Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ Spring Forest Qigong Pulling out blockages

Hi, I have just started using L2 and can feel energy in sword fingers, palms, but nothing when pulling out blockages. How long should you continue when you can't feel anything? What sensations do others feel?
Are there any others from Australia doing this???
Thank you. ozzie.

Hi Ozzie
I'm a fellow aussie from Perth and have been practicing SFQ for about 12 months. In my experience, pulling out blockages is not like the energy that I feel with swordfingers and palms. The blockages feel cold and clammy - reducing with intensity as the blockages clear. I'm sure someone with far greater experience will respond - there are an enormous amount of wise and knowledgeable people who contribute generously to this forum.

Hi Jetay, many thanks for responding! I'll try again. Maybe I was looking for warmth, heat, rather than something different. Great to hear from someone in Aust. I feel quite isolated being so far from everyone else on the forum.Was beginning to think I was totally alone out here.
Thanks again, Sandy (ozzie)

hi,
This aspect of feeling energy is not critical in being successful. One can simply go through the motions with focused intention, and the work gets done, regardless of how much or how little energy you experience or feel in a healing session. This is a very good aspect to the system. Perhaps related to the compassionate nature of the process, in allowing for one to be successful, right from the get go, regardless of energy sensitivity. If you are willing, and someone asks for help, everything can proceed successfully.
There is an aspect of the cloud hands exercise that you might focus on, as you do this exercise. When you reach out to grab the clouds, off in the distance. Be sure to keep the interior, of your grabbing hand, open and receptive to the energy you reach out to grab and bring back. You are holding a handful of clouds. Something very soft and subtle to hold in your hand. There is, a great sensitivity within the palm. If you close your hand, physically, too tight in any way, you loose that sensitivity. It is holding something, in a very open, feeling way. That interior space you create within the palm has a delicacy to it. By doing the movement nice and relaxed, slowing it down with your breathing, and envisioning yourself covering a great distance as you reach out, you set the stage for an expanded state of awareness, experience. A more energy sensitive state , that translates to increased sensitivity, as you bring that to your work as a healer, in a healing session.
As you grab out the blockage, you can,keep this open, delicate, receptive feel in the interior of this grab.
There are many more experienced healers than me, in terms of an ongoing practice, but I find that when I do this movement, my fingers, as I draw away from pulling out a blockage, don't close, right away. There is this opening left as I pull away within the area defined by the finger tips, grabbing, very slowly, allowing the blockage to enter that inner holding area. Many times, I see the blockage energy, almost as elastic, coming into my grab that way, in a delayed fashion, or a continual taking away of more and more of the blockage as I withdraw my hand, grabbing. Almost like a conduit is formed from the area of the blockage, into my palm, with the blockage flowing out to my grab, as it retreats and closes. This is not a necessary way to grab out a blockage, or the only way to see or experience it. It is a way though, that is slower, and allows you the time to sense the energy you take out. If you just do a quicker grabbing motion to a more closed grab, it can be, in the beginning, more of a physically felt expression, not energetically felt. This is also okay, but if you want to develop sensitivity to what you are doing, and 'feel' the energy, going a bit slower and allowing that feeling part , helps. I see a more advanced level of just doing whatever, at whatever speed and expression, and retaining a sensitivity to feeling the energy, all the time. I work more visually, and tend to see it, and then try different things with the feeling part. I find slowing down and being more in a feeling focus, regarding this hand, helps. Keeping it very open as you pull out the blockage, and closing it, only when the movement is at its end, taking the grabbed out energy and throwing it into the ground.
So , in summary, try developing your sensitivity, within cloud hands exercise. Then, in the healing session, maybe, try keeping that interior space open, and a slower grab, allowing you time to develop a feeling within the palm, of what you hold, as you pull away, allowing the energy sensation to materialize for you. I focus just as much on feeling energy, as I do on the action, of grabbing, which can be physical to the point of losing sensitivity to feeling the energy.
This feeling of the energy can be quite sophisticated, and be one way of proceeding in a healing session. The feeling of the energy, continually telling you, what to do.
Sometimes too, the energy in a serious , or big blockage, or the state or qualitiy of energy within and surrounding a person, can be so pervasive, that it surrounds you hand as you grab. Like reaching into a cloud of blockage that one has to keep clearing, to get past that initial fog of goo. I would say, something like chemotherapy can produce a big field of goo, that you have to sort of wade through like a flooded basement, and have it up to your elbows, until you get it cleared away, generally, from the friend you help, and shaken off your hands, or whatever it sticks to, as you engage with it. There can be this quality to an energy field around a person too. You may be up to your elbows, before you realize it. In general, as you work from top to bottom, you sort of smooth the field of energy out, as you work down, in a global way too. This is perhaps, a good way to see it too, as opposed to specific points relative to a blockage, you go in and out of. Sort of like herding sheep! Bringing everything together in a downward working direction, clearing and smoothing it out as you go, reconnecting pathways, energizing, etc..
love,
gallen

