Vae Victis

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“You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”

― Ray Bradbury

Have you ever been in a situation where you happen to walk into a room and pretty much right away notice the energy in that room based on the vibe of the people occupying the room?

I’ve been in this scenario more than a few times in my life and there have been times when I’ve entered the room and felt a positive vibe and there have been times when I’ve entered a room and immediately encountered a negative vibe.

The reason I’m bringing this up is that in these situations there’s no denying the reality that as people we have an ability to hone in on our environment and to assess that environment based on the energy output and behavior of other people. It’s a very interesting human trait, but is one that’s probably as intrinsic as any other instinct designed for the purpose of survival.

Speaking of survival this is an instinct that is deeply ingrained into the fabric of our being. In fact, your nervous system is a prime example of this.

So why do I say this?

When looking at your nervous system it’s basically binary in its design because of the sympathetic and parasympathetic make up of your autonomic nervous system. In regards to your survival mode your nervous system basically consists of your sympathetic nervous system (SNS) which involves the instinct, or ability for it to trigger your “fight or flight” response to prepare you for stressful situations.

When your SNS is triggered it increases your heart rate and blood pressure to deliver oxygen and blood to your organs and working muscles. During this time it will also dilate your pupils to improve your vision in dim or dangerous conditions. It also stimulates the production of adrenaline and noradrenaline hormones to further enhance your fight-or-flight mode to help you in whatever moment of danger you may find yourself in.

To dive deeper on the key component of your body being honed in on the state of survival there’s another very impressive and mysterious trait that you possess that you may not be aware of concerning your sensory perception. When looking at the function of your senses this involves your somatic nervous system.

As you may be aware when talking about your senses you are probably aware of the usual five senses that you possess and use on a normal day to day basis involving your sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. However, you do possess a sixth sense.

So what do I mean when I say that you have a sixth sense?

That’s right, you do actually have a sixth sense and I’ve discussed this before on an earlier episode, but I will include an excerpt from that episode here.

Your sixth sense is what is known as proprioception. You see within your muscles, joints, and tendons you have proprioceptors which are sensory receptors that signal external feedback to you from your environment. This function works so that you understand the location of your body in relation to other people and other things in space.

This is a key sense to have so that you don’t accidentally run into things and people when moving in space on a day to day basis. Now this may seem obvious, but many people’s sense of proprioception has been dulled in our society since the advent of technology along with the modern era of cellphones, the laptop, and desktop careers that now make up a large part of our comfortable and convenient modern way of living.

Basically your sixth sense of proprioception is your key sense of awareness.

You see, even though you have the ability of the sixth sense of proprioception this doesn’t mean that yours will work well unless you understand how to hone it. In order to optimize your mind and body you must FIRST possess awareness.

You see this is the problem with our modern society as too many people lack both physical and mental awareness when it comes to the environment that they live in.

If you don’t believe me I’ll illustrate the significance of my point here. I’m going to ask you to be a little patient with me because I’m going to give you an example of a person who would have a low level and dulled sense of proprioception while at the same time giving you some examples of people with a high level of proprioceptive awareness.

Let’s start by using the recent Christmas holiday season as a primary example of examining an environment where you would likely encounter someone with a low level of proprioceptive awareness.

At some point during your life I’m sure you’ve made your way inside of a shopping mall during the Christmas holiday season. Like me you may have not been the most enthusiastic individual for having to venture into the mall environment, but you did it out of the spirit of giving so like me you’ve found yourself inside the hectic shopping jungle known as the shopping mall.

As you walked along the mall trying to find your way to your destination I’m sure you had to weave your way in and out of walking lanes while having to dodge other people along the way. If you’re like me you typically don’t want to waste a lot of time inside and want to get in and out of the store as soon as possible.

However, when you were walking through the mall ask yourself how many people blatantly and cluelessly turned and walked directly into your lane, or even walked right into you?

Ask yourself how many of these people were on their phones, or just simply lacked any awareness of their surroundings as they walked through the public venue?

Furthermore, if you consider yourself a person that is highly aware of your environment ask yourself how frequently has this happened to you in a crowded place?

I point this out as this is a common occurrence and is direct evidence of people with low proprioceptive awareness. Now as you’re sitting there when I say this you’re probably asking Brandon how can you make such an assumption based on that life experience?

I would answer by saying that I can come to that conclusion like any critical thinker would draw their conclusions. The way we do this is by comparing polar opposite elements of the equation.

In this particular assessment you and I can observe what many might define as average everyday people (like at the mall during Christmas) while also observing how other high performance people act in other crowded environments.

For instance, if you carefully watch a defensive back in a football game cover a wide receiver you’ll see a guy that can back pedal and maneuver his body across the field of play while not even having to necessarily look at where he’s going.

The defensive back in this example can maneuver his body across the field without bumping into anyone and to cover a wide receiver because he has a high level of proprioceptive awareness. The defensive back knows exactly where his body is in space in relation to referees and other players on the field. The defensive back is aware of his environment.

If that example isn’t good enough then consider the next example. I guarantee you if you’ve ever been around a military serviceman that came back from a war zone and observed them in a crowded space you would see an individual who has a level of proprioceptive awareness that’s even greater than the football defensive back. Their sixth sense is fully honed and engaged with their respective environment.

If you still don’t believe me about your sixth sense then the next time you go out in public to a restaurant, or coffee shop try the following experiment, but please don’t get busted on exhibiting too much of the “creeper vibe” and end up blaming this one on me.

The next time you sit down at a local coffee shop, or cafe simply pick someone else out in the room that is also sitting, especially if they are turned away from you. Once you find this person simply lock your eyes onto them and stare at them without turning away.