FROM ULTRACAPACITY TO CAPACITY

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CHAPTER 2 : DIALOGUE "FROM  ULTRACAPACITY  TO CAPACITY"

ULTRACAPACITY AS A GAME
 
Murakami:  Three years ago we started to meet each other occasionally.  I would like to know when was it that you started to be aware of your own capacity.
Yamagishi:  It was about nine years ago.  One day, suddenly, I realized that my hands were bluish, and I was very frightened.
Murakami:  Do you mean that you had the capacity before, but hadn't realized about that till that moment?
Yamagishi:  I am not sure.  Everybody used to say that they had had a revelation from God, or that He had descended. In my case neither was true, though.
Murakami:  A great deal of people say that they have seen a light, or a UFO coming down from the sky.
Yamagishi:  In effect, but in my case I thought I had cyanosis or something like that (laughter).
All I did was to wonder if I were sick.
Murakami:  Did it happen in both hands?
Yamagishi:  Yes, indeed.
Murakami:  Being like that, it is normal to think of it as a disease.
Yamagishi:  Naturally.  I felt electricity in my finger tips, and when I looked at them, they were bluish. They looked like the fingers of a corpse, and I chilled.
Murakami:  I understand that at that time you were less than forty years old, and that your profession was pharmaceutics.
Yamagishi:  You are right, except that my job was the manufacture of immobilizing bandage using a type of rubber called transpolyisoprene, instead of making remedies.
Murakami:  Normally, people do not relate pharmacology to bandages.
Yamagishi:  Pharmacology has an aspect in which a variety of disciplines combine.
The academic preparation of a pharmacist is very important, but for example, even if he specialized in medicinal plants, a botanist would know more about plants, or  even if he specialized in biological remedies of animal origin, a zoologist will be more knowledgeable about animals than a pharmacist; or in the case of aspirins, a specialist in synthesis would do a much better job.  To be more precise, the pharmacist elaborates something by gathering different knowledge and techniques.
Murakami:  Let's say that a pharmacist's duty do is to combine general knowledge.
Yamagishi:  That is right.
Murakami:  So it means that while doing this kind of job, you suddenly realized that you had this capacity.
Yamagishi:  There were people around me who knew about this type of capacity.
Murakami:  Do you mean people interested in paranormal phenomena?
Yamagishi:  Yes. There was one among all my friends from college who was enthusiastic about those subjects.  He used to talk to me about many of those things, and made me read books related to them; but personally, I was not interested in non-scientific matters.  Moreover, I thought that those were low level subjects because its contents were arbitrary or irrational.  I considered them as simple entertainment.
When I was a boy, my enviroment was incompatible to that kind of ideas, since both my father and grandfather worked in scientific areas.
Murakami: So,  that is why you pursued the pharmacist profession.
Usually, individuals who run towards external remedies are people who do not look inside themselves.  For example, let's suppose that there is a state of melancholy that can be relieved with a simple antidepressant drug. There may be people who think melancholy is the result of the contradictions of modern Japan, and decide to write novels.  As for me and my wife, we like medicines.  I am the kind of person who thinks that one gets depressed not because there is a contradiction within the self, but because there is a biochemical imbalance.  I know that a person's mind can be altered by consuming a small dose of medicine like LSD, so I think I get depressed because I need a vitamin or something like that. When I am depressed I consider having an antidepressant. People like me do not look within for a solution.  In fact, unlike most of my family, I am not interested in paranormal phenomena, so I understand you well when you say that in the past you were not interested either.
Yamagishi:  These are things that, according to common sense, should not exist.
Frequently, people related to paranormal phenomena are absurd, and talk nonsense (laughter).
Trying to affirm what happened to God after a whole lifetime, or that behind someone exists something extraordinary, or well, that something happened three generations ago, are things in which I am not interested, and that I certainly don´t intend to do.
Even though I have the ability to cure, to be honest, I am not very interested in doing it by myself.  If it just were a test to obtain a result, there would be an impulse to do it, but I don´t want to do it as a kind of profession.  In no way am I interested in gathering dozens or hundreds of people everyday and personally cure them for the rest of my life.
What I mean is that, even if I have the most remarkable of the capacities, I can cure only one person at a time, or even if I could congregate hundreds of people to cure,  it would still be limited.  And furthermore, if I die, it would be the end, so that can´t be considered valuable.  What I really want  is to share my knowledge in a more scientific way, using words that everybody could easily understand.  For this reason, besides just curing people personally, I have created a system which consists in transmitting  my capacity to cure to other people.
Murakami:  To think that what you can perform, can be done by any other person, is a scientific conception.

