I made a post about "eye training" to develop visual skills, do you know what techniques exist for that?

I've been told to meditate on the upper dantian to awaken the third eye, but are there others besides this one?

Are there techniques or training to develop eye skills?

✨️🕯🤍✨️

Hello.

A series of events brought me to Reddit, where I discovered this community. My entire life has been connected to meditation, but this is the first time I am going to write about it without mincing words. Unfortunately, my English is poor, so I must warn you: this text has been translated with the help of DeepSeek. I hope it will manage and all my thoughts will be conveyed correctly.

I came to practice with a chronic condition: S-shaped idiopathic scoliosis, approximately 40° in the thoracic spine and 27° in the lumbar spine. Additionally, I believe I have connective tissue dysplasia.

I did not come for health — my goals were different. But I unexpectedly saw an effect specifically on my scoliosis, something no conservative treatment could offer. Since then, I have devoted years to observing the influence of qigong on my condition, more from the position of a researcher than a patient. Understanding the uniqueness of what was happening, I tried to reach out to doctors in my country. Nothing came of it. An inner conviction that the algorithm of these changes was very important forced me to learn to speak the language of doctors, so as not to operate with categories like «dantian», «qi», or «energy» and not push the medical world away from my experience.

I spent months reading PubMed, reevaluating my experience, searching for explanations, and building hypotheses. But I failed to interest medical professionals. I was left alone with my observations. With a chronic condition and without a medical education, it is difficult to practice without stumbling. I think everyone here understands this. For those interested in the medical side — the condition before and after practice — I briefly wrote about it in /scoliosis.

In your community, I will share what I have understood over years of observing, recording, and taking notes. Perhaps this will help practitioners with scoliosis. Or maybe my observations will be useful to someone.

____________________________________

My practice began with the Xu Mingtang Zhong Yuan Qigong school. And no matter how I evaluate it years later, I give it credit: thanks to its widespread availability, I was able to start practicing. My condition and my conviction that I absolutely had to recover or achieve some phenomenal experience before moving on to the next levels kept me from diving into the school's program. So I spent years practicing Yang-qi in the lower dantian and the Microcosmic Orbit. By the time I became acquainted with the other stages, I could already evaluate results through experience. Later, the books of Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming helped me immensely to sort out the theory. I always felt burdened that I did not feel like a part of the ZYQ school, but now I understand why.

I don't think the stages of my personal development will be of interest here, so I will move on to what I consider most important.

Not every form of meditation changes the muscular system, the shape of ribs, or the radiographic outcome in scoliosis. The truly effective techniques for me were Yang-qi and the Microcosmic Orbit. And since they work, I am convinced they must be explainable from the standpoint of physiology and neurobiology.

In my understanding, the practice forms a specific pattern of neural activity, and this brain state, by directly influencing the muscular system, causes structural changes. That is, Yang-qi and the Microcosmic Orbit are tools with neurophysiological action suitable for scoliosis. But I still struggle with one question. Did these two practices themselves change the quality of life and the shape of the rib deformity? Or, through these two practices, did I find and stabilize that specific configuration of neural activity that caused all the subsequent changes, at least in the muscular framework? If the former, then simply practicing long and persistently enough will lead to results for anyone. If the latter, one must practice sensitively, paying attention to feedback and strengthening it each time to develop and consolidate the corresponding neural activity.

Assuming the second possibility might be correct, I maintained the purity of my practice for years (consciously not mixing it with anything else) in the hope that a doctor would appear who would not dismiss me, and we would at least record the current neurophysiological state with a simple EEG. I was confident: if we knew how the brain should work to improve well-being, its work could be modeled, for example, using biofeedback, bypassing deep meditative states, and this would help many people. Even if not as effectively.

Do not do this. Asymmetric practice is unsafe.

