Yeah, I have to agree with The23rdMan & hartreefoch here:
The Finger Growing Game is not the main point: it is simply a harmless diversion, a game to open the mind a bit.
Having said that:
I think the point of the Finger Growing Game is effective regardless of whether it is an optical illusion or if there is actually some measuarable growth.
I think the point here is precisely that our minds and perceceptions directly affect how we experience reality.
Right now, many medical schools are reconsidering the whole "placebo effect". The adjective "mere" used to be required when talking about the placebo effect. The tendency was somewhat to dismiss it.
That is changing radically at medical schools like Stanford and Harvard. Because of all kinds of inquires, studies and results with energy healing systems and the power of the mind and the imagination in healing, things like the placebo effect and "optical illusions" are being looked at as tools for healing in certain cases (along with traditional allopathic medicine ala the AMA).
I do agree that if there was a measurable change like that of when you lie down and stand up and lying down one is taller, that would give a lot more power to the Finger Growing Game.
But I think the main point is to show who what you believe can not only change you mind (i.e. your belief system), but can also change how you experience reality.
And one of the things that happens, in a system like SFQ, along with the healing effects of breathing, moving, being still, concentrating the mind in a relaxed way etc, is one's perceptions change.
You can certainly look at this an "manipulation". But I don't see it that way at all. Rather, I see it as part of the way towards healing.
The "Game" is merely (and pardon the pun) a "finger pointing in the right direction".
Hypnosis is not a bad thing, it can be part of the healing process.
And I do believe that Chunyi Lin is a real healer, a sincere and devoted teacher and man of intergrity who is in fact, teaching a method of healing and a way back towards integration of mind, body, emotions and spirit.
I think the "Finger Growing Game" is a cool little diversion that opens the mind for some people to be able to get more into using the mind and imagination towards oepning the channels and circulating the Qi.
I liked doing it and it kind of freaked me out. But even if it is just an optical illusion it changes nothing for me, not because I accept the rest of the claims of SFQ based on the game or anything else, but because in the true spirit of the inquirer, I have been "experimenting" with Qigong and Tai Chi in various forms and from various teacher for 25 years or more. And I have felt the healing effects
without any finger growing!
I had asthma that I developed after a bad bronchial infection. I was given an inhaler that I hated the side effects of. I stepped up my Qigong practice at the time (mostly Tung Family Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan with some Zhang Zhuan standing, some breathing Qigong, and a few other exercises) and elminated the condition in a few weeks. The asthma had been there for a lot longer than that and was not getting better. It has never returned.
That is just one example for me. YMMV.
But when I began SFQ, I already knew the power of Qigong and also the power of the human mind, spirit and imagination. My grandparents, my father's parents, may they both rest in wholenss and may their memories be for a blessing, practiced Christian Science for about 60 years. I practiced it for about 3 years.
Now, I think Christian Science can sometimes be a bit extreme and I do practice it anymore. Yet I saw some wonderous healing both in myself and others. My grandma lived to be just short of a hundred and was healthy most of her life. Her mind was clear up until her death. As was her memory. Until the time she fell and broke her hip (in her 80's!), she rarely went to doctors for all kinds of conditions. I certainly do not recommend that toi anyone, but I saw her heal herself using her mind, faith and discipline. I experienced it myself on number of occasions. This was before I got deep into Tai Chi and Qigong.
So, for me, the only test I needed to do was : a) would I practice SFQ (i.e. was it a system I would habitually use and stay consistent in because I have some problems in that direction) and b) was it an effective form (which I felt I would recognize, having practiced in one school for 7 years and then also having studied others).
For me the results remain: I do practice this because it is easy to modify and modulate it to fit my schedule (but I am doing between one hour and three pretty much every day. I have skipped a day or two since beginning this about two months ago and the time I begin changes. I am working on that). It is also easy to learn and to do.
And, it is an outstanding form of Qigong IMHO (or maybe not so HO
).
"The Finger Gorwing Game"? I think that is just something for people who need to have a flash bulb go off for a moment or two, just so they might be a bit more open to possibilies.
Why it works or doesn't is mostly irrelevant. IF you REALLY want to do a test, try practicing for from 2-3 hours every day for from 1-2 months and chart how you feel and what happens to you in your mind, emotions, body and spirit. Chart your energy levels.
If you can't do that much, do whatever you can (from 3-30 minutes) every day consistently for as long as you can (for that little time each day, I would give it at least 90 days).
Then you will see and feel the value of this system or its lack. I predict few people will see or feel the lack of value if they do this.
