Page 127 - Pat O'Keeffe Combat Kick Boxing

Environment –The Unknown Factor

The Senses
Theoretically this heading could be included under Chapter One – Awareness,
but is included here because of its bearing on environmental factors.

Hearing
Hearing works best when there is no background noise – sneaking up on someone
in a nightclub is easy! The reverse is obviously true. When walking down a road
late at night sounds appear magnified because they are isolated. Noise does not
have to be loud to alert you; in fact, noise in the wrong location will switch you
on faster than anything else.
Small noises may give away the fact that you are being followed or that someone
is lurking nearby, but we can talk ourselves out of this awareness for fear of
overreacting. This is the logical part of your brain overruling deeper, more primitive
survival responses. Trust your primitive side; it’s been around longer.
If you believe you have heard something then try half-opening your mouth
and turning your head from side to side. This helps you pick up on small sounds
and home in on their location.

Sight
The eye is constructed to pick up shape, colour and movement. In good light all
parts of the eye work together to give the brain the fullest possible picture to
interpret. In bad light, colour recognition is greatly reduced if not eliminated. In
bad light you should look slightly off centre because the outside of the eye detects
movement. It gives rise to the phrase ‘I saw it out of the corner of my eye.’

Sensory Awareness
I know of no other name by which you can describe the sensations that alert you
when the other senses don’t play a part. That sensory awareness exists is open to
debate, but you should consider the evidence of your own experience. Have you
ever entered a building and known immediately that someone was there? Or
perhaps you’ve entered a building and been utterly sure that you are alone. How?
How do you know? What process is brought to bear to give you this information?
We explain away these sensations as ‘feeling uneasy’ or ‘just knowing’. Clearly
something is occurring, and probably something very old that is built into our
survival mechanisms.
Another name for sensory awareness might be ‘tuning in’.
You can become so aware of a particular environment that you immediately
detect the slightest changes. Nowhere is this more apparent than in our own
homes and no clearer demonstration can there be than a mother waking from a
dead sleep because her baby in the next room has stirred.
Hearing alone does not explain her arousal. She has tuned in, in fact evolution
has tuned her in, and she is programmed to act for her baby’s survival. Individual
sensory awareness has been extended to include the weakest pack member.
When we take hearing, sight and sensory awareness together they add up to
potent defence mechanisms. By living in cities and overwhelming our senses

127