The Art of The “Monkey-Con”
If there’s one thing I really like it’s when something comes along to shake up the scientific community. Sometimes when I talk about tai chi to people who are “overly scientific” - my opinion - they don’t seem to buy into the idea that our bodies contain energy we can learn to manipulate. Never mind people having done this for thousands of years.
I have to smile when one of these scientific types points out a person who’s been caught faking moving energy, as proof there is no internal energy. That argument holds about as much water as saying that a person who claims to be an African Banker with $20 million dollars they want to deposit into your bank account, yet isn’t really a banker, is proof there are no bankers on the African Continent. I tried this once by the way, and the “banker” not only didn’t put any money at all in my account, but they had the nerve to actually withdraw the $10 I used to open the account. I was planning on putting that 10 bucks, plus my share of the $20 million toward a Starbucks’ gift card for yours truly… can you imagine! I guess it was for the best anyway since I’m really not all that fond of Starbucks.
So, now I’m going to make the same argument and throw it back at “them”. Scientists have been chanting en mass for years that monkeys don’t have the ability for evolved, highly complex thinking. Well it appears the Tufted Capuchin Monkey from South America has learned the fine art of the con, and is using this knowledge to take what it wants from other, unsuspecting monkeys in it’s own society. It seems this con man of the jungle has figured out how to get around the pecking order, that’s at the very foundation of the monkey world, by tricking higher-ranking monkeys out of their hard earned, researcher-supplied, bananas.
How does this argument make my point? It’s quite simple actually. You see since the scientific community at large was incorrect about primates being incapable of evolved, highly complex thinking, they must also be wrong about us mere humans being incapable of manipulating energy within our bodies. Case closed, at least according one widely accepted method of “scientific argumentation”.
How are these amoral apes pulling off the jungle equivalent of the crime of the century? When a low-ranking monkey wants what a dominant monkey in their group is eating, they cry wolf. They make a warning sound that means a predator is near, the higher-ranking monkey buys the deception, runs for cover, and the con-monkey rushes in for the spoils. It seems this particular primate may not be unique in this behavior either… imagine that.
Don’t expect too much to come from of this one story though. There’s another esteemed colleague who thinks this researcher is jumping to silly conclusions. The more things change the more they stay the same. 
What should you take from this very loosely tai chi related story? Maybe nothing, you could just do what we’ve always have as humans and believe what you want, look for evidence to support your case, and ignore the rest. Not that I’d ever do that of course… I’m just saying.
Your thoughts?
John
P.S. I found this story and the monkey photo on ScineceNow.com: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/603/2?rss=1
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Jun 8, 2009 - 02:06:03Hi John,
I’m afraid this strikes me as a fairly specious straw man argument, although perhaps there’s some random internet person saying that (but isn’t that true of anything?).
The point of the scientific community is not “this one guy making that claim was a liar, therefore all people making that claim are liars.” The point is that, when you have people making the claim over and over, and every single person who actually comes forward and submits to testing under carefully-defined and -controlled conditions turns out to be self-deceived or deliberately deceptive, and this keeps happening decade after decade, eventually you have to decide if this is a real phenomenon worth spending time and money on, or just decide it’s likely to be hooey. How many times do you go out in the middle of the night with a bag and a flashlight before you decide that maybe there aren’t any snipe to hunt after all?
I mean, sure, maybe there’s some mysterious hermit off in an exotic country doing all these incredible things, but it’s a little weird that they’re always so far away. To paraphrase one of my favorite koans, “the only qi you find on a mountaintop is the qi you bring with you.”
This gets even more suspicious when you have a large number of financial incentives for people to come forward and demonstrate their qi powers or whatever. The Randi Challenge is the best-known in the US, but there are similar ones worldwide, e.g. one run by an Indian group. Even if the claimants are beyond financial incentive themselves, they could always donate it to help alleviate poverty.
Combine that with the fact that the scientific community itself rewards novelty — you don’t win a Nobel Prize for being the 5000th person to confirm that Newton was right, you win it for being the first person to radically change everyone’s preconceptions. Even our cultural images of “scientific geniuses” are the rebels — Newton, Einstein, Darwin, etc. What scientist wouldn’t want their name added to that list? And it’s not just about fame; even mundane, simple things like research funding are highly competitive — and the best way to stand out is to find something genuinely new. Confirming the existence of qi, or the ability to move a mysterious energy around the body, would be an instant Nobel prize. I would love for this to happen and so would every scientist and fan of science I know.
