What Is the Real Goal of Nei Gong? Beyond Fa Qi and Extraordinary Abilities
- Jiaoshi Andrea
- 12 minutes ago
- 7 min read
What is the real goal of Nei Gong?
Is it the ability to perform Fa Qi? Is it the development of unusual abilities? Is it about cultivating energy and becoming more powerful?
These are questions that come up often, especially today, when demonstrations of Qi Gong, Nei Gong and energy projection can easily attract attention online.
Recently, I had an open conversation with my student Thanasis, who has completed the training programs of our system. We spoke about practice, transformation, energy cultivation, spiritual exploration, intuition, teachers and, ultimately, what I believe is the real purpose of Nei Gong.
For me, the answer is very simple:
Know yourself.
Fa Qi Is Only a Small Part of Nei Gong
Fa Qi can be impressive.
It can also be useful as a point of reference. When a student experiences something directly rather than simply reading about it, it can demonstrate that the practice is not only theoretical.
But Fa Qi is only a small part of the art.
In my own experience, I would place it at perhaps five percent of the practice—or even less.
The problem begins when we confuse something that is visible with something that is important.
Being able to perform a particular demonstration does not necessarily mean that a person has undergone deep transformation.
The deeper work happens through the cultivation and refinement of the whole human being.
The Physical, Mental and Emotional Aspects
Nei Gong is not simply about cultivating energy in isolation.
Through practice, we work with different aspects of ourselves: the physical body, emotions and mind.
A human being can easily become divided.
We can think one thing, feel something completely different and then act in another way. We can be dominated by our emotions, disconnected from our body or trapped inside our own thoughts.
The practice gives us a way to observe these aspects and gradually bring them into greater harmony.
This is why I don't see Nei Gong as a method for becoming a kind of Superman.
It is about becoming more fully functional as a human being.
More aware.
More stable.
More natural.
More capable of responding to life instead of simply reacting to it.
Practice Is About Self-Knowledge
One of the most important aspects of serious Nei Gong practice is self-observation.
Not only during the practice itself.
Throughout the day.
How does your body feel?
How do your emotions change?
What happens in your mind?
How do you react when something doesn't go the way you want?
Are you actually free, or are you simply reacting to everything around you?
These questions become part of the practice.
For me, this is much more valuable than collecting information about meridians, energy systems or ancient terminology.
You can know enormous amounts of theory and still have very little direct experience.
The experience has to happen in you.
From Energy Cultivation to Human Transformation
The cultivation of vital energy is an important part of Nei Gong.
But energy cultivation itself is not the final purpose.
As we cultivate and refine energy, something else can happen: we begin to refine ourselves.
Our perception changes.
Our relationship with our body changes.
Our relationship with emotions changes.
Our perception of the space around us can change.
The way we interact with other people can change.
And gradually, practice becomes less something that we "do" and more something that becomes integrated into everyday life.
As Thanasis described during our conversation, the path doesn't really finish when you complete a training program.
The path continues.
There is always something more to refine.
Exploring the More Subtle Aspects of Reality
There are also more subtle aspects of vital energy that become interesting as practice develops.
For me, this includes what we call Ling Qi, or spiritual energy.
I am interested in exploring both the dense and less-dense aspects of vital energy—not because one is necessarily better than the other, but because I want to understand them and see how they relate to each other.
This can also affect our perception.
Intuition may become stronger.
Sensitivity may increase.
We may perceive other people and our environment in ways that were previously unfamiliar.
But these experiences should not become the goal.
If you practice because you want psychic abilities, you have already created another goal for the ego to chase.
The interesting thing is that these experiences can develop naturally when the practice is done without constantly trying to achieve them.
Don't Practice to Become Special
This is an important point.
If something unusual happens through practice, we can observe it.
We can experience it.
We can investigate it.
But we don't need to make ourselves special because of it.
For me, even extraordinary experiences are simply part of the process of discovering what we are.
The more we practice, the more we can begin to understand that reality may not be limited to what we normally perceive through our senses.
