Towards Freedom

Former senior Research Scientist with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), Jonathan Balcombe, born in England and raised in New Zealand and Canada, currently presides in the United States and is Chair of the Animal Studies Department at Humane Society University. While Dr. Balcombe holds three biology degrees total, he specializes in the study of animal behavior, or ethology, and has a PhD in this area of study. As a leading animal behavior researcher, Balcombe, who is also an accomplished author and public speaker, is an animal-rights activist and chooses a plant-based, vegan diet. But his compassion for animals soars higher than his dietary choices; he centers his career on the ethical and fair treatment of all living things. Seeing and appreciating animals for the wide variety of notions and emotions that they are fully capable of experiencing, he has dedicated many of his studies to debunking the common human assumption that animals' lives are just a bleak "struggle for survival".

As a martial artist, I used to wonder if there was one ultimate way to focus one's combat skills, if a style could be developed that took out all the stylistic frills and utilized scientific principles to form a perfect combat system. My reasoning was, if most human bodies are essentially the same, surely there's one specific method of fighting that's superior, and the plethora of styles within martial arts are just culturally-influenced deviations from this hypothetical one-true-way.