One afternoon several years ago I was at home with time on my hands. I was lying on my back on the floor with eyes closed, allowing my thoughts to drift as they may - something I used to do a lot in those days. Gradually, I sank into what I can only imagine was a form of trance. I became aware that I was observing an unusual process in image form and began to pay close attention to the details of what I was seeing, or - as it turned out - being shown.
The images I was witnessing were of an almost comic nature - imagine a cartoon version of a crazed chemistry (or perhaps alchemical) laboratory: test tubes and beakers; pipes leading every which way; liquids bubbling; gasses steaming and effervescing; all manner of colours and simultaneous movements - in short, a chaotic profusion of happenings all occurring at the same time, far too numerous to catalogue or even identify on an individual basis.
The picture was utterly confusing to begin with, until I gradually began to intuit an order underlying the seeming chaos and, even more importantly, a direction in the maze of apparent craziness. Once the vision-creating intelligence (Hun?) was certain that my mind had caught up, things moved on.
A kind of conveyer belt-like apparatus began to materialize, going in a slightly downward and distinctly horizontal direction. This conveyer belt I understood to be conveying the pure resulting essential product of the myriad processes I had been witnessing.
Finally the name, the title of this strange tableau became apparent. I was being shown a pictorial representation of the Gall Bladder and Triple Heater's multitudinous, synchronous and unfathomable processes and the delivering up of their resulting essence to the Dai Mai, which was dutifully transporting this pure product of multi-tasking and recycling to the deep storehouse of the Jing within the Kidney.
I almost gasped (I probably did!) as I realised what I was being given here. These were phenomena I had been thinking about, pondering over and discussing intensely for ten or fifteen years and here were several very important pieces of the puzzle being effortlessly pieced together for me in the comfort of my living room. For free!
In certain presentations of the Dai Mai, it is less than apparent that one of its main functions - perhaps the most vital one - is to connect the more superficial post-natal production processes with deep, pre-natal energy reservoirs. Its pathway is horizontal so that it may link the front - more associated with the post-natal search for nourishment - with the back - closely linked with the Kidneys, Ming Men and the survival responses embedded in the adrenals. As the processes of Yang Ming (St/LI) and Tai Yin (Sp/Lu) yield their resources for daily use, that which is left over may be transported by the Dai Mai, via Shao Yang (GB & TH) down into the deep reserve banks of the Jing-essence.
Thus we speak of both pre-natal and post-natal Jing. Ultimately there is only one Jing but the sources are in this way shown to be myriad and manifold. This explains how people can regain their health after long or serious illness and how people born with weak constitutions may, through conscious and continuous application, become robust and live to a long age - the folk lore of qigong, martial arts and strength training are full of such stories.
The question facing us as practitioners, facilitators and energy pedagogues is how to optimise this process for our clients. The treatment strategies I hope to present may represent one method of ensuring that every drop, every molecule, every joule of extra energy created can be transformed back into dark and magical potential.
