Cult of Kung-Fu

[stonecrusher69]

The cult of Kung Fu
by Michael McIlwrath
February 15,2017

So you want to study Kung Fu? After, watching your first Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan Kung Fu movie you found yourself inspired and you like to be the next Van Damme. You've caught the Kung Fu craze and now you just need to find the right school and master to send you on that long journey to acquire the ancient secrets of Kung Fu passed down from master to student in an unbroken chain reaching back to the founder of the style. Well, you might want to think about that first before signing on the dotted line. In the world of Kung Fu, all may not seem to appear what it appears. There are politics, scams, and snake oil salesmen at every corner that wants to sell you their secret Kung Fu going back to the mystical sacred mountain of the ancient temple of Kung Fu. Well master Po may grant you what you want, but are you willing to pay the price?, and that price cost sometimes more than blood,sweat and tears.

As a potential student, looking for the master killer. You need to question everything. You have to use your own judgement to determine to find a legitimate teacher, and who is willing to teach you what he knows.

In the world of Kung Fu, Kung Fu families are sometimes very similar to religious cults. Each sect proclaims to have the one true knowledge, and all others have some watered down incomplete version. And unless you follow them you'll never receive the one true secret knowledge passed down from the ancients. Well this is great marketing and a tool for the salesman to use to get to your money, so is this really any different from the late night preacher on TV asking you “ if you only plant a seed” Jesus well take away your debt,or your pain etc. Well, why does Jesus need my money? Short of cash perhaps?
I mean, if he can take away my pain why can't he print his own money…

The dark side of Kung Fu is no different. You must pay, and sometimes pay through the nose to get what you’re looking for and even then you’ll be lucky to get it. Years of hard work, dedication, loyalty, and sweat won't guarantee you get to the finish line. You see, I’m not trying to stop you from following your dreams of training with a real legitimate teacher,but only to worn you and to get you to use your critical thinking before investing in a lot of time and money. For the novice student it can be very difficult to know a legitimate teacher from someone who is just looking to take your money. In general, the bigger the claim the more skeptical you should be. Don't just take the Sifu at his word. Make sure you check out his credentials. Know who he trained with and for how long. What did he learn? Did he complete the system under one teacher or many?,and is he certified by his Sifu to teach. If you can't get clear answers to these questions then be weary as it's possible the Sifu may be hiding something and may not be completely honest with you. If what he claims check out,then the next step is to evaluate the Sifu skill,knowledge and
quality of his senior students. In general, a good teacher will produce good students,and a poor sifu will produce poor students. Without prior experience ,it may be difficult to evaluate these quantities by yourself, so if you can bring someone with you who has martial art experience to watch a class his input could be very insightful and save you a lot of time and money.

After all said and done, You will have to be the one to make your final decision. My advice is don't necessarily pick a school based solely on price,how big or small the school is, or how convenient it is to train there. To find a good school is worth the extra money,and travel. You're not likely going to find a great school down the block from your house. Having said all this, if you really want to learn Kung Fu I say go for it! even if you happen pick a school, that later was not for you,that is also part of the learning process and will help you in the future to know the difference between a really good school and a poor one. And that can only come from years of hard training and experience. Which requires an investment in your time and money, but in long run, in my opinion, a well worth education.

So even though there are many pitfalls to look out for, dont let that stand in your way to finding a Good teacher.There are many good teachers,so Dont be afraid to take a chance. So,Good luck, and train hard!!!

[Jimbo]

Thanks for posting that.

In reality, I'm not sure how many young people nowadays would be inspired by a Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan or Van Damme movie to take up kung fu or other MA. Nowadays, in general, the famous MA-related 'celebrities' most idolized by young people are the top MMA fighters.

The MA schools I've seen that were most guilty of promoting a cult/cultish worship and other behaviors have been *some* Korean MA teachers. And I saw most of that back in the 1980s and '90s. Out of curiosity, I visited one such school where the teacher, from Korea, actually sat on a big, ornate throne with a giant painting of an eagle on the wall behind it. Some of the students I saw were like zombies. He taught some hybrid Korean form which mostly just looked like TKD and Hapkido.

Most of the Chinese-related schools/groups I've seen promoting cult-like behavior tended to be more 'qi' or 'special qigong'-related. Maybe a few actual kung fu schools were cult-like, but IME FAR fewer than the cult schools involving Korean MAists.

