Yellow Bamboo Challenge

[Flo]

the yb member failed the test, it seems YB can not be used as a self defense against martial arts

ybsweden

Considering that martial artists use restraint within conventions in their attacks, contrary to any ordinary attacker who really want to hurt you, you can safely deduct that YB cannot be used as a self defense at all.

I would ask for my $9.95 and the expenses for the Bali stay back, too

 

[petpower_2k]

I see. So you abandon the test with the Danish Skeptics?

I will do more testing, in sweden.
If I happen to come by Denmark ill do the test with you.
otherwise I will do the test with any skeptic I can find in Sweden.


ybsweden

 

[CFLarsen]

I will do more testing, in sweden.
If I happen to come by Denmark ill do the test with you.
otherwise I will do the test with any skeptic I can find in Sweden.

ybsweden

Very well.

In the meantime, I dug up some claims of YB regarding protection against attackers:

Protection for yourself and others
With Yellow Bamboo you can learn very powerful methods to protect yourself and others. If you watch the videos at www.yellowbamboo.com you will see that it is possible to repel attackers without touching them. This is a very powerful form of personal development.
Source

Alvin Donovan claims to be the highest trained Westerner in Yellow Bamboo:

"Yellow Bamboo is a Balinese white magic society with over 30,000 members."
by Alvin Donovan

...

Protection for yourself and others
With Yellow Bamboo you can learn very powerful methods to protect yourself and others. If you watch the videos you will see that it is possible to knock down attackers without touching them. This is a very powerful form of personal development.

...

As you can imagine when you can knock down attackers from 10 feet away or heal someone dying from something just using your own energy- that is true personal power!

Source

Yellow Bamboo - Balinese White Magic
By Dr Alvin G. Donovan III

...

I found out about Yellow Bamboo or Bambu Kuning as it is known to Balinese from another expat in our village. She told me stories of people being knocked down from over 10 meters away in the classes and also developing mystical spiritual powers of healing and protection. When I discovered there are more than 30,000 practitioners here in Bali I had to find out more.

...


When I first watched the video with some friends and saw Yellow Bamboo practitioners knocking down attackers from a distance I really did not believe it. It seemed impossible to believe but I was hooked. I had to learn this magic for myself to see if I could do it or not. You can now see these videos on the www.yellowbamboo.com website free.

Imagine being able to knock down others from a distance! What tremendous personal power.

...

I asked Pak Nyoman how many classes would I have to attend before I was ready to knock down attackers. He gave me the typical Balinese answer "Up to you". After each class we end with what is called a "test of personal power" which lets you and your teacher know how much power you have developed. After 3 classes I felt ready to defend. After the third class I stood about 20 meters away from 4 men who would try to hurt me mortally. I must confess I was confident and scared to death at the same time but felt ready to give it a go.

To prepare myself I silently said my level 1 mantra, breathed in and then Pak Nyoman gave the signal to attack. As I saw them coming my automatic reflexes took over. Before I knew it, the 4 men were writhing on the ground in pain! See the videos at Yellowbamboo.com for yourself.

Source

Nowhere does it say that the attackers cannot be trained in martial arts. In fact, it only mentions "attackers".

Yes, Peter, I am very thorough.

 

[jmercer]

the yb member failed the test, it seems YB can not be used as a self defense against martial arts

ybsweden

Excuse me. There are a fair number of martial artists here, and if you read the post in the challenges forum, you'll see some of their commentary.

For myself, I only saw ONE move which appeared to be from a martial art, and that was on the second attempt.

The first attempt, the gentlemen who was the attacker just plain plowed through the YB person, as if he were playing football or rugby. On the third attempt, he took down the YB person by grabbing his lead leg and toppling him over using strength - a tactic practiced universally by children in playgrounds everywhere.

Please don't take offense, but I suggest you stop grasping at straws and start embracing reality about this. You've been tricked into believing something that isn't real. It happens to everyone eventually; there's no shame in being human and fallible. What's important is to recognize that fact, deal with it, and move on.

 

[Winter]

Years ago, a friend of mine (who happened to be something of a martial arts fanatic), related an amusing, if somewhat disturbing, occurrence from his Wing Chun academy.

