Medical and Spiritual Qigong (Chi Kung)
I’ve done quite a lot of psychedelics before discovering taoism so I know exactly what you mean. It’s different for everyone as you’ve probably heard. For me I felt a cooling water tingling the inside of my brain. It actually felt like peppermint. The pressure is normal, it’s just chi or jing trying to push open channels that were previously closed. Sometimes it can cause mild headaches. I call them chi headaches haha. And for the different methods of the orbit, there really is no wrong way of doing it in my opinion. As long as you focusing on the points and/or the loop. The best way for me is the get your lower Dan dian really hot before circulating, nothing but solid focus on the navel for at least 10 minutes before focusing on the points. Then focus on each point for as long as you feel comfortable, while keeping your attention on your navel. After that I usually go through the loop 36 times. It seems to flow on its own that way I’ve discovered. Like I said with the headaches sometimes chi activating can be quite painful. I’ve felt sharp electrical shocks hit my sacrum before! And I do have to agree with you on the choppy feeling of going through each point. In Master chia’s first orbit book he teaches it that way. He tells you to focus on each point for 15 minutes. I’ve found it’s much easier to focus on the navel for the longest (as that’s where the energy for your orbit generates) Get your navel burning first. Then circulate. There’s different stages of the microcosmic orbit activating of course. When it’s fully activated and open to the highest level you should feel a hot burning sensation around the entire loop. I’ve read that it feels like somebody is holding a blow dryer up your spine and around your body. <!–more–> Hope this is helpful for you man. Good luck in your chi cultivation! 🙏🏻