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Old 02-24-2012, 08:50 AM   #30
gregstec
Dojo: Aiki Kurabu
Location: Elizabethtown, PA
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 1,110
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Re: Kiichi Hogen and the Secret of Aikido

Quote:
Christopher Li wrote: View Post
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).
Yes, I believe that is the one - he may have been talking after the fact, but the impression I got was that even those present during the time of the events, viewed the stories as exaggeration as well - the point is that I think Tohei also said he has never seen any of those feats repeated.

Quote:
Christopher Li wrote: View Post
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
I had a conversation one day about aiki and aptitude where I stated I thought a lot of the success someone could have with learning aiki depended upon their natural aptitude to understand and learn the particulars required. The person I was talking to thought that it was more a matter of attitude or perseverance and work that made a major difference. IMO, all are important, but if you have two people putting in the same level of effort in training, it will be the one with the better aptitude that will excel over the other. Now if you take someone with great aptitude AND extreme attitude coupled with extreme perseverance, you just might end up with an O Sensei or a Sagawa

Greg
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