 Alexandra David-Neel devotes eleven pages of her Mystery and Magic in Tibet to a discussion of ‘The Art of Warming Oneself Without Fire up in the Snows’. Although she writes positively about tumo, she does point out that ‘Tibetans have borrowed from India the three mystic nadi [arteries, veins] which play an important part in the various yoga psychic trainings. In Tibetan, nadis are called tsas... Part 6Alexandra David-Neel devotes eleven pages of her Mystery and Magic in Tibet to a discussion of ‘The Art of Warming Oneself Without Fire up in the Snows’. Although she writes positively about tumo, she does point out that ‘Tibetans have borrowed from India the three mystic nadi [arteries, veins] which play an important part in the various yoga psychic trainings. In Tibetan, nadis are called tsas...These so-called ‘arteries’ are not supposed to be true arteries containing blood, but exceedingly thin nerves that distribute currents of psychic energy...However enlightened mystics consider the tsa system as devoid of any physical reality. According to their opinion it is but symbolical imagery.’ [i]
Ina Marx in her mis-titled Yoga and Common Sense tells us that ‘Prana the life force...is found in every living thing...it is in matter, but it is not matter. It is in the air, but it is not air. It is inhaled along with oxygen, but it is not oxygen. Too subtle to be graphically pinpointed, Prana exists as surely as do electricity and cosmic rays.’ [ii] This isn’t enough for the yogi Paramahansa Yogananda; according to him ‘Atoms and electrons are blind forces; prana is inherently intelligent.’ [iii]
It is interesting to note that the identification of prana or breath with internal energy seems to be a relatively modern development. In Yoga A Scientific Evaluation Kavoor T. Behanan points out that ‘Pranayama comprises different types of breathing. ‘Prana’ means ‘breath’ and ‘ayama’ ‘pause’; hence the compound ‘pranayama’ literally means a cessation or pause in the movement of breath. While in the ealier writings, especially in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, the word is free from all mystical and symbolic interpretations, in the hands of later writers it became equivalent to some psychic force or cosmic element.’ [iv]
The prana is usually associated with six or more ‘centres of psychic energy’ or ‘chakras’ said to be located along the spine. By mental control the initiate is said to be able to move the prana [or ‘kundalini’, serpent power] up the spine to produce both a profound sense of spiritual liberation and somewhat incidentally ‘siddhis’ or occult powers. The author Arthur Avalon [Sir John Woodroffe] in his classic study of Tantric Yoga originally published in 1919 warns however that ‘physiology does not know the Cakras as they exist in themselves - that is, as centres of consciousness - and of the activity of Suksma-Prana-vayu or subtle vital force...those who appeal to physiology are likely to return non-suited.’ [v]
It is important to note that according to Arthur Avalon the chakras are simply ‘centres of consciousness’, and like the ‘subtle vital force’ they are associated with they have no corporeal existence. This simple fact is often either ignored or misunderstood by those who write or teach as if these centres or ‘vital energy’ actually existed, and are not simply mental constructs. One Indian writer Gopi Krishna, a man who has devoted his life to the study of yoga points out that ‘To a scientific mind, acquainted with the anatomy of the human body, the diagrams and descriptions [of the chakras etc.] would...strike one as the products of a brain which, to say the least, has lost touch with actuality and lives in a fantastic realm of dreams. It would dismiss the whole subject as entirely unscientific and irrational, the fanciful creation of deluded anchorites or of unscrupulous charlatans to deceive the credulous.’ [vi] According to Robin Martin, an American teacher of nin-jutsu, ch’i-kung and similar methods it is necessary for a student ‘to be able to breath through his or her crown chakra’ in order to practise one tantric exercise. [vii] How air is meant to pass through the bones of the skull and enter the respiratory system is not explained, but along with the rest of the stories of astral projection, kundalini raising, spiritual possession, visions of Hindu and Buddhist deities etc. found in Glenn Morris’ work on ‘Esoteric Martial Arts’ it is clear proof that Gopi Krishna was correct when he said that these people live ‘in a fantastic world of dreams’ only loosely connected with the real world.
Benjamin Walker observes that ‘the kundalini may in fact be a purely imaginary force created by concentration’, an opinion shared by the fifth century master of Yoga Patanjali who called the kundalini ‘imaginary.’ Somewhat less elegantly the modern tantric master Agehananda says that ‘kundalini is a lot of claptrap.’ [viii] Interest in some kind of internal energy is not only to be found in the orient. The early Greeks believed that some individuals could heal by means of a mysterious power [dunamis], and right up to the evolution of modern science various ideas were propounded to explain this mysterious force:-
* The medieval physician Paracelsus [died 1541] believed that all living things emitted a ‘magnetic’ energy he called ‘mumia’, the living essence of a human being.
