For millenia, people have tried to reach a spiritual promised land by fasting. Jesus did it. The Buddha did it. Monks and saints and new age gurus have done it. And now, on the radio, This American Life contributor David Rakoff tries it. He does a 20-day fast, to find out if it brings him any form of enlightenment.

That was the official summary for this week’s episode of This American Life. Here is my unofficial summary:

David Rakoff does a twenty-day detox juice fast*, hoping for a quick glimpse of enlightenment. Other than his special diet and enema regimen, David does not follow any other guidelines that might define fasting as a spiritual practice, as prescribed by real spiritual experts. Instead, he reads the New York Times, rides the subway, and otherwise continues to lead his normal everyday life–to the extent possible, between his extended time on the toilet, and chopping and boiling vegetables for the fast.

Feeling depressed and dejected halfway through his juicy ordeal, having failed to meet his poorly founded expectations, David asks a doctor to condemn the entire field as pseudoscience. Convinced that his fasting guru has started to hate him, he muddles through to the end of the twenty-day period, with just enough energy to compare his trials to those of Jesus and the Buddha, and to conclude that his time might have been better spent talking to a therapist.

For the full story, you can tune in this weekend, or download the podcast, or read the published version in Don’t Get Too Comfortable.

The difference between fasting for weight loss and detoxification, and fasting as a spiritual cultivation method is discussed in William Bodri’s How to Measure and Deepen Your Spiritual Realization.

* I strongly suspect David used the 20-day “Scientific Juice Fasting” program from Dennis Paulson’s Fasting Center International–www.fasting.com.

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Master Sensei Pacer likes to say that “nobody in the world moves like Sensei Pacer.”

Suzi Wong, Fytedancer

Sorry, Sensei Pacer, but I know someone who moves like Sensei Pacer! His name is Charles “Chaz” Wilson, and he is the inventor of Fytedance. In his own words,

Why can’t martial arts be sexy?…Fytedance is the ultimate holistic dance training system, and perhaps the ultimate martial art.

Charles predicts that Budo will replace monotheism within twenty years. Sorry, Charlie, but I know of a certain crew who isn’t going down without a fight!

* Thanks to Guro K of the Tulsa Arnis Club for introducing me to Sensei Pacer.

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Hugh Laurie, in underpants

The Jonas Brothers, in their fifteenth minute

Michael Dorn in Star Trek: The Next Generation
Submitted by Cook Ding’s Kitchen)

Sensei Isla Fisher and Andy Samberg in Hot Rod

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In a recent episode of their hit Showtime series, stage magicians Penn Jilette and Raymond Teller warn viewers away from the universally fraudulent field of martial arts. Now a real expert martial artist rescues us from their half-baked debunkings.

For their own convenience, Penn and Teller divide the world of martial arts into three categories: traditional, mystical, and murderous. During the show, they interview and mock one representative from each category:

• Mike Reeves, of Powerhouse Karate, in Apopka, Florida
• Dena Saxer, of Mantak Chia‘s Universal Healing Tao in Los Angeles, CA
• Damian Ross, of The Self Defense Company, in Saddle River, NJ

To support their otherwise meritless position, Penn and Teller rely on Marc MacYoung of No-Nonsense Self Defense. Although MacYoung is presented as a skeptical outsider here, he is actually the best known of these four, and is highly regarded within the martial arts community.

Having introduced the litigants, let us now review the case. Assistance is provided by a handy Truth-o-Meter, which I borrowed from the St. Petersburg Times.

While facing a mugger with a gun, Penn and Teller say:

If we had invested in martial arts training, we could try to go all Bruce Lee on their asses. But a few years ago, we did the arithmetic, and we figured that Karate lessons–even kids’ Karate lessons–would cost us a grand or more a year, for each of us. And the hours we spent in class, and driving to the dojo, and practicing and sweating and bowing and Fuck that! We have a better, cheaper, and less risky self-defense system. [Penn hands over his wallet and watch.]

Throughout the episode, Penn Jilette uses the terms “martial arts” and “self-defense” interchangeably, despite the fact that his own sources (Ross and MacYoung) insist otherwise. Self-defense is one of many possible benefits of martial arts training; performance varies with the student and the school.

Exercise is another benefit. According to our 2009 survey, average monthly martial arts tuition is around 80 dollars per month: this is comparable to a standard health club membership, if you include a short monthly coaching session with a personal trainer.

Penn Jilette advises that obedience is a better self-defense solution. This may be true in the case of a simple mugging, and most martial arts instructors would agree. As for dealing with the threat of rape or violent assault…don’t ask a six-foot-six, 270 pound Hollywood millionaire.

