TOUCH SENSITIVITY

TOUCH SENSITIVITY-- THE BEGINNING

This is the exercise that makes Huc Chung a science,
instead of just a myth that exists in the world of martial arts.

This is a superb exercise that started when Master Reeders told me to stare at a wall and get a feeling of fright. This exercise really gives you your first exposure in teaching you to train or expand your own mind in Huc Chung. To succeed, you will find the need to develop an extreme amount of discipline, concentration, and consistent perseverance. The exercise will eventually develop a substantial increase in your alertness and awareness of the "touch"-- yours and someone else's-- to the point that you will be protected while you sleep and NO ONE will be able to touch you. You can achieve this only if you carry out the exercise exactly as you are taught over a period of time.

Physically and consciously, it trains your "weak" side to be very fast and strong. (Your weak side is on the left if you are right-handed and vice versa.) The exercise also specifically trains you to move faster as one and tunes your reflexes, reactions, and coordination.

You will find that this is a form of self-hypnosis and at a certain point will open the doors of your mind to inner-mental visualization-- utilizing your "third eye," which is the start of the development of one of your "sixth senses." An example of this would be the image formed in your mind of a hand actually going to touch you even though you are looking away at the time.

Incorporated in touch sensitivity is a breathing exercise that will help you to concentrate, make you more substantial- physically (hard to move), and protect your internal vital organs.

Further benefits of touch sensitivity include: teaching you to have a clear, untroubled mind; it tends to strengthen the eye muscles, which has allowed some who have to wear glasses constantly to either not be so dependent upon them, or to discard them entirely. While this exercise is primarily designed to make you much more receptive, mentally, in avoiding a touch, rather than depending on a hold break (consider the touch might be that of a knife), it can be used aggressively to literally stop a man with a "look" as will be explained later in the course.

A person observing the touch sensitivity exercise without previously experiencing it would have some difficulty in understanding its essence. He would simply see two people, one standing in position 3 (feet parallel and pointing straight ahead, legs shoulder width apart) hands hanging straight down, eyes staring straight ahead; the other would be standing to the left of the above (if above person is right-handed), and slowly moving his left hand toward the first person's left shoulder. As the first person would feel the touch of the second, he would quickly strike the left arm of that person.

What could not be observed is what each participant is thinking during the exercise, so let's pretend that you are each person; and I will guide you through the thought processes that are vital to practicing touch sensitivity.

To be the first person, stand about two feet away from a wall in a lighted room, feet in position 3 (as described above). Your head should be bent down so that you are looking at the wall space about opposite of your stomach. Just stare the wall. Do not look at a crack or crevice, a nail or anything at all. Just stare. Your are looking at nothing in particular; you are looking at everything in general. You see to your right and to your left, as well as straight ahead. You are staring. DO NOT BLINK.

Now you have to use your imagination. Imagine it is night. You are home alone. You always lock the doors. You are getting ready for bed, and you hear cars outside, a clock, music somewhere-- did you lock the doors tonight you wonder. Well, you must have; you always do. You are getting into bed and you hear a noise . . .it sounds like a footstep. You think, "I must not have locked the door," and you are frightened. You are staring into the darkness, straining to listen for that footstep . . .you don't hear the clock, the car, the music, the talking-- you don't hear anything. Your heart is beating wildly! You want your heart to stop-- you cannot hear-- it is making too much noise. Your breathing is loud and irregular. You almost want to stop breathing because you are making too much noise. STOP. Quiet down inside. Just stare straight ahead. Open your eyes wide. Exert pressure and push your eyes outward- thus, dilating them. Your vision is blurred peripherally; the blur is working its way further into the center-- it is coming in further and further and further, until you are looking into a clear circle about the size of a silver dollar. Everything around this silver dollar will be blurry. By this time, your eyes will be so dilated that even a blue-eyed person's eyes will appear black.

Some people call this tunnel vision. In yoga, it is used to relax. The point we try to make with it is that it is the channel of mind you should be in-- that is, totally receptive and sensitive to the slightest touch or sound.

Your state of mind as the second person-- the person who touches the above person-- should be seriously competitive. This is a serious contest whereby if and only if each participant does his job correctly, both will benefit. As the second person, you try to get the first person to strike your arm away at the wrong time (either too soon or too late), for then you win. Your starting position is two feet to the left or right of the first person, depending, as explained previously, on whether the person is left or right-handed, facing his right or left shoulder. You ask him if he sees your elbow.. When he answers "yes," your arm that is closest to him moves towards his upper arm and shoulder-- not too slow, yet not too fast-- giving him a chance to bring his vision in. You want to beat him when he is at his best. Try to alight upon a crease of his sweat shirt, gi, or other heavy garment as gently as possible, barely, just barely touching him. Your touch should be like a breath touching him ever so gently. Now, if you are the first person, I, in a way, might have misled you, for touch sensitivity does not mean you feel the touch per se. By then, it is much too late, because it could have been a knife "touching" you. If you don't feel the touch, what should you feel? The answer is maybe just a muscle twitch in your upper arm, or your arm will start to rise, or your legs will begin to shake; but more than likely, you will just get a weak, queasy feeling in your stomach. You become kind of nervous, and you just don't feel right. The following example may help to explain your inner feeling: sometime in your experience, when you were really engrossed in reading or studying, did you ever suddenly get the feeling that someone was staring at you or had quietly entered the room; you looked around and there someone was? That is the feeling I'm trying to describe-- the feeling you should have when you are the receiver of the touch in this exercise. Strike quickly. You are about to be touched. You should strive to strike away the hand that is touching you at the same time that it is registering in the toucher's head that he is touching you. You do not move until he is sure he is just starting to touch you in his mind-- your strike matches his mind.

Only the two participants of this exercise will know for now if the recipient of the touch is striking away the hand at the right time. It is a very tedious exercise, but you should practice it correctly for at least a half hour a day every day, if possible. Right away, you will know the difference between the touch that is in the air and the one that is on you ever so gently, for the person doing the touching will let you know that he has beaten you at that point and will want you to know this difference so he can get you at your very best.

The advanced form of this will be taught in a later lesson, for this is the beginning of the infamous look that stops a person dead in his tracks. It is a form of hypnotism that enables you to move at a person without him realizing you are moving. He simply will not see you coming. More of this later. For now, just do the exercise as I have described it here.

If you have any problems, pleast feel free to E-mail me. Good luck.