Empty Force Masters - frauds or geniuses?

[Mike Strong]

Because I was 21, - (a few years older than most of the other guys), and because I had a few years of college I was put in charge of a small group of kids until we got to The AFEES Station; so the recruiter handed me a small stipend of cash, and dropped us off at The Airport. I divied up the cash, - told the other guys to buy ciggarettes, and whatever else, and kept enough for myself to get a hamburger, and a coke, ...


... and a copy of OMNI MAGAZINE.

[Mike Strong]

That December, 1981 issue of OMNI had an article about Dr. Stephen LeBerge, and LUCID DREAMING.

It really perked up my interest, because I had been dreaming lucidly for as long as I could remember. The article said that the most talented of LeBerge's test subjects had lucid dreams at a rate of 3 or 4 a week, - well hell, I had lucid dreams at least two times a week!

I reread the article a few times, and immeadiatley started doing the excercises that LeBerge suggeted would induce LUCID DREAMING.





[to be continued]

[Fubo]

"Fubo" or Whatever Your Real Name Is,

Empty Force is an integral part of my training.

The fruits of that training have served me well.

You think it's a joke.

That is fine with me.

"Fubo".

... and by the way :


* My teacher does not charge huge amounts of money, - in fact, ( ) my teacher paid my expences on our last trip to China.

*My teacher has only about a dozen students who attend regular classsess.

* Training Empty Force requires intense physical contact that results in bruising, - and we wear industrial back braces in order to avoid lower back injuries ( ruptured disks).

* I call my teacher by his first name, as do most of his students; although some students who came to him as paitients call him "Doctor", ( and some of the Chinese students refer to him as Shirfu). But most of the time we just hang out like friends; so unless you were observing us at the end of a group meditation or a Vajrayana ceremony, you would never guess that my teacher held some kind of special status.

So, "Fubo" , you see, - you mock that which you do not understand.

"Mike", firstly my real name is "Craig" - some people here know me in person.

Secondly, when I was joking about empty force, I was talking about the people that think or pretend then can move unwilling people without affecting them physically and from a distance, and the students that buy into this. I was not talking about the kind of no contact sensetivity drills as in Systema (which I have trained btw).

You're happy with your training and feel it works - GOOD FOR YOU!

If by Empty Force you are talking about moving people from a distance without contact against someone who doesn't want to move, I'm met teachers that do that sort of thing and they have never moved me as they have their "eager willing to please" students - I understand this kind of situation very well, all it takes is a teacher that wants to be able to demonstrate god like skill and some students that have low enough self-esteem to want to please teacher and want to believe in the fantasies that originated from Chinese Kung Fu novels - "this" is a big joke to me!

I've met my fair share of so called empty force "masters" in Hong Kong, China and in the West - and I've met and trained with plenty of legit teachers. People are free to judge for them selves, but I know for myself when I smell BS.

When we are talking about "empty force" there is a difference between some of the drills you see people like MR and Vlad in systema doing in contrast to people like Yellow Bamboo and the old Japanese guy who fought the MMA person etc...

[Mike Strong]

In a side bar of the article, OMNI readers were invited to be part of a Lucid Dreaming Study; so as soon as we got through the AFFEES Station and started Basic Training, - I sent my information off to be a part of The Study.

When the mail comes, people in the military get excited, especially in Basic Training, where most of these young guys had never been away from home before. But I didn't get excited, because nobody knew where I was, - I hadn't told a soul. My plan was to go through Basic Training, and then go home and tell my family ...

... I was going to take shocking my parents to a whole 'nother level !

I wasn't expecting any mail, so I just took the opportunity to go take a nap on my bunk, but before I got there our D.I. called me into his office. He was sitting behind his desk, and I was standing there "at ease" as he reached into his desk, and flops a manila envelope that was about three inches thick onto his desk.

"Of course, it's none of my buisness, but - what the hell is this"?

It was The Dream Study.

After explaining it to him, he looked at me thoughtfully for a few seconds and then said:

" You have a copy of the Tao Te Ching, The EYE Ching, and Herman Hesses' Sidhartha in your locker, ...

... and you want to fix field radios for a living" ?

I shrugged my shoulders.

"You know what I think, - I think you're some kind of wierdo, ...

... but that's okay, - The Army is filled with all kinds of wierdos".

