Dim Mak, also known as the Death Touch! A set of secret martial arts techniques that can produce immense pain from just a touch of your pinky finger. As well as paralyze someone, shut down an organ, and even instantly kill someone! Some have even proclaimed that they can produce the effects of supernatural abilities. Creating a ball of energy between their hands, healing someone just by touching them, or even knocking someone out without even touching them. And now you can learn all of this through my DVD series for only $19.95! Or not. Maybe none of that is true? If it is true, is it useful?

This is always such a difficult subject to address. For starters, it’s tough to actually define what all is considered Dim Mak. Are nerve strikes considered a part of Dim Mak? Are vital areas such as the eyes apart of it as well? What about the no touch knock outs? Next, if I state that it’s all a myth or all true, there will be anger over the conclusion no matter what as there is so much grey zone when discussing Dim Mak. The biggest issue is that even if it’s all true, much like trying to prove if God exists, there’s no way to prove it currently.

My goal here is to try and clarify what Dim Mak could be and more importantly, if it’s useful in self-defense or combat. I believe the best place to begin is at its origins. Dim Mak was developed directly from eastern medicine practices, specifically acupuncture. In Patrick McCarthy’s translation of the Bubishi, The Classical Manual of Combat, McCarthy writes, “Through the thousands of years of acupuncture and moxibustion practice, many locations on the human body not suitable for needling or cautery were discovered. Pricking at these points would worsen the disease rather than curing it, and at certain points, needling could cause immediate death.”

A man by the name of Zhang Sanfeng, living in the mid to late 1200’s, supposedly was an acupuncturist who developed much of the Dim Mak points by practicing on death row prisoners. He is considered by many the founder of taijiquan, or Tai Chi. However, this, among many other elements of Zhangs life, are in question. Some say he lived over two hundred years. Others state he was immortal. Much like Dim Mak, it’s tough to decipher the difference between fact and fiction.

Next up is to try and explain what Dim Mak is. Considering it most likely came from acupuncture, Dim Mak points are based on meridians and chi flow. The problem here is, we can’t scientifically measure these two things. The English language doesn’t even have an exact translation for chi or ki. It’s loosely translated as an internal life force of sorts that can positively or negatively affect all bodily functions. This is the first hurdle we come across. How can we explain what Dim Mak is if we can’t even explain the basics of which it is founded?

In Michael Kelly’s book, Death Touch: The science behind the legend of Dim-Mak, the author makes a case that most, if not all Dim Mak points can be related to nerve manipulation in the body. Knowing that these points are simply nerves means we can scientifically draw lines to the effects. However, I’m not knowledgeable enough in Dim Mak meridians/points nor neurology to come to a conclusion that this is the case. However, that doesn’t mean that nerves aren’t viable attack points.

In the martial arts I train and teach, we make considerable use of nerve strikes, pressing points, and gouging points to have anything from a mildly more effective strike to a massively useful effect, such as stopping motor function or even producing a knockout. Nerve strikes to the radial nerve can temporarily

stop motor function in the hand. Gouging knuckles into the back of one’s hand can loosen a grip. And a strike to the brachial plexus on the side of the neck can stun or even knock someone out due to a sudden, sharp drop in blood pressure. If you’ve ever hit your funny bone (on the inside of the elbow), you’ve experienced the effect of a nerve strike.

But do these nerve strikes/manipulations count as Dim Mak? Some would say no, others would say yes. There are no meridians or chi involved. Nor does it relate to acupuncture points. Surprisingly, even some of these nerve strikes can lead to cardiac arrest, albeit extremely rare. I spent much of my life playing baseball and softball, specifically as a third baseman. There were always stories of a fielder (usually a third baseman) being struck in the chest with a hard-hit ball and instantly falling down dead.

Extremely rare, yes, but possible. This is known as commotio cordis. A perfectly timed, hard strike to the chest in front of the heart will result in cardiac arrest. Only immediate treatment can have a chance of revival. For those football fans out there, you may remember Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin going into cardiac arrest on the field in the 2022 game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Commotio cordis was considered the reason why. That sounds a lot like a “Death touch” to me. But again, this isn’t due to meridians or chi flow.

