If so, then we have a solution for you. It’s called SlowFlo, the Christian alternative to Tai Chi.

Inspired by Chuck Norris, the art of SlowFlo reforms the inscrutable pagan art of Tai Chi Chuan into a safe and guilt-free form of Christian exercise.

The benefits of SlowFlo include limbering of the joints and spinal column, and oxygenation of your whole body, all without challenging your religious and philosophical beliefs.

While all other forms of martial arts were created under demonic influence, SlowFlo strengthens and fortifies your body and soul with the real ultimate power of Jesus.

You will burn calories in a gentle, relaxing way, while performing simple techniques with reassuring names, like “The Iron Pope”, “Lifting the White Man’s Burden”, and “The Chris Farley”.

SlowFlo raises your metabolism for quicker weight loss and more energy–not the evil ki energy of brown and yellow devils, but wholesome Christian energy.

The beautiful movements of Slow Flo are accompanied by scriptural affirmations in All-American Sign Language. Say goodbye to the occult influence of Oriental mantras, mudras, and meditation, and welcome the healing power of SlowFlo exclusively into your heart.

In Christ all things are possible, except for Oriental Yoga and martial arts: those are the work of the devil. If you accept Jesus as your master, buy SlowFlo on DVD today.

Slow Flow by WholyFit
Hat tip to The Museum of Idolatry: Artifacts of Apostasy

All kidding aside, the serious question is: what is it about Tai Chi that requires a “Christian alternative”?

I can see inside Vyacheslav Bronnikov’s head.

Not because I possess the disputed X-ray vision skills–though if I did, I would probably keep quiet about it. No, I’m just saying that I may understand what Bronnikov was thinking when he did what he did.

I should back up, and tell the tale from the start. Derren Brown is a renowned ‘psychological illusionist,’ a performer who combines magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship in order to seemingly predict and control human behavior. Imagine a younger, more talented, and more personable version of James Randi…

For the past ten years Derren has created TV and stage performances that have stunned audiences, debunked the paranormal and encouraged many to improve and enhance their own mental abilities. His first show appeared in 2000, Derren Brown: Mind Control, and followed with Trick of the Mind, Trick or Treat and a series of Specials including the controversial Russian Roulette and the hugely popular Events.

In the second episode of his latest television series, Darren Brown Investigates…, the illusionist set out to test The Bronnikov Method of human potential development. Created by Vyacheslav M. Bronnikov, this system–based in ancient Tibetan Yoga–promises to awaken dormant human skills and abilities, among them the ability to see while blindfolded, or indeed with no eyes at all.

Derren traveled to a Bronnikov seminar in Belgium, accompanied a woman who has been legally blind for more than a decade. As for what happened next…I’ll let you watch the episode, which was broadcast in Britain but is now available on YouTube.

Derren Brown Investigates…The Man With X-Ray Eyes

Interview transcript

Darren Brown: After four days of attending courses in his method, I was anxious to meet the legendary founder, Vyacheslav Bronnikov. The superhuman figure revered by so many, who has reached the exalted heights of level 6, and even mentioned that he could levitate, and that we could too.

I began by asking him how he came up with the method.

Vyacheslav Bronnikov: Actually, my story…I had twelve teachers. I was absolutely loaded with knowledge. Overloaded maybe even, but in a very potent way.

DB: And you were how old?

VB: It started from three years old, but if I take the question more seriously, I came consciously into this body. That was my choice. I actually was aware about coming into this life before I was born. And when I was born, I had a lot of capacities already.

DB: We’ll talk about the ball of energy for a moment. When you do this [rubs hands together], you feel a tingle in your hands, and your muscles kind of create a sensation of pulling away. So I can understand how you can imagine that might feel like a ball. I don’t understand how you make the leap from an imaginary ball–a sensation in your fingers–to then placing that somewhere where other people can feel it, and touch it, and move it around.

VB: I guess you didn’t understand anything. When we wrap our hands between two parts of the brain, we create a connection. And this connection actually works. And transforms. And everything else is secondary. Individual. Everything works inside of the brain.

DB: I would love to see the evidence. I really would love to see the evidence.

VB: Let your scientists organize an event. Let them organize a scientific commission. We’ll come, and it will work. And you will study from the very beginning, to the very end.

DB: Maybe my problem is, that I haven’t seen someone who can really look at a box, and see something that’s inside it. Is it possible? [Pushes sealed cardboard box forwards.] I don’t want to embarrass you but, is it possible for someone at level 6 and your skill level to be able to do the test–they were doing the test earlier in the workshop: they were looking at a box, and seeing what was in it. Is it possible right now?

VB: Unfortunately, you create a negative documentary. You create problems for yourselves. You don’t have a scientific approach, and you don’t have basic knowledge of this technology.

DB: I don’t understand…

VB: Do you understand what you are talking about? What do you want?

DB: I’m trying to understand. I suppose maybe I’m being naive, and if I am I apologize, but I guess I want to see a result.

VB: First of all, you create advertisements for your own…you show yourself not to be a serious organization. Will I be playing circus here, stacking boxes and things? This is not serious.

DB: You teach people to do this…

VB: You want science? Let’s do science.

DB: You teach this at level 3.

VB: I am not playing anything with you. And I won’t prove anything to you.

DB: OK. So there is something called Charles Bonnet syndrome, which is where blind people can hallucinate, and think they are seeing things on the outside world, and it’s very convincing for them. Now do you think it would be unfair if blind people were being persuaded that it was actual vision when it was just a hallucination?

VB: We don’t do healing here at all. We don’t do healing. We deal with human development. I want to make that clear.

DB: When we think about self-improvement, then to me, becoming better people is about becoming…kinder…I think that is important. Do you think it’s kind to tell a 16-year-old boy with cerebral palsy that he will walk, and maybe develop superpowers?

VB: First of all, we’re not talking about healing, because we don’t heal. Maybe you frame information in the wrong way. I speak of a system of development. And ‘system of development’ means that if you stimulate the correct development of certain functions of the brain, you can…improve things. We normally want to work with normal, healthy people, who use the training techniques for self development. So I state again, we don’t deal with ill people. When we design a system for ill people, this is for use by doctors only.

DB: So the slogan, ‘World Without Blindness’, is that misleading to blind people? Should it be something else?

VB: It is working, and the results are there. Is that clear? I see that you are trying to find weak points. And I guess it’s fine, because you’re from England. But at Rostov-na-Danu–it’s a city in Russia–there is a boy, and he was born without his eyeballs. Nobody told him he was blind, and he can see better than you. Think about it.

DB: There’s a boy in Russia who has no eyes, and he can see perfectly? You’re saying that is true?

VB: Definitely, I’m saying what I say.

