Some may wonder why I call what I teach Alchemy and not simply Qigong. I base my work on ancient Daoist practices that have been around for millennia. Traditionally these practices were called Internal Alchemy (Nei Dan). In brief, the basic premise of Nei Dan is to cultivate an embodied spiritual reality. As a result, this tangible spiritual reality transforms you, your body and your life. And this is what Inspirit Way Alchemy aims to do.

How do we define Qi Gong?

The term Qi Gong originated in China in the 1980s. At that time, communist authorities had imposed restrictions on traditional Daoist and Buddhist spiritual practices. Thus, using new terminology with no historical association to prohibited methods allowed teachers to continue teaching. In other words, new semantic definitions like Qi Gong, fitness exercises, martial arts or health practices helped teachers avoid persecution. 

For instance, the term Qi Gong means ‘breath practice’ so can be used for a whole range of methods and activities. Today in China, it is used to describe Martial Arts and Tai Qi sequences; breath-based keep-fit exercises; medical practices, vitality and longevity cultivation; energy healing; esoteric cult rituals; and even sorcery!

How we define Internal Alchemy

In Internal Alchemy, actual breath-work is only one of many practices used. Other techniques include physical forms, postures and sequences; spontaneous movements and voice-work; spiritual visualisation, meditation and attunement. Furthermore, Internal Alchemy works with transpersonal processes as well as energy-based and body-centred ones. In particular, its purpose is to bring about spiritual realisation as well as improve our vitality and health. Hence this practice has endured for millennia because it brings many benefits to the individual. These are the reasons I practise and teach it. 

What is Inspirit Way Alchemy?

Another way to describe Inspirit Way Alchemy (Shen Dao Dan) would be as an Internal Qigong. Daoist spiritual and transformational practices have traditionally been called alchemical and internal. They bring the forces of nature, the earth and the universe together with our inner Three Treasures of energy (Qi), essence (Jing) and spirit (Shen). These natural forces of our environment include Yin and Yang and the Five Elements – Fire, Water, Wood, Metal and Earth, 

The term ‘alchemy’ describes the way that this practice infuses and cultivates energies and states in our body, mind and heart. It is this alchemy that brings about genuine physical, personal and spiritual change and development. Hence, we can describe the process as ‘internal and alchemical’. 

Nei Dan creates a spiritual transmutation of baser states into more exalted ones; a ‘purification of dense into fine, turbid into clear, heavy into light, dull into brilliant, disordered into harmonious’. 

If indeed this is what we are practising with Inspirit Way Alchemy, it is time we honour this way, Dao in Chinese, by naming it what it is. Only then can we say that by practising it; realising our spiritual and human potential as those who practised Nei Dan for millennia, we are following The Way/Dao.

As our psychological issues are healed, our authentic inner nature is revealed.

Inspirit Way Therapy is a holistic therapy with an integral vision. Several essential therapeutic practices work together integrally. This therapeutically engages every part of ourselves, so we can realise and actualise our true self.

Holistic Therapy Practices

In holistic therapy, we work with our transpersonal and corporeal as well as our personal aspect. Looking into our spiritual and animal nature is an active part of the therapeutic process. In fact, healing and transformation are available from this therapy precisely because our spirituality and physicality are included.

It is through the fusion of body-centered, relational and transpersonal therapeutic methods that we are able to resolve ‘inner child’ issues. Our hidden emotions and buried pain become more accessible, and make it possible for us to heal our ‘core’ wounds. Simultaneously, we begin to foster a deeper connection with our ‘higher self’. This enables us to gain access to our spiritual resources. If we focus solely on our mental resources we miss out on a wealth of tools which can help us to really maximise our potential.

Holistic Therapy Approach

The challenge with holistic therapy, as well as with any remedial spirituality, is how to galvanise our transpersonal resources to free us from our habitual thinking. We must see through and deconstruct the belief systems instilled in us in childhood. An integrated and holistic approach involving our body, emotions, mind, heart and spirit, can help us to understand and mitigate our conditioning, and realise who we truly are.

For this purpose Inspirit Way Therapy brings together different therapeutic ways into an integral approach. It incorporates psychosomatic, psychotherapeutic and transpersonal methods to address all manner of psychological issues. This unified approach is greater than the sum of its parts, making it a truly effective holistic therapy.

To clarify, Vital Energetics deal with the corporeal, Integral Dynamics with the psychological and Inspiritual Resources with the spiritual aspects of ourselves. Through them our physicality becomes revitalised, our personality becomes integrated, and our spirituality becomes inspirited. Working in an integrated and synergistic way with the entirety of who we are, encourages lasting positive outcomes are possible. Then we can live with greater wholeness and wellness.

