Actively researching and
writing articles on various subjects in Chinese martial arts I have noticed few
very interesting things. First, people involved in Kung Fu more than often
exhibit all the signs of a person involved in a religious cult and second, closely
related to the first one is that people will reject the facts no matter how
strong the proof of those fact is, if they are not completely aligned with
their believes. No amount of evidence will make a member of certain kung fu
school to reevaluate his or her believes. People react rather aggressively when
confronted with truth that oppose their believes, they go as far as using
physical violence and there is nothing they will not do to protect their world
view and their perceived place in it. It
is also interesting that people who are completely logical in all other areas
of their lives completely loose control when it comes to kung fu.This behavior
is characteristic for non competitive, non combative “martial arts” and sports,
and it is more common in online communication while in personal communication
where people are physically located at same place is very uncommon.
So, are traditional martial
arts really cults? Are practitioners of Traditional martial really cult members? Answer to that question is not
simple, fact is, almost all traditional martial arts exhibit some traits of
classically defined cults it their recruiting approach, social structure,
social interactions within the school\style and with outsiders and even a
training approach. Historically speaking, many kung fu styles were real cults
at some point in time. From the sociological perspectives, kung fu as well as
other “traditional martial arts” stopped to be purely fighting systems long
time ago and they offer much more than just fighting, in many cases everything
but fighting, at the same time preserving the image of the fighting system.
“Traditional martial arts” as a rule involve parts of far eastern religious
systems, supposed ancient health preserving systems, esoteric arts, and they
offer full spectrum of religious, health, spiritual, therapeutic, self
improvement services that revolve around perceived fighting skills which
someone will achieve in time. Term “martial art” separates certain practice
from “sports” which are total opposites of the “arts”. Combat sports do not
have any of traits mentioned above, their complete activity revolve around few
simple goals, making the best training approach in order to produce fighters
who will be able to win competition fights. In combat sports people simply
develop through trial and error approach and there is no place for esotery,
religion or spiritualty. Sport is a sport and it is focused on one simple goal.
While similar behavior can be occasionally found among sport practitioners, that
behavior is sporadic and usually exhibited by people who do not actually fight.
Professional and amateur fighters are fully aware of their true abilities,
reality check is something they do regularly, their goals and focus in training
is quite different from people involved in “martial arts”, they are motivated
by completely different things. They are also open to new experiences, trying
constantly to improve their fighting skills. One more thing separates combat
sports from martial arts. In sports, people responsible to teach and train
athletes are coaches, in martial arts people who teach others are called
“masters”, “grandmasters” or they use Chinese, Japanese, Korean …language
equivalents. More than often, generation
of “masters” never had a fight in their lives but they are teaching others
fighting arts. In Wing Chun and Tai Chi as two most popular Chinese martial
styles today, that is more than obvious.
Very few martial
organizations are full blown cults but majority of them have and use some of
the techniques used by cults in order to attract and keep their followers.
To understand this behavior
we have to understand what kind of people are usually drawn to Kung Fu and what
is the psychology behind it.
People are initially attracted
to certain martial art by what that particular style is offering. Most of the
styles offer same thing and it is really a matter of availability of certain
school than actual content that attract people in it. Tai Chi and Wing Chun
have most followers simply because most kung fu teachers belong to those
styles. These styles on the other hand became widely spread due to Chinese and
U.S government political agenda at the certain moment of time. Same happened
with Japanese karate, especially Kyokushin some time earlier. Although these
days people can do some research about the style/school they are planning to
join, and a lot of information is available, often there are simply too many
info. and also many information are contradictory. Most important thing is that
a beginner have no clue what actually he suppose to search and too many
information often leads to confusion. Eventually, person will find what is he
or she subconsciously desire.
People join “martial arts”
for various reasons, it is also important to notice that people join combat
sports for various reasons but those reasons can be put in two categories that
lead to desire to compete and desire to learn how to fight. Of course, behind
all the reasons stand deep and complicated psychological processes. It is also not uncommon that
people believe they joined martial school for one reason, but the real reason
stay hidden deep in their subconscious mind.