When outlining the content of the show, Penn Jillette says:

What we won’t be seeing much of are headlines like these: “Purse Snatcher Stopped by Passing Dojo Student”, “Rapist Thwarted by Black Belt Woman,” et cetera. Sure these stories exist, they must, but with all the people taking all these martial arts classes, shouldn’t we see these headlines all the time?…None of us could remember [seeing] a story like this in the news; when it happened, wouldn’t every dojo send out a press release?

As a former columnist for PC Magazine, Penn ought to know how and why these headlines appear, and why they do not appear more often: an exceptional sequence of events is required. First, a crime must be committed against someone who “knows” martial arts well enough to apply them under pressure (but not well enough to actually prevent or avoid the crime). Second, either the victim or a bystander must report this crime to the police. Third, the victim must specifically demonstrate or reference their “martial arts ability” (instead of attributions to luck or athleticism) for the report. Fourth, a media organization must observe this, and decide it is a newsworthy event.

When a martial artist stops a crime before it has even started, there is no headline. Martial arts help us to avoid becoming a victim, by teaching us to stop acting like a victim. As Geoff Thompson has explained, few criminals are interested in trying their luck against a hard target.

When a crime goes unreported, there is no headline. On those few occasions when I’ve been personally assaulted, I never bothered to call the police. A good friend of mine was attacked by a gang and stabbed in the gut, and he didn’t call the police either–as he recalled, it was just a light stabbing, and filing a report wasn’t worth the hassle. This happens all the time.

When a martial artist keeps their mouth shut, there is no headline. Most are taught to exercise discretion–either out of humility, or to avoid challenge matches and unwarranted scrutiny from law enforcement. As an innocent victim, nobody will demand to know why you hit back; as a self-identified martial artist, you may be expected to turn cartwheels around your attackers, and punished for anything less.

When the story isn’t compelling or advertiser-friendly, there is no headline. This last point warrants no further explanation.

Penn Jilette helpfully translates,

“Dojo” is Japanese for “storefront in strip mall”.

OK, this is mostly true.

Dena has been teaching the ancient Chinese practices of Chi Kung and Tai Chi ever since the powers of chi healed her osteoporosis. That’s what she said. We don’t know why she’s here on Showtime, rather than presenting her double-blind study on the curing of osteoarthritis through Chi Kung to the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Dena is not presenting to the AMA because this is a settled issue. The safety and efficacy of Qigong as an arthritis treatment is well established, in theory and practice. Common objections, that the theory is not acceptable and the observed results are unimportant, fail to impress this writer–or the many practitioners who have found relief through these practices.

Before providing his opinion of Qigong, Penn Jilette should first learn how to pronounce it correctly. If this is prohibitively difficult, he could instead browse the 3000 search results in PubMed (assuming that he can spell it correctly).

Dismissing the effectiveness of Tai Chi Chuan, Penn Jilette says:

And this is going to repel an attacker? Maybe if he’s afraid of French mimes.

After mislabeling martial arts as systems of self-defense, who have Penn and Teller selected to test the fighting capacity of Tai Chi? An elderly female theatre major, whose primary interest lies in the therapeutic aspects of the art. Sacrebleu!

If nothing else, this decision explains the title for their TV series. It is also a wasted opportunity; I would have paid good money to see Penn attempt a hands-on investigation of Chen Bing, or any of a hundred other masters who take fighting applications seriously.

Marc MacYoung explains the significance of belts in the martial arts,

It turns out there has never been a accepted standard for what a black belt means, or any other color belt for that matter. Simply put, martial arts is a business, and the belts are its primary product…For two or three thousand dollars, not including belt testing fees, equipment fees, and all these other hidden fees, you can get a black belt in one year, guaranteed.

This is standard practice in modern, commercial schools. It is far from universal, however. Note that of the four martial arts experts on this show, only one of them actually awards belts!

After learning that senior students not only assist in teaching, but also mop the floors and change the light bulbs in Mike Reeves’ dojo, Penn complains:

“Wait a second, that’s like paying your gym membership to scrub the showers. But this isn’t unique to Mike’s dojo. This is all dojos around the country…What’s the Japanese word for suckers?”

The word in question is giri, and it can be translated as “obligation”. Unlike colored belts, this practice does have a historical precedent. Giri generally includes, but is not limited to basic dojo maintenance duties.

The plain fact is that if students will not perform these simple tasks, they must pay for someone else to do it. Veteran students tend to give their dojo as much respect as their own home, and if sweeping the floor is not exactly an honor, it is hardly a punishment either.

