For most of my life I’ve had an interest in Asian martial arts. Many a weekend afternoon, as a child of the late ‘70’s early ‘80’s, were spent watching the various Kung Fu Theater movies on TV. Thanks to favorable geography of my hometown, our cable company carried stations from Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Baltimore.
In addition to my affinity for the fighting forms and styles, but also the themes and period settings of the films.
For me, this interest almost certainly stems from past-life memory.
Just for the record, the indisputable king of the genre is the 1978 Shaw Brothers masterpiece, The Five Deadly Venoms.
It wasn’t until my late teenage years that I ever formally studied any martial art. During my time at Syracuse University, I briefly studied WuShu and Aikido, though both were short-lived endeavors.
In the early part of 1993, I purchased the book, The Essence of Tai Chi Chi Kung, by Dr. Yang Jwing Ming. Over the course of six months, I taught myself the introductory exercises with regularity.
However, more importantly, I studied the Qigong theory with great meditation. The text of the course is magnificent translation of these profound ancient concepts, which eased implementation into Tai Chi exercises.
Christmas 1994 was spent with my godfather and his famiy. It was a week on the slopes of the ski resort in Crested Butte, CO. One night, I linked up with the son of a neighbor for a night of boozing in the old town.
We started off with a few beers at the first bar, then we moved on to Kochevar’s Saloon. In what was a moment of foreshadowing, I found Melanie, a high school classmate, serving drinks to the busy bar. Unfortunately, twenty years later she has no recollection of the encounter.
So my drinking pal and I decided to play some 8-ball billiards. We won the first game, against the reigning champions, with relative ease. However, by the second game my partner was well into an inebriated state, and disappeared in the bar.
Our opponents were on the verge of winning the game, having only the 8-ball left to sink. Filled with alcohol-driven pride, mixed with some arrogance, I decided to use Qigong power to move the cue ball.
With the billiards table on my left side, I stood approximately six feet from the cue ball. As the opponent lined up his shot, I inhaled as much of the energy as I could from inside of the saloon, as well as from the ground beneath the floor of the building. Then I forcibly exhaled, while pushing my right hand across my body’s mid-line, to focus my energy through the cue ball.
The surge of energy was so strong that time slowed, with the immense image of the cue ball filling my mind’s eye.
The voice of the opponent snapped me out of my time warp. He stood back away from his shot, and asked both his partner and I if we had seen the cue ball, and ONLY the cue ball move several inches just as he was about to shoot. Still dazed, I said “no”.
The opponent chose to shoot the cue ball from the new location, as aa my action provided him a better angle for his shot! My second attempt to perform this magic was fruitless, as I was spent. They won the game.
However, the non-shooting partner saw my second attempt, and asked me if I had moved the cue ball before. When I responded in the affirmative, he asked how I had done it, but my explanation fell short.
The incredible nature of what I had accomplished was not lost me. I HAD MOVED THE CUE BALL SEVERAL INCHES!!!
But there were serious aftereffects which took their toll on me. For the first week afterward, I was suffering from concussion symptoms. Little did I understand then that my full recovery, from the event, did not happen for years.
In doing research on the subject, I found that there is such a condition named Qigong Psychosis. In my opinion, the word Psychosis is an incorrect term, as it suggests that the injury is purely mental and/or psychological. The shock to my system was an energetic event, thus it should be labeled in that vein. Perhaps the condition should instead be called Qigong Trauma.
The most basic lesson taught by Dr. Yang is that Yi moves the Qi, or rather the Intention moves the Energy. Your mind can control the physical universe, if it is well focused and accompanied by strong emotion.
Another way to view this event would be through the Quantum Physics dynamic. Everything we perceive exists simultaneously as both wave-form and particle. As the double slit experiments have unfailingly shown is that electrons will act in wave-form until the variable of a conscious observer is added. Now with the observer, the electrons behave as particles. Thus, in extrapolation, my conscious awareness of the wave-form aspect of the energy of my surroundings allowed me to project it into the particle-form of that cue ball, as my focused breath served as the conduit for the translation of the elemental forces from wave to particle. In a way, the event resembles this Black Hole burp.
This was a tremendous feat for a novice. But this impertinent display of pride was lacking noble intent, and served as a righteous lesson learned the hard way.