training out of books, etc....

[grounded]

hello all

this subject has been beaten to death but i want to reiterate for emphasis.

recently an old friend of mine informed me he had been doing energy practice out of a book alone. Despite my warnings he continued trying without a teacher.

So here's the deal- he has practiced incorrect "abdominal" breathing for more than a year, and now has developed an extremely tight diaphragm, and needless to say, has not benefited from ANY of the possitive effects of internal training. In addition, he is suffering from a number of persistent health problems and minor discomforts that may be traced to stagnant energy and improper lung usage.

Sorry if you are sick of hearing about this, but I feel that it is quite important. If you don't have a good and I mean GOOD teacher, don't do this stuff. The best you can hope for is setting yourself back- remember, my friend has to now unlearn AND relearn these methods. This equates to several years of wasted time, any way you look at it.

The proliferation of literature on internal training is great for recreational reading or for reinforcing teachings- Dr. Yang's students get alot out of his books! But, and big but here, they should never ever ever be used on their own.

sorry for beating a dead horse

grounded

[{i^(]

Still, it bears repeating.

I can't fault your friend for his open-mindedness, persistance, curiosity, goals, etc. and I certainly hope that his health issues will be corrected soon.

Warnings, like advice, are rarely taken unfortunately. They are even written in the books....

[Former castleva]

You mean dr.Yang Jwing Ming´s books?
I prefer those books,the style and methods.
I´ve learned a bunch from them,not a big bunch but a bunch.
I´ve used his qi-gong with joy,good material and lots of stuff is,for self-study.But as you said,handle with care...and get a teacher.
Definitely a worthy post,it´s nice of you to let people know of these downsides.
I hope your friend will be OK.

[dnc101]

No need to apologise- it's a good thing to repeat now and again.

I tried to learn quigong from a book initially (Idiots Guide to Tai Chi and Quigong- the title should have tiped me off, huh?). And yes, there were warnings in the book to not go further than the simple exercises he listed. Any way, I actually got results the first time I tried it. So I thought this was great, and really got into it. About the third time I did the exercise (now without the book) I experienced something like a small electrical storm in my head and central nervous system. Not painful or even uncomfortable, just a lot of nervous energy. It did make a believer out of me. I've since heard that you can actually do some dammage like that. I don't know about that, but I do think some things shouldn't be learned on your own.