Thread: 6 Directions
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Old 10-15-2013, 01:12 PM   #86
JW
 
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Location: San Diego CA USA
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Re: 6 Directions

Although there is much more content in this thread than I could even try to address, there are two topics that I can address especially well:

Quote:
Jen Wilcher wrote: View Post
If I'm understanding this thread correctly, it seems to me that learning to open up and operate in all 6 directions at once is Aikido's equivalent of learning how to throat/overtone sing.
As someone who claims to be able to both overtone sing and express "ground strength" in all directions (to a small degree), I'd say the two are actually roughly opposites. Overtone singing is a process of analysis/reduction of complexity. You filter a complex tone to express pure tones. Whereas in internal strength, you work on a simultaneous combinination of pure expressions of ground to produce stability in all directions. One you strip down, one you build up. Anyway they do both share the idea of finding something pure and simple amidst a mess (your motor behavior being a mess before you start training).

Quote:
Bill Danosky wrote: View Post
Interestingly, science has disproven this. Brain studies show that action PRECEDES decision.

The results have been repeated innumerable times and are the basis of considerable study currently.
I'm going to agree with Cady - action can precede "conscious recognition" of decision-making, but the moment of decision making is really beside the point here. What your "consciousness" can perceive/infer (and when it can perceive/infer it) isn't the point. Intent can be separated from action as a simple trick of the motor system (that's what the coffee-cup demonstration is for). I think this has more to do with alpha and gamma motoneuron coactivation than consciousness - i.e. it is way downstream of consciousness.
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