Books

There’s a new video on You-Tube which shows the exam for a 3rd-level Nei-kung by the first westerner student of John Chang, the Magus of Java, who is teaching the Mo Pai school of kung-fu. To pass 3rd level a student must demonstrate certain telekinetic abilities by using his yin chi.

You can read more about Nei-Kung, John Chang, his amazing abilities and his school in the book The Magus of Java: Teachings of an Authentic Taoist Immortal by Kosta Danaos, another student of his. I’ve read it and highly recommend getting it, if you’d like to read first hand account with this rare man.

The description to the following video on Youtube.com site tells the following:

It was just last year I found this person. He is the first Westerner to ever be admitted into the ancient school of Mo Pai. About four or five other Westerners have become students, but all have failed for one reason or another. There has never been another Westerner to have ever reached the 3rd level.

This person is currently in training to go on to the 4th level of nei-kung which is different from chi gong, despite what other alleged, pseudo authorities say.

The short segment is his testing for the 3rd level when he passed in 2000.

Notice that the boxes are against a wall, and they fall forward and not backward as if there was something blowing them backward from the front. There are two methods of either pulling them forward or pushing them backward. The distance between his hand and the boxes is over 9 feet; a tape measure is seen on the floor.

As you can see in the video, along with the Wester student is the world famous master/teacher, John Chang and his son.

I think the video speaks for itself, although the quality is quite poor, since for some reason the put the camera against a bright window, which washed out much of the detail. What do you think of this video?

One of the most known concepts of Taoism and of Chinese medicine and of martial arts is the concept of Qi, also spelled as Chi. I suppose most of the people reading this blog are familiar with this concept. If not, simply speaking Qi is the chinese concept of the life-force energy that penetrates living and non-living things in the world. Of course, this is over simplified as there’s yin chi and yang chi and I’m not that knowledgeable in these concepts myself.

Anyway, another concept, known almost as well, is the Dantien (or Tan t’ien or Dantian). Dantien refers to the point in the body, which is considered to be the center of gravity if the body, but more importantly, it is considered to be the storage point for the Qi energy in the body. In my Qigong Yiquan lessons we’re often referring to this point as to where the Qi energy flows, so to speak. The Dantien is located in the abdomen three finger widths below and two finger widths behind the navel.

Several months ago one of my Yiquan co-students was in Hong Kong and visited the learning group of master of my our teacher, who is around 70 years old now. He observed the lessons and at some point the master called him and demonstrated him some of his abilities. One thing I remember that he told was that the master asked him to put fist on master’s abdomen. The student told that he could feel something like a ball inside the belly which the master was moving around, moving the fist of the student with it. He was really amazed by this feeling but I couldn’t grasp why it was so special. My teacher also referred to this ability of his master.

Yesterday I continued to read the book The Magus of Java by Kosta Danaos and I’ve read the chapter called “Yin and Yang”. In this chapter, Sifu John Chang explained to Kosta and some other students the concepts of Yin Chi and Yang Chi. He also explained about the four first levels of the Neikung training that he teaches. One of the descriptions in the chapter struck me because of what I’ve been told above. Here Kosta described the ability of one o his friends who was a Korean Master and a practitioner of neikung.

This man had a “ball” in his belly at the dantien point, a solid mass that he moved around at will. Manipulating the ball, as John had indicated, this man could pass ch’i energy into his arms and legs. One physician, upon examining him, had thought my friend had cancer when he felt the huge lump; the doctor had gone through the roof when my friend had caused the ball to dance around… “This man is at least Level Three.”

John Chang then explained that the ball is a solid lump of hardened yang qi he can tap into and use, at will.

I think I need to show this page to my teacher and ask him what his thoughts of this are. But I was totally shocked, since now I could connect this description in the book to something I’ve heard at my Yiquan training. Very interesting.

Today I present another article by drew hempel who often published here several other articles on the subjects of qigong, music and healing.

How Qigong or Taoist Yoga Explains Gurdjieff

by drew hempel, MA

(anti-copyright, free distribution).

THE FOUNDATION OF THE LAW OF THREE

"'Before examining these influences,' began G., 'and the laws of transformation of Unity in Plurality, we must examine the fundamental law that creates all phenomena in all the diversity or unity of all universes.'" -- In Search of the Miraculous (p. 78, emphasis in original, and source for below Gurdjieff quotes).