DB: Do you know his name? I’d love to…I want to find out about this man. Do you know his name?

VB: Well, I don’t have this information. Just ask around, it’s in Rostov-na-Danu. And this is not the first case.

DB: I’ve spoken to a scientist who says that science doesn’t take the Bronnikov results seriously, who doesn’t take the Bronnikov system seriously. Why is that, if the results are real?

VB: From one point of view, I am happy that you in England have no understanding of new technology–scientific, psychological human development. And it’s very nice that Russia, Ukraine, and the Soviet Union are on the first wave of telepathy study.

DB: I just want to ask you one more thing, just going back to this [cardboard] box for a moment, because I want people at home to understand that, if it is not appropriate for you to do this–which is fine–I want to know why, so that they understand.

VB: You’re not a scientist. Why do you do this? You’re not scientists.

DB: OK.

VB: You don’t deal with proofs, and usually create refutations, and this is your job, and you know where you belong. You do what you do. Let’s do the exposé. This will not work. Actually, for us, these types of shows are even better than real promotions. Make your documentary.

[awkward silence]

DB: Thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much for having us here, and allowing us to film everything.

VB: Next time, we will participate in your circus. Don’t worry.

Based upon the contents of this show alone, it would be reasonable to conclude that Bronnikov was unnecessarily hostile, intransigent, and most likely a fraud. That is the conclusion I would have drawn after watching it, had I not once been in Darren Brown’s position myself.

The details of my story were just slightly different. I was not visiting Bronnikov, but instead a man with an even greater reputation. I was not a professional illusionist; but as an engineer who had already spent years studying the “Dao of Deceit” through the martial arts, I was nobody’s fool either.

Most importantly, I had no agenda other than to investigate the possibilities, and I was under no pressure to deliver a verdict within the span of a single week. For this and other reasons, I am well-qualified to provide some context, which is sorely lacking in Derren Brown’s presentation.

• Bronnikov’s final brusque observations were correct: Brown was simply not equipped to conduct any sort of respectable scientific investigation, only a quick debunking.

  When scientists assert the primacy of repeatability and careful controls, it is only an illustration of their confusion and vanity; the primary issues are faith and trust. If you cannot trust, at some basic level, in the honesty and competence of others, then you cannot build upon their work, and instead are forced to repeat it at your own time and expense.

  Even putting aside the shabby controls around his “look into my cardboard box” experiment, the fact is that the public will not accept the scientific determinations of a mere “magician” such as Derren Brown, especially concerning an issue of this magnitude.

  There is ample evidence for this in the literature, some of which I have previously featured on this website. Odds are that you discounted those eyewitness testimonies as untrustworthy, as most others have, using any convenient justification–understandable, but it clearly demonstrates my point. Such improbable events are rarely disputed; they are maliciously dismissed, with the personal and professional reputations of the plaintiffs serving as a rationale.

• Nevertheless the Bronnikovs did agree to “scan” a sick patient that Brown provided. Brown brought her into the examination room in a wheelchair, wearing dark glasses. After she was diagnosed with poor eyesight and a misaligned spine, Brown complained that the results were obvious (eyes) or incorrect (spine).

  

  Here Derren Brown fails on at least three counts. First, he condemns the experimental controls he himself designed just a few hours earlier. Second, he evaluates Bronnikov’s current description of the spinal vertebrae against an old X-ray, seemingly oblivious to the fact that these bones naturally shift–has he never heard of chiropracty? Third, he disregards the precedents for verifying these claims.

  Yes, believe it or not, many of us have already run this test against alleged masters of third-eye kung fu–and we had the common sense to test against diseases without any obvious external indications (e.g. the specific location and shape of tumors), obtaining diagnoses which could be subsequently vindicated or refuted using the Western scientific paradigm (e.g. radiology). None of this cheap “Can you guess I’m blind?” nonsense.

• After you have seen this pattern repeated time and again, you begin to understand that these are not really meant to be objective investigations–they are religious rituals, intended to end in a sacrifice. But having noted that point, we may as well ignore it henceforth, and charitably accept the premise of the documentary at face value, as a show of good sportsmanship. This is, after all, just a game. This is also, I believe, a cause for Vyacheslav Bronnikov’s outward hostility towards the end of the show.

  From a martial arts perspective, he executed a canny reversal on the show’s producers. First, he consented to filming, because there would certainly be no documentary otherwise. Second, he pulled the plug halfway through, incentivizing them to finish production on the episode, even without access to the crown jewels–his training methods. (This was explained as a wish to protect his trade secrets–which would make sense, expect that he didn’t “realize” it until the film crew had arrived and started their work!) Third, he flatly refused to describe the contents of Brown’s cardboard box, while reasserting that he could do so at his pleasure, for a more worthy audience.

  In the end, Bronnikov gets all the publicity at no real cost to himself. Those who are already inclined to attend his training will find Brown’s show “inconclusive” or “mean-spirited”, and the opinion of everyone else probably hasn’t changed, and doesn’t matter. This is black belt Aikido with a slight Machiavellian touch, and I tip my hat to his superior execution!

• Derren Brown came to the training with the expectation that he would be shown convincing evidence, for the validity of these purported supernatural skills. (Sure, the evidence might prove fraudulent under his trained scrutiny, but at least it would be offered as a token gesture.) Instead, he was treated to a room full of credulous bon vivants, few of whom suffered from the disabilities (such as blindness) that the Method promised to cure–and whose enthusiasm was entirely unjustified by their own apparent results following the Method. Oh, Derren Brown, how I have felt your pain!

  

  Brown explains that seminar participants feel considerable social pressure to admire the emperor’s new clothes, whether or not they can actually see them. This is absolutely true. (Unfortunately, he doesn’t take the next step of considering his own peer group and social identity, and the pressures they continuously exert upon himself to reach a different conclusion, whether or not these peers are physically present in the room with him.)

  His further point that participants paid considerable sums for their tuition, and are influenced by this fact to assign an otherwise unwarranted value to the course, might be correct also–but it is prematurely surmised, and a cheap shot. The value of the course is evaluated on an individual basis, and based not only upon its direct promises, but also in “off-label uses” to which Brown (as an outside observer) must remain completely unaware.

• Again, I have felt the pain. I might have abandoned the practice after a few days too, purely out of disgust with these other participants, if not for my martial arts background. Thankfully, though, this foundation helped me to set appropriate expectations.

  I cannot speak for Bronnikov Method in particular, but in my limited experience: these systems are nothing like a modern certification course, wherein a few dozen hours of instruction are followed by a written exam that 95% of the students are expected to pass, thereby earning the right to assert they “know” the subject. No, the purpose of the formal instruction here is simply to teach you how to learn, and to provide the inspiration and confidence necessary to undertake the extraordinary burden of time and effort that this material truly requires.

