I believe there is.

Well... What your mother believes in is slightly different from what the question was asking about...

What your mother practices is known as Feng Shui (pronounced "fung shway") Or at least that's what it sounds like by your description of the house plant...lol

While it's based on the idea of "chi"...it isn't exactly the same as just believing in a universal "life force"... It's believing that you can use that life force to your advantage by organizing your surroundings to set that life force into a certain pattern of flow around you... The general idea is that the better the flow of energy, the better your life will be...lol

But true "chi" practicioners don't necessarily believe in that... They believe that they can tap into the energy directly to make themselves better... Some for martial artts purposes, others for pure enlightenment... It is even believed by some radicals to work much like it does in DBZ, actually... Some people believe they really can throw energy blasts and fly and things of that nature...lol But for the most part, true "chi" practicioners don't believe any of that is possible... But do believe that the energy is capable of miraculous things (healing, for instance)... An example is the monks of Tibet (I believe) that go into the frozen mountains with nothing but the clothing on their backs and sleep through a sub-zero night and wake up the next morning without a sign of harm from the cold... A "normal" person would freeze to death... But these guys are able to keep their body temperatures up... They say that it is due to the use of "chi" energy...

Others claim to have made themselves invulnerable to attack through the use of "chi" energy... And they demonstrate it by having others try to cut them with swords, or beat them with staves... One guy I saw in a clip on some documentary on it actually leaned his weight on the point of a sword in his stomach...and it never penetrated his skin... Again, claimed to be because of "chi" energy...

So there's a lot more to believing in this energy than what your mother does...lol

As for myself... I don't really buy into it... In fact, I used to frequent a message board of radical "chi" followers (mostly DBZers...lol) and was the only skeptic in the bunch...lol I just happen to have gathered quite a bit of knowledge on it...lol

Kusanagi wrote:

Well chi has many different meanings, not only life force. It can mean peace at mind also or total enlightenment(exscuse the spelling errors if I made any). Chi is real in a mindset, it's say we all live off of it and its our balance of luck and power. Chi is real in my opinion, and people can actually create blast, but not in the "DBZ" way, its more of a few inches flight for energy that isn't visible unless you concentrate on making it pure heat, which you would be able to see a small heat wave then. The reason why Tibetin monks can keep warm is they know how to slow down metabolism and other functions, which will increase body temperatures, and they can decrease body temperatures. On the discovery channel I saw a monk dive into a 150F degree pot/bath of boiling water and stay in there for about 5 minutes, then leave totally unburned or harmed. Well this is my outlook and thoughts.


<<>>Kusanagi<<>>

PS: as I'v posted it before, take a look at www.martialki.cjb.net, its got some intresting stuff.

You and SuperSaiyanGokuX have got the right end of the stick. Although it is also used in the Shaolin style of Gung Fu. As for DBZers believe its a lie. Akira Toriyama used Chi, Ki as its known in Japan in his show/manga. Ki can heal as well as be implemented in martial arts methods. DBZ takes Ki to the extreme and thats impossible. The Tibeten Monks do what is known as Ki warming to survive the harsh conditions.