The Force: Part 3, Experiencing/Developing the Field

I should very well have added "UNDERSTANDING" to the title of this post... 

Anyways,...

Today I feel I should post about something which has eluded much of the Western world, mostly due to misrepresentation by "wannabes" (people looking for FAR too easy ways to establish a foothold in credibility before they learn all that needs to be learned, those who acquire mail-order licenses to "teach" Reiki, balding pony-tailed white guys who practice "Tai Qi" publicly in parks for sake of image, etc. - you know what I mean) - cue; soundbite of Keanu Reeves as "Neo", saying, "I know Kung Fu"...

Yeah, I'm a mite snarky about this. Bear with me here just a wee bit...

See, even though "New Agers" (yep, they're still out there) try - even with the best of intentions, though the least of real, hard education on the topic, beyond whatever books they might read from the "New Age", "Occult", "Esoteric" etc. sections of their local book store... they grossly misrepresent the whole concept, knowingly or not, by their (as innocent as they may be), shennanigans.

The reality - particularly known to all out here in Asia - is that the Bio-electromagnetic Field, and the Bio-electromotive Force, ie; Qi/Jing, is a real scientific reality - it's a goddamned real thing, seriously... as it always ever has been, a known and accepted fact for at least 5,000 years.

Allow me to try to explain...

First, perhaps the biggest misconception, is the mental image of this; a martial arts tournament... two fighters face each other... one performs a cyclic, swirling move, projected at his opponent, and without even touching him, his opponent seems to be wildly flung out of the ring by invisible forces. While this has, to one degree or another, actually happened in Asia some few times in the past, the biggest mistake made is when people say, "HE DID THAT WITH HIS QI!!".

The Truth? The happening happened, but the reason why - Qi - well, it's a bit more complicated than that.

Much of the misconceptions that arise from this and other instances, is the difference between alphabetically based languages versus those which use ideograms and ideographic text.

You can fit FAR more meaning(s), nuance(s), etc. in the ideographic writing of China (what the Japanese call "Kanji").

"Qi" (pronounced "chee"), isn't quite the Bio-electromotive Force itself, but it *does* facilitate it.

There are a few other factors involved, Qi being just one among them, but all of those factors being taken as a single concept in speech, is also collectively referred to as "Qi" (and, depending on the ideogram, not incorrectly so), referring to the entirety of the whole phenomenon collectively under that single umbrella term, and therein lies the root of the misconception.

Now... let's all try to think back and remember something we, perhaps all, may be familiar with for one reason or another - perhaps school - where the teacher would take a piece of paper, spread some iron filing dust upon the surface, and then place a bar magnet underneath it, touching the bottom surface.

Time for a visual aid...

Now, as you can see here, the bar magnet is beneath the piece of paper, with the iron filings scattered upon it - the magnetic field interacting with the iron particles causes them all to arrange themselves along the lei lines of the magnetic field, thus rendering the invisible, visible. This is a perfect analogy for Qi in most living beings, particularly human. Imagine that bar in the center is a human being standing upright, and you can see the "Qi" lines surrounding and penetrating him.

The pole ends being at the crown of the head and at the base of his feet, we need to understand this as though like a doughnut, or a torus shape - relatively. This shape obviously isn't round like a donut, unless you could imagine an elongated one (and in truth, a bit egg-shaped) - but the point is that there is a central area of flow... if this human be male, the direction of flow is down in through the crown of the head, through and along the central core, out through the base at the feet, and spreads outward and upward along the outside of this "tubular doughnut", and all turns back in on itself at the crown and continues cycling again... for females, this direction of flow is in the opposite direction; out from the crown, down the outer edge of the shell, coming in together at the base, up through the central core, and out forth from the crown once again, and so on.

Or at least, this is the flow of the bio-electromotive force, which runs along the lei lines of one's Qi.

If you notice, the lei lines themselves have no motion whatsoever - and this is a key thing to understand here - the iron filings, once aligned to the lei lines of the field, do not move... there is no motive force. Therefore, the Qi is merely a template of the paths along which the force would flow.

Now, while the Chinese word for the field itself is Qi, the word for the Bio-electromotive Force which runs and flows along the lei lines of this field is Jing.