  After successfully graduating the course, you are basically left to succeed or fail on your own merits, with minimal ongoing interventions from the master. A lucky or talented few may really be able to perform at the end of the introductory weekend; others will measure their progress over months and years; and a few others will never get anywhere. It is no fault of the material that not all spectators are invited to become students, and not all students are equally capable.

  Personally, it took me nearly ten years to get an inkling of what it means to “see without eyes” (and I still have no idea whether Bronnikov can indeed do this himself).

• Bronnikov fervently insisted that his is not a system of healing. In case you were wondering, this is to forestall the criminal charges of impermissible or “unlicensed medicine” that have been used previously to destroy Wilhelm Reich and others. In other words, it is more a political statement than a scientific one. It is an act of self-defense.

• I offered Bronnikov HQ, and his United States affiliates at the Neurovision Academy, an opportunity to respond to this documentary, and to my comments here. So far, they have not accepted the invitation. On the chance that they will change their minds, please feel free to submit any questions or comments for them below.

• Despite all of the above, I still like and respect Derren Brown. It is no doubt easier to enjoy his “investigations” when one has no knowledge of the subject he pretends to investigate.

Mark Nesti is not your average New Age flake. After five years’ service with a recon/sniper cell in the Australian army, his career shifted into helicopter testing and maintenance, emergency communications, and business development. When he eventually began to explore the fields of theoretical physics and alternative therapies, his broad engineering mindset granted him a unique perspective.

Mark wrote a book about his exploration and research into quantum mechanics, meditation, chi, and consciousness. He isn’t promising you a new car or a diamond necklace in return for your fealty, but you may find his work rewarding in other ways. Mark recently sent me a few words regarding his personal inspiration and investigation, which I share with you below.

—

Perhaps, in some measure, modern society has lost regard for nature, in a divine sense, or otherwise. If true, this can only be attributed to a loss of spirit within the individual. In an attempt to define the connection between science and spirituality, between the observer and the included, I hope that spirit will be reunited.

I would like to share with you a personal experience of just how powerful some types of meditation can be. Many of you already know that there are many forms of meditation, from practices which are designed to energize and relax, all the way to practices aimed at raising awareness, and some with the specific goal of raising the levels of Chi (accumulations called Kundalini) within the human system. I am of the belief that western society, in a general sense, is not yet ready to tackle the more advanced forms of meditation. My reasoning is that, as a culture, we have not yet been exposed to this type of practice as a part of our daily activities. Furthermore, we have not been raised from children with such disciplines integrated within our daily lives. You will see what I mean as we progress.

Several years ago, my partner and I brought over an Indian meditation teacher to conduct courses at our wellness centre and alternative therapy training institute; this became a regular event and one which attracted many students. One type of meditation he conducted, Dhyan, is a practice originally designed to promote prolonged awareness. However, the ancient Indian Hindu yogis referred to this particular meditation in a more appropriate manner: “the practice of dying”. I personally find this is an appropriate description.

I remember my experience very clearly: after going through the sequence of steps laid out within the practice, I began sweating and breathing as though I were exercising quite heavily (at the time I was cycling competitively so fitness wasn’t an issue). Shortly thereafter, my hearing began to diminish and my sensory world began to close in on itself. Soon I lost my sense of taste, smell, most of my hearing and any feeling coming into my body, so the painfully numb feeling throughout my legs I would normally experience during meditations was no longer there. I remember the experience from this point quite vividly–for reasons which will become obvious.

I felt as though my entire body was slowly being immersed in a dense liquid like liquid metal. It eventually became so dense that it felt like a vise, crushing me, and that at any moment my body would give in and collapse. Accompanying this was an intense medium-to-high frequency vibration. Initially faint, it gradually built up to such strength that I thought I was actually going to die. It was like no experience or situation I have known. It was painful but I couldn’t withdraw from it. I was stuck, mentally still and without any thoughts, but very conscious and fully aware of my predicament.

Eventually, after perhaps 15-20 minutes, I heard a faint chime, a small gong with a particular frequency so as to make meditators aware that their session is ending. The frequency is said to assist in the process of shifting from a meditative state to an awakened state. However, the chime did little but make me aware that I was unable to do much at all. It was as though I was locked in a safe and being dropped into the ocean: pretty grim. Somehow, and to this day I have no idea how, I was able to restart my thinking, and slowly crawl out from wherever I had strayed. Eventually I was able to open my eyes with the realization that the experience was actually going to end.

For the next three to four days, I felt as though I had concussion. I was well aware I was not able to think properly and was in a daze most of the time. I believe what I had experienced firsthand was OM, the divine frequency and sound of creation according to ancient Hindu scriptures. Yogis experience the many frequencies of OM within meditation regularly, but unlike them, I was not acclimatised to the experience. More appropriately, I had not yet earned the right to the experience. In hindsight, I look back on this as though I were a child, toying around with a gun I had found. Without knowledge, appreciation and training on the device which has powerful effects, it was a recipe for disaster.

Although I am not sure, I feel and believe that the experience left me with some lasting effect. Not long after this experience, I was able to identify key features, and bring together a theory on consciousness in particle physics; the linking of frequency to purpose. In my book, I aim to describe the inner workings of OM, the divine vibration that created the cosmos, and the coordinator of all activity.

About the book

It is not my aim to provide proof that the energy which alternative science talks about and utilises to great effect is a natural phenomenon within our universe. My aim is to put forward a plausible theory that both aligns itself to modern scientific understanding of the universe and conforms to the characteristics of Chi as viewed by spirituality. Additionally, it is my belief that Chi is not an impulsive force but a subtle and cumulative activity. A measure of its affects on the physical world can be found in many areas of modern and ancient society, such as alternative therapies.

Before we embark on this journey it may be pertinent to touch on just how special the universe is. Not all is as it seems. For instance, what keeps us pinned down to the earth is the force of gravity. However, preventing us from being pulled to the centre of the earth is matter itself. What is gravity, and what is matter?

Gravity is still an illusive mechanism: it has proven to be a worthy adversary to scientists and philosophers for eons. Einstein’s theory of general relativity shows us that gravity is the warping of space and time, often referred to as the spacetime continuum but to this day we still do not know how gravity actually works. How is the force carried, what carries it, and is it even a force to begin with? There are many theories but no conclusive evidence has been forthcoming.

