Qi Explained

[Kung Fu Wang]

If Qi has nothing to do with:

- punching on your opponent's face,
- kicking on your opponent's body,
- locking your opponent's elbow,
- taking your opponent down,
- choking your opponent out on the ground,

then why should you care about it?

There are so many valuable things to train in MA. Is Qi that important on your training list?

Today, I'll be more interested to make sure that I can still do my "front toes kick, front heel kick, roundhouse kick, side kick" combo over and over. By repeating my drill, I can maintain my power, balance, flexibility, proper breathing, and health. I truly have no time to worry about Qi at all. Will I worry about Qi sometime in the future? I truly don't think so.

 

[Gyakuto]

Another one of these? Well you seem to be a supporting member so I'll give it a shot I guess.

Qi is something that is part of an advanced training system found in some martial arts, notably Chinese internal arts. Some other arts are aware of chi but might not really use it, so they won't have a good set of definitions or information surrounding it. So your opinion is a bit suspect, because you are basically just saying you're uneducated on the matter. It's not an attack, it's true -- you're saying there's no evidence -- not that you investigated it (ex. got lineage in bagua or xingyi) and after going through the training you know it's fake. You are simply operating from a position of no information.

Chi is not something you can just pick up and use. It's part of a martial arts tradition. If you are not a part of that tradition, it is strange that you would want to start telling people what is inside it.

Given all that I would say, don't worry about Chi, even most tai chi people don't know what it is, sad to say.

I haven’t investigated the Loch Ness Monster, Relativity, quantum mechanics, but others have and I rely on their dispassionate work to make value judgements on these phenomenon otherwise everyone would be reinventing the wheel everyday. You build on previous research.

There is no objective evidence for the existence of Qi/Chi/Ki. The great James Randi offers a large cash reward for anyone who can demonstrate these kinds of effects under laboratory conditions. It has never been claimed.

There is no objective evidence for Qi/Chi/Ki just as there’s no evidence for the existence of ghosts, ghouls, telekinesis, telepathy etc, only subjective reports of such as…”oh yes I saw it demonstrated on a stage 39years ago.” “…oh I can feel it in between my hands” and subjective evidence is not credible.

Being very generous, Qi/Chi/Ki is the advantageous use of the levers of biomechanics, the experimenter effect and participant bias.

 

[isshinryuronin]

There is no objective evidence for the existence of Qi/Chi/Ki.

That's because it's not a physical thing. It's an idea. It's the concept of one's total self being used to facilitate and manifest their energy and power. It's a way to describe this feeling as a reference we can generally relate to. So, it exists in our minds (for some) and can be expressed physically.

It's basically a "shorthand" word. Instead of saying, "breathing, relaxing, body in harmony, biomechanics, mindset, balance, visualization, channeling, tension, will, etc.," we can simply say "ki" which is much more convenient. It's a useful term in this regard. Its existence depends on all these other factors working together, being practiced and internalized. But it's not a thing in itself.

IMO, "ki" is more of an adjective in practice. It only becomes a noun when it's a subject we talk about - which we really don't need to do.

 

[Gyakuto]

That's because it's not a physical thing. It's an idea.

And Relativity wasn’t an idea? Evolution through natural selection wasn’t an idea or rather a hypothesis? The difference is that certain people went ahead and did the hard work to support that hypothesis into a theory (a theory being a hypothesis well-supported by evidence not the lay person’s definition.) Nobody has been able to do that with Qi/Chi/Ki because it does not exist.

It's the concept of one's total self being used to facilitate and manifest their energy and power.

Power? Energy? You’re adding ‘woo woo’ onto ‘woo woo’ to get woo woo squared!

It's a way to describe this feeling as a reference we can generally relate to.

Ah…a feeling…a subjective phenomenon not an objective phenomenon. I’m happy with it being subjective but it is not real, it’s a personal feeling.

So, it exists in our minds (for some) and can be expressed physically.

No it can’t because if it could, it’d be quantifiable. You mean you think it can be expressed.

It's basically a "shorthand" word. Instead of saying, "breathing, relaxing, body in harmony, biomechanics, mindset, balance, visualization, channeling, tension, will, etc.," we can simply say "ki" which is much more convenient.

Thank you, it’s as I generously said, the levers of biomechanics, experimenter effect and participant bias.

It's a useful term in this regard. Its existence depends on all these other factors working together, being practiced and internalized. But it's not a thing in itself.

I’m glad I’ve persuaded you to my rationalist way of thinking

IMO, "ki" is more of an adjective in practice. It only becomes a noun when it's a subject we talk about - which we really don't need to do.

It’s just a descriptive word now?

The ‘ancients’ used names and descriptions for phenomenon that they couldn’t explain…but we can now. The Germ theory of disease, magnetism etc. So far this quantification of Ki has not happened and no credible person is attempting to…it’d be career ending