We laughed.

"Is there anything you want to ask me"?

Sargent Rosario was an Airborne Ranger; so I asked him about The Rangers, and he was more than glad to tell me all about them and their training.

When I got back to my bunk and started to open up The Dream Study Questionare, I was surprised to see that it wasn't from Stanford University, the home of Stephen LeBerge's Sleep Research Institute, ...

... it was from The University of Northern Iowa, - in Cedarfalls, - right next door to my home town, - Waterloo



[cont]

[Mike Strong]

I was only two weeks into my Basic Training.

The first week I had two lucid dreams, - the second week I had four lucid dreams.

My body was toning up, and leaning down. When the cadre told us to 'smoke 'em if ya got 'em" I would crank out 100 push-ups. My body was getting stronger, and the lucid dreaming was inspiring me to really go for it, and see what I could do with my mind.

Half-way through Basic Training and I was dreaming Lucidly on average of four or five times week.

Then one morning when we were all standing in formation, waiting to be called into The Mess Hall, waiting in the snow, waiting in the pre-dawn dark, - wondering if the eggs really were laced with salt-peter, waiting and wondering.

When all of a sudden I saw a large "something" fly over the tree line outside of the parade ground we were standing on, - it was coming right for us, and as I tracked it with my eyes I could clearly see that it was some kind of bird. I held my arms as if I was aiming a rifle at it, and just as I did that, I could see that it was an owl. A Great Horned Owl !

I asked myself if I was dreaming; (which was a part of my lucid dream excercises), and then it occured to me, that I might be hallucinating - the owl was about 50 yards out and swooping down towards the whole Company, so I shouted out!

"Look Sergent, - A Great Horned Owl" !

Everyone followed the bead I had drawn on the owl with my imaginary rifle.

"Whoa" ! "Wow" ! "Oh Shit"!

Everyone watched the owl as it dropped down within 10 feet above our heads, and then glided back up into the early morning darkness behind us, and was gone.

"Night fighter", Sergeant Rosario quipped. And everyone laughed and started talking, ( which we weren't supposed to be doing). Everyone thought it was pretty cool, except for the Mexicans...

... the Mexicans warned that it was a bad omen.

We were yelled at to shut up, and then the cooks called us into the mess hall, and we trudged into the mess hall, wondering if the eggs really did have salt peter in them.

And the sun came up.



[cont]

[Mike Strong]

That night I had a dream that I was hovering over the barracks floor.

I asked myself if I was dreaming, and since I was flying, it was clear to me that the answer was yes.

But something was off.

I was not able to control my flight. It was like I was being pulled. The more I was not able to control my flight the more a sense of panic welled up in me. It seemed like I was being pulled, pulled into the showers. There was a fight going on. There were about a dozen guys in the shower, and they growling and screaming like animals, and the more I tried to gain control of the dream, the more the fear and dread grew and grew,and the next thing I knew I was back in my bunk, - waking up from the dream.

There was some kind of commotion going on, - there where paramedics, and MPs, and all four of our Drill Instructors where there yelling at us to stay in our bunks.

Turns out a kid was raped to death in the showers that night.

Four guys were charged with rape and murder, and they went away.

We had to take a course on sex crimes, and the attitudes of my classmates gave me a new loathing for society in general, and men in particular, ...

... I asked myself if I was dreaming, and I wasn't, - but I wished that I was.


[cont]

[Mike Strong]

After Basic Training I was off to Ft. Gordon, Georgia - home of the Signal Corps.

My snap decision to take Field Radio Repair was based on an empty stomach and the thinking that maybe I could use the experience when I got back to civilain life, - but I wasn't really thinking very clearly.

It was 1981, my Dad's Company used Moterola Radios the size of a pound of butter,- light weight, and powerful they were on the cutting edge of technology,and with cell phones right around the corner, the idea that we were going to learn to fix radios that were obsolete 20 years ago, - just seemed DUMB.

I had no interest in it at all.

I channeled my frustration into working out, and finishing up The Dream Study Questionare.

I was dreaming lucidly four or five times a week, and I was having a blast in my nocturnal adventures.

When The Company finished PT in the morning, I would skip breakfast,and go on a four mile run around the sandy parade ground. After dinner, - I would run four more miles.

