The following was copied from a post by Mike Sigman:
REVERSE BREATHING AND THE MICROCOSMIC ORBIT
I've mentioned some of this before, but I think it's a good topic for the putative "algorithm" series, so I'll take a swipe at it. When you do a reverse-breath, you inhale while slightly pulling in the abdomen and simultaneously pulling up the perineum/anus area. If you do these things correctly, you'll feel a sort of pressure area at the anus/perineum (AP) area that you can sort of pull up the spine to the lower back (Mingmen) area. Upon exhale, you let the pressure area drop forward and downward. This cycle of movement is the basic power-storage movement that is common throughout the Chinese martial-arts. I'm also pretty sure that the mechanism was well-known in the Japanese martial-arts, based on a comment I read in an old novel about ki and power development. Try the above inhale pulling in and upward, then the drop-release exhale a few times. You should be able to feel the general mechanism pretty easily. What makes this mechanism difficult for westerners to grasp has usually been the vague and obscure directions in so many of the old texts and directions. For instance, some directions talk about breathing the qi in through the Huiyin, into the coccyx, up the sacrum, and to the Mingmen. "Breathing the qi" in doesn't so much refer to breathing an exotic energy inward as it refers to pulling the elastic tissues of that area inward. Next, as you do the inhale part of the cycle, pay attention to the superficial area of the back and your spine ... try to push the slight tension in the lower back up the outside of the spine to the top of the head, on the inhale. Just get it generally correct, without worrying too much about perfection. On the exhale, as the dantian drops forward and downward, imagine that drop as pulling tension area from the top of the head down to the lower abdomen. Mentally follow that more superficial/outside-ish circuit that works in synchronicity with the cycle of the reverse-breath inhale and exhale. Now, let's return to previous discussions about a reverse breath and how, when you have your arms and fingers slightly extended, you can feel the pull-inward at the fingertips (maybe other places, too, depending upon your development) with the inhaled reverse-breath. Imagine the tissues you feel at your fingertips and part of an elastic, sheet-like connection over your body and that you feel the pull at the fingertips because your elastic "suit" is being pulled upward at the perineum/anus area. Do a few inhales and feel for that connection between the fingertips and the perineum/anus/huiyin. As your body's elastic connection continues to develop, you'll begin to feel the connection grow and spread to all over the body. It's this connection that the dantian uses to control the body.
CAST IN RESIN, MOVING AGAINST WATER, AND SO ON
The idea of "cast in resin" is the same basic idea that has been discussed a number of times in this forum: if you arrange your mind and body, without moving, to get ready to move into any given direction and, the imagination (if it is realistic enough and has real intent in it) is enough for the subconscious mind to trigger the involuntary muscle systems that we use in so much of our movement.
The general procedure for "cast in resin" is to stand in a balanced position, one foot forward, and without moving the voluntary muscles, feel yourself getting ready to move forward even though your body is imaginarily only held in place because you are inside of one of those clear, plastic resin cubes. Don't make any physical movement, but just get your body ready to move as a whole unit (just like you are pushing your body through water). Don't actually move, but try to realistically feel that you are ready to move forward even though you haven't tensed any muscles.
Then, without moving again, trying to arrange yourself inside so that you are now ready to move your body and legs, etc., backward. You will know and feel when your body is all aimed and ready to go backward. You can use the same procedure "move your qi" in various other directions.
The point to think about is that not only does your body use muscle, bones, tendons, and connective tissue for movement… It also uses various stressors caused by involuntary-muscle systems under the command of the subconscious mind. You can't control the subconscious mind directly, but you can ask it to do things by imagining realistically and thus forming a rapport with the subconscious mind where it tries to do as you imagine.
Perhaps I shouldn't have said "imagining realistically"… You can get the subconscious mind to control the involuntary-muscle systems by imagining some fairly unrealistic things. For instance, I can imagine breathing in through the top of my head and down to my stomach while I inhale through my nose, and imagining that I am pulling an intangible energy through the top of my head: that will trigger parts of my involuntary-muscle systems to react as if I were physically drawing something in through the top of my head, even though of course there is no intangible energy that I am actually pulling in through the top of my head.
In a number of medical qigong's they will say things like "breathe qi in through the kidney", or something like that, and what they want you to do is imagine you are pulling something in through the kidney area when you inhale: that will help strengthen the involuntary-muscle systems in that area.
Anyway, the cast in resin model is another simple way to begin learning to control your qi with your mind. Give it a try. Don't forget that reverse breathing is the optimal way to help pull in the qi tissues of the body.
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