Fronting – The First Step in Self Defense

Carl strikes again. From the grave, no less!

No shortage of gems here.

Another consideration is to listen to your intuition or gut. There’s always that warning voice before something bad happens. You can’t be aware and perfectly disciplined 24/7. Not gonna happen.

More and more I train myself to operate by feel rather than calculation. Because conscious calculation is too slow. Also, conscious awareness is also not that helpful. Because you can’t consciously process everything around you. But your subconscious does, and of course God does, and you can tune in to your intuition.

With respect to awareness, I find it more useful to be aware of geometric possibilities, rather than try to gauge the threat level of every human around me. So, lines of approach and escape, etc.

With people, I think you have to trust your gut, and read them as best you can. It’s impossible to keep every human being outside your defensive perimeter at all times. But your inner guidance system is incredibly accurate if you pay attention. My instincts have never been wrong, but I’ve ignored them a bunch of times.

I’ve walked into gas stations, or stood next to people in check out lines, and I knew, just by feel, that if I snapped their neck I’d be doing the world a favor. I don’t, of course. But evil has a vibe to it. And it’s not prejudice on my part, because these sick fucks come in all colors, shapes and genders. All 79 Facebook genders.

Kidding there, but there’s no pattern for me to think it’s personal prejudice. I literally feel like a real violent urge inside me just upon viewing these people or standing next to them. The vibe’s slightly different in each case but overall the same — that is to say, evil. Maybe one’s a pedophile, another a rapist…who knows. Occasionally I catch their eye, and they’ll know that I know, and they also know that I would really love any excuse they could possibly give me…

Operating by feel is a hundred times faster than conscious calculation. Another reason I really practice using my peripheral vision and not my direct vision for striking and shooting, etc. I focus on peripheral awareness combined with physical balance.

In this way, and by operating by feel, which is something you can ALWAYS increase in — the real focus of training — I do believe it’s possible for reaction to beat action. Everyone can be way faster than they think. The proof is touching a hot stove accidentally. The most out of shape person is lightning fast. That’s operating by feel. This can be psychological as well.

Feeling will also trigger you to someone’s intent a split second in advance of their actual action as well.

I once worked at a video store when I was much younger. Once, I was stocking videos and I heard a customer talking to the girl at the register. As soon as this guy started talking, I couldn’t hear everything he was saying, but I knew this guy was full of shit and also a piece of shit. Later on he was revealed to have been a short change artist who scammed the register girl.

My instincts have literally never failed me. But sometimes I will feel guilty about them, or paranoid that I just need to relax a bit. But they’re never wrong. It’s when they seem the most irrational that they’re usually the most accurate. Again, this is by feel. You have to deep down, as a prerequisite, have an obsession with truth and understanding, which gives you a balanced mental platform from which to operate by feel.

There’s plenty of delusional people — way more than less — who can’t tell the real voice from the circus of bitter clowns in their head.

I don’t encounter evil people that often. And I encounter people I dislike immensely all the time. I know the difference. When I get around someone evil, I instantly feel this very primal urge to beat them to death immediately. These are cruel people who enjoy feeding off the pain of others. People such as this only understand the language of fear and pain. And that is the language you speak to them in, if they get chatty. They have no empathy, and no reason. But they do have lots of guilt. Not in the sense that they feel bad, but in the sense that they KNOW they are evil and they do know that the Wrath of God is coming for them inevitably. And maybe it has arrived.

Sadly, the faith in God which probably heightens my sensitivity to begin with, also prevents me from taking them out. But I do work through scenarios in my mind, just in case.

But my main point is that you can follow general safe practices, but you can’t be on 24/7. Like, I say that the best security system is one prepared to handle the full compromise of itself. Because all security can be beaten. Therefore, you anticipate this.

Another reason to focus on training the use of peripheral vision and operating by feel. This requires extreme honesty — Ruthless Honesty I say — which is why I think most people will fail to get that far with it. Although, I’m fairly sure that everyone can relate to having had some internal warning before doing some dumbass thing.

In fact, just recently, I’ve literally unloaded a few dead weights I’ve been carrying around masquerading as friends. I’ve become more ruthless. But I’ve got to be honest — I’ve known it the whole time. It never fails that every year I realize what a dumbass I was the year before. The only meaningful discriminator between peoples is their level of honesty.

So, another way to avoid threats is to avoid frequenting locations with low character — low honesty — people, and to not closely relate to low character and low honesty people. I think most people in jail are there more because of the bad company they kept than because they were really that bad as human beings.

