Why do New Agers Make Our Blood Boil So?

[Xue Sheng]

I am actually surprised that I don't see these people in our class here in San Francisco. Of all places, I would think this would be the place. But it hasn't really come up.

Just out of curiosity what style of Taiji?

You also likely have a WHOLE lot more to choose from in your area as far a Taiji goes. So these types may avoid schools that teach the real deal and go to a school they can find that teaches Taiji interpretive dance

Also I have found a lot depends on the teacher and his or her attitude towards this. I know a CMC teacher that will tell people that it is a martial art and if they do not like it they leave, he will not change. And my Sifu tried to change to accommodate them but now he is telling them they are welcome to stay for the rest of the class but it is now time for push hands. And they generally leave and some have stopped coming. My first Sifu saw DOLLAR SIGNS and rode the wave all the way to the bank. But he now has only students that do the Taiji dance. The only thing he appears to do that is more positive is he will still help a young kid get to a Wushu academy in China if that is what they want. And he will encourage them to go if he sees talent. But he no longer really teaches anything with substance.

 

[CoryKS]

In their defense, I just want to point out that NA'ers make nice music.

 

[Xue Sheng]

For people who didn't know, I'm a Chiropractor. We have a hard enough time maintaining a positive public image, because the American Medical Association hates us, AND because there are so many ridiculous people who are law-breaking flakes that are Chiro's, we seem to hurt ourselves as much as our detractors do.

As an upper cervical Chiro, I address some health concerns by manipulating the top two bones in the neck, C1 and C2. I cannot tell you why it has helped, because I honestly do not know. BUT, I have had patients make amazing turn-arounds in their health by "putting their heads on straight"...aligning the posterior structures of C1 and 2 to the anatomical midline via several manipulations, from the x-ray viewed-jacked up-sideways places they started from.

I was sent an e-mail recently about a new method for re-aligning C1, along with an explanatory reason for needing to do it. By a New Age client. It made me cringe.

It seems that ancient Sumerian tablets describe, in detail that no one else has been able to decipher except the proponents of this view, the process from which we (homo sapiens) came to being. Aliens from another planet needed a slave race to mine gold for them, and manipulated the DNA of homo erectus to make a new version of man, better suited to the task of mining. They did so by adding in some of their own super DNA. Problem for the keepers: Thier DNA would have spiritually and psychically empowered us beyond our imaginations to a next level of evolution...one that rivals our makers.

Solution? Place a curse in the DNA that causes C1 to slip out of place, and decrease the energy that flows from the cosmos, through our brains, and into our bodies. How to become this next-level evolutionary being? Get C1 corrected. They acknowledged that other disciplines do this, such as Chiro and Rolfers and others, but of course nobody does it better than the new thing you gotta pay them for.

So...now I get phone calls from New Age afficianado's asking if I correct C1. Yes, I do. The next question: Can I activate the Alien DNA? Sorry; can't help ya there.

Sadder still...as Chiro's struggle, many predictably adopt the flavor of the week to keep active in business. It won't be long until some are getting their licenses reviewed for doing exactly this: Selling their services as a way to awaken the super-being within, intentionally inhibited by the aliens who made us so many years ago.

Well, at least their history explains why so many have such a hard time keeping their fingers out fo their noses.

The glazed over, easy way out stares of addled minds influencing my market and profitability may not relate directly to Tai Chi, but I have my own reasosn why I'm actively disturbed by their fast food spirituality.

D.

I feel your pain

Someone recently produced one of these alleged energized hunks of crystal and showed it to me as told me how you could just feel the energy coursing through it (the energy was of course of alien origin) and he then handed it to my sifu and told him about it and how much it cost. .

My sifu's response

“Feels like a cold stone…. here you can have it back”

 

[Flying Crane]

Just out of curiosity what style of Taiji?

My sifu is the most accomplished in Chen/Huan-Yin, but he teaches some Sun and Yang in the larger, "exercise" focused classes. The sword that I help teach is from Yang, altho he has also taught me sword and broadsword from Chen.

