I have recently been reading a book which I have found very exciting – “Louder than Words – the new science of how the mind makes meaning” by Benjamin K. Bergen. It is an excellent read, putting the old ideas of visualisation which we use extensively in Tai Chi ( also other arts such as Yiquan ) into a modern neuro-scientific context.
In short demonstrating how visualisation works.
Those of us who study Tai Chi may have been struck – as I have been – by the amount of metaphore and dynamic visualisation within the literature and the teaching. Also by the extent to which the Tai Chi classics for example engourage us to ” think deeply about how and why Tai Chi works”.
I am delighted that this new scientific approach seems to validate this practice and give a few clues as to how we can improve it further.