Responding to Damian Ross’ bluster, that producing killer students makes him proud, Penn and Teller declare,

According to the legal definition of self-defense, ‘A person must use no more force than appears reasonably necessary in the circumstances.’ Otherwise Damian, your students are looking at manslaughter charges.

The standards for legally permissible self-defense vary by jurisdiction: city, state and country.

Revealing the secrets of board breaking, Penn Jilette states,

Now breaking even one board is damn near impossible if you whack the board [against the grain]. But if you turn it, you’re splitting it between the fibers. Still, even with soft pine, breaking a stack of five takes a hell of a whack, unless you put pencils, chopsticks, or some some separators between them. Now you’re just breaking one board after the other, separately.

Penn actually understates the widespread duplicity of Karate and Taekwondo breaking demonstrations! More on this subject in a future article here.

Watch the full episode of PENN & TELLER: BULLSHIT! “Martial Arts” online at MegaVideo (NSFW)
[YouTube version (also NSFW)]

In his parting cheap shots, Penn inquires,

What’s the point of all these crazy [Tai Chi] moves?

Dena responds,

They teach you to listen to your organs, and after awhile, your organs will talk to you…I’m not kidding.

??

After taking great care to present Dena as a faded fruitcake, Penn asks two other people whether they believe her wacky claims. Their answer, unsurprisingly, is no. But what do you think? Can organs really talk?

Are Penn and Teller out of their depth here? Or do you agree with their conclusion, that martial arts are bullshit?

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Alright cree
Mix up the yoga with the tai chi
Mix up the roots dem with the lychee
Strengthen up my back
Now ready fi whine she
When time me come the gal dem haffi cry cree…

Cree – T.O.K.

Everybody was kung-fu fighting
Those cats were fast as lightning
In fact it was a little bit frightning
But they fought with expert timing…

Kung Fu Fighting – Carl Douglas

It’s gettin’
It’s gettin’
It’s gettin’ kinda hectic
Like the crack of the whip I snap attack
Front to back
in this thing called rap
Dig it like a shovel rhyme devil
On a heavenly level
Bang the bass
Turn up the treble
Radical mind day and night all the time
Seven fourteen wise divine
Maniac brainiac winning the game
I’m the lyrical Jesse James…

I’ve Got The Power – Snap

It’s the eye of the tiger
It’s the thrill of the fight
Rising up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor
Stalks his prey in the night
And he’s watching us all
With the eye of the tiger

Eye of the Tiger – Survivor

Hail Selassie him a di ancient monarchy
How yuh feelin? Well I’m feelin hotty
Bun babylon because dem corrupt and dem naughty
Lion a roar, pull di dog dem out deh barky barky
Yo! Pop off mi sword and now dem face get marky marky
Somebody said war, Well! mi seh fi start it
Shouldn’t rob di old woman har purse dung at di market
Shouldn’t kill innocent pedestrian pon di streets weh dem a walkin
Coulda know, question mi haffi ask it
Mi turban dun hot and mi trouble dem start it
Man nuh fling right and dem face get darty darty
Yo, hey, ok, well!
Dem get mi roti so mi go slew dem wid Karate…

Karate – Sizzla

男兒當自強 (A Man of Determination)

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For almost twenty years, Qi Magazine featured original articles on kung fu, qigong, and other facets of Chinese culture, many written specifically by and for martial artists. (Qi Magazine is not to be confused with Qi Journal, which seems more targeted to the Goji berry set.)

Qi Magazine ceased production in early 2009, and publisher Michael Tse has since opened the archives. Each of the ninety issues is now available for free download in PDF format. Read two issues every week; that should keep you busy until next year.

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From his recent interview with Lama Somananda Tantrapa…

“Between the ages of 9 and 12, I had almost no food. Taiwan was preparing for a war against mainland China. Most of us kids were starving.

There were nine children in my family, and at that time, feeding nine children was not easy. All our problems gave me an ulcer by the time I was 16 years old.

One day, I was sitting in the corner in a cold sweat. My White Crane Kung Fu master said I had a stomach problem. “What should I do?” I asked him. I had no medicine, and no money to see a doctor.

“At that time, in the early 1960s, you could not go learn another style without your master’s approval. It was not like today—people making ‘chop suey’ by mixing all these different styles.”

He said, “I’ve heard that Taiji can help you relax your internal organs.”

My master encouraged me to learn Tai Chi Chuan. That is the reason I started at the early age of 16. My motivation was not fighting; it was to ease the pain of my ulcer, and hopefully to heal myself.

Did it work? It surprised me. Six months later, the painful episodes had been reduced. After most of a year, they disappeared.

So that is why I started practicing Tai Chi Chuan. It is not because I liked it…I hated it, but it helped me to calm down.

