Showing posts with label Steven Vance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steven Vance. Show all posts
Thursday, September 1, 2011
A Couple Quick Clips of Kuntao Mantis (Silat Tua):
In this clip, Pakcik Zainal is giving a brief demonstration of Kuntao Mantis. Various Chinese arts and animal styles fall within the umbrella of Silat Tua under the title of Kuntao (Kuntau).
This clip gives a few applications for Mantis techniques.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Its Been a Long Time...
...since I posted anything here. My father passed away a little before Christmas last year and my mother spent some time in the hospital with some health issues. We moved around the same time...which was sooner then we had been planning. It seems our landlord had decided to stop paying on the mortgage of the house we were living in. We found out when the lender came and posted paperwork on the front door. We managed to relocate down in the greater Portland area, in a much better (and cheaper) home than the previous, but the move set us back a great deal and we're only just digging ourselves out. I've had issues with my back. I think they are slowly resolving.
While I haven't done a huge amount of martial arts training this year, I've been actively networking with various people, mostly via Facebook, here in the States and abroad...primarily in Britain and Malaysia. As I haven't really found a silat teacher here in the Portland area that I wish to train with, I'm devoting my efforts to distance training. I'll be taking my first test here very soon (as soon as I can sit down and figure out the camcorder we bought, and how best to film my test) in Pendekar William Sanders' Pencak Silat Pukulan Cimande Pusaka. Additionally, I've begun training in Guru Tuan Hj. Zainal Abidin Bin Shaikh Awab's Persatuan Silat Tua Pulau Pinang. Pakcik Zainal is a respected Malaysian teacher who offers a cluster of family arts gathered under the banner of Silat Tua, running the gamut from Malay, Southern Thai (Pattani) and Indonesian silat styles to Muay Thai and other traditional Thai arts like Muay Seah Khao ("White Tiger") and Krabi Krabong. He's very graciously agreed to teach me across the miles and accepted me into his martial family.
I will have much more to say about all of this in the next week or two, as I am going to be starting a study group here in the greater Portland area! Its always more fun and interesting, in my opinion, to be able to practice martial arts with other, like-minded people. So keep an eye out for the details...
While I haven't done a huge amount of martial arts training this year, I've been actively networking with various people, mostly via Facebook, here in the States and abroad...primarily in Britain and Malaysia. As I haven't really found a silat teacher here in the Portland area that I wish to train with, I'm devoting my efforts to distance training. I'll be taking my first test here very soon (as soon as I can sit down and figure out the camcorder we bought, and how best to film my test) in Pendekar William Sanders' Pencak Silat Pukulan Cimande Pusaka. Additionally, I've begun training in Guru Tuan Hj. Zainal Abidin Bin Shaikh Awab's Persatuan Silat Tua Pulau Pinang. Pakcik Zainal is a respected Malaysian teacher who offers a cluster of family arts gathered under the banner of Silat Tua, running the gamut from Malay, Southern Thai (Pattani) and Indonesian silat styles to Muay Thai and other traditional Thai arts like Muay Seah Khao ("White Tiger") and Krabi Krabong. He's very graciously agreed to teach me across the miles and accepted me into his martial family.
I will have much more to say about all of this in the next week or two, as I am going to be starting a study group here in the greater Portland area! Its always more fun and interesting, in my opinion, to be able to practice martial arts with other, like-minded people. So keep an eye out for the details...
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Haven't Been Blogging...
...for months now. I just didn't feel like it. Its been a rough year. I had bouts of pneumonia and pleurisy, and shingles. Perenially tired. Financial worries. PTSD issues that I'd managed to dodge for quite some time caught up to me. Things are looking a bit better now, and I'm feeling happier and a lot more optimistic than I have in a long time.
We'll be moving down into the Portland Metro area at the end of the month. That'll take a big chunk of time off my daily commute, plus save on wear-and-tear on the car and fuel. We expect to cut our rent by several hundred dollars a month, which will translate into paid-off bills and money in savings. We'll also have much easier access to services for our son, friends, shopping, and entertainment.
