Is your martial art a cult?

Are you sleepwalking into a toxic environment?

In this post:

·       Cults and Frauds.

·       Close encounters with cults.

·       Abuse of power.

·       Martial arts specific checklist.

·       Leadership.

·       Exclusive language.

This piece is intended as an introduction to just pose the question, and maybe prompt a little soul searching, or if not, supply a clear objective interrogation of how things sometimes go askew.

A couple of thoughts:

·       Is cultism a clear cut ‘black and white’ thing, or is it a spectrum any of us could slide into?

·       Are there questions we as martial artists should be asking?

I wonder how many people would be able to recognise the signs?

To clarify; basically, there are two categories that are often difficult to untangle; and these can relate specifically to martial arts and often almost completely overlap each other. They are, ‘cults’ and ‘frauds’.

Cults tend to spring up around a leader, or a long (or recent) dead iconic historical figure who is appropriated by (self-appointed) inheritors of the teachings or ideas of said leader/icon. How genuine these people are is open to question. Or just made up stuff. The good news is that frauds eventually get caught out. Given enough time the cold light of objectivity reaches into their darker corners – often, they ‘out’ themselves.

But to back up a little…

I first came across religious cults when I was travelling abroad on my own.

Back in the 1980’s I was solo travelling in the USA via Greyhound bus and hitchhiking. I was twice approached, both in New York City and Texas, by members of well-known church cults, who appeared to be offering a lone traveller very generous hospitality. It was just too good to be true (years before, somebody told me that age-old maxim, ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch’ how true). Fortunately, I was already aware of their tactics (I think it was called ‘love bombing’) and in any case I was too tightly scheduled for stop-overs. So, I ducked that particular bullet.

Compared to religious cults, martial arts cults are a slightly different thing.

Martial Arts Cults.

Years back I watched a really impressive demonstration by a Japanese-based martial arts group (I won’t name them, because I may well be doing them a real disservice based on one person’s opinion). I was so interested that I enquired with a friend who was much more knowledgeable than me, asking who they were? His reply, “Oh don’t bother about them, they are seen as a cult in Japan”. Which got me wondering, was there such a thing?

When I first thought of writing this piece, I was all over Google; but it sent me down some really disturbing rabbit holes.

There was a lot of stuff relating to abuse of power; people who had established some kind of authority over others and it had just gone to their heads, causing the worst side of their nature to run amok. In the ecosystem they created around themselves, parts of their personal darkness, which were normally supressed and silently festering away, were now given the opportunity to spring forth. It’s all murky stuff.

In my research, evidence of this came through court reports where the perpetrators were eventually snared by the long arm of the law (some were well-known UK-based karate people).

One thread I was eager to track down and perhaps include in this piece, thinking it was old history, was still an on-going mud-slinging match, so I thought best to avoid treading into that area.

‘Cult’ is a pretty extreme word, but I am not so sure that it’s a cut and dried definition. Like a lot of things in this world, black and white thinking does not always apply. Enlightened analysis tends to arrive at the model of spectrums. With cults it might be the same. Either that or it’s possible that there are barely discernible steps that lead you into the zone of a group behaving in a cult-like way without you being aware of it?

The usual patterns. A kind of checklist; with a martial arts bias.

It was actually more difficult than I thought to pin down a clear list of markers; the sort of thing where it’s, ‘you know you are in a cult when…’. But here are a few acknowledged warning signs. I would ask you to look to see if any of these align with your knowledge of what happens in some branches of the martial arts, maybe even your own group.

Zero tolerance of questions, or any form of criticism.

This is an easy one. How comfortable is it to ask questions in a martial arts group? That might range from simple technical questions to more searching enquiries about ethos or philosophy. Obviously, there is a right time and place to ask questions - don’t ask questions in the middle of a session that is designed to create flow, it won’t make you very popular. But, other than that, there should be avenues and opportunities to ask even the most demanding of questions. And what about criticism? Well, that’s rather the same kind of thing; the format should be available to voice concerns, viewpoints, objections etc. and they should be taken seriously and replied to in an open and honest way. Anything less than that leads to resentment and discontent.

Unreasonable fears about the world outside of your group.

In martial arts this often manifests as where the head man puts his foot down and tells members they are not allowed to train with groups outside of their own (or compete against them). To my mind this comes out of a position of insecurity. If you are secure in the quality of your product, where’s the problem? Sometimes my own students will ask my permission to go and train with another group on a seminar etc. I am always happy to say yes, I think it’s good for them to see what others are doing, it expands their horizons and enables a better perspective – in fact, I would actively encourage them to do so.

Regarding the leader.

In cult-like behaviour there are a few issues around the whole position of the leader, the individual at the point of the hierarchical pyramid. Among these are:

·       The leader is always right.

·       The leader is the only one able to validate your position.

·       The leader is the holder of unique knowledge, not available to us mere-mortals. (access to even the smallest elements of this knowledge comes at a cost).

In the worst kind of martial arts leaders there tend to be two markers I find the most worrying, the first being lack of humility and the second being a lack of self-awareness.

The above-mentioned ‘unique knowledge’ thing in martial arts tends to come from the leader’s back-history of brushing shoulders, however distant, with some long-departed (or recently-departed) ‘master’. For goodness sake have enough self-awareness to know when you are over-playing that particular card. The main validation should come from your ability, not someone else’s. Reflected glory does not always cast the best light.

When language becomes a kind of marker of authority.

This also comes from the top of the hierarchy, quite common in the Western approach to martial arts that originate from the far east. A litany of Japanese (or Chinese) phrases trotted out with impunity to indicate authoritative and almost exclusive knowledge.

The Japanese probably shake their heads at the deliberate mystification of their language (unless it is in their interests), but, I do know that there are some difficult Japanese concepts that don’t translate comfortably or sit well with the Western mindset. Personally, if I can explain it better in English, that’s what I do; I don’t want to pander to people’s fetishes.

The Japanese terminology card is another one that is overplayed in some quarters. There are whole books being published on this stuff and web articles that proclaim that unless you know your ‘Do’ from your ‘Jutsu’ then you are a cultural klutz and will never get to the ‘heart of Japanese Budo’.

It’s nice to know this stuff, but have enough self-awareness to know when you are blatantly trading off it.

In conclusion.

I don’t know if anybody reads this stuff, or if they do, whether they are prepared to give it the time of day, but for this particular theme I intend it to be double-pronged.

One, I address the students of martial arts organisations; ask yourself, do any of the markers mentioned above sound even vaguely familiar? If so, have a good hard think about whether that’s what you want.

The second prong is; if you are in the upper level of management in a martial arts organisation; how do you react and connect with your group members? Are you open and transparent, or are you a closed shop? Where does your authority come from and how do you use it? I know some might say that it is presumptuous of me but, I would suggest that you examine your deeper motives.