I just couldn't bring myself to going to Field Radio Repair School, and then - LO AND BEHOLD, a friend of a friend of our Compay Comander showed up one day, and told me about a new group that was forming, and if I was willing to go back through Basic training at Ft. Bragg, I could get on board with,"some real James Bond Shit" !

I was given a battery of written tests, physical fittness tests; they ran me through The Confidence Course, and gave me a Silent Swim Test, ( which I did so well that, when the cadre administering the test turned around to tell me my time was up, - he nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw me standing right there in front of him)!

A week passed, and I just worked out, ran and waited to hear how my tests went.

And I kept up with my lucid dreaming.

Finally, I was called in for an interviewe with the founder of this new group, and I was surprised to learn that he was stationed at Ft. Gordon. I asked him why, and he just brushed off the question, saying he was there for some cross-training. He gave me a big lecture about how the guys in his group were the best of the best, and had years and years of experience, but that since my test scores, (and especially my linguistic scores ) were so good, he would train me (and guys like me) from scratch...

... IF I aggreed to cross-train in Microwave Repair, Advanced NBC, and Arabic.

I told him I wanted Chinese.

"Nope, - I need Arabic speakers"...

... "if you learn Arabic well, - we can talk about Chinese later".

I told him it was a deal !

"Not so fast", he said, "you also have to finsih Field Radio Repair - and don' t be surprisedif I ask you to learn how to bake bread either".

So I signed on the dotted line, - resigned that I would have to learn dumb ass radio repair. ...


[cont]

[Mike Strong]

After my run, I wolfed down a Garden Burger, took a shower,and setteled into a night of lucid dreaming.

After a dreamless sleep, I woke up to a strange vibrating humming, - more of a sensation than a sound, and it seemed to be coming from both inside and outside of me.

Then I felt as if some kind of electro-magnetic wave was rolling me over to my left side. I instinctivley resisted going over to my left, but the more I resisted, - the stronger the electro-magnetic feeling pulled me over to the left.

Finally, I just gave up and allowed myself to be pulled over to my left, and in an instant, I popped up out of my body and hoovered over towards the window. I looked over at my roommate's clock radio as it flipped over from 3:32 to 3:33, and just then the local FM station that he listened to went into The Animal's SKY PIOLIT, and I zoomed out through the window, up over the parade ground, up over the base, up over the Eastern Seaboard,and then ZAP!

I was back in my bed, - soaked in sweat, and breathing hard.

[Mike Strong]

The next day I worked out, and went to the library, looked up some information on Advanced NBC training, got some lunch, worked out some more, went for a run, ate a Garden Burger, watched some TV and then went to bed doing my lucid Dreaming excercises. And after a dreamless sleep I woke up, started vibrating, and popped up out of my body, - just as my roommate's clock radio flipped over to 3:33, and the local FM station's tape loop kicked into SKYYYYYYYYYY PIOLIT !

The next night, - the same thing: Sleep, vibration, 3:33, and then Sky Piolit !

And the next night !

Four nights in a row !

And that was it.

I had no interest in HALO, NBC, or any other Army accronyms, - I wanted out of The Army, I wanted to see how far I could take this exploration of the mind; so that was that, ...

... and I ran away.

Just like I always knew I would.

Now I'm not saying there was some kind of conspircy between The University of Northern Iowa, Eric Burden & The Animals, and The United States Army, ...


... but having that kind of phenomena happen four nights in a row, - at EXACTLY the same time is pretty wierd, ( even for me).

So, I know a little about "Astral Projection", but I don't know anything about "Energy Twins" or "Twin Flames".

The Buddhists just look at me and smile, and say....

... "MORE PRACTICE" !


SHIT HAPPENS

[Mike Strong]

True Story

[Chris Fleming]

Dis mofo's gone off the deep end.

[Mike Strong]

[MikeC]

The lucid dreaming thing reminds me a lot of some of the Carlos Castaneda stuff I used to read. The starting point was all about getting more interactive in your dreams, consciously.

[Michael]

Thanks for the story, Mike. Very cool!

I joined the Marines in '86 right out of high school. I don't think you would have liked it any more than the Army, and running away or having books in boot camp is not an option.

[Michael]

BTW, what were the instructions for lucid dreaming that you used? I have occasionally had lucid dreams, but would definitely like to do some more.