THE MOMENT OF ULTRACAPACITY PERCEPTION

Murakami:  If your way of thinking had been scientific, how come you realized for the first time that you possessed a capacity inexistent in other people.
Yamagishi:  Once, while smoking a cigarette that I had been holding  in my hand, I got the impression of  being  "empty."nbsp; I was surprised, and thought "How can this be possible?"nbsp; When I asked  people around me to try a cigarette, they responded by saying : "What is this?""What happened?"
Murakami:  What  does "empty"mean?
Yamagishi:  It means that it became extremely light.
Murakami:  As if that cigarette had been forgotten for a long time?
Yamagishi:  It means that while I smoked it, it did not offered any resistance at all.
There was another time when the coffee changed its taste to tea.  It happened in a café in Ikebukuro; on one of the tables next to mine, there were two ladies talking lively about trivial subjects that resulted annoying for the people around.
Murakami:  Didn´t you know those ladies?.
Yamagishi: No, I did not know them at all.
 As I said before, they were very annoying , and each of them said whatever came to their minds without listening to the other.  At that time, both of them were drinking coffee, it was then when the idea of changing the taste to tea occurred to me.
Murakami:  Did you just use your thoughts without doing anything else?
Yamagishi:  To think about it is enough.
One of the ladies drank a little of her coffee while she was talking, and then made a face of surprise.
Murakami:  This does not mean that the coffee had turned into tea, right?.
Yamagishi:  No, that is not what it means, and since the composition of matter cannot be changed, what happened was that the taste was transformed.
Murakami:  So, the atomic composition of matter did not change.
Yamagishi:  Right.  I think that what changed was the type of reaction at the time of drinking.
Murakami:  Did those ladies stop talking when they noticed something strange?
Yamagishi:  Yes, they said something like "try this,""what a strange thing," and immediately left the place.
"This is interesting," I thought.
In some respect, all I do is a game, and from the beginning I have been doing it as a diversion or entertainment without considering it too seriously.  When people do things they like, their heads perform better.
Being inside this kind of game, ideas like "can it be done?" or "how interesting it would be to complete that," successively come out of my mind.  In practice, interesting things emerge, and progress is made rapidly.
 If a colleague achieves something important, we try to share it, and this is other important reason why capacity must be transmitted to other people.  If only one person has it, it would be impossible to share experiences.
One of my principles is to communicate all the new things I have learnt, and which are easily  understood by people.

