[crispinb]

So if it's not magic, what is the 'energy' whereof you speak?

[Edit: that question's a tad rhetorical. Qi is the epitome of a pre/anti-scientific 'magical' concept]

[bluntfang]

a metaphor for something we don't understand.

[crispinb]

Phlogiston, God, chakras, qi etc aren't metaphors - they're (quite literal) concepts from discarded prescientific ontologies. As far as we know (which isn't everything, but it's all we've got for now) they have no referents.