Another interesting and possible connection of western medicine to eastern medicine, regarding meridian lines, is fascia. Fascia is essentially a connective tissue that encapsulates much of the body, such as organs, muscles, bones and blood vessels. There are fascia lines that connect throughout the body, not unlike the meridian lines of eastern medicine. These too help the body function, or if damaged or inflamed, misfunction.

Research on this subject (comparing fascia lines to meridian lines) was conducted in 2011. Review of Evidence Suggesting That the Fascia Network Could Be the Anatomical Basis for Acupoints and Meridians in the Human Body was published on the online journal, Hindawi Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The research makes surprising connections between fascia and meridian lines. As an anecdotal note, my first attempt at receiving acupuncture was underwhelming to say the least. The needles barely entered the skin and seemingly had no effect. My second foray into acupuncture was much better. The needles penetrated quite deep, through the skin and into the muscle tissue. A noticeable effect of muscle twitches and sensations traveling along fascia lines was evident.

Again, this is personal anecdotal evidence. But I find the possible connection between fascia and meridians/acupoints to be fascinating. Mind you though that our understanding of fascia and its purpose is still being understood. Maybe fascia is the physical connection to the believed meridian lines. Maybe nerves are that representation. Maybe even the combination of fascia and nerves are that missing piece that can explain all of what Dim Mak practitioners claim. Unfortunately, the studies and evidence just isn’t there yet.

While nerves and fascia may help explain the claims of Dim Mak points, it’s unlikely they explain everything. How about those feats of supernatural ability? No touch knockouts, healing hands, unbendable limbs, or even creating a ball of energy between one’s hands. While most of this wouldn’t be considered Dim Mak, it’s proclaimed that it’s all done through the cultivation and manipulation of chi energy in the body.

Abilities such as the unbendable arm and “rooting” oneself to the ground to prevent being lifted up by even the strongest individual can be done through proper body mechanics. That’s not to say some people aren’t using chi energy, just that’s it’s easier to simply learn a basic technique than spend years meditating to cultivate your chi energy. The unbendable arm can be done by simply contracting your triceps and
relaxing your biceps while extended out straight. Most, when told to resist, contract both. This actually makes the arm weaker as the agonist muscles (triceps) are being offset by the opposing, muscles (biceps) also trying to be the agonist. Opposing muscle groups need an agonist and antagonist to function fully without restraint.

This doesn’t make your arm unbendable, but twice as strong. For most people, it will become incredibly difficult to bend. Being rooted to the ground and unliftable is all about not allowing your center (hips) to be manipulated. The farther away your hips are from the person lifting you, the harder it is for them to lift you. Slight shifting of body weight can accomplish this. It’s a great technique to avoid being thrown. Another technique people will use for this is to relax their arms. Note that in some videos they ask the person lifting them to only grab their arms to lift them. The first lift is easy as the person stiffens their arms. Upon the second lift, they stay rooted as they relax their arms which provides too much movement to lift the whole body through the arms.

No touch knockouts and healing hands on the other hand are most likely placebo effects or a form of hypnosis. That’s again making the assumption it’s not chi energy. The brain is insanely powerful, especially when it believes something will work ahead of time. This is also why no touch knock out artists can only seem to make this work on their own students and those who deeply believe it’s true.

We can never fully prove that Dim Mak and its basis in the meridians and chi, are untrue. Generally speaking, we can’t prove a negative. Meaning, we can’t prove that something doesn’t exist, only that we can prove it does exist. Since we can’t prove any of this doesn’t exist, then I can’t state that Dim Mak is fake. Only that there is no solid proof. Yet, we can accomplish most, if not all, of the results that Dim Mak suggests. Such as manipulating the body functions through precise timed and placed strikes.

