Fear Reactivity to Awareness

[jasonB]

Just something I'm thinking about this morning: has anyone ever noticed how you can sometimes get in that position just behind and to the side of a friend - you know, in that spot where you're just on the edge of their peripheral vision - and follow them for a hundred yards or more without them recognizing you, just because they won't turn their head to look at you? Has anyone been the person who was followed in this way? Both have happened to me several times.

The point? Well, it's seems to me that people have some sort of Fear-Reactivity, or at least some sort of internal resistance, to LOOKING AROUND of all things! This seems to be partially some sort of social phenomenon (a sort of timidity) and partially an unwillingness to utilize the natural range of motion of the neck.

Here's another example: it's common to hear of a car accident caused by someone relying on their mirrors (which, as is beaten into every fifteen-year-old, leave a car-sized blind spot) instead of just looking over their shoulder to see if someone's there. In most activities, most people would never choose the use of a directionally-confusing mirror over their own eyes; but when you have to turn your head and look, all of a sudden you see a lot of people who refuse to do it!

Has anyone else noticed this? Because if this really happens, and isn't just my imagination, I can see it as having a serious impact on personal safety. The car is just one example. Self-defense is another. Awareness is always touted as the most important thing in self-defense; but if people refuse to look at anything that isn't right in front of their face, how aware can they be? This reminds me of something Gaving De Becker talked about in his book The Gift of Fear, the fact that people will have a certain "gut feeling" but will ignore it. Now that's bad enough; how much worse would it be if people were ignoring not just intuition, but peripheral vision and sound, just because they don't want to look around?!

So I'm trying to work on looking around; but I wonder what you guys think. Am I "jumping at shadows", or have you seen this too?

[rbibbs]

Funny culture isn't it Jason? You live in a populous area, don't you? In rural areas, people tend much more toward acknowledging each other's presence.

Part of what you're observing is clutter-control. When a person is inundated constantly with unfamiliar faces, as in a big city, they cease to be information and become sensory clutter to be filtered out. Like, you can't make much usable sense of the facial details of 10,000 strangers, so ignore them. It becomes a habit.

Then there are a couple related cultural artifacts. The Hollywood Affectation of Nonchalance, and the Don't Make Eye Contact, subtitled "what you don't see can't hurt you". (Oh, unless it's a bus.) There may be only one absolute in the universe, that being, the driver of a vehicle causing a motorcycle crash saying "I didn't even see him!" People see what they want to see, they WANT to see a clear road to pull out into so they DON'T see the motorcycle, and they do NOT want to see someone fixing to attack them. They don't even want to have to be aware on that level. They may have somewhat of a point, vigilance is not without its metabolic overhead, particulary if one is on the nervous-side to start with. And don't vigilant people also get attacked? Yes, yes they do.

I like your link to fear reactivity. As you point out, awareness is the first-stage self-defense. But people really would rather ASSUME they're safe, and the public nonchalance is their way of telling themselves "nothing's going to happen" (subtitled, "I'm Charles Bronson"); the fixed-gaze straight-ahead is their neuromotor mantra that keeps them "safe". Well, there may be something to that, but I sure wouldn't count on it. Evidence: the number of car crashes daily; discounting loss-of-control accidents, they are ALL caused by inadequate attention, "not looking".

Nope, you're not imagining that Jason. You're not the only one who's noticed either. Every mugger on earth notices it, it's how they make their "living". (No inference implied mate.)

If I'm walking in a place that calls for heightened awareness, I'll periodically switch strides and turn, walking backwards, in a full-circle (TM?). It does 3 things. It's a good relaxing coordination BME, I get a full-on 360 degree view, and to anyone behind me with ill-intent, it makes them think "that sumbish is crazier than I am, I better leave him alone". To which I'd add, very perceptive of them!

Rick

[admin]

Sometimes the reason people do not turn around to look is very simple...its hurts. Until I came across Body Flow and BMEs, I couldn't turn around (or look up at the sky directly overhead) without severe discomfort. My shoulders were so locked up that simple movements were anything but simple. But now I've made a big turn-around (sorry) in my ability to turn around. :D

[edd]

You can train peripheral vision awareness: By training group attack and defense from all sides. This can be warrior like or harmless with simply bean bags. You learn not to focus your eyes on one element but to absorb the entire scope of vision slightly out of focus, you use small slower movements of the head and rapid movement of the eyes and your body, you use your environment to assist, you get to know your black spot and you continually move threats out of this area.

You also lean that if your are out numbered the tables can turn against you very quickly regardless of how skillful you may be.