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Nornagest comments on Open thread, Apr. 01 - Apr. 05, 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: MrMind 31 March 2015 10:06AM

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Comment author: Nornagest 01 April 2015 06:41:54PM *  1 point [-]

To be fair, I haven't seen many of them. They exist, but I don't think they tend to be very successful in the West; there's a market for martial arts steeped in mystical fluff, but the Omoto-kyo Shintoism that the more esoteric aikido branches are rooted in is deeply weird even by Japanese standards, and it doesn't fit particularly well with the watered-down holism-and-wellness narrative that Western students who're so inclined tend to expect.

The branch of aikido I'm most familiar with is Yoshinkan, which is one of the earlier, harder ones.

Comment author: Lumifer 01 April 2015 07:00:34PM 1 point [-]

Interesting. I looked up Omoto-kyo and it seems I have underestimated its weirdness. Zamenhof as a kami is an... unusual idea :-/

But returning full circle, it doesn't seem wise for a girl who sees spirits to start a practice the mystical bits of which involve possession by spirits...