A recorded conversation (podcast/video) between Ben Greenfield and Gary Daniels exploring bioelectricity, the heart’s large electromagnetic field (reported up to ~8–9 ft), and how that physiological electricity relates to traditional energy meridians. Daniels describes qigong as closely related to acupuncture (sharing meridians and ~300 acupuncture points), explains acupressure, and contrasts internal/meditative qigong with movement-based practices like Tai Chi.
Chapters
And the heart actually generates an electrical field that emanates out from the human body a lot farther than like a brain wave field. Apparently it can go like 8 to 9ft outside of the body. So if somebody is stressed out and they've got like a really rapid heartbeat, or they have a lot of sympathetic nervous system stimulation, you can almost. You can sense the stress. That's why you can walk into a room full of stressed out people and you almost feel what a lot of people would describe as bad energy. It really is interesting, this concept of bioelectricity. And even though I don't have my head fully wrapped around how it ties into energy meridians, that's actually something I wanted to ask you about is. I'll readily admit that there definitely is some kind of bioelectricity going on in everybody. But how does it interplay with this whole idea of meridians? When it comes to qigong or acupuncture is another common practice where we talk about triggering energy meridians.
Yeah, sure. I mean, qigong is basically a direct cousin of acupuncture. The acupuncture points lie along the same exact meridians. And there's, you know, hundreds. You know, the number varies depending on how the practitioners look at it. But let's just say 300 acupuncture points, then you have acupressure. And basically what qigong is, is stimulating the energy within your body through using the mind to direct, you know, the consciousness to direct the energy throughout your body. And it can be done either still, like in a meditative state, which is sort of internalizing the energy and focusing on the movement that's happening inside your body, or it can be practiced more like. Another cousin would be Tai Chi, which we're familiar with, where Tai Chi, Taishi Swan, is a little more of a martial aspect, where the movements are flowing, but each movement is in some sense a block.