* Mesmer [died 1815] believed that the human body was like a magnet, and the energies flowing in the body could be used to heal. Known as ‘animal magnetism’, Mesmer’s ideas had a powerful influence on the development of ch’i-like concepts in the West.
* The German scientist Baron Carl von Reichenbach [1788-1869] identified an energy he called ‘od’ [after Odin, the Norse god] which he believed was the essence of life.
* In 1903 Professor Prosper Blondlot, a French scientist, said he had discovered a form of energy which radiated from the human body which he named ‘N-Rays’. In 1904 an American physicist Robert Wood showed that these rays were non-existent, and Professor Blondlot was so upset that he promptly went mad and died!
* There was a theory of ‘vitalism’ popular among some thinkers and writers in the 19th century which echoes much of the current ideas about ch’i or ki. The philosopher Henri Bergson [1859-1941] proposed that underlaying everything was an ‘elan vital’ [vital impulse or life force] which inspired all of creation towards improvement. The implications of this idea came into conflict with the results of scientific research, and it was abandoned. In 1951 Ernest Nagel observed in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research that ‘Vitalism of the substantive type...is now a dead issue...less perhaps because of the methodological and philosophical criticism that has been levelled against the doctrine than because of the infertility of vitalism as a guide in biological research and because of the superior heuristic value of alternative approaches.’
* In 1940 Wilhelm Reich announced that he had discovered ‘orgone’, a form of energy which is closely tied into sexual energy, and is responsible for most of creation! Reich said that orgone was a non electro-magnetic force which permeated all of nature. Eventually Dr. Reich was arrested and died in prison in 1957. [ix]
* In 1940 Semyon Davidovitch Kirlian developed a form of photography which, it was claimed, could record the ‘bioplasmic’ energy radiating from living things. This was seized upon by the proponents of ch’i as ‘proof’ of their assertions, and everybody from spiritual healers to internal martial artists jumped on the Kirlian bandwagon. For example Bruce Holbrook in The Stone Monkey: An Alternative Chinese Scientific Reality [1981] tells us that ‘Kirlian photography reveals precisely the vital energy-patterns predicted by the Sextimage and the concept and mapping of ch’i, or configurative, vital energy.’
However when serious research was done into the phenomenon, it was found that what was actually being recorded was the degree of moisture present. Dr. John Taylor has the following to say ‘When all of these factors are carefully controlled, there is no change of the Kirlian photograph with the psychological state of the subject. It seems that the most important variable is the moisture content of the fingertips...Nor is there any question whatsoever of this technique actually measuring any psychic energy. A careful calculation by American scientists has shown that the process occurs by a well-understood process called a corona discharge. We can only conclude that Kirlian photography is irrelevant to paranormal investigations.’ [x]
* In the 1950s George de la Warr manufactured and sold a series of machines which he claimed could diagnose, and treat the energy or ‘life force’ found in human beings. When opened the ‘machines’ were empty! They contained no power source, wiring, or any form of electronics whatsoever. George de la Warr died in 1969 and his ‘science’ of radionics faded away. [xi]
I know that many people will continue to believe in ki or ch’i in spite of the fact that the only available ‘proof’ is totally subjective. This in turn leads to some strange ways of thinking. One of my karate students was once told by a practitioner of T’ai Chi Ch’uan that it was not possible for him to land a blow on the the speaker due to the internal practitioner’s control of chi. At that a well controlled open hand strike landed on the speaker’s cheek, causing a red mark but no real damage. Later the internal student observed that his ‘Master’ knew of my somewhat negative views about ch’i, which he correctly assumed my student shared, and that is why his otherwise perfect defense failed. Had my student believed in ch’i, his attack would have failed! So it would seem that ch’i only works if both the attacker and defender believe in it. What I would really like to see would be a series of tests designed to isolate the various aspects of internal energy, so that meaningful conclusions could be drawn from the results. [xii] These tests could include:-
1. Survive a fight with a Thai boxer, kick boxer or any full contact fighter unscathed. A good test would be to enter a Kyokushinkai knockdown tournament and simply absorb the blows.
