Alec Corper

Mary, I don't know if what you wrote was addressed to me as well. What I posted was most certainly not an infomercial. I do not train with Dan or Chris. With respect, I have trained martial arts for almost 40 years and aikido for 24. I have trained with some of O Sensei's direct deshi and trained in Japan many times. I have also trained with many of the top Shihan of our generation. Aikido is an internal art but has lost the core of it's teaching. Before you or someone else says, "well maybe your aikido has but not mine", or something equally trite, I am not invested in proving myself right or anyone else wrong. My understanding of "internal" is very similar to hat Tom Biso wrote. Show me an aikido teacher who can both explain it and do it. I believe Ikeda Sensei was maybe getting close but I have not felt him for many years. Strange that he is now independent, no?
My last aikido teacher, Kato Shihan, was a marvelous aikido man, the closest thing to O Sensei that I have seen and felt. When I met his Sempai he echoed O Sensei's attributed words, " that's not my aikido", in relation to modern practice.
Anyway I mean no one any disrespect but I simply do not agree that we must have Alice in Wonderland definitions where a word means what I think it means. That makes a mockery of any degree of expertise or higher level of understanding. It also leads to a waste of time discussing anything since we can all remain exactly where we are and feel good about it.