I don’t really pay attention to the groupie crowd anymore, given that I would rather be with my friends and family than slam my head against a concrete wall. I have a very hard head, but banging it against concrete inevitably hurts, and, in the end, groupies are uninteresting for many reasons.  

But I was recently told that an interview with Kacem Zoughari had been printed in a martial arts magazine here in Greece, an interview that has an excerpt referring to positions I have supposedly taken in the past. The related excerpts state:

So, …. may I ask you a question concerning Ninjutsu’s historical validity. Mr. Dervenis, who was one of Ninjutsu’s pioneers in our country, claims that after studies he has made he has concluded that Ninja’s never existed and that this whole story is just a manufacturing of both Hatsumi sensei’s and the movies, for merchandising (commercial, business) purposes. As an academic, what is your opinion on this?

The reader can view the whole thing here if they wish: http://shinkendojoathens.blogspot.com/2010/09/dr-zougharis-may-2010-interview-to.html#more 

but it is kind of a moot point. What I would appreciate, however, is for the author of the interview to get his facts straight regarding my position(s) and re-state what I am saying more accurately.

For the record, except in a metaphorical sense, I have never stated that the ninja did not exist as a historical phenomenon. What I stated was that their historical reality did not reflect their popular image today in almost any context, nor does the image of them portrayed by the Bujinkan reflect historical reality. In addition, and far more importantly since this is what is getting people with vested interests upset, what I have stated repeatedly is that no independent ninjutsu ryuha exists within the Bujinkan syllabus - that is to say, there is no Togakure ryu, no Kumogakure ryu, no Asakusabeerguzzling ryu or any other such ninja school to be found within Japanese history. Toshitsugu Takamatsu made it all up for his own reasons, and Masaaki Hatsumi intentionally perpetuated the myth in order to propagate the teachings of his school.  There never was a Shinryuken Masamitsu Toda; he is not an actual person.  Takamatsu was never taught “ninjutsu” - he made it all up. I have stated this position openly and repeatedly and no one has been able to rebutt it in the slightest with extant historical evidence.  (Bear in mind that I would love to see such evidence; nothing would make me happier. Unfortunately, it does not exist.)

Do the teachings of the Bujinkan have historical context? Most certainly, but only as a classical jujutsu lineage derived from the conjunction of several verified family traditions. In addition, the Kukishin ryu most certainly has esoteric elements in its syllabus that have been passed on by Takamatsu Sensei to Hatsumi Sensei, and the Bujinkan in its original format (pre-1988) most certainly had many esoteric teachings that were simply wonderful, and which they were very serious about.  But human beings are complicated creatures and reality is often mixed with falsehood to promote specific intentions and agendas; this is the rule rather than the exception in life.  

Kacem, sadik, here is my advice to you: In China, they catch monkeys by placing bananas cross-wise in narrow-necked vases. The monkeys grab hold of the bananas and cannot let go of them even to save their own lives; they want the fruit badly , but given the narrow necks of the vases, the bananas can only come out length-wise, and the monkeys lack the intelligence to figure that out. The hunters eventually come along and seize the apes with their arms up to their elbows in the vases, shrieking, unable to open their fists and escape.  That is how fresh chilled monkey brains make it to the markets in China.  The amazing thing is that all the monkeys have to do to escape, is to let go. But they cannot, and do not.

Stop being a monkey, sadik.  

If you have historical evidence as to the existence of a ninjutsu lineage within the Bujinkan, publish it in a peer-reviewed journal, as Karl Friday did for Kashima Shin ryu, and I will be the first to congratulate you. If you do NOT have historical evidence that can withstand peer review (which I am told you do not), then you must understand, your claims and your position have turned you into as much of a fraud as anyone else within the Bujinkan espousing similar claims.

Don’t get me wrong - I have seen what the koryu crowd has to offer, both from an ethical and functional standpoint, and I am not impressed; Hatsumi far outshines them as a martial artist. Hell, I outshine them as a martial artist.

But that does not mean that Hatsumi is not lying.

Hey, have I told you all about how I inherited a 2500-year-old ancient Greek tradition that dates all the way back to Timasitheus the Delphian? It’s a staggering story that I’m very proud of, full of combat, betrayal, intrigue, exotic locations, and willing women with full lips, large breasts and tight butts (think Sasha Grey with a rack). The interesting, and sad, thing is that I have far more documentation in hand to validate such a claim, than the Bujinkan has to corroborate their own history (or than many other eastern martial arts schools have, for that matter).