On the martial front, I haven't been very active. My stamina was shot after the illnesses and its been slow to return. I have been doing a lot of looking and reading and thinking, in regards to the martial arts. I've been in contact with a number of people in the silat community, both here in the States and overseas, especially in Malaysia. I'm looking forward to completing this move. I'm starting to practice again on my own, working to get in shape. Cimande and harimau silat, primarily. Some baji quan foundational exercises, and some kunlun quan. When we get settled in down south, though, I am going to start up a study group and see if I can get a group of people together to train and learn from one another, work with some of the distance training that's out there. I'm also going to be trying out the Kunlun Awakening process with some of Max's people in Portland. I think it will be a good thing.
I have a number of articles I'll be writing and posting on here in weeks to come. There will also be information forthcoming on the Portland Study Group once the move is behind me.
We'll be moving down into the Portland Metro area at the end of the month. That'll take a big chunk of time off my daily commute, plus save on wear-and-tear on the car and fuel. We expect to cut our rent by several hundred dollars a month, which will translate into paid-off bills and money in savings. We'll also have much easier access to services for our son, friends, shopping, and entertainment.
On the martial front, I haven't been very active. My stamina was shot after the illnesses and its been slow to return. I have been doing a lot of looking and reading and thinking, in regards to the martial arts. I've been in contact with a number of people in the silat community, both here in the States and overseas, especially in Malaysia. I'm looking forward to completing this move. I'm starting to practice again on my own, working to get in shape. Cimande and harimau silat, primarily. Some baji quan foundational exercises, and some kunlun quan. When we get settled in down south, though, I am going to start up a study group and see if I can get a group of people together to train and learn from one another, work with some of the distance training that's out there. I'm also going to be trying out the Kunlun Awakening process with some of Max's people in Portland. I think it will be a good thing.
I have a number of articles I'll be writing and posting on here in weeks to come. There will also be information forthcoming on the Portland Study Group once the move is behind me.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Stonehenge and Silat...
By Steven
I watched a fascinating show on the History Channel yesterday. MysteryQuest covered recent investigations into the possible acoustic properties of Stonehenge. A careful examination of the stones revealed that they are curved on one side, suggesting that they had an auditory function. Experiments performed by the team both at Stonehenge, and at a replica in Maryhill, Washington, revealed that percussive sound, such as drumming, if done at the correct rate, would be echoed and amplified by the stones of the site. These sounds fell in the range for Alpha waves, one of the two types of waves conducive to the production of altered states of consciousness in humans.
Further testing in a clinical environment showed that human brains would actually synchronize with the sounds produced at the site. They began to respond almost immediately. Studies of people listening to techno music at raves have demonstrated that ravers heartbeats synchronize with the beat of the music. I think that there is a correlation in some of the newer music used amongst Evangelical Christians. I've noticed there is a certain repetitive rhythm to quite a few of the songs, usually in guitar playing. It seems similar to that used in shamanic drumming, though I'm no expert. My wife once accompanied her sister's family to such a concert, and she felt herself getting “spacey”. When she realized this, the effect abated, just as it did for the investigators on the show, at one point.
Cultures around the world work to produce altered states of consciousness in the course of religious worship and esoteric practices. It would seem that this was the case at Stonehenge. Many cultures use psychoactive herbs and fungi in their rites. There is evidence that both marijuana and henbane were growing in Great Britain during the period Stonehenge was in use. Both would intensify and aid achievement of altered states. Another tool available to these ancient people was light. Additional experimentation during the show found that the sounds produced, bouncing off the stones, could affect the flicker of open flames, causing a rather strobe-like effect. We know that strobe lights can initiate seizures in epileptics, so it is appears obvious that this would have been another amplifier for altered states, especially for those closest to the center of the circle.
The show made me think about the way Silat is often practiced in Indonesia. To the accompaniment of a gamelan orchestra. Gamelan has a great deal of percussive rhythm, and it tends to be fast and rather repetitive. Again, this is similar to shamanic drumming. Its not uncommon for it to be practiced at night, by firelight (traditionally). Traditional Indonesian culture, and Silat, are known for initiating trance states, animal and spirit possession in individuals. There is even a practice (classed as a form of ilmu), in some systems, in which one attempts to contact and be influenced (kaeunteupan) or possessed (sambatan, or “ridden”, to borrow a Vodun term) by one's Silat ancestors. Jurus(short forms) practice can be thought of as talari karuhan, a “rope” or connection to the style's ancestors. A side note to this idea...that specific postures could create a link to previous practitioners, is extremely interesting in light of research done by the late Felicitas Goodman and the Cuyamungue Institute. She did considerable research into glossolalia, possession and trance states, and found that the use of certain postures (found in ancient paintings and sculptures) tended to produce specific types of visual and auditory phenomena in people who are in an altered state of consciousness (she also found the link to certain specific rates of drumming aiding in the achievement of these states). I don't think she did research into martial stances of South Asia, or into the the religious poses, dance postures and mudras of the region. Most of her work concentrated on Neolithic and Native American material, I believe. I suspect that some of the postures found in Silat could (and do) produce certain results, if done in an altered state. And I suspect that traditional, old school Silat training is designed to do just that. The belief is that kaeunteupan and sambatan enhance and accelerate one's learning, and goodness knows they didn't have a decade or two to produce quality warriors. I'd like to see some study of this in the future, before all the traditional styles are gone, stamped out by conservative Islam or absorbed into modern sport Olah Raga and the push for Olympic gold.