RAISING HANDS AS A PROOF

Murakami:  Perhaps, those people who possess this type of capacity, that we call ultracapacity, usually don´t think about transmitting it to others,  do they?  Although there are people who can bend spoons, float in the air, or foresee the future, they will never consider trying to teach others to do it.  Nobody would think about the possibility to transmit his capacity.  In that aspect, I think you are completely different from others.
Yamagishi:  I think capacity is something which changes and evolves gradually.  In those cases of people who have achieved the capacity to bend spoons, they don´t have possibilities to grow, or don´t see different things for the future, so that´s the reason why they don´t deem it necessary to transmit their capacity.
As for myself, though I have developed a new technique, I don't have any objection in transmitting it to others.  Furthermore, if I share it, I can achieve new things.
Murakami:  Isn't the desire to  transmit the capacity and information to people due to an interior necessity of yours?
Yamagishi:  It sure is.
Murakami: Undoubtedly, this is a healthy necessity.
Yamagishi:  Besides, if you just keep it for yourself, you accumulate stress.  And if only you can do it, in case of a request, you are forced to do it.  For example, if a sick person appeared, I would be the only one who can treat him.
Murakami:  There must be moments in which you are fed up.
Yamagishi:  Such is the case (laughter).  This is why I came to the conclusion that "I give you capacity so you can cure yourself."
Murakami:  I believe that the necessity to transmit something to somebody is one of the things that distinguish men from animals.  Even though communication among some animals like dolphins and bees exists, there is a difference with the desire to transmit new information in an accurate way.  The fact that I write novels is surely due to my necessity to transmit or communicate something.
I am under the impression that your initial necessity to transmit was the one which originated your desire to advance towards "capacity, "surpassing the limits of  "ultracapacity."
In the past, have you  performed  a raising of the hand similar to the one you do at present?
Yamagishi:  Yes, I have.  Even though I did not know what the raising of the hand meant, I did it as a test to learn about it.
Once I tried, I realized it works, and from that moment, I started to use it in many cases, such as when I want to get a "yes" or "no" answer to a problem.
Murakami:  The fact that you find an answer to  a "yes" or "no" question does not mean that you can foresee the future, does it?
Yamagishi:  There is no future (laughter).
Murakami:  Doesn´t the future exist?.
Yamagishi:  I believe it doesn't exist.  If it existed, and were already defined, present would not be necessary.
Murakami:  I think that those people who can see images of the future, as a precognitive capacity, in the long run they end up having mental alterations.  I never wanted that kind of capacity for myself.
Yamagishi:  If one gets to foresee the future and as a consequence he realizes that he will be rich and will live like an Arab king, he won't have the need to endeavor anymore.  However, it will be too boring.
Murakami.  I also think that a prestablished future does not exist.
Yamagishi:  I believe that perhaps the future can be imagined in accordance to the present situation, through processing present information.  By means of calculation and combination of information an estimated of future events happening ten years from now could be made.
Murakami:  Something like a prediction by computer?
Yamagishi:  Exactly.  I think something like that could be possible, but that´s it.
Even supposing that foreseeing the future could be possible, we have to evaluate the benefits we can get from it, and make the question: what benefit can we get by knowing the future?
Murakami:  To think about what to do if the future could be known is a matter of personal values, a philosophical conception.
Yamagishi:  That´s right.
Murakami:  If someone says to us "I really can see the future, and in three years you will die," is the same as saying "now you have AIDS." nbsp; Here the point is that our way of living will change.
Yamagishi: Yes, indeed.
Murakami:  In my case, even if someone tells me that I am going to die in three years, and it is true, I think  I would keep doing the same things, like making movies, writing novels, or playing tennis with my son.
Regarding people who find themselves forced to change their way of living for a situation like this, I don´t know if I can refer to them as "poor people." nbsp; They could go mad at any moment...
Yamagishi:  Certainly, those people who have not fully lived their lives would change.  In my case, if someone told me I would die three years from now, I would ask to wait for me a bit longer because I am too busy now (laughter).
Murakami:  You would say that you are not ready for those things yet.
Yamagishi:  Of course I would (laughter).