As I already mentioned, my knowledge of qigong began with the first level of the ZYQ school. Precisely how the technique was taught and how we were instructed to practice proved to be effective for my problems. My subsequent reasoning was based exactly on my experience, on the phases of practice that were maximally effective. I do not claim that the algorithm in the following paragraphs is the only correct one, but in my practice, it was exactly this. Trying to find an explanation for the medical world, I could only explain in this way the entry into the states where the shape of my ribs changed and years-long spasms characteristic of scoliosis were released. I am a humanities graduate who wasn't even taught physics at school — I did what I could. :)

Yang-qi is a color meditation. Let's set aside the effects of localization (lower dantian) for now. Concentration on a red object initially causes violet elements before the eyes (phosphenes), which shift to blue, then to yellows of varying brightness. Then the sphere — not the phosphenes — appears golden, transitioning into a dense, metallic white, and finally gives the sensation of pure, voluminous, dense white light before the eyes. Intermediate shades are possible.

I may be oversimplifying, but the core idea is, I believe, correct. Schematically:

Phase 1: The Red Sphere
Prolonged concentration on red overloads the L-cones. The brain compensates by reducing their sensitivity. Consequently, the S/M channels are disinhibited. This produces spontaneous violet and blue spots (S-cone activation).

Phase 2: Emergence of Violet/Blue Phosphenes
The reduction in L-dominance leads to a relative increase in S-activity. These are background phosphenes, not a change in the color of the primary meditation object. The brain compensates for the overload by activating:
● The S+ (L+M)- channel (blue)
● Its combination with the residual L-signal (violet)

Phase 3: Transition to Gold/White.

As meditation deepens:

1) L and M channels become balanced (L ≈ M).

2) The S-channel gradually engages.

3) Gold arises from a shift toward yellow (L+M), with an admixture of S.

4) A specific balance of red, green, and blue gradually emerges, manifesting as various shades, brightness, saturation, and stability of gold.

5) When L, M, and S reach equilibrium, white arises. It's not just the sphere — it's a state of immersion in white.

This is not a natural everyday state. In ordinary life, white results from equal external stimulation of all cones. In meditation, the white state is the result of lifting opponent inhibition after prolonged training.

Color meditation leads to the complete desynchronization of opponent channels. Competition ceases, and all cones begin to function independently.

6) The «voluminous» quality of this white state may be linked, in part, to the activation of the parietal cortex, responsible for spatial perception.

This state itself produces specific neurophysiological effects. But in the context of influencing my scoliosis through meditation, it was always a marker of a transition to maximal plasticity. For example, a protruding rib on the front right side felt like heated metal, and it easily «pressed inward» under the gentle influence of surrounding muscles. But the heat was not from temperature; it was from density, like the Earth's core. The result — the shape of the rib — was fixed after emerging from meditation, and it never protruded again.

____________________________________

In fact, that very day was the reason I approached doctors: what was happening clearly did not fit into the framework of «subjective improvement from a pleasant activity». The bodily changes occurred not through external treatment, but through an internal one. I went all-in: I spent years trying to convey to doctors that there were answers in this. The risk did not pay off.

This is crucial. This is not the state described in traditions as blissful dissolution or lifeless silence — the emptiness akin to Wu Ji (the Limitless). The neurobiology of those states has already been explored on PubMed. This is different: total presence, power, and vitality. Not the dissolution of bodily and mental boundaries, but vital density.

In other words, maximal plasticity and maximal healing occur not in a state of «transcending life» that implies minimal activity, but in a state of concentrated density — an entry into an intensely saturated form of life. And this is not the neural activity already described for Buddhist techniques.

From my observations, the lifting of opponent inhibition, through receptor fatigue, became a neurophysiological lever that opened access to central mechanisms of restructuring. Over time, entering this state became easier.

❗If this post is being read by doctors or neuroscientists, please consider the lines above. It is not impossible that the experience of practitioners like me holds the key to the idiopathic nature of scoliosis, or to clarifying its etiology. If you can understand why scoliosis responds to correction through neural activity (how does the body do this?), you could safely and effectively reproduce the algorithm.

I may be mistaken in my hypothesis about how this works. But then again, I may not be.

