I'm practising a set of Qigong exercises that use the hands and fingers to trace main acupuncture lines all over the body to move energy. This has proven to be quite effective for me.

Tracing is done that either the fingers form the sword hand and the index and middle fingers point at the meridian to trace, or the flat hand traces the meridian. The hand does not touch the meridian, and does not move to close. In fact, in terms of energy it is recommended to keep about a fist's distance, a bit more is possible, too. This avoids touching the body at all times and also moves the energy better. Maybe that is because of some field effect - like induction - and to avoid to "short circuit" (for want of a better term) the hands with the meridian traced. The hands don't exactly put the energy in the meridian. The hands move the energy inside the meridian, exerting a pull on it.

In this set of exercises this is a very valuable trait, because the goal of the exercise is to move energy in out the meridians, flushing them, grounding their energies, moving energies through the body in several patterns. Each exercise combines two sets of meridians, to flush the energy out the arms or legs or both contained in that meridian. I was amazed to feel how distinctly I could feel the energy in certain positions, how suddenly I felt smooth, airy, cool, fresh energy earth itself or rushing back and forth. I did not really expect it to be so tangible right from the start.

It also quickly cleared my aura, which I feel now again much more distinctly. When the dissolving practice clears the "chunks" and the really blocked bits, then this flushes all minor stuff. I felt like moving in my own shell of fresh wind. I triggered today a downward flow all over my body which gave me refreshing chills, just like that, at will.

I remember taking rather crappy Qigong lessons at a local club. But there was this one exercise where we traced the lines on the arm with the hand of the other arm, up and down, upside and downside, and I distinctly remember that I looked up after a minute and saw all the other wrapped in a two-layered halo of green and yellow. It was amazing.

I think moving the hands through your energy field can be another good tool for exploring the etheric body. It increases awareness of the etheric body, eases tuning into it. Actually keeping a bit more distance with the hand improving the practice might be counter-intuitive, but in my experience it seems to work.

Oliver