Funnily enough, I actually had a really easy time with 2.2. I guess it’s for the same reasons that I had such trouble with centering, breathing, and autoceptive meditation-- namely, I like to focus on things that change and move rather than try and stand still to do things. As such, being able to select moving targets came very naturally to me, and the rest started clicking into place quite quickly. Well, for me, anyway.
As a warning-- Do not attempt to detect external ki in crowded areas unless you have no choice. I had several episodes of overstimulation and vertigo that had little to do with a breakthrough, detecting a hotshot, or hitting my last nerve, and were more centered in detecting thirty or fourty people that were all in auratic contact with me because I was in the office working at the time!
That said, if you can get past those initial moments of overstimulation just from sheer volume of presences around you, being forced to sit in the same place for an hour and detect ki is a reasonable combination of 2.2.1 and 2.2.2. Dunderstandably, I stuck with it despite the sensory overload and dealt with it in a week or two. The disadvantage is that you’ll want to puke for most of those two weeks. The advantage is that it’s basically a powerful “crash course” and will allow you to pick out targets more easily-- kind of like how talking to a newborn trying to learn to talk in a conversational manner will help it develop language better.
Personally, I found the risk wasn’t worth the reward just yet. Let the buyer beware.
That said!
-- If you’re really having trouble finding someone who is neutral towards you, have a good wash and go to a coffee shop on the other side of town. Don’t flirt with anyone or do something to mark you as a sleaze, set down to reading a book to cover up some of the more ridiculous expressions, and start the exercise, picking someone literally at random, probably the staff. Ideally pick a comedy book or something that’s a little dense (If you know calculus well enough, Professor Son’s actual research papers are very informative if... More than a little dry). If attention is still a problem, split it between actually reading and attempting the exercise.
-- If you need more targets, people walking their own dogs tend to be pretty happy, and will lope around without any input from you. Use this to your advantage if you’re having mobility trouble with 2.2.3.
-- If you can’t afford coffee, libraries are also places where persons tend to hang around and have the added advantage of being quieter than coffee shops.
-- Also, you might be pleasantly surprised to discover that maybe you’re not as bad a person as you thought you were. I’ve learned since sensing ki that to most people I’m largely forgettable until I started turning up the gas on my own training, instead of generally being thought of as ‘that weird one who does all the spooky stuff’.
All in all, I’m sorry I can’t really help, but I can offer hope for people still struggling with autoception and centering and breathing for the same reasons I did-- that there are things that we’re suited to and will manage easier than other people who are doing pretty good at those things!
“‘Work well, study well, play well, eat well, and sleep well.’ My first master taught me that and that’s the best advice I can give!” – my father, Son Goku.
This first chapter is dedicated to Dad, who mastered everything in this book… but wouldn’t have understood a word.
Ki may be an unfamiliar concept, but you do know it. If I venture to speak to most about ki-blasts or auras or flying, the best I can hope for is a polite smile. After all, it’s common knowledge that superpowers can’t be real. But if I ask you how a room drops when that person storms in, or of the cosy feeling when lounging in silence with friends, of the spark of a partner’s touch, or about the deep, yawning connection to the wider world we feel in moments of sheer awe… you know ki already. And ki most definitely knows you.
I wouldn’t wish to give the impression ki is responsible for the entirety of those sensations. Chemicals in the brain like dopamine and oxytocin play a large part in governing how we feel and act. But there’s that last element - how our emotions can become physical and arrest us completely at times - that can never quite be explained away as the sum of brain cells firing. The wonder of life itself can be broken down to the cellular level without losing any majesty (to me at any rate), however I can tell you from experience building these components back up again to model an entire person is somewhat more challenging. The task is made a fraction simpler when ki is taken into account. Ki is the thread that weaves us together, taking us from a collection of cells to one being. And beyond the self, it is ki that draws us together as people.
You are most likely not consciously aware of your ki-sense, but the ability to detect its presence within and around you already exists and can be brought to the forefront. This sense can be turned into a literal power, from having a mere sensitivity to ki to gaining conscious control quickly. How quickly that is, is up to you.
This chapter will outline the traditional understanding of ki and where that needs to be updated, the different components of ki and its natural use in the world. The next chapter will move towards developing your own abilities.
1.1 The Traditional View
Ki, in a word, is energy. In three, it is the energy of life. Ki is not an energy like electricity or heat. The most familiar analogy would be light as it has particles and a field, but even that model falls apart quickly and… I’m getting ahead of myself. Let us ease in with a traditional, serviceable understanding, gently reframe parts of the explanation, then build up.
