Karate Kid Snake Scene – Real or Myth?
Yesterday we had a family gathering. I was sitting with my uncle and he asked me randomly, have you seen the movie The Karate Kid? I said yes I have. Then he asked if I remember the scene in it where the woman controls the movements of the snake by mirroring it? (probably the king cobra), and asked me if I knew how was it done? Is it true or just a myth?
Well, the question got my mind linking a lot of stuff, and storming many things which may be linked to it, many which don’t. Let me try to explain what I explained to him.
The King Cobra mirroring scene in karate kid was hypnotism or supernatural?
This was the main theme of my discussion with it. In fact I gave the points in the favour and against of both the aspects. The act, if real, could be either hypnotism and also supernatural, or could be only one of them. Lets see how.
How The Karate Kid Snake Scene was Hypnotism?
One logical explanation is hypnotism. Hypnotism or mind control is not always the magical trans state like shown in movies. It’s mostly subtle and the other person isn’t even aware that he is being hypnotised in a very subtle way and at subconscious level.
For example, when we see a car coming towards us, we always tend to get out of its way. We don’t try to see the face expressions of the driver that is he expert or not and will he break just close to us or just cross us from our side. We always move away. This is very basic level of behaviour which we show when encountering a threat approaching towards us.
Now imagine that a crow dies, we all know that the crows from all around will gather there and start yelling and calling more crows. A way to see this is that they are hypnotised by the corpse of their fellow crow.
In other words, hypnotism is nothing but a trigger for a sequence of events. This can vary based on subjects and situations obviously.
What my point is, some things are so subtle, that they appear as natural phenomenon.
So when the female cobra master in The Karate Kid was moving in front of the snake, she was doing something which triggers the sequence in the snakes mind and makes it follow her movement and be submissive to her.
Interesting thing is, the lady herself may or may not know what she is doing too! Things can be subconscious, bypassing the conscious mind.
How The Karate Kid cobra control scene was supernatural?
If we were to believe that this type of technique is supernatural (or paranormal), then we need to understand that there are many cults and people who claim to be able to control the minds of humans, and thus possibly animals.
Also, there are several types of magic or non-evil arts too which can be useful in this too.
I won’t be able to provide more information on this currently.
Have I seen anyone control a snake like this in real?
I have seen something different (explained below), but no I haven’t seen the mirroring technique like displayed in the movie. Neither have I done it myself on a snake like this myself.
However I have seen many people control many other animals and insects through thought process or by physical manoeuvring too.
The Snake Charmer with a Stone (The Serpent Stone)
When I was in teenage, decades ago, I was walking towards my home and was in my street. There i met a snake charmer (called jogi), and he started showing me stunts with his little snake himself, even when I told him that I’m not interested.
However, something interesting happened. The snake that he had was very violent and was constantly moving and jumping around and trying to sting (bite) anything he can. However when the jogi took a small stone (probably the serpent stone) near him, he became very calm. In fact the jogi asked me to hold the stone and then placed the snake on my hand, and it didn’t move or do any scary stuff (which I was sure he won’t obviously too, as the jogi won’t get paid the tip for the show if it hurt me anyway).
I gave him some money at the end, just to help him as I knew he is doing all this show to feed himself and his family obviously, however the guy amazingly handed me over the serpent stone as a gift! (Which I now doubt was a serpent stone anyway :/).
Unfortunately, I lost the stone somewhere in my house and we then shifted to another house so it’s practically lost forever probably.
How does this apply to Kung Fu
One might ask, what is the role of snake control or similar stuff in kung fu? Well, first of all, kung fu is not just fighting. It’s a lot more than that (yeah I know, people might wonder why is a ninja speaking high of kungfu, the thing is, we should appreciate what’s good, and kung fu has its own goods, and ninjutsu has its own too!)
However, related to fighting too, the ability to be so calm and comfortable in controlling or at least influencing the opponents movements is useful. You can easily manoeuvre the opponent if you have the skill to control the opponent either by hypnotism, nlp or even supernaturally.
Have you seen anyone have this skill? or even if you have this skill? Please let me know and we can discuss it further as I would really like to learn more from you! Thanks.
Um… what? Your points on hypnotism is all wrong. Moving out of the way of a car (or any oncoming object/danger) is an instinct, a reflex. That crow thing is also an instinct, an evolutionary adaption. Saying hypnotism is anything that triggers a reaction is wrong, that’s just a cause. That’s like saying if you touch something hot, moving your hand is hypnotism. No these are just reactions. I think it could have been hypnotism, but your examples aren’t hypnotism. If someone hypnotizes crows to do that somehow then yeah, but an instinct, reflex, or other adoptions aren’t hypnotism. Hypnotism is to cause someone or an animal to do something they wouldn’t do, but these are natural reactions so obviously it is what they do. They’re not disguised as natural phenomena, they are natural instincts. If you’re stabbed and screens and feel pain, is that hypnotism? There’s a difference between hypnotism and a trigger, yes they cause the reaction but it’s not hypnotism. You’re basically trying to say every cause and effect situation, everything we do in our lives for a reason is hypnotism. No it’s life organisms react to their environment and other stimuli.
Thank you for your input. Kindly go through my post again so that you can get clearer idea of what I am trying to explain 🙂