One way that martial arts
attract people is appeal to the pride of human beings through a rationalistic
philosophy. Their doctrines sound rational and give their followers the feeling
that through following them they will become ``someone important'', and we can
see that in such an emphasis put in “lineage”, ”tradition” and “founder of the
art” stories. Same things go with offer of higher or secret knowledge that is
supposed to make their followers special and to give them powers beyond the
usual human capabilities but without hard work and physical and psychological
discomfort necessary for such achievement. These two approaches are usually
combined together for higher impact on the new customers. Closely related to
these two approaches comes another, also important approach in attracting new
members and it has more appeal in Western societies due to complex
sociopolitical changes in last 70 years. That is a sense of identity that
usually comes from the leader or ancestor and it is closely related to
“lineage” and “tradition” thing.
The other way is to
stimulate the superstitions that many people already carry in themselves. In
fact, only a few people really believe that what they see in this world is all
there is. Instead they assume that there must be some supernatural force or
being which is there to either help or threaten them. Many martial styles
appeal to that kind of belief and offer quazi religious system based on all
kinds of superstitions masked as either “ancient health practice” or “secret
ancient system” which suppose to help
practitioner to develop fighting abilities, again, without hard work,
pain and psychological discomfort required for such achievement or to help
practitioner in his or hers “spiritual growth”.
Humans on basic level desire
security, and in a fearful and uncertain world many turn to martial arts
because they tend to promote exactly that. Martial arts leaders often make
promises that are totally unattainable, but also offered by no other group in
society. Such things might include security on physical level,, health,
constant peace of mind, achieving high “spiritual” levels the things most humans desire at the deepest
level. Today’s
world is a tough one, with more abstract issues than there are issues that are
black and white. Craving for clarity many people join martial schools because
they believe they’re being offered solid, absolute answers for at least some
crucial life questions. Many martial teachers leaders promote messages that are
simple and seem to make sense, the exact opposite of what we’re often provided
with in typical, everyday life. “Wisdoms” like ”Martial art is a way of life”
or “ Martial art is not just a way of life it is life its self” say enough about “martial arts” and for many
people this is true, they truly believe that practicing certain style will
bring answer to any possible question and problems.
While people in martial arts
are, for the most part, average people and they come from all backgrounds, all
zip codes, and all tax brackets, many people who engage in martial training are
said to have low self-esteem. People with low self-esteem are easier to convince
that the specific martial school is the supportive environment they’re looking
for or the environment where they will achieve their desired goals.
Once people get into
practice and get a feeling they have started to achieve something, which can
but not necessarily may be true ( more than often progress is more a thing of confirmation
bias than real martial advancement) , they slowly commit their self to the
style, school, teacher, ancestor…which by its self it doesn’t have to be
negative thing if there was not one thing characteristic to so called
“traditional” martial arts. So called “traditional” martial arts as a rule have
a tendency to isolate themselves from the other styles of the same or similar
arts and consider their practices
the norm, while everyone else is wrong. “Us vs. them” mentality is prevalent
model of thinking in “traditional” martial schools. Every insignificant detail
done differently by outsiders is used as proof of their ignorance and
inefficiency. That environment with specific personality traits make aggressive
zealots out of common martial art practitioners. Aggression breaks out when all
other defense mechanisms fail and person feels that his or her believe system,
perception of the reality and his or hers perceived place in it is seriously
shaken by facts or simply different opinion or practice. Cognitive dissonance
and backfire effect play major role in this kind of behavior. In the face of contradictory evidence,
established beliefs do not change but actually get stronger and often this
process is accompanied with bursts of aggression. This behavior is
characteristic for intellectually dishonest people who have certain emotional
or financial interest or fixed worldview and they are immature and irrational. People who evaluate
new information through logic and evidence and do not feel personally attacked
by different opinions, believes and facts that challenge their current word
view, do not react aggressively.
