the random splotches would sloooowly change colors.

the first day they were one color,

then another

then another


Also, i bring him up alot since hes the closest thing to a mystic i have around me, and the only person to compare my progress to. (Wait, this is the second time)


THAT ASIDE

so what you;re saying the most efficient way is to contemplate on it?

so what you;re saying the most efficient way is to contemplate on it?

No, I'm saying the most efficient way is to experiment, find your own personal strengths, and play to them when developing a sensitivity to and ability to manipulate energy. We're all different, in the sense that our brains are all wired a little differently, so when starting out, we have to understand how our brains are used to solving problems and dealing with information, and use that nature tendancy to our advantage. If you don't know what that is, then give it some thought, consider how you think about things, how you solve problems, what senses you recall most vividly and accurately.

As to the other stuff... *sigh*... there's a million dollars supposedly waiting for your friend if he can repeat that phenomenon, at least according to the randy foundation, or some such. I'm not passing judgment one way or another, but it has no bearing here, or on your own progress. You can't compare your progress to that of another person, unless they can consistently recreate the same observable phenomenon, and instruct you in the specific method necessary to do the same. Ignore those past feats of mystical prowess, they will do you harm in the long run when you are frustrated at not being able to do the same thing.

Even when you do manage to pull off something 'miraculous' once, it will more than likely be an accident, and you will find yourself unable to consistently, at least immediately, repeat the same thing. That's just how it is, it's like when you catch that baseball without looking, like a jedi or something, but then can't do it again. You could try to have a friend through baseball at your head until you get it again consistently, but on the way to that point you will more than likely just get a concussion - more than one if you try a series of times - and end up taking far longer than if you were to just develop your hand-eye coordination, reflexes, awareness, and reaction time seperately, unrelated to that particular skill. It's your body/mind learning a new skill by fluke accident, and if you get caught up on trying to master it right then and there, or even worse, before you've even gotten to that point, then you'll never get anywhere. You want to work with energy? Begin at the beginning, and ignore the possibility that you may one day develop anything like that. You will save yourself years of work. When we free our minds, and allow our potential to develop organically on it's own, without our influencing "I want to get to this point" or "I want to do what so-and-so can do" or "I need some proof this is working" when we've only been at it for a month, otherwise the growth is stunted and what would have been a years worth of work becomes five. What was five becomes twenty. Just stop thinking about it, and focus on practice. Do it diligently every day, half an hour at first, work yourself up to more time at your own pace, and do it simply to do it. Do it for no other reason than it is good for your mind. Do it because you enjoy the work itself, not to get anything out of it. This is how you succeed in a job, this is how you succeed raising children, this is how you succeed at anything. Do it because it's your passion. If it is not your passion, do something else.

peace
V

This post has been edited by Vagrant Dreamer: Nov 28 2008, 03:57 AM

I was wondering what the most ideal energy flow in the body would be.

Would it be better to have free flowing qi?

I always hear about opening up your qi paths, but something about your life energy venting away just seems a bit off.

I was wondering what the most ideal energy flow in the body would be.

Would it be better to have free flowing qi?

I always hear about opening up your qi paths, but something about your life energy venting away just seems a bit off.

Chi flowing freely means two things. That the energy pathways inside your body and around your body are ublocked, allowing your chi to reach every part of your being, and also that the flow of chi out of you and into the world around you - and conversely tht the chi flowing from the world around your into your body - is also cleared. Your chi 'vents our' every time you breath out, and flows into you every time you breath in. It also flows into and out of various accupuncture points, your chakras (chi and prana are essentially the same thing), in an exchange with the universe that keeps you both alive, and inspired to grow and develope as a being.

peace

Chi flowing freely means two things. That the energy pathways inside your body and around your body are ublocked, allowing your chi to reach every part of your being, and also that the flow of chi out of you and into the world around you - and conversely tht the chi flowing from the world around your into your body - is also cleared. Your chi 'vents our' every time you breath out, and flows into you every time you breath in. It also flows into and out of various accupuncture points, your chakras (chi and prana are essentially the same thing), in an exchange with the universe that keeps you both alive, and inspired to grow and develope as a being.

peace

thx

i also heard that most qigong practitioners store their qi at the base of their spine for future use.

if this what u say is true, is there any point to this?