 

[Flying Crane]

I feel your pain

Someone recently produced one of these alleged energized hunks of crystal and showed it to me as told me how you could just feel the energy coursing through it...

I also see a lot of people who might be riding the cusp of the NA bit, but they are also willing to accept the martial side of the art. These are the people who are convinced they can just FEEL the chi flowing thru their bodies after about the second class. They are also thoroughly convinced that they practice an almost magical art, that will instantly work with deadly effect.

I just smile and nod...

There is really a wide range of people who gravitate to Tai Chi, who have some weird preconceptions.

 

[Xue Sheng]

My sifu is the most accomplished in Chen/Huan-Yin, but he teaches some Sun and Yang in the larger, "exercise" focused classes. The sword that I help teach is from Yang, altho he has also taught me sword and broadsword from Chen.

Thanks

It has been my experience that this is much more prevalent in Yang style than Chen or Sun.

My first sifu taught me Chen and he taught Sun but his Yang style classes just grew and grew and grew. He teaches mostly Yang style now and very little if any Chen and as far as I can tell no Sun.

And the Chen form he taught me he will not teach anymore, the training is to hard and there is no money in it. The amazing part is he teaches the Yang long form now, and as far as I know he did not know it back when I trained with him.

 

[thrax]

Great ....and now my lurking has to end already. I practice a couple of tai chi "diciplines" and have stumbled across a few people that are really upset if I speak of the applications involved. I also study iaido and have a great deal of fun with these same folks explaining that the sword is only a point of focus for the mind while moving through the contemplative katas. They buy it and I get a good laugh....everybody is happy.

 

[Steel Tiger]

Perhaps I've been in isolation a little too long and away from what's really going on in the world, but could you, Grydth, or anyone for that matter, please explain how the NA'ers are using taiji to promote a philosophy? What philosophy? How do they use taiji to promote it? Where is this happening, and could you also please point me to a source that I could see with my own two eyes?


Clarify, please - "artificial monstrosity"...

Take your pick! It could be the inner alien consciousness awakening, or aura cleansing, or chakra realignment, or any other of two dozen made up "philosophies". The real problem is that what they con people into believing has no foundation behind it. They willingly co-opt anything that seems "cool and mystical" to support their own very small view of the world. More often than not there is a financial motive behind it all.

While one can happily live ones life ignoring the New Age movement, the annoying thing is that their world view, philosophy if you like, is not only becoming accepted it is becoming the norm. A serious student of the martial arts usually gleens some small knowledge of the philosophy associated with the art studied, but what happens if the philosophy and concepts behind your art have been so subverted by a set of fluffy, its all good, there's nothing bad attitudes, that the art's meaning is lost forever.

 

[Flying Crane]

Thanks

It has been my experience that this is much more prevalent in Yang style than Chen or Sun.

My first sifu taught me Chen and he taught Sun but his Yang style classes just grew and grew and grew. He teaches mostly Yang style now and very little if any Chen and as far as I can tell no Sun.

And the Chen form he taught me he will not teach anymore, the training is to hard and there is no money in it. The amazing part is he teaches the Yang long form now, and as far as I know he did not know it back when I trained with him.

I am in a rather fortunate and somewhat unique position with him in that I show up to the Tai Chi class, but I seldom participate with the group. I go off on the side and practice on my own, and he gives me personal instruction in whatever I am interested in learning. This is how I have learned much of the Chen that I know, as well as the weaponry and the external arts like White Crane. These are things he doesn't usually teach in a formal class setting to the big groups. But he gives it to me, and I am fortunate for that. There are a small few of us who have been able to do this. Most of the students are content to show up for class and just follow along with the mainstream.

 

[TaiChiTJ]

I think anyone who intends to teach non-martial tai chi should call it that: they should name it tai chi, without the "chuan". That seems to be what this stuff called "Dahn" yoga and tai chi is doing, and in their brochures they talk about stretching and breathing and meditation and wholistic healing and such.

