Qi synonyms

Life energy beliefs around the world

i is the Chinese term for life energy, or life spirit, a vital force that flows through all living things. Similar beliefs exist all over the world, in many cultures. Here is an encyclopedia of such beliefs - and of terms mistakenly believed to be such.
     You find an edited and expanded version of it in my book Life Energy Encyclopedia.

Kalit see kasinge/kalit.

Kasinge/kalit are words for the life force among the people in Palau (probably in their native religion modekngei), according to C. G. Jung in his book On the nature of the Psyche.

Kerei are shamans among the Mentawai people in Indonesia, who cure with plants and complicated songs, by which they get in touch with the ancestral spirits (a practice that is actually forbidden in Indonesia since 1956). The word is sometimes mentioned as a synonym to qi, which seems to be a misunderstanding. Nonetheless, the kerei regard nature as being animated by ketsat or simagere, which seem to be more similar to qi. Mentawai have a tradition to decorate themselves to keep their souls from being tempted to leave them.

Ketsat see kerei.

ki is the transcription of qi (see this word) from the Japanese language. Japan uses the Chinese pictogram for the word, and refers to the same phenomenon. It is likely that Japan received this concept from China, as is the case with many other elements of Chinese culture and philosophy.

ki/ti from the Polynesian language is sometimes mentioned as a synonym to qi, but it is a plant that is mainly used to produce liquor. The closest to qi in Polynesian tradition is mana or ha (see these words).

kia see num.

Kiko is a Japanese form of qigong (see this word).

Kirlian photography see aura.

Kozyrev-Dirac emanation is an expression used by Ivan M. Shakhparonov for an emanation he claims to have discovered in 1996, consisting of magnetic monopoles. This emanation is alone in cooling instead of heating material it is in contact with, and it can be made to emerge in space through a Möbius band technique. According to Shakhparonov, the emanation can magnetize organic substances, decrease radioactivity, and influence tumor diseases. A kind of time-reversal (time in the opposite direction) is used theoretically in this technique. The name is derived from two precursors to the idea, the Russian physicist Nicolaj A. Kozyrev (1908-1983) and the English physicist Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (1902-1984). See also time energy.

Kra/okra is the word used by the Akan people in Africa for a soul or life force that each human is given at birth, along with their personality, which is called sunsum. Ntoro, which is sometimes mentioned as a synonym to qi, is the word for what can be described as abilities inherited from the fathers, and mogya the same from the mothers. Tumi is the energy given by the creator deity Nyame to sunsum, so that the personality gains power.

kundalini is the Indian word for the process of awakening all the body chakras (see this word), from the bottom one in the pelvic region to the crown chakra at the top of the head. Kundalini means coiled, like a snake, which is the initial state, before any chakra has been awakened – a dormant power around the bottom chakra. The life force is called prana (see this word) in the Indian tradition.

Kurunba is the word used by the Aborigine of Australia for a life force or spirit that fills certain places. It can be brought out by rituals at these locations. The word djang also refers to those places. See also miwi and churinga.

Stefan Stenudd