Yuan qi is not a substance or a thing, although it generates and dissolves both. When any yin-yang field is reversed and held in a steady balanced waveform, yuan qi arises and physical reality appears to dissolve or at least lose some of its density. This can occur in any expanded state of consciousness where our bodies feel light, as if our molecules had moved farther apart. We describe this state as "more empty", because we have temporarily emptied out the rigid patterns of perception. The term "hsu" in early Daoist texts is often translated as "emptiness". But it is a relative, not an absolute state, meaning "empty of objects" but not "empty of qi". Yuan qi thus "fills" or rather IS the actual matrix of all "empty" or pure space and time. An open or pure mind might be a more accurate translation than "empty" mind to describe human processes engaging yuan qi. The ordinary polarized mind (xin) abhors the apparent vacuum created by yuan qi, and unconsciously converts it into yin or yang qi. In neidan this yuan qi is seen as unshaped energy available to create a new level of health and spiritual freedom in our lives if we are aware enough to grasp it.

Yuan qi is also often present whenever someone "blanks out" or has "missing time", during a meditative activity such as reading a book. Single pointed concentration can cause your your five jingshen to fuse and thus temporarily shift dimensions into the boundary zone of Early Heaven. It can happen by simple resonance; just reading these thoughts on yuan chi might cause you to drift off for a few moments into your own more core field of neutral qi. Daoist alchemy offers a method for making these shifts consciously, and for including the whole body in the shift, not just the mind. Daoist folklore is filled with stories of adepts who disappear and reappear at will, sometimes bringing back an item from far away as proof of their journey.

Between the Supreme Unknown (wuji), which can never be known, and Later Heaven where everything can be named and thus known, there is a continuous qi field. But there are empty spaces within and between the qi patterns, like silent spaces between musical notes. They are not heard as one listens to music, but without silent spaces there could be no distinguishing of the harmonic relationship between the notes. So silence itself must become part of the deep language spoken by the adept. Traditionally, there are three levels of increasingly empty or pure silence: kong, xu, and wu. In the oral tradition of nei dan, "kong" denotes the tangible empty physical space within matter (Later Heaven), described as the empty space inside a pot. "Xu" is the empty or pure mind space where the true human soul (ling) forms (Early Heaven). "Wu" denotes wuji, the empty boundaryless pure space/time of chaos-unity (Primordial Heaven). (22)

The adept must enter into and pass through these three "voids" or "open mind" states in order to receive deeper communications from the three levels of heaven. These are not true voids, but are in fact filled with the yuan qi holding the silent space between the pulsations of yin and yang. Entry into these purer mind states requires the adept to absorb an increasingly higher power of yin-yang force to alchemically open up a purer, more empty quality of yuan qi. Sitting passively in an "empty mind" meditation may leave a meditator in a relaxed but superficial level of "kong" emptiness, in which little communication with the deeper "xu" or "wu" mind states occurs.

Traditionally the simple practice of emptying the ordinary mind of thoughts was to weaken the desires and conflicting wills of the body spirits. The daoist practice of zuowang,"sitting and forgetting", was first made famous by Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu). As Livia Kohn notes in her translation of the Zuowanglun, in later alchemical classics emptying the mind was a beginning practice that laid a foundation for succeeding phases of alchemical refinement of orginal qi. (23) Yet it is also an advanced practice. After alchemically refining the male-female, sun-moon, etc. forces, the adepts again empties the mind of alchemical symbols before merging with the dao. One Cloud's formulas follow this pattern., where Inner Smile is used by the beginner to empty his mind of tension, and also as the advaced practice of simplicity by an adept merged with the Dao, smiling simultaneously through all three heavens.

The difficulty and fear of entering even the first level of emptiness may be why modern humans, whose body, mind and soul are born from and sustained by original qi, sit on earth and complain, "Since I can't hear God talking to me, how do I know He exists?". Not having cultivated their ears to listen to the subtle voice of Heaven flowing as qi within their very own body, they fall into despair and alienation. Their qi fails to circulate, which leads to disease and premature death, and confirms their cynical view. This strengthens the negative thought forms trapped in the dark side, as they feast on despair. This cycle of suffering and death could be bypassed if man had the language skills to both talk to Nature and to listen to Nature's Intelligence.

Prayer, of course, is the spoken language form used by many religions to cross these dimensional boundaries in order to talk to their Deity. From the perspective of daoist nei dan, many religionists are simply praying in the wrong direction, i.e. they are looking above their heads to a Deity when its far more effective to look within to reshape the polarized forces that make life a struggle. It is the inner shape of the praying person's qi field, not his outer words, that elicits a response from the universal qi field. Alchemy could thus be viewed as a more scientific form of prayer that uses the principles of the life force to achieve its purpose.

