Despite the title of this book, there is nothing mysterious about "ki." It is a concept popularly used in traditional psychology. Meaning variously "mind," "heart" and "spirit," it, like the equally vague "kokoro," postulates a quality that accounts for observed phenomena.
There are over 40 expressions using "ki," (a quick-tempered person is found to have a "mijikai ki") and Hiroshi Wagatsuma, the anthropologist, has listed all of them. He also notes (along with Takeo Doi, whose "Japanese Language as an Expression of Japanese Psychology" is required reading) that "ki" is always the subject of the statement itself. That is, the individual is not the subject -- "ki" is. It may belong to us, but we somehow belong more to it. It is as though it has a life of its own.
This is why "ki," like equivalent concepts in English ("soul," for example), can be used for many purposes, some having little to do with psychology. In the famous "manga" "Akira," for example, "ki" describes an energy supporting supernatural powers.
On a much more subtle level, this is also what Kouzo Kaku's book does. It speaks of watching the masters "split stones with only the slightest touch of the finger," approvingly uses such terms as "New Age" as though they had a definition, and contains pictures showing "cancer cells destroyed by the external radiation of 'ki.' "
Kaku is not at all anxious to define the subject of his book, since this would considerably dispel the mystery, and so Wagatsuma and Doi go unmentioned -- there is, indeed, no bibliography. Rather, Kaku follows the more popular concepts of "ki" and soon leads the reader to Zen ("generally an effective means of acquiring 'ki' ") and thence into the martial arts.
Here is a rich field for metaphysical possibility, since mystique has long controlled the varied conceptualizations of "budo"; and from here the author may proceed to healing philosophies, pressure points and "The Way of the Fist."
He may also affirm a subtext of which he might not be aware. This is the necessity for uniqueness that all of us feel, but which the Japanese perhaps more honestly and openly show. "Ki" is signally a Japanese quality (though Chinese ancestors are acknowledged) and may thus for identity-building purposes be ranked with differently constructed brains, longer intestines that do not readily digest meat, and other singularly perceived attributes.
At the same time, there is little of the chauvinism that is sometimes detected in such endeavors. When "ki" gets to Shinto, for example, the author speaks of "the strange influence of the nationalistic indoctrination of prewar days," and doubts that "the particular type of Shintoism represented for the Imperial family and the aristocracy in the genesis legends or ancestral worship has anything to do with the folklore of the simple Shinto faith."
At the same time, however, "ki" must remain "an unknown life force" if the author's ambitions are to be achieved. And, indeed, if "ki" is to be defined as other than a grammatical construct, there is something funny about it. Kaku speaks of parallels with Dr. Mesmer and his theory of biological magnetism, and of Wilhelm Reich and his notorious Orgon Box. I would suggest a more sober parallel with the technique of "imagism," just now gaining grudging entry into medical circles. Everything is magic until it is proved to be science.
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