FROM SUSPICION TO AMAZEMENT

Murakami:  Going back to the subject of raising hands, is it true that you did it in the past?
Yamagishi:  Yes, but actually you don´t need to use your hands.  Being both of us, the patient and I, sitting and quiet, I can cure him just by saying: "I am going to start" and "I have finished." nbsp; It is enough just to send energy to the patient, to be face to face, and to do it for a few minutes, not exceeding 20.
Murakami:  I also had the opportunity to meet people who possessed some kind of ultracapacity, such as folding hard objects.  Apparently, there is an increasing number of youngsters who possess ultracapacity.  When a friend of mine took me to some of them, I felt that one was pointing his hands at my shoulder.
I call "capacity" even to the supernatural things. And even though I do not deny their existence, they have not aroused  an special interest in me.  The fact that a spoon can be bent doesn't mean it is something useful, or that it has a special influence on my job.
I think that the important thing here is whether that capacity is good or bad.  This is the reason why regarding Mr. Yamagishi's capacity, I trust him.
Anyway,  there are still some things I don't understand.  For example, about two years ago, when the Cuban musical band called "Banda Enejera" was about to come to Japan for the first time, the Conga player, got sick.  As a result of walking naked and talking nonsense, he was forced to use a straitjacket.
Then, I received a fax from the leader of the band saying that the Conga player was seriously affected as a result of the electroshocks, and that a substitute player was practicing with the band to replace the other. When I heard this, I started to tell everybody that the former Conga player would not come.
At that time, I consulted Mr. Yamagishi by phone, and told him I believed the player would not be able to come.  After  checking the energy condition of that situation, he replied :  "On the contrary Ryu, the Conga player will come."
 To be honest, at that moment I thought it would be impossible for the Conga player to come to Japan, so I remained doubtful about what Mr. Yamagishi had said (laughing).  However, the day before departure, I received a phone call in which I was informed that the player would come because his condition had improved.  For the first time I thought "This is fantastic."
In those cases, when you see the energy condition, you talk about positive and negative.  If possible, I would like you to explain to me in a comprehensible manner what happens in that precise moment.
Yamagishi:  I don't remember it clearly.  The reason for this is that I am frequently told personal secrets, and it would be regrettable that as a consequence of keeping them in my mind I mentioned them by mistake.  That is the reason why I constantly prepare myself to forget people´s consultations.
Murakami:  In order to forget them, do you require a general preparation instead of a special one?
Yamagishi:  Yes, it is something general (laughing).  One can forget it little by little by making an effort, and that is why I can barely remember that moment.
Murakami:  Going back to the Conga player, you didn´t know anything about him, did you?
Yamagishi:  No, I didn't.
Murakami:  I am affraid to ask this  because I perceive the world as a fearful place, but, has any image ever appeared to you?
Yamagishi:  Nothing has ever appeared in front of me.  If any image appeared before me, I would quit immediately.  Certainly, one would end up having an emotional alteration.
Murakami:  Surely, I would be scared if an image appeared to me.
Yamagishi:  There are people who, just by looking at others, are able to know everything about them, even their names.  I think this can´t last for  more than three years.  This is the period of time in which they can see things correctly.  In some way, this capacity can be considered a disease.  If my capacity had had the characteristic of curing people at the expense of affecting my sanity, I would have considered the possibility to abandon it immediately.
Man has body and mind, but furthermore, he has energy.  I believe that the situation just mentioned is related to that energy.

SIMILIAR TO "KI," BUT STILL DIFFERENT FROM IT

Murakami:  You use the term "energy," nbsp; and I believe it is precisely that, but don´t you believe you should find another way to name it?
Yamagishi:  But, if you assign a strange name to it, it would give the impression of being something misterious.  On the other hand, it couldn´t remain unnamed, so I decided to call it "energy."
Murakami:  Of course it can be called energy or any other name, but if one says energy, it is something very general and can comprise from atomic energy to the electric signals transmitted through the nerves.  For this reason you should name it differently.
Yamagishi:  There won´t be an option other than "Ki."
Murakami:  That´s true.
Yamagishi:  I think  there is no defined word to name it, because this concept did not exist before in human history.
Murakami:  Certainly, I find it difficult to name it, but I believe that an unfamiliar word should be used.  I also believe that it should be named in an arbitrary manner, in the same way ancient Europeans named "ether" to something similar to "Ki," without justifying any kind of relation between that word and the meaning of the concept.
Yamagishi:  I should ask someone to find a name...(laughter).
Murakami:  Maybe, an arbitrary word wouldn´t be convenient, but I think that a new term would be more easily transmitted to other people.  If we say energy,  this concept  is also used in physics.
What you call energy, is it the same to what in China is known as "Ki," or just something similar?
Yamagishi:  What we know as "Ki" is widely used, but I think it comprises frequencies with many different amplitudes which  in one way we can call  "light," and in the other "wave."
Murakami:  If you had been born in China, would you called it "Ki"
Yamagishi:  There is a small difference between them.
Murakami:  There sure is.
Yamagishi:  But since no appropriate word exists, there is no other option.
Murakami:  Well, leaving aside the way of naming it, can you feel the level of what you call energy?
Yamagishi:  I don´t feel it in a very passive manner, or do it constantly and in a conscious way, but only when I am consulted.
Murakami:  If you knew about everybody's energy, even if you were not consulted, it would be terrible.
Yamagishi:  I would die.
Murakami:  If anybody walked into a crowd, he would die, right?
Yamagishi:  Right (laughter).  It is better not to know anything.
Murakami:  Can you block that capacity anywhere?
Yamagishi:  I think that there must be a barrier, something like the skin.  I believe that when necessary, I can freely receive information, but I must be intensely blocking the rest.
Murakami:  Since this blocking is essential  to lead a normal life, it must certainly be conformed in a natural way.
Yamagishi:  Yes, you are right.  If that blockage didn't exist, I would be like a earthworm on which salt had been sprinkled on.  So, I must be well protected.
Murakami:  But if you are not careful, I guess you would become very vulnerable.
Yamagishi:  However, I think that solving those things is our job.
I don´t understand the nature of my own capacity, but since I can´t do much about it, I try to act, and if there is a variation, I strive to keep up with it.
Murakami:  By the same token, it wouldn´t make sense if phenomena like the clinical ones were not investigated.
Yamagishi:  That´s correct.