Be well, Kacem.

A number of people have asked me for an English translation of a paragraph in an interview I gave to a Greek martial arts website. Apparently, it has raised some questions.

I don’t have the time to rewrite the section at length, but a quick machine-translation and some editing lets me post the following:

4. The esoteric path. Tell me a bit about your career in the internal arts.

(He doesn’t answer for some time.)  I gather that you are inquiring not only about the internal martial arts, but that you are interested in my experience with the esoteric path in general. However, you are touching on very sensitive issues and I do not think that most people are ready to accept the answers.

The Egyptians boiled the bark of the willow tree and used the resulting broth to combat headaches and rheumatism. The use of white willow bark for medical purposes has a history longer than 3500 years. Hippocrates wrote about willow bark and its ability to soothe aches and reduce fever. Willow bark has been used in China since 500 BC and Native Americans used white willow for headaches, fever, and rheumatism. In 1828, European scientists identified a compound called salicilin, which is the active ingredient in willow bark. And, in 1829, salicilin was stabilized as salicylic acid and was used effectively for pain and fever. Synthetic salicylic acid was developed by the German company Bayer in 1852. Pharmacists later modified salicylic acid to form acetylsalicylic acid, which we all know today by its common tradename aspirin. (Acetylation was introduced to reduce stomach irritation.)

Why mention this example? We all use aspirin, and the source of this drug is a plant that all of humanity has had knowledge of since the Bronze Age. Perhaps esotericism falls into the same category and perhaps we are entering an age where we can create acetylsalycilic acid by discovering the active ingredient in willow bark. Maybe the key ingredients of esotericism are physically reflected in the practices of the internal arts, and we are looking in the wrong places for answers.

The problem with esotericism is that it sometimes becomes as dogmatic as organized religion, and this is an oxymoron. What we call esotericism should be the very opposite of dogmatism, but because many people delve into esotericism only to strengthen their own self-importance, a kind of spiritual consumerism in other words, they become obsessed with doctrine as if they were dogma-junkies. They scuffle with each other over doctrine as if they were hooligans on opposing football teams, and this is just stupid. This was the reason that Ghandi set a strict criterion for anyone wanting to practice an esoteric path: in order to be a renunciant, you must first have something to renounce; he did this to make sure that the trainee did not pursue an internal path just to boost his ego, or had another hidden agenda.

I’ll give an example from the so-called internal martial arts, so that we don’t stray off topic: everyone talks about the dantien, our center. Those of us who have practiced the creation of such a center, have felt it move independent of our conscious volition, feeling, expressing its own views, as if it were a separate entity. The Chinese describe this phenomenon with an entire library of literature discussing the creation of the “mental body” and “the psychic child” in the dantien. Furthermore, it has been scientifically documented since 1981, that training in such practices allows the practitioner to circumvent the existing biophysical model. But to clearly evaluate the theories, we have to look at missing pieces of the puzzle that have now appeared on the horizon.

We didn’t know, for instance, that an enteric nervous system existed. Research into this nervous system was started in 1921 by the British physician JN Langley, but when he died, it was quickly forgotten. The American doctor Michael D. Gershon resumed work on Lagley’s investigations in 1996. When he first announced his theories in 1996, he was mocked, but by 1999, he had managed to publish his book “The Second Brain” and had reversed world opinion on the subject, contributing to the advancement of science in the process.

The enteric nervous system (ENS), therefore, the existence of which was not accepted 15 years ago, has 100 million neurons, one thousandth of those present in the brain, but more than exist in the spine. The ENS has been designated as the “second brain” because it works independently from the central nervous system, with which it is linked through the vagus nerve. In other words, and we have to emphasize this point, clinical science accepts the fact that the enteric nervous system thinks for itself - it is a “second brain” within our belly.

In essence, then, when someone trains towards the creation of a “dantien”, what he is doing is inscribing his conscious personality on the portfolio of his enteric nervous system. The fact that the process is traditionally activated through breathing techniques is particularly anatomically interesting, given the connection of the ENS with the conscious brain through the vagus nerve (The vagus is also called the pneumogastric nerve since it innervates both the lungs and the stomach, as well as connecting the central nervous system to the ENS).

