Cheuk Fung on Yi Chuan

[Michael]

I just wanna say I understand why ZK doesn't want to try and describe this online. Discussing things that aren't perfectly obvious to the average person is usually an invitation to frustration.

[Muad'dib]

BTW, Graham, as a good doubter and skeptic, once you figured out you had been tricked, did you try it a second time and not feel the heat?

[GrahamB]

It's ok Zk I'm not that interested in your experiences to want to call you about it. No offense meant by that.

No I didn't try it again. Didn't want to pay another £40 to find out it was all in my mind. Btw I do think that the placebo effect is a genuine phenomina with real effects for people who are sick so does have some real benefit. So probably quite useful fir people with real illness.

B.t.w I think of myself as open minded in the true sense of the word not as a skeptic, open mind means keep your mind open to all explanations not empty so that magic is your first choice for explanation.

[Muad'dib]

Graham, no problem. Too bad about the massage. I would have been fascinated to know. I also wonder what would have happened if the masseur said "you might feel a little dead". Have you ever been tested for high levels of suggestability?

[GrahamB]

Very funny.

I've been to lots of hypnotists stage shows. It doesn't work on me. I'm not one of the suseptable ones.

[Michael]

That's what Darren Brown programmed you to believe after the fact.

[cloudz]

I do think it's possible for people to be in or get in tune with eachothers 'fields'..so to speak. I came to the conclusion a while back that it was basically down to a human potential for echo location. We all have it. It's the reason you'll feel wierd if you approach a wall with your eyes closed or were about to bump into someone else. Blind people have been known to develop/ heighten thise sense.

My first tai chi/ aikijutsu teacher used to have us do these sort of qi style exercises (one example) where we would stand in front of eachother, not too far. One person with eyes closed. The other would 'pull' the person toward them and at the moment of their choosing would switch that into a 'push'.

I mean, heck I'm no qi master by any stretch but I could get it to work - people would visibly sway in time to what you did, on some people it would work better than others. If people are open I think our sensory perception can run deeper than we may normally consider. But I think it is limited. Though you could make the argument that a bit of this kind of training may be good for sensory awareness and sensitivity.

But for me the sort of training we wind up looking at in these kind of clips takes things too far down a road I wouldn't want to go. or don't feel any particular need to go down.

If you mix in martial skill, placebo, belief and expectations and the sort of mind control work Derren Brown is into. No wonder we have such phenomena around..