Of course, to be certain, technically, there can be motion of Qi, but only in changing the shape of the field - which is done in two major ways; rising/falling, and expanding/contracting.

So it can be said that while the practitioner of, say, Yang style T'ai Qi Quan (different schools of the same art tend to have different spellings), sends that opponent flying in the previous sparring illustration mentioned above, he does so by sending a surge of Jing through his field, cycling it along the lei lines, and then expands his field forward, sort of bulging it out, protruding a bit in the opponent's direction - in effect, pushing against his opponent's own bio-electromagnetic field, with his own, and sending his opponent off, very similar to two like-poled magnets repelling each other.

Understand? ^_^

Developing/accumulating this Force is done by focusing upon the natural flow of the field, Qi. Once this has been firmly set in the Mind, focus is drawn towards drawing in more surrounding Force into the Qi field, via the inlet point (at the crown for males, at the feet for females), and forming it into a sphere, about the size of a candle pin bowling ball (the smaller variety ball, you know). This is formed at a point called the Dan Tien.

Where this is in the body is simple to understand - imagine your pelvic bone as though a bowl, and place such a sphere within it. Where it rests, is known as the Dan Tien.

There are techniques which combine breathing and directing of this sphere up and down the core of the field, evenly dispersing collected Jing, but though such is beyond the scope of this post, I will mention a very valuable resource at this post's end, which will give far better information than I ever could.

Eventually, according to the techniques, Jing is collected and condensed within the marrow of your bones - by then, a warm, electrical sensation can be felt.

These are the parts of T'ai Qi Quan, internal form, which are not publicly taught in the West.

In the resource I'll mention below, there are also techniques to go through in order to manipulate the Qi field, flow the Jing force through and along the field, in order to affect things beyond your body - such as the sparring example I've mentioned above in this post (a technique known as "Fa Jing"). 

Certainly, one cannot acquire abilities from reading books - but following manuals, as a martial artist, this can be a very different thing indeed.

Please see this as a valuable manual;

"T'ai Chi Classics (Shambhala Classics)" by Waysun Liao
ISBN-10: 1570627495
ISBN-13: 978-1570627491

Any Google or Amazon search with this data should find it, for anyone out there who may be seeing this post.

Okay, I think that should be all and well and good enough for this here post for now... until next time, May the Force be with you!!

    - Tarran ^_^

The Force: Part 2, Detecting the Field

As mentioned in the "Part 1" entry in this series of posts, the Force, as regards the personal component thereof (what many might term their "chi", or "aura"), is best understood in a somewhat more scientific sense, as the "bio-electomagnetic field".

I wrote a little something on this years ago, for a website called "Associated Content", then I later posted it as one of my "notes" on Facebook. I'll use it here, because I was told that it was the best way to describe something that was otherwise nigh indescribable. In the near future, I think I should add an image or two for a visual aid... until then, I hope my textual descriptions suffice. I'll just paste it here below: EDIT: I'VE FINALLY ADDED THE VISUAL AIDS... well, drawings... and not my best work :P lol

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"How to See the 'Aura' With the Naked Eye"

So, what is the "aura", anyway? Well, since this article is approaching this subject with an eye towards science, let's look at it as a "bio-electromagnetic field".

Everything living, and even some things we consider non-living, has this aura field to one degree or another. However, since the field and the nature of it may differ and vary in many ways from being to being according to type, or from thing to thing, let's just focus today on the bio-electromagnetic field of human beings.

Why "bio-electromagnetic"? To put it in an inordinately simple way, we are electrical beings, with zillions of minute bioelectrical signals zipping through all our nerves and other pathways in our bodies at any given time. Our brain is the nerve center of all of this, as it tells our hand to pick up something, receives and registers visual and other stimuli, or dreams while sleeping, et cetera. Much like a wire with electricity passing through it, we also, as a result, have an electro-magnetic field about our bodies from the bioelectrical energy coursing through us... thus, a "bio-electromagnetic field". Sort of a largely non-technical way to put it all, but well, there you have it in a nutshell.

It is said that this field affects the air around us, whether through minute vibratory forces or very faint electromagnetic radiation, or by various other means, and there seems to be many schools of thought on this. Keep in mind however that this is a field - an area of effect - and not a substance in and of itself. However, the surrounding  substance (in most cases, the air around us) which is affected by this field is often said to be the aura.