Until now, trainees in the internal arts shared their experiences during the process amongst themselves with comments like “Hey, I felt xyz happening, and it is amazing”, referring to the effects they were feeling in their bellies during and after training. However, given the presence of a biological computer at the very focal point of this training (the existence of which was unknown until now), it is possible thaat the entire “dantien creation” process is completely biological and natural, as opposed to being a mystical experience. In short, there may be no “supernatural” elements involved in the process whatsoever. It may be that nothing more is happening to us other than the fact that we are inscribing part of our conscious mind onto a biological computer, allowing us to extend our natural capabilities in the process. That is to say, throughout history, people have been misinterpreting the process as a mystical experience, not realizing that it was salicin that gave the willow bark its supposedly magical healing properties in the first place. Or, conversely, science may come along to verify and uphold the doctrine of a specific internal tradition; why not? We know now that consciousness (observation) contributes to the creation of matter - it is a cornerstone of physics. Who is to say what the mind can do? Frankly, we do not know - but we’re most certainly at that stage in the process where the bark of willow trees will become acetylsalicylic acid within a few short years, one way or another.

 I hope the message is clear, even though the English of the text is somewhat below par.

This is an enquiry e-mail via http://www.pammachon.gr/ from:
“Tom”

Dear Mr. Dervenis

Firstly, please allow me to thank you for writing “the Magus of Java”, without which I would not have found my way to this website. I found the book a great read and practically inhaled it in one sitting. You clarified a few things and confirmed some interesting points that I’ve speculated on for a while, for which I am grateful.

To get to the reason for why I am contacting you; in your blog post “please stop hitting the snooze button” 21st Jan 2010, you mention that you would be releasing a book and martial artists interested in downloading it for free should stay tuned. I was hoping you could tell me if this offer is still available, or if not, how I could go about getting a copy of this book please?

I ask because I am a Kung Fu student living in China at a Kung Fu academy and I would like to broaden my knowledge o martial arts. I checked the books section of your website, but unfortunately could not see anything recent?

Thanks very much for your help,

Kind regards

Tom

Dear Tom and friends,

I wanted to take the opportunity that your letter provided to answer a question posed to me by about thirty people so far.

The book is ready, and has been ready since March. Why has it not been published? Logistics, I’m afraid. Unfortunately, my life is complex, and I have four different roles to fill, four different hats to wear. Sometimes I just get tired and, rather than doing what I should be doing, watch television or surf the Internet - it’s called becoming a vegetable, and sadly, I am as guilty as everyone else of that particular crime. I am currently travelling and in the US, but I promise everyone that I will release the book by end November at the latest. My goal is to have it become a free e-book for download; once I get the ##@@@!!!!! formatting issues as required by the various hosting sites finally out of the way, I will upload the book. And yes, it will be free to whoever wants it electronically.

Is that OK, Tom?

My best to everyone, and thanks for being patient.

Kostas

Ladies and Gentlemen!

This is the Age of Discreditation, when things once commonly accepted as fact have been proven to be untrue, or are simply no longer believed. Let’s face it, AAA stocks have been found to have worth only as toilet paper (and rough toilet paper at that), so why should men believe in icons? And why should the martial arts be an exception, when in fact they are not? We have discovered that the samurai did not in fact, back in the day, actually use their swords that much in combat, or even follow the honor system attributed to them by later authors. Filipino kali did not defeat Magellan – there was no such thing as Filipino kali when Magellan landed with his party of deckhands on Filipino shores. The origins of many a Chinese martial arts style are subject to question – did Yim Wing Chun and Ng Mui actually exist, or are they fable? How about Shinryuken Masamitsu Toda? How about Romulus and Remus, or Zhang Sanfeng? (There is actually more evidence for the existence of Robin Hood than there is for Zhang Sanfeng.)

In light of all the above, I feel the obligation to disclose the true origin story of Pammachon, passed down through my family for generations. The following will be posted on the pammachon.gr site and become a part of our “official” mythology:

I am the 88th Master of Pammachon, a lineage that began in the 6th century BC with Master Timasitheus, and has lasted for 2500 years. Really. No, it’s a true story, and I will outline it for you here. Of Timasitheus himself, Herodotus has stated in his book Terpsichore (Book E’ 72.4-73.1) that:

….And these men were condemned to death, among them Timasitheus the Delphian, of whose prowess and courage I have great things which I could tell.

