While in the Rape Escape curriculum the primary emphasis is on escaping, getting away from the rapist or attacker. But sometimes that is not an option because for whatever reason he may have you cornered, trapped or your already injured, or maybe your children are nearby. In this case you have to stay in the fight, you have to bring all your weapons to bear and you must do everything you can to stay alive - you also have to make one of the toughest decisions of your life; and that's to determine that you must inflict significant bodily injury on your attacker. The techniques in Rape Escape if done even moderately well are more than effective, they can be deadly. But you have to be willing to make the decision to intentionally harm your attacker (that means multiple unceasing strikes). While you may think; "oh I will be able to do that when the time comes"... the topic bears further contemplation than what you may think. Dr. Ignatius Piazza of Front Sight Firearms states; "these are terrible decisions to make, and we would like to avoid them at all costs. However, if you do not make the decision in advance, I guarantee that you will hesitate to make them later and that hesitation may make the difference between you living and dying". To this end I implore you to do some serious soul searching and determine that if you must fight back that you have no qualms of doing it in a devastating manner.
On the flip side of this if you are injured or maimed during an attack you have to consciously make the decision to stay in the fight. That means you don't give up - you continue fighting even through your own pain and tears if need be. While I am sure you are thinking that I have stepped off the deep edge here and your thinking easier said than done. Let me give you a case in point to illustrate my point.
Stacy Lim, an off-duty LAPD Officer, pulled into her driveway after a relaxing evening of softball. When she got out of her car she was immediately surrounded by gangbangers who had followed her home intent on carjacking her. The first thing she did was announce that she was a police officer. The lead gang banger responded by firing a .357 magnum round into her chest, which penetrated her heart and exited leaving a tennis ball sized hole out of her back. Stacy Lim stayed in the fight, she not only returned fire she became the aggressor and pursued her assailant shooting him multiple times. The other gangbangers fled the scene. Stacy then walked to her house, pulled the magazine from her sidearm and threw it into the bushes 9though she does not remember this), dialed 911 and collapsed. Her attacker died. Stacy also died 2 times on the operating table, she required 108 pints of blood and 8 months later she was back in uniform with the LAPD. Her motto is "you must train the mind for where your body must go".
(source: On Combat by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, p.144)
Stacy's secret weapon - she was Stress Inoculated. That means she was trained to push herself beyond her limits. Ideally in Fight Like A Girl we would train hard but after the first class you need time for the mind digest the training you've had. Although one class should never be considered sufficient, you should practice the techniques often. We did them on mats, but you should see what happens when you go to the defensive position on concrete, if you get hurt doing this... continue! Never stop because you are injured always stay in the fight. Keep Practicing and Stay Safe!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
Awareness Beyond Awareness
Would you believe me if I told you that you have a built in extra-sensory radar that will let you know when bad people are around or when something bad is going to happen? At first glance you are going to tell me I am full of it and what am I trying to sell you. Hold on there......before you click away (and no this isn't the Matrix) hear me out.
The truth is that you do have an innate ability to sense when someone who is bad is around you. You may not fully understand, but i can guarantee that you do have this ability and you have used it before. For instance; ever meet a guy who just gives you the "creeps"? Something about just seems "bad"? Thats your ESP (i'd say women's intuition - but men possess this ability too - cops are notoroiusly good for having correct gut impulses).
An excellent book to read that delves into this issue in depth is Gavin de Becker's Gift of Fear. An absolute must read for understanding how our spirit and mind work together to gives us cues to understand when we are in dire circumstances. OK your probably thinking now; "I have read this before in one of your other blog posts - give me something new that I don't already know".
OK I'll give you a few things to prove what i am talking about. First of all have you ever driven down the road and looked at someone and they turned and looked at you? I bet its happened several times and you may have been someone looking back as well! Since we are social creatures we tend to know when other people are looking/ staring at us. Ever been somewhere in public and had the feeling that someone was behind you that you didn't previously know about and when you turned around and looked there was someone there? Its real.
Now here's where the strange, gets stranger. You can do this next exercise on your self or with a friend. Take something with lots of metal content. A key probably won't be as effective as a group of keys. Have the other person close their eyes. Tell them to tell you when their head hurts. Now hold the keys (or metal object) within a half inch of their forehead. They should have an uncomfortable feeling in their head when you do this. Try it on yourself also. Now try it with just your fingers (no metal object).
So if you did the above your probably asking what is going on, why does this happen? The Asian cultures have a belief that there is a field of energy that is produced within and permeating the body. They call this chi or ki. We know that the body runs on electrical impulses this is why things like AEDs (Automatic Electronic Defribillatorss) can help someone during a heart attack and that electricity can cause pain but not damage (i. the case of the Taser which produces high voltage but low amperage). This chi or ki is most likely this energy field that surrounds & permeates us. Having been in the martial arts for well over 25 years I've seen alot of parlor tricks that claim ki or chi power. Some of it is just that - parlor tricks & physics (breaking blocks,laying on a bed of nails, walking on hot coals, taking repeated kicks in the groin). Some of it is not.
Let me explain some more. Harold Saxon Burr Harold Saxon Burr (1889-1973), researched this in 1932-1956. He claimed that diseases could be traced to this field, and be prevented or cured by changes in people’s life fields. These fields are electric and magnetic, and disappear when people die. Now it gets wierder; A russian physiologist named LL Vasiliev expounds on Burr's theory that states there is another field further from us called the T-field (or the thought field). His theory is that the T-field exists several feet beyond the person and can actually understand vibrations in the emotional thoughts of other people. He likens it to all of your 5 senses being spiritualized. Think about this way; you can visualize another place that your not at, you can smell what is in that place, hear what is in that place, recall the touch of that place, taste what is in that place. Thats kind of how I think the t-field works. Don't get me wrong, I am not an expert in this by any means - in fact I'm not really a student. Just a normal guy who has experienced some very odd things and is trying to find rational answers.