Some prospective students - clearly enamoured by notions of mystical kung fu powers - asked my friend's teacher, (Sifu Del), if he harboured the ability to unleash special 'chi' based attacks. Being a scientifically inclined guy, he was well aware of what those kind of claims amounted to - but being rather partial to humour, his response was affirmative.

The prospective students were impressed and eager to be shown the effects. A demonstration commenced.

Sifu Del began imitating the kind of movements you might expect a "chi master" (or whatever) to make. He then thrust his arms in the direction of the believers, one after another.

They all fell down.

They were adamantly convinced they'd felt the force of his ranged 'chi attacks'.

The 'deception' was, of course, revealed a little later.

 

[steenkh]

I will do more testing, in sweden.
If I happen to come by Denmark ill do the test with you.
otherwise I will do the test with any skeptic I can find in Sweden.

So he chickened out just like most believers before their belief is put to the test.

In a way, it is not so sad because I thought he was preparing some elaborate trick to succeed in the test, but now we know he was just deluded, and now probably a little bit shaken in his beliefs. Perhaps he is on the way to enlightenment!

 

[Zep]

Dr Alvin G. Donovan III:

a) IS baliwesternman;
b) is NOT a doctor of any sort;
c) IS a scam-artist from Florida (he's got form, YB is not his first hustle);
d) has been on this forum before, pretending to be a simple Balinese peasant, also an Aussie surfer.

Proof otherwise is welcome!

 

[misawafan]

Considering that martial artists use restraint within conventions in their attacks, contrary to any ordinary attacker who really want to hurt you, you can safely deduct that YB cannot be used as a self defense at all.

I would ask for my $9.95 and the expenses for the Bali stay back, too

I'll give the Yellow Bamboo people credit for one thing - they do at least take their art out and test it against others. Of course the results haven't appeared to be real impressive. But there are many other conventional martial arts that would do well to do the same thing. People would be surprised at how many "trained" martial artists have zero experience in actual real fighting (and are subsequently rudely awakened when such a thing happens).

 

[ShowMe]

the yb member failed the test, it seems YB can not be used as a self defense against martial arts

ybsweden

You're beginning to understand. Fan that little bit of doubt inside you.

YB isn't a defense; you begin to realize this.

One of the hardest things to says is "I was wrong". One of the most difficult things in life is to admit "I was fooled".

Caveats of "it can't be used against martial arts" are simply arrogance, you telling yourself "I'm too good to get fooled!"

It happens to all of us, at some point in time. I doubt there is a skeptic on this board who hasn't gotten sucked into some urban legend, or been tricked in some way or other sometime in his life. It happens. We learn, we move on.

By all means do your tests, but learn from the videos you've seen. There are good ways to protect yourself; YB isn't among them.

 

[jmercer]

Years ago, a friend of mine (who happened to be something of a martial arts fanatic), related an amusing, if somewhat disturbing, occurrence from his Wing Chun academy.

Some prospective students - clearly enamoured by notions of mystical kung fu powers - asked my friend's teacher, (Sifu Del), if he harboured the ability to unleash special 'chi' based attacks. Being a scientifically inclined guy, he was well aware of what those kind of claims amounted to - but being rather partial to humour, his response was affirmative.

The prospective students were impressed and eager to be shown the effects. A demonstration commenced.

Sifu Del began imitating the kind of movements you might expect a "chi master" (or whatever) to make. He then thrust his arms in the direction of the believers, one after another.

They all fell down.

They were adamantly convinced they'd felt the force of his ranged 'chi attacks'.

The 'deception' was, of course, revealed a little later.

Good post.

If anyone wants some real laughs, google "kongjin", "kong jing", or "konjin". You'll see some claims and some video that'll send you into hysterics.

 

[jmercer]

I'll give the Yellow Bamboo people credit for one thing - they do at least take their art out and test it against others. Of course the results haven't appeared to be real impressive. But there are many other conventional martial arts that would do well to do the same thing. People would be surprised at how many "trained" martial artists have zero experience in actual real fighting (and are subsequently rudely awakened when such a thing happens).

