Observations placeholder
Shenxian zhuan - Qì - 气—“Pneumas”
Identifier
010791
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
The Shenxian zhuan (神仙傳 Biographies of Spirit Immortals") is traditionally attributed to Ge Hong (283–343 CE). According to the Shenxian zhuan, there are four activities needed to become a xian – a god:
- Qì (气—“Pneumas”): Breath control and meditation.
- Fàn (饭—“Diet”): Ingestion of herbal compounds and abstention from the Sān Shī Fàn (三尸饭—“Three-Corpses food”)—Meats (raw fish, pork, dog), (leeks, and scallions) and grains.
- Fángzhōng Zhī Shù (房中之术—“Arts of the Bedchamber”)
- Dān (丹—"Alchemy", literally "Cinnabar"): Elixir of Immortality – this is the process of inducing a kundalini experience
A description of the experience
Pneumas
"...blow on water and it will flow against its own current for several paces; blow on fire, and it will be extinguished; blow at tigers or wolves, and they will crouch down and not be able to move; blow at serpents, and they will coil up and be unable to flee. If someone is wounded by a weapon, blow on the wound, and the bleeding will stop. If you hear of someone who has suffered a poisonous insect bite, even if you are not in his presence, you can, from a distance, blow and say in incantation over your own hand (males on the left hand, females on the right), and the person will at once be healed even if more than a hundred li away. And if you yourself are struck by a sudden illness, you have merely to swallow pneumas in three series of nine, and you will immediately recover.
But the most essential thing [among such arts] is fetal breathing. Those who obtain [the technique of] fetal breathing become able to breathe without using their nose or mouth, as if in the womb, and this is the culmination of the way [of pneumatic cultivation]." (Campany 2002:21)
The source of the experience
TaoismConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
Science Items
Activities and commonsteps
Activities
Suppressions
Contemplation and detachmentControlled breathing
Dietary moderation
Making love
Peaking
Sex magick
Sexual stimulation