Another surprise in the working of the universe is how matter interacts. For instance, if you were to touch both of your index fingers together and push a little, you should feel the left finger being pushed by the right and vice versa. The reality here is that the fingers themselves are not actually touching. What’s happening is that the electrons associated with each finger are repelling electrons of the opposite finger. Stranger still is that even the electrons don’t actually touch, they interact using the electromagnetic force carrier, the photon–a packet of light–so what’s preventing your fingers from touching, and preventing you from being pulled to the centre of the earth, is the exchange of light! When you go for a swim in a pool or at the beach, you are moving through the water by controlling the interactions of electrons using light. That being said, even today we don’t truly know what light is. In the extreme scenario, some of our most prominent scientists and philosophers agree that we have only scratched the surface of the structure of reality…

Continued in If We Are Anything: OM, Chi, Consciousness and Quantum Gravity by Mark Nesti.

There are seventy thousand Jedi knights in Australia. Four hundred thousand in England and Wales. In New Zealand, Jedi is the second most popular religious affiliation, ahead of Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and most everything else. So concluded the official 2001 census in each of these countries.

It is unclear how many respondents were serious about their Jedi faith, but their governments did not take them seriously. Tallies were ignored or reclassified, and citizens were threatened with fines for providing “false or misleading” information.

So it is forbidden. Religions may not originate in movies–at least not in movies of Star Wars mediocre quality. But with the unprecedented critical and commercial acclaim of the hit film Inception, some of the formerly irreligious are reportedly inspired to worship again.

Let’s take a (mostly spoiler-free) look at Inception’s spiritual and religious themes:

• Dom Cobb once offered his skills in service to the rich and powerful. Having failed to satisfy them completely, he placed his own life in danger. Cobb now lives in exile.
• Cobb has money and power of his own, enough to guarantee worldly comforts, but it does not satisfy him. What Cobb truly desires, and would give everything to achieve, is a reunion.
• Reunion seems unattainable. Nevertheless, Cobb is inspired to take a leap of faith. There is no proof that the work can be done, but he is finally resolved to try.
• In order to complete his task, Cobb must first enter an extremely deep state of relaxation. Through his prior education and training, Cobb knows that the seeds planted within this state will bear fruit in normal waking life.
• Within this near-death experience, Dom Cobb finds himself under attack. Some of his attackers are projections of his own subconscious mind, and others originate elsewhere. These demons manifest themselves within a dream state, and although they are not “real”, they are nevertheless capable of thwarting his progress.
• Cobb has prepared himself well for the challenges that lie ahead. With the support of his teachers and companions, he is now capable of entering dreams within dreams within dreams.
• Cobb is not the owner of these dream worlds, he is only a temporary inhabitant. Nevertheless he can access extraordinary powers and privileges within them, because unlike most of the natives, Cobb fully realizes that he is asleep!
• At the same time, Cobb is fully awakened with respect to individual dream worlds, which he is therefore capable of entering and leaving at will. The sensation of jumping back into the real world–or the realer world, or perhaps the merely different world–is similar to leaving free fall.
• Cobb discovers these worlds can be seductive. Although he enjoys visiting them, even for decades at a time, he never feels quite as comfortable there as in his old home.

Does this sound like the foundation for a new cult religion? Or, do you think it sounds like a religion that already exists?

Introduction

• Qigong (chi gong) is most often understood as a set of active exercises, guiding qi (chi) energy around the body through intention, movement, and sound. It is less well known that Qigong incorporates rigorous courses of standing and seated meditation. These active and passive, external and internal modalities are mutually supportive.
• One of the first goals of Qigong meditation is to reach a deep level of quietude within the mind and body. Sustained quiet allows a student to perceive increasingly subtle objects and movements inside their body.
• In a quiet meditative state, relationships and correspondences that were previously hidden or overlooked, become clear and credible. In other words, meditation allows for biofeedback training without the need for electronic biofeedback instrumentation.

• Portions of Wu Xing, the Chinese five-element theory, are patterned after these relationships. Students of meditation and martial arts are often surprised to discover that Wu Xing is not merely a poetic concept or metaphorical diagram. Wu Xing has literal application and predictive power.
• Traditional Chinese Medicine recognizes that chronic emotional imbalance affects organ function. Each of the five emotions–anger, joy, anxiety, sadness, and fear–is associated with a pair of Yin and Yang functions (“organs”). Due to their heightened sensitivity, some meditators and Qigong practitioners can perceive this relationship immediately and directly.
• When an advanced student drifts too far out of balance, they may immediately feel a sensation in the corresponding organ(s). This is not a creative visualization or a theoretical belief–it is as real, and sometimes as unpleasant, as hot coffee spilled in your lap.
• Consequently, these students quickly learn self-discipline. This level of gongfu (kung fu) automatically aligns the practitioner’s immediate interest in avoiding pain, with their longer-term aspirations for emotional stability and tranquility.
• Emotional balance is the foundation upon which more advanced Qigong and meditation practices are built. It is also the foundation of a pleasant, empathetic and rewarding life.

Diagram courtesy of Spiritual Science Research Foundation

Steps

1. This gongfu skill is primarily a result of attaining a quiet and emotionally neutral meditative state, and remaining within it for a sufficient length of time.
2. Any exercises that increase your internal sensitivity, or your ability to sit quietly and comfortably for an extended period of time, will likely speed your progress. These exercises include Taijiquan (and other martial arts), zhan zhuang, and the Taoist Six Healing Sounds method.

Warnings

• The efficacy of meditation is not dependent on your “belief” in it. However, assertive dis-belief is a distraction and a form of noise, and it will prevent you from remaining in the quiet state. Trying to feel or impose these relationships, rather than waiting for them to reveal themselves, may also prove counterproductive.
• The particular form of insight described above is helpful, but not necessary for emotional self-regulation.
• There is no exact timetable for any meditative achievement. Fortunately, there is a clear difference between reaching, and failing to reach the quiet state in which gongfu is built.
• Real internal gongfu is rarely found amongst teachers of “internal martial arts.” Do not expect them to provide any guidance or expertise in this area, except perhaps to foolishly claim these skills do not exist.
• Do not discuss these matters in mixed company. It will lead to ridicule at best, and at worst, involuntary psychiatric treatment. Although this is still an early stage of accomplishment in Qigong, it is already well beyond the current understanding of mainstream Western medical science.

More Information

• Chi Gong 101: How to Feel Your Chi Energy
• Qigong books and DVDs
• MeditationExpert.com – Techniques and Advice

In his new book, The Intuitive Warrior: Lessons from a Navy Seal on Unleashing Your Hidden Potential, author and retired Navy SEAL Michael Jaco describes how he channeled the challenges he faced in military training and combat toward aligning his body and mind. With the two working in unison, Jaco remained calm and positive in extremely stressful situations. When he retired, Jaco then used these techniques as a civilian to enrich his everyday life.

Through personal accounts of real experiences, Jaco explains how the challenging situations he endured as a member of one of the most elite Special Forces units in the United States taught him to control his emotions and tap into his intuition. Using these capabilities, he enhanced both his mental and physical strength. In The Intuitive Warrior, Jaco says that anybody can develop the perception and awareness skills that he learned and employ them to achieve a more fulfilling life, whether seeking to improve job performance, personal relationships or physical shape.