EVERYBODY  HAS AN UNIDENTIFIED KIND OF ENERGY

Murakami:  I believe that if one has something inside, and is asked what it is about, perhaps because one does not understand it clearly, it would be difficult to explain it to others.  But, if it is presented in a book like this, what curious readers and public in general would try to learn is what that energy is, and how it is handled.
I don´t believe that elucidating it would be an important discovery, rather I think it would be more significant to achieve a valuable result regarding the application of that energy in humans.
I consider that it can be understood by inferring from those results.  However, rank and file people would try to understand it before experimenting.
Yamagishi:  I have had the opportunity to give lectures in  countries like the United States and Mexico, and most of the times people inquire about  the scope of my capacity.  I believe that if I knew that, I wouldn´t keep doing it.
Murakami:  You also do something like provoking the formation of endorphin, which is an internal substance of the brain, by applying a kind of stimulus to that organ.
In that case, are you using energy too?
Yamagishi:  Yes, I am.
Murakami:  Is that kind of energy something that has always existed in living beings?
Yamagishi:  I assume that to some extent everybody has possessed it from the beginning.  In some way, they have lived  emitting that energy continuously.  For example, when suddenly you meet a woman, you dont´t fall in love with her as a result of her face, voice, or nice thoughts, but certainly because the frequency of your two energies coincide.
I believe that men and animals live mutually perceiving those kinds of things.
Murakami:  Has that thing which you call energy anything to do either with ancient spiritualists who are popular at present or with the developed leaders of the new religions? or probably with the individuals who float in Tibet, or the ones who bend spoons?
Yamagishi:  I don´t know if there is a relation among them.
Murakami:  You must be asked a lot of questions of this kind.  They must bore you (laughter).
Yamagishi:  I avoid it by saying "I don´t know" (laughter).
I believe that any kind of energy might be the source of the things you mentioned before.  Here the important factor is the judgment of values ascribed to the possession of that capacity, and the way in which one coexists with it.  The meaning of  capacity may differ from one person to the next, even if it is the same capacity.  For instance, a person may be satisfied just by thinking that the capacity to float is extraordinary, or another person may be more interested in finding a deeper meaning of that capacity.  I insist that the fundamental point here is the judgment of values ascribed to it.
I consider that even if a person could achieve nirvana, if that person died without leaving something beneficial to humanity, that person's existence would be worthless.  I believe that it is fundamental that men strive during their whole life to leave a useful legacy to future generations.  If this value concept were adopted by people, I pressume that the world would change in a positive direction.