Hi Gallen, MANY thanks for your answer!!! You have given me a lot to think about and work on.I have practised cloud hands and can feel energy in my palms when I do it, so I'll keep focusing on that.
I bought L1&2 as a package so I haven't been doing this for very long, but have been involved in Tai Chi and Reiki for many years. I love SFQ and have been making my way through the forum and found many answers to questions I have had.Your answers are always very enlightening!!
Thank you again, love Sandy (ozzie)

Hi Sandy,
I just pulled out my level II manual to read about cloud hands. The first paragraph, describing the exercise , is really quite wonderful, and says alot about the nature of the exercise.
I become very big when I do it. I don't see that in the manual. I took the course in person. I am pretty sure, I heard that suggestion from Master Lin. Maybe, I am just the kind of guy that gets really big when I close my eyes! Anyway, I stand, very big, and the level of the clouds, are about at my solar plexus, so I can look out over the clouds , with the perspective you get, say riding in an airplane. This may sound sort of funny, but sometimes I will be outside, and actually hear an airplane. In my inner vision, if I let it in, I see this airplane flying through, as very very small, perhaps flying by, down at my stomach level. The size I become, helps me cover, in visualization, great distances, as I reach out to grab a handful of clouds. This sense of great distance, within the visualization , is an important aspect. From being really big, in perspective, you can envision the miles you cover as your hand moves out. When you come to working on someone, it is very easy to 'reach' in and grab out a blockage. The person you work on , is so much closer, and you have developed the ability to reach to the end of the universe, or far off horizon, within your exercise experience.
After I wrote my last post, in which I did mention that my shared experience was not the only way one experiences this hand in actual healing work, I saw all the diversity regarding this. It is, very important, what you see as you utilize this hand in actual practice. Images came back to me, where during some sessions, I would be very focused, seeing into an area. Say, once I was clearing someone's sinuses, and it was quite a visual specific, seeing in all those chambers. Sometimes, I think I was almost inside, scraping clear the passage ways with my cloud hands. It can vary, whether you are reaching in to grab something, sort of being inside someone with your hand or seeing yourself in there working, or whether you are in front of the person, drawing the energy blockage out to your hand. Your experience can shift around between visualized experience, which is really unlimited, and that, coupled with your actual physical position and movement in this dimension.
One other point I want to stress. I didn't really experience feeling what I was doing, until I relaxed in a session. You sort of set a stage for doing healing work, the person comes into the place you create, and you may be somewhat mechanical in your approach at first, as you go through all the steps. 'Thinking alot', about the sequence and technique. One time, I was going to do a session, and I just stood for awhile, while the person was sitting their, eyes closed and relaxed, and really took the time to 'relax myself', and also just feel their energy with my palms facing them. I got into a more relaxed feeling mode, and very aware of them, before I scanned them. I felt access to feeling them, before I started. Since then, when I do have the opportunity to work on someone, I take time within the experience to relax myself, and feel their energy,,,,no hurry through the steps. Feeling this open energy connection to someone, gives you a clear access to them. Usually, they are open to you , in a trusting way. Feeling that connection is quite powerful. The love one can feel, or compassion towards another person, goes way beyond the words, becomes a tactile energy and infuses your intentions. The way you use your hands, like cloud hands, can express this. Enough... It is excellent that you have experience with Tai Chi and Reiki. You will love Spring Forest Qigong, and how you choose to incorporate it in your work and purpose, is quite diverse. Meditation becomes more and more a significant base as you advance, and anything else you do, will benefit. Your experience of Tai Chi, for instance, may change and shift, with your growth in SFQ.
love,
gallen

Hi Gallen, Again I thank you for the time and thought you have put into answering my question!! I understand what you have said. Last night I was doing a healing and made sure I slowed it down as you suggested.Also tried focusing more on cloud hands. This made a difference although I still wasn't sure about what I felt, but it gave me time to experience it more fully.I also rely on intuition and sometimes am told to stop. I guess that's where trust comes into it as well. I agree about the meditation aspect and can see that this is becoming more and more important. I will certainly go through what you have said carefully. At the end of the day, I guess it's the love and intention we have.Doing this at home alone is not always easy and this forum has become a really important source of information. Thank you again!!!! It was more than I expected to get when I asked the question. Love Sandy.