I continue to see a lot of serious confusion about the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff, a very influential source for people exploring paranormal healing powers.  First of all there was Gurdjieff's focus on the truth of his teaching, not on the kundalini energy effects.  This is one reason people reject Gurdjieff.  For example a famous person, Katherine Mansfield, came to Gurdjieff shortly before her death from tuberculosis.  Some people think that Gurdjieff just accelerated her death because he focused on the truth instead of on healing.   Secondly there's the problem of Gurdjieff's lineage.  Some state Gurdjieff was a Sufi but since he didn't have a particular Sufi master he's not credible.  Gurdjieff does name a very important Sufi teacher who doles out amazing secrets in Gurdjieff's excellent book Meetings with Remarkable Men. 

Most importantly Gurdjieff didn't pass on and develop his powers in someone else -- i.e. create another energy master.  Gurdjieff doesn't have a replacement yet many people think that Ouspensky was necessary to help Gurdjieff or that Bennett or Orage or others can better continue Gurdjieff's teachings.  For example, because of this conflict, the famous NYC literary critic Edmund Wilson made fun of Gurdjieff based on Orage's attempts to teach Gurdjieff.  The best book on Gurdjieff's teachings, In Search of the Miraculous, is only hindered by Ouspensky's extended yet confused commentaries while Gurdjieff's longest book was the cause for Gurdjieff considering suicide.  Beelzebub's Tales is not a reliable source since his publishers forced Gurdjieff to change the meaning of his teaching, as Bennett reports.

What is clear is that Gurdjieff's teaching is based on harmonics or what some term "psychic music," the central secret of my 2001 U of MN masters thesis, linked at http://nonduality.com/hempel.htm and focus of my subsequent research, including my previous articles here.  I discovered that the Pythagorean Perfect 5th or 2:3 music interval, C to G, and the Perfect 4th or 3:4, G to C, are the same as yang and yin in Taoism.  Gurdjieff also relies on the Pythagorean teachings based on harmonics or what Gurdjieff called the Law of Three, the fundamental law.   (as quoted above)

Western science converted complimentary opposites, yin and yang, or the Pythagorean Tetrad of 1:2:3:4, into a symmetrical system through the same diatonic scale that Gurdjieff presents in his teaching, thereby forever confusing the West's understanding of Gurdjieff.  

For example the major third diatonic music interval of Gurdjieff, 4:5, was converted into 5:4 as the cube root of two while the Pythagorean diatonic minor sixth, 5:8, was converted into 8:5 as the Golden Ratio.  In fact the extension of the Tetrad, 1:2:3:4 (Perfect 5th/Perfect 4th complimentary opposite harmonics as the Law of Pythagoras) into symmetric-based ratios (i.e. Gurdjieff's 4:5 into 5:4 as the cube root of two) was the product not of Pythagoras but of Platonic math from Archytas' creation of the geometric mean (a "one-to-one correspondence of letter and number").  I give the technical details in chapter four of my blogbook, http://mothershiplanding.blogspot.com.  Math professor Joe Mazur recently stated that my compilation of this information is "very valuable" and he recommended that I have it published in a peer-reviewed academic journal.  

Today is another interview, this time with Laura Bruno. Laura Bruno is a Life Coach, Medical Intuitive, Animal Communicator and Reiki Master Teacher. She has lived and taught across the U.S. and now resides in Sedona, Arizona, where she enjoys the beauty with her husband Stephen, a photographer. Laura offers classes and phone consultations and writes fiction in her spare time. In addition to over twenty articles on natural healing, Laura also authored the soon-to-be-released eBook, If I Only Had a Brain Injury: A TBI Survivor and Life Coach’s Guide to Chronic Fatigue, Concussion, Lyme Disease, Migraine and Other “Medical Mystery. You can visit her website at www.internationalrenaissancecoaching.com.

Could you please tell the story of discovering your intuitive abilities.