Michael Jaco answers a few questions for Martial Development readers in this exclusive interview…

With more than two decades of service in the elite Navy SEALs, you have earned the right to describe yourself as a warrior. How do you prefer to define the term? (Do you think it should be reserved for those in the military, for example?)

A warrior is an archetype or ideal example of what all of humanity must go through at some point. So I feel the term warrior is not exclusive to those that actually serve in the military; it can and will apply to everyone at some point. I feel there are different levels or stages of a warrior. In the beginning stage, we fight either for real as in combat, or figuratively against our inner egoic self, for what we feel we must protect. The higher levels or stages that a warrior goes through are less about self and more about serving others. I feel that the most advanced warrior is one that has an inner calm even when faced with the most stressful of challenges and has learned to tap their inner knowing or intuition at will.

The history of martial arts is seasoned with reports of extraordinary intuitive or psychic skills. They are often dismissed as exaggerations, if not outright frauds, by members of the martial arts and scientific communities today. How have your friends, acquaintances and co-workers reacted to the personal stories you recount in the book?

Do SEALS have a different perspective on this topic than the general public, which is apparently biased towards doubt and ridicule?

Science is actually proving intuitive and psychic skills today through Quantum Physics, and as a martial artist progresses to the higher levels of being a warrior they will experience these abilities. Actually, my friends and colleagues were the ones that had me come forward and start sharing my intuitive skills more openly. I was quietly working these skills for a while, keeping everyone out of danger at just the right times, and my colleagues took notice and asked me to openly relate my intuitions. “If you know attacks are coming, we want to know!” they would tell me. So I have a reputation in my community as a security contractor now, and people are very open to my intuitions, and in turn others are opening to theirs as well.

A former lawyer I worked with, a very analytical person, was least willing to accept my intuition. I had predicted two attacks in a row, each one week in advance. I had told everyone the day, time and place very accurately, even describing the vehicle that the attackers would be in, and the description of the attackers themselves. Then I predicted another: a suicide bomber would attack the residence we were in. This very analytical person was the first to move out, hours before the attack came, and said: I don’t believe what you’re doing is real, but I’m going to listen. I can work with this kind of attitude, and after a few months this person was actually picking up on attacks himself. His new-found intuitive abilities also began to transform his work and he was far more successful and happy in his job as a result.

“By fine-tuning my intuition as a Navy SEAL, I was able to predict and avoid attacks to protect myself and my fellow soldiers.”

The SEAL teams and special operations forces in general are, by nature, pushing the boundaries of possibilities. The intense training and desire to accomplish missions opens the door to intuitive abilities. There is an unspoken knowing of intuitive abilities in some guys, but many special forces warriors have spontaneous awakenings to these skills at certain times throughout their careers. Since the release of The Intuitive Warrior I have been approached by many who have excitedly told me of their own experiences (that they have unfortunately never shared with anyone before).

After retiring from the Special Forces, you developed a “Hell Week” training course for civilians, to help them simultaneously develop physical endurance and awaken their intuitive abilities. What were your students required to perform on day one?

The course was held in a very remote area of the Pocono mountains of Pennsylvania. We had several streams that burst right out of mountainsides on the 15,000 acre property. The setting was idyllic, and perfect for meditating and conducting the type of training that I had dreamed of doing, when I was a SEAL Chief in charge of conducting Hell Week evolutions at Basic SEAL training.

We began the day prior to Hell Week, which would start late at night with classes on brainwave states and meditations designed to build a point within the student that they could go to under stress. This afternoon of training would help them transcend the rigors of their upcoming training. This intuitive training was a very great key to the overwhelming success of the Hell Week as compared to a regular SEAL training class.

Around 9 PM, myself and the instructor staff (that I had personally trained and worked with for several months) began the training by waking the students from their tents with bullhorns, shouts, confusion and shock. They were given physically demanding calisthenics and sprinting evolutions in mud for several hours. They were then taken to one of the mountain streams for cold conditioning. The mountain streams were around 39 degrees which is anywhere from 20 to 40 degrees colder than what an average SEAL Hell Week would experience. This is where I would ingrain the brainwave state that would allow them do impossible things throughout the week. They spent over an hour in and out of the water. The times in the freezing mountain stream were extended progressively longer and would be longer throughout the week. After this evolution I took them on a long walk through the dark forests and mountainsides. They were required to carry a heavy thick long rope that they had to work together to move. At certain intervals throughout the rest of the night and into the following morning, I would stop them and do races with large stones, and have them run and swim in a small lake on the property. These were timed evolutions and the losers would get extra calisthenics.

The whole next day was filled with evolutions that would make them think under stress. For example, I had a Sayoc Kali knife fighting master instructor that taught them 9 count knife templates that had to be learned under different kinds of stress, such as performing the template on a log over a stream; the group had to do strenuous calisthenics and runs if they performed it incorrectly. The rate that they learned these templates was amazing. Towards early evening, a Native American friend of mine came in, and we ran a three hour long warrior sweat lodge under extreme heat. After this, we were back out into the cool mountain air for another hour of cold water conditioning. This was followed by more walks into the dark forested mountains, with the group’s giant hawser line strung out from man to man.

So this was their first day, and I was quite frankly very impressed with their performance. We would go on to do steadily far more intensive nights and days for the rest of the week. I attribute the ability of all the students to perform at levels far above what a normal SEAL training class would go through to the fact that we had taught them how to tap their intuitive abilities under stress and then we all worked them to the point where they had to continually tap it on a deeper and deeper level to continue with training.

Did those students who successfully completed the course, report or demonstrate enhanced intuitive abilities? Such progress is usually attributed to years, or even decades; but under ideal circumstances, can it really be measured in weeks and months?

It was actually measured in hours as they were performing at exceptional levels right at the beginning. The instructors that were helping me run this training were very gifted at creatively pushing people beyond their limits. When I was a SEAL instructor I was renowned for being able to conduct very demanding training evolutions. All of us knew the advanced abilities that students will exhibit if they are working in an intuitive state so we constantly kept up the pressure to keep them there. All the students completed the course–which is rare in any Hell Week civilian course. Even the one at SEAL training has only had one or two classes with no quitters in its entire history.

You theorize that humans need to first reach a certain level of maturity, before they can access their intuitive skills. Is this an individual, or a collective maturity? Do you think we are any closer now than we were 400 years ago, when Galileo was imprisoned for making statements “false and contrary to Scripture”?

