Beast Magic

As a biped, we have a unique relationship with gravity. Our ability to remain upright and balanced is an amazing neural feat.be It is so ingrained that we do not notice its functioning whatsoever. Not even when the system is disrupted. Whether that be for a moment or chronically.   That system can be honed. It can be developed poorly. It can alter itself to adjust to an injury. And amazingly we can build new systems, with new rules, that operate in completely different ways than our bipedal balance system. Once we have new systems we can switch between them seamlessly.   How amazing is that? Our system of balance is so automatic that we do not perceive its functioning. Hardly less automatic than the beating of our heart or the balancing of electrolytes within our blood. Yet we can program it to have a new function.   In some theories of human evolution this ability to walk upright is what evolved us into humans. It gave us an advantage in the Savanah environment. We could carry things. We could travel longer distances. These abilities gave us the ability to hunt and forage at a greater distance and then bring our spoils back to the group. Where we were protected. Additionally, it may have given us some protection from the heat. An upright body has a smaller surface area. It absorbs less heat. And this may have given us more ability to travel during the day. When predators could not.   But I would argue that this ability was certainly a factor in our evolution. It was not the core factor. The core factor was the ability to change our brains to do so. It was neuroplasticity and neurogenesis together. And that ability, in my estimation, happened long before walking. It would have given us advantages prior to the advantage of walking. As I will discuss in other pages.   For now, let’s stick to the function of bipedal balance.   As infants we first learn to roll over and then scoot. Next comes crawling. There are a variety of types of crawling but the main two are commando crawling and cross crawl. In normal development, commando happens first and then the more efficient cross crawling is learned.   How is it learned? We can probably never know for sure. It would likely require cruel and inhumane experiments to find out. And that should never be done. Understandings in science is never worth that.   Could it be discovered by the baby? It is possible, but not likely. In my opinion, it is learned.   From the cross crawl, there are then many intermediary steps that all lead to walking. Similarly starting with a unilateral motion and then quickly adjusting to the bilateral motion initially learned in cross crawls.   But why and how did the baby do this?   The why is because the other creatures around him do it. We are mimickers.   The how is the same. Because other creatures around him, which he has an affinity, move in that way. We are, at the core, visual-spatial learners. We slowly build the neural network to perceive the space around us. We build the neural network to perceive ourselves separate from that space. We build the neural network to perceive our body’s position in that space. We build the neural network to perceive others in that space. And then naturally, because we have developed mirror neurons somehow along the way, we learn to mimic the motions of those others.   Would a baby raised by wolves ever learn to walk? Maybe. It’s possible that we have some degree of hardwiring such as other animals do. Horses can walk or run at about 90 minutes after birth. But we don’t seem to. We seem to be, barring the innate understanding of suckling, a clean slate.   It is our visual-spatial abilities that lead our learning. Those abilities create who we are.   Turkeys, as an example, have everything they need to survive at birth except for one thing. The lay of the land. For this, they need their mother. It takes a great deal of time for them to learn their domain and we do not know how much of their learning of this is visual-spatial. I do know that changes in things in their environment can really throw them off.   Humans have none of that. A turkey might get lucky and survive if he had no mother. A human baby would have no chance at all.   We mimic others. Because these others have survived, if we mimic what and how they do things, we are more likely to survive.   Obviously, survival in today’s world is different than in the ancient world. The poor turkeys have not yet adapted to deal with cars. They are slow adapters.   But humans are fast adapters. The fastest adapters in the animal kingdom. That is our strength. That is how we came to exist. Our brains learn and adapt quickly and our bodies don’t do too bad either.   So is it reasonable to assume that early humans moved differently than today’s humans?   Actually, it is provably so.   Esther Gokhale (https://gokhalemethod.com/) has studied the postural systems of modern humans as compared to primitive cultures. She has also studied early photographs as well as statues from early cultures. Universally these cultures and pictures show the same thing. A more erect posture with the hips extended more towards the posterior. Additionally, she has determined that this change in posture changed very recently. Her theory links it to the rise of fashion. Fashion models learned to take on more bored or pouty postures. This was to indicate indifference. Indifference is linked to confidence and confidence is a feature of attraction. When we got mass distribution of this posture through magazines and then television, the populace quickly learned to take on these more slumped postures. The wide distribution through these

When I was much younger I had a raging temper. Not many people knew it because it rarely showed itself. Instead, it boiled below like a mass of pressurized lava. Unseen but inevitably catastrophic. I was a “nice guy”. A people pleaser. A guy who shunned or avoided violence. I grew up immersed in violence so I learned to be as invisible as possible. And if you know anything about psychology, all of that translates to a passive aggressive monster. Someone who is always on the edge of blowing up but somehow holds it together. Until they can’t Having been that I can now see that. The Prius driving, Tye Dye wearing seething putrescence covered by a thin veneer of peace. The hyper-educated intellectual who tries to cut off the heads of others with his superior knowledge. The Facebook hater who has to rectify every perceived wrong. A few times my hate for the world showed itself. Fortunately nothing too horrible ever happened. But it was close. In those times my intent was not defense of self or honor (The latter not being something worthy of violence). It was murder. A brick to the head. A machete to the neck. I was once less than a second away from killing a cop. Which, of course, would have ended in my own demise. It was stopped by the only person that could have stopped it. My wife. A monster. But not an uncommon monster. I often think about what is different now. And I do have some answers. Psychologically I am different. I have healed. But that is a whole ‘nother story. Too much for this simple blog post. There is also the gap. This is the interesting thing. The gap slowly formed. I wasn’t that aware of it for a long time. But slowly I noticed. It is both a gap in time and in space. It is a moment in time where my conscious mind is able to determine right or wrong. This moment did not exist before. The conscious mind was not even present. So it could not have existed. It is also a gap in the space between the conscious mind and the trained in predatory reflexes. Much like an observer. It’s a strange thing. Watching a monster. There’s a massive difference now that the gap exists. Now there’s an off switch. There’s a judgement of right and wrong. There’s a decision based upon that judgement. There is still a monster. That monster might even be nastier than before. But he sleeps comfortably. And when he awakes it’s usually just to play.

In explaining what Shou’ Shu’ is I typically use the three rules. It is a fighting art that: Coordinates the body in such a way that it generates flowing focussed chi Takes the opponents centerline in the first motion Blocks all possibilities   Typically when I hear other people explain what it is I hear them say that it is a Beast Art. But truly that is the how not the what. The fact that we come to the three rules through the motions of the seven beasts is immaterial. Could we discover an effective 8th beast who’s motions fit into the three rules? Certainly, it already exists in the Leopard. We have a touch of leapard used in Shou’ Shu’ but it is not developed out as a complete system. Simply because doing so would not bring enough gains to be worth the effort. So we just take a few bits here and there where they are useful. So truly, the beasts are the how, not the what. So how does the how work? Well, it is quite simply a beast synthesis. Combining seven disparate fighting systems into one. And like a symphony synthesizes the sounds of instruments into one beautiful whole, as a Shou’ Shu’ practitioner we synthesize seven fighting systems into one beautiful whole. The difference is that we play every instrument. That means that to truly create the beauty of Shou’ Shu’ we must play each instrument well. We practice each instrument individually and master that instrument as if it were the only instrument we were going to play.  That is what Shifu’s do.