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Total Observational Prowess

More Than Meets The Eye

Situational awareness is a much-touted attribute of the truly ready and the ready wannabes of the world. Observational prowess is a much coveted and complex skill set possessed by the best indigenous trackers, seaman, scouts, and explorers. But if we are honest with ourselves, what we often call “awareness” in the self-protection realm is merely superficial surface skimming of the world around us.

True Awareness

Time spent with indigenous trackers and scouts reveals a depth of perception that goes beyond our mere “I know where all the exits are in my local Home Depot, now let me take look number 1,032 at my phone.” True awareness/observational prowess is not a faucet-attribute or something to be turned on and off. The top-of-the-heap observers are always observing, always aware.

When we hear of this state of ever-ready awareness, we often consider it either an impossibility or at the very least an exhausting endeavor, but perhaps it’s no such thing. When thinking of ready-awareness we are often thinking of it only in terms of peak-arousal, meaning we are always scanning for threat. To indigenous peoples, that is really only a tip-of-the-iceberg inversion of what it truly means to be aware.

Looking At The Big Picture

The concept amongst the best observers is to flip from always looking for the bad or potential bad, to looking at everything, and that, more often than not, means noticing the good and/or finding the good where you never thought to look before. After all, the best trackers and hunters will see far more wildflowers and their vivid blooms and golden sprays of pollen than they will bobcat tracks in the mud.

By knowing their environment in its totality, the good, the beautiful,the seemingly mundane, the danger, the threat, the prey, or the signs of predator will stick out like a sore thumb.

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Academic Research

We find a similar approach in “noticing the good to see the bad” in the adoption of the works of a Harvard Professor in the History of Landscape Development by the CIA for use in training field operatives.

The CIA recognizes that ever-ready peak-arousal alertness is counter-productive, but far less useful is the “scan every-once-in-a-while” approach. To thwart this dilemma and promote indigenous-styled ever-ready awareness, they have turned to Professor John Stilgoe.

Professor Stilgoe’s work seeks to tutor the operatives in an appreciation for the aesthetics and design of the urban landscape, highways, the power grid, industrial park design, and other similar features of our world. He offers the “hows”, “whys”, and methods behind the madness of such designs so that the operatives can gain an admiration and respect for what goes into such constructs.

Over-Immersion

Professor Stilgoe feels that we are so immersed in our environment that we have become blind to it. He seeks to wake up an appreciative awareness — an awareness of all features — so that when one looks at a field (which may or may not be a field at all), they know instantaneously whether they are looking at a pasture or a meadow (there is a difference).

They will have the ability to divine the direction of downtown with a mere glance at the overhead power grid or determine northern or southern exposure by looking at the mortar in the cracks of a chimney.

Some may see such education as trivial (the CIA obviously does not) but it is far from that. An increased visual and recognition vocabulary in the world around us creates a deeper and more rapid intake of what is really around us.

100 Words

This idea is akin to the myth that the Eskimo have 100 words for snow. It is not so much as having too many words for snow as it is having a specific vocabulary for each type of snow — snow that will adhere to a sled-dog’s foot pads, causing lacerations and impeding travel; snow that makes for easy hauling, snow that camouflages cracks in the ice beneath your feet, snow that will form sastrugi, providing a wind-compass, etc.

The better the polar native knows his world, the better his appreciation of that world and the better his chances of survival. The same with Stilgoe’s approach to the urban and rural environment: the more we know what to see or look for, the more we actually do see.

Our brief glance from a kidnapped transport inside the trunk of a car moves from “I saw a house with a field across from it” to “I saw a clapboard house with the back facing southwest, overlooking a fenced meadow with a pasture to its left and a tennis court in the distance. We traveled for a length of time on a straight highway, so my guess is no water is along this immediate route unless it is a canal, and the tennis court layout leads me to believe we traveled north on this route.”

Final Thoughts

Such intimate knowledge of one’s environment does not come from a mere, “Here we are in Target. There are the exits, now let’s text and shop.” Indigenous people see the world by dint of being immersed in it. Stilgoe advises us all to become just as immersed, whether our world be urban, rural, or off the grid.

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24 thoughts on “Total Observational Prowess”

  3. Very good read.
    One should always pay close attention to the word around you, and not watch it pass by with rose coulered glasses.

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  4. Thanks, as an 89 year old veteran I enjoy every morsel of Info I receive! I just don’t throw knives any more, but I do enjoy everyone of you articles!!!

    Keep ’em coming,

    Jerry Sperling

    Reply

  5. He is spot on with this article. I have also learned to “feel” my environment. Not just the physical but an intuitive sensing of everything around me. I suppose that’s what really matters when it comes to awareness.