Another question is whether channeling can be considered a deep language expression of Nature. Many medieval daoist scriptures were received by channeling, which is a fast way for Nature to bypass human ego resistance in order to open up new communication pathways between Heaven and Earth. In my observation of modern mediums, the act of channelling occurs by suppressing the medium's po soul (yin, lung spirit) while in trance or semi-trance, to allow another entity to speak through the medium's hun soul (yang, liver spirit). The entity may be a hungry ghost posing as a high spiritual being, which may be why many mediums look drained, are overweight (weak kidney spirit retains excess water) and in poor health. The process of channeling can widen the split between the medium's hun and po souls, even though the channelled revelations may come from a higher being and benefit others.

Legend has it the nei dan teachings received by Lu Dongbin were delivered directly by an immortal materializing and teaching him. This kind of conscious revelation by an immortal spirit taking human form temprarily might allow for a very high level of information from the qi field. In any case, One Cloud's nei dan formulas teach conscious resonance with deep levels of Nature, they do not promote unconscious channeling. The adept must communicate consciously with Nature's macrocosmic qi field (lunar, solar, and stellar beings) until its essences are internalized and "digested" by alchemical refining within the adept's body. Alchemical operations require the integrated inner will of the adept, the joining of hun and po souls (alchemical code: dragon and tiger), the agents of Heaven and Earth to cement the alchemical marriage of shen and jing, the heart and kidney spirits, which must find a common yi, or creative intention. The result is good physical health and growing spiritual self-reliance. The opposite can occur with trance channelling - the yi of the channeler remains unconscious.

Is internal alchemy a form of shamanic communication with Nature? Some shamanic elements can be found in the formulas. I believe that generations of nei dan practitioners have over the millenium refined the shamanic journey out of the body and interiorized it so it all happens within deep levels of the adept's "energy body" or cosmicized personal qi field. This may have evolved to allow communication between Heaven and Earth to be more continuous and deeper. In my own nei dan practice, I rarely "leave" my physical body on journeys. It is easier to simply expand my qi field out to embrace by resonance whatever level of Nature I wish to communicate with, and allow the vibrational information to silently flow back inside me. Once it is downloaded it becomes part of a library of cosmic essences available for refining in my ongoing alchemical process.

Once digested, these essences open up continuous pathways of communication. I offer a few of my experiences that correlate my inner perceptions with objective physical events. The cycles of the moon, solstices and equinoxes, all impact strongly on my energy field as spontaneous communications. When there are major sun spots, my heart beat accelerates and my body grows very warm. Major astrological configurations will sometimes force me to stop all other activities to listen to them. The most dramatic case came in 1994, when I suddenly felt my liver get hugely inflamed, despite perfect health and no changes in diet or lifestyle. I was very puzzled. It was only when I saw TV pictures of Jupiter being hit 22 times by a comet that I realized my experiences were caused by the cosmic resonance between my liver/hun spirit and Jupiter. Each vital organ spirit learns to communicate with its planetary spirit "cousin" in the Greatest Kan & Li Formula, and there is no shutting Nature out once it knows you can listen to it.

Interesting objective confirmation of alchemy as a deep language spoken by one's whole being came from recent tests on Mantak Chia by an Austrian scientist using modern equipment to measure brainwave patterns and hemispheric balance. This scientist had for years been testing monks and meditators from different traditions to try to map their bodily response to meditation. He was very surprised to find that alchemical meditation was totally unique. Chia produced on demand (by practice of the first formula Inner Smile and sexual recycling of jing in the microcosmic orbit) a SIMULTANEOUS rise in alpha, beta, and theta brain waves. This meant as the mind was relaxing more deeply, the body's physical energy field was becoming more active. Also unique was that the measured rise was equal in both brain hemispheres and lasted for a much longer duration than seen with other types of meditation -- three days vs. several hours for other types of meditation. (24)

Most adults lose their innate ability to communicate directly with nature, or they suppress it into the dream state where their shen/ego fragments, repressed by day, can play and talk freely at night. Dreaming is thus an unconscious method of communicating with Nature's qi field, and accounts for sleep being rejuvenating. If we had no ego resistance to communicating with the qi field by day, the need to go unconscious at night would disappear. A whole branch of nei dan developed around daoist dream practice, made famous by the adept Chen Tuan of Mt. Huashan. He reportedly stayed in conscious meditative dream states for months or years on end. Nei dan uses the dream realm as a natural communication vehicle with more subtle realms.

Death itself can be considered as a kind of permanent dream practice, if one can die consciously, without panicking and scattering your five body spirits. Many adults unconsciously accelerate disease and their own death so they can reopen communication with the qi field of Heaven once out of the body. But death may not solve their problem of needing soul completion. If their five shen have not integrated before death, their spirit fragments (hun, po, shen, zhi, and yi) are separated and returned to the pool of Heaven and Earth consciousness for recycling into a new soul pattern. This is the opposite of what occurs with an Immortal, who is said to be able to choose his moment of death as a voluntary shift into another dimension of life.