A number of martial arts are making fantastical claims of Ki power, or whatever name they give it. Throwing someone without touching them is one such claim, one of far too many.
As Aiki is partially about timing and psychology, some of these claims can be true. Reflexes can be illicited, and a person can be led to a point that their balance is compromised. People can be startled at a critically weak moment, and a reflexive movement causing instability can look like a throw.
Mental imagery is used to create changes in our bodies. The example of the Unbendable Arm is that by imagining we are touching the wall behind us, antagonistic muscles are removed from the posture and collateral muscles become engaged. This is the same as punching through a target, or swinging through a baseball. The effect of the imagery is that we can move faster and have greater functional strength with less antagonistic tension. So, seeing our bodies as exploding, or being flowers opening, or being much larger or smaller creates a change. I cannot completely dismiss the imagery without losing the benefit, but I am not growing taller or wider, and my arms are not growing longer. But, I do get benefit.
It's a matter of what is seen, and what is really happening.
In Mythbusters, they have disproved things like a person being thrown backward by the force of a bullet. This does not prove that a scared, adrenalin filled, fast moving human body cannot have a dramatic spastic reaction to the feel (or panicked anticipation) of a bullet tearing through; or that a muscle, bone, or nerve can receive damage manifested as movement. Kinetic force on an immobile object can be measured, but any movement is likely not the result of the kinetic force of impact.
One Mythbusters episode I took exception to involved swords being "cut" by other swords. To test the claim, they collected swords that were all well made, recently manufactured, well maintained, and never used in battlefield conditions.
Instead of badly used, damaged from prior use, made of inferior materials in inferior conditions by blacksmiths who did not know weapon smithing, rusted, bent, centuries old, etc.
They made a device to hit two swords together, but not one using proper cutting technique.
They finally did get one sword to cause another to break, but it was still determined by high speed camera that the sword did not get "cut" but rather "broke" which was against the rules of their hypothesis. All of the elements that went into forming this test are not guaranteed conditions, not the least of which was the high speed camera. Without a high speed camera, one sword is intact and one is in pieces.
Marketing has always been a part of the martial arts I guess. Ninja mythology I've come across includes things like an assassin blackens a temporary bridge and places it in a castle moat just under the surface of the water, and removes the bridge or cuts a cord to disassemble it or gives it a push to let it go downstream after his escape. Or, there never was a bridge but rather a rope line. He and his accomplishes announce he can walk on water. People chasing him think he is superhuman, and get scared. In the "good old days" the ninja might have even been hired to kill the target by the soldiers who "witness" the "superhuman escape."
There are stories of masters claiming to fly, when they had a rope or the ability to climb down from a high wall. There are stories of people working with an inside accomplice who claimed to see the escaping assassin sprout wings when they left in more pedestrian ways, or simply hid and never left until later. The fear that was created was real in it's consequences in a superstitious time. Of course, for every story of the hidden rope, there are dozens of legends of magical powers.
When an opponent is scared or fooled or distracted, we can achieve more against them because their focus is divided. Fighting someone overwhelmed, fearful, distracted, and full of tension is much easier than fighting someone relaxed and focused.
When an attacker knows our weaknesses, we are in danger. When we are obsessed with our weaknesses and shortcomings, we put ourselves at a disadvantage. Out of the Art of War (paraphrased, I don't have it in front of me.):
Know your enemy as yourself, and you will never lose.
Know yourself, but don't know your enemy, and you'll only win half the time.
Don't know either the enemy or yourself, you are always in jeopardy.
That means that deception is a critical component of strategy, whether it is hiding our strengths and weaknesses, or making our enemy doubt the truth of their strengths and weaknesses. But, first and foremost, we need to know the truth of ourselves.
The greatest martial artists of every culture spoke about the critical importance of the truth. We do not deceive ourselves, or let ourselves be deceived. Musashi's first step to acquiring strategy - do not think dishonestly. We are not swayed by marketing. But letting our opponents get swayed, apparently that's just fine.
Addendum: I had published this on June 20, 2014 before my wife brought my attention to the TED talk that day. What Eric Mead says about placebos really resonated with me. Here's the talk, but I'm referring to research he is quoting at 1:07.
In brief, the placebo effect is real. But, we can measure changes in placebos. Use the same substance, but make it a smaller blue pill and stamp a name on it, and it has a measurable improvement. Put the same inert substance in a needle and the effect is even greater.
Douglas Wiley's claim in Taiji Touchstones that if Chang Zhan Feng did not exist, he would need to be created. No one would want to study an art created by sweaty men with black eyes beating each other up in a back alley. Maybe it is true, that the more grandiose the vehicle, the better the acceptance and the effect. Do martial arts and their lineages owe their marketing as well as the actual skill set being developed? Are we more efficient martial artists because of manufactured faith in our style and teachers?
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