I feel that, for the most part, cult schools have probably become rare in recent years due to the dominance of MMA's popularity.

[bawang]

And I saw most of that back in the 1980s and '90s. Out of curiosity, I visited one such school where the teacher, from Korea, actually sat on a big, ornate throne with a giant painting of an eagle on the wall behind it. Some of the students I saw were like zombies.

holy sh1t wtf

can u give me this guys contact I want to learn how to do that

[GeneChing]

...I think of this sort of stuff.

Priest Feeds Congregation Rat Poison To Prove They’re Above Death… They All Die
BY : HANNAH WATTE


Facebook/Grace Living Hope Ministries

This priest tried to prove his congregation were above death by feeding them rat poison and the results were disastrous…

Priest Light Monyeki from Soshanguve, South Africa, took it upon himself to prove his follower’s were superhuman and immortal, with a seriously dangerous stunt.

The priest declared to his congregation they should not fear death, as they will not die, before proceeding to pour bottles of water contaminated with rat poison into their mouths…



He said:

We do not need to proclaim faith because we are believers. Death has no power over us.

Horrifyingly, many of his followers ran forward to take a fatal drink from the treacherous bottle.

The priest took a swig from the poison fluid before pouring it down the throats of his loyal congregation.


Facebook/ Grace Living Hope Ministries

Disastrously, yet predictably, the members of his church started to complain of stomach pains and by the evening, five of them were tragically dead.

A further 13 more were taken to hospital for the ingestion of the lethal drink, but despite all of this Monyeki allegedly denied responsibility.

Instead he announced:

Grace Living Hope Ministries added 5 new photos.
February 5 at 2:47am ·
HIGH PLACE CONFERENCE [SUPERNATURAL SERVICE]
04 February 2017 (Day 2)
DEMONSTRATION OF POWER- MAN OF GOD MIXED RATTAX (DEADLY POISON) WITH WATER AND CAUSED PEOPLE INCLUDING HIM TO DRINK!!!
The man of God, Prophet Light Monyeki demonstrates power of faith by causing congregants to drink Rattax; deadly poison to show forth their faith. As he was doing that he said “we do not need to proclaim faith because we are believers. If nyope boys can smoke Rattax for more than 8years, who are we? Death has no power over us”. Then he declared life from above upon the water mixed with Rattax; and spoke nourishment unto bodies and healing unto the sick. A multitude of congregants voluntarily ran to the front to have a drink of the deadly poison. After declaring nourishment and healing, Prophet Light was the first one to drink.
TO GOD BE THE GLORY
2017: THE YEAR OF THE OPEN DOOR

Too much of any good thing could be bad.

Surely he’s not referring to his poison drink as a ‘good thing,’ as I do not see how this could be possible in any way considering it killed five of his members…

The horrendous incident has sparked a police investigation, but no arrests have been made at present.

This is extremely dangerous and beyond stupid.

It’s sad to think his followers put so much faith and trust in him, which ultimately cost them their lives…

[Jimbo]

They don't have to get members to drink poison to be a cult. Remember Grandmaster "Iron" Kim and his Oom Yung Doe cult? Or how about the one run by female cult leader Tae Yun Kim (a.k.a., Kyong Ae Fontaine/Kyong Ae Kim)? She was in MA magazines A LOT back in the day. I heard of lots of others, but the phenomenon seemed more prominent back in the '80s and '90s. Like the above two examples, a high percentage of such cults were headed by Korean teachers. Moonie style. Whether or not such "teachers" were actually good at MA is questionable. If they were, why did they need to create cults? IMO, the creation of a MA cult is an attempt to conceal a LACK of a teacher's true ability by creating a myth around themselves. Plus a sociopathic need to control and be worshipped by others.

[GeneChing]

They don't have to get members to drink poison to be a cult.

True, but that's where my mind goes, to the extreme example. I mean a cult that gets hundreds of people to practice dumb 'martial' dance moves for colored belts is one thing. But a cult that gets its followers to drink poison, now that's a cult.

I only posted this because I read that news story, and thought of this here thread.

[zuti car]

Just tell Yip Man's style followers Leung Bik never existed or Yip Man was not a saint and various degrees and variation of braiwashing can be seen in action . Some are agressive verbaly , some even want to be agressive physically , some try to present "evidence" and like a broken record repeat what they had learned and of course , there is a group of them who let you know how high are they abouve you , because they 'know the truth" ...

