It was particularly entertaining to watch the almost superhuman feats in those kung fu fight scenes. The ability to absorb so much damage, immunity to sword strikes, jumping long distances, fighting while balancing on tree tops, to shooting chi energy from the fingertips. The moves ranged from the amazing to the ridiculous, but they always stuck with me.
Entertainment soon developed into genuine interest and I started reading different books about the martial arts. I went for old copies of Black Belt magazine, and different martial arts books were more common in National Bookstore back then. I'm sure other martial arts enthusiasts in Metro Manila would still remember Squadron Shoppe in the old Virramall. Still, I wasn't that hardcore enough to have consistently trained in any one system throughout the years, mostly because of a combination of time, circumstance and budget. I can be described as more of a casual martial artist, if there is such a term.
With the rising popularity of mixed martial arts and the UFC, traditional kung fu / martial arts movies have mostly died out from the mainstream, although a few big budget films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Forbidden Kingdom still manage to get media attention. But overall, the hand-to-hand fight scenes in action movies of today tend to follow more realistic lines and there's a distinctly MMA flavor about them, such as you would see in Never Back Down (a Karate Kid-like story but with MMA as the martial art of focus), Inception and the more recent Haywire.
Regardless of the popularity of "reality" martial arts, I've always held a fascination with the so-called "internal arts." While there have always been ample demonstrations of physical feats such as not getting wounded by blades, brick breaking and other stuff that make one cringe just thinking about it, there are still a lot of people that think these feats are a) stage tricks, b) take too long to develop / impossible to develop since the training is secret, or c) impractical in a real fight. Sites like Bullshido also tend to throw cold water on anything resembling esoteric martial arts.And then recently I came upon the following video:
It's about a match between a supposed Japanese kiai master and an MMA fighter. In karate, fighters shout "Kiai!" just before launching a strike, supposedly to stun or distract the opponent enough to let the strike get past the opponent's defenses. I assume that the kiai master in the video is using some sort of energy manipulation system within the context of a martial art.
The video starts in the dojo of the kiai master, where he demonstrates how he is able to overcome his students by use of his ki (or chi) energy. The next segment shows the match against the MMA fighter and unfortunately for the kiai master, he gets knocked out soon after the fight starts.
I'm sure a lot of skeptics would use this video as proof that so-called internal martial arts are just a lot of hokey. What, then, happened in the case of the kiai master? If there really is something to internal energy, why couldn't he overcome the MMA fighter?
In order to attempt an explanation, we must work with a few assumptions and the most important assumption is that there is such a thing as chi energy. Without this assumption, there's really no point trying to explain what happened. One may say that the kiai master is probably a fake. However, he was willing to put US$5,000 on the line to face an MMA fighter, and he really seemed to believe he could do something in that fight. So delusions of grandeur aside, let's assume he really had a system of kiai martial arts.
Given the above assumptions, what happened? Here's my take on it, and I will use pranic healing as a basis for comparison:
Firstly, in pranic healing, and any other energy healing system, it is important for the patient to be receptive. Otherwise, the healing energy won't go in or will be absorbed very slowly. In the case of the kiai master, his students were obviously receptive to his teachings, so they essentially "allowed" his energy to come in and manipulate their bodies. The MMA fighter was obviously not receptive, hence was unaffected by the kiai master's techniques.
Second, the kiai master's energy body may not have been as developed as he thought it was. We know that physical exercise stimulates the chakras, hence it leads to a stronger energy body (try scanning yourself before exercise and after exercise to see the difference). If you've seen MMA fighters train, they can be considered extreme athletes, especially the professional fighters. It's normal for them to train 8 hours a day, and they also train intelligently, meaning they are aware of the role of diet and nutrition in improving performance. So you can imagine just how strong their energy bodies are.
Third, on the mental aspect, one needs a lot of discipline, dedication and focus in order to train to be a fighter. It's not just needed to motivate oneself to show up at the gym everyday, it's necessary in order to avoid injuring oneself during training. So imagine how strong the thought form of the fighter is, the thought form of wanting to win coupled with the desire to win. It's really potent, and the kiai master may not have had the same mental sharpness or thought power.
Fourth, in pranic healing there is the concept of absorption time. Some people absorb healing energy very fast or instantaneously, especially if karmically entitled, while some absorb the energies more slowly. So normally, healers advise patients that the effects may be felt in at least 30 minutes time and not to take a shower at least overnight so that the healing energies are not dissipated by the water. So going back to our kiai master, since the MMA fighter was not receptive, even if some energy did get through, any effect may have appeared well after the fight was over.
Now, I'm not saying that we shouldn't bother with internal arts like chi kung. I'm sure that there are martial artists out there who have mastered their energy so much that they could probably stop a guy in his tracks just by looking at them. It's just that any such encounters may not have been recorded or reported in the news.
What I am saying is that if one is relying on an energy component for self defense, one would do well to also add a physical training component and include full contact sparring if possible. Like physical muscles, our "energy muscles" also need to be trained to respond instantly to such fluid scenarios like a fight. The point is to "stress test" one's energy skills against an opponent who's not willing to cooperate. Physical training, and particularly sparring, provides a reality check for one's abilities. I like to think of it as working at your abilities from both ends, the energy training and then physical training. When you meet at the middle, you have a formidable arsenal on call if necessary.
For example, if one were doing tai chi and chi kung purely for the health benefits, then we have no problem. But if you would think that you could use your tai chi and chi kung to stop a doped up mugger out to kill you, you should think again.
In the above case, it would probably do you well to include some muay thai or some other striking art in your arsenal. A striking art will help you develop the reflexes, conditioning and timing to land strikes, while your tai chi and chi kung may give you that extra "snap" for the knockout punch or kick, or at least a hit that will instantly stun your attacker.
While I haven't heard of an MMA fighter training in chi kung, we do have historical precedents in the form of the Shaolin monks. Their training is even more extreme than that of the professional MMA fighters, plus they also focus on developing their chi. And let's not forget, they are Buddhist monks first, martial artists second. If anything, it only shows that spirituality and athleticism are not mutually exclusive.
But before we go on, let me emphasize that the physical conflict aspect of self defense only forms a small slice of the overall pie and in fact, physical force is the last resort, if all other aspects of one's self defense strategy has failed. If you want a clearer exposition of this, you may visit No Nonsense Self Defense by Marc "Animal" MacYoung. Pay attention to his article about the Pyramid of Personal Safety since it's a good guideline on how to formulate one's self defense posture.
Using the Pyramid of Personal Safety as a guideline, since physical self defense is the last option, this is where a strong energy body can come into the picture. If you've ever walked into a room where two people were angry at each other and you felt how the "vibes" were different, then you know that energy can have an "almost palpable" effect. By having a stronger energy body, you can possibly make potential attackers pause since there is "something about you" that will make them think it's a bad idea to choose you as a target. Combined with the other components of the Pyramid of Personal Safety, it encapsulates the "fighting without fighting" concept that we often attribute to venerable and elderly martial arts masters.
This topic of self defense can be another article altogether, but since martial arts often gets equated with self defense, I felt it was important to include something about self defense here. Let's also remember the role that karma plays. Still, karma is a very complicated subject, so it's only common sense to take reasonable precautions.
For many reasons, the martial arts are still as popular as ever and the stories of legendary feats by martial arts masters always abound. The development of internal energy or chi has been the cornerstone of these martial arts legends, so it's really an exciting topic to explore especially with the growing awareness about the role that subtle energy plays in our lives.
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