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Comment by spankalee | Hacker News Reader

There is no such thing as Chi force, so it wasn't that. The perception of time is malleable though.

See https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sense-time/201707/th... and tons if other articles.

It's super interesting, I have had it the most in a car accident saw my seatbelt snap and slide off of me like it was a sleepy snake, watched the stuff in my backseat get hang time that would have made MJ jealous, and thankfully managed to not die.

I had something similar happen when I was a passenger in a car accident. I had been asleep and woke up just before the impact. I watched the car's front end crumple in slow motion and was able to protect my head and "roll" with the collision to come out unscathed.

I always assumed the slowing down of time effect was induced by hyper alertness from the dose of adrenaline you get when in trouble.

Personally I think our eyes and senses input a lot of information then our brains discard what it feels is unnecessary without processing it. But some people can train the brain to process more of the information like a formula 1 driver.

You might want to study Bioenergetics - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioenergetics and Bioenergetic Systems - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioenergetic_systems if you want to understand Prana/Qi/Chi/Ki in the modern scientific context.

Also see Guy Brown's The Energy of Life: The Science of What Makes Our Minds and Bodies Work.

You linked to articles describing actual biology, not anything like "Chi".

I pointed you to the mapping of the concept of Prana/Qi/Chi/Ki in today's scientific context. They were framed in a different cultural context with a different concept of "Science" and it is up to you to map them to concepts in modern science.

For example they had a different model of Anatomy/Physiology in spite of the fact that they were aware of the various circulatory and nervous systems. Their approach was more holistic and empirical rather than reductionist and analytical. So even though you might not have a one-to-one correspondence to concepts in modern science there is enough studies/research done to establish that there is something to those ideas and hence their various practices (especially Yoga and Acupuncture) are now used in Healthcare to treat various ailments.

Some resources;

1) Perception of Subtle Energy “Prana”, and Its Effects During Biofield Practices: A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10498708/

2) The Science of Tai Chi and Qigong as Whole Person Health-Part I: Rationale and State of the Science - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40091656/

no, chi and centrifugal force do not really exist. But because everything we percieve is essentially a metaphor, a model of reality, sometimes chi or loosy goosey uses of the word 'energy' really can be a valid heuristic for the things that you can do to optimise your 'ability to do work'. As long as you remember its a vague, subjective, context restricted heuristic, and don't try shooting chi bullets, I say max your chi flow friend.

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