What is qi?

In a previous post I talked about qi (pronounced chee) as bio-energy. Since the internal arts spend a lot of time talking about building, circulating and maintaining qi, it’s important to have an understanding of what it is.

This is kind of a large topic for a post, so here’s my short version.

Qi is any of a broad group of bio-energies produced by the body. These include electricity, magnetism, light, heat – essentially a range of energy frequencies. These energies flow throughout the body via pathways referred to in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) as meridians. Research indicates that the meridians correspond to areas of perineural cells along the nerve pathways. Wherever there is an energy flow, there will be a corresponding energy field. The energy fields of the body are typically characterized as auras. While qi (also chi) is the Chinese term for this energy, it has been described for centuries by many cultures under various names – pneuma, prana, ki, etc.

The Western take on qi and TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) has changed significantly in recent decades, particularly since the 1970s when the advent of the SQUID (Superconducting QUantum Interference Device) made it possible to actually measure minute levels of energy in the body. Modern research has confirmed many of the qi flows and their related fields that have traditionally been noted by TCM. The coupling of current research and thousands of years of healing practice leave no doubt as to the existence or practical usage of qi.

Perhaps the easiest way to get a handle qi is to experience it in your own body. Here’s a simple exercise for perceiving qi. Take a relaxed stance with your feet parallel at about a shoulder’s width and a neutral spine. Hold your hands with the palms facing each other at waist level. This will place two major qi transmission points in the hands (Pericardium 8 points [laogong]) opposite each other. 

Now visualize an energy flow that runs through your chest, out one arm, across the space between your hands and then up the other arm and back through the chest. Men should visualize this flow counter clockwise from the right palm to the left, women are opposite with a clockwise flow from left to right. Try to both visualize and feel this rotating flow through your hands. Gradually bring your hands closer together and then farther apart, as if you were pressing your palms together while holding a balloon in between them. As you bring your hands closer together and farther apart, notice any change in sensation on your hands. You may feel a slight pressure, heat or tingling in the hands – or you may just notice that something feels different when you move your hands closer and then farther apart. What you are feeling are the effects of the qi that is accumulating at the gap between your hands.

I have done this experiment many times in introductory qigong classes and usually see an immediate 80% success rate, with most everyone able to feel the effects of the qi with a little practice. There is nothing really mysterious here, just the same bio-energy that has always been there except now you are actively looking for it.

You can continue the exercise by first visualizing and feeling the ball of qi between your hands and then using your mental intent to roll the qi ball up one arm and down the other. This simple exercise increases your awareness of qi and brings out some important aspects of qi – first, it is tangible and second you can control it. Recognizing these aspects of qi is an important step in utilizing it in both healing and hurting applications.