Warning Signs

Evidence is mostly anecdotal. Anecdotes have a very strong emotional impact, they serve to keep superstitious beliefs alive in an age of science. Just because students swear that a "Master's" techniques are supernatural, it does not mean they are.

Pseudo-master says a belief is credible because it has endured for centuries. There is a persistent myth that hundreds or even thousands of years ago that our ancestors possessed miraculous remedies and powers that modern science cannot understand. Much of what is termed "alternative medicine" or "secret fighting techniques" is part of that myth.

Pseudo-master has worked in isolation. The image of a master who struggles in secrecy in an obscure school and ends up making a revolutionary breakthrough in fighting techniques is a part of the fiction of Hollywood action films. Breakthroughs are almost always the result of the work of many people working on different aspects of a problem.