Wuji Qi Gong And The Secret Of Immortality
Reviews
In Wuji Qi Gong And The Secret Of Immortality, Stephen Elliott, with Dr. Meng-Sheng Lin, O.M.D., L.Ac., unravels the age old mystery of the “Bagua” or 8 Trigrams of the Yi Jing to reveal it’s surprising inner meaning – the secret of immortality.
In this short and unusual work, Elliott and Lin put forward a practical and philosophical discussion of this ancient Taoist practice for promoting health, well-being, and longevity that they refer to as Wuji Qi Gong.
The method is one of aligning with The Way of Heaven vs. going along with The Way of Earth. While this sounds mysterious, Elliott and Lin shine a compelling light of logic and simplicity on this startling concept. To our knowledge, their theory has never before been articulated, at least not in the English language!
The practice of Wuji Qi Gong involves “integration” of the four primordial elements Air, Earth, Fire, and Water, in effect “reordering” the elements in man such that they produce life vs. consume it, the outcome being health, vitality, and longevity, vs. decay and death.
Wuji Qi Gong is the 3rd book by life scientist, inventor, and accomplished student and teacher of Eastern yogic and martial arts, Stephen Elliott. His first 2 books, The New Science of Breath and Coherent Breathing - The Definitive Method, both with Dee Edmonson, R.N., BCIAC-EEG, put forward a ground breaking theory of the relationship between Coherent Breathing, circulation, and autonomic nervous function. Coherent Breathing is presently used by of tens of thousands of individual users and health professionals in over a dozen countries.
Available February, 2010.
Also see:Wujishi Breathing Exercise
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You, Breathing, and Blood Pressure - What Everyone Needs To Know.
Look for it 4Q- 2010
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Purchase Coherent Breathing with COHERENCE Clock
Coherent Breathing
Written as a companion to The New Science of Breath, Coherent Breathing – The Definitive Method – Theory & Practice delves deeper into the science of cardiopulmonary operation with specific focus on the mechanics behind the heart rate variability (HRV) phenomenon. Elliott and Edmonson make the novel argument that the HRV cycle is an outcome of autonomic nervous system regulation of the known but little recognized respiratory arterial pressure wave which rises and falls by 20mmHg during resonant breathing. The impetus for the arterial pressure wave is the changing intra-thoracic pressure as a function of diaphragm movement. During inhalation blood flows through the right side of the heart filling the dense pulmonary capillary bed, blood and air meeting across the thin alveolar surface of the lung. During exhalation blood exits the lungs flowing through the left side of the heart, thereby resulting in cyclic blood flow with each cycle of respiration. The autonomic nervous system synchronizes with the action of respiration resulting in the heart rate variability cycle. The Coherent Breathing method posits that we should strive to breathe with 40-60% of diaphragm range, this yielding an HRV amplitude of 20-30 beats, and with it the advantages of increased blood flow, autonomic balance, and well-being.
The authors cite compelling research conducted during the mid 1900s by notable scientists including Nobel Prize winner Andre Cournand, and discuss an advance in instrumentation that allows the respiratory arterial pressure wave to be observed directly. Written in workbook format, the book is rich in theory and practice and is suited to both health care professionals and serious health enthusiasts.
The New Science of Breath - 2nd Edition
This second edition incorporates many small changes and one significant update/correction. The correction has to do with the physiological relationship between the heart rate variability (HRV) cycle and instantaneous arterial pressure. The first edition describes the arterial pressure wave during resonance, as varying with the heart rate variability cycle, peaks and valleys of the HRV cycle correlating directly with peaks and valleys of the arterial pressure wave.
While the aforementioned description is understood to be representative of the relationship that exists between heart rate and blood pressure during typical non-resonance, at resonance, heart rate variability and blood pressure cycles are 180 degrees out of phase, blood pressure falling as heart rate rises and visa versa. This revised understanding is based on the work of leading researchers, Vaschillo, et al., as reported in Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback , Volume 27, March 2002, Note and again referenced in Volume 31, June 2006.
I would like to thank Michael Duquette, CTRS, BCIAC, of the National Institutes of Health, Rehabilitation Medicine Department, for bringing the matter squarely to my attention. It comes at a time when, with the assistance of Carol Elliott, L.Ac., I have been studying “blood stagnation”, a common symptomology of Traditional Chinese Medicine, attempting to understand its relationship to breathing. Reconciling the phase relationships between the heart rate variability cycle and arterial pressure has led to an important advancement in my own understanding that I have incorporated into the writing of the 2nd edition.
