#groundbreaking science

I wouldn’t wish to give the impression ki is responsible for the entirety of those sensations. Chemicals in the brain like dopamine and oxytocin play a large part in governing how we feel and act. But there’s that last element - how our emotions can become physical and arrest us completely at times - that can never quite be explained away as the sum of brain cells firing. The wonder of life itself can be broken down to the cellular level without losing any majesty (to me at any rate), however I can tell you from experience building these components back up again to model an entire person is somewhat more challenging. The task is made a fraction simpler when ki is taken into account. Ki is the thread that weaves us together, taking us from a collection of cells to one being. And beyond the self, it is ki that draws us together as people.   

You are most likely not consciously aware of your ki-sense, but the ability to detect its presence within and around you already exists and can be brought to the forefront. This sense can be turned into a literal power, from having a mere sensitivity to ki to gaining conscious control quickly. How quickly that is, is up to you. 

This chapter will outline the traditional understanding of ki and where that needs to be updated, the different components of ki and its natural use in the world. The next chapter will move towards developing your own abilities. 

1.1 The Traditional View 

Ki, in a word, is energy. In three, it is the energy of life. Ki is not an energy like electricity or heat. The most familiar analogy would be light as it has particles and a field, but even that model falls apart quickly and… I’m getting ahead of myself. Let us ease in with a traditional, serviceable understanding, gently reframe parts of the explanation, then build up. 

The sensing and control of ki does not require the user to be proficient in the martial arts. However, the majority of ki-users on Earth gained their experience through this route and it is the most natural way to pick up the prerequisites. Masters of old would typically introduce ki early as a concept to a student; only after years of intense physical and meditative training to hone the body and mind would the student then start to practice ki-control. Students may then dedicate their lives to perfecting a few techniques in safe sparring environments, until they themselves could lead others in the same training. Very rarely would there be a true conflict in which to test these techniques. 

Studying ki was not always an enlightened pursuit. Contrary to what was often taught as a form of self-flattery, one does not have to be a good person to use ki - life would be a lot easier for our planet if that were the case! A few students did not take the lessons on responsibility to heart and would leave schools for a life of crime using their new abilities. The more unscrupulous masters dangled the chance of preferential ki-training in front of their richest students to fund their schools, increasing the power of the richest families. Knowledge of ki then became a two-tier system and it is unsurprising that in days gone by the use of ki was feared or derided. As ki-training was dropped from schools, fewer students learnt to pass on the knowledge. Nowadays ki as an idea has fallen from wider public consciousness completely. 

Each of these schools had their own physical and ki-based techniques that were closely-guarded secrets. A school without a unique style or technique was not an attractive school to attend; why learn there when you could learn all that and more in the next district over? Espionage was rife to ruin the competition and some of the largest schools were the most underhanded. Even now, with only two schools teaching ki-control and both masters good friends, some techniques remain off-limits as a tacit agreement to preserve a sense of identity. The same mostly friendly rivalry exists between ki-using families.

November 798 at Capsule Corporation, between myself (then 41), my younger brother Son Goten (31) and his close friend Trunks (32) of Capsule Corporation fame. All three of us are experienced martial artists and ki users.

Gohan: Have you ever taught each other your fathers’ signature techniques?  Goten: Well that’s a silly question - Trunks: Not formally. The Kamehameha was forbidden at home. So, naturally... Gohan: Aah, so you do know it? Trunks: I picked it up even before Gotenks* was around. If Dad asks I have never, ever done it. And neither has Bra.** [laughs] Goten: Your Dad must know the move by now. Trunks: Of course! But he’d never admit it. Goten: The Kamehameha’s a little like his Galick-Ho, by the way. Which I’ve also never, ever done.

(*Gotenks (31), a member of both families who will be discussed in later chapters; **Bra (18), Trunks’ younger sister.)

Naturally then, very little by way of older documentation exists for me to draw a general, traditional explanation from. Fortunately I happened to have had a variety of teachers over the years - both formal and informal - and I contacted as many as possible to get their ki introductions. The distilled version is this: 

Ki is the energy of life, a type of fire created in the body. Life surrounds us and therefore so does ki. It is carried in the breath, generated in the internal furnace known as our centre when we inhale, and our exhalation encourages the flow of ki through our bodies where it can be used. Whilst humans have the special capacity to manipulate ki, animals also have breath and so have ki themselves. Plants may not have lungs but they do breathe; a plant starved of any air will wither and die, its ki dying with it. The planet itself breathes, with air in the soil and bubbles in streams, and the centre of the planet itself is a great furnace of fire generating ki. 

Like the breath, ki is owned by a life but is not restricted to the body. It extends beyond the self as an aura, with the energy itself waiting for a command on which to act. Beyond the fraction that is needed for the body to function, ki can be withdrawn back to the body to amplify actions, effectively increasing physical strength. The practised student will be able to detect changes in ki aura intensity and flow in the people around them, identifying illness or shifts in concentration. Feeling ki and talking to your own is a difficult skill to develop. However, with quiet contemplation and training in the breath one can draw ki from their centre and direct it outwards, concentrating it in the hands to the point of true visibility, then unleashing literally explosive effects on the world around them. Mastery of ki then imparts a need for responsible behaviour on the student, and the most potent abilities must only be used in defence. 

There are alternate but equal explanations of ki as a type of wood instead of fire. In systems with five elements (metal, water, wood, fire and earth) these elements create and disrupt each other. Masters noted that wood is nourished by water, creates fire through burning, and metal in the form of axes can break wood. Likewise, water creates life and therefore ki, and metal can destroy it (not necessarily through axes, the ingestion of heavy metals can cause a gruesome death). In particular they observed that breathing on a near-extinguished fire can bring it back to life, much like adding wood. They argued then that fire came from ki and so ki must be aligned to wood, rather than ki being fire itself.  

This kind of explanation is not limited to Earth. The Namekians, a peaceful race of aliens I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and learning much from, emphasise the connectedness of their ki to the world around them. They impress upon their children stewardship responsibilities and fighting to preserve all forms of life. In contrast the Saiyan warrior race focussed on the differences between their stronger ki and animals’, instead taking the view their relative superior strength was a gift to utilise. I use the past tense here for good reason, but more on that tangent later. Earth-based teachings of ki exist somewhere between these two extremes. The common threads - the importance of breath, projecting inner strength outwards, and all life having ki - are consistent throughout the Universe.  

From experience I can tell you there are a number of misconceptions in the above explanations. My teachers were aware of them themselves, but found small untruths were easier to teach on the first pass. Neither the traditional elements nor the planet generate or destroy ki, it is life itself “creating” it within the body’s centre. The breath doesn’t carry ki, although breath and ki-control are closely linked. However, people and animals do have unique auras and sensing their turbulence is a useful skill, and ki can both greatly augment physical strength and be projected outwards. 

How these misconceptions arose before modern science is easily understood when experiencing the world through ki, as we shall see next.