2. Accept blows to the body or face without the usual protective cement blocks. If those people who do this stunt actually have ch’i why don't they simply let the hammer etc. hit the body? In the past strongmen have taken such blows:-
* In 1938 Joe Zimmerman [145 lbs.] allowed his brother Dick [150 lbs.] to jump onto his abdomen from the top of a six foot ladder. Dick Zimmerman was holding a 50lb. dumbbell in each hand.
* Frank ‘Cannonball’ Richards [240 lbs.] had an act which featured him stopping a steel ball 9 inches in diameter with his abdomen. He stood six feet in front of the cannon which fired the ball, usually knocking him down, but without damage. He allowed Jack Dempsey and other boxers to punch him in the stomach to no effect, and took blows from a sledgehammer without injury.
Chuck R. Taylor observed in an article on ‘Frauds and Phony Stunts’ that ‘hitting an unprotected body with a sledgehammer would be devastating. But if you first place a concrete block on the body, then hit it with a sledgehammer, the impact is distributed over a large area.’ [xiii] A curious example of this kind of force deflection was reported in the Manchester Guardian newspaper on July 8th., 1930 ‘Newcastle Infirmary doctors, electricians and engineers spent yesterday afternoon trying to remove a steel ring from the finger of a boy aged eight.' Steel saws, files, and carborundum had no effect. Then the boy’s finger was laid on a 14 lb. sledge-hammer, and the ring, on being struck by another hammer of the same weight split, leaving the boy’s finger unhurt.’
3. Adopt a standing or sitting position and remain immovable as various people [not his or her pupils] pull or push from all sides at random.
4. Stand in a circle composed of boxers, wrestlers, karate-ka, Judo-ka etc. and defend against random attacks. Again the attackers must not be students of the defender as there is always a subconscious influence at work, leading to pulled or false attacks.
5. Enter something like the Ultimate Challenge matches and proceeded to flip the 250 lb. plus muscular aggressive grapplers and hitters around the area by using the limitless, universal energy of ch’i.
6. Attempt to lift increasingly heavy weights. If a dead lift approach was used then lifting technique wouldn’t enter into the situation, and the effect of lifting skill would be minimised. The deadlift tends to test raw strength rather than technique.
Of course many other tests could be arranged, but if an individual performed significantly better than his or her physique indicated, and no muscular tension was apparent, then obviously something other than strength must be showing itself. Critics of this approach say that such tests somehow miss the point. However as Gopi Krishna says of yogis who claim paranormal powers ‘If they did possess the power of command over these forces, they could dispel the doubts of the multitudes with but one conclusive supernatural demonstration before the skeptics...and with one bodily flight in the air, while the cameras are recording and thousands of eyes witnessing the feat, revive belief in the occult for at least many centuries to come.’ [xiv]
My doubts about ki/ch’i remain. Having seen numerous teachers and practitioners of many martial arts over more than three decades I have witnessed some tremendously impressive performances, but nothing which requires superhuman powers. In my opinion ch’i is nothing more than cleverly arranged carnival tricks which only work with willing assistants and controlled conditions. It has no place in the chaotic and dangerous conditions found in actual fighting.
Obviously my opinions will not change a thing. Belief in ch’i is an almost religious thing and much more powerful than mere facts. In 1959 Kavoor T. Behanan wrote in the preface to his book Yoga A Scientific Evaluation ‘The rash of steadily increasing number of books [on yoga] would testify to the public interest in this subject. But one cannot escape noticing the unduly large proportion of popular literature that is still weighted with wild and unverified claims. That such claims could still appeal to the public is an index of the high degree of emotional maladjustment and sense of insecurity that characterizes our time...What is called for is more experimental work and less mystery-mongering and grandiose metaphysical speculation.’
Denise and Michael Radner have pointed out that ‘mystery-mongering and grandiose metaphysical speculation’ are very appealing to those looking for simple answers to complex problems. They explain ‘One ordinarily thinks of crackpot theories as being novel, original, unheard-of. But many of them actually represent a return to an outmoded way of looking at the world. Faced with the complexities of current science, the crank looks for explanations that are easier to understand and often finds them in what science has already discarded.’ [xv]
We find this situation with regard to internal energy today. The question could easily be settled by controlled testing, but the ch’i ‘masters’ never allow such tests to be made; I believe that deep down inside they know they would fail. If I said I could squat 1,000 lbs. or do a nukite [spearhand] through an iron plate, or something equally as ludicrous, I would be instantly challenged to prove it by interested persons, but somehow the internal energy mongers continue to get away with it. [xvi]
Why, if it is so universal and available, can it not be tested? To quote Mr. Reeve for the last time ‘Real sceptics probably have to experience a flow of ki for themselves’.
