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The master featured in this video is a practitioner of Kiai. He claims to be able to defend himself against attacks by using non physical gestures. The kiai is the battle cry of martial arts, and it is also believed by these practitioners that it is possible to defeat an opponent with a kiai shout, or ring a bell.

While his is beautiful, wishful magic, he has only really succeed in hypnotizing not only his students but himself as well. Kiai wont have any effect on an opponent who doesn’t buy into it.

Here the master makes a wager of $5000 to any challenger who can beat him. A mixed martial arts practitioner takes on the master and defeats him quickly. Hope he didn’t hit him too hard.

This practice of bowling over an opponent with a gesture or a shout is not some simple fraud, however. A kiai shout from a serious practitioner of martial arts is to say ‘fear me, because I can draw on all the power inside me’. And if you know how tough a martial arts practitioner can be, you might have real reason to be afraid.

There is real power in how much someone is willing to believe in themselves. I have seen Qi Gong practitioners – everyday people from a course offered at a community center – break chopsticks against their throats, have their chests jumped on by a partner from a chair, and bend straight re-bar against their chests. Not for the faint of heart. And regular, ordinary people did it.

Something so right goes so wrong. We go here from a courageous acceptance of the inner power of self to the blind submission to something external, and …occult. I don’t know that inner power was ever intended to be parsed that way.

The demonstration above is related to a logical argument fallacy called ‘Appeal To Authority‘. He is the master – so he must be more powerful and wise than I am. Well, most of them are damn good at what they do. But I’m sure a good master really wants their students to be able to think for themselves.