Intuition is already prevalent in small children. It is the societal, educational, governmental and religious pressures that take this natural born gift away from us. We can open ourselves to intuition and all of the expanded abilities that it will ignite within us, if we are simply open to the idea that it is already inherent within us. I strongly feel that humanity as a whole is having a spontaneous awakening to intuition. The Mayans have spoken of this in their cyclic time calendar, which points to our time for a quantum leap in the evolution of the human race.

Your time as a SEAL trainer included periods of intensive hand-to-hand combat study, upwards of 300 hours per month. Do you have any favorite drills, techniques, lessons or principles to share with other martial artists?

One of my favorite drills was the multi-fight drill, where we had up to 20 attackers coming at you at one time. You would disable the fighters, and as you moved on the disabled attackers would revive and get back in the mix. Over the three minute period we would conduct this drill you had to remain in an intuitive state, or you would be quickly overwhelmed.

I also enjoyed grappling that taught me how to internally use my skeletal structure and relax out of some of the anaconda grips that some of my physically gifted colleagues could apply. I believe that all martial arts have something to offer everyone if they are open. I have studied many different styles and can say that they all taught me something useful either about fighting styles, or more importantly about myself as an evolving warrior. My favorite style to this day is Sayoc Kali which I feel deeply develops the intuitive side of a warrior in conjunction with the physical.

Any advice for those who are interested, but unable to suspend their disbelief in the power of intuition?

If you can at least have an open skepticism like the analytical lawyer I described above then you will benefit peripherally from intuition. Intuition is trying to come through to us throughout our lives, but we often discount it to our detriment. Ever have those moments that tell yourself that you should have listened to your inner thoughts but didn’t, and caused yourself a lot of anguish because you didn’t? That’s intuition trying to come through.

The next time you are thinking about your loved one or a close friend and the phone rings and it’s them, know that you just had an intuitive moment. That can be how it begins for you, but only if you are open. Once you are open, then the information and abilities start coming through.

John Chang was a practical joker. I had been on an elevator with him one evening along with twenty other people. The elevator was a glass-walled unit that ferried people up and down the floors of a shopping mall; there was a steel railing all around that people rested their backs on. We were going out to eat that evening at a local restaurant on the top floor of the mall.

Suddenly a burst of current pulsed through the steel backstop. Women screamed and everyone pulled away, suspecting a short circuit. John pulled away too, as I had, but I needed only one look at the barely suppressed grin on his face to realize what had really happened: He had sent a pulse of bio-energy through the railing!

Serious training in meditation, qigong, or kundalini yoga is long, hard, often boring, and sometimes downright bitter. Yet when a student reports their discovery of an exciting fringe benefit, such as heightened or extrasensory perception, certain other members of the community are quick to scold them.

“Pay no attention to such things,” the lecturer instructs. “They will only distract you from the ultimate goal of cosmic union.” Well, maybe so, and maybe not, but in the meantime, I think it is important to keep one’s sense of humor intact.

“In the old days,” Rolling Thunder said, “things happened all the time that would be pretty strange to see today. Our grandfathers used to tell of big gatherings–council meetings and festivals–when they were kids when chiefs and medicine men would get together and play around a bit. Of course, I’ve always said the powers are not to be misused–they’re not for personal use or for show–but long ago when there wasn’t the competition and confusion that there is today, the old chiefs and medicine men used to have a little fun just among themselves.

“Some old chief, for example, might take a stick or something and throw it over in a bush and then he’d bet the others that they weren’t sharp enough to see which bush it had landed in. Of course someone would go look and it would be gone, or way over in some other bush. He’d keep throwing things into the bushes and one one would find them. He’d be moving them, see?

And then some old medicine man would come up and play dumb. He’d say he figured he had pretty sharp eyes, and the chief would throw a stone way off in some bush. It would land somewhere in the distance and right away he’d move it from that spot. The old man would run out there while all the others laughed; but the old man would be moving the stone as he ran, right back to where it landed. Then he’d come back with the stone and all the sticks and everything that had been thrown into the bushes, exclaiming they’d all landed in the same spot, and everyone would roll with laughter. Of course it was all a game they were putting on, kind of like keeping in shape.”

Now I open the floor to you. Please share your favorite practical jokes, related or unrelated to kundalini or martial arts.

Through this intensive practice, you progressed rapidly. What experiences and events marked this progress? In what manner was your brain “transformed”?

The first energy transmission I had from Master Chunyi Lin was this flash of light (while my eyes were closed)…very bright, and my whole body filled with this amazing deep bliss. (Chunyi Lin was first healed by Yan Xin and later studied with Yan Xin’s teacher!) When Chunyi Lin walks into the room, you can immediately feel the whole room fill with this magnetic bliss energy.

One day, after a Spring Forest Qigong Level 2 class, Chunyi Lin stared through my body at my right kidney, and I felt this amazing laser bliss right on my kidney. By that point, I knew that Chunyi Lin had profound healing energy.

At the guild meetings, Chunyi Lin would stand in the front of the auditorium and I would see this bright yellow orb of light shooting out of his head.

“I moved 9 times looking for a quiet place, but mundane energy imbalances always intruded…I felt like I had come back from the dead and only consciousness was real.”

As the bliss and electromagnetic energy increased with more and more full-lotus sitting, I realized that there was water flowing from my brain! It was like an electrolysis converting the hydrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere into water through the electromagnetic fields of my third eye. Water poured into my belly, and I realized that this must be the “ambrosia” [described in neidan training manuals]. The top of my skull got soft, and amazingly it started pulsating with electromagnetic energy.

Does the full-lotus meditation posture have any special significance?

Chunyi Lin states that 20 minutes of full-lotus yoga or padmasana (with the ankles up on the thighs, legs crossed, left leg first and right on top) is worth 4 hours of any other meditation practice—if you want to see whether someone is an energy master, just see how long they can sit in full-lotus.

Through my own research, I discovered that yin and yang were originally music ratios—nonwestern music, which uses complementary opposites. (It’s very abstract reasoning, but something I had discovered from my music training while in high school.) I verified that 2:3, the Perfect 5th is Yang and 3:4, the Perfect 4th is Yin. The specific source is in my master’s thesis, “Epicenters of Justice” (2001) which is readable freely online. In short…

Nonwestern music healing works by transducing sound through natural resonance of frequency, to create ultrasound which ionizes the serotonin in the stomach. The more you listen to the source of sound, which is pure consciousness, the more electromagnetic chi energy is created; finally it turns into shen (spirit light). The full-lotus is a tetrahedron—pyramid power—which is composed of eight 2-3-4 triangles.

“I gave my car away. I began eating meat, and dumpster-diving for food. My focus in life was no longer activism; it was qigong.”

