About the Dojo: Its Mystic

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A dojo, the very name itself, is a draw to folks, i.e., Asian in origin and has a mystical feel and meaning to it that strikes the cord in those who join. It also smacks of species, human that is, survival instincts of the group, i.e., groups strengthen the human individuals into a cohesive strong unit, a tribe, so the dojo environment gives us that connection.

In social situations that bring individuals into groups driven by our need to procreate and survive is often hierarchal status driven and by the groups/tribes nature toward activities that are coordinated it provides a means of connectivity that results in the group/tribe becoming self-sacrificial and group supportive. The tribe becomes more cooperative, the tend to more easily self-sacrifice for one another especially when it means procreative opportunities, i.e., yeah for sex, and gives us all a feeling of unity through the acts of synchrony. 

There is all of this in the dojo and adding in the mystic of the Asian combative aspects found in karate and martial arts therein lies the group dynamic of conflict, violence and so on that promotes a stronger person and group; creating a stronger ability that translates into offspring that translates into both individual and group survival. 

In a recent blog post on persuasion, compliance profession and principles, the author put influence and compliance into three categories with the most useful and most successful category being what he termed as, “Identity.” In short, a means of communicating that triggers something useful and positive and motivating in our own identities so that we may be persuaded with greater success, etc.

Connecting through identity creates a connection that often cannot be broken and allows acceptance over simply trying to connect through facts and figures that don’t trigger emotionally driven identity traits of the individual and the group. 

Dojo and martial arts/karate trigger deeply ingrained instincts of survival of conflict and violence of all types. It triggers social proof principles; it triggers our need to be liked, i.e., likability principle; it creates status within making the authority principle dominant also a survival thing; it fosters mutual needs, wants and desires making our innate principle of obligation a brotherhood exchange of services and support that is a cornerstone of survival and procreation; obligations, etc., are supported and driven by human need of reciprocation; and by its model of teaching, practicing and gaining experience in the model used creates and uses the human need for consistency. There is one more principle, scarcity, that is met and supported by the fact of its mystical Asian unique qualities that are not widely used or available outside the actual cultural making it appear as a scarce unique way, the principle of scarcity. 

In the dojo, it utilized unbeknownst to us humans, the five principle so influence: reciprocation, likability, social proof, authority, and scarcity. All driven by sub-principles of reciprocations of meaningfulness, unexpectedness and customization processes; likability by our similarities, the complements we exchange; social proof as in its validity and feasibility; authority as it effects us by the perceived expertise and trustworthiness of said expert; scarcity as in the access as restricted by its nature along with triggering human desire, aversion toward missing out on something special; consistency in our need to be and be seen as consistent in commitments, actions, etc.

In short, dojo’s and memberships tend to trigger some deep seated instincts, needs, wants and emotions that drive us to want to belong to groups that meet our individual beliefs. 

In short; it has coordinated activities; a capacity to create self-sacrificial and supportive conduct; it creates cooperation of its members; it creates a brotherhood feeling; and it creates and foster synchrony for greater strength hitting the species drive toward survival and procreation. It makes use of those compliance influence principles of reciprocation (think sensei-deshi, sempai-kohai, etc.), likability (think of the connection and brotherhood friendships it provides), social proof (think how we observe and work to mimic senpai and sensei, etc.), authority (think of sensei to deshi to senpai to kohai along with group statuses of rank or belts, etc.), scarcity (think of is mysterious nature so different from our culture, etc.), consistency (think of the patterns, rhythms, cadence, kata, basics, self-defense techniques, etc).

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