I also suspect that we are seeing just one aspect of an ancient technology, predating that of the modern world. After all, we have only been agrarian and “civilized” for a few thousand years. We were hunter-gatherers for tens of thousands of years, and its a well-documented fact that such cultures require only about 20+/- hours of work per week from its members. In his novel Tropic of Night, Michael Gruber questioned what they did with all that spare time, and suggested that they developed a sophisticated technology involving the use of herbs, phytochemicals and altered states. It makes a certain amount of sense to me, and its something worthy of greater study.
For anyone interested in more information about the research on Stonehenge and sound, here are some links...
http://soundsofstonehenge.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/
http://aphroditeastrology.com/2009/12/stonehenge-spiritual-transcendence-tool.html
http://www.livedash.com/transcript/mysteryquest-(stonehenge)/71/HISTP/Thursday_December_3_2009/116367/
http://2012forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&p=211077
http://mysticbeats.com/Home.php
I watched a fascinating show on the History Channel yesterday. MysteryQuest covered recent investigations into the possible acoustic properties of Stonehenge. A careful examination of the stones revealed that they are curved on one side, suggesting that they had an auditory function. Experiments performed by the team both at Stonehenge, and at a replica in Maryhill, Washington, revealed that percussive sound, such as drumming, if done at the correct rate, would be echoed and amplified by the stones of the site. These sounds fell in the range for Alpha waves, one of the two types of waves conducive to the production of altered states of consciousness in humans.Further testing in a clinical environment showed that human brains would actually synchronize with the sounds produced at the site. They began to respond almost immediately. Studies of people listening to techno music at raves have demonstrated that ravers heartbeats synchronize with the beat of the music. I think that there is a correlation in some of the newer music used amongst Evangelical Christians. I've noticed there is a certain repetitive rhythm to quite a few of the songs, usually in guitar playing. It seems similar to that used in shamanic drumming, though I'm no expert. My wife once accompanied her sister's family to such a concert, and she felt herself getting “spacey”. When she realized this, the effect abated, just as it did for the investigators on the show, at one point.
Cultures around the world work to produce altered states of consciousness in the course of religious worship and esoteric practices. It would seem that this was the case at Stonehenge. Many cultures use psychoactive herbs and fungi in their rites. There is evidence that both marijuana and henbane were growing in Great Britain during the period Stonehenge was in use. Both would intensify and aid achievement of altered states. Another tool available to these ancient people was light. Additional experimentation during the show found that the sounds produced, bouncing off the stones, could affect the flicker of open flames, causing a rather strobe-like effect. We know that strobe lights can initiate seizures in epileptics, so it is appears obvious that this would have been another amplifier for altered states, especially for those closest to the center of the circle.