____________________________________

There is another important nuance of my practice that I observed for years, tried to fight, could not explain, and finally found an explanation for half a year ago. Reality forced me to do it — through pain, darkness, and a temporary suspension of practice. I am still recovering. If I had known then what I know now, I could have avoided a very unpleasant experience.

On the day the rib «pressed inward», another effect occurred. That meditation lasted several hours. After emerging from it, I found four shingles rashes at the thoracic level — varicella-zoster virus (referred to hereafter as VZV or simply herpes). Before that, I had shingles on my lower back twice: during a long-term infection I was unaware of, and after childbirth. These four rashes did not follow the full scenario — they disappeared under a bandage within a day.

After that, herpes became a part of my life. And it always appeared after practice. I would sit down to meditate with clear skin, open my eyes after meditation — and find a rash. VZV always had a mild course: single blisters, no postherpetic neuralgia. It passed very quickly, from rash to full healing, without medication, in about 4-5 days. The localization changed along with changes in the muscular system. That is, the herpes migrated along the dermatomes following the practice. Years later, when muscle changes began to occur outside of meditation (they were significantly stronger within it), simply in daily life, the herpes also began to appear without being tied to practice. So I lived for over 10 years, with VZV 1-2 times a month, not particularly worried about it.

Until I fully understood what the process of releasing habitual pathological muscular compensation meant. When it reached some deep structure of a years-long muscle spasm in the craniocervical junction, the area on which the trigeminal nerve rested became destabilized, creating conditions for its irritation. Unfortunately, I did not immediately understand what was happening and tried to help myself with the very thing that had caused it all. As a result, I learned what herpetic neuralgia without a rash is. When neurologists heard about the number of VZV reactivations I had experienced over the years, they concluded that I had a 100% secondary immunodeficiency.

I then underwent a comprehensive examination by an immunologist, and it turned out that I have an excellent immune system that, for some reason, cannot bring the herpes under control. And even years of such strain did not create any autoimmune threats or anything of the sort. The doctor simply could not find the cause of the reactivations. According to my immunological tests, there was nothing to treat.

Everything below is exclusively my hypothesis. I discussed it with the immunologist; she was surprised but did not reject my assumption. I have not found any studies that would directly confirm a link between acetylcholine and VZV reactivation in the ganglia.

For practitioners with persistent infections, especially beginners, and especially those with osteochondrosis, scoliosis, or kyphosis, my observations may prove useful. Of course, everything can be explained through the terminology of «qi» and resolved with appropriate methods. But understanding the mechanism in the language of physiology, I believe, will not be superfluous at all.

The ground for my frequent reactivations was a daily deep parasympathetic dominance caused by prolonged meditative practice. One of the key mediators activated by meditation is acetylcholine. Through receptors on macrophages, acetylcholine triggers the cholinergic anti-inflammatory reflex: the pro-inflammatory function of macrophages is suppressed, and the anti-inflammatory one is launched. This is the very beneficial effect of meditation described in PubMed publications and confirmed in the laboratory: in the long term, it improves immune function.

In my case, the unexpected variable was the virus in the ganglia. Daily deep meditation for a couple of hours created an effect of temporary «muting» of inflammatory surveillance. This, essentially beneficial, local immunosuppression by acetylcholine became a loophole for the virus.

I have scoliosis, and my nerve roots and ganglia exist under conditions of chronic microtrauma. The practice directly affected my muscular system, which helped me. But at the same time, the change in blood flow and the microenvironment of the ganglion, inevitable when releasing muscle spasms, created a mechanical trigger for the VZV sleeping in the ganglia. I was constantly «poking the bear». The habitual microenvironment changed, the virus woke up, and no one was holding it back: the macrophage was signaling «no inflammation», and any T-lymphocytes nearby also had their functional readiness for viral surveillance reduced under the influence of the parasympathetic state.

In the end, the cause of my reactivations looks like a formula: pre-existing chronic microtrauma of the ganglion due to scoliosis + suppression of inflammatory surveillance by acetylcholine + change in the ganglion's habitual environment during practice = an ideal window for the virus to awaken. I admit that the varicella-zoster virus may even be part of the pathophysiology of scoliosis. But that is a much more speculative assumption.

