Chi is one of those words many people have heard but few could define. In this clip from his 2017 London Real interview, Taoist master Mantak Chia gives his own short answer: chi, he says, is life force, or what he calls bio-electromagnetic power.
Over five minutes he explains how he describes chi to Western audiences, why he believes some places feel more energising than others, and why the Taoist tradition points to the belly as the place where energy is stored.
▶ Watch the full episode: Master Mantak Chia – Sexual Healing
Energy with a “bio” in front of it
Master Chia starts by separating two ideas. There is electromagnetic energy all around us, in the space we live in. Then there is the energy a living cell can use, which is where the “bio” comes in. In his view, the practice of chi kung is about using your own chi, which he says has its own intelligence, and drawing in energy from outside so that you have more to work with.
Brian Rose sums it up as a biological element plus the energy around you, with the person acting as a channel. Master Chia agrees, and explains the difference as one of alignment.
Random energy and aligned energy
Energy outside the body, as he describes it, is random: negative and positive charges sit in no particular order. Living energy is more ordered. When your own energy is strong, he says, the energy around you starts to line up and follow you, and that is the chi you can then take in and use.
He links this to a feeling most people will recognise. When we go to the sea, the ocean or the forest, we tend to feel calmer and more energised. Master Chia’s explanation is that these places have more aligned energy. He also notes that the idea is not unique to Taoism: what the Chinese call chi, Indian traditions call prana, and in the West, he says, we simply call it energy. “We have electricity inside us,” he adds.
Focus as the first step
Brian points out that Master Chia studied Western science too, and asks whether Americans struggle with the concept. Not now, he replies: when he uses Western terms, people can relate to it because it no longer sounds mysterious.
His practical point is about focus. Successful people, in his view, know how to concentrate their energy. When the mind goes one way, the eyes another and the heart another, “the energy is very scattered and you lose energy.” Focusing, he says, is the first step, and it brings energy straight away.
The belly as a battery
The clip ends with one of the core ideas of his teaching. According to Taoist practice, recorded for around 2,500 years, the place to store energy is the abdomen. “You cannot store energy in the brain,” he says, and not in the heart either. He describes the human body as a bio-battery that can be charged, and suggests that the structure of the intestines works in a similar way.
What to take from it
Whatever you make of the physics, the practical message is simple: gather your attention, breathe, spend time in places that calm you, and treat your belly as your centre. Those ideas run through all of Master Chia’s teaching on chi kung.
This clip describes Mantak Chia’s own Taoist teaching and beliefs. It is not medical advice. If you have a health concern, speak to your doctor.
Who is Mantak Chia?
Master Mantak Chia is a Thai-born Taoist master and the founder of the Universal Healing Tao system. He has taught chi kung, meditation and Taoist practices for decades, written dozens of books, and runs the Tao Garden retreat in northern Thailand.
This clip comes from Sexual Healing, his 2017 London Real interview with Brian Rose. From the same conversation, you can also read about the sexual exercises he teaches men.
See everything Mantak Chia has done with London Real on his guest page: Master Mantak Chia on London Real.
More on London Real
Transcript
Transcript: Master Mantak Chia – What Is Chi? Life Force As Bio-Electromagnetic Energy
0:00 Master Mantak Chia: What is chi? Chi is actually very simple. It’s a life force, or we say bio-electromagnetic power. We call it bio. We have electromagnetic power in the space around us. Everywhere you can have this energy, magnetic power. But we also have the bio-electromagnetic power. So the only difference is electromagnetic power and bio. Bio means life: a living cell can use energy. So this is bio-energetic energy.
0:39 Master Mantak Chia: Now, chi kung is: you use your own chi that has intelligence, and you draw the energy from outside, so you have more energy to use. So-called chi kung.
0:52 Brian Rose: OK, so you need a biological element, but there’s energy around you and it’s about me channelling that energy.
1:00 Master Mantak Chia: Because outside energy is, we call, random. That means it is not in alignment. But when we have bio-electromagnetic power, it is more aligned: negative, positive, negative, positive, like that. But outside it is negative, negative, positive, positive. It’s random. It’s not aligned. But if you have good energy, you align, and you move, they follow you, and they start to align: negative, positive, negative, positive. Now that energy is close to you. Now you can take that chi and use it. And that’s what chi kung is.
1:41 Master Mantak Chia: And the breathing also, when you align the energy around you. It’s just like when you go to the sea, go to the ocean, go to the forest: there is more aligned energy. And that’s why we find peace in those places. Peace, calm, more energy. We feel that. But actually everywhere around us has energy.
2:06 Master Mantak Chia: Now the West is very crazy about how we can take the energy in the space and use it, right? There is an inexhaustible energy. And all the systems in the world discovered that. So in Chinese we call it chi, in India we call it prana. In many systems they have different names for it.
2:29 Brian Rose: And what does the West call it? What do the Americans call it?
2:32 Master Mantak Chia: We call it energy. Or we call it electromagnetic power. And we are electrical man. We have electricity inside us. We need that electricity to run our life.
2:45 Brian Rose: Now, you studied Western science as well. Western science doesn’t believe in this. Do you find that Americans and people like that at first are like, “I don’t know what this chi is, this is an Eastern thing”? And does it take them a while to accept or understand this?
3:00 Master Mantak Chia: No, now, because when I explain to them, I give them a little bit of the Western terms. And now they like it, because they can relate: it is not a mysterious thing. Like we say, chi is the energy. We have bio-electromagnetic energy, but we never focus it. People are successful because they know how to focus and concentrate their energy. So your energy is more focused and concentrated. When people are not successful, their mind goes one way, their eye goes one way, their heart goes one way. So the energy is very scattered and you lose energy.
3:45 Master Mantak Chia: Now, the first step: you focus. And when you focus, you have a lot of energy immediately. So the Tao discovered that, for a thousand years at least, written down and carved on the wall, 2,500 years: the abdominal area, where you can store energy.
4:07 Brian Rose: Abdominal area.
4:08 Master Mantak Chia: Yes. You cannot store energy in the brain. You cannot store energy in the heart. The human is a very important bio-battery that can be charged, can store and get energy. And that is the abdomen. So the Westerners discovered that the intestine, the structure of the intestine, is like a battery: negative, positive, negative, positive. It can charge energy. They discovered that, but they never went on to what to do with it.
