When I was a young Silat student still in my teens, my first instructor Kak Alex Tobing would recount stories of Silat masters in Indonesia who claimed to know tenaga dalam or inner power. Through this ilmu (knowledge), they could achieve superhuman abilities such as hitting people from a distance (pukul dari jauh), invincibility to sharp blades (ilmu kebal) and the ability to take blows that would seriously injure a normal person. These stories would fascinate me, as it added mysterious aspect to Pencak Silat. As I continued in my training, I witnessed with my own eyes the master of our school, Kak Sentosa “Ocenk” Basri, breaking bricks with his head, getting hit with sticks, punched, kicked, and even having a motorcycle run over him without being phased. I watched in amazement, hoping one day I would be able to also possess these amazing abilities.
In the Malay peninsula, there are various terms to describe aspects of tenaga dalam such as ilmu batin, ilmu kebal, silat ghaib, karomah, getaran, ilmu pernafasan, debus, and others. Debus is an individual who is said to have obtained powers of invincibility through ancient secretive practices. Debus performances are popular across Indonesia and other countries in the region. Kak Ocenk never used the word debus and rarely even used the term tenaga dalam, but instead the term “gokang” — a uncommon term in the Silat world most likely derived from the Chinese term chi-gong, a system of coordinated body-postures, movement, breathing, and meditation used for the purposes of health, spirituality, and martial-arts training. There are plenty of stories about the power of chi energy and the dim mak or death touch from Kungfu and various other martial arts traditions. A YouTube video from 10 years ago of a mysterious man in Indonesia healing westerners with internal energy and lighting fires with his hand gave me more proof that this tenaga dalam stuff is real.
But then I saw this video showing how this all can be explained through science. After further study, I learned that feats such as breaking bricks are done through regulated breathing, strengthening and toughening the body, and the knowledge of basic physics — not any mysterious ancient practices. I was soon able to replicate some of the breaking and endurance feats, and even competed in a breaking competition winning second place. This was, of course, after years of Pencak Silat training and a final instructor-level test that required me to break a cinderblock with my bare elbow.
There are many sceptics inside the wider Silat community also. Herri Pras, a Silat practitioner and YouTube personality demystified some these abilities as hypnosis and mind suggestion. There is no ilmu karoma (science of miracles) he indicates — yes, miracles happen, but it’s not something one can practice. In a YouTube video, Silat practitioner Denny Wewey and Ustaz Abdul Khoir also a Silat instructor explain the technique or trick behind how a debus can seem to be invincible to a very sharp knife.
Yet, my fascination about tenaga dalam remained. I understood the basic science behind “gokang” and breathing technique, and the knife tricks are explainable, but still couldn’t not wrap my head around superhuman abilities such as hitting someone from a distance. Were these mere tricks use to fool unsuspecting onlookers? As YouTube became more popular around the world, many videos surfaced of Silat masters performing feats of tenaga dalam where they would throw people from a distance, eat nails, slice themselves with knives and machete and even place their hands in hot oil. I began to wonder if these were feats that involve Pencak Silat training, trickery, or perhaps something much more sinister.
Muslims believe in the existence of jinn, a race of beings with that live in an alternate dimension, but often enter our dimension for one reason or another. Of course, science has no way to prove of their existence but generally, in the Muslim world, anything mysterious (spirits, aliens, demons, etc.) that occurs outside of common explanation is usually said to the work of jinn (anglicized as “genie” in stories such as Aladdin). For Muslims, any interaction with jinn is strictly prohibited.
Indonesia, a majority Muslim country that also has history of Buddhist and Hindu traditions, often attempts to balance traditional cultural beliefs with Judeo/Christian/Muslim concepts of monotheism and prophethood. The terms karomah, ghaib, baten are all Arabic terms meaning miraculous, hidden and unseen respectively — an obvious attempt to explain these phenomena through an Islamic lens. Many modern Pencak Silat perguruan (Tapak Suci, Al-Azhar Seni Bela Diri, Silat Suffian Bela Diri, and many others) are deliberate in their marketing stating that their schools to not have any of these “questionable” practices that some may attribute to jinn.
In the martial arts series Fight Quest, the Mande Muda Silat master Pak Dadang Gunawan distanced himself from debus practices, indicating even he didn’t understand where they get their power from.
