Matrix Martial Arts to Learn Real Aikido…sounds like an internet scam, doesn’t it? But if you told a swahili tribesman, a couple of hundred years ago, that there were such things as wagon wheels, well, he’d probably take you over to the witch doctor for ‘treatment.’ Head too big…everything wrong…shrink head quick…squeeze out all ideas! Here’s a truth that most martial artists have trouble with…you’re actually studying mysticism. You’re involved in trying to figure out what the witch doctors of Aikido are doing. Now, I’m being pretty rude at this point, and that really isn’t what I’m about. So let me explain this concept I’m talking about. I’d rather smooth talk you into riding my bandwagon…than bash you for being mystical The eastern disciplines are a language. Same as German, same as math, same as any set of ‘symbols’ that describe notions. This specific language is a body language designed for handling force and flow. Here is how the language is set up. basics letters
technique words
forms sentences
systems books
all systems encyclopedia There’s a lot more to be understood, of course, but that should start your education. The problem is that everything has been mixed up. Techniques from one art are interjected into a set of sentences, and the result is ideas that are hard to figure out, difficult to understand and make work, and is mystical. No, it’s not mystical…it’s just a mish mash of conflicting ideas. It’s a trunk of opposing languages. Here’s the analogy, I’m going to give that Nigerian 100 verbs in the French language, and say that he knows French. Huh! That’s not even mysticism, that’s complete and utter bushwah. The concept of matrixing is to unmix the jumbled up mess. To isolate the different languages so that they make sense. This has actually never been done before. There’s been a lot of ‘my art is the only one,’ or ‘my art is the best,’ but nobody has ever taken the eastern fighting systems apart, and put them back so that they become a logical construction. Sure, people have recognized that the martial arts are a variety of linguistics, but nobody has ever explored that language and…matrixed it. Never. Some interesting things occur when you matrix a martial art like Aikido. The first thing is that everything starts becoming logical. Things that were a mystery previously no longer confuse. They are simply, logical and easy to learn. The second thing is that people start learning at a quicker speed. Then other abilities start to occur. People start to think in an intuitive way. They analyze and reach conclusions merely by looking, and there is no longer any necessity to try to ‘figure things out.’ We are opening the floodgates here, not just to fighting, or to learn real Aikido, but to whole fields of knowledge. The joy is that people don’t have to give up the arts they are trying to learn, they just have to understand a few simple techniques concerning how to learn. They have to stop thinking they are learning everything, when they are studying a single art, and use matrix martial arts to logically understand what they are doing, and then use their art to logically learn all the martial arts.
Learn more about Matrixing and Real Aikido (Matrix Aikido) at MonsterMartialArts.com. Pick up a free ebook while you’re there.
To NLP practitioners, the auditory, visual and kinaesthetic modalities are well known and much discussed. In this article I would like to consider what I see as an almost universal misunderstanding about the kinaesthetic mode: namely the fallacy that the kinaesthetic mode is equivalent to the visual and auditory modes as a third choice. I will show that the kinaesthetic mode is actually quite distinct from the other two. This exploration involves considerations about the two phases of learning and decision making.
The three representational modalities
It is often considered that of the three modalities, visual, auditory and kinaesthetic, usually one will be an individual’s most favoured mode. The most favoured mode, it is advocated, should be utilized in communication to gain rapport; and in teaching to facilitate the learner’s greater understanding. In hypnosis, shifting from the subject’s favoured mode (pacing) to less favoured mode is thought to help effect a change of state, and so facilitate hypnosis. The favoured mode is revealed most clearly in the language the person uses; for example: I see what you mean (visual); That sounds good (auditory); What a heavy problem (kinaesthetic).
The auditory and visual modes are relatively straightforward. The visual mode is about perception via the eyes, and the auditory about perception via the ears. It’s certainly the case that some people are able to visualize easily and have difficulty auditorizing (if I may use such a word); and others can easily auditorize but have difficulty visualizing.
But what about the kinaesthetic mode? As used in NLP and some educational contexts, the kinaesthetic mode seems to relate to two distinct areas: (1) the sense of touch and physical activity; (2) emotional feeling.