Dim Mak, and everything associated with it, both fascinate and frustrate me. I’ve seen and heard from trusted sources about seemingly superhuman abilities that relate to Dim Mak, meridians and chi, which fascinates me. But it is beyond infuriating that it’s all just theory with little to no scientific understanding. Even the piles of literature and articles I’ve read over the years on the subject seem to have no real instructive examples beyond just placing dots on the body and saying these three spots, when hit exactly right, will shut down the liver! But it’s also always stated that no one should ever practice or use this technique as it has deadly consequences. Which leads me to the second part of this myth. If you can’t practice and there is no scientific proof, then is it useful to attempt to learn?

Would it be useful to have the ability to knock someone out with your pinky that is twice your size? Or to be all but immune to pain and damage from any strike? How about shutting down someone’s organs with just a touch or maybe healing them right after by simply placing your hands on them? That would be pretty amazing, right? But is it useful?

Let’s start with the Dim Mak use of knocking someone out or killing them with a series of taps from a finger along the person meridians. As stated above, we can already knock someone out by striking a nerve on the side of the neck. And that is just one strike. You don’t need a series of strikes in this case. The only real argument in this scenario is that the side of the neck isn’t easy to strike to, especially if the person is fighting back. But I feel this would be even harder to accomplish using the Dim Mak points that must be struck in a very specific order and timing. With that said, it seems this use of Dim Mak is unnecessary when simpler solutions exist.

How about killing someone with a Dim Mak strike? I don’t know about you, but I have no interest in killing anyone. Even if they wanted to do harm to me. I want to be able to stop them, yes, but kill? Not to mention this would be highly illegal. Even in a true self-defense scenario, killing someone is a hard case to win. Especially if I knew the points to knock them out instead. I’m sure there are some highly unlikely scenarios out there, but overall, this isn’t useful.

Next, being able to shut down the organs of your enemies! Who pee’d in your cereal that makes you so mad that you want them to suffer a long-drawn-out death? “I’ve successfully defended myself! I know you’re still pummeling me and all, but in a week or two you’re going to be in a world of pain with your kidneys being shut down and all.” Said no one ever. Again, this doesn’t seem to be useful.

This leaves us with the really cool stuff. Iron Shirt, being able to take extremely hard hits without injury. Healing someone with your hands. Being able to endure extreme heat and cold. And generating seemingly supernatural power. These are undeniably useful abilities to have! But there’s a problem. Those who claim to have these abilities also seem to spend most of their life meditating and training to develop these supposed abilities.

Don’t get me wrong, these abilities would be amazing to have. But I personally wouldn’t want to trade the majority of my life to acquire them. Especially knowing that there are easier ways to accomplish the same task. Take the “iron shirt” training for example. Have you ever been punched or kicked before? If you are prepared to be struck, the impact isn’t really that great in a one-off strike unless it’s in a vital area, such as the eyes or groin.

Most martial artists develop a body that is pretty well trained to endure a hard hit and not be affected by it much, if at all. And that’s just through basic sparring practice and learning to breathe out when being struck. There is no need to meditate for endless hours to cultivate your chi energy to produce a shield around your body. Note that it also takes the individual a moment to breathe and cultivate that chi to be able to take that hit. Not much good it does if you’re suddenly attacked in the street.

Healing someone simply by placing your hands on them would be amazing as well. Yet this too supposedly takes years and years of meditation and training. If there was consistent and solid evidence this worked, in my opinion, this would be useful and worth the effort. Most call this skill Reiki. I’ve gone to a couple Reiki practitioners to see how it’s done. But alas, my injuries remained. Maybe I’m far too broken to be fixed? I truly don’t know. While this would be a very useful skill, I just can’t find any reliable sources that can prove its results unfortunately. Only anecdotal evidence.

Lastly, how about those who can withstand extreme temperatures? There are people that can withstand temperatures that would lead a normal person to go into either hypothermia or hyperthermia. Some of these people have even been tested to make sure they are not just doing a magic trick of sorts. Specifically, a man by the name of Wim Hof, aka “The Iceman”.

