Secret mystical healing powers, are they real?
- Thread starter kehcorpz
- Start date
Yes.
It's magic tricks. Misdirection, applied physics, and the right props. Sometimes there is actual physical conditioning or martial skill involved, but not to the degree that it is being presented as.
SenseiHitman
Orange Belt
We all know karate kid was a movie so everything is exaggerated. When I am injured, I go to a massage therapist or a chiropractor. Warming up the hands by rubbing them together followed by loosing them up is a fairly common practice for those who use their hands to heal. If I did not know any better and my chiropractor or massage therapist did a mystical looking dance before they worked on me and insisted it was part of the healing process, if I was healed I would be inclined to believe them.
Ironbear24
Senior Master
Well qi is a real thing. But it isn't how it is portrayed in video games or movies. You won't shoot blasts of it from your hands and you won't have glowing auras around you or anything like that.
It is? Then show me the physics to prove it.
At best, you can say that the existence of qi is a matter of faith, not fact.
Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
Of course this all depends on what you think Qi is doesn't it? If you take a mystical view or a scientific view. If you think of qi as some mystical energy then.... but does the body need electric current to run.... is there energy within the systems of the body..... then it is something else.
Could it be that, like many things that come from other places, we here in the west over-romanticize them and get a few half understood translations and run with it.
Look to the World Health Organization for their studies of Qi, also Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, However I am not sure if anything from Beijing University has been translated into english
Best description of qi I have ever come across.
Strong Qi your healthy, weak qi your sick, no qi your dead.
I will not be debating or arguing this further
Could it be that, like many things that come from other places, we here in the west over-romanticize them and get a few half understood translations and run with it.
Look to the World Health Organization for their studies of Qi, also Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, However I am not sure if anything from Beijing University has been translated into english
Best description of qi I have ever come across.
Strong Qi your healthy, weak qi your sick, no qi your dead.
I will not be debating or arguing this further
Ironbear24
Senior Master
Qi or chi roughly translates means blood. The flowing of blood I guess I could say means life, that is qi or chi, life. I am not a person who understands Mandarin or Cantonese and my understanding of "chi" as we know it is a life force is very minimal at best.
We talk about it tai chi and very rarely in the Shou shu dojo. I asked sifu about chi and he said you know, I'm close to 50 years old and I still don't understand everything about it.
So I don't think it requires faith to believe in, but that really depends on what you think chi is or what chi can do. If you expect chi to give you super powers than yes that would require faith, but as simply life or life force, we are all alive so that can be taken on fact.
No, it’s at best, the placebo effect…which can be very powerful. But if someone is charging you a lot of money for the placebo….dodgy moral grounds.
isshinryuronin
Senior Master
IMO, there is some validity to the qi concept, though the way it's described may not be the way it actually works. That's true of physics as well. The mathematical formulas may describe a concept in a fashion that allows us to work with it and see results, but the reality is unperceivable. Even in theoretical physics, some things are taken on faith. We can declare the effect (as we perceive it), but not necessarily the direct cause. Quantum mechanics is confusing and often contradictory, but the models seem to explain some reality, even if we don't know just how it works.
Qi may not be real on its own, but if we faithfully apply its concepts and results are observed (technique execution or health-wise), does this not give some life and reality to it? Maybe not an actual reality, but a practical reality at least. In a martial art sense, qi is a convenient way to describe a number of concepts in a fashion that allows us to effectively employ them.
Qi may sound like a lot of metaphysical, philosophical hogwash. But so does quantum mechanics - there may be a duality where it may be true and untrue at the same time. In any case, here is my expert final conclusion...............
Qi is cool.
The difference between Ki/Qi/Chi and quantum mechanics is that one is quantifiable, can be characterised unambiguously in a precise language (mathematics), explains the functioning of the electronics in our everyday devices… the other is quantum mechanics
Ki/Qi/Chi is likely the attempt by the less knowledgeable (it pre-dates proper science after all) to quantify biomechanics, biochemistry, mechanical advantage etc into something relatively understandable to the less ’sophisticated‘…I really don’t mean that in a disparaging way at all
drop bear
Sr. Grandmaster
No. There is a difference between anecdotal evidence and scientific evidence.
Qi isn't justified by the stories of people who have experienced it.
I use this video on dowsing to explain the difference.
Last edited:
So basically it's a fine example of the placebo effect.
Steve
Mostly Harmless
For what it’s worth, I have no problems with anecdotes. I think the problem is when people want anecdotes to be believed without evidence, particularly when the story is a little out there. What I mean is, it’s not the anecdote that’s the problem. It’s the lack of independently verifiable, objective evidence.
I don't really think anyone is disagreeing with this. Because if there is independently verifiable, objective evidence, it's not really an anecdote.
Similar threads
