Western practitioners have a tendency to misunderstand and over complicate Lin Kong Jin more than any other Nei Jia skill, except perhaps Fa Jin.
interesting out look on "Fa Jin "echoed here by some For one, it is a Jin (勁; power - not 精; essence) skill, and not a Qi skill. Lin Kong Jin, not Lin Kong Qi (which is kind of a thing, but a completely different thing). The cultivation of Jin involves Qi, but Qi is only one part of developing Nei Jin.
When you have achieved the Liu He (Six Combinations), you have developed Jin (Qi =/= Jin; Yi + Xin + Qi + Li = Jin, everything correctly unified as one force is Jin).
When you cultivate a certain quality and quantity of Jin, you can learn to do certain skills with this Power. Ting Jin, Fa Jin, Hua Jin, Ti Jin, and many more. The Waysun Liao version of Tai Chi Classics lists many of these skills, after talking about Qi and some simplified meditative ways to cultivate Jin.
A good perspective of "jin" how many here would agree with it?At the end of the list in the Tai Chi Classics, it says this:
Distance Power (ling kung jing)
As the vibrations of internal power increase and become more polished, it is believed that one can gain the ability to transfer power without being in direct contact with the opponent; in other words, power can be transferred over distances. This technique, known as Distance Power, is thought to take decades of practice to achieve.
In other other words, there are more than two dozen ways you can emit, absorb, and otherwise "transfer" Power (Jin) through physical contact in a fight. Through Ting Jin (Listening Power), you can read your opponents intentions through sensitivity to their Power and how it moves. With Tzeh Jin (Borrowing Power), you can "take" your opponents force and bend it to your own use after he moves against you, and then you can use your opponents own force in order to do things like Fa Jin.
Then, Lin Kong Jin is, very simply, the ability to do any of that without actually touching. If you can't do those other skills, Lin Kong Jin is a pointless parlor trick because you have no real understanding of the far more important Nei Jia skills, and this is why so few people really understand it after becoming enchanted with its almost mythical standing.
echoes what I noted, its a part of much larger process Controlling people with Shen and Qi alone is perfectly doable and I have indeed done it myself, but that is a nonphysical skill (influencing mind and energy alone) and has nothing to do with the actual nature and application of traditional Lin Kong Jin, which is a physical skill (influencing the body directly).
Interesting, outlook. Something to think on