Taoist 16 Neigong

The 16 components that make up the Taoist neigong system are:

1. Breathing methods, from simple to complex, taking many years to develop properly.

2. Developing the ability to feel, move, transform and transmute internal energies along the descending, ascending and connecting energy channels of the body.

3. Adhering to and maintaining ever-more precise body alignments—both externally and internally—to prevent the flow of energy from being blocked or dissipated; practicing these principles yields exceptional and refined biomechanical alignments, as well as better qi flow within the internal organs and the brain.

4. Dissolving blockages in the physical, energetic, emotional and mental bodies to strengthen and develop the body, energy and mind.

5. Moving energy through the main and secondary meridian channels of the body, including all the energy gates.

6. Bending and stretching the body’s soft tissues (including the muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia) from the inside out and the outside in, as well as along the direction of the yin and yang acupuncture meridian lines.

7. Opening and closing all parts of the physical body (joints, muscles, soft tissues, internal organs, glands, blood vessels, cerebrospinal system and brain), as well as all aspects of the body’s subtle energy anatomy.

8. Manipulating the energy of the external aura outside the body.

9. Making circles and spirals of energy inside the body, controlling the spiraling energy currents of the body, and moving energy to any part of the body at will, especially to the glands, brain and internal organs.

10. Absorbing energy into and projecting energy away from any part of the body.

11. Controlling all the energies of the spine.

12. Gaining control of the left and right energy channels of the body.

13. Gaining control of the central energy channel of the body.

14. Learning to develop the capabilities and all the uses of the body’s lower tantien.

15. Learning to develop the capabilities and all the uses of the body’s upper and middle tantiens.

16. Connecting every part of the physical and other energetic bodies into one unified energy.

Reprinted from the book, Heaven and Earth Qigong: Heal Your Body and Awaken Your Qi, by Taoist Master Bruce Frantzis and his senior student, Paul Cavel (Energy Arts 2019, Appendix A).