I grew up as an empath (meaning I could feel other people’s physical and emotional pain), but I had no context for that “gift.” Everyone called me over-sensitive, and I learned to view intuition as something inconvenient, weird or shameful. Despite efforts to suppress it, people still sensed my ability. While I earned a Masters in English at University of Chicago, strangers often approached me for health or life path advice, which I quietly gave. To my embarrassment, these same strangers later hugged me in front of my friends, thanking me for the insights. Secretly, I felt led to a more spiritual career than academia, but I resisted.

Instead, I chose the corporate world. My first sales job required twenty-five cold calls per day. Twenty-five cold calls supposedly equaled seven call-backs, which translated to three sales appointments, which became one sale, which (funneled throughout the month) equaled or exceeded quota. I hated viewing conversations as statistics—not to mention all the “no soliciting” jabs. But I couldn’t live on my base salary: I needed to hit quota. Desperate, I started praying. Before each cold call I would silently ask, “Let them see your Light in me and, please, give me the right words to say.” Instead of kicking me out, business folks suddenly welcomed me as a long lost friend! Yet after seven cold calls, I still needed a vanilla milkshake and a two-hour nap. I requested extra guidance: “Please, take me to the right places today. Then, let me radiate your Light and use your words.” With my terrible sense of direction, I developed an uncanny knack for getting “lost” exactly where and when someone needed exactly what I had to sell. I continued to make or exceed quota each month, averaging about two cold calls per day.

This effective prayer only intensified that nudge toward spiritual work. One day I “accidentally” cold called a nun and she took my hands: “Child, you have such Sweetness in you! You will go far when you embrace your gifts.” Disturbed, I reapplied to doctoral programs, vowing to teach a Literature and Spirituality class. I found a cushy sales job with established accounts—no more cold calling nuns! Then I prayed, “If academia’s not my path, don’t let me do it. Otherwise, I’m going!” The scholarships and stipends flooded in: “Wow!” I thought, “That was easy! Here I expected some big, dramatic thing. One course on Literature and Spirituality? Guess I’m not so intuitive after all …”

But on May 19, 1998 (three months before I planned to start fully funded doctoral studies in English Literature) an on-the-job car accident destroyed the life I knew. A brain injury shut down my rational side for years. I suffered visual impairments leaving me unable to read longer than five minutes per day. Florescent lights caused migraines, dizziness and disorientation, and my short term memory all but disappeared. Without my rational mind, intuition suddenly unleashed itself. Carefully developed filters no longer worked. I suddenly “knew” someone had a thyroid problem or emotional blocks leading to cancer. Even worse, I’d get the insistent urge to tell them and if I didn’t, my head pounded louder than usual. The more I resisted, the stronger the migraines became until finally I contacted each person and shared my insights. Then the pain subsided. Medical tests and conversations continued to confirm my intuition, but it took a long time for me to feel comfortable sharing information—even under duress.

Summer 1999, I spent eight weeks in Seattle in a final push to attend graduate school. (Yep, I’m stubborn, and Northwestern let me defer enrollment for a year.) One day, my holistic vision and brain injury specialist said, “If grad school doesn’t pan out, come back to Seattle. I’m old and I need to give my practice to someone.” “OK, where did that come from?” I asked. “I’m an English major!” He explained that he and his assistant had noticed “the next three patients after” me “always made amazing progress.” “Great,” I said, “What’s that got to do with me?” He answered, “For weeks we’ve purposely mixed things up and no matter which three patients follow you, they always make amazing progress. You leave an energy residue in the room that lasts at least three hours. Seriously, if grad school doesn’t pan out, come back and work with me.”

Well, graduate school didn’t pan out. My head imploded under florescent lights and if I ever managed to read, I immediately forgot the content. Meanwhile, my intuition and energy continued to grow. In August 2001, I returned to Seattle for more treatment. That specialist eventually hired me as his Medical Intuitive Consultant—my first job after brain injury. With no other career options and a strong sense of Fate, I started to embrace my healing gifts instead of running from them. I opened my own business and made a full recovery. Now, I love my intuition, and I love that it helps so many people heal and find their path!

You are a Reiki Master teacher. What do you find Reiki helpful for?