Anyone who intends to teach it as a full health-meditation-self protection art that includes combat oriented curriculum should say tai chi chuan, and make sure their brochure says that and they say that when a prospective student inquires about what they do.

 

[Steel Tiger]

I think anyone who intends to teach non-martial tai chi should call it that: they should name it tai chi, without the "chuan". That seems to be what this stuff called "Dahn" yoga and tai chi is doing, and in their brochures they talk about stretching and breathing and meditation and wholistic healing and such.

Anyone who intends to teach it as a full health-meditation-self protection art that includes combat oriented curriculum should say tai chi chuan, and make sure their brochure says that and they say that when a prospective student inquires about what they do.

This is a good point you make, but remember that all too many people don't realise that taiji is a martial art. In fact, some folk get well and truly annoyed if you try to tell them that it is. This is the sought of thing I mean when I say the new age world view is beginning to be accepted as the norm.

 

[Touch Of Death]

For discussion sake only, suppose we could agree New Agers are superficial and misguided fools. Let's say they have nothing to offer or teach us.

So why do we get so angry at them? Why not ignore them as we do the lunatic on the street corner or a Tv show which doesn't interest us?

That trail of granola crumbs attracts squirls!

 

[East Winds]

The of course you have the "in betweenies" like the Taoist Tai Chi Society who expressly forbid any talk or practice of the martial side but still call it Tai Chi Chuan.

Very best wishes

 

[SifuPhil]

I was just in Barnes and Noble's yesterday checking the stacks and it struck me that some of the taijiquan books are in the "Sports" section while other are in the "Health and Fitness" area. No rhyme or reason, either - there was a push-hands one in Health and a "feel-good" one in Sports.

 

[grydth]

Well. maybe the thread has come full circle...

Borders for awhile had their Tai Chi magazines in the womens' health section.

You can find books all over stores, as if the staff is unsure where to put them. Sometimes actually in the martial arts section, sometimes with yoga and pilates, sometimes general sports..........

But never fail to check one section before you leave - the New Age Section.:soapbox:

 

[SifuPhil]

...But never fail to check one section before you leave - the New Age Section.:soapbox:

Well, I DID try that section, but every time I tried to pull out a book my fingers came away covered in some soft, pink fluffy stuff...

I don't know what it was but it DID make me feel better.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Tai Chi magazines

Tai Chi magazine is actually part of the problem.

Well, I DID try that section, but every time I tried to pull out a book my fingers came away covered in some soft, pink fluffy stuff...

I don't know what it was but it DID make me feel better.

Ahhh so that is what that was.... I was sitting on the floor meditating with crystals on my head to try and pull out a book from that section and that pink fluffy stuff kept coming and coming..... But I have to admit I felt better too.... or at least up until they asked me to leave and never come back

 

[SifuPhil]

LOL - you're bad!!!

 

[dmax999]

The of course you have the "in betweenies" like the Taoist Tai Chi Society who expressly forbid any talk or practice of the martial side but still call it Tai Chi Chuan.

I actually started Tai Chi with them. They gave me the opinion I have on them now. The elderly that go there to get some exercise and be healthier, its the perfect place for them. I lost it when I was told "Everyone else does Tai Chi wrong, only we know how to put the Chi into Tai Chi" Exact quote. I was told their version could cure bad backs, correct poor vision, even put cancer into remission, but Tai Chi anywhere else wouldn't be able to do the same.

The, as people are calling them NA'er, lie about benefits of Tai Chi and make everyone else who does it look stupid. How do you defend Tai Chi when people are coming up to you and asking if you believe it cures cancer? They feel the "Need to be Special" and really how special are you doing a martial art done by 1 million Chinese? But if your version prevents cancer and no one elses does, Ah now we are special.

 

[Flying Crane]

The, as people are calling them NA'er, lie about benefits of Tai Chi and make everyone else who does it look stupid.

I think what you meant to say was "TRY TO make everyone else who does it look stupid." For anyone who knows better, even just a little bit, they are the ones who look stupid.