Posted ByMaster Roshambollah on March 21, 2001 at 19:31:14:
Both before and after my departure, many rumors were circulating. To fail to address them would be to invite suspicion. I therefore lay open the accusations and the truth behind them.
There were many myths concerning my students, and my connection to them. It was claimed that I was running a "cult" and that our study retreat was little more than an armed compound with patrolling guards and constant surveillance. Many members of the society at the time claimed that I had ran afoul of tax authorities, and the subsequent closing of our study retreat did little to quell those suspicions. It was claimed that I was using sinister "brainwashing" techniques to create a virtual army of "super-psychic" rps soldiers. The intense study of the spiritual meanings of the three throws did indeed produce a hyper-intuitive state in my students, but that was more of a natural result of working with the symbols for prolonged periods of time. It was even claimed that my students were taught "black magick" techniques, using the sacred symbols of roshambo in an active rather than passive form! (My student Victor "Evil Eye" Richards had this claim levelled against him when he "intentionally" threw a slow scissors and lost the southeastern regionals in '94; later that day his opponent Luke "cool hand" McGovern was fatally injured in an office supply store mishap) These accusations have never been proven by anyone. The arcane science of mudras DOES exist, buy my students are taught enough only to defend themselves when it is used against them. For more info on this, see my broadsheet, "The Spiritual Roots of Roshambo."
I *have* retained a handful of students through these long years, and they are as skilled and practiced of a bunch of rps competitors as one would wish to find! They spend their time in many other worldly pursuits. One student is currently finishing a thesis on the tri-valent math of rps, the application of which will render possible the first generation of "fuzzy logic" or "trinary" computers. Others make use of a music scale based on the symbols (enhancing our image as modern day Pythagoreans!) Mostly, though, we spend our time in meditation, as we gather around a fire and let the symbols that are thrown construct complex stories of spiritual and artistic growth and expansion. This, then, is the true meaning of rps for me, these days, which I will expand upon in my next and last message (for now.) Though I have been known to wander the streets of Washington DC in disguise, taking on all comers! If any of you remember me fondly from days gone past, I would love to hear from you.