“Bad company corrupts good character.” I’ve seen this with myself. If I tolerate a lower caliber of person around me too long, it does start to pull me down. I do at least recognize it and cut them loose, but it’s amazing to me just how much a person’s vibe can unconsciously influence another person. You really do have to be ruthless in what you tolerate.

I think Warren Buffet said that successful people say no more than any other people. Now, granted Warren Buffet is a gangster and I don’t view him as a good guy, but that’s still a good point. Just a question of what exactly you’re saying no to.

So, operating by feel I think is a useful skill to cultivate, as well as limiting your liabilities. You can’t be perfect, and you can’t be paranoid and keep everyone at arm’s length. But I think if you cultivate Ruthless internal Honesty, you’re going to find that you know and feel things in plenty of time to react. We all have a sixth sense.

It’s still possible to be caught off guard. You’re human. You make mistakes. But you can program yourself in advance that if you are caught off guard you immediately counterattack directly into the line of attack. When you’re literally blindsided, this is your best hope. Even if they’re stabbing you, throwing your body at the knife is better than them stabbing the knife at you. Jam it if you can, but the point is that you will immediately take their balance with this unexpected reaction.

Maybe you get an elbow up, maybe a shoulder, maybe a head butt — but the point is that you must immediately launch your entire body weight directly into the line of attack. This is if you’re caught literally completely off guard. The change of this not surprising and unbalancing the attacker is slim. Element of surprise. You could literally turn an ambush into a counter ambush with this tactic, where they not only completely lose the element of surprise but have it reversed on them to the point they’re off balance and helpless and bleeding out on the ground..

But you would condition this response beforehand. This is where practicing the use of peripheral vision is so great. Peripheral vision is incredibly fast. Maybe it’s me, but any time anyone has thrown a punch at I always felt like it was moving in slow motion. But part of that is the large hooking motion most people use. Straight shots are harder to detect coming in. Another thing that makes the chin jab and heel of hand so much more effective to use on a dime. Straight in with a lot of leverage behind them.

So because it is theoretically possible for all of us to be momentary dumbasses, then condition a response for that possibility. Just in case.

Another way of training by feel is to go periods of time striking a heavy bag blindfolded. This will also increase balance. Could also simulate low light conditions. But because you’re blind, you have to strike by feel. So every shot is indexing, or setting up, the next shot. And you also have to keep better balance because without your sight you’re going to potentially stumble around more. But this also relates to a surprise attack because you have to react blindly in that case.

My next thing is to set up some way to walk thru my house blindfolded shooting at sounds.

I like what Carl said about shooting too. I train to shoot the exact same way I strike or do anything physically. It’s literally all the exact same way. Which is basically a function of balance. I train everyone to operate from balance as the most important thing. Balance while moving. I have what I call my theory of movement and I do everything physical the exact same way. So transitioning between activities or techniques is very simple.

Also, I would keep in mind at all times that your mind is THE weapon, and everything else is an attachment. This includes words.

The attacker’s mind is THEIR only weapon. A mind runs on words. Never forget the use of words as weapons.

So suppose you are caught in your shower unawares, and some clown with a pistol runs in. Are they there to kill you or rob you or make waffles? Who knows. But you can say something weird to freeze their mind and then immediately attack. If you could somehow get them to do some math in their head that would be awesome. But anything that confuses them momentarily.

It’s helpful if your entire reaction is confusing to them. Not hostile or provoking, mind you, but just confusing. This is my number one response to cops. I act like a confused dumb ass. Totally polite, but politely confused. Smart people act dumb, but dumbasses try to act smart. General rule.

So, a guy breaks in with a gun, he’s expecting immediate fear and so on. But if you act confused and perplexed and then ask a fucked up question requiring a mental calculation on his part, you will freeze his brain long enough to close the distance to that brain and then destroy that brain.

So, there’s another idea. But I do like the idea that truly superior security is prepared for the full compromise of itself. After all we’re all morons. Let’s be real. The amount of dumb shit I do — a lot of which knowing better — is staggering. But I can at least admit it, and reduce it, and be aware of it.

Self awareness is THE ultimate awareness. If you’re not self aware, you don’t have much hope, frankly.

So, along the lines of preparing for bad possibilities, are perhaps securing handcuff keys and lock picks and small razors on your person. Maybe you get drugged and wake up in a van, handcuffed. Who knows.

I will say though that ultimately the only real security both now and forever is faith in God. Without that, does it really matter when you die? Let’s be real. So definitely as they say here…Train Honestly. With Ruthless Honesty.