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Date Posted: 16:37:33 08/26/01 Sun
Author: Goktimus Prime
Subject: A quest for surreality?
In reply to: seven of nine 's message, "Re: I agree with the Seven O'Nine" on 08:13:33 08/25/01 Sat

I think most people would like to believe in the spectacular -- that it would be possible for people to execute fantastic moves... that there is some style out there that could end all wars... that there is a single solution to world peace etc etc.

And in a way, it's not a bad thing to have such dreams, and to believe that somewhere out there, such a solution may exist. However, we shouldn't let this dream cloud our perception of reality.

There are some people who simply insist upon the mysticism of martial arts. For them, the martial arts would lose a lot of its appeal if it became unmystical to them.

A classic example of this is the perception of qi (ki).
Ancient Chinese texts describe qi as being a life energy which surrounds living things and binds the world together (which is really what George Lucas had in mind when he devised the Force for the Jedi Knights). However, upon closer analysis, qi isn't really anything terribly mystical.

The qi energy which flows around our bodies, is really just cellular energy; a culmination of what biology defines as the 'systems' (respiratory, circulatory et al.).
External qi is essentially what physics defines as kinetic energy, leverage, torque, direction, force, scalar, vector etc.

When texts talk about "returning" energy (e.g. Aikido), what the practitioner is really doing is redirecting force (which in turn generates kinetic energy, since all motion creates kinetic energy). This is achieved through the manipulation of leverage.

"Building" qi in movements such as punching and spiralling is created simply through the rotational twists of the body. The more rotations the body creates, the more torque it generates.

I admit that my knowledge on metabolism and biomechanics is very limited, but this basic description ought to give you an idea of how basic bio-physical elements were defined in a more "mystical" aspect by the ancient Chinese.

And that's not to say that the old texts were wrong. When the Chinese said that qi is a type of force flowing in and outside of the body, they were right! But there's simply nothing mystical about this force. It was simply described in a very poetic manner in Chinese texts for two main reasons:

1. It was written a very long time ago. Long before modern science was developed. For the time it was written, it was actually a pretty good description of metabolics and biomechanics.

2. The Chinese *always* write everything in a poetic light. Look at Chinese food. They take some vegetables and meat, roll it up in a rice pastry, and call it a "Spring" roll. It has real relation to the season of Spring, of course. And the "moon" cake has no lunar elements in it (and fortunately so, cos if it did, it'd probably be poisonous! Who would eat a cake made of lunar graphite?!). Look at any Chinese menu, and you will see many dishes with elaborate names such as "Little Buddha Leaps Over The Wall", and all it'd be is some marinated meat dish.
The Chinese like to be poetic, and although there's nothing wrong with this, it means that people should not take every word in Chinese texts literally.

But with all that said and done, many people will still want to believe in something mystical -- something they can't fully explain. For them, the novelty of martial arts is lost if they can fully explain it.

I reckon, if you want to believe that there is some magical art out there, by all means do so.

And if you do find that art, please report it to the Randi organisation (www.randi.org), which is a skeptics organisation that will award you one million US dollars if you can academically prove any paranormal phenomenon. (such as a truly mystical martial art)

Until then, we'll just have to work within the realms of reality that is defined by science.

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