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Test your might.
Jul. 14th, 2006 09:31 amWhilst chatting to the eternally gorgeous ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tzel yesterday I mentioned "Otherkin". For the uninitiated, Otherkin are people who believe that not only do we have reincarnated souls, but they in particular possess the reincarnated souls of mythological creatures. Be those creatures from a lost time of magic on our own Earth (which seems to have been missed from the fossil record), or from other planets where elves, dragons and the like still live, Otherkin possess memories of their previous lives as these fantasic beings. If you can name a creature from myth or legend (but most Otherkin seem to be elves, dragons, or vampires), then it's quite likely that you can find someone, somewhere, who thinks they were one in a previous life.
Fortunately I was alone in the office yesterday afternoon, but I still managed to laugh so loudly that one of the people in the next unit put his head round the door and asked me to keep it down.
Otherkin have conventions, or 'gathers', and a part of me is sorely tempted to go along in a Louis Theroux's wierd weekends sort of way just so I could wander round asking people questions like "So, how many experience points did they get for killing you?" and guessing what people were in their past lives ("Let me guess...a half orc? A Black Pudding? No, wait, I've got it! A Shambling Mound!").
This wasn't really what I was going to talk about today, but I couldn't help it. You see, whilst I was surfing about, I came across someone who described himself as a 'Reiki Master', and I got to wondering about how, precisely, one becomes one of those*.
Once a month I'm lucky enough to get to train with Ninja Master, who is recognised internationally as one of the seven world masters of the form. He was awarded his accolade after winning an all-China full-contact combat championship three years in a row, and I'm sort of wondering if Reiki Masters have to do something similar. In order to become a Reiki master, does one have to defeat someone who already holds that title? I know that in competitive origami, elevation to the rank of master can only be acheived by killing your opponent with folded paper and I'm wondering what form you lot feel that competitive Reiki should take. Is there a course, and how long does it take to earn your Reiki Black belt? Do you have to mend broken boards? Without touching them? The mind boggles.
*To my considerable disappointment, I learn that you can be "attuned" and become a Master of Reiki by giving Grandmaster Hawayo Takata and her successors a cheque for US$10,000. I suspect that if I offered Ninja Master a cheque to teach me the death touch when I see him next, it'd go the worse for me.
tzel yesterday I mentioned "Otherkin". For the uninitiated, Otherkin are people who believe that not only do we have reincarnated souls, but they in particular possess the reincarnated souls of mythological creatures. Be those creatures from a lost time of magic on our own Earth (which seems to have been missed from the fossil record), or from other planets where elves, dragons and the like still live, Otherkin possess memories of their previous lives as these fantasic beings. If you can name a creature from myth or legend (but most Otherkin seem to be elves, dragons, or vampires), then it's quite likely that you can find someone, somewhere, who thinks they were one in a previous life.Fortunately I was alone in the office yesterday afternoon, but I still managed to laugh so loudly that one of the people in the next unit put his head round the door and asked me to keep it down.
Otherkin have conventions, or 'gathers', and a part of me is sorely tempted to go along in a Louis Theroux's wierd weekends sort of way just so I could wander round asking people questions like "So, how many experience points did they get for killing you?" and guessing what people were in their past lives ("Let me guess...a half orc? A Black Pudding? No, wait, I've got it! A Shambling Mound!").
This wasn't really what I was going to talk about today, but I couldn't help it. You see, whilst I was surfing about, I came across someone who described himself as a 'Reiki Master', and I got to wondering about how, precisely, one becomes one of those*.
Once a month I'm lucky enough to get to train with Ninja Master, who is recognised internationally as one of the seven world masters of the form. He was awarded his accolade after winning an all-China full-contact combat championship three years in a row, and I'm sort of wondering if Reiki Masters have to do something similar. In order to become a Reiki master, does one have to defeat someone who already holds that title? I know that in competitive origami, elevation to the rank of master can only be acheived by killing your opponent with folded paper and I'm wondering what form you lot feel that competitive Reiki should take. Is there a course, and how long does it take to earn your Reiki Black belt? Do you have to mend broken boards? Without touching them? The mind boggles.
*To my considerable disappointment, I learn that you can be "attuned" and become a Master of Reiki by giving Grandmaster Hawayo Takata and her successors a cheque for US$10,000. I suspect that if I offered Ninja Master a cheque to teach me the death touch when I see him next, it'd go the worse for me.