If you use the model which teaches that metaphysical energy originates from The Dynamo deep within (and then subsequently refracts according to different vibrational frequencies via energy centers) - then one need not ever store energy.

According to that model, lack of energy (and/or problems with various qualities of energy from any of the energy centers) all is an issue of blockages which must be removed.

This post has been edited by Praxis: Dec 16 2008, 07:44 PM

Yes qigong adepts store energy, but not normally at the base of the spine. The most common method is to store it in the lower dan dian, the area about 2 inches below/inferior to your navel. It is also common to store energy in the bone marrow, fascia. etc. I wouldn't concern yourself about that yet. Focus on sensing the energy so that you know that it isn't your imagination, and get comfortable with the idea. Then try to learn how to circulate your energy. By circulating the energy it helps clear out blockages, strengthens your energy and gradually improves the quality of your energy. Personally I began by doing the microcosmic orbit, but the Middle Pillar or whatever method you use is fine.

Understand that energy follows intent. If you focus on your hand and put your awareness on, say, your right hand, your energy will become concentrated in your right hand. You might sense the increased concentration of energy in your right hand. Initially you use your imagination or visualization to move the energy. You can put your awareness into a body part, but you have to use visualization or imagine it in order to get it to move. Typically we use our breath as a focal aid. That is essentially why there is so much emphasis on the breath in yoga and qigong.

thank you for your advice.

btw what is the microcosmic orbit?

I checked wiki and it says its a taoist meditation. so what exactly are the details?

I second what Goibniu said about the breath. It's a skill I'm still working on, but sitting quietly and taking deep breaths, then focusing on feeling your energy circulate as you breathe is a good place to start. Making psi balls too - that's actually what I first started with. I did a chakra clearing technique yesterday, which involves simply placing your palm about four inches away from the chakra, and turning it counter-clockwise for a few minutes to clear out energy blocks, and then clockwise for a few minutes too (clockwise as if the clock is lying on your chakra, facing your palm). After a few minutes of this I could feel the energy tingling. There was also a different sensation in each of the chakras. When I did the root chakra, I felt a definite sexual energy, whereas the second chakra was more of a glowing feeling of warmness, quite euphoric actually. The solar plexus chakra was just warm, the skin of that area actually got hotter than the surrounding areas. Unfortunately, my hands and arms were tired when I came to the heart chakra, as I had spent about 20 minutes just making the circling motion, so I did it somewhat halfheartedly and then stopped. But I believe its a really good exercise, and that with time and practice, I will get better at feeling the energies of the chakras.

I'm not sure how one goes about getting better at sensing external energies, such as the energy of a plant or person, but I think maybe once you get better at sensing your itnernal energies and manipulating them, you get a stepping stone to working with other energies. So I'd recommend the psiball approach to start, its fun too! I usually imagine drawing energy in with every in-breath, and feel the flow of it down to my palms, and then as I breathe out I push my energy outwards into the psiball.

To develop your energy sensing abilities, just quieten your mind and listen or feel. That is what they mean by working with awareness. This is only what works best for me, you understand, but I do meditation. Meditation is simply focusing on one thing for a sustained period. By maintaining this sustained focus, your mind quietens down. Typically our minds are full of constant chatter. The Chinese refer to this as 'Monkey Mind'. I've talked about this before in this forum. Your thoughts leap from subject to subject like a monkey leaping from branch to branch. Sustained focus on one thing (meditation) acts as a brake on this chatter, slowing it down and eventually allowing you to have a quiet mind. Once you can keep your mind quiet--and this usually take months or years of practice to do consistently-- you will be able to listen and perceive energy clearly. This is only one of the goals and uses of meditation, but it is the one that applies here.

I describe the microcosmic orbit in detail on a thread in the lessons section titled something like "Education of an energy work healer". The microcosmic orbit is a modern name given to it by a fellow called Mantak Chia, but the technique itself is quite old. I'm not sure that it is specifically Taoist, but certainly some Taoists use it.