Reiki translates to “universal life force energy” or “divinely directed healing energy.” As such, people find Reiki helpful for all kinds of things! In the last 10 years, many hospices and hospitals (including the esteemed California Pacific Medical Center, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire, St. Luke’s Hospital in Pennsylvania, and Tucson Medical Center in Arizona) have valued volunteer or paid Reiki practitioners alongside their cancer programs because patients report vastly decreased pain and fear, and increased peace, positive attitude and relaxation.

Personally, I’ve found that Reiki works well for headaches, stomach pain, and insomnia. When I first learned Reiki, I was still recovering from my brain injury. Daily self-treatments and a number of “healing attunements” allowed me to wean myself completely from pharmaceutical migraine pills. I also find Reiki useful for empowering goals, because the energy just flows through situations and events. Hallmarks of Reiki include increased serendipity and a bubbling sense of joy.

Describe some of the more interesting cases from your practice, where Reiki was helpful.

For those of you who like latest scientific articles on the difficult subjects of consciousness, religion and quantum physics relation to all that, head over to read the second issue of the AntiMatters journal. AntiMatters is “an open-access journal addressing issues in science and the humanities from non-materialistic perspectives.” Stephen Braude is also on the editorial board.

Here’s some description of the goals of AntiMatter, quoted from the journal.

AntiMatters encourages the exploration of ontologies that are essentially monistic, not because they aim to reduce reality to a single category such as matter or mind, but because they assign ultimate reality to an entity or principle that is intrinsically one. Such ontologies model reality “from the top down,” using novel explanatory concepts such as differentiation, manifestation, emanation, or emergence (and probably others that nobody has thought of yet).

AntiMatters is for those who are uncomfortable with (or unconvinced of) materialism, or who favor a non-materialistic world view. Such persons are oftentimes unaware of how much of what is claimed to have been scientifically established is actually spurious. For their benefit, the Journal aims to critically examine the alleged scientific evidence for materialism. While authors are expected to respect and take account of all relevant empirical data, they should bear in mind that empirical data are inevitably theory-laden and paradigm-dependent, and that theories and paradigms, being to a considerable extent social constructions, are relative.

The current issue, Vol 1, No 2, has articles by Ulrich J Mohrhoff, who is the managing editor of the journal, by Donald D Hoffman, who wrote article about the “debates between theists and atheists”. There are two articles by Peter Kingsley, who is a leading figure on the origins of western spirituality. There are also two interviews with Peter.

Ulrich Mohrhoff also wrote two book reviews. First “The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul” by Mario Beauregard and Denyse O’Leary. The second is of the book “Science as a Spiritual Practice” by Imants Barušs, a Professor of Psychology at King’s University College at The University of Western Ontario, where Imants asks the question of whether “a spiritual practice be developed that would be suitable for scientists”?

If you missed the first issue, also packed with many articles, you can find it here.

THe journal requires some time to read and digest and clearly represents a non-materialistic view of the world by its writes.

Today, another article by drew hempel who wrote several intriguing articles before, including The Highest Technology of All Technologies: The Yan Xin Secret article. This article is a bit heavy and requires reading it with attention.

The Purloined Phantom Limb: Solving Sack’s Syncopation Susceptibility

By drew hempel, MA
Anti-copyright (free distribution)

Professor Oliver Sack’s new book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain is a treasure-trove of analysis on the mind-body conundrum. Sack previews neuroscientist Patel’s forthcoming book focusing on rhythm as subcortical binding for motor coordination with language. But as Sack notes Patel’s take on the Thai elephant orchestra music (of which I’m a big fan) may be questioned by some readers. The issue is do humans have a unique capacity or, as William James’ stated a “susceptibility” towards music, in contrast to the rest of Nature (and nonwestern cultures) seeming noise? Does this supposed unique ability of human rhythm processing also solves the “binding” problem of the mind-body paradox—also seen as the mystery of long-term potentiation (synapse growth) as an unknown function frequency and amplitude?

The answer is amazingly found in the most famous short-story of Edgar Allen Poe who, as Edmund Wilson quotes, wrote that his goal in writing was the “indeterminateness of music.” Poe, the creator of the mystery story, gives the reversal to Freud who, Sacks states: “despised music.” In Poe’s psychoanalysis we find a direct answer to Sack’s contradiction of the phantom limb as an “overflow” of neuron sensations, in contrast to the overflowing OBE as related to a musical hallucination. It’s exactly in the primal language of rhythm, more specifically Sack’s susceptibility for syncopation, that we also solve the mind-body mystery which Poe also addressed in his famous solution composed as his short story The Purloined Letter.