Extremely well said, and I totally agree. Without going into the gruesome details, one of the arts I practice is famous for it's 'woo ness'. (Taijiquan)

I had a similar wake-up call about 5 years into learning it. Subseqently, I changed my focus, my teachers, and did a lot of really hard work. I now spar with guys from all sorts of arts. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, but I no longer make a fool of myself doing it.

Granted, sparring isn't fighting (not to many of us can engage in NHB stuff), but free-form, non-point continuous sparring is about as close as most of us can get.

(Edited for afterthought about sparring vs. real fighting, above.)

I could start an entire thread and weeks of chat about this...

 

[Flo]

I'll give the Yellow Bamboo people credit for one thing - they do at least take their art out and test it against others. Of course the results haven't appeared to be real impressive.

Given the conditions YB people put to their being tested, I'm not inclined to being more charitable with them than with any of the "ki" people I've heard or seen claim miraculous powers that worked only with compliant and/or gullible people.

But there are many other conventional martial arts that would do well to do the same thing. People would be surprised at how many "trained" martial artists have zero experience in actual real fighting (and are subsequently rudely awakened when such a thing happens).

I wrote exactly that a few posts ago. Too many "conventional" martial arts originated from the Bruce Lee craze in the 60's and were never tested against historically proven techniques.

Then, you have all the developments of aikido: Ueshiba never designated an heir, and had no time to systematize his teachings the way Jigoro Kano did with judo. This led to any aikidoka having trained in his dojo claiming they were the true depository of the original teachings and setting his "ryu". Since there is no competition in aikido, and the emphasis being on personnal development, harmony, etc., anybody can claim they are teaching the real thing.

You can therefore see and hear absolutely anything, from effective techniques to teachers claiming the same BS as the YellowBamboozle (I first heard about this trick in the 70's in a aikido dojo. The teacher could repell his adoring students from a distance, but categorically refused to test his powers against anyone else ... even beginners in his own dojo, since they "didn't have the right kind of ki and couldn't give the right kind of attack" ).

 

[rppa]

You can therefore see and hear absolutely anything, from effective techniques to teachers claiming the same BS as the YellowBamboozle (I first heard about this trick in the 70's in a aikido dojo. The teacher could repell his adoring students from a distance, but categorically refused to test his powers against anyone else ... even beginners in his own dojo, since they "didn't have the right kind of ki and couldn't give the right kind of attack" ).

There is at least one non-touching "throw" I've seen in Aikido which I'm sure you're familiar with. I think it was called kokyo-ho (breath throw), though I believe that name is applied to a whole variety of techniques in which timing is everything, right?

Anyway, this one would work very well against a running attacker, but simply walking at a reasonable speed suffices. At one particular moment of no return during the attacker's approach, you side step and extend your arm forward toward the face. No magic involved, and no true-believer status needed: if you are moving toward something which is in turn moving toward your face, the reflex to throw yourself backward and down is very powerful.

Of course, Sensei pointed out that if you get the timing wrong or for some other reason the attacker fails to fall down, you just complete the motion, make contact and do a neck throw (iriminage).

When I first heard of YB, I assumed they were doing something like this technique. Now that I've seen the nonsense they are doing, I don't understand why they *don't* go with kokyo-ho (if that's the right word).

 

[Phrost]

Extremely well said, and I totally agree. Without going into the gruesome details, one of the arts I practice is famous for it's 'woo ness'. (Taijiquan)

I had a similar wake-up call about 5 years into learning it. Subseqently, I changed my focus, my teachers, and did a lot of really hard work. I now spar with guys from all sorts of arts. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, but I no longer make a fool of myself doing it.

Granted, sparring isn't fighting (not to many of us can engage in NHB stuff), but free-form, non-point continuous sparring is about as close as most of us can get.

(Edited for afterthought about sparring vs. real fighting, above.)

I could start an entire thread and weeks of chat about this...

Come to one of our "Throwdowns" and do some friendly NHB sometime. With the proper safety equipment, you shouldn't get anything injured or broken.

I think you'd enjoy it.

 

[Psiload]

Dr Alvin G. Donovan III:

a) IS baliwesternman;
b) is NOT a doctor of any sort;
c) IS a scam-artist from Florida (he's got form, YB is not his first hustle);
d) has been on this forum before, pretending to be a simple Balinese peasant, also an Aussie surfer.