The Founder Timasitheus was born in the Greek colony of Croton in Italy. Growing up there as a boy, he was a great admirer of the wrestler Milo, who had won six Olympic crowns for wrestling at Olympia, and was famous for his great strength and stamina. When the mystic Pythagoras of Samos moved to Croton, both Milo and Timasitheus became his students, the former marrying Pythagoras’ daughter.

Pythagoras agreed to become Timasitheus’ teacher more to punish Milo for his immense ego than anything else. He bet the great wrestler that he could train the young student to defeat him in wrestling at the Olympiad, at which Milo laughed in his face.

Pythagoras taught the young Timasitheus the Principle of the Meander, or how the soft may be used to defeat the hard. He taught him about the gods and goddesses of the Earth and Sky, of Fire and Water, Lightning and Wind, Mountain and Sea, and the Primal Chaos from which all had sprung. He taught him of the binary nature of the universe; that, once the layers are peeled away, at the Core all things are simply 1/0.

Timasitheus’s family was originally from Delphi - they were immigrants to Croton who had paid the tax and become citizens. At Pythagoras’s insistence, Timasitheus participated in the 516 BC Olympics competing for his home city of Delphi, and easily defeated all comers in the pankration, winning the laurels. Over the next four years, our Founder trained rigorously to defeat Milo, oftentimes retreating into the wild in seclusion, fighting barehanded against lions and wolves.

During the 512 BC Olympics, Timasitheus competed in both the pankration and in wrestling. Not wanting to insult Milo, he entered the wrestling contest as a citizen of Croton and the pankration contest as a native of Delphi. He easily prevailed in the pankration, for no one could stand before him. Then it came time for the true contest, against a lifelong friend and mentor, a man who used to carry a bull on his shoulders to the slaughter, and then serve it up for his meal and eat it entirely.

Milo was old, already in his forties at the time, but Timasitheus knew that, if he came to grips with the man, Milo would crush him with his incredible strength. So our Founder Timasitheus used the art of akrocheirismos, continuously intercepting Milo’s grasping hands, deflecting them, locking him up and throwing him away. As Timasitheus refused to close with him, even after throwing Milo several times, the battle lasted for most of the day. After six consecutive victories at Olympia, Milo understood that he must lose. He bowed his head in defeat and prepared to withdraw the moment the herald proclaimed: “Timasitheus of Croton, winner of the wrestling”.

But at that very moment the crowd rushed into the arena, lifting Milon up and crowning him with wreaths and flowers and laurels, carrying him round the stadium. Amongst those who were carrying him and were cheering him on was his fellow countryman, Timasitheus the victor. That day Milo’s statue in Olympia was smothered with flowers and Timasitheus bowed at its feet.

But Milo did not die well - his ego was his downfall in the end, as the Sage Pythagoras had predicted. According to Strabo and Pausanias, Milo was walking in a forest when he came upon a tree-trunk split with wedges. In what was probably intended as a display of strength, Milo inserted his hands into the cleft to rend the tree apart. The wedges fell from the cleft, and the tree closed on his hands, trapping his fingers. Unable to free himself, the wrestler was devoured by wolves that evening.

Modern day historians will try to convince you that Timasitheus of Croton and Timasitheus of Delphi were two separate athletes, but pay those fools no heed. We of the Pammachon lineage know for a fact that they were one and the same.

As a result of Pythagoras’s bet, all of Milo’s secrets passed on to Timasitheus, who also inherited the teachings of Pythagoras. From the fusion of the two, Pammachon was born. Timasitheus moved back to Delphi, at the command of the god Apollo. He married a young Delphian girl and settled down (something about a sudden pregnancy), serving as a special agent in the service of the Oracle of Delphi. Over the next few years, Timasitheus went on to win several many athletic contests while competing for Delphi, while at the same time his military exploits were astounding. It is safe to say that what normal soldiers experienced over a lifetime, Timasitheus endured and triumphed over during his brief three year service to the Oracle. 