The show made me think about the way Silat is often practiced in Indonesia. To the accompaniment of a gamelan orchestra. Gamelan has a great deal of percussive rhythm, and it tends to be fast and rather repetitive. Again, this is similar to shamanic drumming. Its not uncommon for it to be practiced at night, by firelight (traditionally). Traditional Indonesian culture, and Silat, are known for initiating trance states, animal and spirit possession in individuals. There is even a practice (classed as a form of ilmu), in some systems, in which one attempts to contact and be influenced (kaeunteupan) or possessed (sambatan, or “ridden”, to borrow a Vodun term) by one's Silat ancestors. Jurus(short forms) practice can be thought of as talari karuhan, a “rope” or connection to the style's ancestors. A side note to this idea...that specific postures could create a link to previous practitioners, is extremely interesting in light of research done by the late Felicitas Goodman and the Cuyamungue Institute. She did considerable research into glossolalia, possession and trance states, and found that the use of certain postures (found in ancient paintings and sculptures) tended to produce specific types of visual and auditory phenomena in people who are in an altered state of consciousness (she also found the link to certain specific rates of drumming aiding in the achievement of these states). I don't think she did research into martial stances of South Asia, or into the the religious poses, dance postures and mudras of the region. Most of her work concentrated on Neolithic and Native American material, I believe. I suspect that some of the postures found in Silat could (and do) produce certain results, if done in an altered state. And I suspect that traditional, old school Silat training is designed to do just that. The belief is that kaeunteupan and sambatan enhance and accelerate one's learning, and goodness knows they didn't have a decade or two to produce quality warriors. I'd like to see some study of this in the future, before all the traditional styles are gone, stamped out by conservative Islam or absorbed into modern sport Olah Raga and the push for Olympic gold.I also suspect that we are seeing just one aspect of an ancient technology, predating that of the modern world. After all, we have only been agrarian and “civilized” for a few thousand years. We were hunter-gatherers for tens of thousands of years, and its a well-documented fact that such cultures require only about 20+/- hours of work per week from its members. In his novel Tropic of Night, Michael Gruber questioned what they did with all that spare time, and suggested that they developed a sophisticated technology involving the use of herbs, phytochemicals and altered states. It makes a certain amount of sense to me, and its something worthy of greater study.
For anyone interested in more information about the research on Stonehenge and sound, here are some links...
http://soundsofstonehenge.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/
http://aphroditeastrology.com/2009/12/stonehenge-spiritual-transcendence-tool.html
http://www.livedash.com/transcript/mysteryquest-(stonehenge)/71/HISTP/Thursday_December_3_2009/116367/
http://2012forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&p=211077
http://mysticbeats.com/Home.php
Indo-Malay Snakes and Their Names...
By Steven
About three years back, I came across a book at the library entitled Venomous and Poisonous Animals and Noxious Plants of the Pacific Region, edited by Hugh L. Keegan and W.V. MacFarlane (MacMillan & Co, NY 1963). Always interested in things like this, I checked it out. I was surprised to find that it gave local names to a number of the venomous snakes in the Indo-Malay area. While these don't have much to do with Silat, these are names that are largely unavailable in the common Indonesian and Malayan dictionaries, so I copied them down. I just came across the paper, which was dying, and decided to make the information available here. So, without further ado:
About three years back, I came across a book at the library entitled Venomous and Poisonous Animals and Noxious Plants of the Pacific Region, edited by Hugh L. Keegan and W.V. MacFarlane (MacMillan & Co, NY 1963). Always interested in things like this, I checked it out. I was surprised to find that it gave local names to a number of the venomous snakes in the Indo-Malay area. While these don't have much to do with Silat, these are names that are largely unavailable in the common Indonesian and Malayan dictionaries, so I copied them down. I just came across the paper, which was dying, and decided to make the information available here. So, without further ado:
Common cobra: ular sendok (Indonesia); ular tedong sendak (Malay); ular bedul (Malay); ular biludah (Padang Highlands, Sumatra); oraj sendok (Sundanese); hantipeh pura (Dayak).
King cobra: ular anang (Java).
Yellow-headed krait: ular tanjon api (Sumatra).
Banded krait: oraj welang (Sundanese); ular welang (Malay); ular katam tabu (Malay); ngu sam liem (Thai).
Malayan krait: oraj weling (Sundanese); ular weling (Malay).
Malayan pit viper: ular biludak (Java); ular tanah (West Java); ular gebuk (West Java); ular bandotan bedor (Central Java); ular bedudak (West Java); ular lemah (West Java); ular kapac daun (Malay).
Sumatran pit viper: ular bisa (Sumatra).
Wagler's pit viper: ular puckuk (Sumatra); ular bakaw (Malay).
Common long-glanded snake: ular cabe (Java); ular kapala dua (Sumatra); ular cabeh (Malay).
Red-bellied long-glanded snake: oraj cabeh (Java); ular cabeh (Malay); ular sina matahari (Malay); ular tedong matahari (Singapore); kendawang (Dayak).
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Let Me Introduce Myself...
