Chinese Kung Fu & Chinese Kenpo
Professor Carl Totton was the founder of the Taoist Institute. He studied the Chinese healing, spiritual, and martial arts for over 50 years and was licensed as a clinical and educational psychologist.
He was certified as both a Reiki master, and qigong and martial arts grandmaster. He worked in many clinical settings including private practice, hospitals, community mental health clinics, schools, and a college counseling center.
He taught classes in all of the traditional Chinese internal and external martial arts, qigong, Taoist meditation, and tui na, the ancient Chinese method of acupressure massage and medical qigong.
Dr. Carl Totton taught at five colleges and universities, including two schools of traditional Oriental medicine. He was listed in the US Martial Arts Hall of Fame and over twenty volumes of Who’s Who biographies, including Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World. Professor Totton has taught many of the most prominent members of the film, music, and entertainment industries including “A-List” celebrities, executives, and athletes.
Dr. Carl Totton is the founder of the Core System™, a method of integrating the ancient roots of the traditional healing, spiritual, and martial arts and transforming them for contemporary applications. He also created Quantum Psychotherapy and Counseling, an integrative method of transformational therapeutic practices for promoting emotional balance and personal growth, and CEBAR: Core Energy Balancing And Reiki, a synthesis of the best of the many methods of holistic energy healing he has studied.
It saddens me that my lifelong friend Sijo Carl Totton passed away last night. He was one of my four training partners from back in the 60’s. He now joins my other training partner GM Tom Chan in the heavenly realm along with all of our mentors and peers that have gone ahead of us. Rest in Paradise until we meet again. Click on each picture for enlargement and comments. Douglas Wong on Facebook
Dr. Carl Totton also founded the Core System, a method of integrating the ancient roots of the traditional healing, spiritual, and martial arts and transforming them for contemporary applications.
In 2011, he was inducted into the prestigious Martial Arts History Museum’s Hall of Fame.
We are sad to share that Sijo Carl Totton passed away on August 13, 2025.
A background icon in the martial arts world has passed today. Sifu Carl Totten, PsyD, has been a fixture in the Southern California martial arts scene since I was in diapers. Probably even before. He was a kung-fu student of Ark Y. Wong’s for may years, also a student of Ralph Shun, and many others; a Limalama student under Haumea Lefiti and Tino Tuiolesega; and the founder and operator of the Taoist Temple in Burbank. He was a friend and confidant of Mr. Parker’s, and a member of the cohort of martial arts legends who were the movers and shakers of kung-fu throughout the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and beyond.
One would be hard put to find a circle of OG martial artists on the West Coast with whom he had not been a prominent part. More importantly, he was a kind and good-hearted man; an actual decent human being in a part of the world where those can be hard to find.
Dr. Totten’s achievements are so plentiful, it’s hard to pick out just a few for something like this. There used to be an SNL skit with a guy who was always in the background of famous photos. Dr. Totten was like that in real life. Find a famous group photo of a gathering of giants, and Mr. Totten would be right there in it, leading to my nickname for him, “the silent giant.” His kung-fu knowledge was deep, as anyone who had the pleasure to learn from him in a class or seminar could confirm.
Other people with his close connections and experiences might blow their own horns loudly, and with justifiable reasons, but not Mr. T. He was just there, quietly a part of everything that went down.
I met him through my teacher, Doc Chapél. Carl would show up to watch classes and chat with whomever was there. While on the injury list, he and I got to chatting about Limalama, a cousin art to kenpo. Even carried the conversation over to lunch, exchanging limalama salutes as we sat at the table, chuckling as Mr. Chapél said, “I saw that!” like he caught us sneaking something.
Mr. Totten was, indeed, a giant in the arts. He trained with some of the most seminal and influential grandmasters in the early days of martial arts in the US, and continued to be a supporting force for the martial arts up to his hospice. I joked with him once that he was “the most famous martial artist no one has heard of.” He eschewed fame, but has been everywhere and with everyone for decades.
Friendly. Funny. Smart. Deeply spiritual. Talented. Skilled. Caring. Gentlemen like him are rare, too few and far between. It was my great privilege to have known him and counted him as a friend, even if only for a time.
I will miss you, Sir. You were an eccentric and noble soul, and we were lucky to have you while we did. Chat up the Boddhisattvas and Dakinis for us, and we will see you when we do.
Namaste, Jivananda; and safe travels, uncle.
From David Crouch on Facebook
