jmaccauley

by Jerry MacCauley( from my PPC Blog)

Over the years I have preached and prodded my students to be aware of their surroundings. I have covered in articles, here and elsewhere, the importance of identifying a threat before a incident begins, and responding in a deliberate way rather than a reactive and defensive manner. From the feedback I usually get, this seems logical and most agree that being pre-emptive is more likely to protect us than starting from a position of disadvantage.
The next question that usually comes up is, “how do you know if you’re right?” Fair enough question. Imagine that you are in a dark parking lot at a mall and a scary looking guy suddenly begins to walk in your direction. He hasn’t said anything but he seems to be heading your way. Your car is the only one in the lot and you are too far from the building to head back that way without looking frightened or breaking into a dead run. You mentally start preparing yourself for the inevitable confrontation. You evaulate your options, his size, weight, any signs of weapons or confederates. You have, by this time, worked yourself into a nervous bundle and all of your self defense training starts bombarding your brain with blocks and parries and counterstrikes and makeshift weapons and angles of defense and pressure points and … he walks right by continuing on his way. As you get in your car and try to will your heart to slow down, you wonder how you could have ever defended yourself in such a rattled state. The sad truth is that you probably wouldn’t have been very successful.
Predators generally work on instinct. That is, they quickly size up their victims when an opportunity presents itself. When they get the impression that they may not be able to prevail, they will move on to an easier target. You will be quickly forgotten as a new target is located. As a defender, on the other hand, you probably will have put your brain into information overload and instead of being psychologically prepared for battle, you have become a computer in need of being defragmented. What does the predator have that you don’t? I believe it is the faith in their ability to size up their victims and trust their intuition. Therein lies the skill that can often tip the scales in their favor.
Author and researcher Malcolm Gladwell is a strong believer in "rapid cognition" or as he calls it, "thin-slicing." In his bestselling book Blink, he shares many examples of how in the first few seconds of a new expereience or meeting someone, our brain forms a series of conclusions. We may not be able to put those thoughts into words, but the feelings generated are very profound and remarkably accurate. Whether based on prior experience or that mysterious “intuition” that we hear about, we just ‘know’ some things. If we had to put those feelings and justifications into words however, we would be hard pressed to explain them. In fact, we would more than likely begin to doubt our original assessments. We have always been taught that knowledge is power. Therefore, the more information we possess the better we should be able to make the correct decisions. Obviously that is not always the case. When we practice a new skill, we may find it awkward and clumsy in the beginning. After many repititions it becomes easier and eventually we can automatically perform the skills with hardly any conscious thought at all. There is a brain/muscle connection that has been formed which tends to override the thought process. You just react or respond a certain way.
Another strong believer in trusting our intuition is the author of “The Gift of Fear” and it’s follow up, “Fear Less”, Gavin De Becker. It is often the first thought that gets immediately suppressed by us because we haven’t given it the appropriate amount of study and mental debate. We may experience fear of the unknown, but since we can’t figure out it’s origin, we quickly suppress the feelings as being foolish. If it turns out that there actually is a threat, we are often caught in the middle of our mental deliberations and no longer prepared to respond. Sometimes, the thought of appearing foolish or paranoid will put us in more peril than just going with our “gut instinct” and taking the necessary precautions. The worst that can happen is that we actually do appear foolish, which is preferable to the alternatives.
So, back to my original scenario. You make a quick visual assessment. You scan the immediate area and decide that you will not be caught off guard, but continue on your way. Sometimes just looking aware and alert is enough of a deterrent to the instincts of a predator that no confrontation is initiated. If it turns into something more serious, you are in a much better defensive position. Train, learn, read body language and increase your chances of survival. Intuition is not that mysterious, but it is a survival tool we are born with. Get to know and trust yours.

johnp

Nice thread and good points.
I think that it is a given, that everyone has an instinct for something that "is not right" about their surroundings. Hairs stand up on the back of the neck, don't like the look the look of someone walking towards you etc. This is a natural instinct we all posses but as BGs it needs to be taken to a higher level of awareness or everyone we did not like the look of could end up on the wrong end of a "right hook" for want of a better phrase. Terrorists and all the rest of the bad guys don't always wear masks (but this does help) ha ha.

How many guys when they have been walking on point gravitate to a possible threat, how many guys when walking point pidgeon hole people in front of them, you only have a second or two to decide if what they look like is right for that person. What does the man in the suit walking towards you look like, what do his hands, face, skin tell you about him, do they fit in with the appearance he is trying/giving off. Similarly the builder who is outside your bosses residence, does he fit in with the builders who you always see on your time off.

Get past the appearance and pre-judged notions of what we expect people and job descriptions to look like and look deeper and closer at people themselves.

Every man and his dog thinks they can do this, but you have to be trained, if you haven't been trained how do you know what to look for. Body language, criminal and terrorist tactics, past incidents etc all have to be learned to understand what you are up against. Otherwise you are just kidding yourself.

Johnp

Nomad

A good point Johnp, most people tend to judge people by visuals rather than feeling. A good example is Larry Hagman. In his early career he played light hearted comedy roles so if you saw him or someone like him you would judge him as a buffoon but hardly a threat. When he played JR in Dallas he played a mean and venomous person who was not to be trusted, so consequently if you saw him or someone like him the association with that characterisation would lead you to deem him a threat. The visuals had not changed but the learnt association had steered your assessment through association.

It is not a special skill, in fact all children have this and often you find a child will take an instant dislike to a person. They have little life experience to draw from so go by what people "gut instinct". If you ask them often they can not tell you why they don't like them and that is because its a feeling not a thought. This is what as adults confuses us because with so much life experience to draw from we start to analyse and use thought to process those feelings. Often we dismiss them with logic. After all how can we know what this person is like as we have only just met and know nothing about them.

Try this as an experiment. In a queue of people try and get a feeling of the person standing next to you, don't look at them but just try and get a sense of an emotion. You have often felt this sensation before. It's the same one often we call an atmosphere when we walk into a room after people have had an argument. Nothing is said and there are no visual cues but often people say "you could cut the air with a knife" These sensations are so often dismissed because they have no physical explanation but are none the less real.

"Thin slicing" as you refereed to is tapping into this "instinct" and has little to do with thought or visuals. In fact its those parts that often misdirect us or lead us to fear something that in fact is benign as with the car park scenario. Certainly it's a fascinating subject and a vital tool in the box to keep you one step ahead. As far as being taught it, there is no need because everyone has it, what needs to be taught is to remove thought and reliance on visual cues to allow it to flourish.

jmaccauley

You are correct in saying that intuition does not need to be taught. Recognition of what you intuit however will require additional "fine tuning." What causes a lot of unnecessary anxiety is trying to justify your feelings, rather than responding to them. Something got your antenna to vibrate now let's address the "here and now," rather than wait for validation.

If that sounds rather New Age, it's only because we hardly ever try to put those 6th senses into words. Rest assured, something in our experiences or training is sending out a signal that needs to be answered.

kenpsd

Good posts and some really well made points, 'combat indicators', we all probably know what they are...that feeling that some thing is 'just not right' Very much the same sort of 'feelings' etc that have already been discussed on here. Some people do have a very natural instinct for these 'feelings' and they can fine tuned with training. But as you said Jim at times like that go for the here and now rather than explain!!

recon

i belive in my what you call 6th sense in a coffee shop i watched a man come in he didnt fit but i let him know i was there body lanuage thats all as you all said you need to fine tune what we already hav if we can avoid a problim thats halh our job done