I spoke to my Silat instructor again Kak Alex Tobing, when writing this article, about his view on these types of tenaga dalam now being more religious in his later years. He recounted how when he was younger, he was given specific dua or prayers to read in order to achieve the ability to hit from a far. However, he didn’t do it at the time, because it required a certain level of piety in one’s life in order achieve. But he also mentioned that if he were to find those instructions again, he would probably burn them — unsure of what is true tenaga dalam and what might be flirting with the occult.
However, many Silat practitioners make a big distinction between what some may see as “black magic” and many positive elements of healing and internal energy found in tenaga dalam. Bang Shariat Arifin, an older Silat practitioner from Persaudaraan Pencak Silat Salamun Alaikum (PPSSA) says that tenaga dalam, is real and many practices are based in actual technique, rather than mystical mantras. He himself witnessed his teacher Pak Rifai Sahib, a legendary Silat instructor was able to freeze an entire stadium of people with one word “Berhenti” when the crowd was in a frenzy fighting each other. Another time he recalled; a fight broke out when a coach didn’t accept a decision in a Pencak Silat tournament. He tried to stab Pak Rifai with a kris, a wavy knife common in Indonesia. Again, Pak Rifai just said “Berhinti”, and the man became stiff and remained frozen in place for over an hour.
Vicki Dewi, a Christian woman who owns her a language learning school in Yogyakarta had a positive experience with a Javanese Muslim man who practiced tenaga dalam but for healing purposes. When she was completing her college studies in Jakarta, she had an issue with her hip and went to seek treatment from a traditional healer. She felt actual energy from his hands in the form of heat, and strange pressure that was actually painful. After several sessions with the healer, she said her condition improved. She has no doubt that tenaga dalam, in some form, is real.
The sceptic in me insists that this might just a case of the placebo effect. However, many I talked to were quick to disagree.
Kai Lewis, a Silat practitioner in Houston, Texas who also studied Chinese internal arts said that many people draw from yoga tradition (chakras/prana) or Chinese arts (dan tien, qi) as a base, but infuse it with their own specific traditions, whether Islamic, Christian, Buddhist, kejawen, or otherwise. He recalls in Garut, town in West Java, there was a healer who would recite verses from the Quran and if it didn’t resonate with them, he wouldn’t continue. He believes, based on his experience with different masters from various traditions, that chi energy as a healing phenomenon is definitely real, irrespective of what tradition or religion it is embellished with.
Wona Sumantri, one of my instructors who introduced me to many advanced aspects of Pencak Silat also insists that certain elements of tenaga dalam are very real, while others like debus are just for show. He recalled a recent incident in the Washington DC area with an Indonesian man who goes by Mas ToTo, who was able to pull him with his energy from 10 feet away. However, Kak Wona said that Mas ToTo is only able to perform it on someone if the receivers Nāḍī are open. Nāḍī, a Sanskrit term for the channels through which internal energies are said to flow based on traditional Indian philosophy. This highlights Kai Lewis’s statement of how many of these energy sciences have Chinese and Indian roots but enhanced with specific cultural and religious influences in different regions. Kak Wona mentioned that his daily meditation opens his Nāḍī and allows him to feel Mas ToTo energy pull from 10 feet away.
But then I began to wonder, if this pulling and pushing people from a distance works only on a few specific people, then other than for health reasons, what’s the point of spending years learning it? Critics of this type of tenaga dalam (where you hit people from a distance) claim that it only works on their own students or people in their inner circle. In Kak Alex’s story, I concluded that the Silat masters gave him the set of tenaga dalam instructions on how to hit people from a distance as roundabout way to encourage pious behavior — stating that it will not work unless you do more praying, fasting, giving charity, etc. Many of the Youtube videos of Silat practitioners repelling people without touching are with young people – easily influenced just as I was when I was a young Silat student in my teens. They could just as easily convince them they were invisible, like the poor kid in this video.
Currently, I believe the healing aspect of tenaga dalam is real – even if is a based on the placebo effect, which itself is very real. Yet, it is often merged with martial arts training which can be confusing, and many times disingenuous, to someone who is interested in including it in his/her arsenal of self-defense techniques, and not just for health benefits.
Despite all of this skepticism, and being much older in my mid 40’s, I am still not 100% convinced the other type of tenaga dalam (where you hit someone from a distance) is completely fake. I actually still want to believe. If anyone reading this article knows someone that can prove that is real, I promise I will write a follow up article to this with my new findings. Till then, I’m sticking to my regular Pencak Silat training.
Written by A-Malik Ahmad, a former USA Pencak Silat head coach & international judge, author of Training for Tanding course on Udemy.