In Western science, the equilateral triangle requires the irrational number for geometric magnitude, but in music ratios of complementary opposites–from Pythagorean harmonics and Taoist yin and yang—the full-lotus pressure creates frequency resonance for turning matter into energy. Since the tetrahedron most efficiently creates the yin-yang ratios, the energy creation is fastest there.

How have these experiences affected your outlook on life, and your relationships with other people?

I started having precognitive visions in my full-lotus meditation, but I also was extremely sensitive to the energy imbalances around me. I desperately wanted a quiet place to meditate. I researched intensely all the monasteries around the world, and various other spiritual gurus and masters. I thought that if only I could find a better environment, then I could deepen my meditation. Amazingly I could not find a teacher who seemed on the level of Chunyi Lin—his ability is truly rare.

I moved 9 times looking for a quiet place, but mundane energy imbalances always intruded. I continued taking classes, but not at the same intensity of practice on my part. I stopped my special diet. I felt like I had come back from the dead and only consciousness was real.

My degree was over, and my funding was gone. I gave my car away. I began eating meat, and dumpster-diving for food. My focus in life was no longer activism; it was qigong.

I had no choice about it, and I still am trying to adjust. My experience was similar to that of Wang Liping, who was told to move back into society after his training (in the book “Opening the Dragon Gate“)…only I didn’t make the transition successfully. Ha ha.

I continued my research intensely, “reverse-engineering reality” by comparing science with my own experiences. I discovered some amazing things about the vagus nerve transducing serotonin and anaerobic bacteria. I discovered, by accident, what I call the “O at a D”: psychic mutual climaxes with females.

When Jim Nance, Chunyi Lin’s qigong master assistant, asked me to help him write a book on his training, Lin stated that the spirits would not like this. It seems controlling, but Jim Nance completely respects this, and even mentioned to me that it’s better to not post on the Internet.

Do you have any advice to offer those who are interested in qigong, but unsure quite where to start?

Chunyi Lin

The exercises that Chunyi Lin teaches are extremely simple and yet very effective. The “Small Universe” Level 1 CD is the same as the “Microcosmic Orbit” that Mantak Chia teaches. That is also the focus of the book “Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality”. Chunyi Lin has stated that the Small Universe is the foundation practice and can take you to the highest level. “Taoist Yoga” explains these steps in detail.

Anyone can practice the small universe—a paralyzed man in England healed himself just after the first session! I wholeheartedly recommend his Spring Forest Qigong meditation practice.

Enjoy the energy is my advice.

I’ve spent a lot of time online answering questions from readers, and I’ve posted on many forums to seek critical feedback, knowing that my peers are my greatest critics. So I’m always happy to learn from any readers, and enjoy learning about their qigong experiences as well.

Drew Hempel’s book, “Trance Songs: How to Make Love to the Universe”, is available at Lulu and Amazon. Drew currently blogs at Natural Resonance Revolution.

Drew, how were you first introduced to the ancient art of qigong?

I first discovered Taoism back in the 1970s, in first grade. My best friend at the time was adopted from Korea. He told me he always got his lunch from “Tao Foods” [a local grocery store], so that made me wonder what it was about.

Later, in 1995 I noticed a flyer posted to see qigong master Effie P. Chow, a Chinese master who lives in San Francisco. Immediately I wanted to go, but I was also skeptical of New Age gimmicks. I actually called to request a lower entrance fee, and amazingly I was told I could get in half price.

So Effie Chow was your first teacher?

My girlfriend joined me at the seminar, at St. Catherine’s University. Effie P. Chow had us make an energy ball. I could feel this strong electromagnetic resistance between my hands. Effie projected chi at people walking towards her, and she said that she could be attacked by huge muscle men and it wouldn’t matter—even though she’s a little lady, she could sense their energy and then redirect their energy, adding it to her own. My girlfriend remained skeptical.

As everyone was leaving, this big female security guard wandered in, wondering what was going on in here. She then stated that the fuse blew for the room behind us! (Hardly anyone heard this—it wasn’t staged or meant for any audience.)

After further researching qigong, I traveled to San Francisco to see if I could meet with Effie P. Chow again. I stayed with my Chinese high-school friend who had moved out there. Effie P. Chow was not readily available—at least at my budget, of next to no funds!

I returned home, and I kept researching the issue. By 1998 I was taking Yan Xin qigong with the Chinese community at the University of Minnesota. Again I felt strong, blissful heat from the meditation practice.

Later on, I attended a talk from a Tibetan monk—a lama meditation master. I realized I had this headache from concentrating hard, listening to his amazingly profound lecture, only it was focused on the very center point of my forehead. It didn’t hurt, it was just a strong pressure. I was really psyched.

Did you learn from other masters too?

The Chinese produced a government documentary called “Yan Xin, Superman,” showing Master Yan Xin giving chi healing lectures in stadiums filled with thousands of people. (Yan Xin has tested his qigong with the help of nuclear physicists and other scientists.) The dialogue was all in Chinese, but the people in the room translated for me.

One of my Chinese fellow students was really serious. When I ran into him on campus, he told me to continue practice in secret. His roommates didn’t know about his practice…but I could FEEL electromagnetic fields emanating from his body!

Why did he advise you to practice in secret? How did you expect people to react, if they discovered your active interest in qigong?

Serious meditation is anathema in our culture. People react to the energy. It is a transformative experience, based on the philosophy of existing within a larger consciousness containing yourself and others.

I’ve had a wide-range of reactions to my practice: people ecstatic with joy, total strangers thanking me. (It’s important not to stare while in a trance, sitting in full-lotus. Ha ha.)

Meanwhile, back at the U of MN, my housemate told me she had studied qigong with a local man named Chunyi Lin. I was intrigued, but she didn’t offer more information and I didn’t think much of it.

Later on, that same man made a presentation to my graduate class in spiritual healing (which incidentally was taught by a Jesuit priest).

Many qigong instructors make incredible claims about their abilities. What led you to believe that Chunyi Lin was a genuine master?

I had previously read Effie P. Chow’s “Miracle Healing from China”, plus many other books. I could feel Chunyi Lin’s energy right away, and could compare it with my previous experiences.

In 1999 I took his Spring Forest Qigong Level 1 course. When Chunyi Lin walked around the class, he shook his fingers at you while you were doing his simple standing exercise. There was no touching, but my body filled with bliss and I saw this amazing light. When my beautiful girlfriend picked me up, I had to admit to myself that what I had just experienced was a deeper love than anything I had experienced before.

Not until 2000 was I able to study qigong intensively with Chunyi Lin. Since I was on a special diet, and practiced several hours a day while reading and meditating, things progressed rapidly. By the end of the year, I had transformed my brain and had experienced many paranormal phenomena.

Your training included a special diet?

