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• Rely on the placebo effect. The placebo effect is a measurable, observable, or perceived improvement in health that is not attributable to standard medical treatment. It is a real phenomenon that is used by charlatans and pseudo-masters to convince gullible people that they have some mystic power.

  Studies have shown objective improvements in health from placebos in support of the notion that the placebo effect is an entirely psychological phenomenon .

  Doctors in one study successfully eliminated warts by painting them with a brightly colored, inert dye and promising patients the warts would be gone when the color wore off. In a study of asthmatics, researchers found that they could produce dilation of the airways by simply telling people they were inhaling a bronchiodilator, even when they weren't. Patients suffering pain after wisdom-tooth extraction got just as much relief from a fake application of ultrasound as from a real one, so long as both patient and therapist thought the machine was on. Fifty-two percent of the colitis patients treated with placebo in 11 different trials reported feeling better -- and 50 percent of the inflamed intestines actually looked better when assessed with a sigmoidoscope ("The Placebo Prescription" by Margaret Talbot, New York Times Magazine, January 9, 2000).

  Some "alternative" health practices that rely on the placebo effect are: acupuncture, aromatherapy, bioharmonics, crystal power, homeopathy, and reflexology. Recent studies have show that acupuncture is an effective treatment for pain, but the same studies found that needles placed randomly by a sham acupuncturist had the same effect. If people believe something will work, it will usually works for them in some manner. Look at the success of faith healers or stage hypnotists.

  Pseudo-masters use the placebo affect to prove their off-the-wall concepts work. For example, look at Dim-mak practitioners. Dim-mak professes to use a light touch, or even thought waves, to incapacitate a person. Dim-mak techniques work when used on Dim-mak believers, however, when it is used on non-believers, it is useless. Most Dim-mak practitioners are not purposefully faking the effects, they honestly believe that Dim-mak works, so they produce the desired effect when a technique is applied to them.

• Use of fear. A slick way for pseudo-masters to attract students is to invent a problem. For example, by exploiting news reports of crime, a pseudo-master may convince you that crime is rampant in your city or neighborhood when in reality it is statistically lower than average.

• Character. Pseudo-masters seem to think that being a character is the same as having character. Character is earned through a lifetime of exemplary behavior, not from dressing or acting as a caricature of what a "master" should look and act like as portrayed in the movies.

• Pseudo-mystics. Some pseudo-masters claim they can detect "deficiencies" or "imbalances" in your body before any symptoms appear or before they can be detected by conventional means. Then they show you how their methods can prevent the problems. And, when the terrible consequences they warn about do not develop, they claim success.

• Hope for sale. Since ancient times, people have sought at least four different magic potions: the love potion, the fountain of youth, the cure-all, and the athletic super pill. Pseudo-masters have always been willing to cater to these desires. They used to offer unicorn horn, special elixirs, amulets, and magical brews; today they offer vitamins, bee pollen, ginseng, pyramids, biorhythm charts, aromatherapy, and much more. Even reputable products are promoted as though they are potions; Olympic athletes tell us that breakfast cereals will make us champions.

• False hope. False hope is the cruelest thing that pseudo-masters offer because it can lure victims away from effective training. Students with proper martial arts training do not have false expectations of their abilities. They learn their capabilities and their weaknesses and learn deal with them. Pseudo-masters who give students false expectations of their abilities and waste the students' time and money. Then, when self-defense may be needed, the false training may lead to a student's injury or death. 

• Confidence. Pseudo-masters exude confidence. Even when they admit that their methods are unproven, they attempt to minimize it by mentioning how difficult it is to prove mystical things. When they exude self-confidence and enthusiasm, it is likely to be contagious and spread to their students.

• Alternatives. Because people like the idea of making choices, pseudo-masters often refer to their arts as "alternatives" to traditional martial arts.  But unsafe, ineffective, or unproven arts cannot be a genuine alternative to one that has a proven track record.

• Extras. Pseudo-masters often promote their art as offering "something extra" that other arts to not offer. Usually that something is the very thing you were seeking, such as a better love life.

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