President's Message: Ki

There has been a lot of speculation and guesses made as to what Ki is exactly. Some people have made some pretty tall claims as to what it can do, while others totally disbelieve it even exists. First of all, what is it? Ki can be described as many things, but from the name Aikido, we can take it as simply "life energy". Does a life energy exist?? You bet! Look at you hand. You skin, hair, nails, everything pertaining to your hand is made of of molecules. Those molecules are made up of atoms. Atoms, so far as we can determine, are made up of submolecular particles called quarks. What causes these elements to interact and create things? The levels of energy present in them. You could say that, under the skin, bones, and other tissue, we ARE energy. The interesting arguments come when we ask "can we project that energy"? There is something to this. If you have ever watched videos of O-Sensei, you may have seen him holding a bokken straight out as a student pushes on it from the side. The thing doesn't move! It appears impossible because of how the student really leans into the bokken. Even though Ki may not be able to kill someone, as was believed by the samurai years ago, we may be able to harness that energy enough to give a little extra strength to a punch, or resistance to an attack if we are able to focus enough. I can't be sure of all of it's applications, but we should realize that we do possess this life energy. This may seem a sort of austere posting, but if we are going to harmonize life-energy (that's what Aikido is), then it might be good to have a better understanding of it. Please feel free to comment on this posting, as well as any other. I'd like to get some opinions from all of you about this subject.