The sensing and control of ki does not require the user to be proficient in the martial arts. However, the majority of ki-users on Earth gained their experience through this route and it is the most natural way to pick up the prerequisites. Masters of old would typically introduce ki early as a concept to a student; only after years of intense physical and meditative training to hone the body and mind would the student then start to practice ki-control. Students may then dedicate their lives to perfecting a few techniques in safe sparring environments, until they themselves could lead others in the same training. Very rarely would there be a true conflict in which to test these techniques.
Studying ki was not always an enlightened pursuit. Contrary to what was often taught as a form of self-flattery, one does not have to be a good person to use ki - life would be a lot easier for our planet if that were the case! A few students did not take the lessons on responsibility to heart and would leave schools for a life of crime using their new abilities. The more unscrupulous masters dangled the chance of preferential ki-training in front of their richest students to fund their schools, increasing the power of the richest families. Knowledge of ki then became a two-tier system and it is unsurprising that in days gone by the use of ki was feared or derided. As ki-training was dropped from schools, fewer students learnt to pass on the knowledge. Nowadays ki as an idea has fallen from wider public consciousness completely.
Each of these schools had their own physical and ki-based techniques that were closely-guarded secrets. A school without a unique style or technique was not an attractive school to attend; why learn there when you could learn all that and more in the next district over? Espionage was rife to ruin the competition and some of the largest schools were the most underhanded. Even now, with only two schools teaching ki-control and both masters good friends, some techniques remain off-limits as a tacit agreement to preserve a sense of identity. The same mostly friendly rivalry exists between ki-using families.
November 798 at Capsule Corporation, between myself (then 41), my younger brother Son Goten (31) and his close friend Trunks (32) of Capsule Corporation fame. All three of us are experienced martial artists and ki users.
Gohan: Have you ever taught each other your fathers’ signature techniques?
Goten: Well that’s a silly question -
Trunks: Not formally. The Kamehameha was forbidden at home. So, naturally...
Gohan: Aah, so you do know it?
Trunks: I picked it up even before Gotenks* was around. If Dad asks I have never, ever done it. And neither has Bra.** [laughs]
Goten: Your Dad must know the move by now.
Trunks: Of course! But he’d never admit it.
Goten: The Kamehameha’s a little like his Galick-Ho, by the way. Which I’ve also never, ever done.
(*Gotenks (31), a member of both families who will be discussed in later chapters; **Bra (18), Trunks’ younger sister.)
Naturally then, very little by way of older documentation exists for me to draw a general, traditional explanation from. Fortunately I happened to have had a variety of teachers over the years - both formal and informal - and I contacted as many as possible to get their ki introductions. The distilled version is this:
Ki is the energy of life, a type of fire created in the body. Life surrounds us and therefore so does ki. It is carried in the breath, generated in the internal furnace known as our centre when we inhale, and our exhalation encourages the flow of ki through our bodies where it can be used. Whilst humans have the special capacity to manipulate ki, animals also have breath and so have ki themselves. Plants may not have lungs but they do breathe; a plant starved of any air will wither and die, its ki dying with it. The planet itself breathes, with air in the soil and bubbles in streams, and the centre of the planet itself is a great furnace of fire generating ki.
Like the breath, ki is owned by a life but is not restricted to the body. It extends beyond the self as an aura, with the energy itself waiting for a command on which to act. Beyond the fraction that is needed for the body to function, ki can be withdrawn back to the body to amplify actions, effectively increasing physical strength. The practised student will be able to detect changes in ki aura intensity and flow in the people around them, identifying illness or shifts in concentration. Feeling ki and talking to your own is a difficult skill to develop. However, with quiet contemplation and training in the breath one can draw ki from their centre and direct it outwards, concentrating it in the hands to the point of true visibility, then unleashing literally explosive effects on the world around them. Mastery of ki then imparts a need for responsible behaviour on the student, and the most potent abilities must only be used in defence.
There are alternate but equal explanations of ki as a type of wood instead of fire. In systems with five elements (metal, water, wood, fire and earth) these elements create and disrupt each other. Masters noted that wood is nourished by water, creates fire through burning, and metal in the form of axes can break wood. Likewise, water creates life and therefore ki, and metal can destroy it (not necessarily through axes, the ingestion of heavy metals can cause a gruesome death). In particular they observed that breathing on a near-extinguished fire can bring it back to life, much like adding wood. They argued then that fire came from ki and so ki must be aligned to wood, rather than ki being fire itself.
This kind of explanation is not limited to Earth. The Namekians, a peaceful race of aliens I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and learning much from, emphasise the connectedness of their ki to the world around them. They impress upon their children stewardship responsibilities and fighting to preserve all forms of life. In contrast the Saiyan warrior race focussed on the differences between their stronger ki and animals’, instead taking the view their relative superior strength was a gift to utilise. I use the past tense here for good reason, but more on that tangent later. Earth-based teachings of ki exist somewhere between these two extremes. The common threads - the importance of breath, projecting inner strength outwards, and all life having ki - are consistent throughout the Universe.
