Qi vs. Energy - Kendall and Wilber

[Guest guest]

I was at first very much taken aback by Kendall's (author of a CM book sure

to make waves, published in 2002,

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of " ) position that the translation of the Qi concept into

" Energy " by the French was an error, but I think I have managed recently to

come to understand better what Kendall is talking about.

 

Ground rules: From here on in, if I speak about " Energy " I refer to the

French (mis)understanding of Qi. When I refer to energy, I simply mean the

scientific concept.

 

For the sake of simplicity, let us just assume for the moment that my ideas

about Qi are in fact correct. Now it is important to distinguish between

people that today speak of " Energy " in relation to Qi that actually

understand Qi, but just use the word " Energy " because everybody else does,

and those that use the word " Energy " in relation to Qi and therefore

attribute false characteristics to it. This understanding is vital in

avoiding unnecessary arguments/misunderstandings.

 

So what is the difference between the French " Qi " and the Chinese Qi? I

will go through point form a list of key comparisons:

* The Chinese know that Qi is everywhere and is everything, the French

emphasise mostly that it is everywhere.

* The Chinese Qi is much more encompassing of all manifestation in this

world, energy and matter, whereas for the French it is mostly about energy.

* The Chinese Qi is much more embodied, empirical and immanent. The

French Qi is a bit more abstract, mysterious and mystical.

This difference is small, yet it makes all the difference in the

world. Generally when the typical TCM student imagines Qi, he imagines

some sort of field of energy flowing like a force field or electricity

through a wire travelling the meridians of the body. This is not

necessarily a mistake, but for what it omits - the physical reality of what

we see, and especially feel, right in front of us, is also Qi. This subtle

energy I feel on my fingertips when I do Qigong is Qi certainly, but then

this computer table and this chair I am working on is also Qi - it is both

the subtle and the gross.

 

Now acupuncture (for all but the most intuitively/energically talented) is

the manipulation of not just any Qi, but the Qi of the body. This does not

mean that when you stick a needle in a certain acupuncture node that some

sort of (let's say) electromagnetic field is shifted and adjusted and

therefore you get better. It means that when you stick the needle in you

are effecting changes in the physical body, affecting blood flow and

neuronal firing patterns and hormone releases, etc (also a manifestation of

Qi, just of a certain type, in this case Zheng Qi manipulation affecting

Ying and Wei Qi) and therefore it gets better, and THEN we see/feel/sense

changes in this said electromagnetic field (hence Kendall is not denying

the existence of Qi Gong healing either).

 

Let me try to explain it another way. When we needle a patient and try to

elicit a De Qi sensation, we commonly make the mistake of saying that this

undefined Qi moved, therefore the patient felt something physically

happening in their body. This is not quite right. A better way to explain

what the Chinese meant by Qi is to say that the patient felt something

physically happen in their body, full stop. And that is Qi, because Qi is

everything and everywhere, so of course everything that you feel is Qi moving.

 

I think in this the idea of Qi in acupuncture is much closer to the idea of

" feeling " rather than " Energy " . In some senses, this type of Qi IS

feeling, though it may be too subtle for everyone to consciously

register. This one requires a bit of an oblique explanation as well: when

I do a massage, I know when I have done a good job because I can feel into

the patient's body somehow. I don't know the mechanism of how this works

exactly, but I can tell you that my hands and fingers get pretty warm in

the process when I do it properly, even if I am doing just point-pressing

techniques so not just due to friction. Some say this is because " Energy "

was transferred to my hands, but this basically explains nothing. Now the

Chinese concept is that the Qi follows the thought/attention. When I

massage I put myself in a state of mind where 100% attention on the

feelings from my hands and fingers, and what they detect of the patient's

musculature. Blood flow has increased into my hands and made them warm

simply because my attention was maintained on that part of my body, full

stop. No need to use these quasi-mystical concepts. Qi is right there in

front of you, closer than that in fact.

 

These two ideas, of Qi as being embodied/mundane and of Qi as being

feeling, may seem contradictory at first, but if you think about the idea

of the universe being composed of consciousness (as Quantum physics tends

to point to, as has been espoused by spiritual traditions worldwide), this

makes more sense.

 

The following is not Kendall's idea, it is something I am playing with at

the moment. Maybe the meridians are less about the flow of some sort of

" Energy " field in the body, or being some sort of independent physical

structure, rather than it is the " flow of feeling " that happens in the

body, especially as we breathe, that is simply there due to the fact that

we are alive. Again, this feeling is quite subtle and most of us cannot

detect it, but the Qi of acupuncture begins and ends with this subjective

experience of feeling. This experience certainly depends on things like

underlying physiological structures and emanations of electromagnetic

radiation, but is actually a lot simpler and more immediate than that.

 

To put it in slightly geekier terms, " Feel the Force " becomes just " Feel " ,

deeper and deeper, subtler and subtler, dropping away preconceptions and

attachments, rationalisations and doubts. Just feel.

 

This clearer understanding of Qi really opens things up. It allows us to

trust our senses more. It means that we can no longer get away with just

slapping a " I moved the Qi " label on an intervention and just stop there

with deeper inquiry into what happened exactly. Strangely, it brings TCM

and acupuncture in particular more comprehensible and accessible to

science. For me, I am happiest because it manages to fit really nicely

with

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All Quadrants All Level model of Everything.

 

I haven't gone so far into Kendall to hear what he has to say exactly about

Zheng Qi and oxygen, but I seriously doubt he is talking about Zheng Qi as

simply oxygen as some have warned me, he seems to be too intelligent to

make such a gross reduction.

 

Any comments/corrections?

 

Cheers,

 

 

 

 

http://www.centreofhealinghands.com

 

 

PS. A really good perspective on this idea of Qi is from that old classic,

Pirsig's " Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance " , as well as the sequel

" Lila " . In my understanding, Pirsig's concept of " Quality " is very very

close to what I think the Chinese originally meant by Qi. From " Zen " (p.

233-4):

 

" ...He eventually saw that Quality couldn't be independently related with

either subject or object but could be found only in the relationship of the

two with each other. It is the point at which the subject and object

meet..... Quality is a thing, not an event.... it is the event at which the

subject becomes aware of the object. And because without objects there can

be no subject - because the objects create the subject's awareness of

himself - Quality is the event at which awareness of both subjects and

objects is made possible. "

 

" The sun of quality does not revolve around the subjects and objects of our

existence. It does not just passively illuminate them. It is not

subordinate to them in any way. It has created them. They are subordinate

to it! "