My teacher reports some very remarkable abilities that his teacher has. The abilities of course come from his lifelong training. He says that kung fu master become only better and stronger with the years and he looks forward to him being 80. From his story I can understand how far is our group of westerners from his abilities. The most sad part of my teacher’s story is that no one of his master’s students in China (Hong Kong) reaches even 30% of his ability. He was speaking about how the master should see and adapt the training for each student. It seems that after he passes away (which might take 30 or more years) there’ll be no follower who’ll come close to his abilities in this specific qigong variant.

I’ve almost finished reading Dean Radin’s book Entangled Minds : Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality. I would post half the book here if it was legal. Anyway, near the end of the book, Dr. Radin summarizes his meta-analysis of the psi research, which he presented in the main part of the book. By the way, his combined odds against chance of all the 1019 studies that he analyzed is an astounding 1.3×10¹⁰³ to 1 (which also equals to 1300 googles googols). That’s quite a number to disregard.

Then he writes on skepticism: “In spite of the evidence, many remain skeptical”. He then writes about three factors that contribute to “reasonable doubt” (page 278 in the book):

1. No fool-proof recipe to guarantee 100% success of a psi experiment. Yet, he writes, that after billions of dollars spent on cancer research there’s also no guarantee of even a successful diagnosis of cancer, moreover no guarantee of a getting healed.
2. Most scientist are not aware of the body o evidence regarding psi. Even though some articles on psi research do get published in some mainstream scientific journals, they are much outweighed by regular scientific literature and are easy to overlook.
3. The principal reason for persistent skepticism, in Radin’s opinion, is that “scientific truths do not arise solely through the accumulation and evaluation of new evidence. In particular, consensus opinion advances through authoritative persuasion. This is not how it’s supposed to work in an ideal world… Use of rhetorical tactics like ridicule are especially powerful persuaders in science, as few researchers are willing to risk their credibility and admit interest in ‘what everyone knows’ is merely superstitious nonsense”.

How do you think is he close to the truth in this? Discuss in forums

Today I’m glad to announce the launch of the forum on the Mind-Energy.net site. The Parapsychology and alternative medicine forums at http://forum.mind-energy.net are place for the visitors and readers of mind-energy.net and all other internet users to talk about subjects of parapsychology and psi research and on the various topics of alternative medicine and energy healing.

In the forum you’ll find sections devoted to energy healing (EFT, Quantum Touch), personal practices, such as qigong and yoga, Traditional Chinese Medicine and your home remedies for various conditions.

Other topics including scientific debates on parapsychology and psi research as a place for the skeptics and supporters of parapsychology to delve into serious debates, a section on developing psi abilities and a place to post your question to the community describing your personal stories of unexplained character.

The last section is devoted to Mind-Energy.net site itself. On is a general discussion for your suggestions on the site’s content, design, goals etc. The other forum imports all blog posts off www.mind-energy.net to continue debates on the topics in the forum, which is better platform than the comments in the blog. In the near future, all the comments on the main site will be disabled and all commenters will need to use the forum instead. This will also improve spam protection and garbage comments.

You can subscribe to forum feeds using RSS as well, if it is easier for you.

My hope is that the forums will be a place for quality people. I’m going to attract some experts in the various related fields of knowledge to add value to the community.

You are welcomed to propose more forum topics, a different structure are help with moderation. If you hold yourself as an expert in any area, please let me know using the contact form as I might have something special for the experts.

So, head over to the Parapsychology and alternative medicine forums right now, register and start your discussions.

Thanks, Jacob.

The very known movie “The Secret”, which stirred big waves across the world and in the US in particular, will have a sequel soon. Apparently, the movie will continue where “The Secret” left off and focus on an action plan. It is about half way shot already and is planned to be released in November this year. It will have a similar cast. Following is my review of the original “The Secret” movie and my thoughts about its concepts.