From experience I can tell you there are a number of misconceptions in the above explanations. My teachers were aware of them themselves, but found small untruths were easier to teach on the first pass. Neither the traditional elements nor the planet generate or destroy ki, it is life itself “creating” it within the body’s centre. The breath doesn’t carry ki, although breath and ki-control are closely linked. However, people and animals do have unique auras and sensing their turbulence is a useful skill, and ki can both greatly augment physical strength and be projected outwards.
How these misconceptions arose before modern science is easily understood when experiencing the world through ki, as we shall see next.
Share innovations and solutions to the plastic crisis and how it impacts human health.
The Plastic Health Symposium took place in Brussels. Hosted by The Plastic Soup Foundation, the event brought together scientists, politicians, lawyers, industry representatives and NGOs to share innovations and solutions to the plastic crisis and how it impacts human health. A white paper document will be produced and presented at INC-2 in Paris.
During this Summit, the Plastic Soup Foundation will focus on three different aspects of The Way Forward: Groundbreaking science; Innovation and solutions; The plastics treaty discussion.
Experts present studies on how micro-and nanoplastics behave once they reach our lungs and brains we have inhaled or ingested them.
PLASTIC HEALTH SYMPOSIUM DRAWS ATTENTION TO MICROPLASTICS AND NANOPLASTICS
Hey everyone! I’m still in the process of moving, but I have internet for a few minutes, and am reading up on the latest chapter of GS.
As usual, my problems stem from a shortened attention span, so I hit a hitching point in the process when we’re starting to unhitch our genki.
Once again I’m going to take you through ways that can help, that will be slower, and a little more advanced, but since they force you to pay attention to their methods, they will also allow you to waken even if you’re having trouble with other things.
Sadly, I have no real excellent advice for 2.3.5 and 2.3.6. Those of you who have been paying attention from the beginning will know exactly why-- I rather got ahead of us in hitting those goalposts. Yes, this is where you can start accidentally blowing out windows. Don’t make a habit of it, I had a massive draft in my apartment for weeks while the landlord grumbled and shuffled their feet.
And, relatedly, I skipped 2.3.2 entirely in favor of going straight to Karaoke, because standing in front of a mirror to say “batman rings his batphone” sound piece by sound piece over and over for 20 minutes bored me nearly to tears the first time I did it. I don’t pride myself on yuuki, but getting over problems like that has always been a matter of diving in, to me. I’m already an idiot in public, so of course, your mileage will vary.
I’m going to agree with Professor Son that one breath is absolutely necessary for later exercises and that three breaths is pushing it.
Statistics show that in a normal fight, three breaths (about fifteen seconds) is longer than 80% of them. When both combatants have ki-control for reinforcement, defense, and attack, it can sometimes drag on-- one has only to see accounts of World Martial Arts Tournaments or rare audio recordings to understand this- the speeds involved are so blinding that taking longer than a breath in most cases is not recommended.
2.3.1 - Steadying the breath
While this exercise is absolutely the one I do most often-- still do in concert with .5 and .6!-- That is absolutely because it can be done while sitting still. Most of my coworkers can’t sense ki, so it’s a simple matter for me to do those three exercises without making people worry.
The important thing to remember here is that ki is supposed to flow. And it will. Constantly. Trying to directly arrest it, trying to freeze it still, will produce a sensation not unlike holding your breath-- because, well, you kind of are. Pay attention, but don’t try to stop it.
If you’re having trouble concentrating on it, I can actually suggest a bit of something from East City and environs. While I can’t recommend the self-proclaimed “Supreme Ultimate Boxing” for direct attack, I can say that slow, careful motions can also help point out flows and pools of ki-- albeit not on the main throat-center-sacral axis. Instead, you’ll probably see a lot of axial flow.
Note to practitioners of SUB-- once again, no, your previous practice doesn’t get you a pass here, for the same reason your previous practice didn’t in working with autoception! It’s the difference between juggling and combat juggling-- suddenly there are a lot more clubs in the air!
2.3.3 -- Unhitching your genki
This, however, is absolutely essential before going on to try ki-influenced karaoke.
Work carefully! Without proper autoception you could do some pretty terrible things to yourself if you’re not careful. It’s going to be slow at first. If it helps, use voiced dipthongs. “ng” and Ma” are my particular favorites-- the latter because I’ve always had some sympathy for the Devil.
2.3.4 -- Karaoke
Seriously, this is fun as hell, even if alone. My personal favorite song is “JUDGEMENT”, which is also pretty midrange.
Don’t get too caught up in the song, pick something you remember but can almost sing in the background.
Stand firm! No one in the room is a pro, I guarantee it.
Bum songs off your friends-- such as you’ll continue to have them if you’re really that bad (chances are you’re better than you think)-- if you’re really hard up for cash.
