Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ Spring Forest Qigong Just bought it...what to expect?

I have just purchased this program this evening, and have been reading this forum in order to get a sense of the "user community".

What I have thus far found is a bit "New Age" for my taste. I don't mean this this appelation as disparaging, but rather a (suggestion | hope | entreaty) need for a discussion of more "down to earth" situations, needs, solutions.

So here's the question...is there another person out there with a "scientific" background (like me), but also possessing (like me) a core belief that this (and indeed, all) LSC programs are "valuable" and
"useful" and worthy of sharing with my 20-somthing year-old kids?

"scientific" background (like me), but also possessing (like me) a core belief that this (and indeed, all) LSC programs are "valuable" and
"useful" and worthy of sharing with my 20-somthing year-old kids?
-----------------------------------------

I have a BA in physics. I have spent
most of my life working with computers
and I am a spiritual seeker whether
the knowledge is new-age or not.
I don't believe anyone has a lock on
knowledge.

You might want to read the books of
Russel Targ a physicist who helped
develop the laser. If you think this
forum is new-age, then you might find
that there are more extreme things
going on with respected scientists.

I think the key here is to experience
something yourself and be the example
when it begins working for you.
My experience is
that I can tell somebody about something
that works for me, but unless it shows
within me it is not going to have any
effect.

Also, because Spring Forest Qigong works
for me, it doesn't guarantee it will
work for you or your son. There are no
guarantees. But I bet if you try it
chances are you will experience a change
within yourself.

It is not by chance that most serious
Kung Fu practitioners do some Qigong
in addition to their practice of Kung Fu.
I am thinking of a chinese doctor who also
practices and teaches Kung Fu; he does
an hour of Qigong every morning as part
of his practice.

I can understand your fear. It is a
little scary in the beginning. What
is going to happen to me? My experience
is good things are going to happen to you.

There are many with a science background. Not knowing what yours is it would make it hard to say if mine is like yours. My undergrad was in Physics. My Master's degree was in Computer/Math/System Engineering.

5 years ago I would have dismissed this stuff, out of hand. I still use the NEW AGE title for much of it.

If you are a really scientist they you create your models based on observations. You will be reluctant to throw out old models, as is everyone. I haven't, I just expand on them.

Try it, you may like it.

You are perfection.
Iam2

[This message has been edited by Iam2 (edited May 02, 2004).]

Thanks for your helpfulness, folks. After reading the first couple of responses to my original post, I was able to better understand my misgivings. While I have spent a lot of time and energy studying (over the last 40 years) the "self-help" genre, I suddenly realized (duh!) that *all* my study concentrated on what I characterize(d) as "practical" rather than "cosmic":

Napoleon Hill, Tony Robbins, "You will see it when you believe it", NLP...yes

Flower Power, sitar music, mind expanding drugs, rock gardens, navel gazing...no

Having reached an age where "Is that all there is?" becomes a legitimate question, and being unable to point to myself as unambiguous "proof of concept"...I realize that I had to expand the "universe of discourse" to include ideas that I may have (inappropriately) rejected out of hand many years ago, if my kids are going to be convinced to "do what I say, not what I did". So, I bought the course, and I'm eagerly anticipating its arrival.

My only "fear" is that I will be unable to separate the meaningful from the meaningless... to me the vocabulary (really, the jargon) of this area does not convey "meaning" or "information", and is therefore not actionable.

A "perfect" example...
I have read *many* of Iam2's posts here in the LSC forums, and I am consistently impressed
with their contents; I am baffled by the signature, however.

One must remember that qigong is well over 4000 years in the making, given it's various forms. So qigong itself is hardly "New Age".

What you are noticing is the explorers post more than the conservatives. The people will be more inclinded to look for... Am I doing it right, Should I be breathing in or out at this point. How many inches should my hand be away from my body. Fingers together or apart? When?

Ironically these questions capture answers that sound New Agey simply because it's hard to explain an experience that is very internal, normally without words and boils down to a greater awareness of self. One of the key elements of qigong is shutting up the critical chatter that fills our mind day to day so that we can notice what our bodies have to say. Qigong is a preventative form of health care capturing problems while they are minor or barely noticable in our everyday mode of thinking. After all how can you correct something if you're not even aware that it needs attention? Waiting until it really hurts?

Yes, the post may sound new agey but its sometimes is the only way to help the thinking mind get a handle on what that internal experience is about. Bit like trying to describe colour to a blind person, not entirely impossible but you wind up speaking what sounds like a different language... you might just label it "new Agey"?

Alex

Many of my post. Hmmm, well I have posted many times. However, I ask as many questions as I share my Opinion or Experiences. I'm still looking for my understanding as are many hear.

I see a commonality to almost everything irregardless of the topic it comes from. So I don't believe that SFQ is the exclusive path to follow. Althought, it is one for me. Dispite that my practice is less than it should be.

My signature is delightfully ambiguous. "You are perfection", is primarily an healing image. In SFQ you should see people as Completely Healed, or perfection in my choice of words.

Less obvious is the message that you are exactly as you need to me. You are perfect just the way you are.

The final ideas is that you are a manifestation of the universal energy. Not separate, not less, just one of its forms. Now to rankle some, it's like saying you are god. You can change that to "You are love" which is just as valid for me.

You are perfection.
Iam2

Aloha dbswinford,

Thank you for your questions.

A study by Frances V. Gaik, Ph.D., at the Adler School of Psychology in Chicago was completed measuring the efficacy of treating Major Depression, Bipolar Disorder, and Dsythymia with Spring Forest Qigong. Check out www.il.proquest.com Searching for "qigong" and "depression" the study's abstract.

Also look at www.qigonginstitute.org for research on, and benefits of qigong in general.

Much Love, Shawn

P.S. You may want to reconsider "navel gazing's" position on your yes/no list. I wouldn't want you to to have a bad case of lint accumulation

Alex, Iam2, and Shawn_Grim...

Thanks for your replies.

Iam2: I, too delight in fanciful use of the language...I was simply wondering if your sig was a pun on "I'm OK, You're OK", an exhortation to (or expectation of) improvement, or simply an inaccurate assessment of my current "state of being" (I'm certainly not perfect, even though I have delusions of adequacy)

Shawn_Grim: Thanks for your links...I couldn't find the abstract on proquest or Citeseer, but the qigonginstitute.org had it; dutifully added to "Favorites". Oh, and BTW, you've added a new item to my morning checklist...I thought it was a pound of flesh, but it was just a pound of lint!

Alex: Belated congratulations BTW, on your recent association with LSC. You nearly "nailed it" with your description of explaining color to a blind person, but my situation is an additional abstraction...explaining color to a Russian-speaking blind person.

For the better part of 18 years, my kids didn't *hear* me(they lived with their mother), and for the better part of 10 years, they didn't *listen* to me (they were teenagers). Now, however, they both *rely* on me to tell them the "truth" about the way the "real world" works. Needless to say, if *I* don't understand a subject, I'm going to have a difficult time "translating" it into a form that they can "experience" as "truth".