Matt Thornton was one of the early group of American’s to become involved in the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, having been introduced to it in 1991. He was also the first person from the State of Oregon to receive a black belt in the Art.

As a teacher he produced a video set in 1999 titled simply, ‘Aliveness’ which became one of the top sellers of all time within the industry. It set off a firestorm of controversy, and remained a central catalyst in a Martial Arts training revolution that is still taking place all over the world. They were voted as one of the top five self-defense videos of all time by Black Belt magazine.

Matt’s main emphasis over the last decade has been addressing superstition as it relates to the fields of sports training, combat sports, and martial arts; the methodology known as aliveness was designed as a tool to help people distinguish between fact, and fiction.

Over the last few years his writing has branched off into other areas. He is currently working on a book which will cover the topic of violence, and its relationship to both combat sports and skepticism.