ULTRACAPACITY IS VALUABLE AS SOON AS IT IS TRANSMITTED

Murakami:  At present, things like paranormal phenomena are being highly praised, even without scientific verification.  I consider that an NBA player who virtually soars is much more extraordinary than that who floats 50 cm from the ground through the practice of  Zen meditation (laughter).
Something similar happens with the babies when people say that one of them is laughing one week after his birth, or that he can speak fluently at the age of one.  I always say that this is extraordinary since he is just a baby, but if that same baby could deliver mail, it would be truly extraordinary, since  it would be something useful to humanity.  For this same reason, I think that the person who invented the helicopter or the airplane is more extraordinary than anyone who can float.
Yamagishi:  Some time ago, I wrote in a sarcastic manner about those people who claim they have the ability to visualize events occurring in distant places.  If  you turn on your TV, you can watch the war between Iran and Irak, or the Gulf War.  This really is an extraordinary capacity.
Even if you could  float at a height of 50 cm above the ground, what benefit would you get out of it?  A helicopter would be a much more practical thing.  Going back to the example of the spoons, it would be better to use them without bending.  Furthermore, it can be done by applying a small force (using your hands or a tool) without having to groan.
That's why the important matter here is where to place the judgment of value.  In addition, anything that  can be done only  by one person is not valuable.  Therefore it should become something that everybody can do.
Murakami:  The judgement of value which causes you to say "everyone should be able to do it," differentiates you from the judgment of value in other people who possess ultracapacity and who are so frequently mentioned nowadays.  In this respect, you are unique.
Yamagishi:  What happens is that I am lazy and don´t want to strive.  At least not too much (laughter).
A lot of people ask me, "What is that capacity about?" nbsp; But, since I don´t feel like giving an explanation, I always ask, "Why don´t you acquire the capacity for yourself?" "You should try," "You will achieve it," "Once you obtain the capacity, you will figure out what it is about."
Murakami:  To say that if you can do it, others can do it too, is a scientific position.
Yamagishi:  In ancient Japan, monks were highly recognized individuals due to their status of ultracapacity possessors.  Among other things, they were able to cure and to judge.  The possession of  that special capacity was the main reason for accepting Buddhism  as a religion in Japan.  It was valuable in its own way.  However, those capacities were gradually forgotten. It was at that time when , after two unsuccessful attempts, Ganjin Wajo finally arrived in Japan from China,  losing his sight while in this endeavour.
What made him strive so hard to get to Japan is still an enigma, mainly because at that time there were many monks in this country.
By the way, once I investigated a biography at a Todaiji temple.  In that biography made by a monk named Fumon Sagawa, we could learn that at that time every monk possessed capacity , and that among all of them, Ganjin Wajo was able to transmit his capacity to others.  That is why they made him come to Japan.  They might have gone to China to acquire capacity, but there was nobody else in that country besides monk Wajo able to make the transmission.
A high-rank monk who could transmit capacity was needed, and Gangin Wajo, who prior to his arrival to Todaiji temple had acquired capacity in a temple called Kaidan-in, was able to do it in spite of having lost his sight.
The monks forged their bodies and minds through their preparation, and consequently, their personalities.
Apparently, when they finished preparation, a ceremony by means of which they were ordained as monks was carried out. And during that celebration, they received the special capacity from Ganjin Wajo.
Murakami:  Was that something similar to your method?
Yamagishi:  Certainly, but those were different times, and besides I am not good at speaking.
Murakami:  You mean you don´t like it, right? (laughter)
Yamagishi:  Right. I am too lazy for that (laughter).  Hard as I try, I would never finish explaining my method, but instead if people acquired and used that capacity, they would know about it first hand.  Furthermore, no matter how much I strive, what I could do in my whole life would be limited.  If many people acquired the capacity, each of them could use it in their respective activities, and a large variety of results would be obtained.  I believe that it would be more valuable in this way. Besides, the existence of people who possess capacity in different places would be very convenient.
Murakami:  Rather than a matter of laziness, what you do is to promote the general practice of capacity in order to create a universality (laughter).
Yamagishi:  There is another significant thing to be considered that I heard of a long time ago.  It is related to "The Monkey Number 1000" nbsp; (remark one). I heard of a phenomenon in which when a specific amount of living beings (I am not sure if it is 1% or 10%) acquire a new capacity, the whole society changes.  Supposing there are 100 million Japanese, if a  percentage of these people (enough to change the judgement of value of the entire population) acquired the capacity, a new and interesting world would be created.

footnote one:  "The Monkey Number 1000"

While investigating the conduct of wild monkeys in Koujima, Miyazaki prefecture, one of those animals learned to wash sweet potatoes with water from the sea, and immediately that method spread to the rest of the population.  Then, when the percentage of monkeys that washed sweet potatoes surpassed certain amount, other monkeys located in different islands as Honshu, which is the main island, started to behave in the same way,  independently from the fact that some of the monkeys from the first island had, or had not, arrived at this other place.  Even though there is no certainty of it being true, this was the phenomenom as described by the American scientist R.Watson.