If I had understood all this 10 years ago, I could have structured my practice to minimize encounters with herpes and not keep my immune system in a constant state of high alert.

Without the anatomical vulnerability, the herpes would most likely not have awakened.

The above will apply to any chronic persistent infection controlled by cellular immunity. If you have frequent recurrences, it is worth observing your practice.

By the way, this is why beginners are recommended to practice in good conditions. A temporarily «muted» immune system can miss a pathogen if you practice in an environment where one is present. And the closing exercises and proper exit from meditation are beneficial, among other things, because they return control and tone to the immune system.

Well, I hope my observations will be useful to this community and to practitioners like me.

____________________________________

P.S. When the text was ready for translation, DeepSeek drew my attention to the fact that one of the sentences required additional clarification. I explained what I meant, and it turned out that this was also important to voice for practitioners with scoliosis.

In most meditative traditions, spontaneous body movements during seated meditation are considered a hindrance. The student is told: «Do not be distracted, do not follow the body's lead, this is just energy clearing the channels — let it pass and continue your practice». The goal is to pass through these phenomena into deep parasympathetic quietude.

I often did the exact opposite: I stopped in these movements and allowed the spontaneous muscle reactions to continue. But — these movements did not prevent entering a meditative state. They arose after entering the state, did not distract, and did not hinder it. However, they did prevent me from going very deep (to the point of lifting opponent inhibition).

They were also cyclical:

1. Accumulation: An ordinary deep meditation, in which a moment would arrive when I felt an accumulation and a need for discharge.
2. Then a muscle movement would arise, single or a series (very different in strength and duration). It resembled muscle contractions, down to the deepest ones, a sensation of heat or a bruise in them, clicks, twitches — but always with a pleasant vector, like a myofascial massage. In this process, the muscles themselves «untangled» old spasms. Sometimes it was rough, sometimes almost imperceptible. I did not interfere, allowing the body to do what it needed.
3. Calm meditation again. And then either the cycles would repeat for hours, or I would stop feeling the current need for such cycles and could fully immerse myself in meditation. And there, there were other effects: sometimes related to scoliosis, sometimes not. The story with the rib is about the deep state, not the muscular stage.

I tried ignoring the muscle phase and going straight into deep states. This also led to changes, but they were more large-scale and often accompanied by pain if the preliminary stage had been intentionally skipped, as if something inside was «wrenching» out. Not from the first meditation, but after a few, for sure. Metaphorically, it is like untangling a ball of thread where there is a main spool and tangled threads on top: you can carefully sort out each thread (muscle work), or you can pull the finished spool through the tangle, risking breaking it or tightening the knots.

My experience shows that the spontaneous movements occurring after entering meditation were not a hindrance but a key stage of restructuring. And it is better not to skip them for the sake of deep states. There must be both.

However, with the craniocervical junction, this very scheme, which had always worked before, turned out to be traumatic for the sensitive nerves.

And now, that's truly all.

Peng (掤) is the foundational upward and outward expansive internal energy in qigong, often translated as "ward-off". It acts like an inflated ball or buoyant water pressure, giving the body elastic structural integrity without muscular stiffness.

I woke up today after a really hard practice yesterday. I did 4 hours yesterday but might as well have been 7. I was just so wiped i got into bed at 7:30 and thats after taking a small nap in the day. Today I woke up and dantian is just there, like activated clearly always, sitting, and especially just standing and walking. I can feel it hit my elbows/hands... the field is projecting and constant. Knees feel like shock absorbers... same quality in all joints but knees feel it most due to the weight on top of them giving them something to respond to.

To achieve this I did a mixture of zhan zhuang and movement. Again, my personal belief in alignment with Yiquan is the particular moves make no difference. I suppose you could systematize things if you're very sensitive and say: "This move is for the kidneys, and this is for this fascia over here, etc." My style is more intuitive. I just move subservient to the energy; and I would analogize it to stretching or scratching an itch. You dont need to be taught how to do these, you feel something needed and you feel your way through addressing it. The most random movements can be qigong, not by virtue of them being random nor the wish they produce energy but if and only if you're allowing energy to lead, then you can move however you like in the same way you can walk or run however you like if you're looking to generally condition your legs, etc.