I agree: please show me!
[i] Mystery and Magic in Tibet Alexandra David-Neel Corgi Books 1971 p 203
[ii] Yoga and Common Sense Ina Marx Wildwood House Ltd., London 1979 p 31
[iii] Autobiography of a Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda Rider 1987 p 478
[iv] Yoga A Scientific Evaluation Kavoor T. Behanan Dover Publications Inc. New York 1959 pp 201-202
[v] The Serpent Power Arthur Avalon Dover Publications Inc. New York 1974 p 6
[vi] The Secret of Yoga Gopi Krishna Turnstone Press Ltd. Northamptonshire England 1981 p 52
[vii] Martial Arts Madness : A User’s Guide to the Esoteric Martial Arts Glenn Morris Frog Ltd., Berkeley, California 1998 p 71
[viii] Tantrism Its Secret Principles and Practices Benjamin Walker The Aquarian Press Northamptonshire 1982 pp 126-128
[ix] For an interesting study of Wilhelm Reich and his ideas see chapter eighteen in The Night is Large: Collected Essays 1938-1995 Martin Gardner Penguin Books 1996
[x] Science and the Supernatural: An Investigation of Paranormal Phenomena John Taylor Granada Publishing Ltd. 1981 p 52. See also:-
* Science and the Paranormal Edited by George O. Abell and Barry Singer Charles Scribner’s Sons 1981, Chapter 11 ‘Kirlian Photography’ pp 196-208.
For a useful introduction to some of these types of ‘Universal life Force’ see Harpers Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal Experience Rosemary Ellen Gulley Castle Books 1991 pp 626-630.
[xi] For an interesting study of radionics and similar nonsense see Cults of Unreason Dr. Christopher Evans Panther Books Ltd. Great Britain 1974
[xii] I am not alone in calling for a truly scientific series of investigative tests. In China Sports August 1986, a leading Chinese scientist Quan Xuesen says ‘The current task for the study of qigong is to establish it as a phenomenological theory. As you know, modern science has developed to a point where all branches are closely related with one another to form an organic structure. But this does not mean that all fields of learning can be included in this enormous, complicated structure of modern science and technology. On the contrary, there are still many fields remaining outside it...So far they cannot be put into the wonderful structure of modern science; they may be called ‘pre-science’. Yet it is this pre-science, though not science itself, that provides all the necessary raw materials and nutrients for further scientific and technological development.’
He goes on to classify the available evidence for qigong [ch’i kung], by setting up three divisions:-
* Category 1. Written material dealing with subjective feelings of the practitioner.
* Category 2. Books written by ch’i kung masters on teaching their methods.
* Category 3. Books dealing with the theory of ch’i kung.
Qian Xuesen suggests that by closely examining the evidence a system model could be developed which could then be tested ‘by modern scientific methods and instruments.’
I would be most interested in the results of such tests. The martial aspect of course is easy to test; simply fight determined opponents.
[xiii] Black Belt magazine Vol. 29 # 4 April 1991 p 58
[xiv] The Secret of Yoga Gopi Krishna Turnstone Press Ltd. Northamptonshire England 1981 p 77
[xv] Science and Unreason D. Radner and M. Radner Wadsworth Publishing Company Inc. California 1982 p 30
[xvi] Sometimes they are caught out. In December 1928 an Egyptian fakir named Tara Bey performed at the Cirque de Paris. He pushed long needles through various parts of his body, pierced his neck with a thin sword, lay on a bed of sharp nails, and lay supported by two blades at neck and ankles while a rock was smashed on his chest. The audience loved it, as indeed modern audiences go wild when various Chinese ch’i kung groups do their stunts.
In the audience was a magician from Bordeaux named Karma. He came forward and without any special preparations duplicated the Egyptian’s more spectacular stunts. Karma told the audience that he was an entertainer, and had no superhuman powers. The audience was impressed and entertained, and they learned that human skill was the important factor, not occult energies.
There is also the fact that a few years ago it was not uncommon to see punks wandering about with safety pins etc. stuck through their ears, cheeks and other parts of their bodies. While they were noted for their foul language, anti-social behaviour and general moronic approach to life, I’ve never heard it claimed that the punks ever developed any form of spiritual or internal energy which allowed them to drive sharp spikes into their flesh!
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