Post date: Sep 19, 2009 6:23:32 AM
Most recently a phenona in WWII, cargo cults arose as local inhabitants of pacific islands copied the actions of occupying or visiting forces after they had left believing this would bring gifts from the heavens. In these cults natives might make airstrips, wooden huts complete with bamboo radio and headsets and attempt to call in food drops from the skys. Wikipedia has a lot more info about the cargo cults here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult
The lesson for us as aikidoka is fairly straight forward. Whilst copying the outward form of aikido (some frame by frame watch Ueshiba sensei's video's to try to copy him) will bring a measure of success, without an understanding of the deeper mechanisms involved it may be just cargo cult aikido.