While living in London during 1978, the most interesting Taiji adept I could find, was Master Chee Soo. At sixty five years old and with a heavy Cockney accent his first appearances were somewhat deceiving. His powers were remarkable. I attended his Chinese Yoga or Kai Men classes for most of the year and enjoyed the exercises which were Yoga like but employed constant slow motion into and out of the postures with very mild stretching. This was more suitable for myself than the Indian Yoga that I had experienced, with its holding of postures and more extreme stretching. He also included meditation and Qi (Chi) stimulating methods. Each class ended with Qi cut off exercises to prevent the loss of Qi or its unexpected release, which can result in spontaneous body contractions. He said that his methods had been taught to him by Professor Chan Lee, a Chinese businessman who first taught in London in 1930.



The most dramatic demonstration of his power occurred at one of his weekend workshops. I almost hesitate to mention it as the more sceptical and insecure among us will, I suppose, choose it as a point of attack. But I cannot deny my own experience and it was this. He had 12 people stand in a large hall, each with their hands on the shoulder of the person in front of them. Then he went into the next room where he stood facing towards the people, some of whom were his pupils and some of whom were not. He had asked me to stand in the doorway with the result that I was the only one to see the whole picture. About 5 seconds after he raised his arm and pointed his palm in the direction of the 12 people - which as they were about 8 to 10 metres away confirms estimates of the speed of this type of Qi at around 0.5 metres per second - they began to lose their balance and everyone fell down. They could only guess what he had been about to do and had no outer knowledge of when he would begin. Then he asked myself and 2 others to place our hands on a large wooden table, again without warning us what would happen. Next he placed his hand on the other end of the table. I felt as if I was hit by a large wave and my body and mind reeled trying to regain my balance, which I was able to do after a few seconds. Looking round I saw the other 2 lying on the ground.

That his Yi and his Qi were strong was proved beyond a doubt and it was only my 5 short years of training under a good master that allowed me to remain standing. Fifteen years later, I fear nobody who uses this method of projecting the Qi - called Wai Qi. I have since run into people claiming this power, but always their ability has been less than Master Chee Soo. Most of them require compliant pupils or untrained Minds. Their abilities are more Mind to Mind than Qi to Qi, though these separate methods are usually mixed. Master Chee Soo clearly differentiated between the two. The Qi, he explained, spiralled steadily out from its source easily penetrating matter. The Yi travelled straight and direct but would not penetrate matter to any extent he had found. This I was unable to correlate with my previous knowledge on the matter. He told me that interviewers from a London radio station had tested his ability to project his mind to any part of the Earth (Remote Viewing) and were unable to fault him. They asked him, from London, to describe various scenes in Sydney, Australia. Then their assistant there would drive to and confirm the description - in every case correct to the last detail.

To train the Yi or Deep Mind Intention - which he said issued from between the eyebrows - he used concentration on that `Third Eye'. But he explained it was better to train short bursts of absolute maximum concentration for 5 to 10 seconds, rather than a weak prolonged effort. The method of short intense bursts is common when training the body, both in Western techniques of strength building and in the martial arts. Any one who has seen the Sanchin Form from Karate or Fujian White Crane will know what I mean. This was the first time however that I had struck the concept in meditation, but it did seem to have done something for him. At one stage according to his pupils he was able to shine a Golden Light from this Third Eye and had used it to destroy cancer tumours. Apparently psychologists from the University of London had tested some of his abilities and been unable to fault them. However the results were too far beyond the belief system of senior academics so the information was never published. I had no experience to confirm this particular ability for myself, but his students were sincere people and I had no reason to doubt them. As for training the Qi, he used the standard exercises of Taiji, Gongfu (Kungfu) and his Kai Men Yoga, along with circulation of the Qi through the Microcosmic and Macrocosmic Orbits and concentration on the various energy centres as can be found in any of the many textbooks of Daoist methods.

The only hesitancy with his school was that his students spent too much time unsuccessfully trying to duplicate the energy abilities of their teacher, mistaking the incidental results of his past training for the goal and the method. Though my own way has since developed a little differently from his, Chee Soo earned my gratitude for the boldness and openness with which he taught, demonstrating his abilities in spite of all the possible consequent repercussions.


From his book: Kai Men, Chinese Yoga. CH9, Meditation.
"Remember that the journey for which you are preparing is a very long one, so it is essential that you prepare properly... First of all, to get to the spirit you must go through the mind and to get to the mind you must go along the channels of your earthly body... Remember that in meditating you are going to use up an enormous amount of physical, mental and spiritual energy... For this reason one of your prime tasks is to build up your energies... Kai Men (generally gentle movement including Taiji), breathing exercises and energy circulation exercises (micro-cosmic orbit or 8 paths) help to build up this energy in the Tan Tien or lower abdomen."

"Many people try to meditate to obtain peace and tranquillity, while others wish to meditate just to escape from this world and the realities of their own lives - these motives are not correct. Meditation should not be an excuse, but should be a serious endeavour to attain harmony with your own spirit and through it with the spiritual world that lies beyond... Everyone who practises properly should (after a time) be able to journey into the astral plane, but travelling to the celestial and spiritual levels takes rather longer. Even so, with a good teacher, patience and personal dedication this can be accomplished by all."