Does chi( internal energy ) work?

When they talk about chi, they don't mean shooting fireballs like it happens in video games, or TV.

They mean focusing on making the internal energy, and the body work together. Some martial arts are beyond science.

The energy described as chi is very similar how love is. It cannot be seen but can be felt, though some people swear that it actually exists and others never feel it for an entire life time.

Chi, as in life force, does exist. It is the energy of your movement and your attacks, like kinetic energy. However, energy balls, no-touch knockouts and levitation are not possible. Those are myths intended to scare and intimidate.

My training is in Tai-chi-Chuan, which is based on Taoist Alchemy and I am answering from this perspective. The experience of what people call chi is an intricate communication system among all parts of the body. This allows you to make precise movements. It allows you to create force or deflect force through re-arranging the alignment of muscles and joints within the body while externally, moving very little.

As an example, the punch is generated by an expansion of the joints from foot to hip to elbow to fist a you breathe in to the lower rib area on the striking side of your belly. At the moment of the strike, the scapula on that side, drops downward and towards the spine. Every joint in the body re-aligns at the moment of the strike to adjust to the posture, balance and resistance of the opponent. Only by using the connections among all the body parts through the system of chi, can you do all this in such a short amount of time.

When you are practicing forms, push hands or sparring, you let go of the thinking perspective (as you must do in ANY martial art) and operate from the intelligence of the body itself. Chi is the energy behind that intelligence and allows you to both perceive and react on microscopic levels of time and manipulation.

It energizes and heals the body. Since this energy is part of nature and is not something you personally generate, it is what connects you to your surroundings in a way other than our normal senses. When we do push hands for example, my school uses closed eyes. (Not all schools do). This is to stop the sense of sight from grabbing your attention so that you can focus on the connection of chi between you and your partner. This is important because you must be able to feel the state of readiness of each of his muscles, the distribution of his attention, his balance, posture etc. You use this information to push him. In sparring of course your eyes are open, but you are trained to not allow them to control your attention.

I find that a discussion of chi makes some martial art practitioners uncomfortable and even angry. For some, power is just a matter of muscular tension, speed and mass. Even in Tai-chi itself, there has been a tendency of late to believe that if Tai-chi-Chuan is really a martial art then it has to be just like Karate. I point out to people that Karate itself is not really like what it used to be when it first was taught here.

To me, developing one's awareness of chi and its role in the functioning of the body and mind is one of the greatest benefits and joys of the martial arts. It has kept me feeling young and allowed this old body to still keep up a very active life.

Chi exists. Its not what movies or cartoons make it out to be.

Lots of people feel chi. Just like lots of people feel the placebo effect.

chi is real,to feel it you should take classes

No myth.