(1) The sense of touch and physical activity
Most classroom teaching is delivered via visual and auditory means. Academic ideas are not usually conveyed through physical movement or emotion. Concepts are generally conveyed using words and diagrams, which are written on a whiteboard, projected on to a screen, or spoken; that is to say, visually and auditorily, but not kinaesthetically.
Two phases of learning
It’s been said that learning takes place only after the teacher stops speaking; in other words, when the learner starts doing. But in fact there would be nothing to learn had the teacher not delivered something. We might then say that there are two phases of learning: (1) input or reception (receiving ideas); and (2) output or action (consolidation). Once we practise what we’ve learned, we activate and consolidate the learning; or we discover that we don’t really know it and need further input. For learning to take place, the learner must be active as well as passive. In addition to receiving information, and subsequent to receiving information, a learner must do something with that information.
During the initial phase of learning, the input, some learners learn best through hearing, and others through seeing. In fact, most people benefit from both, because when we both hear and see the brain is more fully engaged.
In the initial phase we learn from hearing and seeing.
The second phase of learning requires action: doing; putting the learning into practice.
This means that, in the first phase of learning, learners are either auditory or visual primarily (and can be both), but virtually never kinaesthetic. But in the second phase all learners are kinaesthetic.
(2) Emotional feeling
The meaning of kinaesthetic as we have used it hitherto is as sense of touch and physical activity. What about the second way in which kinaesthetic is used: as emotional feeling?
Sometimes in NLP it is suggested that a person’s favoured mode can be ascertained by discovering how they make a decision. Do you make a decision (the standard NLP line goes) through seeing something, hearing it, or feeling it?
Two types of decision making
But this formulation isn’t quite accurate. In fact, there are two ways of making a decision: associated and dissociated. Associated refers to connection with feelings; dissociated means disconnection from feelings. For decision making, no matter whether we generally prefer visual or auditory information, the key distinction is between reason and feeling. You make a decision either based on reason (dissociated), or based on feeling (associated). Even those who more often are guided by their feelings will often make decisions based on logic or reason; and of course those who less often make decisions based on feeling will still very often do so.
Imagine you are house hunting. How do you choose a house? Is it how it looks; how it sounds (not very likely); or how it feels? The person who makes the decision on how it feels will usually be acting according to intuition, not physical touch. Again, the initial input is visual and possibly auditory (the description and sales pitch); the feeling is secondary.
Your decision on choice of house depends primarily on whether reason or emotion is driving you. Whether your preference is generally more visual or auditory is of less importance here. The decision you make will either be a rational one (cost, number and size of rooms, location, resale value, and so on); or will be one based on feeling or intuition (I just feel good in this house, it just feels right). Your decision may involve overriding your emotional feeling or intuition in favour of your logical thinking, or vice-versa.
Concluding reflections
So the notion of favoured modality is not as straightforward as commonly supposed, specifically with regard to the kinaesthetic mode. All of us gain information through all five senses, but not many of us get more information about a subject by touching it than by looking at it or hearing about it. And when it comes to making decisions, all of us, very often, make decisions based on emotion (even when we are unaware of this motivation).
There is a particular link, however, between hearing and feeling; that is, between the auditory and kinaesthetic. People who favour the auditory modality tend to be more guided by feeling. Hearing tends more to association, and seeing to dissociation. For most of us, music moves us more than visual art. People who call themselves kinaesthetic are often really auditory, and therefore more aware of their feelings.
Some people are more in touch with their emotions than others, but this is a separate question. The real distinctions are (1) between auditory and visual (as favoured modes for input and representation); and (2) between reason and feeling (or intuition) for decision making.
Jonathan Livingstone is a therapist and coach with practices in Leamington Spa and London Paddington. He specializes in trauma, PTSD, anxiety, stress and relationships. He is an NLP master practitioner though NLPU, CA
An innovator in therapy & coaching, he is author of The Therapist Within You (Lemniscate, 2009) (reviewed in Yoga Magazine, January 2010; and Natural Health magazine, July 2010), see www.therapistwithin.com; and creator of Temporal Modelling and Inner Self Resolution.
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