First: Let me clearly say I am not endorsing the validity of this video in particular. I don't know if this was trickery, as there are certainly plenty of ways to fake this, but people claiming it's outright impossible aren't doing themselves any favors by stomping their feet. Skepticism is good, but it needs to be healthy skepticism, rather than just outright denying something's possibility because you know nothing about it.
Alright, to address all the people calling "bullshit" in this thread, I know a little bit about this from firsthand experience and training, and all I see is "this isn't possible" without any valid reasoning applied other than your own skepticism. You'd listen to a geologist speak about earthquakes, so please kindly give me the same respect. Read the following and consider it before just nuking it, because it's really disconcerting to see all these couch masters who tried it 10 times and didn't get it to work calling bullshit because they suddenly decided they have Ph.D. in fluid dynamics. Here we go:
In the Shaolin Temple's teachings proper, there are 72 Consumate Arts techniques, of which a monk is expected to master all of two in their entire lifetime. Being able to punch out a candle from across the room is one of these techniques, known as "Sunlight-Hands Arts", which I will copy below directly from the temple's textbook.
As an aside, to pre-empt the "you can't do that with your hand/fist/boxing glove" with a simple thought experiment: If you set up a mechanical piston, it's very easy to imagine this happening. If you spend your lifetime practicing punching until you punch perfectly straight and accurately, it's functionally identical to a piston. There's nothing in physics which prohibits this, and if this was a video about a machine piston popping out 8 candles, we'd all be saying how cool it was.
I'm going to post this now, and shortly edit in the page's text from the book 72 Consumate Arts of the Shaolin Temple.
