Learning to Feel & Experience the Subtle Energy of Qi

Qigong is about using and directing the subtle energy called Qi (chee) through focused intention.   Most of us in the Acupuncture school I attend have been raised and educated in the West so even knowing about Qi is something some of us may have never even heard about before going to Acupuncture school. 

One of the first things our instructor had us do was to partner with a fellow student, stand face to face, and with our outstretched hand, approach the other person until we felt what she described as their energy field.  At first, most of us didn’t feel anything. We then started to focus and then repeated this process over again until we did feel a change when our hand slowly approached the other person’s body.  

We could feel the change of energy as our outstretched hand slowly approached their body.  Sometimes it was a few inches from their body.  Sometimes it was several inches from their body.  Sometimes it was even a few feet from their body.

We then switched partners and repeated the process until we felt the energy field around this person’s body, and then again would switch partners. 

We did this for over an hour and by the end of this experience, we were all excited how we were starting to pick up on different people’s energy field.

In our next exercise, our instructor had us partner with someone new, stand face to face, and have one person be the “receiver” and the other person be the “sender”. The receiver would stand with their eyes closed and the receiver would stand with their hand outstretched and concentrate on a specific color, such as “red.” 

As the sender thought and visualized their chosen color, the sender then focused SENDING this color to the receiver.  The receiver would then state what color he/she was receiving.  

At first this felt like guesswork, but as we continued this process, ALL of us began being correct in what color the sender was sending.  ALL of us!

What I learned on my very first day of Qigong training was

• yes, there is an energy field around the body and you can even feel it, and
• yes, you can focus your mind to send colors and even receive the color message

For me, even on that very first day of Qigong training, I walked away totally amazed.  I am a nurse and didn't even know about people's energy fields around their body.  I had heard of auras but had discounted them as not being real because I had never seen or felt them.

But all of this changed during this very first class, especially after one of my fellow students visualized sending me a color and I said "I see pink, but that perfume or lotion on your hand is a bit overbearing!" And she said, “I don’t have any lotion on my hands nor do I even wear perfume.  I was sending you pink roses in my visualization!”

The steps our instructor took on the first day of our day-long class are things probably most people would be able to do if they took the time and effort to experience it.  Feeling a person's energy field, and then practicing sending and receiving colors is a good initial step to learn about this subtle energy we call Qi (chee). 

Learning to Feel & Experience the Subtle Energy of Qi