help with qigong debunking

[sf108]

Jeet Kun Do is Bruce Lee's very BS free martial art. As far as I am aware Bruce Lee was fairly against a lot of the nonsense perpetuated by older more mystical martial arts and very much rebelled against them.

JKD was created by Bruce Lee as a way to counter the fact that Western people were much bigger and taller than Asians. JKD was an improvement on his WingChun background. Yeh, and Bruce did go around challenging those mystic masters stroking their long white beards...

That picture with Kilik on the IQ score card is GOLD!

He has some strange behaviour. He talks some sense in some posts, then turns back to his link spamming spree. Very unusual character.

 

[crimresearch]

Ashles, it is in the nature of the martial arts to trend toward woo-woo, not away from it.

The Ki in Aikido is the same word as Qi in qigong...mystical energy.

Many Aikido schools buy into the nonsense on a variety of levels, much like Tai Chi.

And TKD isn't even a martial art, it is a sport created out of misunderstood bad karate.

 

[Ashles]

Ashles, it is in the nature of the martial arts to trend toward woo-woo, not away from it.

The Ki in Aikido is the same word as Qi in qigong...mystical energy.

Oh yeah I just looked it up.

It apparently means (approximately) "the way of harmony through energy" or "the way of spiritual harmony".

So much for it being BS free then. I guess my teacher just didn't have much truck with that side of it.

 

[Ripley Twenty-Nine]

That is what is so worrying. If your friend is prepared to believe in one aspect of his trainer's nonsense then it might go one of two ways.
1) He realises how silly one belief is and as a result his trainer loses credibility.
2) He wants to believe so much in one of the beliefs, he starts accepting some of the others.

Unfortunately, my experience with martial arts has shown that there are many clubs that have a 'cult-like' atmosphere. The Sensei is the all-knowing master that must never be questioned... It's a very faith-based art in a lot of cases.

I've even been in a club where the Sensei recommended his students to come to him for advise for personal or financial problems, as if his martial arts skill made him somehow qualified for such things.

If a teacher believes in Chi or other paranormal things, his/her students will be expected to believe in it as well... And most do, without question.

 

[jmercer]

Iron Shirt worked great in the Boxer Rebellion.

Oh wait...

ROFL!!! This was worth reading the thread - although the thread otherwise made me utterly disgusted.

Kilik, there is no such thing as qi the way you view it.

 

[Deadlytoque]

So, for a final time, I thank everyone who has suggested sources or options. If a debate ensues, I hope you enjoy it, but I'm disabling email notification, and I probably won't be checking this thread again.
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Really? Why?

No offense meant. I got what I set out to get from the discussion (a few good anti-qigong resources) and so I saw no further reason to be involved.

 

[crimresearch]

Too late!!

Your thread are belong to us!

 

[Kilik]

A book written by a skeptical western doctor, who went to China and actually studied the practices some, is " Encounters with Qi."

I don't think he ended up accepting the chinese philosophy over his western ideas, but I think he thought there was some value in the ancient practices , the idea of mind/body connection, and that the eastern and western philosophies should eventually merge. I guess you have to read for yourself,

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...ne/purchase/ref=pd_sxp_r0/104-1353642-8722349

 

[Bronze Dog]

[Slight derail] Oh, yeah. Finally watched that video you linked me to, Phrost. Covers a pretty simple concept well. Bit of relevant personal experience: Went to an Armored Core tournament a couple years ago. Don't know any local players, so I only had the computer to practice against. Got thrown off when my human opponents started using the terrain to their advantage. At least I was expecting them to pull tricks like that. [/Slight derail]

 

[crimresearch]

Straight Blast seems to be addressing self defense reality the way that people from Gene LaBell and Charles Nelson, to the Dog Brothers and a few LE instructors, have been doing for decades.

No Qi energy, no commando outfits, no glorified rank structures, no teacher worship, no macho posturing and bullying, no special jargon for the initiates, no steroids, no rhetoric to demonize other styles and discourage questions, no secret magical stuff, no demands for unquestioning loyalty...just rational analysis and utilitarian practice.

And the way that a few people on this list have been pretending not to notice, while bragging about the superiority of their 'death touch', or 'official Navy Seal', or sport oriented system is nothing new either.

The bulk of the martial arts appeals to charlatans, it draws in True Believers, and it thrives on mumbo jumbo and obfuscation.

 

[Phrost]

And the way that a few people on this list have been pretending not to notice, while bragging about the superiority of their 'death touch', or 'official Navy Seal', or sport oriented system is nothing new either.

The bulk of the martial arts appeals to charlatans, it draws in True Believers, and it thrives on mumbo jumbo and obfuscation.

Which is exactly why Bullshido, the site, is so important. We joke a lot, but the reality is that there are people out there who do have a need to defend themselves in bad situations. If they spend thousands of dollars at a McDojo instead of learning simple situational awareness combined with some realistic training, they'll not only be poor, they could very well be injured by overestimating their skills.