LNGAdmin

Hi everyone My name is Chris (female) I have trained in the Arts for over 25 years and am looking forward to joining in this forum

Hello Mr Brewer I would not normally bother to reply to these kind of posts however ..... As you can see from my username I am the admin person for Lotus Nei Gong, I also happen to be Damo's mother and Phil James is married to my older sister. As you seem to be attacking my son and his school I thought that I should reply to your post. First - My brother in law Phil James, one of my son's teachers. Your most recent post quotes Phil as saying that he didn't meet his nephew until he was 23, I was shocked to read this and have since phoned Phil to discuss this untruth - there has been a family disagreement which for personal reasons I will not discuss with anyone outside the family, and it seems that Phil has decided to distance himself from us which is his choice. That is fine and we accept his decision but I do feel that I should set the record straight. Due to distance Ann & Phil did not meet Damo until he was approx 2 years old which is a few years out from Phils memory, Damo started learning Taiji in his teens - this he started with his father Paul until he tranferred his training largely to Phil. If anyone is interested we have a 'You tube' video of our family photo's including a picture of teenage Damo with his father and uncle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NWU21qdiKQ...yer_profilepage Family disagreements are always difficult and Damo has felt that his hands have been tied whilst trying to deal with these issues as he didn't wish to deepen the rift within the family. However as Phil has decided to mis inform you about the family ties I felt it necessary to reply. Secondly - Lack of experience as mentioned in your post - We are a family with many years experience in teaching martial arts, from the link above you will see that Damo although relatively young has a great deal of experience in many arts. You will also notice that his father and I are on all of the courses that he teaches and unfortunately we are not young and definately not without experience! My husband Paul even recommended Taiji to Phil in the first place. What he is not experienced in is dealing with the political rubbish that unfortunately seems to surround the Internal Arts - diplomats we are not, Martial Artists we are! Thirdly - Personal and Financial gain - this is a difficult one. Obviously every organisation need to make a certain amount of profit to survive - LNG is no different, probably not much different from Heaven Mountain. Fourth - this question of Lineage - Phil claimed to be a lineage holder under Shen Honxun - a claim he stated in front of several witnesses, Damo was then told by his uncle it had passed to him. If this claim from Phil is untrue then Damo apologises and is quite happy to withdraw this claim (something he has already spoken to his students about). As you stated in your post Mr Brewer - if a teacher lies, how can you trust anything else he says? The world is full of people with axes to grind and unfortunately this has now impacted on our family. I am very sad that our family has fragmented in this way and I do hope that my relationship is not damaged beyond repair with my dear sister who I know sits in the middle of this. Go in peace Love Chris Mitchell