I would also like to thank the many readers of the first edition of The New Science of Breath for your strong interest, enthusiasm – and criticism. As of this writing, there are in excess of 1000 copies in circulation in half a dozen countries.
The New Science of Breath
In 1905, the Yogi Publication Society published Yogi Ramacharaka’s “Science of Breath”, which to this day remains one of his most popular and respected works. 100 years later, Stephen Elliott, accomplished student of Eastern yogic and martial arts, engineer, inventor, and life scientist, asserts a “New Science of Breath”.
With it, Elliott offers us a revolutionary new theory of health based on breathing for autonomic nervous system balance, autonomic nervous function underlying all aspects of health and well being - body, mind, and spirit. Importantly, this “new science” sheds a light of hope on today’s pandemic health challenges ranging from stress, anxiety, and chronic muscle tension, to hypertension and attention deficit disorder. The emerging medical understanding is that these conditions are rooted in autonomic nervous system imbalance - what has not been understood is the root cause of this imbalance. Elliott posits that the root cause is in fact suboptimal breathing.
The New Science of Breath (ISBN 0978639901) introduces “Coherent Breathing”, a specific breathing modality that promotes autonomic nervous system balance and cardiopulmonary resonance. Autonomic balance yields peace of mind, well being, and enhanced biological function.
The therapeutic efficacy of Coherent Breathing is supported by the work of integrative neurotherapist Dee Edmonson, RN, Fellow BCIA - EEG. Dee presents a dozen compelling case observations where Coherent Breathing was applied adjunctively with conventional forms of neurotherapy, all with profoundly positive result.
This book is must reading for health care professionals, educated health enthusiasts, and serious athletes. For yoga and meditation enthusiasts, when combined with relaxation and stillness, Coherent Breathing directly results in meditation.
See Reviews here.
Recommended reading:
The Healing Power of Neurofeedback by Dr. Stephen Larsen
How to Use Herbs, Nutrients, and Yoga in Mental Health Care by Drs. Brown, Gerbarg, and Muskin
Wuji Breathing Exercise
This small book, "Wuji Style Breathing Exercise", contains what I believe to be one of the most profound, and yet one of the most obscure esoteric practices known to man. In it is the only English explanation of the Taoist version of this practice of which I'm aware. I ran across it in 1996, in my search for an understanding of the inner workings of tai chi. Since that time, I've practiced the method very seriously although with varying degree of diligence. Its practice was very instrumental in my development of the Coherent Breathing method, circa 2000, which dramatically enhances the effect of Wuji Qi Gong, as well as other forms of Qi Gong.
The authorship is also something of a mystery. The translater, a Mr. Men Den, explains that he is the student and ghost writer for the well known Tai Chi master, Cai Song Fang. However, other reports, purportedly by those including Cai himself refute this. The author, whoever it is, describes that the wuji breathing method was handed down from a direct student of Yang Cheng Fu, it being the esoteric basis of Yang family taijiquan (tai chi).
The reason for all this mystery is that between the covers of this odd little book is (based on my humble opinion) the essential core practice of Taoism. There are equivalent (also largely obscure) yogic practices in Hinduism and Kashmiri Shaivism, which I will bring to your attention a bit later.
If you've studied Taoist philosophy, you'll recognize the term "wuji". In Taoist cosmology wuji refers to the "primordial undifferentiated". Taoism concerns itself with the "process" or mechanics by which differentiation and non-differentiation occur, yielding "taiji", dynamic differentiation of yin and yang, and its ultimate result, the dissolution back into wuji. You may have heard the phase "taiji comes from wuji", and its complement, "taiji returns to wuji".
Very importantly, this "process" refers to the "energetic" evolution of the physical universe, the "cosmos", and to us (humans), as micro-cosms of the macro-cosm. As such, it is through the practice of "Wuji Breathing" that one facilitates this process and realizes the essential Taoist experience of both "wuji" and "taiji".
Tangible benefits include increased vitality, balance, energy, intuition, strength, power, endurance, and wellness. Esoteric effects include, among other things, a "profound energetic capacity" for healing, martial arts, etc. and a very clear and evolving sense of "oneness" with the cosmos.
It is best practiced in a standing position 20 minutes per day, in combination with Coherent Breathing.
