Actually, I’m one of the more skeptical on this forum, but I don’t believe that there’s anything wrong with practicing Chi Kung. I actually think that Chi Kung practice can be beneficial, but, I don’t like people making false claims or pretenses on what it can do. I think that if the benificial results are real, then we should explore what the real results and benefits are. I don’t believe that it can cure everything under the sun and I think that the people that propagate that kind of thinking without verifiable tests are unethical. They are also the ones who get emotional when someone proposes to burst their fantasy bubble and challenges their fantastic claims.
Shooting Chi, blowing things up, seeing auras, curing cancer, aids, hepatitus, etc. are claims that are completely false and dangerous. Ask yourself, if you could only choose one type of treatment and you had terminal Cancer, would you forego modern science in favor of faith healing?
What does chi do? Look at the down to Earth results. It can make you stronger (dynamic strength and isometric exercises are great), it can make you feel better (self induced psychosis and hyperventilation, we do it with illegal substances all of the time, so this is more of a natural high), makes people healthier and more resistant to getting sick (any exercise if done properly will give you those results and the people that are big into Chi Kung aren’t exactly the types you’ll see hanging out at the local gym)… You get my point?
What are the fantastic results that should be explored? The inner strength development-- examples being the “unbendable arm” or the “immovable person”. Also, is it only coordination, physics, and timing that allow a small man to fling a large man across the room or is something else going on? What makes another person turn their head to make eye contact with you when you stare at them from the other side of the room?
If the Chi people could keep it real and had the self discipline to question things once and awhile, I probably would be a little more receptive to their ideas. Now I’m not one to dismiss things lightly, so I make it my New Year’s resolution to do some Chi Kung training with a person that I know and trust.
Question everything even the skeptics like me and make up your own mind. If it makes you happy and you feel better doing it (the placebo effect and the positive power of suggestion), do it.
Peace,
The one, the only, the Mighty— B!!!