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Chi and Consciousness are Linked

One of these days I'm going to write a short book on healing and the mind. Why? Because it seems that all the scientists and other authors who write about this topic -- Jeff Levin and God, Faith, and Health, Paul Pearsall and The Heart's Code, Russell Targ and Miracles of Mind, Dossey's works and Caroline Myss -- all seem to skip over the major issue.

They all keep tiptoeing around the big reason why the mind can heal -- it's because chi and consciousness are linked (At least at the lower stages of the cultivation path).

That's it. That's all I want them to say. That one line will finally open the can of worms and get all the right people talking.

So here's what I would do in that book. It's take me years to search through various translations of spiritual texts and find anything that applies to this matter. I'd take the following quotes that I collected from a number of different spiritual traditions and then use them to show that none of these folks hit the target because none of them discuss the connection between consciousness and chi. But here are the ancient texts that do:

Hatha Yoga Pradipika: Light on Hatha Yoga, Swami Muktibodhananda Saraswati, (Bihar School of Yoga, Munger (Bihar): India, 1993), p. 448:

Mind and prana are mixed like milk and water. Both of them are equal in their activities. Where there is pranic movement or activity there is mind (consciousness). Where there is consciousness there is life.

Highest Yoga Tantra, Daniel Cozort (Snow Lion, Ithaca: New York, 1986), p. 42-43:

Consciousnesses are said to "ride" on winds [various types of chi, or prana] in the same manner that a horseman rides his mount; by raveling on the winds, consciousnesses are able to leave their bases in the sense-powers (located in the eye, ear, and so forth) to contact their objects. Because minds are inoperative without winds to provide a medium for their movement, and because winds lack specific direction without minds, minds are likened to cripples with sights and winds to blind men with legs; the lame climb on the backs of the blind and together they can move about. Because the winds are the medium for the operation of minds, fluctuation in the winds necessarily affects consciousness, and thus it is crucial for tantric yogis who wish to yoke consciousness to gain control over the movement of winds. Tantric yogics engage in a variety of practices to bring about a concentration of the winds, for concentration of the winds leads to concentration of consciousness.

The Yoga of Tibet, Tsong-Ka-Pa, trans. Jeffrey Hopkins, (Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi: India, 1987), p. 112:

The mind-the king-surrounded by a retinue of mindfulness, meditative stabilization, and so forth is considered as being mounted on the horse of vitality (prana). When the horse of vitality [wind] is held, the mind-the king-as well as the retinue will definitely be held. For another [text] says, 'Vitality [wind] is to be stopped. When it is stopped, one's mind as well as mindfulness, intellect, mental engagement, and so forth will definitely be held.'

Hatha Yoga Pradipika: Light on Hatha Yoga, Swami Muktibodhananda Saraswati, (Bihar School of Yoga, Munger (Bihar): India, 1993), p. 448.

Mind and prana are mixed like milk and water. Both of them are equal in their activities. Where there is pranic movement or activity there is mind (consciousness). Where there is consciousness there is prana.

He who has power over his mind can also control prana. [For] the two causes that activate the mind are prana [respiration] and the sources of karma [vasanas, latent tendencies.]

Hatha Yoga Pradipika: Light on Hatha Yoga, Swami Muktibodhananda Saraswati, (Bihar School of Yoga, Munger (Bihar): India, 1993), p. 134:

When prana moves, chitta (the mental force) moves. When prana is without movement, chitta is without movement. By this (steadiness of prana) the yogis attains steadiness and should thus restrain the vayu (air).

Translated a bit more simply this means "Prana and mind are intricately linked. Fluctuation of one means fluctuation of the other." Even when there is an organ transplant from one individual to another, when the organ goes, part of the chi or the original person goes with it (life force), and with it some conscious cravings or tendencies until the chi of that organ, in its new environment, can be purified and transformed. How? By meditation, of course!

Zen Master Nan Huai-Chin just says it directly: "Chi and consciousness are linked," at least for the lowest stages of the spiritual path.

That's what I'd like to say in a book about the mind and healing.