But the purpose is not to collect experiences.
The purpose is exploration.
And ultimately, the exploration of reality becomes an exploration of ourselves.
Practice Without Chasing the Result
There is a paradox in Nei Gong.
The more desperately you chase a particular result, the more complicated the practice can become.
Sometimes you have to practice without trying to force anything to happen.
You cultivate.
You observe.
You refine.
And you allow things to develop.
This is particularly important when working with energy.
If the mind is constantly focused on achieving a specific ability, it can become another form of attachment.
The practice is much deeper when there is less fighting inside yourself.
Practice Becomes a Way of Life
At a certain point, practice becomes like eating or sleeping.
You simply do it.
For me, daily practice has become one of the best moments of the day.
It is a moment to stop, pay attention and clear the fog.
I sometimes compare it to plugging a phone into a socket.
You recharge.
You become clearer.
You cultivate energy.
And then you return to your life.
The important part is what happens outside the practice.
If the cultivation is real, it should eventually manifest in the way you live.
You may become quieter.
More stable.
More efficient.
More able to respond to what life brings.
You may become more mature.
These changes are much less spectacular than Fa Qi, but for me they are much more meaningful.
The Importance of the Teacher
We also spoke about the relationship between teacher and student.
I believe a teacher is not someone who is a superior or perfect human being.
A teacher is someone who has more experience in the path and can help you avoid certain mistakes and pitfalls.
The student still has to do the work.
In this sense, the real teacher eventually becomes yourself.
You practice.
You experience.
You validate.
And the teacher can help you understand whether you are moving in the right direction.
This is also why I value a structured school and oral transmission.
The purpose is not to create dependency.
It is to receive the teaching, practice it, develop through it and eventually become more independent.
A healthy teacher should also allow freedom.
There should not be a need to control students or convince them that they cannot learn anywhere else.
What Makes a Good Teacher?
For me, the character of a teacher matters enormously.
I don't look only at what someone can do.
I look at how they behave.
How they live.
How they treat people.
Whether they are humble.
Whether they are honest.
Whether their actions correspond with what they teach.
This is one of the reasons I have such respect for my teacher, Shifu Costantino Valente.
He is an accomplished martial artist, but what I admire is not only his ability. It is also his simplicity, discipline, friendliness and lack of interest in presenting himself as something special.
Sometimes the people who have genuinely developed have less need to talk about what they have achieved.
Their actions speak for them.
Spirituality Without Giving Away Your Responsibility
I don't consider myself a religious person.
I have a strong spiritual interest, but I prefer to think of it as a kind of spiritual research.
I don't want to give my power away to something outside myself and then stop taking responsibility for my own life.
There may be something greater than our individual existence.
We can explore that.
We can investigate it.
We can experience it.
But we still have responsibility for ourselves.
For me, Nei Gong provides a practical way to walk in that direction.
"Know Yourself"
At the end of our conversation, Thanasis asked me what I consider the ultimate goal of the practice.
My answer was immediate:
Know yourself.
I remembered the ancient Greek expression "Know yourself", which we had seen together at the Temple of Apollo.
For me, this captures the direction of the practice very well.
When you begin to know yourself more deeply, you may discover that many of the questions you were asking about reality were actually questions about yourself.
You don't necessarily need more explanations.
You need more experience.
More attention.
More honesty.
More practice.
The Journey Has No End
Completing a Nei Gong program does not mean that the journey is finished.
Learning Fa Qi does not mean that the journey is finished.
Having an unusual experience does not mean that the journey is finished.
Even becoming an instructor does not mean that the journey is finished.
There is always something more to refine.
The body can be refined.
The emotions can be refined.
The mind can be refined.
Our relationship with reality can be explored more deeply.
And perhaps this is precisely what makes the practice beautiful.
There is no final achievement that allows us to say:
"I have arrived."
There is simply practice.
And through practice, gradually, we learn to know ourselves.
This is, for me, the real direction of Nei Gong.
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