He is known for climbing and running in freezing cold temperatures while wearing only shorts. A normal person would get hypothermia. How does he do it? Through a breathing exercise. Yet, it’s not to cultivate his chi energy to ward off the cold. A study in 2018 published in the journal, NeuroImage titled, “Brain over body” – A study on the willful regulation of autonomic function during cold exposure, scientists took an MRI of Hof’s brain to see what is happening during his breathing exercises and feats of resisting the cold.

Their results were that his breathing would induce an artificial stress response. Releasing opioids and cannabinoids into the body. This inhibits the feelings of pain and cold as well as trigger the release of dopamine and serotonin. While it’s still not clear how he avoids hypothermia, studies like these demonstrate the power of the mind and how we can control much more of our bodies seemingly involuntary responses through breathing exercises.

Where does this leave us? Is Dim Mak real? Maybe. But the biggest issue with it is that we can’t scientifically study it well to prove anything. It also depends on what we attribute to Dim Mak. At its root, it’s manipulation of points along meridians. Since we can’t truly practice striking these points to observe and study the effects beyond simple pain strikes, it becomes quite useless as a defense tactic. I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to defend myself based on a hypothesis that I’ve never fully tested and used before.

This is where the Dim Mak tends to fall apart. Its usefulness in self-defense and combat. If it can’t be well practiced, then it can’t be reliably used. Maybe it will work, maybe it won’t. Until we have solid proof of meridians, chi and how to manipulate and consistently practice all of it, then I just can’t find a good reason to put much effort into the training of it. Studying it on the other hand is different. I’m giddy every time I get my hands on a new book about the subject. Always hoping that his next book or article is the one that will give me an exact reason and application for it all that I can practice and use. Until then, I must treat it like anything mystical. It’s fun and intriguing, but I’m not letting it overtake my regular training nor betting my life on its usefulness.

There is a place where it can be useful, however. As noted above I teach, and train, nerve strikes that can cause additional pain or stop motor function. These are used as supplemental techniques, but rarely stand-
alone techniques. For instance, striking the solar plexus (also known as the celiac plexus), can easily knock the wind out of someone as it seizes up the diaphragm. The diaphragm is how we breathe. When it contracts, it sends air out. When it relaxes/expands, it draws air in. Nerve strikes such as these are great supplemental vital points enhance strikes, kicks and grabs. Yet, these too have their downside as not everyone is affected in the same way, or at all, by them. Hence why we use them as supplemental techniques.

It’s also important to address the practice of striking the brachial plexus. Knocking out all of your training partners is ill advised. But unlike the knockout blows of Dim Mak, it can be mitigated for practice. A lighter strike can cause the recipient to see stars and feel an unusual effect but not get knocked out. I do caution that one must still have others near by to catch the recipient just in case the strike lands too hard and leads to a fall or even knock out. One should also know revival techniques such as CPR. Side note, yes, there is a faster and safer way to revive someone from this form of knock out without CPR. But this opens up a whole new can of worms regarding legality and usefulness that veers too far from this subject.

We are left with a couple of conclusions. First, until we can prove meridians and chi are real and work as believed, we can’t prove that Dim Mak is real. We can prove that there are vital points on the body that can do some, if not all of the effects laid out in Dim Mak. While some of these vital points and effects can be useful in a supplemental way, much of the suggested use of chi and Dim Mak are either not useful or not worth the time and effort required when faster methods are available.

The legend of Dim Mak is interesting, fun and will continue to infiltrate movies and stories of “my friend knew a guy that did this incredible thing”. Any time there’s a secret skill or secret martial art out there, there’s money to be made and stories to be told. Even if we somehow definitely prove or disprove Dim Mak, it will just give birth to the next mystical technique that goes even further. That’s how we humans work. We aren’t content in the here and now and we will always believe in the mystical as a way to reach further in our understanding of the world around us, or in this case, the world within us. It’s fun and entertaining. But I wouldn’t stake my life on any of Dim Mak working well enough to defend myself.