Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 02:12 pm
A practice that I decided upon before I taught my first seminar was to make sure everyone realized and acknowledged the responsibility inherent in what we do -- that each individual is responsible for their actions and for all repercussions of those actions.

An example that I give is that if they use one of the pressure-point techniques that I teach them on someone, and that person falls and cracks their skull on the curb and dies, then they are just as responsible as if they had grabbed his head and bashed it into that curb.

Obviously, they have to be concerned with what the local laws say, and what the court is likely to rule... but they have to be at least as concerned with the ruling from the judge in their mirror. A good enough lawyer can probably let them escape from the court judge, but they have to look in that mirror every day for the rest of their lives.

After this last seminar in Albany, one of the attendees approached his instructor (who was also my back-up during the seminar) and told her that he'd always thought it was really cool to learn all sorts of ways to hurt/kill someone, but that until my seminar he hadn't thought about the responsibility involved, and now that had changed. He then went on to ask her several questions on that topic, and basically showed that he'd really had his eyes opened -- and he wasn't trying to close them again.

YES!