Aikido Techiques: Kiatsu – Ki Extention and the Body’s Power to Heal   Part 2

Aikido Techniques: Misogi Breathing

As I mentioned in Part 1, my Aikido techniques journey began as it does with most students of the martial arts – to learn how to defend myself.  As discussed in the previous article, Joseph Campbell authored the book Hero of A Thousand Faces which describes the common threads of the hero’s journey repeated throughout recorded history.  For many of us there will be an important person, a mentor, and we will be able to see them when we are actually emotionally ready for the message.  Such was the case with Luke Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi, and such was the case with B.J. Carslile and me.

My First Exposure to Kiatsu: Learning an Aikido Technique by Accident

It started quite literally with an accident.  I was at an Aikido training camp on the mat training with about fifty other students.  As I was getting up from a fall, another individual was thrown onto the back of my heel, hyperflexing my large toe and causing it to swell like a baseball.   I was in considerable pain, sitting on a bench wondering how an accident like this could be part of my training in Aikido techniques, when one of the students told me that B.J. Carslile Sensei was coming.  As I had not yet met him, I wondered to myself what that meant.

Unbendable Arm: The following video is of Tohei Sensei demonstrating unbendable arm, one of the ways to develop ki extension.

BJ Carslile Sensei: Aikido Techiques Taught by a Kahuna

Carslile Sensei was a big, imposing man with olive skin which I later learned was from his Hawaiian background.  He slowly waved the palm of his hand over my throbbing toe and looked up at me and nodded.  He told me he knew what the problem was and that he would take care of it but that it would involve some pain.  To put it in his words “I’m gonna get you where you live”.  He had me lie on my stomach, ran his hands over my leg and pressed down on several areas with his thumb.  He then sat me down and did the same thing on my upper and lower leg.  He gently “waved” my foot to show me how relaxed I now had become.

Kiatsu: It Really Got Me Where “I Live”

Knowing that it would hurt but not knowing what he would do, I tried to relax and watch as he pulled my toe forward as he pressed the joint with his thumb.  Ouch.  Then something amazing happened.  I saw the swelling in my toe decrease to the point that it was less than a quarter of what was when he got there.  It was like he applied an bag with invisible ice.  I asked him what it was he was doing.  He simply said “kiatsu”.  Read Part 3 to get a sense of what I learned about and Aikido technique designed to promote the body’s power to heal.

Click here to read more about ki energy as the source of power for Aikido technfiques.