The Most Embarrassing Exhibit at the Martial Arts Supershow

critical thinking general martial arts business Jul 11, 2010

As I wandered through the Exhibit Hall at the Martial Arts Supershow 2010 in Las Vegas, I was disappointed that there was nothing that related to the internal arts.

Even the seminars were focused on kickboxing, karate (the modern version), TKD (the modern version) and MMA or MMA-related things (like "Cage Fitness").

Except for one booth, and it was completely embarrassing.

It was called Quantum Science -- BioTech Optimum Energy Program. The people at the booth should have been arrested for false advertising.

They were selling pendants. If you wear these pendants, they improve your chi and can even kill cancer cells -- that's exactly what a woman behind the booth told me.

It isn't just a pendant. They also will take your hard-earned cash for a bracelet or a watch that will do the same thing.

You see, their stuff "promotes positive flow of energy and helps to maintain energy balance. It helps to restore energy that has become weak in the body." That quote is from their brochure.

The science behind this metallic snake oil is "scalar energy," discovered by a mathematician back in the 1800's (ironic, isn't it, that all scientists in the world haven't jumped on this).

They persuaded passers-by to take their "energy test" (the photo of the guy with his arms out). The people at the booth seemed very sincere but a little bit flaky (go figure).

Here are other things that the pendants, bracelets and watches will do for you (according to their brochure):

increase energy
promote unclumping of cells
enhance circulation
enhance immune and endocrine systems
destroy viruses and bacteria
enhance the cellular nutrition and detoxification
enhance cellular permeability
reduce inflammation
protect the DNA from damage
retard the aging process
fight cancer cells
strengthen the body's biofield preventing electro-magenetic waves from affecting one's health
focus and concentrate better

As I visited other booths, I discovered that this booth -- related to chi -- was the big joke of the Supershow. Other exhibitors thought it was absolute crap. The subject came up usually when they would ask what arts I teach, and I talked about the internal arts.

My friends, we have ruined the reputation of the internal arts with this type of nonsense. Too often, I've talked with tai chi instructors (some of them very nice people) who either encourage these downright silly beliefs or they allow the beliefs to perpetuate by repeating phrases such as, "There are many things we can't explain," or something equally mindless.

When the woman at the booth told me the benefits of wearing these pendants, including the destruction of viruses and bacteria, destroying cancer cells, and causing a barrier of energy to be created around your body to protect you (she said I would know it as "chi") my jaw nearly dropped to the floor. I found it amazing that they would tell this to just anyone who walked up.

So here I am, in Las Vegas, deeply disappointed that the Martial Arts Supershow ignored the internal arts and focused on fads rather than traditional arts, and then I run across one booth related to "chi" and it's a joke.

If you're in the internal arts, you should be embarrassed, too, and you should lend your voice to mine and help fight the fraud and hoax that we have turned "chi" into.

Let me repeat -- the internal arts are fighting arts. Chi can be used as a mental visualization tool for better body mechanics and in chi kung exercises that help take your mind off other things and calm down, but as a medical science there is virtually nothing legitimate (double-blind clinical trials or unbiased, independent research) that proves it's a valid theory.

If you're unwilling to help me spread some logic and critical thinking, then if you ever get cancer, or if another bad form of the flu spreads through the nation, just put your money where your mouth is. Don't go to the doctor. Just order one of these pendants and wear it proudly, knowing that you now have a protective barrier of chi that will heal you of just about anything.

Some people will believe anything.

--by Ken Gullette

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The Most Embarrassing Exhibit at the Martial Arts Supershow

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