Cautionary Tale
At the end of November 2002, I was invited to go over to see Dave Bennett who teaches Brazilian JuJitsu (see Recommended clubs for details). A friend of mine (Stuart "Mitch" Mitchinson) was training over there and had praised it very highly so I thought to go and do a "technology exchange", swapping different ideas on our respective arts. However, when I arrived, it became apparent that I'd not made my intentions clear as Dave obviously thought that I was visiting as a potential student. An obvious "Oops" moment ! Anyone who knows me knows that if I was going to spend a large chunk of my life learning something, it certainly wouldn't be a martial art, however good it is ! Anyway, rather than cause a scene, I took the decision to "switch off" everything associated with Peaceful Fight and just be a "martial artist" for the day. This essentially meant no internal energy work, no intent and no twitch reflex. As far as I was concerned I was back in the world of externalised arts ! Sparring in this particular type of JuJitsu is undertaken at full speed and this is where Peaceful Fight becomes especially dangerous. So, there I was, with (as far as I was concerned) everything "dangerous" about Peaceful Fight switched off. I still did a few externalised pressure point tweaks during the work to show that even without energy flow, pressure points were a possible valuable addition to the JuJitsu armoury. As such, I got to do part of my technology transfer after all !
During the lesson I sparred with Mitch and I caught him just over his left eye. To me, this had been a very light strike but surprisingly Mitch said that it had hurt him a lot. Mitch said he was OK and we continued the sparring (with Mitch eventually coming out on top after throwing me into a wall and wrenching my little finger; overall I thought I'd come off worse in the melee!). We continued to train for about another hour or so, during which Mitch had a heavy clash of heads with another student, and then we all went our separate ways. I'd enjoyed the session and wrote to thank Dave for his time.
Later that evening, Mitch 'phoned me to ask me what I'd done to him. Initially I thought he was joking but sadly it turned out that this was no laughing matter. In essence, Mitch had been seriously ill about 2 hours after he got home and was still feeling the effects that evening. His symptoms were very serious (probably large scale Yang drainage or qi stagnation in the upper warmer coupled to damage along the Gallbladder or Triple warmer meridians) and I totally believe it was only his ox-like constitution that meant he was able to pull himself out of it without direct emergency assistance. Unfortunately he was unable to see me there and then so I 'phoned him regularly to make sure he was OK and did some distance healing techniques to aid his recovery. I went over to see him and thankfully, he did get better and after he had recovered he sent me the following E-mail :-
Doug, I will make sure you are in a good mood before you touch me again! As you have probably never used your skills to hurt before I will give you a little feedback as to how I felt 2 hours later;
1,Shakes 2,unable to stay warm 3,the whole World drained out of my arse
4,vision in my left eye was not correct until the following morning
5,the points touched on my head feel like painful spots that have had their
heads knocked off. A couple even bled slightly.
The above is honest feedback. Please put it on the site or use it in anyway
you wish and I will be more than happy to answer questions from any disbelievers.
I am glad I list you as a friend and all round good guy. I am sure that
if you hadn't feathered the techniques<yes I know but I can't think of
a better way to put it!>I may still be asleep.
Time for bed. Goodnight
Mitch.
Now, a lot of martial art players would be very proud of this effect but for me, this is like a Midas touch and more of a curse than a honour. As far as I was concerned, there was no element of Peaceful Fight "on" during my work with Mitch and so it should have been totally safe. Obviously I was wrong and have underestimated the problems associated with the path that Peaceful Fight takes. Essentially it looks like it can't be "switched off" once it gets to a certain state. It means that as soon as the unconscious mind comes into play (eg when it aligns perfectly with the Dao or is initiated by the startle reflex) the whole system comes out and just counteracts whatever it thinks is happening. Because everything was at fast speed, the unconscious mind had "crept out" during my work with Mitch and affected the energy fields as it saw fit at that time without me being even remotely aware that it had switched itself on. An example of ignorance, arrogance and stupidity on my part. There is an obvious implication from the clash of heads that happened and this has possibly accentuated other effects but this is no excuse / cop out. Mitch could have died and that was due to me being there.
Now, if you are reading this going "wow, wish I could do that" give a thought to your closest loved one (children, partner, friend, pet). One day, out of the blue they think that they will see how good you are at this "Oriental martial arts shit" and try to hit you totally out of the blue (hey, it happens). At that moment, as there is no way for you to control the system and the whole of Peaceful Fight comes to the fore with everything working at full speed within the subconscious. The "startle" effect the attack causes you to have links you directly to the Dao, switches all protective energy systems fully on and puts you in full "intent" mode. You do the system without thinking and they get seriously injured or die. "Wow, wish I could do that" ? If the answer is still "Yes" you are one sick fucker. The time inbetween each of the times I 'phoned Mitch when he was ill dragged out interminably, especially the couple of times when I couldn't reach him (was he in hospital and if so, would they know how to get him better ?). Again, if you still think this ability to injure your friends is cool and really want this level of worry in your life, fuck off, I really don't want to meet you.
This situation highlighted the risks associated with learning this particular system and you have to consider the trade off against the benefits of the system. If I could teach Taoism in any other way than Kung Fu then I would do so but I'm not able to do so at this time. I can show and appreciate where the Tao is in everything I do and can point it out to others in their lives but the only way I can get people to feel it is within Peaceful Fight. So are the benefits worth it ? For me, even after this truly awful experience, the answer is still yes. Daoism has the potential to "heal the World" and get everything back into its rightful order so if enough people follow this path, things should get better for everyone. The World seems so out of tilt at the moment that every little bit that students do must help in some way. Add to this the medical side of the art (that is learned at the same time as the martial side) and this is truly useful in the "Real World" in helping people achieve their full human potential. Peaceful Fight has also helped me as an individual find out what I'm supposed to be and also where things are wrong in my life. Even more than this, it has given me a strategy for correcting these problems and has moved me towards a level of contentment. Before this, I was probably more fucked up than most of my students but that's really another accolade that I'm not especially proud of (though if it can help me, it can problaby help anyone!). Add to this the personal health benefits that have come from the training (which are intimately linked to alignment with the Dao) and it is certainly worth me continuing to take this risk (as long as I continue to try to minimise the risks every time we train and the training is undertaken in the manner which it is prescribed (ie slowly)). However, you have to decide for yourself if it is worth it to you. The restrictions that you will have to agree to are :-
1) With the execution of the first move (which by design has to be at full speed to initiate the startle / twitch reflex), all work within Peaceful Fight will be undertaken at slow speed and students will never speed it up without prior agreement from the instructor. It is too late to apologise once the energy system of your opponent (who in reality is your friend) has been disrupted. Don't even consider doing the system quickly unless you know what to do if, by coincidence, it works too well.
2) Students won't be able to cross train with any other system that works at fast speed as you will likley hurt someone in what is, at the end of the day, a bit of fun.
3) You will never be able to "prove" that the martial side of the system works apart from in actual combat. You will need to be content that the medical / spiritual sides work and if this isn't enough for you, then it is better to not start training.
4) You have to consider that these restrictions before starting training as, after a certain amount of time, you might not be able to take another pathway and so don't get the option of changing your mind (ie the system will be within you and so not possible to switch off)
Consider the above and don't fool yourself.