51 replies to this topic

[doug123]

UPI: News Source



Tai chi chih may guard against shingles

LOS ANGELES, March 23 (UPI) -- Tai chi chih, the Westernized version of the 2,000-year-old Chinese martial art, may protect against the shingles virus.

A 25-week study of 112 adults ages 59 to 86 showed practicing tai chi chih alone boosted immunity to a level comparable to having received the standard vaccine against shingles, according to a study in the April issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, currently online. The practice has also been shown to improve a person's balance.

Lead author Michael Irwin of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California at Los Angeles said when tai chi chih was combined with the vaccine, immunity reached a level normally seen in middle age.

"The positive results of this study also have implications for other infectious diseases, like influenza and pneumonia," Irwin said in a statement.

"Since older adults often show blunted protective responses to vaccines, this study suggests tai chi is an approach that might complement and augment the efficacy of other vaccines, such as influenza."

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[xanadu]

I'm a practitioner of tai chi myself so I can believe it. What it does, basicly, is to allow you to control chi or higher energies. These energies can be used for healing or for protecting yourself from an attacker. Anyone else out there who does tai chi? There are many styles.

[ajnast4r]

I'm a practitioner of tai chi myself so I can believe it. What it does, basicly, is to allow you to control chi or higher energies. These energies can be used for healing or for protecting yourself from an attacker. Anyone else out there who does tai chi? There are many styles.

dont say words like chi, prana or [airquote] energy [/airquote] here... the science police might knock ur door in ["]

[xanadu]

Ah yes, I forgot about the people who think that anything they were taught in school can't possibly be false and anything they weren't taught can't possibly be true. Of course, some things can be demonstrated like acupuncture but proof means nothing to those people if it doesn't fit their world model. Of course most of them would not have read this far down the thread.

[Shepard]

Can this make me a Jedi?

[ajnast4r]

Can this make me a Jedi?

["] no

[mike250]

I'm a practitioner of tai chi myself so I can believe it. What it does, basicly, is to allow you to control chi or higher energies. These energies can be used for healing or for protecting yourself from an attacker. Anyone else out there who does tai chi? There are many styles.

I'm actually trying to find a tai chi master/practitioner in my local area here. I think its very good for meditation but not too sure about protecting yourself though.

[Live Forever]

wax on

wax off

[xanadu]

> These energies can be used for healing or for protecting yourself from an attacker. Anyone else out there who does tai chi? There are many styles.

For healing...perhaps. For protecting yourself from an attacker - very, very doubtful. I've practiced various Chinese martial arts for years, in addition to yoga (not the "hatha yoga" stuff you learn at the gym.) I can feel the chi/prana all the time. I do think it has a positive impact on my mental state which in turn probably has a positive impact on my physical well-being. But I am under no illusion that this feeling that I have is in any way going to protect me from a solid right hook from a good boxer or a knife attack from a street thug. All of the demonstrations of "chi power" that you see from martial artists are either tricks or highly refined applications of physical power (skilled use of balance, etc.)

You are on the right track, grasshopper, uh I mean ludongbin. Tai chi is often called the soul of martial arts. It takes more than a feeling of energy, it takes proper form and practice. You will notice that the correct practice of tai chi or other arts involves movement that includes the whole body. When doing a push or other maneuver you must move or turn the waist. A block is not just a movement with the hand or arm, it includes the rest of the body.

When doing a technique properly you will feel relaxed but to the one receiving it, it will feel powerful. It may seem odd to be relaxed when expending max power but that's how it is. When you are tight from start to finish you have small power. Big power is fluid and flowing. When you are relaxed you are able to respond instantly. With proper form your graceful movement becomes a block they can't get past. Your punch goes through them and they are defeated.

I'm not saying this will make anyone a superhuman. Tai chi masters can be beaten just like anyone else, but not easily. It enables you to use your body and spirit to the maximum.

It relates to focus which is something you learn after the beginning stages of any martial art. With proper focus, your punch is totally relaxed as it goes out and if you want to stop it before striking, you can, even at the last moment. When you do strike it becomes like a lightning bolt at the last instant. When taking a blow, you make your body empty and the blow is not absorbed. Conversely, you can make your body strong at the last instant and stop the punch or kick.

[chubtoad]

n=112...

[xanadu]

I am not talking about any feeling of chi that is associated with physical movement. What I am talking about is the feeling of "energy" that arises from the long intense practice of various forms of chi gong/pranayam.

You have some points, ludongbin. However, do not let yourself be fooled into thinking there are many different types of energy. I believe it is all one energy but is used and applied in many different ways. In yoga they speak of prana and kundalini. In tai chi they speak of chi, ji, qi and so on but these are all the same. Prana corresponds very well to chi and can be gathered from the air. Kundalini is the same energy that is applied to spiritual awakening. There is energy outside yourself and inside but it all comes from the same source. Trying to differentiate it too much is not helpful. It's better to learn to apply it.

Most martial artists think that chi is the body-connectedness that they utilize in push hands, in the generation of explosive power.

This is different than your previous post in which you said you could not see how in any way this would protect you from attack. The explosive power you speak of and which I mentioned, can be very protective, or aggressive.

[xanadu]

Well, since you obviously know it all, there is nothing anyone can tell you.

[xanadu]

"I actually used to think the same as you do, but after many years of practice and experience of these things, I was forced to change my views."

