The thing is... were these people martial arts students?
My TaiChi teacher can do it to us; and I can do it a little to some classmates. But the problem is that it seems to only work if the person being manipulated is "sensitive" to energy. Some people are so sensitive that they would react even when he was just waving his hands while speaking. And others don't feel anything or react at all.
There is also the question of the amount of energy. An analogy is of a soccer ball. If it is well inflated, full, it will nicely bounce far away if you kick it. If it is deflated, empty, it will just bounce a few meters.
And I remember reading the same about Aikido (Ueshiba) and some other art too.
Skamoni - You can learn more about Shintaido by visting the British Shintaido website:
http://www.shintaido.co.uk/Classes.htm
You also might find this history of Shintaido of interest:
http://www.shintaido.org/docs/history.htm
I've practiced Shintaido for only ten years and I haven't done the waterfall training. While I'm sure it's a very dramatic exercise, I think there are many other parts of Shintaido that are also very interesting. Shintaido includes curriculum:
http://www.shintaido.org/docs/program_intro.htm
for karate, kenjutsu (sword), bojutsu (staff), jojutsu (short staff) as well as open hand exercises that are unique to Shintaido. I've never noticed that all of the exercises I've been taught have been designed to explore telepathy as Aoki Sensei implied in ther program.
Nagual- yes, all the "enemies" Aoki Sensei "knocked down" were Shintaido practitioners. I agree completely with you that it only seems to work with "sensitive" people. And if you're interested in reading about Shintaido in France, you can check out their webring:
http://www.shintaido.net/site/shintaido-france.htm
Hmm, I know this piece of info may not be that much useful to you but, my mum takes Aikido, and she got to watch a video of a master at Aikido do that pull/push thing, so its possible. Also that video reveals that it can take decades to learn that technique, so good luck to you if you are going to try to learn it!!!
~Sandra
I as just watching a repeat of this tv show called mind, body and kick butt moves on BBC3, it talk of a martial art called Shintaido which if trained properly you can either pull or push or enemy (with your mind) when they attack because there Ki/Chi is very low. They showed the Master do it and he was knocking down enemies from 3 metres or so away. Also if one ran at him he would pull them. Like when your running down a hill and you cant stop still, but on flat land. There was alot more on it, but it all seemed to come down to emptying your mind, this is quite easily done by standing under a ice cold water fall for 3 - 4 minutes after that they must get out because the might catch hypothermia. Anyway after seem the program i want learn some basic moves/techniques of Shintaido. However i am in the heart of Manchester. Which means no water fall no grand masater at Shintaido, can anyone help me or gve some thought on the subject.
Just the same as when objects are sanctified for your usage, people can also be potentiated to sensitivity by flooding them with fine prana. You might notice that, in pranic healing, subjects will yield to undemanded wishes of the operator.
A law of justice is in effect. Finer energies have power over the more coarse. The coarse, indicative of a coarser mentality, has effects opposite of those intended as it bounces back. Therefore, the teacher has no reason to distrust you if you are given dharmic concepts.