I have googled but to no effect. My wife's aunt studied with this guy. The spelling may be wrong. It would have been in america in the Seventies maybe eighties. Could it be Marshall Ho'o? She had stories of him breaking stoned in her yard for amusement and could point at a candle and extinguish the flame with his qi. Now I am a skeptic, but I am not about to call a family member a liar either. Does anyone know anything about this guy? He probably taught the Yang style, but it could have been Wu. Any info would be appreciated. Cheers!!
I like to think of us as one big friendly community, so if you want I will call your family member a liar.
He may well have employed deception, then vampyre_rat's relative would be honestly reporting what she believed she saw. She wouldn't be the first, or the last, to be fooled by these sorts of tricks.
I thought I could try the old "punching out a candle flame" trick to see how hard it was. I filmed my attempts after the very first one worked! I had something approaching 50% success. The camera angle foreshortens the action a bit, but there are a few replays so you can see it in detail. Maybe some other people can try some fa jin type tricks and post them on Youtube. Here is my very first attempt at "Vagabond Skills." [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW5uWlnehog"]Vagabond Kung Fu Skill - YouTube[/ame]
JK, Punching is easy, pointing at it is hard I have heard of a Yin CHEN HAO, but I am not able to find out where yet. Possibly he was a lineage holder of Wu/Hao style, if this were the case he would be at the very least a reputable MA. As for his skills mentioned above, who can truly say? I will see if I can find an article or any info in the books I have, the name though does sound familiar.
Hi TQ, Punching IS pretty easy, you're right. Pointing is impossible. Maybe you could do it on Youtube... I wouldn't trust one of those "Master" fellas.
Hey I won't lie, my skill is far beyond pointing to it and making it go out, now I just think about it. You know I actually managed to make the flame you were punching at go out everytime I thought it would. Behold my Qi powers, and you thought you were punching it pfffft. Yeah if I could do that then I would save a lot of breath blowing them out all the time, plus it makes me sweaty to punch at them a lot.
Taoquan wrote: Yin Chen Hao is also a Chinese herb (Artemisia capillaris), maybe that is what you are thinking of?
Punching the candle flame thing should be done such so that when you finish your punch/fully extend, your fist is at least a foot away from the flame, this distance should be gradually increased. There really is nothing difficult about putting it out by punching directly at it, also palm strikes are easier.
I will let you into one of my little secrets. Trying blowing on the candle. I have a 100% success rate with that. Not only that, I can blow out several at once. **yoga pose**
You know considering I just got done with herbal finals....You are more than likely correct. Actually I was thinking about that last night, lol. Though I swear there was a Chan Hao or Chen Ho (Huo) that I came across in Tai Chi studies. Meh, no sense in worrying about it, if I find it I will pass it on. JK, I commend you for trying for this is a Movie hyped stunt imo (as well as legends etc.) Most people think it is hard to do, till they try it. For some reason it seems mythical. I always liked the story: A young man came across a great master one day down by the river. The Master claimed to be able to walk on the water having no need for bridges or boats. The Young man of course wanted to learn this technique, but was skeptical. He asked the master to demonstrate it and much to his surprise the master was able to walk on water. The young man started to train immediately for hours a day that turned into weeks, months, years. Finally 10 years went by and the young man finally mastered this skill of walking on water. He was so proud of himself that he decided to go for a walk on the lake. He was walking on the water when he came across an old fisherman in his boat working his nets. "Hello there fine sir." The young man said. Not even bothering to look up the old man just nodded. "What brings you out here." The young man asked feeling superior for his abilities. After all here was this old man needing a boat to be on the lake. "Fishing." The old man answered looking up and noting this man walking on the water. The young man puffed his chest up a bit feeling rather proud, but much to his dismay the old man just shrugged and went back to work. "OLD MAN! I AM WALKING ON WATER, YOU NEED A BOAT TO BE HERE!" He yelled finally frustrated. The old man smiled and said "How many years did it take you to perfect this technique?" The young man calmed down "Ten." The old man laughed and said "Sir, you took ten years to accomplish something that I can do everyday. Why is walking on water so special? I do it with my boat." Then all of the sudden the young man was grief stricken he had wasted 10 years learning something everyone can already do and fell into the water. :topic: but cool story none the less
So it could well be Yin Chen Hao. It was a while ago and pronunciation of chinese is always difficult. If anyone can find a link that doesn't contain the word google then that would be cool. As for his 'abilities'? I don't care. I wanted to find out who he was I have no interest in yet another pointless thread/argument on charlatanism, start another thread and knock yourself out. There's a tale from Chinese Boxing: Masters and Methods where Robert Smith meets a guy who had conditioned his finger so that it could punch a whole through a plank. It was useless for anything else though. A stupid persuit of a pointless skill. As for pointing at the candle? did his hand move? I don't know, I know nothing apart from the word I posted at the start. Maybe there's more to it and it can be explained in a rational way.
