Episode #0236 (24 October 2010)

[Captain Awesome]

I am a huge fan of the podcast.

However I found myself cringing throughout the episode, I was hoping to hear more specifics about the origins the philosophies and the mythology of "ki" (religious and otherwise) and how they were applied/adapted by Toriyama for Dragonball. Instead it was a long drawn out conversation bordering on the inane as you talked in circles about this nebulous undefinable energy and it's "real world" applications.

The episode was hard to listen to for me because it simply wasn't informative, it consisted mainly of Kendamu expressing his personal beliefs on the subject and managing to be completely and utterly vague while doing so.

Sorry Kendamu, you sound like a cool guy, but it's hard to stomach the kind of conversation you guys were having when the crown jewel for the "real world" applications of Ki argument, was an episode of Ripley's Believe it or not.

Edit: It's not that I expected any real tangible evidence (I'm a skeptic), I guess I just expected an interesting yarn part Dragonball part Eastern mythology.

[desirecampbell]

Re: Captain Awesome:

Yeah, the discussion could have really benefited from focusing on what the real world thoughts on ki were (historically and in modern times) and how that relates to Dragon Ball. Which is how the topic seemed to start, but it moved further and further away from Dragon Ball and ended as a discussion simply about ki as a concept in medicine.

Specific examples about how Kendamu using the concept of ki in his personal training would have been good too (also helpful is bringing the conversation back to Dragon Ball). I know Kendamu uses a breathing technique to keep warm (did he mention this on the podcast?).

I really enjoyed Kendamu's explanation of ki as 'energy', 'emotion', 'mindset'. Though he stopped just short of spelling out "ki is not an energy itself, but a representation of all the 'energies' a person experiences."

[DerekPadula]

I was hoping to hear more specifics about the origins the philosophies and the mythology of "ki" (religious and otherwise) and how they were applied/adapted by Toriyama for Dragonball. It's not that I expected any real tangible evidence (I'm a skeptic), I guess I just expected an interesting yarn part Dragonball part Eastern mythology.

After reading your comment I decided to post an excerpt from the Divine Combat chapter called Zenkai Power where I discuss some of these topics. It's rather esoteric because it's from the last chapter of the book, and it deals with topics that were hidden from common knowledge until the last few decades, but I try to make it simple and understandable.

Is this the kind of thing you were hoping for?

[Kendamu]

Thanks for the feedback. I personally felt like I was rambling, but it turned out better than I thought.

I will have to say that I wasn't expressing personal beliefs and I did go into it saying, "Hey. Read the sources of my blog entries for a better explanation." I was expressing my results from research and from classical texts.

As I've said already, I plan on revising the way I express my ideas and putting it on Sparking Turtle with a deeper connection to Dragonball. So you'll have the opportunity to get a better look at everything.

Seriously, though, go do what I said in the podcast and head to Sparking Turtle and read my most recent Ki entry. You'll get a better look at the real science that I warned listeners that I wasn't good at expressing this time around.

Again, Thanks for the feedback. I plan on improving my writing and speaking very soon.