A depiction of Timasitheus survives from a later date. Note that the artist has sculpted a thin and unassuming man of no apparent muscular development, polite and courteous. This then was the terrible warrior Timasitheus:  

http://images.perseus.tufts.edu/images/1992.03.1/1992.03.0045

Timasitheus’s death took the form of a heroic sacrifice. Knowing that within the next few decades the Persians were going to invade Greece, the Oracle of Delphi ordered Timasitheus in 508 BC to become the bodyguard of Isagoras, an Athenian aristocrat and ally of the Spartans. Timasitheus disliked and distrusted the elitist, pudgy, bisexual and ruthless Isagoras, but followed the command of the Oracle of Apollo as a true warrior and knight. There was also a practical reason behind his decision – Timasitheus distrusted Isagoras’s rival Cleisthenes even more than he disliked Isagoras. Cleisthenes is touted today as the founder of democracy, but in fact he was a fraud and a rabble-rouser, a true politician of our modern day; the man had no integrity. Timasitheus knew that the Oracle had foreseen that, should Cleisthenes prevail, the “Persians would invade Greece at the Athenian’s call.”

Sadly, in the civil war that followed, Cleisthenes prevailed, promising the Athenian public full democracy. Isagoras and a small group of Spartans took shelter on the rock of the Acropolis – along with Timasitheus as his bodyguard. For two days, Timasitheus and the Spartans held back the Athenian crowd, fighting thousands of Athenian hoplites at close quarters. On the third day, Isagoras and the Spartans accepted terms of surrender, under which they were allowed to leave - if they delivered Timasitheus and Isagoras’s Athenian allies to their enemies. Timasitheus surrendered willingly, following the commands of the Oracle of Delphi. As we have seen, the father of modern history, Herodotus himself, honored Timasitheus by mentioning him in his works, as did Pausanias at a later date.  And sadly, the prediction of the Oracle of Delphi came true. After the death of our Founder, and following Cleisthenes assuming control of Athens, the Athenians, afraid of the military might of the Spartans, sent emissaries to King Darius of Persia, surrendering onto him earth and water. This act of submission became the causus belli for the Persian invasion of Greece 16 years later.

For two centuries following Timasitheus’s death, Pammachon was passed on from father to son within Delphian families descended from Timasitheus, as commanded by the Oracle. At some point in the 4th century BC, my distant ancestor Pantazis the 1st the Tymfaian married Eleni of Delphi and inherited the lineage of Pammachon. Pantazis was an Epirot warrior, a bodyguard of Queen Olympias, and some say the father of Alexander the Great as well (ahem, we know it wasn’t Zeus, right, and she claimed it wasn’t Phillip?). Pantazis followed Alexander on his conquests at Olympias’s command, saving his life on more than one occasion. When Alexander died on the 11th of June 323 BC, Pantazis moved to Alexandria, where he studied at the famous Library and became a bodyguard for Ptolemy A’ Soter (some day that Ptolemy’s victories over Perdikkas in 321 at Memphis, and against Demetrius the Besieger in 312 BC, were due to Pantazis and his use of Pammachon tactics).

Throughout the millennia, a scroll attributed to Pantazis the Tymfaian has been passed down in my family, dated to 321 BC (he must have written it just before the battle with Perdikkas). Today, only a fragment remains of this papyrus scroll, and it is kept in a sealed environmental chamber so that it may be preserved, in a private museum whose owners are wealthy acolytes of Pammachon:

http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/3145/pammachon7bj.gif

To tell the story of Pammachon over the next 2200 years would require a whole series of books (and perhaps one day I will write them), but the gist of the matter is that, in 1984 I inherited the system from my grandfather, since my father Pantazis hated Pammachon and didn’t want the hassle.  For those who might be inclined to scoff, bear in mind that the portrayal above has far more traceable historical facts than most of the histories of most of the martial arts schools taught today…..  and who knows what I can and can’t prove? The martial arts world isn’t exactly a pristine academic forum – I’ve seen claims by very accredited scholars become trash over the decades.
 
[OK, so the people who know me better are now thinking wtf? I liked the story and wanted to copyright it in English, and I saw historical conjecture on something else that was completely ridiculous on the internet about an hour ago, producing the rant. I didn't have time to sit down and repudiate the aforementioned at the moment, but this text was available from a couple years ago (in Greek) and, with a little tailoring, readily postable. Expect more to come in the future, regarding the Spartans and their Nepalese kukris…]