Also, consider this; while we cannot see the wind, we can observe its effects as it blows through the leaves of trees. Thus, we can say that we "see the wind blowing". This is somewhat remotely akin to what I mean. But remember, an aura can be said to be both the field itself, as well as the effects within the field. Keeping this well in mind can help you avoid confusion in the future.

It is also said that we can extend our field to some degree or another, and this also is a phenomenon we will be attempting to observe in this how-to article. Now I understand that you probably want to just get right down to seeing this field, but please bear with me as I explain just a couple more details of this operation so that we can see and understand things much more clearly. There needs to be understood another factor or two of just how the eye can register this field (or rather, "to see the action of the tree's leaves being blown about", so to speak) before we can move on.

Inside the eye are many photoreceptor cells of a few types (at the time of this article's writing, a new ganglion type of photoreceptor cell has recently been discovered), two of which are known as "rods" and "cones", due to their shape. These are arranged in a concentric circular fashion within the eye, on the retina, the inner circle being made up of the cones, the outer being the rods. Cone receptors pick up colors, and rod receptors pick up the varying degrees of contrasts of lights and darks. It is these receptors, the rods, which we will be utilizing to view the field.

Now, while the rods are arranged along the outer circle, they do much of their work (but not all of it) in receiving information about what is in our peripheral vision - that which surrounds our main focal point of view. In turn, the main work of the cones (but not all of it) is done mostly within our point of focus. For example, if we are walking down the street on a sunny day in early Autumn and we come across a stop sign on the side of the road, we can look directly at the sign and see that it is red, with the word "STOP" written upon the face of it in big, white letters.

While we focus our sight upon this, within our peripheral vision (that  which surrounds our focal point) we can see to a less-than-focused degree, the trees and houses that are about, while we remain keeping our eyes focused upon the sign itself. We might not be able to discern which branches are attached to which trees, or if the house to our right is indeed a single house with an attached garage or two separate houses,  but we can generally tell which leaves are green (darker) and which are yellow (lighter), and that the white house is something separate and apart from the deep, dark backdrop of the woods behind it.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because the field, and more importantly, that surrounding matter which it affects, does not truly have any color per se - what you will be viewing is a distortion within the field, the area of surrounding matter in which the field has an effect. This can get a bit tricky, but only in understanding this concept. In practice, this is really quite simple. The distortion in the field is just that - merely a distortion in a field. Not a thing in and of itself so much, but an affected area.

That which is viewable therefore, can only really be very faint differences of contrast, much like viewing clear ripples in clear water (or, much like how on a hot summer day, as you gaze into the distance down a paved road, you can see objects on the ground in the distance seeming to be wiggling in the waves of heat rising from the pavement) - you're seeing a distortion of matter (in the aforementioned hot-summer-day case, the air) within the field of view.

But the effect we are trying to visually detect is not so easily noticed as ripples in water, or in waves of rising hot air - such things don't solely rely on contrast receptors, so we can actually stare right at such things and see them quite clearly. But as far as detecting the very faint and hyper-smooth fuzzy distortions we're hoping to catch into view, we need to do a bit of specialized viewing.

As a result, to best see this phenomenon you will need to see it in your periphery... not by staring directly at it, but by directing your eye's focus on that which is perhaps just a half inch away from it, while directing your conscious awareness on the effect just off your point of focus, within your peripheral vision. Do you get what I mean?

The main key point of utmost primary importance here, is that you need to focus your physical eye on one thing, while focusing the "eye of your consciousness" so to speak, on another. Basically, sort of "looking at what you're not looking at".

Okay, now let's get down to the business of preparing our "lab" if you  will, for the conduction of our experiment. There are a few ways to do this, the main two are as follows; either place yourself in a very dimly lit room (almost no light - any light being quite dim), or being in a moderately lit room, with some sort of backdrop to use...  anything which is black, but it absolutely must be non-reflective, like black velvet or something (some have used the open doorway to a deep, dark hallway, or cellar stairs, with a degree of success). Try your hand at both techniques if you like, to find which one is best for you.

The reason for this is basically simple. You want to set up a situation in which you can primarily focus only on contrast, not color.

