JerryLove

It's a hypothetical... I know a few people who have made the claim, but none have ever proven it to me. If I do get it proven to me, I'll let you know

I've worked with it, you have not. I've worked with it in play with Thai Boxers (you have not done the reverse). Regarless of which opinion is correct, you are the person sitting in willful ignorance. Do you ever get down to Cali? I can recommend a few good people who work with such tricks you can interact with.

it's not as off-balance in general movement as it appears.. it's usually very stable. Though you are quite correct that most drunken styles will deliberately throw themselves bodily to the floor.

Perhaps the same reason you are passing on the $1 mill offered by a Christian group to anyone that can prove evolution.

It's pretty contextual... and an awful lot of effort to go through for somthing I will catch him at later. Yes, if someone says "I'll put out a cnadle or the seminar is free" to get me to bring him down, I'm gonna be more suspicious than if we decide where to go eat (usually a last-minute discussion, or something the host has picked), and then the conversation comes up and the guest does it. Of course, having brought your own candle, the guy could have an infra-red laster imbedded in his lapel and a guy remotely working it to take out the candle wick on cue. There has to be a limit to how much certainty you can demand in a given experiement, and that's pretty subjective. Remember the magician in the 70s who was getting creidited by major universities for showing proven psycic talents under lab conditions... right up until, when asked how he did it, he said "I fake it". It's not an assumption so much as a judgement. Believe me, I've had more than one charlitan try... and the things I've defended as real are primarily things I can do or feel directly.

Kinda presumptious of a goal, is that not? Unless you don't care wheathe rit is real and are simply interested in testing your powers of persuasian? Can I convince you that Bulgeria isn't real?

Then I would assert that the body quilty which is used for te unbending arm "trick" is, itself, useful. That heavily depends. It's a really nice quality to have when you hit someone. While it's not going to, by itself, stpo a grapple, it does tend to interfere with such manipulations (again, it's a quality that needs to be "on", not something you try to suddenly do in the fraction of a second that the manipulation is occuring). It's also a good quality to help prevent general structural collapse. If you want to still have power while extended, you tend to need a method to accomplish it. (IOW, it's one of a couple ways to make short-range power).

Nope, so I remain skeptical of it. It depends on who and what. If I'm sitting at Carrabas with some martial arts instructor, and he says "watch this" and puts out the candle 3 tables away, I'm not goaing to assume he knew where lunch would be in advance and setup a trick at Carrabbas.

Tazers function with very small electric charges. Pressur-point knock-outs work (wheather they work in fights is a different an irrellevent side-topic). Massage and accupresure work (I use the latter and others pretty regularly, it's not psycosematic). Why is it not possible (even likely) that little needles with incense would have a real effect?

I don't see nuclear power plants as more than a trick. I suppose it depends on how one defines "trick".

It's a common tack in boxing, though illegal. It's also well in police training. I've known somone who ended the fight with an elbow from that habbud Labbud drill...

If you are an entymologist, yes. I would think it was more the destructive tension of the other side of your arm... you ar efighting yourself.

From my understanding of his offer, you will eithe rhave to do something he cannot reproduce, or something he cannot rationalize. Assume for a moment, that unbending arm is a Chi trick... prove it's Chi. You can't without coming into a definition of Chi that can be said "that's just a word for known stuff". Any good skeptic knows you can't put out a candle with your mind... that *should* qualify as "supernatural" for Randi's purposes. I've known a couple people I respect tell me they've done it... but I'll believe it when I see it.

There's no simple answer. I would suggest, if you wish to not kill your opponents, that you carry a weapon other than a kinfe... a slapjack comes to mind, though tazers and pepper-spray are good for taking the fight out of most people.

Ok, I've pulled my gun. Please mail me your wallet.

"kung fu" isn't "hard work", it's "skill aquired through hard work". A good chef has "good kung fu", as does a skilled martial artist.

In the most pure sense: "yes". Though you are going to have to put out candles in airtight rooms more than hit people hard.

The Amazing Randi has offered that to anoyone that can prove (to his satisfaction) the existance of "the supernatural".

Actually, it would be far more correct to say "martial arts are kung-fu". Like the difference between "ducks are birds" and "birds are ducks".

I like these for working drills. My problem comes in when there is more mixed fighting (read Dog brothers). Sticks (when one is using a stick, and not a knife the same way), are *most* effective on the head, throat, and hand. By protecting those it *can* lead to very bad habits.

Depends entirely on the situation.

So I can take my Karate' and it will help me fire an M1A2 Abrams tank? Perhaps there are some incomplete parts of any art?

OK. That said, I see two likely options: 1. He's modest (wheather truthfully or intentionally) 2. He has not learned how to teach (a seperate skill). It's not uncommon for martial arts to be taught without learning to teach them. I've seem many an insturctor, especially native Chinese, who will not tell you what to do, and you will learn how to teach when you start to realize what they are doing but not telling. For many this can be a while.

I agree with Drunken Monkey here... every decent Drunken person I am aware of has it as a form or Jing on top of other arts. I've not seen anyone teach a cirriculum of it, nor have I seen a form of it which did not require a great deal in the way of base skills and body qualities.