Aikido Techiques: Kiatsu – Ki Extention and the Body’s Power to Heal Part 4

Aikido Techniques Author: Dan Kudo Sensei

Sensei Carslile teaches that kiatsu is not the ability for someone to “heal” another, but that it is through ki extension that flow can be restored allowing the body to heal itself. So how can we develop this ki extension for the benefit of others?

Aikido Techniques: Ki Extension and the Four Basic Principles

Relax Completely – It begins with developing ki extension in yourself and the Aikido technique we use to start the process is Misogi Breathing which promotes ki extension through relaxation. The training continues once we are fully relaxed. If we are truly relaxed, then ki will naturally be flowing throughout our bodies in an unrestricted manner.

Aikido Techniques: Kiatsu training - visualize heating an object until it glows like the sun.

The Glowing Ball – Sensei had us sit in a comfortable positions (seiza or zazen) and hold our hands in front of our one-point and a fist-width apart. With our breathing relaxed, we are asked to visualize an object, like a metal ball, in the space between our palms and that we visualize that we can extend energy into this ball to make it heat up. First the ball glows red, then yellow then white with heat. If we are successful, one can interpose their hand between our palms and feel the heat, which is more than simply the heat from the palms radiating inward. This is the tangible step toward effective kiatsu.

Aikido Techniques: Ki Extension – Light and Sound

Flashlights and Laser Beams – Carslile Sensei then asked us to imagine how we can use our minds to “control” the focus and intensity of the “beam” of ki energy we are extending. He indicated that different people use different ways to visualize this energy. Sensei described three basic forms and intensities of ki energy. There is a low intensity ki form which tends to spread out from the palm applied to the skin much like oil spreads out when dispersed in water. He describes the moderate intensity beam as like a flashlight that may not be powerful enough to illuminate a room but may provide enough light to allow us to see vague shadows cast by objects in a dark room upon a wall. Finally, there is the high intensity laser-like beam of ki energy that is directed in to a very small area, much like the laser light that Goldfinger used on James Bond.

Sound or Light – Finally, in order to create and control this energy, we must somehow be able to visualize it. Carslile Sensei uses sound such that the low, spreading energy is like a deep oscillator sound, the laser beam is like a high pitched sound and the intermediate energy beam is something in-between. The girl that applied kiatsu to me chooses to visualize it as colors with the low spreading energy seen as purple, the intermediate and orange and high intensity as red. Whatever tool you use, visualization is the next step. Part 5 describes how Sensei discussed the application of ki extension in the Aikido technique of  kiatsu.

Click here to read about the practice of Aikido techniques in daily life.