How does Tantric Qigong™ work?

It can be said that Qigong works by uniting heavenly and earthly energies. While Western science does not yet have a full explanation of how Qigong does this, it most likely that it works by amplifying your personal Chi (Qi, life force, vitality, Ki) by drawing in earthly and atmospheric / solar ionic energy to supplement your existing vitality. This is attained through gentle movement, breath control, mental focus, Intention, and the most efficient grounding technology yet known.

Although it may appear that many systems of meditation and yoga aspire to similar effects, in practice and effect they are quite different.

Hatha Yoga has a general objective that is comparable to that of Qigong and achieves its ends through breathing, concentration, and stretching.  Yoga tends to lower somatic resistance, which allows energy to be freed up and diffused in a general way throughout the physical and emotional bodies.

Meditation attempts to unify these polar energies through mental control and creating inner peace. Most forms of meditation reduce mental disorder; thus indirectly allowing the body to relax its resistance to a certain degree. The effects are felt most strongly in the mental and emotional bodies. Both meditation and Hatha Yoga can create some of the same effects as Qigong, but may take longer to achieve it.

Forms of Kundalini Yoga, Kriya, and pranayama quickly push energy into the body and chakras through aggressive breathing techniques and movement. The relative bioenergetic charge thus created can vary quite a bit depending on that tradition and teacher. These systems generally lack a comprehensive and efficient grounding component, which can make their practice somewhat tricky for those persons wishing to remain in the world. Forms of Kundalini practice can create dramatic physical, emotional, and mental side effects and should not be undertaken without a teacher. Preferably in an ashram, under supervision 24/7.

I have met many students and teachers of these arts that have applied them in an extremely yang fashion and none of them have seemed grounded and balanced to me. Although they do experience a lot of energy, the energy meets the resistance of their body, mind, and karmic history. This creates a lot of unnecessary drama and significant side effects. This seems to be a result of too much energy meeting too much resistance and with too little grounding. Gurus who achieve spiritual power in this manner are very much a mixed blessing.

With Qigong, both the practice and the effects are quite different. Unlike the yogic paradigm, which asserts that the first chakra is the perineal / coccygeal area, Qigong knows that the first chakra is located in the bottoms of the feet. This is the way that nature intended earthly life force (kundalini, chi) to be conducted into the body. There are built in safeguards and processes of energetic transformation that makes this raw power easier to deal with and to apply to the body, mind, and emotions in a purely positive way.

The movements of Qigong are very gentle (virtually no energy is consumed by strenuous work) and coordinated with deep breathing, supreme mental focus, and proper bioenergetic alignment of the body. The effect is to amplify one’s vitality while simultaneously reducing internal somatic, emotional, and mental resistance, all in a grounded and balanced fashion. This Taoist approach generates a lot of Chi safely and quickly, often within a few seconds. Mastery may take somewhat longer.

It has been said that Qigong supercharges the body with a balance of earthly and atmospheric ionic energy. This energy suffuses the body, mind, and spirit. The Chi that is birthed in this fashion can be used to invigorate tissues, blood, lymph, bone, and the central nervous system; purifying, soothing, and healing along the way.

Tantric Qigong™ is to regular Qigong as a Lexus on the Autobahn is to an oxcart in a muddy field. They will both get you to your destination, but differ quite a bit in speed, efficacy, and comfort. While Qigong is supreme at creating the benefits mentioned in the preceding paragraphs, the traditional Taoist process of creating personal freedom and spiritual liberation through burning karma is less well defined. The Taoist approach to chakra activation and transmuting negative emotional patterns is convoluted and obscure at best. In contrast, with Tantric Qigong™ we avail ourselves of esoteric Taoist, Tantric Kriya, Kundalini Yoga, and Tibetan techniques not yet generally known in the west to simplify and enhance our process of self mastery and liberation.

There are five basic levels of Tantric Qigong™ training that begin with elementary Qigong and culminate in powerful and efficacious practices rarely taught publicly. We employ principles of Bioenergetics, Chakra, Kriya, and Kundalini yoga, Emotional Freedom, Karma burning, Tibetan Tantra, and Tumo in a safe, balanced structure that requires only a few minutes each day to perform. © 2009 Keith E. Hall Inner-tranquility.com. All rights reserved.

Contact us
Join our newsletter

Kundalini or Heart Attack?

This article relates to: Orgasmic Kundalini Rush, Tantric Taoist Awakening

Q. Heather42 asks: Just checking, but you do realize these are similar to symptoms of heart attack? Some preliminary heart attack events do not necessarily involve chest pain, and/or the person can be asleep during the chest pain phase. The time frame of early morning, abdominal tingling, and immobility, especially of arms, are all classic symptoms associated with heart attack. Has Scott had his heart checked lately?

A. Rev. Hall: Thank you for your concern. I am sure that Scott appreciates it. Perhaps at his next physical, an EKG could be run to rule out any atypical cardiac abnormalities. Though it seems unlikely, it would do no harm to have a test run. I am not a physician, so I cannot speak to whether there is a rare cardiac symptomatology that would match the experience Scott is having. The experiences Scott is having are rather common for those who are having quasi - Kundalini or Shakti Prana experiences, but seem rather atypical for cardiac problems. To further delineate:

1. No Pain: Typically, though not always, a cardiac event will entail angina often radiating down the left arm. Though there are cases of cardiac events where patients do not recall any pain, Scott claims numerous Kundalini experiences, distinctly remembered, never with any angina or arm pain.

2. Pleasure: Scott recounts how these events are quite pleasurable to him. This is quite common among meditators who are moving Shakti Prana ( Shakti Kundalini ) and have low fear and karmic resistance to this bioenergy movement. The pleasurable sensations also can become distinctly Tantric in nature for some people. I have never heard of any cardiac events described this way.

3. Creativity: Scott says “When I wake up I feel different, slightly energized, slightly creative.” This state of feeling quietly energized and creative is routinely reported by practitioners of Kriya Kundalini techniques, especially with Tumo and Cobra Breath. It seems to be one of the hallmarks of Shakti Prana as the energy moves into the higher Chakras, especially Ajna ( the Third Eye. )

4. Paralysis: Scott: “I am a sleep or half asleep when it happens 4:30 to 6:00 (AM)…it is never painful but pleasurable, I have tried to move my arm to share it with my wife, but generally can’t move (my) arm, except once, I am awake at this point trying to enjoy and understand it. ”

As I understand Scott’s description of this aspect of his experience, it is likely that he is having what sleep researchers call “sleep paralysis”, a state often linked to lucid dreaming and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. When it occurs in REM sleep it is called REM atonia. This state is characterized by paralysis shortly after waking up (hypnopompic paralysis) or, shortly before falling asleep (hypnagogic paralysis). This happens when the sleeper is awakened from an REM state into a fully awake state, causing the person to be aware, but unable to move.

In the yogic tradition, this state is thought to be the “dream body” separating from the physical body, where out-of-body travel might occur. It is thought that one of the stages of the journey to enlightenment is “witnessing sleep,” being lucid and in a state of Witness Consciousness while asleep. A variation of this is present when you are in an authentic state of Yoga Nidra. Not the “Yoga Nidra” class you are taking with 10 other people, but the real deal, the Yoga Nidra Theta states familiar to Yoga Masters.

There is also a Hindu mythos that Rakshasas (Hindu demons) attack persons in this state to hinder their progress towards enlightenment. This pertains to those who experience a fear reaction in this state and is, in my opinion, an anthropomorphic external projection of the internal experience. That is, we create an external threat out of our internal fear. This can seem quite real.

5. Tantric and sexual in nature: Scott has stated: “It is very intense when it happens, it feels like an orgasm but different.”

Scott is experiencing a mild variant of the “full body orgasm” first discovered in the West by Wilhelm Reich. As we are able to let go of our neuroses, (our fears, frustrations, physical tensions, stress, our karma) and activate our life force ( Qi, Chi, Ki, or in this case Shakti Kundalini ), we can attain a highly charged energetic state of non genital full body orgasm which floods the entire body and psyche. In a kind of feedback loop, the orgasm itself then continues to release old neuromuscular tensions in the body (somatic karmic patterns).

This is cultivated in Tantra and is predicated on one’s ability to both charge the body with life force AND surrender to its flow. In Scott’s case, it is happening spontaneously after being relaxed by a full nights sleep, which lowers psychic and somatic karmic resistance. For many men, morning is a time when Tantric sexual energy can peak due to elevated testosterone, and a relaxed, rested state. Being able to share this with a partner in an awakened Tantric or Kundalini state (somatically and spiritually), can amplify the experience and one can attain ecstatic, transpersonal, often mystical states of awareness while speeding your liberation from your karmic patterns ( karma burning ).

Taoist Tantra training will enhance this process. This will, at minimum, improve your physical and mental well being, personal power, and creativity. If one attains an enlightened Bodhisattva consciousness, what began as personal accrual of bliss may radiate outward as a boon to humanity in general. (c) 2006 Keith E. Hall. All rights reserved.

Instruction and coaching

References:
Reich, Wilhelm The Function of the Orgasm: Discovery of the Orgone, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1986.

Conesa, J. (2002). Isolated Sleep Paralysis and Lucid Dreaming: Ten-year longitudinal case study and related dream frequencies, types, and categories. Sleep and Hypnosis, 4, (4), 132-143.

Schneck JM. Sleep paralysis and microsomatognosia with special reference to hypnotherapy . The International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis 1977; XXV:72-77.

Takeuchi T, Miyasita A, Sasaki Y, Inugami M, Fukuda K. Isolated sleep paralysis elicited by sleep interruption. American Sleep Disorders Association and Sleep Research Society, 1992; 15: 217-225.

Ohayon MM, Zulley J, Guilleminault C, Smirne, S. Prevalence and pathologic associations of sleep paralysis in the general population. Neurology, 1999; 52:1194-1200.

Sea of Chi, Sex, and Enlightenment

There is more than one acupuncture point to which the appellation “Sea of Chi” is affixed. For instance there is “Qi Hai Shu” or “Sea-of-Qi Shu” (Urinary Bladder 24) which is located at the level of the lower border of the spinous process of the third lumbar vertebra. This point strengthens the kidneys, chi and yang, and is said to “enrich” yin. It can tonify the blood, restore collapsed yin or yang, expel kidney stones, and gathers chi for the lower Cinnabar Field. This point is sort of the “back door” to the chakras of the lower Tan Tien (Cinnabar Field) and one of its effects can be to strengthen certain types of sexual energy.

So one can see how Sea-of-Qi Shu has some importance for our vital, sexual, and generative functions. It can be seen also to have a Tantric aspect in that it unifies Yin and Yang, Essence and Spirit.

Most often, the term “Sea of Chi,” as used in acupuncture refers to Qihai, which is on the midline and below the navel. It is used to treat abdominal pain, nocturnal emission, impotence or erectile dysfunction, uterine bleeding, irregular menstruation, dysmenorreha, postpartum hemorrhage, constipation, among others. From this list, one can see how this point has a direct effect on the quality of both male and female sexual energies.

In a sense, this entire mid to lower area of the abdomen can be called a Sea of Chi, with much the same poetic accuracy that the clairvoyant yoga Masters describe this area as Manipura, or the “City of Jewels.” The entire area is a large storage battery for our light, the very essence of our life force. How we express this life force is another matter, and varies from person to person depending on their karmic patterning.

While acupuncture and moxibustion are excellent for certain conditions, particularly physical and emotional ones, certain aspects of the higher spiritual qualities are more efficiently developed with supplemental practices such as T’ai Chi, Tantric Qigong, Tumo, Conscious Breathwork, etc. Karma is somatically stored in the tissues of this and other areas of the body, and the meridians and points cannot completely release or transform this sort of energy. Apparently the karmic charge is both too dense and simultaneously widespread somatically for the meridians to be able to have a direct, significant, and consistent “karma burning” effect. If that were really possible, then all one would need for enlightenment would be to stick some needles in there. I wish it were that easy. In that case, I can think of a more than a few people who could benefit immediately and tremendously from being needled.

If one’s Intention is to create evolutionary Awakening and Spiritual Freedom, we must harness all the Will, life force, and persistence that the third chakra can produce. One way of doing this is to generate large quantities of Chi through breath exercises, and couple this life force with a process of liberating somatic holding patterns (our karmic habits and resistance to spiritual growth) through precise conscious movement. This allows life force, consciousness, and intention to be unified, and the form of our karmic baggage to be released and transmuted.

This is one of the specific and most important intentions of both our Tantric Qigong system as taught in the “10 Minutes to a Healthier You!” course, and the breath and mental / muscular control and surrender methodology of the “Relax! Journey to the Primal Sea” CD program. These techniques work not only with the meridians and superficial points but also with the deeper, more extensive internal chakras. For instance, the location of the lower Cinnabar Field is not only associated with the QiHai and Guan Yuan points, found two or three inches below the navel, but also an energetic field three to four inches inward (deeper if you are sufficiently zaftig.) Both the superficial and the deeper, more internal fields must be a least partially cleared and balanced for physical, metal, and spiritual health to be restored and Awakening to occur.

Breath Coaching can be ideal for someone who is ready to surrender his or her spiritually maladaptive patterns. During this process, the coach and trainee work with both the seat of personal power, and the seat of Spiritual Surrender i.e., the Tan Tien, Solar Plexus, and Heart Chakras. One does not lose even one quantum of personal power, but the software applications governing its use and intention may change. This transforms self centeredness, victim / victimizer consciousness, and stubborn attachments to ego patterns into an empowering surrender to the Flow of Tao. What is perceived as surrender by some is in actuality allowing yourself to be carried into the power of Universal Flow while generating empathy, gratitude, and compassion as a natural consequence. I think you can see how this would be important for both spiritual progress and healthy, dynamic interpersonal and sexual relationships.
(See, The 3rd Chakra and the Spiritual Purpose of Power, parts 1-6)

Certainly though, an acupuncture and / or moxa treatment can be calming, centering, and revitalizing and tangibly important, since a modicum of physical health and centering is a prerequisite for higher spiritual attainment. In our increasingly frenetic and dis-eased world, this should not be underestimated in its value, especially if it is as an adjunct to an efficacious spiritual and somatic practice. © 2008 Keith E. Hall. All rights reserved.

The Three Jewels of Taoism

Learn Tantric Qigong ™

Presencing™: Learn to Be Present

Instruction & Coaching contact for info on instruction

T’ai Chi & Qigong Instruction available in the Baltimore Washington, DC area.