The Great Qi Mystery: Tangents to Evidence

Ha... So I'm still on the trail to discover the truth about Qi. I came across a website, www.qi-journal.com if I'm not mistaken, and there was a lot of helpful tips and hints. I have yet to read the entire site, but the little I did read seemed very interesting.

I have already determined that in order to understand Qi, I will more than likely have to participate at least in part in some of the Qi-related activities I read about. One instructor had a list of exercises that supposedly build qi by building nei, or internal strength. He trains his students by having them visualize and slowly count backward from 300 in their minds. I tried it at work tonight; I was able to do it successfully, but I admit it was a bit stressful. Supposedly such an exercise strengthens one internally as push-ups, etc. strengthen one externally; I can believe this because my mind was exhausted once I completed the count. I'll keep you posted as I continue to repeat the exercise...

Now to my actual subject, lol. As I said in my last post, when you're attempting to understand something that none of the five senses can help with, it's good to leave no stone unturned. And so, I find myself digging in odd places to piece the puzzle together. The two unlikely candidates for clues are as follows: cartoons and the Bible??

Let's start with more Qi-theory. I came across a theory that stated qi-energy is produced inside of human beings as the result of combining energies taken from the food we eat and the air we breathe. Seems possible to me... Nothing too crazy about it. But it reminded me of this popular anime, Dragonball Z.

If you have kids, if you know kids, you should know something about this show. It's a testosterone fest of big blasts and martial arts. Well, as it's a Japanese anime, it's steeped in Eastern culture. And supposedly, the big bright lasers you see are actually "ki blasts". Of course it's GREATLY exaggerated... I know good and well that none of us are gonna be shooting big-arse lasers, even if I do figure out the ki mystery. However... there was something else on the show that caught my attention.

The strongest character on the show, Goku, supposedly has the greatest ki level. One of the run-on gags on the show is that his appetite is freakishly huge. But wait a minute... According to the theory, food is a big part of where we get the ingredients to make ki energy. CONNECTION...

I dug a little deeper... What does Goku eat specifically? Not surprisingly, a lot of rice and noodles, as you often see from Asian culture. Hm... Well, I know from basic health studies that breads and related foods are highest in carbohydrates and the best sources of energy. I know this is true also from experience: at my job, if I know it's going to be a hard night, I usually load up on noodles and other bread foods, and when the night is done, I have so much energy that it doesn't even seem that I worked for 8 hours. So for a culture where rice is a staple food, I could see the potential for a diet that, according to the theory, cultivates great qi energy.

Still, this is predominantly theory derived only in Eastern culture with slight support from Western science. I needed something else to validate the theory. I thought, "bread... bread..." I stepped out of logic for a minute and just meditated on the word "bread". Then it hit me: I live by the Word of God, so why not search for the word "bread" in the Bible? Immediately a few scriptures came to mind: "man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" and "give us this day our daily bread".

I thought back to an important piece of advice someone once gave me: "a good author writes what he writes the way that he writes it for a reason." I thought to myself, "Why in these scriptures does God say 'bread' instead of say 'vegetables' or 'food'?" And don't get me wrong, I know very well that the word 'bread' could easily be a metonym/synecdoche for 'food'. But it could just as easily have deeper relevance than that; the Bible is a much better written book than people give it credit for being. I mean, if you know biblical stories, it could be an allusion to
the manna in the wilderness; basically, God saying, "Man doesn't live by miracles and blessings alone, but by the Word of God itself." Or something of that nature...

But oftentimes biblical passages have multi-level meanings, and in my attempt to make sense of this qi business, I began to wonder, "Maybe the word 'bread' is used because God is insinuating that 'bread' is a particularly potent food; so potent that it makes a perfect parallel to illustrate the power of the Word of God."

...Yup, seems plausible to me.

So now I have another reason to change to a bread-based diet; to keep me strong at work and to discover if I can foster some qi of my own to study, lol. Can you believe I went from qi to cartoons to the Bible and it all comes together at 'bread'? All this deduction still doesn't quite prove anything though. But I'm a person that gives more credit to hunches than most; especially when it comes to sensing the unsensible.

I'm going to go count backward from 500 now to exercise my mind a bit. If I don't find myself unconscious, I'll follow this post up soon.

Jesus Peace