Empty Force: The Power of Chi for Self-Defense and Energy Healing [Paperback]

Paul Dong (Author), Thomas Raffill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 19, 2006

Ling Kong Jing, the "Empty Force," is the highest martial arts skill in China. This extraordinary technique harnesses the power of chi, the body's vital energy, enabling masters of the art to defend themselves against opponents without making physical contact. The book takes readers step by step from theory to the actual practice used to generate Empty Force, and shows how to use its remarkable power for healing as well as self-defense.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Paul Dong, an empty force master, takes readers step by step from the theory to the actual practice of generating the power of chi, showing how to use this power for healing as well as self-defense.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Blue Snake Books (January 19, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1583941347
• ISBN-13: 978-1583941348
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,071 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read wider before you review!, October 18, 2006

By 

S. J. Bockett (Wellington New Zealand) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Empty Force: The Power of Chi for Self-Defense and Energy Healing (Paperback)

The negativity of the previous reviews had me curious rather than deterred! I therefore ordered the book - and do not regret doing so. Having developed an intense interest in consciousness and energetics (through reading numerous books from both Eastern and Western points of view) I find that "Empty force" adds ably to the discussion (and even seeks it.) I suspect that reviewers' expectations of this book are only as limited as their reading on the subject.

I couldn't help but see significant parallels between the philosophy of "chi" in this book and the "non-locality" of mind referred to in the prestigious "Studies in Consciousness" - that of William Braud PhD in particular. Scientifically correct to the point of dryness, Braud's "Distant Mental Influence" details meticulous research (with copious statistics and references) on the effect of thought at a distance on REG machines (Random Event Generators) He includes other double-blind laboratory studies into the power of non-local mind. (Non-local being defined as mentally mediated events occurring outside the brain.) Top universities are involved in this research worldwide and are replicating these staggering results, led by a veritable 'Who's Who' of international scientists.

I also see a close parity between the "chi" of "Empty Force" and the documented cures of "Quantum Healing" (see website as well as book) and the rapidly accumulating evidence of energy tapping (EFT being the most widely known through worldwide reporting on its website) with an increasing number of medical abstracts. If this is "snake oil" territory, then hundreds of eminent doctors and psychologists world-wide are partaking of it, with endorsement from medical journals. Can such a historically conservative body have suddenly become so gullible?

Refuse to believe it until you see it? There is the confirming infra-red imagery from Japanese scientists ... I could go on ad infinitum. Another reviewer is confusing experiential certainty with arrogance. I would advise caution only to those who are unfamiliar with Asian philosophy: The vocabulary as well as the metaphor is alien to Western thinking. However, we would do well to remember the five blind men arguing over the same elephant, defining it only by the different part they touched.

While I don't anticipate becoming a "master" at it, I have already exercised this skill to a very limited degree. And from what I have seen demonstrated, even skeptics could make use of the concept in some small way. Down the track, the West may well claim this wisdom as ours, as we often do, when cultures we have arrogantly deemed "primitive" have used it for centuries. Incidentally, for a Western account, B K Franztis, martial arts expert, international lecturer and author, has focused one of his books on his own experience with "empty force." It is titled "The Power of Internal Martial Arts." Frantzis is even more assertive about his claims.

BIG lesson here: Don't condemn this book out of ignorance, especially before investigating a skill that even our Ivory Halls now validate.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars well...., March 20, 2008

By 

J. Bedwell "devilsgoatee" (louisiana) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Empty Force: The Power of Chi for Self-Defense and Energy Healing (Paperback)

I bought the book when it was first published several years back (I was 17ish). I thought the concepts behind it were outrageous! But I decided to try it for myself and see. I spent the three years it says are the minimum of practice, doing daily two hour long meditations. Sitting and standing. At the end of the three years I had the awesome power of being able to make some people sway a half inch back and forth and others look at me like I was nuts. I was crazy and determined enough to do one more year of training. However this time I had got into contact with one of the people in the testimonials, a Richard Mooney (I think, it has been a while) He explained the meditation in the book is for the healing form of Ling Kong Jing, not the martial force. I then purchased his book which details the actual exercise of the martial empty force. I did this for the fourth year (it is a much harder form) and then tried out my force (he recommends another three years or more, however I was not wasting my time with another three years) My empty force had not changed.

So, from someone who has done it, this book is at best a really good book on learning the power of meditation and willpower. Nothing more.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Sadly dissapointed, August 3, 2007

By 

Eclectic Reader (Sunnyvale, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Empty Force: The Power of Chi for Self-Defense and Energy Healing (Paperback)

I was very intrigued by this book at first because I study Aikido. But on page 45 the author writes "Not everyone will be bounced off the wall like a ball or thrown up to the ceiling. Those sensitive to chi will have that sort of reaction, but people without this sensitivity will move only a little, or not at all (but will actually be hurt more than the ones who are thrown around). If the master can't make the target move, then observers will say the master is a liar and the empty force is fake."

Hello?! This book's subtitle is "The power of chi for SELF-DEFENSE and energy healing." So if I read the quote above well, this technique only works in a closed setting with people who know they are supposed to fall or fly. If I am walking down the street and a group of thugs attacks me (I assume that thugs are not usually well-tuned to chi forces), then this technique will not work and they may still get to me, even if they may get hurt by the force. So VERY early on the book let me know that I was wasting my time.

But I decided to give the book a second chance. I skipped the anecdotal evidence chapters and took a closer look at the exercises in case they had something to offer. The techniques are poorly explained, and I have no idea how to practice anything using this book. I do not recommend it to anyone interested in working with energy and/or martial arts. But if you are looking for something amusing to read and you are willing to put up with the bad writing, this may be up your alley.

A book I am currently reading about energy and martial arts that I am enjoying a lot and has practical exercises is Intuitive Body: Aikido as a Clairsentient Practice. It does not offer anything closely related to what Empty Force promises, but it is helping me to understand martial arts from a different perspective and helping me to better embody energy and be more conscious of it. Hope it helps you too.