I’ve seen “The Secret” movie a long time ago, before it hit the US strong through Oprah’s show. I’ve watched it with several friends and I liked it. Although basically the idea (Law of Attraction) was not new to me as I’ve heard it through various sources, beginning with Brian Tracy’s motivational books through many current spiritual coaches, I still found the movie well produced and the visualizations of the process are effective, in my opinion.

Law of Attraction, as it is presented in the movie, is also called “manifestation” in modern literature and it promotes the idea that our life flows in the direction of our energized thoughts, i.e. one’s desires, reinforced through visualization and other manifestation techniques help create the reality which realizes (manifests) this original desire or goal. Creative visualization, Jose Silva’s Method and many similar techniques were developed years earlier than this movie to achieve the same goal.

The movie, though, also presents the Law of Attraction in its “negative form”, when our negative thoughts “attract” negative events in our life. Although I find it hard to attribute every negative or positive event to the Law of Attraction, I think that basically this works. Even if the mechanism of this work is not “paranormal” in any way, I believe that focusing your mind on your goals activates the brain so that it builds the plan and pays attention to the opportunities that come across the way and may help achieve the goals. It is possible that if one wouldn’t do these visualizations which focus the brain on the target, one wouldn’t have recognized the opportunity coming his way. It also makes one more optimistic and able, while being pessimistic (thinking about bad things that might happen) will not allow you to progress in the desired direction.

Of course, many people who stick to manifestation tell about amazing coincidences happening in their life after they actively engage in this process, like you can read in my story at Belief and money manifestation and I’m not sure if all of them can be attributed to simple focused awareness, as many of these things seem to be externally driven.

In August 2006 I wrote about an amazing video in the post Amazing video of the power of chi. This video is an excerpt from a documentary movie called “Ring of Fire”, shot in Indonesia. During the filming, one of the crew members got some problem with his eyes and was treated by a local healer using acupuncture, but different than regularly used. Then, the healer demonstrated his powers on the crew by “shocking” them with what felt like electrical charges from his hands or abdomen. The most shocking part of the footage is where he puts a newspaper on fire, allegedly only using his Chi energy. It is very famous footage and you can see it below:

A few days ago, drew hempel, who wrote some articles for this site, including You Can’t Fake The Full-lotus! Testimony of a qigong practitioner in the context of parapsychology, posted in comments a link to another video of the same person, done much later by brother of the crew member above. In this new footage, the brother tells more about the story and brings 3 people with him from the US to “check” this man’s claims and see his abilities. This footage is a must see as the man performs some amazing feats under pretty controlled conditions:

I’ve taken some time to look up this man and it seems he’s become quite famous since his brief and chance appearance in the “Ring of Fire” documentary. His name is John Chang (or John DiJang) and he is a direct heir to an ancient lineage of sages called the Mo-Pai. After the “Ring of Fire” was aired in the west, many people went looking for this man. One of these people was Kosta Danaos from Greece. He found John Chang and has asked him to be his teacher. Apparently, about a hundred people came to Chang to ask to become his students but he only accepted five and Kosta was the second.

In 2000, Kosta Danaos published a book, called The Magus of Java: Teachings of an Authentic Taoist Immortal where he tells about John Chang, his system (called neikung or Nei Kung). The book has some great reviews on Amazon and other sites and the first review on amazon is by Cynthia Sue Larson whom I interviewed for this site in May 2006 (see Interview with Cynthia Sue Larson). Cynthia is also a Top-500 reviewer on Amazon and hosts the great site Reality Shifters. Based on her review I decided to order the book from Amazon myself. This all is getting more interesting as I learn more.

Today I’ve read another chapter of Dr. Dean Radin’s book Entangled Minds : Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality, where he performs analysis of past research in the various fields of parapsychology. This chapter, titled “Unconscious Psi” dealt with the various researches where the existence of various psi phenomena, mostly the ability to affect other person’s autonomous nervous system and the central nervous system over distance, without known sensory methods.

His meta-analysis of over 50 different studies shows a significant statistical significance in the overall research. He also quotes one of the groups that performed a research (led by Stefan Schmidt in 2004) where they say that ”...the existence of some anomaly related to distant intentions cannot be ruled out”. Radin then emphasizes the this is a conclusion of enormous importance since it shows that psi exists and compares it to the following imaginary TV news broadcast: