By Claus Hansen, Member until 2017

I had somewhat mixed expectations for KI & meditation course 1. Among other things, because many years ago I had the first version of the course, which was on a very philosophical level, not exactly something for someone with a natural science background who is looking for a natural explanation for everything.

Therefore, it was also with somewhat mixed feelings that I was almost forced to participate once again in the course, which I did not have high expectations for. I had expected that it was what I had already been through before, so I didn't really believe it when I was told that it was new and aimed at everyone who was interested in it, and not like previous very experienced instructors, and I therefore for had to participate in the course.

But I want to say I was not disappointed, it was a completely different course from the one I had previously participated in. It appealed to me much more. Maybe because I think I got more tools and got more to think about.

Now I don't know what they were talking about for the first 25 minutes, when I had been delayed due to the amount of snow that had fallen the previous days. But despite that, the course was very practically oriented, peppered with a few good stories by Jens Kyoshi, who complemented the two course instructors; Søren Renshi and Martin Renshi-dai (my little brother!).

We got a few good breathing exercises, which can probably also be transferred to our karate, when you get some time to digest it. If nothing else, they can be used to achieve a relaxed state in the body.

It was also a little taster of some of the areas that exist within meditation and a little theoretical talk about what ki is. For me, all this talk about ki is always something very philosophical, because it is difficult to measure. Therefore, I have chosen to relate it to something I can relate to. To me, Ki is a form of energy just like anything else. I once heard a researcher at CERN state that all matter and energy can be described with energy in several dimensions. I can relate to that because I know Einstein's formula, E is equal to M times C squared. (Energy equals mass times light speed squared). That's why it didn't seem so far-fetched to me to answer, as I did, to the question how old is KI. There were various bids for it 1000 years 2000 years etc. For me the answer is as old as the universe. If ki is energy then it has been around as long as the universe and according to astronomers it is a good 14 billion years, quite a long time in human terms and difficult to get around. "May the force be with you".

But there were also a few practical exercises included in the course. Here there was a certain exercise that I think was really cool. And to begin with, inexplicable. We all had to sit relaxed on our chairs. Preferably in the way you had instructed early on. Relaxed and on the edge of your seat. You had to breathe deeply with your stomach, or down into it, while you tried to clear your head of all the trivialities of the day. It is in itself a relaxing exercise. During the session, an audio file with different tones was played. I think it was Buddhist monks who sat and "jummed". Periodically, the tone rose an octave. When you sat there and had emptied your head of thoughts and listened to the tone, you could sense how the sound moved up through the body from between the flesh and to the "breath hole at the top of the head." It was supposed to be the 7 sacras that were to be affected by the different tones. Which I think was clearly noticeable. It took me some time to find the physical explanation for it. But luckily for me, there was a logical explanation for it. But I will leave that to you to find for yourselves. But all in all a very fun and relaxing course which was over far too quickly. I want to wish you a lot of fun with it, I got a lot out of it.