A pretty valid intro to a Daoist meditation called "Guarding the One" 守一(Shouyi) can be found here Try practicing it for at least 20 minutes a day for 100 days and see how you feel ! It'd be a good idea to keep a journal, not only to note any interesting phenomena that might occur (which I personally think you shouldn't be attached to, just take note and keep an open mind), but to take note of more palpable effects. Does your awareness of your body change? How's your mood? How's your energy levels? Any change in the content or clarity of your dreams? Has your concentration and focus changed? And so on...
In meditation I believe it is important to let go of as many expectations and conceptions as possible. Weird (but ultimately meaningless) things may arise in your mind/experience/body that is due to your expectations or preconceived notions or goals. You can make people in altered states of consciousness honestly believe all sorts of things (through hypnosis and so forth if they are receptive enough), and this includes putting yourself in altered states. These can be amazing tools for self-transformation and doing what may
seem impossible or superhuman normally, but it can also be a tool to induce delusions, false beliefs, and false memories. I have seen, for example, someone be convinced a bottle of ammonia smelled like nice, musky cologne while in a hypnotic trance. This is called dissociated consciousness, and you can block all manner of perceptions through this.
Warning: a relatively long rant follows concerning my current attitudes toward altered states of consciousness, some aspects of traditional Chinese magic, and some reflections on how magic is contextualized in relation to social status, time period, etc.Memory recall is also something I would not take too seriously through altered states or hypnosis. I feel it could be very useful, but ultimately it is not reliable. You can easily implant false memories into someone and they'll be convinced it is a real memory. Your own desires, expectations, and conceptions may also produce false memories and phenomena. That's just how it is. This implies that I do not hold faith in past life regression or obtaining "memories" from the future. This, however, does not necessarily mean I am against the practice. I am not concerned with the existence of non-empirical entities (angels, spirits, gods, etc.) or non-empirical phenomena. Whether these things are real or not is not a real concern of mine. I would
like them to be real, but what is more important to me is real results in everyday living and in self-cultivation. This attitude personally also helps me keep detached from various experiences and the skepticism to investigate these things further and not jumping to conclusions. Right now, it is not important to me whether or not Qi/Ki is real or not, and even the sensation of Qi/Ki movement is not something to be too concerned with. What is important is the effects Qi cultivation has on my health and my awareness. It is interesting, however, that the way people sense the movement and concentration of Qi is consistent with a finite set of sensations. So that says something interesting (what exactly? Not entirely sure yet).
Long story short, try to keep detached from any out of the ordinary sensations or experiences when practicing meditation and other activities that produces altered states of consciousness (this also applies to experiences outside the activities themselves). Do not ignore them though. Take note of them! But do not jump to conclusions about what they mean about the nature of reality or whatever and do not get obsessed. Don't worry about things like psychic powers, magical powers, immortality, or whatever. In some instances, such powers or magical secrets will be offered to you by what appear to be entities or spirits. This has been reported in both traditional and contemporary texts, so it's nothing new. However, these often tend to be temptations or distractions to pull you away from your path. For example, Tantric Buddhist meditators have reported being offered secret mantra or the secret of invisibility by "monks" while engaging in a particular intensive solitary meditation. They have to ignore this and see the meditation to the end and reap the real reward.
Things like Yoga, religious or magico-religious rituals, qigong, Taijiquan and other martial arts with prescribed forms, and so forth can produce altered states of consciousness where you can alter the psyche and belief structures.
As for Daoist talismans... traditionally, writing was perceived to have an inherent power. This was the case in China, and I believe other cultures have held onto this concept. In many modern societies literacy is somewhat taken for granted and sometimes we do not think too much about how much power words can have. In the past, for example, Chinese was a very elite form of writing. To some people it still holds a certain mystique. In Korea a number of the literate elite insulted and were afraid of the Hangul script that King Sejong worked to introduce into Korean society. They were afraid of losing their elite status and power if more people could learn how to read and write through this simpler script. Hangul is a very elegant writing system by the way (I don't necessarily mean it's appearance, but it's structure). So, you can imagine the power that magic talisman had in East Asia. Many talismans are written in Cloud Writing which is like a celestial script that can communicate with the Heavenly spirits and gods (really it's like abstractions of Chinese characters). Some talismans are just Chinese characters written in certain patterns, using special phrases, and possibly using specialized symbols like ticks, circles, loops, and so forth. Talismans that come out of the Chinese folk magic and Daoist magical traditions (which have seen much use in Korea and Japan) sometimes use the trappings of imperial commands to invoke authority, but on the level of a Celestial Hierarchy. Chinese magic uses a lot of language to suggest that Daoist sorcerers are players in a sort of Celestial Hierarchy and can maneuver through its bureaucracy and command Celestial Warriors and call on the aid of Heavenly Generals. Not all Chinese magic is like this, but a lot is. It honestly reminds me a lot of traditional Western Ceremonial magic with its use of specialized writing, language, invoking the authority of powers higher up in a cosmic hierarchy, hierarchical divisions of the spirit world, etc.
A lot can be said about how people tried to manipulate society, themselves, and their reality by looking at the structure of their magic and mystical practices. Some were designed for the elite, others for monastics, and others for the common people. East Asian martial arts have similar divisions and traditionally similar veils of secrecy as mystical and magical traditions. And of course, one group will look down on the other and all that nonsense, haha. Though, honestly, when looking at traditional handbooks it is important to know where it comes from. I have read a text on inner alchemy written for elite Chinese women, and even though it teaches the methods for their use, it basically also gives cosmological reasons why women are ultimately inferior to men, cannot attain the same spiritual levels, etc. Some of these texts were veiled methods of control so that these women did not do anything that was socially unacceptable. This text I refer to was written by a man for women... that's important to note. Now, how were inner alchemical texts written by monastic women for other monastic women? That's an important question to explore. Similarly, the validity of Daoists using pseudo-Sanskrit words in their incantations could be called into question. A parallel in Western Ceremonial magic is the use of pseudo-Hebrew and pseudo-Greek.
If looked at critically, the world of traditional magic is sometimes a mess of outmoded attitudes and politics. So, extracting the technologies and re-contextualizing the traditional forms of magic makes more sense to the average person. If you were a Daoist priest or something, then you might be more limited in how flexible you can be unless you are just a bad ass that doesn't care as long as the job gets done. What had meaning to medieval Chinese/Japanese/Korean/whatever sorcerers may no longer have much meaning to a contemporary aspiring adept. Our world is simply not the same. Now, an anime/manga/novels like Rental Magica or Ghost Hunt or movies like Onmyouji or Jeon Woo Chi (Korean fantasy movie about a Korean Daoist wizard) may be more impressive on the mind than some of the traditional sources that inspired them.
Hmm, wow, I ranted there, as is not unusual... I intended this to be short
Well, I've encountered Daoist priests on the interwebs that are adamant that one should train for many years as a Daoist priest before learning talismanic magic. The magical systems are quite complex and you have to memorize all sorts of stuff and have the Virtue/Power developed properly when using talismans and what-not. Most modern-minded magicians do not quite follow this attitude. But very often many things are simplified when things are presented to the public (if presented at all). These simplifications may leave out certain things and may be seen as therefore less effective (but still having some effect). This is both the case in the East and the West, but more so in the East. I'm not really sure where I stand on the issue at the moment. I have knowledge of Daoist talismanic magic, but not enough for me to talk more about it atm.
