The situation seemed hopeless. In a dark St. Petersburg gateway, two late schoolchildren and a neighbor accompanying them were confronted by a "flying squad" of drunken punks. Requests to "light a cigarette" have been made. It will begin now …
Unsurpassed masters
But what is it? The neighbor makes several wave movements, directing his open palms towards the aggressors, and they fall, although he did not even touch the hooligans. The fact is that the schoolchildren's neighbor was the head of the St. Petersburg school of ninjutsu Bujinkan dojo Vladimir Suvorov, who was fluent in the science of contactless combat, the Russian variety of ninja combat magic, ninpo-mikkyo.
At the same time, regardless of the events that took place in the residential area of Kupchino, the famous St. Petersburg magician Sergei Schwartz froze in the lotus position in his apartment on Ligovka in the 1990s. The enchanted disciples of the master watched him conduct an "astral battle" with an opponent located … in the United States.
The fight ended with a score of 1: 0 in favor of the better trained Schwartz, who owns astral karate. Soon, a phone call from across the ocean rang in Sensei's apartment. The phone worked in speakerphone mode. Everyone who understands English heard the American opponent ask to "stop the attacks": "A little more, and I have had a stroke!"
In order to figure out whether those fights were performances advertising the schools of contactless combat and astral karate, or the incredible really took place, we would need to travel back in time, accompanied by experts who can dot the i's. Unable to do this, we offer our readers an unbiased essay on these two - perhaps the most controversial - martial arts.
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A bit of theory
According to adherents of contactless combat, it consists in the ability to incapacitate the enemy without touching him, due to his internal energy. Try to imagine this by looking at the first person next to you. Imagine: he throws himself at you to give you a cuff. But you make a wave movement with your hands, without touching the aggressor, and now he is helplessly falling to the floor.
Another thing is astral karate, which can be considered a kind of voodoo magic, which has abandoned the famous dolls and needles. You keep looking at the same experimental, unaware that he has become the object of your research, and mentally give him a slap.
Now imagine that, in contrast to contactless combat, when the opponent is at arm's length (feet) from you, the astral karate master's sparring partner can be at least far away. But this still will not save him from an "astral blow that breaks through the protective bioenergetic field" (according to the Akharat school).
Delayed death
Some martial arts fans like to talk about the fact that every self-respecting school has an outer and inner style. To put it simply, the exterior styling is simply the felling. Internal - a soldier is allowed to comprehend it in 10-15 years - the science of “delayed death strikes”, methods of non-contact defeat of the enemy through his own internal energy.
In Moscow in 1967, perhaps the first martial arts school in the world (Akharata) was born, which concentrated on comprehending the internal style. It was headed by Valery Averyanov, or, as he himself preferred to call himself, the guru Var-Avera. Today this school, according to the founder, "which existed in a semi-legal position until 1985, was repeatedly subjected to repressions by the KGB," continues to thrive.
And Var-Avera himself - again, according to his testimony, “trained the GRU special forces, advised the security of the presidents of the USSR - Gorbachev and the Russian Federation - Yeltsin, carried out confidential tasks of the General Staff of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB (KGB)” - moved to Israel, preferring engage in analytical, lecture and educational activities.
Having mentioned this fact, we put an end to the legend, popular among the "initiates", that Var-Avera allegedly died in the late 1980s: while meditating, he went to the astral plane, and then he did not want to return the wandering soul to his mortal body.
Caution, life-threatening
How effective are the methods of "astral defeat" from the Aharat school? The author of these lines invited five experts in the field of martial arts to analyze the textbook "Astral Karate", written by Valery Sergeevich back in the Soviet years. Their almost unanimous conclusion: "astral attacks" according to Averyanov, performed by an experienced master, can really cause serious damage to the opponent - up to severe damage to the nervous and cardiovascular systems. However, independently studying this textbook is death.
