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Old 12-11-2012, 03:01 PM   #1
torres.aikido
 
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Healing power of Aikido

Is Aikido training known to heal the sick? I've heard stories of several people who found Aikido to cure many sicknesses they had or were experiencing.

Thanks,

Tim
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Old 12-11-2012, 03:57 PM   #2
Janet Rosen
 
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Re: Healing power of Aikido

No.

Janet Rosen
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"peace will enter when hate is gone"--percy mayfield
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Old 12-11-2012, 04:15 PM   #3
Marc Abrams
Dojo: Aikido Arts of Shin Budo Kai/ Bedford Hills, New York
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Re: Healing power of Aikido

Tim:

Aikido is ONLY a martial art. Some people have "resolved" illnesses and diseases from a host of random activities, that for whatever the reasons, stimulated the body's immune systems to work more effectively in fighting whatever ails the person. That is a FAR CRY away from saying that those activities are healing activities. If one of those random activities happens to be Aikido, then that's nice...... Now back to the practice of a martial art called Aikido.

Marc Abrams
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Old 12-12-2012, 06:49 AM   #4
ryback
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Re: Healing power of Aikido

Quote:
Tim Torres wrote: View Post
Is Aikido training known to heal the sick? I've heard stories of several people who found Aikido to cure many sicknesses they had or were experiencing.

Thanks,

Tim
Well aikido is a martial art therefore healing it's not its initial purpose as it is in reiki,siatsu e.t.c,but it can be a good aftereffect if you are training seriously.Ukemi gives a stimulating effect on the inner organs(as Steven Seagal sensei often states) and the jumbi undo (or jumbi taiso) exercices are helping the body to return to a natural condition.
Also, choices that one can make based on his aikido influences such as a healthy nutrition have helped people overcome serious sickness,there is at least one known aikido teacher who overcame a deadly illness with the combination of practice and nutrition that were both parts of his aikido way of living.
Personally,i know even more stories but wouldn't like to comment further on a public forum...
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Old 12-12-2012, 07:57 AM   #5
Cliff Judge
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Re: Healing power of Aikido

There is a magic healing substance that the body produces naturally, but is stored in the knee joints and normally cannot be accessed. Through years of hard training in Aikido, this substance is extracted and dissolved into the blood stream and aids the body's resistance to the common cold and influenza. Sometimes you will not catch these diseases where you would have otherwise, and if you do catch them, you get over them much faster, sometimes a day faster than you would otherwise; in other cases, a cold that may have you taking the day off work will instead simply make you miserable at work. Unfortunately once your body uses up this substance it is gone forever, it is called cartilage.
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Old 12-12-2012, 09:41 AM   #6
Janet Rosen
 
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Re: Healing power of Aikido

Quote:
Cliff Judge wrote: View Post
There is a magic healing substance that the body produces naturally, but is stored in the knee joints and normally cannot be accessed. Through years of hard training in Aikido, this substance is extracted and dissolved into the blood stream and aids the body's resistance to the common cold and influenza. Sometimes you will not catch these diseases where you would have otherwise, and if you do catch them, you get over them much faster, sometimes a day faster than you would otherwise; in other cases, a cold that may have you taking the day off work will instead simply make you miserable at work. Unfortunately once your body uses up this substance it is gone forever, it is called cartilage.
ROTFLMAO! Dude, I miss my cartilage....

Janet Rosen
http://www.zanshinart.com
"peace will enter when hate is gone"--percy mayfield
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Old 12-12-2012, 11:17 AM   #7
Tom Verhoeven
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Re: Healing power of Aikido

Quote:
Tim Torres wrote: View Post
Is Aikido training known to heal the sick? I've heard stories of several people who found Aikido to cure many sicknesses they had or were experiencing.

Thanks,

Tim
Bonjour Tim,

Aikido has by its very nature definitely healing powers. Not many people seem to be too aware of this or interested in it and I know of just a few teachers that conciously incorporate the knowledge of healing into their lessons. But even if teachers do not explain it, most Aikido dojo practice some form of misogi and that in particular stimulates the healing capacity / energie.

I found it worthwhile to investigate and study this aspect of Aikido.

All the best,

Tom
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Old 12-12-2012, 11:39 AM   #8
Cady Goldfield
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Re: Healing power of Aikido

"Healing the sick" is a pretty vague concept. What kind of sick? Aikido obviously couldn't cure Ueshiba's cancer. It's not realistic to expect any discipline to be a panacea.

However, it's kinda common sense to recognize that a physical-mental discipline that does not cause frequent injury and irreversible physical damage, and which conditions and strengthens the body, improves circulation and oxygenation, reduces anxiety and emotional stress, increases the number of functional brain cells, etc., is going to be good for overall health and wellbeing. An enhanced immune system through low-impact exercise would certainly be a deterrent for many illnesses.