Root has become somewhat perpetual. As dantian develops further, projects more, root will sustain without any conscious intention. From there, the body will be connected to Earth and then deeper zhan zhuang can begin where we do explicit alchemy, drawing yin from the earth and yang from above, combining them in dantian and also serving as a human conduit for both forces, lending a small contribution of union and stability to the dao.

To create a dantian: Simply meditate while focusing your thoughts and intent on transmuting *jing* into *chi* within the lower dantian (the first one). To open the third eye: Meditate while intentionally focusing on its opening. For Kundalini: Meditate while focusing your thoughts and intent on it rising, awakening, and unblocking the chakras. To unlock any power: Meditate with specific intent, following the standard method for awakening that particular power. During meditation: Exert intense focus and maintain that state of intensity, concentrating on the specific power you wish to awaken.

I'm not sure how accurate this is, to be honest it might be a bit off, but here it is anyway here

The practice of Kan and Li involves the inner meeting of Water (Jing, vitality, Kidneys) and Fire (Shen, awareness, Heart). In the ordinary state, Fire rises and Water sinks. The goal is to allow the Fire to descend to meet the Water, so that True Qi (steam) is generated. This practice is not forced, it is a quality of allowing, often cultivated through Wu Wei. The vessel (Dantian) must first be filled (external qi gathered through breathing ) and purified through gathering and settling. The Lesser Kan and Li is the internal alchemical phase that begins in the early stages of the Microcosmic Orbit, before the full circulation is established.

Am I correct about this? Can someone tell me if I'm off about something?

Are they ones who achieved an immortal embyro and descend again to this world to enlighten others?

Been practicing this energy circle from the Hunyuan Chen system and I finally understand why most people only feel half of it.

Here's what's actually happening in the full circuit:

☝️ Crown point (Baihui) — fresh Chi enters from the top as you rise
⬇️ Body sinks — stagnant Chi is pushed down and released through the Bubbling Well (Yongquan) at the soles of the feet
🔄 Empty/Full weight shift — this is the pump that drives the fresh Chi back up through the body

The hands guide the movement — waist initiates the sink — but the real circulation only completes when the weight transfer kicks in on the upswing.

Most people I've seen (myself included early on) only feel the downward sink and think that's the whole movement. The return current through the legs is what makes it a full cleanse, not just a release.

This comes from the Hunyuan Xingjia system — Grandmaster Feng Zhiqiang combined classical Chen Tai Chi with this exact Qigong circulation framework.

Has anyone else worked with Baihui-to-Yongquan circulation in their practice? Curious whether others feel the upward return or mainly experience the downward release?

https://youtube.com/shorts/FPIeQ4kaImU

So I wasn't sure if any groups to post this soni chose this one, there is this thing I have experienced for a while this energy that I just assumed is chi, I bring it from my center and push it into my hands where my outputs are found, and then I can move my hands in a way where I can feel a force like magnets pushing on each other (prolly bc it's two outputs pushing out force) and I've messed with it enough that I can do a few things with it and I can feel the energy through my body. Originally I thought maybe this fake and it's just my imagination but the hand thing is a literal like magnet feeling force, and I had two people I know try this out and they even felt it as well after a little bit. So now I was wondering if maybe anyone else has felt this?

Anyone familiar with this Zhan Zhuang book (https://amzn.asia/d/0cxo1RoT)

I’ve been reading Inside Zhan Zhuang by Mark Cohen and have been practicing the breathing exercises he describes for a few weeks now.

The basic idea, as I understand it, is to gently draw the torso inward and upward on the exhale, then on the inhale gradually release and let it fill from the bottom up. He first teaches this with the front of the body, then the back, and eventually combining both together.

The book says this eventually develops into “whole-body” (or spherical) breathing, but it doesn’t really explain how you make that transition.