And “people have done it for thousands of years” is fallacious. People have been mistaken about innumerable things for a long time (racism, sexism, geocentrism, etc.). What matters is not how long people have believed X, but rather if X is true outside of our prejudices, biases, hopes, fears, wishes, preconceptions, and financial interests. And using the best method we’ve found for eliminating these things (carefully test under controlled conditions, then have other people repeat the test and see if they get the same results) we’ve never found any reliable evidence for “moving energy.”
Don’t get me wrong, I love taiji. But there’s a lot of cons and hucksterism in the martial arts and there always has been. While catching one scam artist in the act doesn’t prove that there isn’t a genuine qi wizard out there somewhere, it definitely shows that we should take things with a grain of salt before either giving people our money, or making extravagant claims ourselves.
Thanks for the conversation,
Kevin
Kevin,
What a great argument. Finally someone who disagrees with me and Isn’t afraid to make a good point… a point I don’t agree with, but an excellent point all the same. From personal experience I believe qi is something you have to “feel for yourself” and doesn’t seem to be measurable by current scientific instruments.
As you so aptly pointed out, the rebels of the scientific community brought forward unpopular theories, some of which were and still are unprovable via our current technology. Some of these theories will prove correct, or at least partly correct, despite no one being able to prove them at this time.
Thanks so much for this conversation. I’d love to hear from you again in the future. I do like to be a wise ass at times and it’s fun to be called out, especially when I am a little too full of myself.
John
Wow, good post Kevin. The first time I heard about feats of chi/qi after my instructor’s trip to China, I wrote it off as common magic tricks. The tricks are familiar, bending spoons, moving objects and making a shirt catch fire. I attending the traveling Shaolin Monk show in Houston several years ago. I loved the show and try to attend whenever then are in the area. My favorite chi demostration was when a monk threw a straw through a sheet of glass. As I watch the wondereful performance, I remembered seeing the same feats on the Mike Douglas Show in the 1970’s. Instead of Shaolin Monks, it was the Amazing Kreston a well known illusionist and ESP artist. Lets enjoy these shows for what they are and keep them seperate from the real pratice of chi kung.
I know that there are studies that shows that chi may be real and there are studies that show chi is not real. I have seen first hand how chi has improved injuries and chronic conditions. The improvement may be because the student’s mind want chi to work but that is not important. What is important is that these people’s quality of life has improved.
David
David,
Don’t be too quick to write all of them off. I don’t know if it’s really possible to send a straw through a sheet of glass, but I do feel comfortable saying chi exists. In fact I really don’t see how it can’t after some of the experiences I’ve had. Nothing I can say will convince you, and probably shouldn’t, you really have to experience it for yourself.
Despite Kevin’s well articulated argument, scientists don’t appreciate people who disagree with them. That’s why “Newton, Einstein, Darwin, etc.” were considered rebels in their own day and were reluctantly accepted only after there seemed no other choice.
John
Sorry John, I am not skilled at writting. I know chi is real. I have two bad disk in my neck, thanks Uncle Sam. Chi Kung is an effective and inexpensive teatment plan. I have seen the life span of a terminally ill patient extended, several people stop using asthma inhalors, the recovery of a tramadic brain injury patient, and several people with arthritis and joint injuries improve. Each person said the improvement was the results of tai chi. I have also seen first hand the postitive effects tai chi has had on troubled teens and high risk kids in inter-city school.
Yes this is all antidotal and some say tai chi is only a placebo but that does not matter. Tai chi unlocks the body’s power to heal itself.
I always ask tai chi and chi kung people to describe the first time they felt chi. I am surprised how often people tell me they have not noticed anything or they have not felt it yet. I do not not why I can feel the energy and others cannot but once you feel it, you know that it is real.
Feel the chi,
David
David,
You’re right. Chi is one of those “once you feel it you know it’s real” type of things. It makes it easy for others to write it off… their loss I guess.
John
Hi John,
My only comment is that we cant help the disbelievers, let them believe what they want to belive, but to study something like Tai Chi, and not leave your self open to the posibility of there being more to it that angles, and positions… would result in missing out on all the potential posibilities that could be open to you, without being conned of course.
After all Tai Chi is more about being open to listening with everying you have to understand the situation as to, and before it unfolds right?
Open mindedness does not equate to gullibility.
Sheld,
You’re absolutely right. What someone else thinks of us, or even tai chi, is really none of our business - unless we make it our business by caring what they think.
You’re also right about open mindedness. I’ve heard that con-men love closed minded people because they are easier to manipulate. I think we should stay open and exercise good judgment. Sometimes it’s better to risk appearing a fool than to loose a good opportunity and erase all doubt.
John