that is just part of chi's properties. and there are also a lot a mazing feats. (yes, not illusions)

Let me tell you a story.

Bakc in Chin dynasty. In the captial of China, Beking. There was a local meat merchant. The merchant was so greedy that every sale he made, he cheated on his customer. An old monk (he actually had a name, and he was famous, but I really forgot, and I dont want to put on a fake name, anyway) heard about this merchant, so he decided to gave this greedy meat merchant a lesson. Then he went to where the guys' store was located. When he went there, he saw a pound of meat on the store's desk, so he went there, and grabbed the meat and ate it all. The merchant was angry, he yelled:" HEY!!! what the hell you doing? you eat my meat, now you have to pay!" This caused a lot of people to came close and watch, so the monk said:" well, you said I ate your meat, how much did I eat?" the merchant said:" you eat about two pounds." The old monk smiled and told him: "then weight me, see how heavy I am." the confused merchant did as the monk said, and the monk weighted less than one pound! Everyone was amazed, but they also got the message, the monk just told them this merchant always cheat. and the story goes on...

anyway, the story itself was too much to believe, however, in old china, there were people who could control the flow of chi, and make themselves lighter than they actually were. The powerful masters could even levitate themselves. And the story is an exaggerated leviation version told by old chinese for the purpose of "good triumph over evil"

we could always see people's many kinds of emotions related to all the myths through out the world. They expressed their fear, anger, love, peace, desire, happiness and many many things with myth, which brought them the sense of security, like the tale i said, the good can always outwit evil. http://www.tgeweb.com/ironworks/cgi-...iles/smile.gif


[This message has been edited by 250 (edited 03-15-2001).]

First I'd like to state that this is my opinion, not the final word on this subject, and I'd like it if someone can give me a different take on this.
While Qi, Ki, or Chi (same thing, same pronounciation) can not be readily explained, most people agree that it is a form of inner force/life force and can be harnessed by conditioning your body to it. This is the force that martial artists use to break blocks, this is the force that enables men to have bricks smashed over themselves while lying on blocks of needles. If you ask any martial artist who is serious in his craft, they will tell you that the feat of breaking blocks is done by mental preparation and conditioning your mind to harness the force and break the block FIRST, rather than superhuman strength or technique.
This force, in my opinion, allows men to perform feats that are not readily explained, it allows men to tap into this potential that most do not know is there, and can thus be almost magical in nature. Maybe it involved getting into a different, more condusive state of mind (anyone heard of the Alpha/Beta/Gamma stages of your conciousness? Please tell me if you have, my memory of it is not very clear) to use the other 70% of your brain that remains dormant in your life.
About death touches, or Qi harnessed to harm coupled with technique or skill, I do believe that it is possible to strike a blow that will kill or render a man unconcious instantly. It is logical that since our bodies need constant pumpings of blood to keep our organs functioning, striking an area to stop this flow of blood even for a milisecond could produce such effects.
On a personal note, there was a time when I was in school, and there was this trick going around. A person would ask you to close your eyes and do something with your hands, like cross them on your chest or something, I do not remember, and they would touch a part or strike a blow and the person would just blackout. It was not like a solid punch to the head or a jab in the family jewels, but a touch in a certain area and the person would just fold.
Scary no?

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Why?

I believed, most people who perform break blocks and have hammers smash on the huge rock upon his chest is not real. http://www.tgeweb.com/ironworks/cgi-...iles/smile.gif

the former, people can break some fake rocks. the later, it involved physics. It had something to do with an object's momentum. I never seen, or heard people got smacked by a hammer and still stay concious. (of course, there are people use other object, like a stick, or bat, but much weaker to a degree.)

what people do was, lay on the ground (or needles, whatever you prefer) and put a huge block of rock on his chest, then another man use a very scary looking hammer and smack down. then the rock breaks, and the man stand up, and look fine.

in physics, there is a law, that the momentum maintains constant. so the man with the hammer smack down and hit the rock, the two object as a system, has a total momentum of the hammer. momentum equals to speed times weight (which is very small in this case of the hammer), and also, lighter object tend to have higher energy, therefore, there were actually little energy pass on to the rock, so the man beneath could stay alive.

lol, if you do it otherwise, like, put a hammer on the man, and smack him with a huge rock, see if he can stay alive.

and yes, I believe the thing "qi" can kill and do a lot of amazing things. heh, life time, how much chinese are you?

Skin calleses are a wonderfull thing. People who brake rocks with there fists first learn to build up very solid, strong hands. Also the hand is far stronger than it appears. All the little bones serve to disperce energy much better than the rest of the body, like the bones of the head do as well. Mentaly you still have to work up the courage in your mind to strike the bricks. And after a few years of practice (sometimes a lifetime), you learn how to focus your arm and fist into one whoolp of a punch. I've seen it too many times not to believe it.

If you hit someone at a point around the heart (not that I know exactly how), with enough force you will stop the heart, sending it into an arrest. Every now and then you hear on the news about someone killed playing baceball, or hockey. They get struck in the chest, around the heart, with the ball or puck, at a very high rate of speed, and drop dead. It's weired but it's real.

A wizard is someone, anyone who can do stuff that bends reality, or goes aggenst the laws of nature. Any time in our history that someone has had unexplained powers it's linked to socery or deamon magic. Were just better at figureing out stuff now so very little is linked to "black magic voodoo". D&D mages are just complantions of various historical figures, myths, gods, etc. Zeus tossed lightning and fire, Oden used socery, Merlin was a wise old druid with the powers of divination and could walk the deamon world, bla bla bla.

So witches, worlocks, mages, wizards, etc are all a product of years of myth and folklore. I would have it no other way. Though wouldn't it be nice to really be able to teleport and fireball that annoying neighbor?

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--Kellin da Mage--

100% friend.
Not traditional Chinese though. I prefer being a child of the world. heh http://www.tgeweb.com/ironworks/cgi-...iles/smile.gif

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Why?