Ok Some of not most of us have gone through that phase in which we think we can make chi into a physical being and i did aswell and i do accept my stupidity...here are my thoughts

chi is our lifeforce or innerforce that drives us right? we can control it to a certain extent and increase it over time with meditation. And yes we havent really found a way to make it physical but hear me out. A human in their whole life time only use about 10% - 11% of their brain in life. the other missing percentage may be the physical form of chi I mean when a person is enraged with emotions they seem to have no body limits and has alot of physical strength. now what im basically saying is that maybe we have 2 different forces driving our bodies we have the life force that makes us living and we also have adrenaline that increases our bodies natural functions beyond our natural limits so maybe if we look at our chi as our living force and our adrenaline maybe we can unlock the brains limits. heres another thought. when a person dies their brain can be active for months on end but the body is dead free of our souls or our lifeforce so what drives that? people say our chi is still in our bodies but is chi is our life force and if life force is thought to be our souls and our souls have techically left our bodies when we die who is there to say adrenaline is not left to keep our brains running? if we learn to control our adrenaline and somehow link it or combine it with our chi's imagine the possibilities

and another little thought to leave you with

the only thing holding you back is yourself. our bodies limit our minds and our thoughts limit our bodies. you can do anything if you put your Mind to it


just a thought i may be a little nieve but here are my thoughts critasize if you want but

hi, and welcome. I won't dispute your religeous beliefs, but this statement:

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A human in their whole life time only use about 10% - 11% of their brain in life.

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is incorrect.

[ the statement, "We use only 10% of our brains" is false; it's a myth. We use all of our brain." ]
ref:
Neuroscience for Kids
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/tenper.html

other articles:
http://www.livescience.com/bestimg/index.php?url=myths_10percent_brain_03.jpg&cat=myths
http://www.csicop.org/si/9903/ten-percent-myth.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_2_23/ai_54237509

etc...so in light of that, I'm afraid your whole chi theory breaks down. your positive thinking is admirable though...just don't lose site of the realities.

Thats the first time i heard that the brain could be active for months after death. My understanding was that the brain begins to die after around 6 minutes if starved of oxygen. If the blood isn't pumping, then how can the adrenaline get from the adrenal glands (at the kidneys) to the brain?
While i definitely agree that our minds can inhibit our bodies and vice versa, and i agree that adrenaline can cause a physical response beyond what is normally produced, I also believe that it can severely inhibit performance since it tells you RUN! or FIGHT! when a clear mind would be preferable

uh huh, you didn't know that the brain keeps living months without oxygen or blood while the body decays?...after the head decomposes, the brain then slithers out of it's shell in search of a new host. it is attracted and propelled by chi. if it can't find a host, it crawls to the nearest lab and emerses itself in formaldahyde in the hopes it will someday be revived when a suitable host becomes available.

The PROOF is since I saw them all hybernating in jars on a shelf once - I could feel their dormant chi waiting to come out.

so you can't deny that chi exists as a life force.

I had the same theory many years ago, but that was many years ago.

The adrenaline rush isn't the key to unlocking "ultimate strength". The adrenaline rush is the result of a response to a threat, otherwise known as Fight or Flight Response. During this response, your body goes into overdrive. Your heart rate increases which in turn increases the flow of blood throughout your body, thus giving your muscles needed oxygen. Your pupils become dilated, which narrows your vision, possibly to maintain focus on the threat and nothing else. To top it off, you're feeling of pain is dulled. So, while you might feel stronger, you're not, at least not significantly.

Pain is actually a very valuable tool that prevents us from overexerting ourselves and causing damage to our bodies. However, during an adrenaline rush, the pain that you would normally feel isn't there to keep you from overexerting yourself. You could break your hand on the other guys head, and you wouldn't feel it until the adrenaline rush subsided. So, even if you're not feeling pain, that doesn't mean your body isn't being damaged.

As for using only 10% of our brains, that's not true. There has been no evidence to validate that claim.

As for our brain surviving long after the body is dead, that definitely isn't true. The body is what's keeping the brain alive and the brain is what's keeping the body alive. If the brain dies, then the body dies, if the body dies then the brain dies. In order for the brain to continue "living" it needs nutrients and oxygen (just to keep it blunt). The only way it obtains these essential things is through the body. So, without the body, the brain is unable to sustain itself for very long.

As for limits, Humans have them regardless of who tells you otherwise.

you used to have the theory that brains stayed alive and crawled out in search of a new host?

what made you retract that theory?

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I saw them all hybernating in jars on a shelf once

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Which restaurants/delis do you frequent, Ed? I'll remember to avoid them.

don't worry, I don't hang at the "Bread and Circuses"...you know, the ones with community soup and live puppet shows.

You mean like 'Bread and Puppet'? A friend of mine once performed with them.

another look at claims of powers:

http://www.randi.org/joom/index.php?opti...id=68&id=45

in particular:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlfMsZwr8rc

Chi flows all the time, we only decide its direction.

Chi does not exist.

I don't know how many times I've said this before, but *sigh* I'll say it again. Qi is an UMBRELLA term to describe a range of natural phenomena. Remember, we're talking about a (somewhat unscientific) philosophical construct that was developed over 5000 years ago. Science has progressed somewhat in that time.... especially since we no longer refer to dis-ease as "humours", or molecules as "ether".

The only thing we as martial artists need to worry about is not "what is qi", but what is "force" - how to generate it (i.e. strike), deflect it (i.e. parry), stop it (i.e. "block") and redirect it (i.e. use their force).

Eyrie,

I agree "qi" is an unscientific, archaic construct analogous to the bodily "humours" of the middle ages or the "ether" of the 19th century. But there is a difference. Every scientifically literate person on earth knows humours and ether are fictions; however, many martial artists still believe in "qi" as some kind of mystical life force.

If, as you say, we are really talking about the force, then that is the term we should use. Perhaps it is the term you use. But I know most people who use the term qi do NOT mean force--they mean "mystical life force," or something equally esoteric.

Well, the problem with the Chinese language is that it is colorful, flowery and highly contextual.

Qi, used in the context of "mystical life force" would be the equivalent of what Henri Bergson, in 1907, called élan vital.

Perhaps there is some mystical life force, perhaps not. Perhaps it's simply good old fashioned neuro-chemistry... who knows?

Bergson's notion of elan vital was is about as dubious as the concept of qi. Bergson concieved of elan vital as a supra-physical element that could actually be infused into inanimate objects--a dubious notion to say the least.

This sort of thing is easy to say in hindsight, especially when informed by further progress and development in the field.