Now take your hand (it will be easiest if your hand is facing you), and place it in front of you - in the case that you are in a lit room with a black backdrop, have the backdrop be placed well beyond your hand, so that you can see the blackness of it in the distance behind your hand in view. Let this backdrop be large, the larger the better. If you are using the technique of being in a very dimly lit room, it is also preferable to have something darker than your hand beyond it in your field of view.

Now focus your view upon one of your fingertips (again, it will be easier to do this and what will come next, if your palm is facing you). While you are focusing your eye on that fingertip, focus your awareness on the surrounding area - or, some may find it best to focus on the backdrop beyond the fingers, though others find this more difficult - but again, do remember, this is a bit of looking at what you're not looking at.

You should soon become aware of something... a sort of "ghost image", outlining the surrounding area around your fingers and in between them. But seeing it might startle you into focusing upon it, so remember, don't look directly at it or you may lose sight of it! Maintain your physical eye's focus upon the fingers themselves, but maintain your conscious awareness upon the periphery surrounding them. Got it?

For many, this can be plainly seen right away. For others, it may take a while (most often, this is because they actually do see it, though assume that what they are seeing is not what they seek, but rather the effect of blurry vision, or some other fault of the eye in dim light). But the most important thing here is that you do not strain to see... you need to relax your eyes, and don't try so hard to try so hard. Just let it happen. If it doesn't right away, then don't keep at it for very long. Some people stare and stare and start to see wisps of stringy things and even faint colors - but that is not the field! What that is, is your eyes becoming fatigued. Put away your experiment and come back to it at another time. You shouldn't strain to see this. In fact, to do so would simply guarantee that you never see it. Don't aggressively leap out of your eyes to catch it, but just let it all flow on in.

Alright, we're not done here yet people, so let's move on, shall we? Now that you've begun to see this "ghost image" outlining your form (assuming you've succeeded thus far), let's do something interesting with it. Take both of your hands, palms facing you, and bring your bio-electromagnetic field back into view once again. Have your open palms be pointing their fingers at each other, each finger pointing to the corresponding finger of the other hand - index to index, middle to middle and so on, at about 2 to 3 inches apart from each other. You'll notice that this "stuff" seems to attract itself to itself.

If you can see this all clearly, you will find that there are lines of this colourless, ghostly "stuff" emanating from your fingertips, connecting the fingers of one hand to the fingers of the other hand, which jump across the void from finger to corresponding finger.

Now try slowly pulling your hands apart in distance a little bit. You may notice that these lines are still attached, stretching across the distance, keeping the fingers of one hand connected to those of the other. This is how the field can extend beyond its normal reach sometimes. How far can you pull them apart before the "strings" break?

Okay, now try this; bring your hands closer together, to about 2 to 3 inches apart between fingertips again. Each finger should be pointing towards the corresponding finger of the opposite hand again, just as before. The "strings" between them now seem more dense and vibrant, now that there is less distance to stretch across, yes?

Now bring them to about 4 to 5 inches apart and do this; move your hands slightly, in opposing directions (for example, turn your left hand clockwise while still facing you, and the right hand clockwise as well - so that your fingertips seem to pass each other in opposing directions), so that now your fingers are each pointing to different fingers on the opposing hand - index to middle, middle to ring finger, and so on. You should find that the "strings" have broken off attachment to the previous corresponding fingers and have now re-linked to those fingers which are now the closest to them.

Pretty cool, eh?

I should mention one strange anomaly which sometimes happens for some odd reason or other... it's perfectly natural... but sometimes, the streams between fingers may cross... here's an example of what I mean...

Pretty darned interesting, if you ask me! ^_^




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That's pretty much most of the article, save for a bit of meaningless fluff at the end, which I've here omitted.

Watch for a future edit to this here post, in which there should be some images added for visual aid. EDIT: DONE! lol

In the next couple/few posts, we'll gain a better understanding of the Force (our personal portions thereof), by experiencing its effect upon electronic devices, particularly a certain musical instrument which will allow a bit of "bio-feedback", and can help us hone our sense of it all. We'll also be utilizing concepts from internal martial arts such as Qigong and T'ai Qi Quan, understanding the difference between Qi ("chi") and Jing, and how to cultivate, vivify, and manipulate our bio-electomagnetic field.

Until then, may the Force be with you!

    - Tarran ^_^