Text: Ch'i is an ancient Chinese word, going back at least to the Shang Dynasty around 2500 B.C. The concept is probably older than that. By "flavors" of Ch'i, i mean different energy patterns which include Ch'i but are probably mixtures of several forces. This was not a reference to similar concepts found in other cultures. Other cultures have come up with similar ideas. Probably the closest in definition would be "prana", which usually gets translated as "breath of life" from ancient Sanskrit (Hinduism). Have not seen any evidence of a similar concept among the Persians. Most translations of the I Ching, which is China's basic physics textbook, go into the idea that there are five elemental forces, but they don't actually tie these in to either the fundamental concept of Ch'i, or the rest of the I Ching. In my Harmonic Chemistry material, there is more detail about how these five forces interact with each other, and precise correlations between Chinese and Western concepts. Michael Riversong

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