Quote:
Greg Steckel wrote:
Well, here we all are finally having a nice logically exchange in this thread, and then SHAZAM!, the master pot stirrer himself jumps down from the clouds and throws in a bit of his own magic 
IMO, I think the stories of supernatural and/or paranormal powers are just a result of ego fueled self delusion - when accomplished martial artists were confronted with power they could not understand or duplicated, it just had to be from a supernatural source; after all, if it was not, they should be able to duplicate it. Also, there probably was a certain amount of deliberate exaggeration to build up and foster along the reputation of O Sensei from his dedicated disciples. I believe Tohei talk about those exaggerations in one of his interviews in Aikido Journal; I think it was the same interview where he said O Sensei only taught him how to truly relax. |
I seem to recall Tohei making comments about exaggerations - but about things that happened years before he appeared on the scene, so I didn't give it that much weight (I don't know if that's the interview that you're talking about).
I have an open mind about the powers - but I haven't seen any demonstrations of them yet myself.
I will say that, regardless of any manifestation or non-manifestation of paranormal effects, there are definitely (IMO) important linkages between the traditional internal training paradigm used by Ueshiba and his spiritual/religious training.
The nature of those, and the implications for understanding the structure of Ueshiba's training, may come up somewhere some day - you never know...
Best,
Chris