Technically, what is chi?

It is a universal form of energy that is thought to flow everywhere, and to be responsive to direction. Also transliterated as Qi.

I always thought of it as the type of elusive energy that is affected by things like Feng shui. At first I thought of Feng Shui as a ridiculous idea but after a while it started to make more sense. Every little aspect of our environment affects how we behave.. if only in the slightest.

Google is your friend: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi

(I thought it was a tea!)

(chai)

Midi-chlorians.

When I took a class in Aikido, the instructor spoke of it as energy and said that it emanates from a spot two inches below the bellybutton. Like me, you may think this is kind of silly, but I found it helpful to imagine all movements as starting from this area. After a few weeks of Aikido my ability to lead in dancing improved considerably.

Life force.
or what Son Goku shoots out of his hands

I’ve heard Chi summarised in technical medical terms as “stuff”.

Canonically speaking, Chi is considered to be “life force” that essentially comes from the breath, is stored in one or several “dantians” or energy points in the body, the most prominent one being in the underbelly, as @LostInParadise said; two others are in the chest behind the sternum and in the head behind the brow, between the eyes. It’s released again from there to flow through pathways (meridians) in the body.

Despite my respect and fascination for ancient Chinese culture, I’d have to classify Chi as on par with phlogiston and aether as an ancient but discredited explanation of how stuff works, and with astrology and homoeopathy for still being clung to in spite of the above.

To the credit of the notion, like @LostInParadise noted, it’s useful as a visualisation in martial arts. I can confirm this from four years of Tai Chi practise. But in that regard it is on par with the notions that your cranium is hanging from a golden string and your feet are rooted in the ground; just a visualisation.

More importantly, Qi is the best last-ditch Scrabble word ever :)

@ragingloli
We talking about the Spirit Bomb, or the Kamehameha Wave? The Spirit Bomb is a collection of life energy from surrounding organisms, while the Kamehameha is a focusing of ones Ki.

@Foolaholic
The Spirit Bomb is made of other life forms’ Ki. Same thing.

Chi is your life-force as ti were.

Indeed ti si. ~

Also, what are it’s uses? I’ve heard of people who can channel it to areas of their bodies and are able to make them nearly indesructible in that area. That of course is kind of unbeleivable, but whatever. What else can it be used for?

@PooperDood The Shaolin monks are famous for this.

I’ve heard of those guys. Are those the people in orange suits?

@PooperDood
If the ancient Chinese are to be believed, chi is not a tool, but a process that keeps your body in one piece. Just like blood or bones can’t be used for anything other than feeding your cells and keeping your body from collapsing.
If they’re to be believed, cultivating chi aids your health in general and keeps you from falling ill. This is based on the (rather naive) belief that all sickness stems from blockages or imbalances in the chi in your body.
Practitioners of Tai Chi and Chi Gung specialise in moving or standing in ways that keep the chi flowing undisturbed. Being adept at these arts will teach you how to be firmly rooted, almost immovable when you decide not to move, and quite more forceful when you do than with normal usage of your muscles, all with next to no effort if done properly. Though it’s debatable whether that’s “a use of chi” or something else altogether.

And yes, Shaolin monks traditionally wear orange robes.

Whether Chi actually exists or not, practice in the arts developed around the awareness of chi can help to make a room feel more open by eliminating obstacles and dead corners where shadows collect or by bringing in elements such as wind chimes to accent the room with noise or various colors to modify the mood that the existing colors might convey.

In the body, it encourages better posture which is known to help people avoid minor damages that can build up over time. It also teaches one about proper weight distribution and balance.

It’s an abstract mental concept, see

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

It’s not physical, so you can’t say this Chi is 800 Joules. Your mind though controls your body, so the concept might be useful for practicing

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

It’s quite a concrete concept, actually. It’s supposed to be a type of energy that flows through the body. Nothing abstract about that. That is physical if anything ever is, my friend.

Unless it’s a visualisation, then it’s abstract-ish.

I’ve interpreted Chi as a simplification of nutrient-rich blood, including oxygen. It is “loaded” by the breath, it flows through your body and it lends energy to your cells.

The energy that flows through the bodies gets triggered by neurons and a lot of neurotransmitters like dopamine and acetylcholine are released. I used the word abstract because I think our brain creates the mind. The brain is physical of course. How do you see the mind? What is it exactly? What’s the best way to describe it?

I would use a cliché analogy and say that the mind is to the brain like an operating system is to a hard drive, CPU and RAM.
Another reason why the computer is a brilliant invention – it’s arguably the first machine that can be compared to the human mind. I think its invention opened the door to a conception of the mind as a deterministic system.
So, I would say the mind is an artefact of the computations carried out by the brain, as well as the information stored therein. Hence, depending on the definition of “abstract”, yes, the mind is abstract.

However, to keep track of the relation of this side note to the actual subject, this does not mean Chi is abstract too, arguably unless it’s used as a visualisation. The ancient conception of Chi is that it’s energy that physically moves around through the physical body.

@Fyrius – Neurons are almost everywhere in the body. Axons rely on electrical impulses. Synapses use chemical communication. Neurons require a lot of ATP i.e. a lot of energy. So in a sense “Chi” is energy that physically moves around through the physical body.

@mattbrowne
So, you’re saying Chi is the electricity used for synaptic impulses, then?
But that doesn’t power muscles. The burning of carbohydrates does.
(Carbohydrates that are transported by the blood, which flows through the body.)

@Fyrius – No, that’s only part of it. But it does trigger muscle activity releasing acetylcholine. The neurons themselves need energy, but also the muscle cells. For neurons to work you need to burn glucose, the fundamental carbohydrate, which is part of the blood stream and required for chemical reactions creating ATP.

I don’t think it’s possible to link the concept of Chi to a single physical phenomenon inside the body. But I think ultimately the mind triggers it.

When people are drowning the mind can mobilize extra energy which can be dangerous to the rescuer. Maybe this is a similar effect.

As can women who find themselves lifting up a car when there is a child under a wheel.

I do think it’s a similar effect.
Another example is the (possibly false) one of hypnotised people being stronger than when they are in their right mind. I’ve thought of Tai Chi as a sort of conscious self-hypnosis; much of it involves convincing yourself that you are immovable when you don’t move and your movement is unstoppable when you do.

My teacher taught me an exercise where you hold out your arms diagonally in front of you, as if you’re holding something. When you just try to hold your arms in place, someone not much stronger could reasonably easily lift them up. When instead you imagine you’re holding a large heavy rock, and instead of deliberately resisting someone trying to move you, you let them try if they want but imagine the other person can’t lift your arms because the rock is way too heavy… it becomes much more difficult.

My teacher was never very happy about the notion of chi, though. He preferred a more scientifically justified point of view. I don’t think I’ve heard him mention the word more than once or twice.