WHEN CAPACITY OF CONCENTRATION IMPROVES

Murakami:  When I am home, I live as an inferior being, doing nothing to such an extent that people around me wonder at what time I write my novels.  Even when I am writing, to do four or  five pages is not satisfactory because I waste a lot of time between one idea and the next doing things like reading a book or smoking a cigarette.  But from the seventh or eighth page, I can experience a kind of increase in my capacity of  concentration called by some people an "inspiration state." nbsp; Completely different combinations of words start to emerge from me, and I reach my most lucid state when I get to the tenth page.  In order to express something, a variety of word arrangements, which surprises everyone, rises from me. In terms of time, this happens one or one-and-a-half hours after having started.
I believe it is only simple concentration, what do you think?  Are brain cells activated?
Yamagishi:  Regarding a state of extreme concentration like this, perhaps you should think about it prior to start writing.
Sometimes, I suddenly feel like writing something but, I can't put my ideas together, since all the infomation tangles.  In these cases, though I am asked to write, I can´t do even one line.
Murakami:  Really?
Yamagishi:  However, order comes after chaos, and gradually I start to find direction.  Despite that, when the time to write truly comes, I find myself shaken by a vibration.  Then as I go on, I find my way, and at about the tenth page, the shaking completely vanishes, and I believe that I enter a state in which I can concentrate in one direction.
Murakami:  And does it have any relation to the energy we have been talking about.?
Yamagishi:  I don´t know if it has any relation to that energy but writing novels is not something that everybody can do.  I think that only people who can reach that state can write them.  That is a special capacity and certainly, as I do, common people must consider it an ultracapacity.
Murakami:  To be honest, I don´t like writing, but my brain (I can´t call it otherwise) reaches that state, and I really get excited when ideas, which are surpraising even for  me, emerge.  Sincerely, I like that state.
Something similar happens to me when I film a movie, but in the case of novels, it is the best for me, since I can do it by myself.
Yamagishi:  When concentration increases, certainly a section of your brain called hippocampus is stimulated. There are many things about the brain which I don´t understand yet, but it is said that the hippocampus is related to memory and learning.  When this part is stimulated, a person enters a very pleasant state.
Nerve A 10 (remark two), which is also located in the brain, is stimulated, and produces a large amount of dopamine, considered as the "substance of pleasure." nbsp; And since these nerves are connected to the frontal lobe, which is closely related to intelligence, it is here, to a great extent, that it is stimulated.  For this reason, mental concentration increases even more, and I suppose it is in this way that the brain reaches a state in which points only to one direction.

footnote two:   "Nerve A 10"

That is the nerve that runs through spots of the brain which are important for  human thoughts, such as the frontal and temporal lobes, the basal and limbic systems, and the hypothalamus.
It is also called the pleasure center, and it is known that when it is stimulated, pleasure is experienced.

The nerve A10 does not have marrow.  This nerve which emerges from the nervous nucleus of the brain stem, goes through the hypothalamus and then enters the limbic system and the frontal and temporal lobes.  When stimulated, this nerve secretes a substance called dopamine which produces a sensation of tranquility and satisfaction.

