Power Of Hypnosis in The Martial Arts.

Power Of Hypnosis in The Martial Arts.

The clinical definition of the word Hypnosis is “the uncritical acceptance of and idea of thought”. In short getting someone to do what you want them to do or believing you are going to do something.

Hypnosis started in the early days of the samurai when one samurai would stand for minutes facing another waiting for what is called kyo or mental opening. This could be achieved by several methods, one would be by simply twisting his sword slightly to reflect the suns rays so as to hit the person in the eyes and thus distracting him from the fight (creating the opening) similar to what Miyamoto Musashi did when he fought one of the Yoshioka clan in the early 1600’s or when one samurai would breathe in just a little to much out of mental exhaustion and the assault would begin instantly usually lasting only seconds at most. As the loser would have lost his mental focus or possibly he believed the other warrior was going to attack with throat thrust skii and he actually attacked with kote or wrist cut.

Kyo can also be described as when a person falls asleep mentally but not physically this is also the right time to attack. In today’s world this can be seen when fighting an opponent and you watch their eyes and you see a clouding over taking place. This is when you attack with all your vim and vigor. This state of mind can also be brought upon by simply repeating a technique over and over again. Then just as the person prepares to block and counter you attack using a completely different technique. As an example you might twist your hip once twice, and even three times insinuating a reverse punch is coming and then a left kizama zuki or lunge punch is thrown. These are all forms of indirect hypnosis.

But martial arts and hypnosis has gone beyond just the physical benefits and is sometimes used in our martial arts world inappropriately by unscrupulous instructors taking advantage of their students financially and even some taking advantage sexually of younger students similar to what is happening in our regular education systems recently, either knowingly or not even realizing the power of being an instructor has over your students.

The martial arts mentally are in some cases more dangerous then physically as once you have indoctrinated your students in martial arts training you can manipulate them to do many things immorally.

This indirect form of hypnosis of course can also be the benefit of martial arts in that you can direct them to become better then they ever thought they could be again physically or mentally and even spiritually. Two of the most famous martial artists in the last 100 years that were master hypnotists were Richard Kim who passed away in 2001 and his teacher Yoshida Kotaro who was the student of one of the last samurai Sokaku Tokeda. Takeda was the teacher of several famous masters like Aikido founder Moreihi Ueshiba as well as Hapkido founder Choi Yung Sol.

We go back now to World English Dictionary for the definition of the word, hypnosis, “a sleeplike condition that can be artificially induced in people, in which they can respond to questions and are very susceptible to suggestions from the hypnotist.

The part that they have missed is that hypnosis is not just mental it is also very physical and when a skilled master who knows the power of hypnosis, induces his students they can become his victims or they can reach higher levels of success in their lives then they ever dreamed of.

Perhaps this is the reason that many medical boards around the world do not allow the teaching of hypnosis to just anyone. As an example the Ontario Canada Society of Clinical Hypnotists does not teach just anyone. They are very firm on who they do and do not teach. They teach only medical doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and dentists.

This is fast becoming a lost art in the martial arts with the new wave of instant and quick fix martial arts schools more concerned with the financial bottom line at the end of the year then their student’s development. However there are still a few of the old guard or those who have learnt from the old masters who know this art within the art.

Trying to stay focused on the positive aspects of hypnosis in the martial arts we can also learn to use one of the two different types of hypnosis. The two types of induction being direct and indirect. Many fighters use indirect methods during fighting more commonly referred to as faking a technique. They may lift the front foot signaling to the opponent that they are going to use a lead leg roundhouse as a counter to an attack but they instead have a totally different ‘’motif operendi’ and that is a straight reverse punch. They may reach for the knee with the lead hand and then throw the lead hand back fist as they move in on their opponent. More positive examples of positive use of hypnosis is when an instructor convinces a young student that they can do the technique if they just try as they believe in the child. Something the youngster maybe has never heard or rarely at best. This is positive reinforcement but yet another aspect of hypnosis in the martial arts.

There are many ways of recognizing instructors who use their position of power in a negative way. The instructor may ask for large donations of support or the selling of shares in something that does not even exist and out of faith and belief in the instructor who will tell them a series of absolute truths and then slip in the negative hint of what he wants the student to do and then out of wanting to be in the instructors good favor he volunteers only to find it a scam of sorts.

Some instructors will hide the hypnotic trance in the veil of calling it meditation and some going as far as to chanting in a foreign language and using candles turning out the lights to create an atmosphere of mental relaxation opening up the students mind to acceptance of his ideas or thoughts which are artistically and subliminally entwined into the words of the induction.

Many who have been swindled by these instructors are afraid of coming forward and admitting they were scammed but one student in Canada who prefers to remain anonymous was indoctrinated by his instructor and lost over $15,000. The case ended in court with the judge deciding in favor of the student calling the two instructors a bunch of low-level charlatans that should be ashamed of them selves and the taking advantage of some who had trusted them. This same instructor also lost another court case in which he took $250,000 from a student who never seen his money again.

How come they are not behind bars well they are in bankruptcy now for over fifteen years and the police are watching them but the students who believed in the so called Sensei’s and didn’t even have contract. It is called blind faith and even this man an accountant was taken advantage of.

In summary there are many very good instructors in the martial arts world that have their students best interest at heart but one should always be leery should some occult type of activity take place that seems to good to be true.

The best defense of this is to realize that if it seems to good to be true it usually is and watch out for the scam because these rip off artists are still out there and still teaching.