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Old 02-15-2007, 12:36 PM   #7
Rod Yabut
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 62
United_States
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Re: Poll: Is understanding human psychology helpful for you in learning aikido?

Interesting poll Jun, I've been asking this to myself the last couple of weeks because of certain circumstances that has come about:

Why does there seem to be more of a correlation between Aikido and Psychology than in other martial arts?

My wife is getting her Master's degree in spiritual psychology and if you've ever taken a Psychology 101 (like I did) in college, you'd remember the obscene reading assignments that this discipline dives into, let alone a Master's.

I just saw the reading materials that they are working with for her second term, one book is authored by George Leonard, and the other by Jack Kornfield (participant in an upcoming seminar in the Bay Area). Upon further research, I came across Robert Frager, the founding President of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (a student of O'sensei).

And of course, two of the esteemed contributors here, Lynn Seiser and Ellis Amdur have extensive backgrounds in it.

The obvious answer is the philosophy behind Aikido maybe the draw, I'm just curious if there is anything else that draws individuals with psychology backgrounds into Aikido….or is it the other way around?
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