Internal Power Anyone?

Xue Sheng

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Dirty Dog

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Thank you. This does an excellent job of summarizing the entire body of objective evidence to support the claims you've made.
 

Xue Sheng

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The problem with internal power discussions is it becomes much like a CMA lineage battle. But in the case of internal power discussions you get people who are polar opposites attempting to prove each other wrong no matter then approach, reason, cost or point. Some of those discussing it get caught up in the magic, mysticism and Wuxia of it, Verses those that are going to dig in their heals and push back from the scientific side.... polar opposites.

You also have complete misunderstandings as to what internal power is or means that that comes from translation errors, misunderstandings of what is being translated based on a "cultural meaning" of the word. and of course semantics.

This is why I tend to avoid them all together.

Bottom-line, the absolute best description of internal energy I have heard comes from Traditional Chinese Medicine.

If you have strong Qi you are healthy
If you have weak Qi you are sick
If you have no Qi your dead.

As for my personal view, and I do not expect anyone to agree with me, nor am I going to discuss it further in this thread.

Nerves carry electrochemical signals to and from different areas of the nervous system as well as between the nervous system and other tissues and organs,, that to me is, at least in part, what "Qi" is. As for the rest of the whole internal things, it is all about alignment and proper relaxation
 

mograph

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Here's my interpretation, based on my interactions with TCM practitioners and my understanding of the Chinese language and its approach to communication in general:

Qi is seen as a result of processes, or a state. It is an observed state, and its value is relative to a norm.
If someone has a lot of energy, it is said that they have a lot of qi.
If someone is very nervous, it is said that their qi is rough, unstable, that sort of thing.
If an organ is said to be yang, or having yang qi, that means it is overactive. The opposite is true when it is said to have yin qi.
A "normal" or healthy state is a state of balance between yin and yang, or between overactive and underactive. You know, homeostasis.
Qi is not said to be a mechanism of functioning. It is not a cause, it is seen as a result.

Qi is also a description of the "whatever" that drives bodily function. Martially speaking, when someone says that you should use your qi, they mean that you should not use a specific muscle; you should use your body in such a unified sense (aligned, sensitive and relaxed) that it is difficult for you to sense exactly which muscles you are using. (For example, you can say that you don't use your quads or your calves, you use your legs, but extrapolated, whole body usage says you use your body against the earth.) Since your qi is said to drive the function of the body, and you are using the whole body, you are now using whatever drives the whole body.

Can qi be measured? It can be measured to the extent that energy is measured: only in its physical manifestations that can be detected by our instruments: heat, light, circulation, electrical potential, and so on. Energy, strictly speaking, is not measured: it is calculated based on observations of other phenomena to which instruments respond.

In terms of our bodies, I'd say that it's likely that qi is the result or the effect of electrochemical signals moving through the body and affecting its function. Note the distinction: qi is not the electrochemical signals, it is the effect of those signals.

Qi is a construct, an interpretation, a model, based on observations of phenomena.

That's all I got.
 
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Dudi Nisan

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Liu does not explain internal power in terms of qi. And, neither do the ancient manuals. As I mentioned, when it comes to internal power the manuals become very abstract, not going for nature metaphors or qi. They speak of certain (two-men) interactions.

According to Liu internal power is pressure, a pressure which stabilizes our bodies once we fall but stay erect. That's, in a nutshell, all there is to it.

I am working now on explaining his theory and exercises( later on I'll also present ancient manuals' quotations and analyze them). I'll post it soon.

Happy Year of the Rooster
 
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