Many years huh? I'm not going to tell you how many years I've been in and around martial arts. I started in judo at the age of 6. Lets leave it at that. Those chinese masters that you "didn't want to embarrass" in front of their students would have shown you a thing or two if you had been foolish enough to take them on in the center of the mat. Those little old guys can put you on your ass before you knew what was happening.

I had a teacher years ago who studied in China. He told me that his cifu (instructor) sometimes had the students line up holding hands. He announced which one would go down and touched the first one. The one he had pointed out always ended up falling on their ass. Deny it if you wish, the guy had no reason to lie. There are more things in the world than western science can explain.

[Live Forever]

Kind of like this, xanadu?


I remember seeing that video linked from digg from awhile back, and it came to mind when you said knocking people over from a distance.

[porthose]

well, I'm not so sure.

ive been practising karate for nearly 25 years and my teacher who is 10 years older than me got shingles. it took him nearly 2 months to recover. he practises both tai chi and karate.

at 50 years of age, he is still a great athlete and it was awful to see him so debilitated.

[mike250]

i think tau chi is best for meditation.

[Live Forever]

> I had a teacher years ago who studied in China. He told me that his cifu (instructor) sometimes had the students line up holding hands...

Yes, I've heard many stories like this and I think most all of them are just nonsense. Don't believe it until you experience it for yourself. Most are either exaggerated or made up.

Watch the video. It is basically the same thing that hypnotists do. You put the suggestion in the person's mind that they are to fall over, and that is what happens. When you get someone that doesn't think it will work (a skeptic) it doesn't work on them.

[mike250]

in the real world, there are no rules and the best cheater wins

[eternaltraveler]

Pressure point fighting works well. I've trained with Dillman apprentices before. The pressure point fighting part of it is quite good. Just messing with the body's nervous system through peripheral nerves. You can potentially kill someone by hitting their carotid sinus for example (if they're unlucky). That knocking out at a distance thing surprisingly doesn't work on me though. Maybe my chi is too strong [sfty]

[porthose]

pressure points is moving away from the original thread, but i'll say this: someone once asked me if i believed in pressure points. i said, sure i do - stick your chin out, let me punch it and then you tell me how much pressure i applied.

oh please! pressure point fighting, what the hell does that mean anyway?

martial arts charlatans are a plenty and really at the end of the day, the martial arts (in whatever form) are about defending yourself in a crisis situation when it suddenly presents itself to you when you least expect it. so its not about the martial arts or style, its about you as an individual and your capacity to deal with that threat.

[Shepard]

oh please! pressure point fighting, what the hell does that mean anyway?

It's actually highly effective. You apply a lot of pressure to a small point.

AKA a bullet.

[xanadu]

Live, how do you get the video to come up? I clicked the link which brought up a page with probably 50 links on it none of which seem to lead to the video. I clicked "ki" I clicked the guys name and a few others with no luck.

porthose, no one said tai chi means you never get sick. Not everyone after 25 years can do the stuff that makes your jaw drop. I would love to be able to travel to China or to one of the true masters here and study with them.

ludongbin, there are definitely many frauds out there. No argument about that. This person I spoke of was not a liar and had no reason to lie. I'm pretty good at picking up on that. I had another instructor who studied in Chicago who told me something very similar in his experiences with his teacher. Those are two people I knew personally who swore to it. Neither could do it themselves but some people can. I've seen film clips of it being done. A young guy who thought he was really good went up against the master. It looked like he was faking it but he could not throw the guy even though the old guy weighed only maybe 100 lb and the young guy was straining as hard as he could. The old guy looked like he was just standing there not resisting but he could not be picked up and thrown.

Pressure points are very effective if struck and when used in grappling and on the mat or ground. You want to choke them but their head is down and their neck is strong. No problem, your fist grinds against the nerve in the side of the jaw and that head comes up like magic. Next thing they know they are choked. Just one example. I don't claim to be any master though I've studied a long time.

[Live Forever]

Live, how do you get the video to come up? I clicked the link which brought up a page with probably 50 links on it none of which seem to lead to the video. I clicked "ki" I clicked the guys name and a few others with no luck.

[?]
You have never used YouTube before? It is only like the biggest site on the internets. (just messin' with you ) ) I don't know why it doesn't work for you, it works fine for me. It should just play on the lefthand side of the screen like every other YouTube video. You probably either 1) don't have flash installed (or not installed properly), or 2) you have javascript disabled.

Here, I will embed it directly onto this page:


(if you still can't view it, then I don't know what to tell you other than the above)

[xanadu]

Thanks, Live. No, I never watched anything on u-tube before. I'm sure the link was there somewhere but it didn't play when I used your first link. I don't know the answer, I don't know why it worked on some of them but not the skeptic. It may be that he had an ability to nullify as was said. I'd like to see it tried on a number of volunteers who know nothing about it. It's interesting he used the pressure point at the side of the jaw that I spoke of when choking someone. There are many pressure points and no question that they work. It hurts for real.

I can't say for sure if this guy is the real deal or not but he had the balls to demonstrate on anyone who stepped up. A fraud will never do that. I hadn't heard about moving your tongue or toe to stop it but it may be true. I participated in a demonstration a long time ago in which it was shown that if you touch a person's arm in a certain spot they can't lift you. I convinced a lightweight girl to let me try. She went up no problem, when she touched the spot, I couldn't do it. There are ways to counter the counter so I don't know.