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I’ve always suspected that the qi that can be felt when practicing qigong is an electric field.

melagonster 2y ago
Because it usually expresses as a slight pressure on our body, I posit that it will more like a place holder to reprensent a feeling from our muscles.
meindnoch 2y ago
No such thing.
- divbzero 2y ago
  I would be skeptical too, except I have directly felt qi in demonstrations and the force feels similar to the repulsive force between two weak magnets. OP discusses a natural phenomenon that was previously overlooked. I think it’s worth keeping an open mind on other phenomena that have yet to be studied thoroughly.
  - pvaldes 2y ago
    The reason to not believe on fairy tales is having an open mind. Don't make us lose our time.
  - day2punk 2y ago
    Yes you are right
  - meindnoch 2y ago
    That would be extremely simple to demonstrate with an electrostatic field meter. Why do you think noone has done it before?
    - carapace 2y ago
      Item: there is something there. Item: it is not electrostatic I am, for my sins, what's called a "Reiki Master Level III" (and yes I feel foolish stating that "out loud" as it were.) I am also a rational materialist and, while not actually a scientist myself, I count among my heroes such people as Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov both noted scientists and skeptics of "woo". Whatever "chi" is it is very much real in the same way that electricity and gravity are real. However, it doesn't register on electrostatic instruments, at least those I've tried. That's all I've got. Please stop saying it's not real because that's both wrong and regressive. The sooner we "do science to it" the better.
      - pseudosaid 2y ago
        people wont believe until they feel it for themselves. As if the lineage of Chinese medicine and martial arts was all a cultural hallucination. No point in trying to convince anyone not to decry what they dont believe. Its not a part of reality they are open to experiencing. A lot of people cant cope with the continuous nature of reality and want to reduce it to discrete measurements to assuage their response to the unknown
        carapace 2y ago
        Yeah, I think you're right. Thanks :)
        carapace 2y ago
        (I've got the cabin fever today I think. This is as good a time and place as any to set this down...) I believe that "we are not physical beings having spiritual experiences, we're spiritual beings having a physical experience", and so the lives we lead are not random, rather they are tailored (by angels?) to each soul to give it the experiences it needs to grow. When Attenborough wonders at the cruelty of a God who would let e.g. a fly larva eat a child's eye, from my POV the real question (that I do not particularly want answered, because it scares me) is what mistakes did that soul make to get to the place where having such a terrible experience was the medicine it needs? A devotee of Sai Baba wrote a book where she tells of seeing a woman holding her sick child and wondering why Baba didn't just miraculously heal the child, and later receiving a vision of the two souls in a previous lifetime where they had been a corrupt judge and his bailiff and together caused great suffering. To experience a life as a helpless mother and sick child was the medicine those souls needed to understand the consequences of their choices. At this point I feel it's important to point out that reincarnation is common to all the major religions, including Christianity. Reincarnation was excised from Christian knowledge centuries after Christ, but they folks who did it didn't go so far as to edit it out of Jesus' own words, and He states clearly that Elijah and John the Baptist are the same soul. Anyway, it seems clear to me that for many souls knowledge of Chi in their current lifetimes is not part of the educational curriculum. However, I could be wrong about all that, and even if not there are presumably souls who are supposed to learn about Chi in this lifetime, so I bring it up from time to time.

Because it usually expresses as a slight pressure on our body, I posit that it will more like a place holder to reprensent a feeling from our muscles.

meindnoch 2y ago

No such thing.

divbzero 2y ago
I would be skeptical too, except I have directly felt qi in demonstrations and the force feels similar to the repulsive force between two weak magnets. OP discusses a natural phenomenon that was previously overlooked. I think it’s worth keeping an open mind on other phenomena that have yet to be studied thoroughly.
- pvaldes 2y ago
  The reason to not believe on fairy tales is having an open mind. Don't make us lose our time.
- day2punk 2y ago
  Yes you are right
- meindnoch 2y ago
  That would be extremely simple to demonstrate with an electrostatic field meter. Why do you think noone has done it before?
  - carapace 2y ago
    Item: there is something there. Item: it is not electrostatic I am, for my sins, what's called a "Reiki Master Level III" (and yes I feel foolish stating that "out loud" as it were.) I am also a rational materialist and, while not actually a scientist myself, I count among my heroes such people as Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov both noted scientists and skeptics of "woo". Whatever "chi" is it is very much real in the same way that electricity and gravity are real. However, it doesn't register on electrostatic instruments, at least those I've tried. That's all I've got. Please stop saying it's not real because that's both wrong and regressive. The sooner we "do science to it" the better.
    - pseudosaid 2y ago
      people wont believe until they feel it for themselves. As if the lineage of Chinese medicine and martial arts was all a cultural hallucination. No point in trying to convince anyone not to decry what they dont believe. Its not a part of reality they are open to experiencing. A lot of people cant cope with the continuous nature of reality and want to reduce it to discrete measurements to assuage their response to the unknown
      - carapace 2y ago
        Yeah, I think you're right. Thanks :)
        carapace 2y ago
        (I've got the cabin fever today I think. This is as good a time and place as any to set this down...) I believe that "we are not physical beings having spiritual experiences, we're spiritual beings having a physical experience", and so the lives we lead are not random, rather they are tailored (by angels?) to each soul to give it the experiences it needs to grow. When Attenborough wonders at the cruelty of a God who would let e.g. a fly larva eat a child's eye, from my POV the real question (that I do not particularly want answered, because it scares me) is what mistakes did that soul make to get to the place where having such a terrible experience was the medicine it needs? A devotee of Sai Baba wrote a book where she tells of seeing a woman holding her sick child and wondering why Baba didn't just miraculously heal the child, and later receiving a vision of the two souls in a previous lifetime where they had been a corrupt judge and his bailiff and together caused great suffering. To experience a life as a helpless mother and sick child was the medicine those souls needed to understand the consequences of their choices. At this point I feel it's important to point out that reincarnation is common to all the major religions, including Christianity. Reincarnation was excised from Christian knowledge centuries after Christ, but they folks who did it didn't go so far as to edit it out of Jesus' own words, and He states clearly that Elijah and John the Baptist are the same soul. Anyway, it seems clear to me that for many souls knowledge of Chi in their current lifetimes is not part of the educational curriculum. However, I could be wrong about all that, and even if not there are presumably souls who are supposed to learn about Chi in this lifetime, so I bring it up from time to time.