Which art next and can someone explain 'Chi' ?

[kanryo2]

> The super tag team of thaiboxerken and 47MM.

 

> Whom here, are also skeptical in some way?

 

Sign me up on the skeptic list...

 

Let me clarify my thoughts on the "chi" debate. I thought that the

 

description on the old 24fightingchickens sight was useful. Chi may be useful as a way to describe the "feeling" someone has as far as generating or applying energy. I don't see any reason to debate that aspect - if it's a useful way for people in their training, then why not use it?

 

But as far as there being some undected-by-science system of channels

 

and meridians, I'm skeptical of that. I recently read "Qigong, Chinese Medicine or Pseudoscience". It was an awkward read. It's not entirely clear what the authors believe. It starts with a classical description of qi and qigong (as if it's given as fact), then show several instances of Chinese quackery reminiscent of American faith healing. It closes with advice on finding a good teacher. So maybe they're just denouncing "false qigong"??? I couldn't figure it out. Prometheus Books usually has pretty good "skeptic" books and I'm guessing they published this translation of a Chinese text to fill a void in the debate.

 

The books by Dr. Yang Jing-Ming present Chi theory in more detail and

 

he presents a pretty open minded approach toward investigation by western science.

 

But on the question of skeptism, I think extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. I'm a bit disappointed that there hasn't been (that I can find) a serious effort to conduct double-blind experiments to see how much we can benefit from Traditional Chinese Medicine. I was hoping

 

that the first book I mentioned would have described a more complete investigation into Chi and Qigong. I'm still waiting...

[Sinar89]

like he said, the master believed it was actualyl energy in you. you'll hear about some people who do somthing called *can't remember* akido i think it is and they actually think that they can harness the "chi" and shoot it, dragon ball z style. make shields, energy blasts and the like. its funny to read but i think its pretty stupid cause no one can do this.