Whether in the dense foliage of the tropical jungle or the asphalt paved streets of the urban jungle, the most important thing is AWARENESS. Awareness of what we receive through our eyes and ears and what we perceive through our “sixth sense”, the one honed through a lifetime of experience. Whether it is a lioness running down and eland or someone looking to hurt you or steal from you, predators attack from behind, the so-called blind side. While some people seem to be born with eyes behind their heads, or a sensitivity to the barely conscious feeling that all is not well, being alert to anything out of place or out of the ordinary, is something that can be learned and most certainly can be improved upon.
Every one of us can be attacked and every one of us, no matter how highly trained, can be defeated. But what we should never be is surprised. This is where the eyes in back of your head training comes in.
Let’s start with a simple exercise. You can do this by yourself, but working with someone else is more realistic and more fun. We are going to test your peripheral vision. Have your fiend come up directly behind you, approaching the back of your head. Since most of us do not actually have a third eye back there, the object at this stage is not to “see” him/her, or even sense them. While you face forward, have them first circle to the right at a distance of about 3 feet from your back. Make a note of when they first come into view. Now repeat this from the left.
This time have the helper stand just out of view at the right and turn your head slightly. You will notice that just a slight turning of your head increases your field of view dramatically. It is this slight turning of your head in both directions combined with an awareness of what is in your extended peripheral field of view that I want you to practice. With time, this will become second nature and this will help protect you by helping to prevent surprise.
Often times, predators will be walking towards you and when they are past you, they will turn and attack from the flank, meaning they will angle back towards you believing they are out of your field of view and will be able to catch you with your guard down.
In a recent morning newspaper there was an item about a 68 year old woman*, someone who took public transportation to work and back home to her family. Last evening, walking down the stairs from the EL platform, as she had been doing for many years after her work as a church deacon, she was violently pushed down those stairs by a robber who had just stolen an iPhone from another commuter. She fell to her death down those concrete steps, hitting the back of her head on the concrete sidewalk. A number of people saw this and yelled at the robber to stop, but he kept on running. The police, as is their job, are investigating. The killer might be found, he might not, but Mrs. SK-K is dead.
There are those of you who would say that Mrs. SK-K could not have prevented this unwarranted attack; that she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. That in any case, they do not want to live in a state of constant vigilance. I am here to tell you that firstly, awareness is a habit that brings with it a measure of comfort. It is not something separate and apart from life. Secondly, if this good woman had been even a little bit more aware, she might have simply grabbed the railing or held on a bit tighter or just moved out of the robber’s way.
I am not blaming her. I am merely using this to illustrate that if she had seen the robber coming, she may have been able to move out of harm's way. I am definitely not saying she was complicit in her own demise. I am only telling you she could have altered the odds, shifting them just a bit towards her own safety.
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