Hi Chris,

I tried to speak to that in my comment above. As a generic statement, that sounds good, but for it to be valid and practical, we need to be a little clearer about what a "discussion" is. The simple act of injecting speech (or text) into a conversation is not the same thing as participating in a discussion. If a group of people are talking about the best way to prepare rutabagas, and someone comes along and opines that rutabagas suck and no one in their right mind cooks them, do we call that "vigorous discussion from people with varying opinions" and say it's a good thing?

It is important to realize that cooperative ki testing within the martial arts has sever limitiations and is all but utter nonsense when it comes to practical use of aiki outside of the "martial arts."
Most teachers and students I have met (well...all really) cannot use ki under high stress; they simply fall apart. I have a very strong belief that under severe pressure the Japanese Shihan (including those who teach ki and internals) would simply be taken apart by those who themselves develop ki in high stress/high pressure environments. And yes I mean the famous ones.