Yeah. Sure. Chi exists just like, say, real magic exists.
Yeesh. This is like talking about whether or not “the mind” exists. Yes, in a sense, I have one. No, it doesn’t have supernatural powers. No, I can’t show you where it is.
I have had my “chi” disrupted in an attack from my instructor. I was the dummy for a training session.
To demonstrate pressure points, I was struck, not hard, on the sides. I can’t remember the name for the pressure point, but it essentially stopped my lungs for a bit. I couldn’t breathe… sort of like having the wind knocked out of me, but worse, as I couldn’t exhale either.
He didn’t tell me what would happen, he didn’t warn me or give me any indication of what was going to happen. Just thunk and my lungs quit.
About half a minute later, I could breathe again, but I believed after that.
Anyone care to explain how that worked?
I think this hits it just right. There are many topics in science where we use a completely wrong explanation to assist in learning. I can’t come up with a good example right now, but I recall a number of times in my engineering and physics schooling where an advanced class explained that something learned earlier was a “convenient fiction” and then provided the real, more detailed explanation. (Note that I’m not saying air pressure is a fiction, but that the concept of using a wrong but useful description of something as a teaching aid is not all that unusual).
Chi is a convenient fiction for explaining a number of effects which are due to long, precise, and subtle athletic training. I have studied several martial arts and all of them have made use of chi/ki. In each case, it was clear that neither the Sifu/Sensei or I believed in the mystical existence of chi/ki, but it was a convenient way to assist training. When learning a technique, the rhythm of the body, the parts of the body in tension or relaxation, and many other details which make the difference between the technique being effective or not could be visualized as a flow of chi. It is no different than the various animal and mechanical visualizations used by football or baseball players to train explosive power, etc.
It depends what you mean by Chi!
I beleive there was a study done where a Qigong guy targeted Chi at a diseased liver and killed many of the diseased cells. I can’t remember the URL, but if you google it might turn up.
I also recall reading about the benefits of “standing like a tree” Zhan Zhuang - where brainwaves were showed to be much slower in practitioners.
Again I saw a t.v. show where a woman claimed that the idea of meridians arose because in ancient China, invasive surgery was prohibited and so a way of externally treating internal matters was needed.
I have also read claims that the body’s lymphatic system is where the Chi flows.
Its probably difficult for a westerner to understand these concepts because of the language barrier and hence an analytic understanding is difficult if not impossible to reach. I would suggest if you really want to know more, find a teacher of Tai Chi or Qigong and make up your own mind.
I recall a Tai Chi master answering this very question - he said “Explaining Chi to someone is like explaining the flavour of rice”. You can’t explain the flavour of rice to someone who has never tasted it!