Please note: more about the three strands of Inspirit Way Therapy will be featured in future blogposts.

Communional spirituality connects us to our spiritual nature; the spiritual aspect of our being. It is intimately communing, communicating and engaging with our spirit.

The proposition here is that essentially we are a spirit and as such we are integral to the Whole/One. As our spirit is integral to all there is, it links us to the rest of the universe. We then come to perceive all beings as one whole, so we feel a oneness with all existence.

Inspirit Way, unlike the plethora of transpersonal practices around today, directly connects our personality with our spirit and progressively unifies them. Spirituality here denotes our spiritual nature directly influencing us so we can reflect its nature in our self.

Communional spirituality is not a spiritual bypass of life

When spirit touches our heart it makes us more aware of other sentient beings. We come to see others as valuable and important as ourselves. We begin to relate to them in a genuinely open way and become concerned about their wellbeing.

Inspirit Way is not about chasing after peak experiences, neither is it an attempt to avoid trying situations. Its focus is cultivating an everyday capacity to know, be with and live by our authentic spiritual nature. It seems that today much for what passes as spiritual is in fact an attempt to avoid the world and the challenges thrown at us. Chanting, dancing or worshiping our way out of the human condition is not what constitutes a genuinely spiritual life.

Our conditioning compels us to fulfil the agendas that were instilled in us. Doing so becomes a life-long pursuit where spirituality has little place. It is vital not to delude ourselves thinking we are being all spiritual when in fact we’re busy satisfying our egoic impulses, wants and needs. There can be no ambiguity about this, in any given moment either we are being empathic or egocentric. In this sense spirituality is not being solely concerned about our own person but also aware of the needs of others.

In the Orient the notion of virtue is not about morality or codes of behaviour. Rather it is that which touches our heart and soul and makes us less ego-fixated. That which makes us more aware of our spirit and of the rest of existence.

Communional spirituality engages us directly with our spiritual nature

So how can our spiritual nature become an integral part of our humanity? Basically through intimate fellowship with the numinous aspect of our greater being. The idea is to be consciously aware of this reality in our everyday life. In other words to cultivate the capacity to act in accordance to our spiritual nature.

The attempt to be ideal, supreme, glorious and exalted has no part in true spirituality. Our idealised self-image is in fact generated by our superego to keep us striving for unattainable states. Rather than trying to rise above the world, embrace it. Bolstered by our spiritual resources we can overcome the negativity within us and around us.

At times we might feel bad, we may even believe in the script in our head that we are this or that. However whenever we reach out to be touched by our spirit, the discord and turbulence is seen for what it is and recedes. We come to realise our inner demons are the result of painful experiences in childhood and not our actual nature.

Learn more about healing from past trauma with Inspirit Way Therapy services here.

Living in the often harsh environment of this anxiety-inducing world can end up causing us real distress. For our essential spiritual nature is rarely met or welcomed. Benevolence, lovingness, kindness and altruism are seldom appreciated or responded to. We keep bumping into our own and others’ narcissistic self-interest and indifference.

Confronted with such challenges, we respond in classic defensive ways that may seem expedient but come at a spiritual expense. By detaching and separating from the human condition we lose ourselves in masked responses.  These do not reflect our authentic self.

How do we stay true to our original spiritual nature, confronted with everything life throws at us?

The answer is to feel close to our spirit. Then all the trouble and strife we encounter doesn’t affect us in the same way as before. We stop identifying with our trauma and suffering and accept them for what they are. We come to realise these transient states will reduce in impact. As long as we ally with our greater self, negative internal tendencies no longer affect us as they used to. Then can we truly grow and transcend.

Learn more about spiritual mentoring services here.

Communional spirituality as the way

Chinese mystics describe this as following The Way of Heaven, or simply The Way. This is a way of vitality, potency, mastery, authenticity and beauty. Why rely on our limited personality when we can depend on our unlimited spirit? Why keep resorting to inadequate personal strategies and ineffective coping mechanisms? Instead, we can access all the necessary spiritual attributes to grow and flourish.

Life is not about finding a nice little niche and staying put. That is not evolution, that is stagnation. We are here to grow, like all nature. Yes, good times can be had but not at the expense of realising our spiritual potential. Making oneself whole is the very purpose of existence.

The key to spirituality is communion, partnership, collaboration, a conscious synesis (Greek for coming/bringing together). It is realising we can’t do life on our own. It is consistently and repeatedly reaching out to spirit to be supported, guided and inspirited. True wellbeing, meaning, purpose and self-worth come from a deep sense of our place in the universe. This sense itself comes from having a deep intimacy with our spirit.