Diet is the most difficult aspect of practice, after emotional blockages. In the book “Beyond Telepathy“, Dr. Andrija Puharich argues that potassium enables a proton magnetic momentum—a plasma. I read elsewhere that chloride is the negative ion while potassium and sodium are slightly different positive ions. So basically, you are ionizing your body by not eating salt…I had to figure this out from experience and then my own research.

Initially, I was skeptical about a no-salt diet, but I read that vegetables would provide me with enough sodium. In fact, salt is mainly needed to counteract the acid from grains (“bigu”, the energy feast, means literally “without grains”). Just to be safe though, I used Braggs Soy Sauce, which is a vegetable sodium salt substitute.

Did you have to rearrange your schedule to allow this intensive training? How did you support yourself and pay your bills during this time?

In 2000, I was working at Clean Water Action for 10 hours a week, and living just a mile bike ride from work. I was a part-time graduate student at the University of Minnesota, completing a self-designed masters degree through the Liberal Studies Program. My father paid for my school, and provided $500 a month for books and living expenses. I devoted my master’s degree to volunteering in sustainability activism.

There I organized a campaign to divest $1.5 million from Total Oil, since they used slave labor in Burma. Later, I focused on the University’s clothing contracts with sweatshops, achieving the goal of having the University join the Workers Rights Consortium.

This work was very intense, and I experienced firsthand amazing corruption at the highest levels of power. So I dropped out of school; I could not agree to accept a degree after directly experiencing the hypocrisy of society.

I eventually readmitted to finish my degree, on the condition that I would do my final self-directed research by taking qigong classes with Master Chunyi Lin, through a community college. (This was formally supervised by the chair of the African Studies department, as a study in non-Western non-dualism philosophy.)

I lived right next to a cooperative food store, so I had the finest (salt-free, vegetarian) diet and I was able to focus all my attention on reading and researching meditation. I ordered rare books through the University’s inter-library loan system, used the University database for research, and stayed in my room to practice Spring Forest Qigong exercises many hours a day.

I read Mantak Chia’s work, and I read “Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality”. I read spiritual and religious books from India and Thailand.

I also had a car at that time, so I would drive to the Spring Forest Qigong classes and retreats. I attended the Spring Forest Qigong guild meetings, where the students meet once or twice a month to practice healing on each other.

Continue to interview part 2…

Excerpted from Beyond Biofeedback, a record of Elmer and Alyce Green’s research on theta brainwave training, which they describe as an accelerated form of meditation.

When Jack Schwarz was in his early teens, he saw a stage hypnotist enter a self-induced trance and then push pins into his arm while he talked about the power of mind to control pain and bleeding. Jack had the normal response to pain until he saw that demonstration, and then, for no particular reason, he knew that he would be able to do the same thing. He got some pins and tried it, and sure enough he could turn pain off. What a conversation piece, he thought.

Jack said that at first he never tired of amazing his friends. He developed a cocky attitude, in spite of the fact that he had not had to develop his skills, but “woke up one morning and found all the diplomas were on the wall.” He could stop pain, stop bleeding, influence people through hypnosis, remove pains in other people by putting his hands on them and thinking about the pain going away, and could often “guess” other people’s thoughts precisely.

We did not make a focused effort to interrogate Jack when we began the laboratory work. As with Swami Rama, we asked him to tell us what he would like to demonstrate. Dale and Alyce wired him in the same way we prepared college-student subjects in other research. When he sat down in the experimental room he produced an envelope with two 6-inch steel sailmaker’s needles. He said he would push the needles through his biceps and demonstrate bleeding control.

Jack was wired to record the behavior or a number of physiological variables that gave indications of stress reactions: heart rate, breathing rate, galvanic skin response, skin temperature, and brain waves. While we were adjusting the equipment near him, one of the needles rolled off the board on which his hands were placed and fell to the floor. As I picked it up I realized that we had not sterilized the needles, and I asked if he wanted me to do anything about it. He said, “No, I often sterilize my needle by putting it on the floor and rolling it under my shoe.”

Before Jack began pulling the needle out of his arm, I decided that it would be useful for the record if it were demonstrated that Jack could bleed in a normal way. It had occurred to me that otherwise, even if Jack repeated this demonstration a hundred times, we really would not know whether he had control of bleeding, or merely a peculiar skin condition.

In order to control bleeding, it is necessary to control a normally unconscious process. All yogis who demonstrate unusual powers of self-regulation apparently have achieved a kind of coordination between conscious and unconscious. In effect, I decided to interfere with that coordination. Just as Jack was preparing to pull the needle out of his arm, I interrupted him and said, “Jack, tell me, is it going to bleed now?” He looked quite surprised and uncertain, like a man balancing on one finger when someone said, “Are you going to fall now?”

Jack said, “I don’t think it’s going to bleed.” But when he pulled the needle out, it bled freely. The photographer put down his camera, and he and I began mopping up the blood with paper tissues. Bleeding was continuous for about ten seconds, and then I heard Jack say very softly, “Now it stops.” Much to my surprise, the hold in the skin that I was dabbing closed up as if drawn by purse strings. It took about one second to close, and not another drop of blood appeared.

We were very much impressed, and I said to Jack, “I am glad to see that you are normal and can bleed, and can also stop bleeding. How about doing it again, but this time don’t bleed at all.” There was a pause. Many seconds went by, and I began to wonder if I had said something wrong, when Jack said, “Okay, I’ll do it again.” He pushed the needle through a different place in his arm, and allowed it to remain buried in the muscle for a half minute or so. Though I squeezed his arm, no blood came out when the needle was removed.

When the test was concluded we talked for awhile, and I asked Jack why he had paused so long before he agreed to do the second demonstration. He said he wanted me to understand that he did not force his body to do any of these things. He asked it to. He had to ask his subconscious and want for an answer. When it said “Yes” to him, he said “Okay” to me.

Faith, Hypothesis and Transcendental Knowledge

Attitude is a critical feature in biofeedback training, because volition is influenced by what one believes (although the psycho-physiological principle itself is entirely independent of what people do or do not believe). This fact was first brought to our attention by John Seaman Garns, who phrased it, “Mind operates under its own conception of itself.”

The average person was in a bind until the advent of biofeedback training. Consider some examples. One woman, who with the help of a biofeedback machine was learning to warm her hands, asked, “Do you have to have faith to operate this machine?” Our answer was that to begin with faith was totally unnecessary, because the machine is a faith enhancer. No more faith is required to learn to operate it than to learn to drive a car. We do not have to believe or have faith that the car will turn to the left if we turn the steering wheel to the left. All that is necessary is to try it. Then we know.

There seems to be a hierarchy of effectiveness of psychological states with respect to self-regulation of physiological processes. The hierarchy might be arranged as follows: to hope, to hypothesize, to believe, to know—and biofeedback makes it possible to leap the entire distance at once.