Chi

[lightoftruth]

ive been wondering how does western science account for the principle of chi

How does it accout for people being able to be able to walk on razor blades etc

[Loosehead]

All conjuring tricks and feats of strength/endurance/flexibility or illusion. There is no "Chi" yet another branch of the wonderful world of total b0ll0cks.

[lightoftruth]

I was wanting a sensible reply. I do myself do martial arts and i have myslef felt the phenonemon.

[mrbatfink]

Looseheads answer looks sensible to me... you asked for a scientific answer and you got one!

[jake-the-peg]

A few years ago a bunch of Indian physicists did a tour of the subcontinent doing "fakir" tricks piercing their bodies walking on coals the whole shooting match.

The point was that a lot of people get bitten by snakes and instead of going to hospital where they could be helped went to the local medecine man who waved beads over them and chanted a bit. A lot of people were dying because they got prayers rather than anti-venom. Having the scientists do all the tricks gave many the confidence to go to hospitals.

My old Senseii a grumpy Scot used to do the bed of nails and have breezeblocks broken on his chest for demonstrations - I'm pretty sure he never put it down to chi!

In fact somebody was once foolish enough to question a Japanese sensii about chi (pronounced "key" in Japan) He went to a locker and grabbed the key and shoved it in the student's face and said "Key? Here's key - Now train harder!"

You could try the question in "body and soul" you'll probably get a more sympathetic audience there.

Now I must align my chakras - ah that's better

[dawkins]

Lightoftruth

There are no detectable forces running along meridians in any living thing that have been identified by science. There are electrical impulses that pass through the nervous system and blood runs through the arterial system, these are well known and quite separate from the "life-force" described in chi. There findings - or lack of findings - have motivated some scientists to investigate why many people perceive a benefit from processes such as acupuncture and qi gong(?) which claim to tap into Chi type energies. An article explaining a small amount of this research can be found through the following link:



http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTop ics/acu.html />
D

[dawkins]

bad link sorry try this:

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTop ics/acu.html

[lightoftruth]

sorry i see how my question has been misunderstood.

By real question is mainly to do with the effects of "chi" on the human bodys ability to produce a force. I once split my knucle when it got hit by a hammer and yet martial artists can punch through compressed concrete blocks?

[jake-the-peg]

• There is no such thing as chi


• Hammers are steel and are harder than concrete


• There are numerous articles explaining the physics such as this one:

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~scdiroff/lds/NewtonianMechanics/KarateBlow/KarateBlow.html

or this one

http://howthingswork.virginia.edu/journal/Article1.1.pdf

None of them involve mystical eastern forces, lines of energy or the tooth fairy

[lightoftruth]

thanks for the links JTP

as a point thought the reason why the karate instructor would have got angry would be because chi is a part of chinese martial arts. And the japanese and chinese have long feuded of the superiority of they're fighting systems.

[jake-the-peg]

Well not really, after all Chi or Qi is a general concept and has a Japanese version (often written Ki) as well. It's just that the Japanese tend to be a bit well "less traditional" so you won't hear much talk about Chi in Japanese martial arts these days.

The "rivalry" between Japan and China is certainly true though and Karate had to be well cleaned of all Chinese intonations and slants when it was imported from Okinawa in the 1920s.

You might be interested in Wikipedia's section of this article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi

"Qi in the martial arts"