You know what they say about an ounce of prevention being worth more than a pound of cure...

But, I do believe it's important to be aware of the limits here when it comes to being a cure or healing craft that encompasses all human ills. That's expecting way too much of any discipline, including Western- and Eastern Medicine, and everthing in between.
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Old 12-12-2012, 11:40 AM   #9
phitruong
Dojo: Charlotte Aikikai Agatsu Dojo
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Re: Healing power of Aikido

don't know about healing, but i seemed to pick-up some very nasty form of aikinitis. it's virulent. anti-biotics don't work. it makes you want to do some stupid jin stuffs and you feel silly afterward. the only known cure so far is IHTBF. we might have to send folks who contracted aikinitis to some sort of penal colony like hawaii or australia; some place nice and near the beach, where we can roam around in our natural setting and away from normal aikido population or just population in general.

"budo is putting on cold, wet, sweat stained gi with a smile and a snarl" - your truly
http://charlotteaikikai.org
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Old 12-12-2012, 12:38 PM   #10
Krystal Locke
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Re: Healing power of Aikido

Quote:
Tom Verhoeven wrote: View Post
Bonjour Tim,

Aikido has by its very nature definitely healing powers. Not many people seem to be too aware of this or interested in it and I know of just a few teachers that conciously incorporate the knowledge of healing into their lessons. But even if teachers do not explain it, most Aikido dojo practice some form of misogi and that in particular stimulates the healing capacity / energie.

I found it worthwhile to investigate and study this aspect of Aikido.

All the best,

Tom
Care to share the results of your research? Which diseases does aikido cure? Through what mechanism unique to aikido is this healing achieved?
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Old 12-12-2012, 01:44 PM   #11
Mary Eastland
 
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Re: Healing power of Aikido

This is just my humble experience.

I always leave class feeling better then when I started. I can roll and fall and walk and move freely. Many women my age are far less healthy than I am. I attribute this to a healthy lifestyle of which Aikido is a core part.

Mary Eastland

Dare to Tenkan
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Old 12-13-2012, 10:59 AM   #12
lbb
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Re: Healing power of Aikido

You know, healing's a funny thing. In the West, where we've had access to some pretty amazing medical advances for a while now, we generally think of "healing" as fixing the problem. "Healing" an illness means curing it so it goes away and doesn't come back; "healing" an injury means making it all better, as if it had never happened. It's no poor reflection on aikido that it can't "heal" any ailment in that sense: not the common cold, not a broken leg, not cancer.

So that's what you've got if, for you, "heal" is a transitive verb and "healing" is a simple process with a beginning and an end and that's it. Under that definition, so many things can never "heal"; "healing" is never complete. But I don't think it's humpty-dumptying to use the word in a different way. Once I was asked what I wished for someone very dear to me who was an alcoholic. What came out of my mouth, unexpectedly, was: "I hope that she receives whatever healing she's ready to accept." Oh, how wisdom comes to us sometimes when we least expect it! No doubt this person had wished deeply for her addiction to be "healed", for it to lift and depart and leave her in peace. But that would never ever happen. The various ways that she could be "healed" were all less comprehensive, and none of them were permanent or free of trouble or cost. But they were ways of healing, of becoming better, stronger, healthier, less troubled, more sane. Just, not everything. My hope for my dear one was that she could some day become able to receive what healing there was, in whatever form it came.

No, aikido doesn't heal. It can be part of healing, though. It's part of life. An aikido dojo is a place where you struggle with yourself and your limitations. The limitation of an injury, a disability, an incurable disease, it's just another limitation. Aikido training is a process through which you can understand and accept your condition. When you train, you must make your peace with this every single day. And day by day, you can learn that we do aikido within the bodies we have, here, now, in this moment which is neither yesterday nor tomorrow. You understand that today does not determine tomorrow. You understand that sheer force of will doesn't change things in the physical world; then you understand that the realities of the physical world don't preclude peace, not on the worst day.

You show up. You get on the mat. You do your best, and some days you may struggle not to cry, but over time you can learn to discard some of the pain that you inflict on yourself -- to cut yourself a break. You can be amazed at the patience and grace and humanity of your practice partners, who feel your struggle. You learn the fatuousness of marketing phrases like "pain is weakness leaving the body" and the futility of doing anything despite the pain. You get beyond "despite" and on to "with". You learn to train (and so to live) with your limp, your asthma, your disability, your illess -- with your self.

You learn to receive what healing is there for you, and you become healed.
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Old 12-13-2012, 02:55 PM   #13
Rob Watson
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Re: Healing power of Aikido

A great many people suffer afflictions that exist only in their heads and yet have definite physical manifestations. When their attention is turned elsewhere sufficiently there is no more time to dwell on the same thoughts that originally presented and they think they have been cured.

