AikiWeb Aikido Forums - View Single Post - Should we teach pressure points in Aikido?

Erik · 04-08-2002, 01:09 PM

I was listening recently to a cancer researcher. He was talking about how there are 350 people at his location just working on cancer. Just on cancer and just where he worked. Imagine how many thousands of people are working on this worldwide? Imagine the computing power and other resources which have been thrown at cancer over the last 20 years (since it's become a major research issue in the US).

During the interview he gave a number of responses like:

It seems there may be a causal relation...
I don't work on that aspect so I'm not really sure...
There are many different types of cancer and they are not all the same...

This is a PHD who has dedicated his life to researching cancer giving these answers. They probably have a ton of research and a ton of computing power to work with.

Now, we could go to a ki (insert alternative of choice here) guy and we'd hear, "Meridian B-20 (if there's such a thing) is out of whack and you need to strengthen your spleen." Duh!

So, when scientists can't give quick and easy answers with massive amounts of research how come ki people can? Hell, Dillman supposedly (if I remember the story correctly) found some notes on pressure points and away he went. Notes in a dresser drawer containing stuff that would win some researcher a nobel prize in medicine if they could be proven to work based on the reasons he gives.

It doesn't mean that there may not be validity there in some way, it's just that it probably isn't exactly what we think or say it is. For instance, I find the classic explanation of shooting ki (or the firehose) out of the arm very useful for explaining and teaching the unbendable arm (which I find very useful for rolling). The difference between what I do and what some other's do is that I make sure people understand that it's really a function of how the body works on a mechanical level.

Have you ever seen a hypnotist work a room? He'll knock people out too. It's quite remarkable and it's not terribly disimilar from what Dillman is doing. Is there a tool in there if Dillman is doing the same thing? There probably is, but I think that's about as far as we could take it without a lot of research.

04-08-2002, 01:09 PM	#5
Erik Location: Bay Area Join Date: Jun 2000 Posts: 1,200 Offline	I was listening recently to a cancer researcher. He was talking about how there are 350 people at his location just working on cancer. Just on cancer and just where he worked. Imagine how many thousands of people are working on this worldwide? Imagine the computing power and other resources which have been thrown at cancer over the last 20 years (since it's become a major research issue in the US). During the interview he gave a number of responses like: It seems there may be a causal relation... I don't work on that aspect so I'm not really sure... There are many different types of cancer and they are not all the same... This is a PHD who has dedicated his life to researching cancer giving these answers. They probably have a ton of research and a ton of computing power to work with. Now, we could go to a ki (insert alternative of choice here) guy and we'd hear, "Meridian B-20 (if there's such a thing) is out of whack and you need to strengthen your spleen." Duh! So, when scientists can't give quick and easy answers with massive amounts of research how come ki people can? Hell, Dillman supposedly (if I remember the story correctly) found some notes on pressure points and away he went. Notes in a dresser drawer containing stuff that would win some researcher a nobel prize in medicine if they could be proven to work based on the reasons he gives. It doesn't mean that there may not be validity there in some way, it's just that it probably isn't exactly what we think or say it is. For instance, I find the classic explanation of shooting ki (or the firehose) out of the arm very useful for explaining and teaching the unbendable arm (which I find very useful for rolling). The difference between what I do and what some other's do is that I make sure people understand that it's really a function of how the body works on a mechanical level. Have you ever seen a hypnotist work a room? He'll knock people out too. It's quite remarkable and it's not terribly disimilar from what Dillman is doing. Is there a tool in there if Dillman is doing the same thing? There probably is, but I think that's about as far as we could take it without a lot of research. Last edited by Erik : 04-08-2002 at 01:37 PM.