It is impossible to say, intentionally or not, but the master laid in his textbook "traps" similar to those contained in the infamous "Anarchist Cookbook" - an anonymous textbook that supposedly reveals to potential terrorists all the subtleties of their activities. An inexperienced person, most likely, in the course of independent training according to Averyanov, will cause irreparable damage to his health. Up to death. As well as a newcomer terrorist according to the "recipes" from the aforementioned book, while making explosives, he will go to the forefathers.
Why are such "traps" laid? There is a conspiracy theory according to which the books we mentioned were created under the patronage of the special services. In the days of the USSR, when even typewriters were on a special account, "Astral Karate" went from hand to hand in the lists printed in … one of the "mailboxes" with the output data thereof. However, it is possible that just in a closed research institute, Averyanov had fans who had access to duplicating equipment.
Strong fist against "powerful energy"
Readers with access to the Internet can type in the YouTube search bar: "Master of contactless combat against …" - and see with their own eyes which is more significant: a strong fist or "powerful energy". For the rest, we will tell the story of the duel of the Japanese virtuoso of the contactless style against the master (intermediate level) of ultimate fighting.
The Japanese "contactless", advertising his school, first posted a video on the Internet, where he scattered dozens of opponents with wave movements of his hands and body. And then he offered $ 5,000 to any daredevil who would resist him in a full-time duel.
Such a daredevil was soon found. And with a crowd of spectators in a couple of minutes he broke the nose of the "Jedi", after which the fight was stopped by the referee.
Contactless combat: three reasons for skepticism
Despite the obvious similarities between astral karate and non-contact combat - in both cases, “internal energy” is involved - they are fundamentally different in terms of the purpose of their application.
It is understandable when, say, the special services want masters to work for them, capable of sending some, for example, a malicious terrorist, to their forefathers. And here masters of astral karate are in demand.
In turn, "non-contact" claims the laurels of the "art of close combat", and its adherents - for involvement in various special forces or teaching them this art. And here questions arise. To what extent does a modern special forces officer need to be a master of hand-to-hand combat, even if it is a contact one? Imagine: in order to engage in hand-to-hand combat, a "special" must break away from his group, get lost, lose his weapon, and only then find the same sloppiness in order to fight him.
Comprehending the art of non-contact combat takes much more time than “hand-to-hand” - if only because we tend to clench our hands into fists at times, in contrast to the invisible energy fist, which not everyone can feel. Any real spetsnaz trainer will explain to you that people first of all need to be trained in regular skills, and not "exotic".
And finally, why aren't the acclaimed and highly publicized "non-contact" picking up challenges from the classic martial arts? And if they do, then everything ends as in the story of the self-confident Japanese "Jedi"?
"Shkval" and others
However, in some cases, contactless combat is by no means a profanation of martial arts.
Recently on TV there was a report about a GRU officer who demonstrated to the American military delegation the art of non-contact combat, still based on Soviet traditions. The name of this officer is Alexander Leonidovich Lavrov. Video recordings of his mastery lessons can be found on the Web at the request “GRU system“Shkval”. There are also masters of non-contact combat in Belarus - completely former Soviet saboteurs, even with the experience of Afgan …
So is the author of these lines contradicting himself? I'll try to explain myself. Firstly, we are talking about unique people. Moreover, it is not a fact that if you are lucky enough to be among their, so to speak, exclusive students, these masters will be able to teach you their own skills - due to your unwillingness to perceive them.
Secondly, the cornerstone of non-contact combat is deep knowledge in the field of anatomy, psychophysiology, higher nervous activity and even acquaintance (at least) with the theory of multidimensional space.
Thus, this discipline is more interesting, oddly enough, to an armchair researcher trying to comprehend some phenomena that have not yet been explained by traditional science, rather than to the future defender of the homeland. At the same time, neophytes of contactless combat are not able to find a few real bearers of mastery.
Too much advertising slag around him. On the other hand, the corresponding unique ones rarely attract the attention of academics, who are apparently busy with more practical matters.