POSSIBILITIES INSIDE THE BRAIN

Yamagishi:  I have developed a system in which I introduce my own energy in a CD, so other people can receive that energy by listening to it.  Among the various types of existing softwares, there are many which relate to the brain.  One of them is called "Tonic," and it produces a state of activity.  There is another called "Hippocampus", whose purpose is to increase mental concentration.  By listening to other named "Nouryou" nbsp;  (corpus callosum), a person can understand words in the form of images, and although it does not allow a word-by-word comprehension, the general idea is immediately realized.  Moreover, with software "Study 3," a person can understand words in different languages.  This was amazing even for me.
Murakami:  Do you mean that a person can understand other languages?
Yamagishi:  Not precisely understand them, but listen to them. Although a person doesn´t understand what is said in Spanish, he listens to the words attentively.
Murakami:  Certainly he is listening in deep concentration.
Yamagishi:  I don´t understand why, but a person can achieve that state.  When I speak English, words that I don´t know how or where I learned start to come up.
Murakami:  That must be a kind of concentration.
Yamagishi:  It must be.
Murakami:  Regarding myself,  I can only  take for reference the fact of  writing novels, but for instance, despite having gone to relax to Hawaii, and  having lived an orderly life, it doesn´t mean that anybody including myself could start to write them as soon as they sit at their desk.  Of course, it isn´t even possible to do so after drinking for two consecutive days or after having a hangover.
Alhough normally I achieve that state after concentrating for one hour at my desk, there were many times when I reached a different state.  Those are states in which despite being unable to write for an hour, suddenly you start to write easily.  This forces me to think, "How can it be possible?"
Even though there are not facts in common about when it happens to me, I remember that it happened to me once after driving.  On that occasion I left home more than three hours in advance, and drove to Haneda airport. And since I got there too early, and in order to avoid wasting time, I rented a room at the airport hotel and started to write.  Many times I did this kind of thinks, and on three of those occasions I was able to write for two hours at a time. And in those cases one wonders  "How can I write that much in such a short time?"
That time driving to Haneda airport was not stressful, since I just did it in a mechanical way, and after cheking in at the hotel, I sat down at the desk,  and from the moment I started to write the first lines, I felt extremely good.  I still can´t explain how it happened.
Yamagishi:  A similar thing happens to me when I am creating  something like a software, and there is no explanation at all.
Murakami:  Anyway, I believe that there is a mechanism which is activated.  It doesn´t have anything to do with physical or mental conditions.
Yamagishi:  The bottonline here is to know what it is about.
Regarding myself, when I create something, it doesn´t happen after thinking too much or after reading a book.  Suddenly, at any given moment I feel that I can do it, for example while talking to someone, and I end up creating something at those opportunities. Even though the possibilities of creating something  increase, there is no reason for that, and it is not related to a specific situation, although I think there should be a relation between the two.
Murakami:  In my case, it doesn´t mean that brain cells have been modified, or that it is due to doing exercise or to a nutritional aspect. Even though I know I might be wrong, I believe it is a matter of the energy inside myself.  There may be a kind of secretions, or perhaps waves or particles, or even the secretion referred to above that changes of form at a given moment.
Yamagishi:  There is something called Brownian Movement, which is about the irregular movement on the water surface produced by an object when it falls on it.  Air also produces Brownian Movement.  On water, very small particles move irregularly.  However, when all particles move accidentally in the same direction, a phenomenon called whirlpool occurs.  Regarding concentration, probably a similar phenomenon  takes place, or maybe something like a flying spark happens.
By the way, in my EEG it appears a small peak wave every two thousandths of a second.
Murakami:  Is it something special ?
Yamagishi:  Apparently, it is the first existing case registered until now.  Professor Tateo Fujimoto from Nihon-Ika University has done research on EEGs belonging to people with different kinds of capacity, including mine.  According to Professor Fujimoto, who has presented my case in a book named "Ki to Ningen Kagaku" (Ki and the Science of Men; Hirakawa,Yasuo Yuasa Publishing Co.). This is a very uncommon EEG. Also late Professor Yominari Shinagawa from the same university said he could not understand how it was possible.
Murakami:  An EEG presents the electric signs produced by cerebral nerves. Right?
Yamagishi:  Right. Perhaps there is a relation between the waves presented in my EEG and my capacity, but I don´t engage in any special concentration.  Apparently, new things are created in a casual way.
In my case, that capacity is directed to the handling or transmission of energy, while in your case, it is directed to writing novels.  I believe it is a very general phenomenon.
Murakami:  Creating could be related to the ablility to concentrate. couldn´t it?
Yamagishi:  Yes, it could be.
Murakami:  Is it the same as "Study 3" or "Tonic" you created?
Yamagishi:  Yes.
Murakami:  At this point, I want to clarify something in order to avoid misunderstandings in non-scientific people.  Although you make use of all your capacity, it would be impossible for you to give rise to a novel writer, wouldn't it?
Yamagishi:  Yes, Indeed.
Murakami:  In order to write novels, a person must have aptitudes. Right?
Yamagishi:  That´s for sure.
Murakami:  It means that it is impossible to create a novel writer or a physicist. By contrast, it is possible to activate a person´s ability to concentrate.
Yamagishi:  It certainly is.  People who do things like inventions or writing novels achieve this kind of states.