How important is Ch'i?

[shogeri]

Qi in English is often spelled as chi. The Japanese form is ki.

Qi is a fundamental concept of everyday Asian culture or philosophy, most often defined as "air" or "breath" and, by extension, "life force" or simply put, just "energy" that is part of everything that exists.

In regards to the Martial Arts and physical health: The overall effectiveness of qi is directly related to posture, (whether moving or stationary), breathing techniques, and mental focus.

Qi is the conceptual layer of understanding that practitioners place upon the actual physiological activity relating to the movement of the various types of biological or chemical energy within the body. Essentially, using mental focus, relaxation, and posture, practitioners create a link between their mind, and that of their body, through various training methods - in order to become more sensitive to the internal processes taking place throughout their own physical being.

Acupuncture and acupressure, both work by distracting from or adding to, the pain stimuli passed through to the nervous system. These procedures help stimulate the manufacture of endorphins, which are the body's own opiates. There are many low level electrical processes occurring. Use of these pressure points have been shown as being able to affect the parts of the central nervous system related to sensation and involuntary body functions, such as immune reactions and processes that regulate a person's blood pressure, blood flow, and body temperature.

Western science is working toward an actual understanding of the qi or energies involved.

Everyday activities such as walking, or stair climbing, along with swimming, aerobics, and Martial Arts may also aid in the flow of these various types of bioelectrical energies through the pathways leading to and from the Central Nervous System, and along the path of the many pressure points within the body.

Based upon science's own inability to measure the many different types of energy involved, qi will inevitably become more categorized over the next few decades, as we get more precise instruments to measure those types of bioelectrical changes.

During this time, there will be a more scientific based understanding of qi, rather than many of the unfounded mystical or religious reasons we see in place today.

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This is my definition of qi that I submitted to answerbag

Now the results of when a person practices Taijiquan or Qigong, should be compared to the study of sleep, and the neurological, and physiological changes that take place during that time.

On will immediately find that they hold remarkable similarities.

By comparing the two, those who do not understand what acupressure is, or how Taijiquuan works, and so on, should get an idea after critically examing the side effects of no sleep, with the positive effects of doing Taijiquan.

Both sleep and Taijiquan are concerned with:

Regulating the body.

Bringing the body into balance.

Releasing various hormones.

Resting the mind.

The activity that exists between body and mind.

When a person is done with Taijiquan they are refreshed.

When a person has a decent night of sleep, they are refreshed.

No magic. No mysticism. No wacked out theories.

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Those are my thoughts.