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  6. Your content is very interesting. This topic is lost to most people, I imagine. The “100 words for snow” is a beautiful description of true awareness. I find it similar to how Native Americans can track people over solid rock. I was fortunate to have been trained in some of their knowledge. My father used to (somewhat jokingly) say: “The Indians have already forgotten more than we’ll ever learn.” While we don’t want to “miss the forest, for the trees,” there is definitely something to be said for noticing fine details easily. Our modern technological day-to-day steals this ability from so many. Regarding peak-arousal — I have a hypothesis that, through hard-wired biological history, we humans are innately trained to focus our eyes towards the fastest moving object in our field of vision because that object is most likely to be the predator which we need to fend off at that moment. However, I give my regards to Sun Tsu’s The Art of War and the attribute of using deception in warfare to use the “fastest moving object” concept to fool the target. In sum, total awareness means survival. For more on this, study Miyamoto Musashi’s life (one man, who defeated an army of 600 by himself).

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  7. I like this type of talk. Its necessary in this day & time. Things can go “Left” on Me;U; or anybody very fast.

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  10. I am an ex-military brat, and situational awareness was, for want of a better word, bred into us, I know when I go into any place to shop as to whether there is any of the wrong type of person in there waiting to take advantage of some one in some way, facial expressions, way of standing, pose of standing, position of arms, tilt of head, who they are looking at, the list goes on & on & on ; I like to think that I am more aware than most, and that I can sum up very quickly if I have inadvertently walked in to an ongoing robbery or some such situation, in one case, I cried out damn left my wallet in the damn car I spun around and walked out towards my car, there was a Policeman a few yards from the door of the shop, I gave him a whistle and mimed that in the shop was a man with a gun, he called for backup to come without siren or lights he asked me if I was willing to go back in, I said yes but not without a weapon, he gave me his hideout gun a 357 snub nose I hitched it up my sleeve and walked back into the shop with my wallet in my left hand saying now I can at least buy what I want, our robber said Ill have that, and grabbed for it with his left hand I pulled him off balance with my left hand and clobbered him with the 357 with a roundhouse swing and he was down and out for the count, just as the policeman came through the door behind him………….

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  11. I liked this article, there was someting quite profound about the idea of seeing and analysing the world in this way. I wonder though whether this is a trained or a natural attribute. Whilst I’m sure that many people can be trained there are many that are naturally more observant and are supported by memories that readily recall details that aid their memories to recreate events or situations.

    Unfortunately, I am not of this group and seem to travel the world only observing a thin spectrum of the details around me. Having said that I’m sure that a logical framework would hang a lot more detail upon my observation and memories. But that’s my dilemna. Thanks for a thoughtful article.

    Reply

  13. Love your products and articles. However, I’m on disability and have a very limited income. When I can I want to buy some of your. Great products ! Keep them coming,Don Hames

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  16. Situational awareness is an important concept that should be practiced by everyone. For example, shopping center parking lots are getting more dangerous all the time, especially for older people. People carrying packages and putting them in their car are usually not carefully watching their surroundings, and they should be. Good situational awareness would help people to avoid encounters with others who may want to do them harm or take things from them. If someone looks like they may approach, one can quickly get in their car and lock the doors, start the car and drive away. But, the first step is to make yourself aware of your surroundings and the potential for danger.

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  18. After beginning to practice the five Tibetans, based on the book The Five Tibetans, my awareness increased, alerting me to dangers. This topic goes right along with these simple methods.

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  19. I really enjoyed you article. I owned my own small business for over 35 years and my attorney would tell me, “Jerry you’re not paranoid, they really are after you…be aware of your surroundings!” It was some of the best advice I’ve ever received with regard to my safety. I’ve been asked “why do you always carry a gun”. Well, it takes only one time of having a gun pushed into your face to realize that “they really are after you”. I’ve learned to go way beyond “where are the exits”. My wife still thinks i’m a little paranoid, but that’s okay, I’ll be 79 in February and I’m still here, and I still carry every day.

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  21. This information is to die for ,its quite amazing for anyone who needs to build a strong mind together with the right fighting skills in any volatile situation,or may be hard situations.
    Everyone needs to know how to prepare for the challenges they face with the right skills.
    kudos! It must be a great read.

    Reply

  23. Good information, sir — and, having been a ‘spook’ way back in the fifties and sixties, I am aware of much of what you state. There are those instances that arise throughout our lives wherein most are simply unaware — a situation that can cause problems. But, I believe there are also those among us who, because of the way they are, simply cannot (will not) accept that there is a need for all people to utilize what nature has given us and, therefore, cannot accept the need to be prepared — years ago even the youngest were taught that to always ‘be prepared’ was a necessity — AKA Boy Scouts and Girl Guides — now, apparently defunct. I have witnessed changes in our social/political atmosphere that bodes no good but appears to be being accepted by all too many as ‘normal,’ which it is not. However, I tend to ramble somewhat on matters such as this and so will resist the urge to continue and take the opportunity to thank you.

    Reply

  24. I rewatched Heartbreak Ridge a few days ago, and thanks to FightFast the moves Eastwood uses in the confrontation in the jail finally make sense to me. I never could quite tell what happened until now; I finally know what I’m seeing. I think it’s a lot like that. Once you understand your surroundings, you will see them better.

    Reply