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This is email I wrote to the ki-info mailing list. It sums up many an email answer I've written regarding ki blasts so popular in Japanese animated shows ("anime"). The following is my opinion, and is not meant to represent the Ki Society.
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I've had numerous personal queries regarding ki, seemingly also all as a result of Dragonball Z, since I have a web site that mentions ki in that context.
In Japan, "ki" has many meanings. One of the ones the anime series like to focus on is its psychic-power connotation.
I personally know for myself that there is something to that connotation; however, all my experience has pointed me to the direction not of power, but of intention and frame of mind. In other words, you can go off on the side track of power, but it is a red herring, an eventual dead-end if your ultimate goal is that power. The true path is within: within one's heart and mind, and the real battle (IMHO) is the one that good anime shows hint at on occasion: the battle for internal discipline and a compassionate spirit (a battle that never ends, by the way).
In aikido, especially Ki Society aikido, I believe that "ki" means a specific frame of mind that is relaxed, calm, centered, aware, compassionate, and benevolent. The results of this are sometimes "feats" that may appear magical, but they are the automatic results of having that mindset. Is there psychic power involved? Not in the sense of the blasting away that's in anime, but in the sense of the real power of true calmness and peacefulness in the face of confusion.
I am reminded again of the story of "real aikido," which is not to use a martial art to quell violence, but to prevent violence AND bring healing by extending compassion to troubled souls.
P.S. One of the simplest and best examples I know of Real Ki is the extension of good will that is an honest smile or a small expression of caring. Just think -- one smile, or a few kind words, can positively change the day for another person, and possibly even cause a chain reaction of good will, like a "ripple effect." Now, for something so small to affect so much -- isn't that true power?
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Real aikido
Terry Dobson was riding on a train in Japan (in the 60's?), when a drunken man boarded. The man was violent, aggressive, and a real physical threat to the other passengers, whom he pushed around and bullied.
Dobson had been intensively training in aikido almost every day for three years, and was eager to put that practice into "real" action. Although he knew his teacher had said that aikido is the art of reconciliation, and that even wanting to fight means that you've already lost touch with the Universe, Dobson, in his youthful eager way, wanted to physically take down this threatening drunk in an act of righteous justice.
Just as Dobson was starting to egg the drunk into attacking him, however, a little old man interrupted by calling out joyfully to the drunken man. In a cheerful manner, the little old man started talking to the drunk, asking friendly questions and going on about his own family and the persimmon tree in his garden.
Soon thereafter, the drunk's nasty exterior had melted away. He was weeping, explaining his wife had died, that he'd lost his job and his home, and that his life was a total wreck and that he was terribly ashamed ... he was lying with his head on the little old man's lap, while the old man stroked his dirty hair. The would-be attacker had been brought to peace -- all without a single martial arts move.
Dobson realized that what he had witnessed was real aikido in action. What he had wanted to do -- vigilante-style, self-righteous justice -- was not aikido. What the old man had done, though, was aikido as it was meant to be -- humble, gentle love, bringing peace and healing.
http://unofficial.ki-society.org/kiexpl.html
