Seeing as how this thread has swum back up to the surface, and because I missed it the first time around:
More than 20 years ago, I had been learning tai chi for a year or two. And there was a period when I was going through major inner conflicts, all kinds of stuff going on. Very torn about ending a relationship, very torn about attitudes to myself, my history etc. Crazy emotions vs. rational analysis, and other conflicts. I had started a course of psychotherapy and had also seen a kind of energy/aura healer a couple of times. So there I was standing in a quiet corner of a park, doing some tai chi/qigong exercises and after a while I started doing cloud hands. And after a few moments I had a very strong and somehow clear feeling of something happening in myself, sort of a vision and sort of a tactile sensation: I felt ('saw') the two halves of my brain coming together, certain colours appearing and changing, connecting more, and a new quality in me arising from this improved union. Something in me felt quite different, better. From that moment on I had a stronger degree of clarity and mental/emotional integration that helped me to move forward. Didn't solve all my issues instantaneously, of course (dammit
) but something was definitely better.
I feel pretty sure that it was the symmetrical, rotating, homolateral and contralateral aspects of the cloud hands movement, all in one package, that triggered this change. Maybe it was waiting to happen anyway, I don't know, but I don't think it was a coincidence that it happened at that moment.
I also wonder whether there is any relationship to the trauma-therapy effects of the Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) method, which often involves patients moving their eyes from left to right, right to left and (it is claimed) creates a better connection between the brain hemispheres. At any rate, when I had this cloud hands experience I knew nothing about EMDR or anything similar.