The Immersion Media, the media wing of The Immersion Foundation, welcomes you to this digital collection designed to support research and understanding of culture through healing and martial arts.

 

It is well understood that the cultural beliefs and social mores of the time directly influenced the nature of martial arts that evolved in a given geographical area. For instance, the usage of agricultural implements were reflected in the Filipino martial arts and the strict social protocols of Japan were echoed in the way their armies were organized.

 

Owing to many factors, the practice of martial arts in the classical sense (i.e. for combat) has been on the wane for decades now in modern civilian life. As a consequence, many classical martial arts are seeing the last generation of their true masters. 

 

Secondly, much of classical martial art education happens behind closed doors, with teachers sharing secrets and myths of their art only to their dedicated private students of many years. This deprives hoplological pursuits of insights into these rich traditions.

 

Finally, most of hoplological research is carried out ethnographically. While this approach provides deep insights into specific cultures, concepts and ideas that are common across many martial arts lose their significance. Memes that evolved separately many times over or survived across many art forms are especially important as they point us to the principles of Human movement and thought, independent of topical or cultural practices.

 

The Immersion Foundation strives to contribute towards solving the aforementioned challenges. We facilitate collaboration between masters and masterful students through various avenues. The dissemination of the scholarly aspect of martial arts is just as important to us as the warrior perspective. Regardless of individual approaches and philosophies, we explore traditions and methodologies across a wide cultural spectrum.

 

The Immersion Media documents these explorations with the aim of providing avant-garde reference material for hoplological research. We strive to archive for posterity, wisdom of martial arts, sometimes passed from teachers to students without any official documentation over centuries. Broadly, we see three categories of media:

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1. Collection of expeditions organized by The Immersion Expeditions.

2. Collection of symposiums organized by The Immersion Labs.

3. Peer-reviewed journal for martial arts comprehensivists, The Immersion Review.

 

The archives are available free of charge to qualified organizations and individuals. Some examples include:

• Universities actively engaged in hoplological research.

• Museums that wish to exhibit the said material as cultural artifacts.

• Independent researchers who strive to contribute towards the understanding of Human behavior.

 

We sincerely hope that these archives help in the preservation of rich martial traditions.