I don't know much about Aikido, but I will share part of an email I got from a friend of mine around 3 and a half years ago after his trip to Japan... I think it is pretty amazing. This guy is totally genuine too, he isn't the type of person who would make something like this up.

After I conquered Mount Fuji, I spent some time in Tokyo. Whilst I was there I met a rather interesting girl called Yuki. After talking to her for sometime it transpired that she was an Aikido expert. We talked for a bit about the philosophy of the discipline and the like and then she told me that she was going to a dojo the next day to learn from a certain sensei.

I won't name the sensei, nor will I say in which part of the country the dojo is in. What i will say is that the sensei is the last living disciple of Morihei Ueshibas' original school. Anyone who is interested will be able to work it out from that with a little investigation.

Now, Yuki said that she had trained under him before and that his powers were beyond compare. She claimed that he could knock over assailants without even touching them and could sense what other people were thinking or feeling.

I was somewhat sceptical and suggested that it must be some form of hypnotism, that is that those pupils who spend some time with him become indoctrinated and when he gives a certain sign they will collapse as if struck.

To cut a long story short, she ended up inviting me to come down to the dojo and see for myself.She advised me that it was unlikely that he would use such a technique on me, as without any prior training it might kill me.

Following the journey down to the dojo, I had my first experience of the sensei.

He was sat meditating on the floor and when I walked into the room he said, without opening his eyes, there is no need to be nervous even the master was a beginner once. Not bad, knew I was a beginner and English without opening his eyes.

Anyway, then the fun really started. There were about twenty people in the dojo and he got them all to demonstrate what they had learnt, before telling them that the secret of Aikido is that we have the power of the universe at our disposal and we can extend this energy from our bodies infinitely.

And so, on to his first demonstration.featuring, yes you guessed it, yours truly. He told me that I did not have to do anything, just stand up. So I stood there and faced him. He was about three foot away. He closed his eyes and then after about a minute or so he held his finger up in front of him and moved it from side to side. It felt like a crane had picked me up and started swaying me. I tried to stay on my feet and I simply collapsed on the floor. Quite impressive. He demonstrated the same technique on others, making me feel slightly less stupid.

He did a number of other things equally as impressive, but I am already droning on so I will get to the most truly incredible part.

He asked me to attack him. Bearing in mind this guy is over 80 and looked frail, I felt a little foolish. I threw a somewhat half hearted punch which he easily blocked.

He informed me that the fact that I had thrown such a poor punch meant that I thought I could hit him and that was extremely disrspectful, so told me to hit him again.

Now I haven't had any martial arts training but I have done some boxing training as you know, so I started to throw a few punches at him. I have never seen anyone so fast. He made me feel like I was moving in slow motion. He again told me that I was not putting my all into it and that I was not to disrepect him again.

He told me to stand at a point about eight feet away and told me to attack him again, but this time with all my effort. I figured that he was a lot faster than me, so I decided that I would simply run at him and jump out of the way, grab him and use my considerable weight advantage to drag him over and then bash his face in lol.

So I start running towards him, and I am about four feet away when he changes his position slightly and says something like 'huiy'.

Something hit me. At first I actually thought that he had shot me. It felt like a brick wall had smashed into my stomach. I was lay on the floor and looked at my stomach, but it wasn't bleeding which confused me even more. I tried to sit up, at which point I realised that I was about to pass out. The sensei walked over and put his hands on my head and told me to take his hands. At that point all I can say is that he filled me with some of his energy because my stomach area felt like it was pulsating.It was like having an american football in me, swelling and then getting smaller and then swelling again.

The only way that I can describe it, is that I felt perfect in every way. Truly the most amazing thing I have ever experienced.

At the end of my day there he told me that I had seen what I came to see, and then he got all Crowley-esque, saying that I had seen that if the will of the universe is on your side then truly anything is possible. He said that the power of the universe is infinite and can never be defeated, it can only be turned back on itself.

Truly an unbelievable day, and it already seems like a fantasy even though it was less than a week ago.