So how does it work? Well in my first martial art; American Karate we used to do a drill known as Randori. In Randori you would stand in the center of this huge 40'x 40' mat. On the outside of the mat are the rest of the students. The person in the center would stand their and wait until someone stepped out of the ring to attack them and then they would do their defense. While I was in the upper ranks (green, brown, red, and black) we were required to keep our eyes closed until attacked. Over time, I found that I was able to react spontaneously faster than normal because I often would know not only the direction that the attacker was coming but almost how they were going to attack me (i.e. head lock, front choke, take-down). Mind you this wasn't something that I picked up in a day or a few months, but it seemed to develop with years of study. Can I still do this? I wish I could.
But i have been able to pick up some other things along the way. People I have a close relationship with I usually "know" a few seconds ahead of time when they are calling me on the phone or sending an email (now if I could just see the numbers of that winning lotto ticket!). There have been several studies on ESP and while there are people out there who will show you how to develop it that's not really what my blog is about. What I want to leave you with; is that there really is something to an awareness beyond awareness but its ultra-sophistication at one end of the spectrum (My randori experience) still begins from an inate ability that EVERYONE has. To this end, trust your instincts......... because you are probably right!
Stay Safe!
The truth is that you do have an innate ability to sense when someone who is bad is around you. You may not fully understand, but i can guarantee that you do have this ability and you have used it before. For instance; ever meet a guy who just gives you the "creeps"? Something about just seems "bad"? Thats your ESP (i'd say women's intuition - but men possess this ability too - cops are notoroiusly good for having correct gut impulses).
An excellent book to read that delves into this issue in depth is Gavin de Becker's Gift of Fear. An absolute must read for understanding how our spirit and mind work together to gives us cues to understand when we are in dire circumstances. OK your probably thinking now; "I have read this before in one of your other blog posts - give me something new that I don't already know".
OK I'll give you a few things to prove what i am talking about. First of all have you ever driven down the road and looked at someone and they turned and looked at you? I bet its happened several times and you may have been someone looking back as well! Since we are social creatures we tend to know when other people are looking/ staring at us. Ever been somewhere in public and had the feeling that someone was behind you that you didn't previously know about and when you turned around and looked there was someone there? Its real.
Now here's where the strange, gets stranger. You can do this next exercise on your self or with a friend. Take something with lots of metal content. A key probably won't be as effective as a group of keys. Have the other person close their eyes. Tell them to tell you when their head hurts. Now hold the keys (or metal object) within a half inch of their forehead. They should have an uncomfortable feeling in their head when you do this. Try it on yourself also. Now try it with just your fingers (no metal object).
So if you did the above your probably asking what is going on, why does this happen? The Asian cultures have a belief that there is a field of energy that is produced within and permeating the body. They call this chi or ki. We know that the body runs on electrical impulses this is why things like AEDs (Automatic Electronic Defribillatorss) can help someone during a heart attack and that electricity can cause pain but not damage (i. the case of the Taser which produces high voltage but low amperage). This chi or ki is most likely this energy field that surrounds & permeates us. Having been in the martial arts for well over 25 years I've seen alot of parlor tricks that claim ki or chi power. Some of it is just that - parlor tricks & physics (breaking blocks,laying on a bed of nails, walking on hot coals, taking repeated kicks in the groin). Some of it is not.
Let me explain some more. Harold Saxon Burr Harold Saxon Burr (1889-1973), researched this in 1932-1956. He claimed that diseases could be traced to this field, and be prevented or cured by changes in people’s life fields. These fields are electric and magnetic, and disappear when people die. Now it gets wierder; A russian physiologist named LL Vasiliev expounds on Burr's theory that states there is another field further from us called the T-field (or the thought field). His theory is that the T-field exists several feet beyond the person and can actually understand vibrations in the emotional thoughts of other people. He likens it to all of your 5 senses being spiritualized. Think about this way; you can visualize another place that your not at, you can smell what is in that place, hear what is in that place, recall the touch of that place, taste what is in that place. Thats kind of how I think the t-field works. Don't get me wrong, I am not an expert in this by any means - in fact I'm not really a student. Just a normal guy who has experienced some very odd things and is trying to find rational answers.
So how does it work? Well in my first martial art; American Karate we used to do a drill known as Randori. In Randori you would stand in the center of this huge 40'x 40' mat. On the outside of the mat are the rest of the students. The person in the center would stand their and wait until someone stepped out of the ring to attack them and then they would do their defense. While I was in the upper ranks (green, brown, red, and black) we were required to keep our eyes closed until attacked. Over time, I found that I was able to react spontaneously faster than normal because I often would know not only the direction that the attacker was coming but almost how they were going to attack me (i.e. head lock, front choke, take-down). Mind you this wasn't something that I picked up in a day or a few months, but it seemed to develop with years of study. Can I still do this? I wish I could.
But i have been able to pick up some other things along the way. People I have a close relationship with I usually "know" a few seconds ahead of time when they are calling me on the phone or sending an email (now if I could just see the numbers of that winning lotto ticket!). There have been several studies on ESP and while there are people out there who will show you how to develop it that's not really what my blog is about. What I want to leave you with; is that there really is something to an awareness beyond awareness but its ultra-sophistication at one end of the spectrum (My randori experience) still begins from an inate ability that EVERYONE has. To this end, trust your instincts......... because you are probably right!
Stay Safe!
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