Books Reviews for Herding the Moo and The True Believers

A Bridge Too Far: Book Reviews for Herding the Moo by Joe Smith and The True Believers by Louis Martin

Martial Arts has always been a positive influence in my life. Has it led to me forgoing certain social opportunities in order to train? Of course, and in fact overall I don’t think that’s a bad thing (especially as it relates to a potential bar bill.) There comes a time, however, where what may, on its face appear to be “serious training,” is in fact, something far more nefarious. That is the road that Joe Smith and Louis Martin recount in their books Herding the Moo, and The True Believers, respectively.

I actually accidentally stumbled upon Herding the Moo. I randomly saw an ad for a podcast called “Deceived: A True Crime Story.” I won’t go into too much depth on the podcast (I will leave that to another review), but suffice it to say, as someone who is fascinated by cults from Jonestown on, I immediately googled whatever I could find about the subject of “Deceived,” namely Chung Moo Quan. What I found was a number of sources, including the book Herding the Moo.

Now I have no experience with Chung Moo Quan, and so I do not mean this to be an indictment of their art, rather just a review of this book, but I will say, what Joe Smith has to say was extremely riveting. A practitioner of “Moo,” (as he refers to it in the book) throughout the 1980s, Mr. Smith takes the reader on a detailed ride through how he became involved in the art, and how he steadily got sucked in over time. He highlights how Moo: (1) set itself as superior to all other martial arts (something not entirely unheard of); (2) engaged in what ultiamtly appears to be false advertising in order to promote student enrolment, including claims that the founder was “champion of all Asia” in the 1950s, and that the art was a conglomeration of eight other arts dating back 1500 years; (3) equated student commitment with the amount of cash that student was able to bring into the organization (ok, some red flags are waving); (4) how Moo created a culture of isolation amongst its practitioners, even going so far as to having such a heavy reliance on terminology that to an outsider it sounds like a foreign language (a common characteristic of certain cults); and (5) a deification of its founder John C. Kim, that was heavily encouraged by Mr. Kim himself.

Mr. Smith even goes into detail about how instructors were taught what kind of methods were most effective at signing people up, not only initially, but also how people were constantly pressured into various up-sells for more intensive (and expensive) courses. He also provides a number of personal anecdotes that illustrate just how far he and his fellow practitioners of Moo would go in order to please Mr. Kim and his high ranking associates, and how if something went wrong it was always deflected back on a lower ranking individual in a way that would reinforce the power of the collective. The book culminates in recounting the media expose and eventual criminal trials of Mr. Kim and his closest circle.

While in the middle of reading Herding the Moo, I heard the excellent interview that Jaredd Wilson conducted with Louis Martin on his “Martial Thoughts” podcast. (Thanks Jaredd!) This, of course, led me to immediately looking into (and reading) Mr. Martin’s book The True Believers. This book focuses not on Chung Moo Quan, but rather an art called Seibukan Jujutsu. Like Mr. Smith, Mr. Martin takes us along with him on his journey through what can only be described as an intensive experience. Mr. Martin also details how as time went on, he felt the pressure to distance himself from those he knew in his former life to focus all his time, energy, and money into Seibukan. He also details certain red flags that he encountered along the way, including the number of black belts he saw in his very first class, and how, at one point, the dojo engaged in an abortive attempt at a reality television show to make new students into black belts after twenty-one days of intensive training (all in front of a camera of course.) Unlike Herding the Moo, however, I felt that Mr. Martin’s experience, as recounted in his book, was more a “cult of personality” built around his master Julio Toribio (who he refers to as the title Kancho.) While it is clear from the narrative that Mr. Martin was sucked into Seibukan to the point where it was unhealthy and destructive, I got the sense that Seibukan began to take on a life of its own that ultimately became twisted beyond what Kancho intended, as opposed to Chung Moo Quan which appeared to be a money making scheme from the start. In certain ways, this is even more nefarious as illustrated by certain anecdotes that Mr. Martin describes in his book.

Neither of these books is what I would consider a “classical” martial arts book, in that they do not fit into the general categories of martial arts books that I described in my last review for Striking Beauty ((1) instructional; (2) biographical; and (3) philosophical.) Yet, I would encourage anyone practicing martial arts to look into these books, especially those who are just starting out. As both authors explain in their own way, the path into these cults was in no way apparent at the start of the journey. What in hindsight were clear red flags, were all things that could be explained away at the time, especially to someone who already had so much time (and money) invested into something they saw as a life-changing, and enhancing art. Each of these books serves as a warning to all of us to avoid certain people and situations, not only in our training but in all aspects of our lives.

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Denise Vasel

Denise recently tested for her black belt in Tae Kwon Do (WTF style) after a 20 year break in the martial arts.She enjoys reading and discussing all martial arts.Denise lives in New York City.