 
Message-ID: 
Date: Tue,  1 Jun 1993 11:43:30 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Andrew C. Plotkin" 
To: +dist+/afs/andrew/usr/js9b/Public/camc.dl@andrew.cmu.edu
Subject: Re: Tai Chi, etc.
In-Reply-To: <12825.738820598@KANGA.FAC.CS.CMU.EDU>
References: <12825.738820598@KANGA.FAC.CS.CMU.EDU>


> >   Well, y'know, the stuff about how what you're doing is "moving chi 
> >around", "chi" being supposedly this invisible energy stuff which emanates 
> >from your stomach and has the power to do all kinds of mysterious stuff.  
> >And many other such skiffy propositions.
> >   Translation for skeptics: it's not the meat, it's the motion. :-)

Unfortunately, "skiffy" is my pronunciation of the written abbreviation
"Sci-Fi", so I can't use it like that.... :-)

Excerpts from mail: 30-May-93 Enlightenment for Instituti..
Thomas_Price@KANGA.FAC.C (3902)

> Second: I'm a Skeptic -- a Pyrhonnian Skeptic. Greek skepticism (associated
> mostly with Pyrrho of Athens) is moral, in contrast to western skepticism
> which is a scientific methodology and began with Descartes. Pyrrho
> (in a tiny tiny nutshell) said that no correct statements whatsoever
> can be made, therefore we should be mellow about pretty much everything.

Well, I come out to be pretty much a western skeptic, which makes chi
rather hard to explain. Especially when my school was not Tai Chi, but
Ki Aikido; which means that I learned to influence other people by use
of chi, rather than just affecting my own sensations.
 
Ah, well, I've been able to rationalize most of it. Pretty much. Now
that I've stopped taking classes.

--Z

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."

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