My name is Steven Vance and, at this point, I am one-half of the newly formed Golden Flower Warrior Association. I'm entering my mid-forties, have been with my wonderful wife, Gina, for about twenty-five years, and have two daughters, one son, and two grandchildren (with one more on the way). I've worked in a variety of jobs, including nine years of service with the US Army as a combat medic, where I served in Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom with the infantry (the 101st Airborne Air Assault Division and 2nd Stryker Brigade/25th Infantry Division respectively). At present I work for the Veterans Administration, at the Portland VA Medical Center, in its combined MICU/SICU.
I've been involved with martial arts, off-and-on, since the mid-1980's. I started out with fencing (high school) and a Korean art called Hap Do Sool, then moved on to SCA light weapons fighting ( the shinai, and a little naginata) and a modified form of Muay Thai (Tony Gneck, college), back before it was the "in-thing". Over the years, my training became intermittent, between the demands of military service and employment in corporate America, raising three kids - one with multiple medical issues, and life in general. Nevertheless, I have had exposure of one sort or another to Bujinkan Ninpo Taijutsu, Aikido, Wrestling, and several other arts. I received Level I Army Combatives Training (BJJ for Dummies...lol). It was Silat and Kuntao Silat that really captured my imagination, and I have trained with people from Pendekar William Sanders' organization (Pencak Silat Pukulan Cimande Pusaka) and Guru Jim Ingram's organization (Amerindo Silat), as well as having been involved with the Malabar Kuntao Silat distance training program, while I was deployed in Iraq. I've had at least some exposure to the arts of Al Colangelo, Guy Savelli, Victor de Thouars, Chris Burbeck and Eric Kruk.
Now that my children are grown, I'm seeking a return to much more regular training. I am a distance student of Pendekar William Sanders (Cimande) and Laoshi Yang Yusen (Gao Bagua).
Recent research on the Chinese art of Kunlun Quan, which interests me quite a bit, led me to Shifu Jonty Kershaw. We hit it off, and decided to engage in this joint venture. Both of us are martial arts junkies (obviously), share an interest in Indonesian, Indochinese and Chinese internal arts, and are so tired of the politicking and BS that seem such an ever-present part of the martial art scene. We have decided to start an organization that will foster research into the various aspects of martial culture - the fighting skills (of course), healing arts and herbalism, qigong/neigong and other energetic arts, martial history, philosophy...pretty much anything that constitutes traditional (and emerging) warrior culture.
We love learning. We want to have a good time doing it.
And we are looking for like-minded individuals.
I've been involved with martial arts, off-and-on, since the mid-1980's. I started out with fencing (high school) and a Korean art called Hap Do Sool, then moved on to SCA light weapons fighting ( the shinai, and a little naginata) and a modified form of Muay Thai (Tony Gneck, college), back before it was the "in-thing". Over the years, my training became intermittent, between the demands of military service and employment in corporate America, raising three kids - one with multiple medical issues, and life in general. Nevertheless, I have had exposure of one sort or another to Bujinkan Ninpo Taijutsu, Aikido, Wrestling, and several other arts. I received Level I Army Combatives Training (BJJ for Dummies...lol). It was Silat and Kuntao Silat that really captured my imagination, and I have trained with people from Pendekar William Sanders' organization (Pencak Silat Pukulan Cimande Pusaka) and Guru Jim Ingram's organization (Amerindo Silat), as well as having been involved with the Malabar Kuntao Silat distance training program, while I was deployed in Iraq. I've had at least some exposure to the arts of Al Colangelo, Guy Savelli, Victor de Thouars, Chris Burbeck and Eric Kruk.
Now that my children are grown, I'm seeking a return to much more regular training. I am a distance student of Pendekar William Sanders (Cimande) and Laoshi Yang Yusen (Gao Bagua).
Recent research on the Chinese art of Kunlun Quan, which interests me quite a bit, led me to Shifu Jonty Kershaw. We hit it off, and decided to engage in this joint venture. Both of us are martial arts junkies (obviously), share an interest in Indonesian, Indochinese and Chinese internal arts, and are so tired of the politicking and BS that seem such an ever-present part of the martial art scene. We have decided to start an organization that will foster research into the various aspects of martial culture - the fighting skills (of course), healing arts and herbalism, qigong/neigong and other energetic arts, martial history, philosophy...pretty much anything that constitutes traditional (and emerging) warrior culture.
We love learning. We want to have a good time doing it.
And we are looking for like-minded individuals.
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