User:Neale Povey/sandbox

Speculative Research:::::

What is Qi? Western observers trying to get their arms around this term, this concept, this descriptor are frustrated – for the most part – by its slipperiness. The potency of the identity of Qi, i.e. the reality behind the words, is without peer among folks who are searching for deep truth. The book “Qigong Fever” by David Palmer gives an eloquent portrayal of this potency: In the wrapper of Falun Gong and the leadership of Li Hongzi, Qi seriously threatened the monolithic power of the Chinese Communist regime.

This quote from Arthur Rosenfeld – published recently in Huffington Post – speaks for many of the western explorers who are trying to understand Qi.

I have been trying to zero in on a tangible, practical definition of qi, and to express it in scientific terms. This is tough for two reasons: first, since we don't know exactly what it is, designing studies to test for it, ferret it out, or quantify it presents certain problems of investigative design, and second because the concept itself is the product of a characteristically Eastern (and perhaps unique) way of looking at the world, which sees systems rather than components and attempts to cohere rather than dissect the matter and forces in the known world.

Nonetheless, over millennia, beginning deeply into the pre-historic era, the Chinese have been studying Qi using trial and error. Consequently, there is a compendium of well-established characteristics of Qi and the human-manipulative practices known as Qigong.

Qi is the source. Qigong is the working out of effects [principally healing] using Qi. There is also the ‘spontaneous’ Qigong of nature where things [bosons, atoms, dogs, stars, air, etc.] are created. And beyond things, the laws of nature, e.g. forces, electromagnetism, inertia – all these are creations of Qi. My personal judgment is that the purest of human intentions are NOT a product of Qi. § Using revealed precepts from religions and from the physical sciences, a model for Qi can be posited as follows. Please be aware that this model is only a useful construct for working with and understanding Qi, the reality of Qi is just that. It is just thusly so.

We will deal with two domains: Temporal and Empty. With the Planck limits we have a convenient way to see the boundary, viz. Planck time is 10-43 second and Planck distance is 1.6 x 10-35 meter. These are uncontested “facts” in the physical world; there is no time shorter than the unit of Planck time and there is no distance shorter than the Planck distance. This – along with the laws of physics [e.g. conservation, electrodynamics, mathematics, quanta etc.] – define the Temporal Domain.

Outside this is the Empty Domain – so called because it is inaccessible to measurement through Temporal Domain instrumentation. Being empty, though, does not imply that it is free of meaning. Mystics, Shamans, Prophets, Healers, Qigong Practitioners, Energy Workers …the Grand Masters, Saints, and Buddhas of history and the host of emergent pilgrims listen intently to the wisdom flowing from the Domain of Emptiness. Physics, chemistry, time, the majestic world of science is not functional there. Other laws prevail.

As with scientists, the workers in Emptiness develop models to hang their revelations onto: Qigong linage models, Christian wisdom, Buddhist precepts, prayers, mantras, liturgies, sacrifices and on and on. There are commonalities here but we must move on. § Now to Qi. This is not to be put into a basket which holds the familiar – and unfamiliar – of the Temporal Domain: such as “force”, “energy”, “vibration”, “light”, “inertia”, and so on. Nor, is it in the basket of subtle items such as: “love”, “premonition”, “hate”, “evil”, “compassion”, etc. Qi is a true hybrid, functional in the temporal world yet carrying many qualities of emptiness.

Qi is an interfacial phenomenon. From our perspective in the Temporal Domain, it exists at the border of Emptiness and takes on Empty Qualities through a process of evanescence. One can imagine a pan of water on a stove that is being heated. After a bit, steam can be seen above the water – evanescence. The boundary between the water and the air is – interface. The following figure shows this model. § And so, let us move from Physical Chemistry to Chinese metaphysical principles. § There is substantial agreement amongst Qigong patriarchs [past and present] that: In the beginning there was one thing, and from this the two were formed, viz. Yin and Yang. And from these two came the ten-thousand things [Zen aphorism for the totality of beingness]. A pivotal property of Qi is that it responds to INTENTION. Healing is affected in this way, as is the formation of a QI FIELD. Prayer and fasting (Mark 9:29), vigils, Zen Koans, ecstatic practices, chanting and the list goes on. All involve an INTENTION of the supplicant in some way. Neale Povey (talk) 01:42, 2 July 2012 (UTC)