Proof otherwise is welcome!

This guy?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...?dev-t=D2MKVTT17WAXGZ&camp=2025&link_code=xm2

Looks like he loses the "Dr." when he goes public.

 

[kimiko]

Being in Sweden shouldn't prevent the trial. He is listed as a "trainer" for Europe and they'll supposedly "come to you". There's this Dez Sellers guy listed for Europe too.

"Organise for us to come to you or come to our program near you!
Contact a local Yellow Bamboo trainer in your area:
Alvin Donovan, Master Trainer available globally
Katie Wayne, East Coast USA,
Mark Lubeck, West Coast USA,
Dez Sellars, England/Europe,
Peter Semjonow, SWEDEN/Europe,
Alain Kornier, Perth/AUSTRALIA,
John CHow, Melbourne/AUSTRALIA/ASIA"


When Alvin Donovan III is charging $397 for 'all twelve levels official Yellow Bamboo video training' at http://bamboovideo.com/ , 997 Euros for the 'the special all inclusive package' of training in Bali and $997 for a training weekend in Orlando, he can cough up travel expenses for Peter.

The testimonials are sad:

"Before I joined Yellow Bamboo my life was a mess and I was willing to try anything. After just one week all of my problems disappeared. Dr Alvin really is the most powerful positive influence I have ever experienced."
Lisa Kern, SWEDEN


It is shameful to take advantage of people by charging them for garbage that doesn't work.

 

[Psiload]

Check this out...

http://www.consciousliving.net.au/speakers.htm?303

Alvin Donovan III is the international top master of Yellow Bamboo. Founded in Singarajain Bali with over 30,000 members worldwide. The author of the million-dollar bestseller `Make More Money NOW`, Alvin has been teaching yoga and meditation for over 25 years. He has been featured on over 1500 radio and TV shows worldwide and has previously consulted to most of the world's largest business corporations. Alvin has over 20 years international entrepeneur business experience at the CEO level.

Million-dollar bestseller? Yeah... an out-of-print, sales ranked: 490,002, two used copies available, million-dollar bestseller.

 

[jmercer]

Come to one of our "Throwdowns" and do some friendly NHB sometime. With the proper safety equipment, you shouldn't get anything injured or broken.

I think you'd enjoy it.

Sounds like it would be fun... if you pm with with where you are, I'll keep track and let you know if I'm ever in the area. (Unless you're in NY, NJ or CT - then I could simply make a trip. )

We do some round-robin stuff by invitation only - light contact, no gear, no set matches... whoever feels like stepping into the circle does so, and whoever feels like sparring with them, likewise. It's fun, and we're careful to only invite people who can leave their egos at the door.

Hardest guy I ever sparred with for pure power and raw, direct techniques was a Muay Thai dude... man, that was one heck of an experience.

FYI, I usually beg off of BJJ or any JJ guys - my left knee's had 3 operations over the years, so I tell people I simply can't go to the ground anymore, and I ask them to please not kick my knee. Most of them are nice enough to keep that in mind.

I don't mind takedowns, though.

(Edited to add: Sorry for going so-far off topic, folks - my apologies.)

 

[misawafan]

Given the conditions YB people put to their being tested, I'm not inclined to being more charitable with them than with any of the "ki" people I've heard or seen claim miraculous powers that worked only with compliant and/or gullible people.

Well, I was trying to be nice. So far I've seen people slapped upside the head, people tackled and people being choked out
(not unlike a usual weekend near my apartment complex, now that I think of it) so there has been *some* physical involvement (more than some of the more "esoteric" kung fu I've seen taught). But yeah, it's not exactly been tested under stress.
I just wish Yellow Bamboo was real - I'm one of the laziest human beings alive and would love to learn a fighting technique that involved no physical contact...

 

[thaiboxerken]

I doubt there is a skeptic on this board who hasn't gotten sucked into some urban legend, or been tricked in some way or other sometime in his life. It happens. We learn, we move on.

He's right, I'm an adamant skeptic, yet I own a timeshare....