Taoist Secrets of Love: Cultivating Male Sexual Energy

Rating:
Summary: Do not buy and follow the Chi retention strategies here
Review: After just today finding this book on Amazon to show my sister since she asked me why I retained semen for a year in 1990/91. I found one reviewer below state that Chi storage in the head can cause insanity!! Yes. It happened to me immediately after a years practice.

I followed this book to a T and now after being ill 1992-1997, being better finally and today in 2004 I see this statement about possible insanity.

Be careful what you read folks. Always. Cum daily for safety I say now with a smile.

Rating:
Summary: You must read Awaken Healing Energy Through Tao as well
Review: He's done it again. In Taoist Ways to Transform Stress into Vitality as well as in this book, Mantak forgets the extremely important collection of energy at the navel after doing the microcosmic orbit. In both books, he summarizes the orbit sloppily, as if all that is needed is to let the energy flow from the eyes, down the body and up to the head. If the energy is not collected at the navel, it can damage your mind or your organs. If anyone wants to do the microcosmic orbit, read the book devoted to it: Awaken Healing Energy Through Tao, which describes the dangers and the precautions and lots more. It's a minor investment that can save you lots of trouble.

Rating:
Summary: Not in the least dangerous once you get the hang of it...
Review: I just wanted to reassure a fellow reviewer who felt this book is dangerous since it teaches storing Chi in the head rather than the belly. (Of course he is right that the Chi, or 'warm current', should not be left sitting in the head). However, there is more than one type of bodily energy! The substance this book says must be brought to the head, and left there, is Jing - a very thick and slow-moving (when not aroused) sexual energy.

As Chia says, once enough of it has been stored in the head for a few weeks, it will change (to a purer form, Shen) and overflow back down the front of the body, to the navel, and still further to the base of the spine, completing the route. Now I can honestly say that this is one of the most delicious feelings one can experience! Once you feel it I doubt you'll worry about having done anything unhealthy!

On the question of the prosaic versus the mystical, I do know some people dislike Chia's straightforward approach but I personally think it's fantastic that someone who really knows his stuff this way would bother to present it in such a manner that any ignorant Westerner can use it!

What you are getting here is Taoist sexual practice as a living system, rather than history or coded poetry. You cannot really understand the Tao without doing the actual practices, or so I would think. The mystical and poetic side of Taoism will appear to you physically and personally after some time of doing the actual meditations, rather than in an etoliated form inside a book.

Also, I think Chia is anxious to make it clear that taoism is a energy system and not a religion. You could 'be a christian' and still practice the tao - in fact, Chia does precisely that. So he's attempting to make his system as universally relevant as possible, which I personally think is admirable.

Anyone who's curious should not be put off by negative reviews! This stuff really does work. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: A bit unpolished, but still a classic
Review: In some ways Chia's earlier work (including this book) is purer than his more recent volumes. This book's extensive background about sacred sexuality makes it especially worthwhile for interested readers.

Although I think Chia's emphasis on forcing the chi with performance-oriented techniques, such as teeth and buttock clenching, counting and so on, is not as effective as a less-driven, approach based on more mutual affection, I still heartily recommend this book. It can genuinely helps readers accept the potential hidden in their sexual unions.

Rating:
Summary: Trim the fat and get your facts straight, Mantak.
Review: The main problem with this book is that the idea of chi is presented in such a low-brow Western terminology that the concept nearly lost. References to "Tongue Kung Fu". "Air" and the Cranial "Pump" tend to deflate and demystify the spiritual ideology. Literal english translations or even the retention of his own native language would have showed more respect for the subject.

Chia's teachings of meditation seem accurate enough but make one fatal flaw. The whole book - all of the various levels of the energy transference exercises - lead to or stem from the Microcosmic Orbit. Through out the book, Chia states that energy moves from the sexual region, up through the body and is stored in the head.

Why would he say that and then state in one of his other books, Awaken Healing Energy of the Tao, that proper storage of this energy, after moving through the head, should be in the navel. Anyone familiar with t'ai chi knows that the navel is the center point to all of your body's energy. To store such energies in the head can lead to insanity. Very irresponsible on his part.

At the end of the book, I suppose in an effort to cover all bases, everything from the pubococcygeal muscle to refexology gets a paragraph or two. Needless to say that several Chia's notions on tangible sexual issues could use a bit more research. For example, Chia makes reference to how ingesting semen "is at least as rational as buying vitamins" as it is a "treasure house" of vitamins and minerals. Anyone worth his salt knows that it only contains trace elements.

That statement alone makes me question just how accurate the rest of the book is. (Chia, of course, doesn't condone this sort of behavior, for you see, according to him, loss of this fluid can lead to baldness and premature death - hence the books whole stand point of retention and recirculating the energy contained within to other vital areas of the body.)

Where Chia really lost me, however, is when he suggested that women practicing exercises in this book "should keep [their] panties on to prevent any chi from draining out."

Rating:
Summary: this is dangerous
Review: Well I have been researching these methods for many years know. And am a leading expert in this field. Be careful!!! If practiced incorrectly, your testicales will swell up to the size of oranges. i learned this the hard way many years ago. i would also get a huge ninja boner even when i didn't want too. it was emabarrassing to say the least. especially when teaching in class. it was awesome sometimes. when like at a party and stuff like that. but the practices are real and they will make you a super stud with the ladies. especailly when you have too stick a pencil up your anal cavity . thats the best!