Friday 30 July 2010

Tai chi for scientists

I have been studying Tai Chi for about 10 years now, and almost since the day I started I have been inspired to write a book on the subject. But you know how it is, getting started is the difficult bit, and so in a flash of inspiration I decided to start a blog in the meantime, which perhaps one day when I am old and wise, I will edit down into a book. To that end, I'm going to attempt to keep this blog reasonably focused and not post pictures of dogs covered in lipstick etc - let's see how restrained I manage to be....

I am both a Tai Chi practitioner and academically qualified scientist and professional engineer.  I am therefore interested in formalising my understanding of Tai Chi in a scientific manner and to carry out research into Tai Chi for personal development, in the language and manner with which I am most comfortable: scientific analysis. I do not really intend to discuss the intricacies of particular styles or postures, as I leave it to others far more qualified than I, to fulfil this role.

Secondly, I believe that embodied in Tai Chi is powerful, self consistent and valuable knowledge based on millennia of research that I wish to share with others. It seems to me that scientists (which I prefer to use as a term rather than "Westerners") are deprived of this knowledge as it is usually presented in a way that they generally consider unscientific, alternative or hippie.  I'm not looking to "prove" anything, but rather provide translation service between the two respective worlds. In other words to make the internal arts accessible to people who have a natural predisposition to scientific skepticism.

Now time for me to start coming up with some hypotheses! And by all means please challenge my assumptions and reasoning in proper peer review process :-)

1 comment:

  1. That's quite an undertaking you are setting your self. Should lead to some interesting discussions...

    ReplyDelete