Pretty much anything that can capture, hold and alter perspective sufficiently can have similar "healing" powers. Sometimes that can also happen to be aikido. Let's hope we do not simply substitute one obsessive behavior for another even if it is not as detrimental - resolving obsession is healing.

"In my opinion, the time of spreading aikido to the world is finished; now we have to focus on quality." Yamada Yoshimitsu

Ultracrepidarianism ... don't.
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Old 12-13-2012, 06:18 PM   #14
DH
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Re: Healing power of Aikido

Quote:
Robert M Watson Jr wrote: View Post
A great many people suffer afflictions that exist only in their heads and yet have definite physical manifestations. When their attention is turned elsewhere sufficiently there is no more time to dwell on the same thoughts that originally presented and they think they have been cured.

Pretty much anything that can capture, hold and alter perspective sufficiently can have similar "healing" powers. Sometimes that can also happen to be aikido. Let's hope we do not simply substitute one obsessive behavior for another even if it is not as detrimental - resolving obsession is healing.
Amen
I would only add that I have met any number of old dogs in Aikido with all kinds of physical issues they received from years of ukemi and doing Aikido with their shoulders. I would contrast that with people who obsessed over Yoga. They...are fine and their bodies are strong and pliant.
So.....is yoga obsession equal to alcoholism? Not really. Is MMA more damaging to your body-long term- then Iai? Probably. Where does any art fit on a comparison?
Dan
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Old 12-13-2012, 07:08 PM   #15
Gary David
 
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Re: Healing power of Aikido

Quote:
Dan Harden wrote: View Post
Amen
I would only add that I have met any number of old dogs in Aikido with all kinds of physical issues they received from years of ukemi and doing Aikido with their shoulders. .....................
This old dog has shoulders that make noise on cold days and let me know when it will rain, all from more than one separation to both (folks just couldn't load me up properly for a throw) and knees that work pretty well as long as I don't try sitting on them..... Now that you have me thinking about shoulders under arms under hands I am starting to think I feel more hurt.......thanks a lot........

Gary
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Old 12-13-2012, 07:59 PM   #16
Cady Goldfield
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Re: Healing power of Aikido

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/ma...anted=all&_r=0

Just sayin'.
Too much of anything is potentially harmful. Not to mention improper training...

Last edited by Cady Goldfield : 12-13-2012 at 08:04 PM.
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Old 12-15-2012, 06:28 PM   #17
Mert Gambito
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Re: Healing power of Aikido

Shoot, all I know is, our IP/IS study group has three aikidoka in it who are over 70, and each is young and supple in mind, still quite physically capable and I swear I think they'll outlive some of us younger folks.

Mert
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Old 12-15-2012, 09:40 PM   #18
ramenboy
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Re: Healing power of Aikido

Aikido to heal sickness? Not so sure. But kochi tohei wrote a book about his kiatsu, w exercises and massage that helped the sick. Mybe that's the direction you're going?

practice hard
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Old 12-17-2012, 08:39 AM   #19
amoeba
Dojo: Aikido Netzwerk
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Re: Healing power of Aikido

Working out regularly (while taking care not to damage your body) is of course great to prevent sickness, the improvement in body posture, movements, muscular development might also improve some problems like back pain. But supernatural healing powers? No way and I'm really glad my teachers aren't into that kind of superstition...
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Old 12-20-2012, 07:25 AM   #20
Diana Frese
Dojo: Aikikai of S.W. Conn. (formerly)
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Re: Healing power of Aikido

Was just crawling under the desk with dustpan and brush because driveway gravel pulverized by long years tends to be tracked inside... and lots of it. Put the desk chair back and resumed reading.

Noticed some very good posts, many by people whose posts I often read and respect, but this one I would definitely post in a prominent place in a dojo, if I get another one or suggest to any I might visit. It's Mary Malmros statement that begins with "A dojo is a place where....."

About old dogs, I remember visiting Ray Farinato's dojo several years ago (recently we have "transportation problems") John Hrabushi one of the Connecticut people who started many years ago, had been in a severe accident, someone had motioned him to pass and then he had encountered a truck with his motorcycle since he believed the one who signaled. Not sure of the details but John suffered severe injury to his leg. But he was training that day and I noticed that he, like myself had gray hair. He said something like, at least we're still here, giving me, too, the status of an old timer.

So the next week or so I was talking with a friend (who does not practice) and in talking about the Aikido event I watched, I mentioned that I had been pleased to be recognized as one of the Big Dogs by John. And I added, to my friend, the Big OLD Dogs.

Haven't seen John in years but I will think of him when I get back on the mat or Chuck and I start training again in the yard with some friends. And I will take Mary's quotation with me.

Thanks Mary and thanks all of you for sharing all your perceptions.
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