Listen to the entire MP3 interview with Dr. Jwing-Ming Yang at Secrets of the Qigong Masters.

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Excerpted from Beyond Biofeedback, a record of Elmer and Alyce Green’s research on theta brainwave training, which they describe as an accelerated form of meditation.

When Jack Schwarz was in his early teens, he saw a stage hypnotist enter a self-induced trance and then push pins into his arm while he talked about the power of mind to control pain and bleeding. Jack had the normal response to pain until he saw that demonstration, and then, for no particular reason, he knew that he would be able to do the same thing. He got some pins and tried it, and sure enough he could turn pain off. What a conversation piece, he thought.

Jack said that at first he never tired of amazing his friends. He developed a cocky attitude, in spite of the fact that he had not had to develop his skills, but “woke up one morning and found all the diplomas were on the wall.” He could stop pain, stop bleeding, influence people through hypnosis, remove pains in other people by putting his hands on them and thinking about the pain going away, and could often “guess” other people’s thoughts precisely.

We did not make a focused effort to interrogate Jack when we began the laboratory work. As with Swami Rama, we asked him to tell us what he would like to demonstrate. Dale and Alyce wired him in the same way we prepared college-student subjects in other research. When he sat down in the experimental room he produced an envelope with two 6-inch steel sailmaker’s needles. He said he would push the needles through his biceps and demonstrate bleeding control.

Jack was wired to record the behavior or a number of physiological variables that gave indications of stress reactions: heart rate, breathing rate, galvanic skin response, skin temperature, and brain waves. While we were adjusting the equipment near him, one of the needles rolled off the board on which his hands were placed and fell to the floor. As I picked it up I realized that we had not sterilized the needles, and I asked if he wanted me to do anything about it. He said, “No, I often sterilize my needle by putting it on the floor and rolling it under my shoe.”

Before Jack began pulling the needle out of his arm, I decided that it would be useful for the record if it were demonstrated that Jack could bleed in a normal way. It had occurred to me that otherwise, even if Jack repeated this demonstration a hundred times, we really would not know whether he had control of bleeding, or merely a peculiar skin condition.

In order to control bleeding, it is necessary to control a normally unconscious process. All yogis who demonstrate unusual powers of self-regulation apparently have achieved a kind of coordination between conscious and unconscious. In effect, I decided to interfere with that coordination. Just as Jack was preparing to pull the needle out of his arm, I interrupted him and said, “Jack, tell me, is it going to bleed now?” He looked quite surprised and uncertain, like a man balancing on one finger when someone said, “Are you going to fall now?”

Jack said, “I don’t think it’s going to bleed.” But when he pulled the needle out, it bled freely. The photographer put down his camera, and he and I began mopping up the blood with paper tissues. Bleeding was continuous for about ten seconds, and then I heard Jack say very softly, “Now it stops.” Much to my surprise, the hold in the skin that I was dabbing closed up as if drawn by purse strings. It took about one second to close, and not another drop of blood appeared.

We were very much impressed, and I said to Jack, “I am glad to see that you are normal and can bleed, and can also stop bleeding. How about doing it again, but this time don’t bleed at all.” There was a pause. Many seconds went by, and I began to wonder if I had said something wrong, when Jack said, “Okay, I’ll do it again.” He pushed the needle through a different place in his arm, and allowed it to remain buried in the muscle for a half minute or so. Though I squeezed his arm, no blood came out when the needle was removed.

When the test was concluded we talked for awhile, and I asked Jack why he had paused so long before he agreed to do the second demonstration. He said he wanted me to understand that he did not force his body to do any of these things. He asked it to. He had to ask his subconscious and want for an answer. When it said “Yes” to him, he said “Okay” to me.

Faith, Hypothesis and Transcendental Knowledge

Attitude is a critical feature in biofeedback training, because volition is influenced by what one believes (although the psycho-physiological principle itself is entirely independent of what people do or do not believe). This fact was first brought to our attention by John Seaman Garns, who phrased it, “Mind operates under its own conception of itself.”

The average person was in a bind until the advent of biofeedback training. Consider some examples. One woman, who with the help of a biofeedback machine was learning to warm her hands, asked, “Do you have to have faith to operate this machine?” Our answer was that to begin with faith was totally unnecessary, because the machine is a faith enhancer. No more faith is required to learn to operate it than to learn to drive a car. We do not have to believe or have faith that the car will turn to the left if we turn the steering wheel to the left. All that is necessary is to try it. Then we know.

There seems to be a hierarchy of effectiveness of psychological states with respect to self-regulation of physiological processes. The hierarchy might be arranged as follows: to hope, to hypothesize, to believe, to know—and biofeedback makes it possible to leap the entire distance at once.