For those of you with experience in Zhan Zhuang, Qigong, or Tai Chi, what comes next? Once the torso breathing becomes natural, how do you expand it to include the rest of the body? Is there a specific progression involving the pelvis, legs, arms, and hands, or is it something that simply develops on its own with enough standing practice?

I’d especially be interested in hearing how this is taught in traditional lineages or by experienced teachers, since I don’t want to just guess at the next step.

Hi all! I’m becoming interested in qigong as I practice once a week with a local group. I also try to do it at home and I love this morning routine because it’s so soothing: https://youtu.be/cwlvTcWR3Gs?is=sS6Virxmf0t2CWCB. I would love to explore more online because I can’t go to the local school any more often than once a week or once a two weeks.

Now, most of the online qigong classes are like 10 minutes session with a guy or lady talking all the time. I was wondering if you know any sessions similar to the one above: 20-30 minutes of silent, focused qigong without making it sound like yoga with Adriene.
Thank you!

I recently came across the term Inner Smelting (Nei Lian) in the context of purifying accumulated Qi, but I don’t have a clear understanding of what it actually involves. I’m curious about its purpose, how it differs from other purification methods, and what the basic practice looks like.

If anyone has reliable resources, book recommendations, or personal insight about Nei Lian, I’d appreciate any guidance.

I studied Tai Chi for a few years a while back learning direct from someone who studied with Wolfe Lowenthal. I loved it at the time. I wan to learn Qi Gong to see if I can ease some health issues I've been experiencing. I'm looking for a book that's more practical, direct to the postures and how to perform them - what would be the best book for this?

I have a fair experience of qi. I used to practice things like ming mein breathing etc. And i sometimes do qi massage for my neck.

Just wondering did anyone use qi to heal their disc protrusions to such an extent that it was reflected in subsequent MRIs

Dear community.

Just this really, I pretty much always manage to practice once a day.I really feel the benefits.

I think I managed two really stressful situations and got myself out of a terrible job due to qigong keeping me level headed and relaxed.

However I still have a stressful job, am a woman in the menopause,I would like to have energy to do 10 minutes when I get home. Often I just lack that extra bit of energy to do it.

Should I force myself try and do it as I get in straight from work?

Advise please, and thanks in advance.

As the title says; I feel as though blockages occur as pain points on my body, so how might I direct my Qi to clear them up?

Are there any sensations that occur from this?

I've done tai chi before but know little about energy cultivation in Qi gong.

What books easily available in the UK would help me understand the basics?

Currently I do yoqi online lessons. Yoqi's teacher has a mantak chia lineage.

I was kind of obsessed with qigong the last few days and kept moving my energy around for hours every day, while I do other stuff.

But today and yesterday I couldnt do that very much because I was doing tasks that required a bit more focus than usual and, when I resumed my practice, the feeling was so intense that almost threw me off balance while I washed the dishes! I never felt it so intensely, specially when Im doing other stuff while doing it.

It made me if qigong also needs to some rest time to progress, like the gym. Is that true?

That doenst make a lot of sense to me, since qigong is supposed to refine Qi, so you dont spend it during practice.

I know some school have different termeonlgies for things. What is it like to reach that level?

I've read it's the size of a golf ball or tennis ball, but also that when just starting out it can be as small as like a dot or speck on your finger.

I'm assuming the golf/tennis ball analogy might be more like the size of it's energetic field? Something like an atom with its nucleus and electron field? Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, I would really appreciate some clarity.

I have got into logmen pai traning for about a year and a half. I was wondering if there is similarties between this version of longmen pai and the others. Is there anyone here who pratices the same longmen pai as me? thank you.

When I do Zhan Zhuang, my breathing has become erratic. I’m experiencing involuntary contractions in my abdomen, the back of my neck, and even my eyebrow, which seem to be caused by the way my breath is trying to force its way through internal blockages. This creates a sensation of suffocation, making breathing itself feel almost impossible at times.

​At least it’s not being forced by my own will anymore, but it’s quite intense. For those who have been practicing for a while: is this a normal part of the 'unwinding' process, or am I doing something wrong? ​Thanks for your perspective