Has Dan been Honest? You Decide.

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[Andrew Prochnow]

Alright enough is enough. Some of you know me personally, some of you know of me, and some don't know me at all.
My name is Andrew Prochnow. I have trained with Dan Harden since the early nineties. I am his longest training student and a personal friend. Now I'm certainly open for correction but I believe that within this forum not one of you knows Dan better than I. With that said I know Dan to be an extremely nice but brutally honest person. I have never know him to hold an opinion that wasn't based on fact or supporting evidence which would logically lead to an informed opinion. When Dan first came to this forum he started to share an opinion of his that Aikido lacked internal power as he knew it. This opinion was based on his observations of the contrast of what he could do and what he saw from others. For years he was slandered, ridiculed and challenged for this opinion. People of whom Dan thought had good character and an honest urning to test his statements and where open to learn where invited to come feel Dan. All of the invitees where invited to feel what Dan was doing (which he felt was internal power) and for them to demonstraight their internal power. He also allowed those who wanted to feel and challenge to do it by any means of their choosing be it exercises, push tests, fighting ect. Since then their are many now on this forum who now train the method in which Dan demonstraights. Now none of these people are Dans people. They all have their own respective arts as to which they are affiliated. They just all happen to now be friends with Dan and are training his method to respectively incorporate it into the systems of which they are affiliated in Aikido. Dan has never said his way was the only way or even the best way. He constantly points to others and says for you to go out and train with others and make your own assessment. Some have changed their original opinion they had about Dan and all of the statements he made. Their opinion changed because I believe they found Dan to be a genuine, honest individual who made claims he thought accurate (and turned out to be accurate). Now Dan makes observations and statements that some don't agree with today. That's fine not everyone is going to agree, but the slander has got to stop. In my experience Dan has been honest and true. Based on observations of the above and the past few years it could at least logically be looked at that Dan had been honest then... I ask the question why not now? That being said their are others on the forum who have also been pursuing internal skills over the past many years. How have they acted over the years? In your experience with them do you believe them to be genuine and honest? How is it training with them? Can you test them however you want to? Or are your meetings only based on what they want to do and show? Ill leave it with this. Based on what you have seen and know to be true you decide who is being more intellectually honest in what they say and do.

Best,
Andrew Prochnow

[Janet Rosen]

Oh jeez. Can everybody on all/both sides of this please just mellow out? Ad hominem praise is no better than ad hominen attacks; I know its "open forum" and not "about aiido", I know I can choose to ignore these threads, and yes I will just as soon as I've posted this.

[Kevin Leavitt]

Love to answer that for you, but I cannot as I have not worked with Dan nor met him.

Other than that, all the other folks I have met in these circles have been honest and forthright.

[akiy]

I agree with Janet. Let's steer clear of these kinds of personal discussions in the future, shall we?

Thread closed.

-- Jun