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In a revamped health care system envisioned by senators, people would be required to carry health insurance just like motorists must get auto coverage now. The government would provide subsidies for the poor and many middle-class families, but those who still refuse to sign up would face fines of more than $1,000.

The details were unveiled Thursday July 2, in a health care overhaul bill supported by key Senate Democrats looking to fulfill President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority.

Called “shared responsibility payments,” the fines would offset at least half the cost of basic medical coverage, according to the legislation. The goal is to nudge people to sign up for coverage when they are healthy, not wait until they get sick.
[continued at The Seattle Times]

If you were given a choice, would you vote for or against this proposal? Why?

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Introduction

• Chi (qi) is an ancient Chinese term, which can be translated as energy. Like energy, the word chi is used in both abstract and concrete terms, and applied to both general concepts and specific phenomena. In other words, chi is ambiguous. (People who use the term often have a specific meaning in mind.)
• In the broadest sense of the word, chi is generally understood to be pervasive, present in everyone and everything, but it is not uniformly distributed.
• Chi moves freely around the universe, assuming various forms along the way. Disciplines such as Chi Kung (Qigong) and Feng Shui purport to observe and manipulate chi, for the specific benefit of human life.

• According to this model, chi is present in the air. Therefore, it is sometimes understood to be synonymous with air. Chi circulates around the body, as do oxygen and blood; some people therefore assert that chi is breath or blood. Within the realm of martial arts, physical postures are known to affect circulation, and subsequently chi has been equated to good posture itself. All these conceptions must be seen as incomplete, if not plain wrong.
• By definition, chi is not a specific form of matter (e.g. element or molecule), nor is it a specific expression of energy (e.g. kinetic or thermal). On the contrary, these are all specific expressions of chi.
• This definition would seem to imply that matter and energy are somehow equivalent. While such a statement may offend the “common sense” of the average person, actual scientists have accepted its truth for a century. (Einstein famously expressed it as E = MC².)
• If chi does not take one specific form, is it therefore a non-falsifiable and unscientific theory? Not exactly. As in the case of dark matter, we can look for indirect evidence of its existence. Regardless, chi-based models are useful where they provide explanations for past observations, and correct predictions for future events, e.g. medical diagnosis and treatment.
• What then is chi kung? Simply put, it is a set of exercises with reproducible results, which are most easily understood within a chi-based model, and more difficult (or sometimes impossible) to explain with other models. Chi kung is a practice, not a theory or a belief. Chi kung is not occult magic, and it is not a religion or cult affiliation.
• When performed properly, many chi kung exercises can improve the practitioner’s health. Some have no such effect, and others can result in injury. Here are instructions for a very simple and safe introductory exercise.

Steps

1. Relax your body and mind. If this is your first time performing this exercise, find (or create) a distraction-free environment.


Wong Kiew Kit demonstrates a horse stance

2. Stand in a martial arts horse stance. Any stance will do. Remain in the stance for one minute or longer; doing so may enhance your results in the next steps. If you are extremely weak, then you may skip this step.
3. Exit the horse stance, and stand up straight. Again, relax your body and mind. Physical, intellectual or emotional tension will degrade your sensitivity and impair your results in the next step. Rub your hands together for a few seconds. Close your eyes.
4. Move your palms toward and away from each other, as if gently squeezing a small beach ball. Visualize the chi gathering between your hands. Move at a speed of 1-3 squeezes per second, within a distance of 6 to 24 inches. Continue this kneading for 2-4 minutes, or longer as necessary, until you notice an unexpected sensation in your hands. You may feel heat, tingling, vibrating, or strong magnetic repulsion. Many people will experience these feelings on their first attempt; others will need to repeat the exercise daily until a result is obtained.

Warnings

• These sensations constitute the observation of a “chi-effect”, and not necessarily a direct experience of chi itself. Other exercises will produce different sensations and effects, in different parts of the body, or outside it.
• The exercise outlined above is a trivial chi kung practice; do not mistake it for anything more. Chi kung is an extremely broad and deep subject, and the ability to feel sensations via the steps above does not demonstrate mastery, or even basic competence. These results are only a hint at what can be accomplished with time, discipline and good instruction.
• Do not assume that Chinese chi, Japanese ki, Greek pneuma and Indian prana are all the same thing.
• Contrary to popular belief, martial artists are not the best source of information on chi, or chi kung, and their unsubstantiated opinions should not be taken too seriously.

More Information

Chi kung (qi gong) books and DVDs
Renli’s Chi FAQ
What Every Martial Artist Should Know About Chi and TCM

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