[Happy Tiger]

Our own Vancouver Kung Fu cult. As far back as I can remember. Temple Kung Fu.
http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showthread.php?t=116583
As for me, I did not care for Chinese martial arts when I was a teenager. My inspiration was the fictional character Billy Jack. I was so moved by this movie that I studied Hapkido for five years. A great start to a life long love of combat art and philosophy. By the by, Billy Jack is being remade with Mark Wahlberg as the man himself. Tom Laughlin and Deloris Tayler had plans for a sequel called Jean and Billy Jack but unfortunately Tom died a couple of years back and Im not sure what will happen to that project.

[Happy Tiger]

https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=yf1ClRHMce0

[Happy Tiger]

The ennui of Ving Tsun will be it's undoing.

[boxerbilly]

My Korean teacher was a white Irish guy. There was an American flag and a Korean flag in the dojang. There was Jungshin in the name of the school so happily I may be able to claim cult status. Other than that is was a bare bone place. Punching boards. A heavy bag. Some weights. And a large mirror. I even learned to count in Korean and had limited language skills related tot he art. I never found any use for that stuff outside of the dojang. But it was required learning.

Nice write up Mike.

[boxerbilly]

holy sh1t wtf

can u give me this guys contact I want to learn how to do that

Bawang, just find some younger kids and older hippy left overs. Tell them you are God or his messenger. In todays market you can just make pdfs and youtube videos to get your word out. People will believe you. You cult may be small or large. But you might get laid and you can claim some devine right to first dibs at all the new girls. People will have to sign over all their belongings to you and you make bank. There is some weird Asian guy on NYC public access talks about DMT all the time. Manhattan Neighborhood Network. Just do what he does. So best of luck to you and your Bawang-ers.

[MarathonTmatt]

Yup! I believe that the "Spirit" or "Essence" of Kung Fu can be thousands of years old... because we are talking about the forging of the will of the human spirit, the development of the complete person! But do not claim that your specific style/system/forms is thousands of years old, that is obviously BS! A proud history, yes. But most forms are modern; 30, 40, 50, 70, 100-150 years old at best.

[MarathonTmatt]

Don't get me wrong though. I like to walk through the gate into the garden of martial arts, as Plum Publications puts it on their website. Of course, there are exercises that are verified to be almost 2,000 years old such as the Five Animal Frolics, introduced by Hua Tuo, the "father of Chinese medicine." I really do believe that Qigong exercise, Chinese Martial Arts and the like are true cultural treasures, and are very special. I would suppose further that the great Hua Tuo did not create the Five Animal Frolics from scratch, they must have existed in some form prior, probably coming from a more "shamanistic" (can't think of another word to describe it) tradition- of course this must be the case because these movements are imitating the movements of the bear, the eagle, etc.

Even without any formal exercise training, I have had wild deer come right up to me in the middle of the woods and they have sniffed my palm when I offered it out to them. I have communicated with vultures and hawks and other birds, the smaller ones are more playful. I have witnessed the mating rituals of the bobcats from just feet away, and have gleaned the cleverness of the sly coyote, as if they had said to me with a knowing grin "see if you can't do any better than this!"

Anyway. Even up to the modern proliferation of the CMA. Even if styles and forms are more modern, these animal teachings have been preserved. Some sources say that Chang-Shen-Feng was a legendary made-up character. Maybe he was. But I don't think that is the important part anyway. Just like a kung fu form encodes information in it's movements that must be understood. I think the story of Chang-Shen-Feng and the origin of Tai Chi encodes a teaching. The Snake and the Bird. Quetzlcoatl, the Plumed Serpent (Snake and the Bird.) Jesus of Nazareth said "be as wise as snakes and as gentle as doves." The head-dress of the Pharos of Egypt was always the Cobra in the center. The human body is like an electrical circuit- bio-electricity. What better symbol to portray this other than the snake. The snake in the garden of eden was originally the serpent of wisdom, and look how it moves. It can even shed it's own skin. Native people made massive serpent mounds and stone effigies. The bird represents the flight of the human spirit. Ancient Native people were buried with bird-stone artifacts for this very reason. Yet we do not have to pass-over in order for our spirit to fly. We Are the Snake and Bird People.